Fab Four Adds to the Beatles Discography?
Revolution 1 track from The White Album Emerges
Mar 9, 2009
Revolution 1 is a 10-minute track that allows fans to peek into the mood of the famed Beatles’ The White Album sessions. As the common name suggests, the track shares its foundational music qualities with Revolution 9, the experimental released track from the album.
The White Album is the ninth official U.K. album and the fifteenth U.S. album by The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. The album has no other text other than the band's name on its plain white sleeve.
The White Album is also well known as the first album created by the Beatles following the death of manager Brian Epstein. The track Revolution 1, subtitled as Take 20, features the Beatles as an unbridled 1960s psychedelic group of musicians experimenting with sounds and voice.
Beatlemania Relived With The White Album Tracks
Revolution 1 first emerged on a European bootleg called Revolution: Take...Your Knickers Off, referring to John Lennon’s expression “Take your knickers off and let’s go” before the song takes off.
The bootleg’s existence is made more interesting by the fact that only two copies of Revolution 1 were made when the song was recorded. One of those copies left with John Lennon on that day and the other was left at the studio. Either of those versions could be the source of the bootleg.
According to Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles: Recording Sessions, this unheard version was recorded on May 30 and 31, and June 4, 1968, as reported in Entertainment Weekly.
The odd sound of John Lennon’s voice was achieved by him lying flat on his back to record his vocals.
Fab Four Track from The White Album
The Beatles faced the problem of song length when they finished recording this 10-minute version of Revolution. The band’s solution was to cut the song in half with the first part becoming Revolution 1 and the second serving as a foundational musical style for Revolution 9.
The resulting Revolution 1 is a form of Beatles at the band’s most experimental. The song begins with its traditional slow blues Beatles, “Du Whop” backing vocals and pounding George Harrison back beat.
After the first five minutes, the song takes a sudden shift, the vocals distort both naturally and with effects and the synthesized keyboard roams the musical scale.
This version of Revolution 1 is a song that is a window into the creative process that was the Beatles' genius. Listening to the track highlights the band at a musically maniacal moment as the Fab Four take turns producing sounds with instruments, their voices and effects that are sure to make any Beatles fan relive an ultimate 1960s psychedelic moment.
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