124. Revolution 1 (White Album, 1968)
Beatles version:
Spotify YouTube
I'll mostly save my discussion of the lyrics of this song until we discuss the single version, higher in the countdown, but I will point out one difference in this version: at ~0:57-0:58, John says "count me out - in," meant to indicate an ambivalence than he didn't have in the single version, where he was definitively "out."
This was the first of the three "Revolution" versions to be recorded and was originally over 10 minutes long, with the last six minutes of screaming, whispering, and moaning later being spliced off and used as the foundation of "Revolution 9." John had wanted it to be a single, but both Paul and George vetoed it, likely concerned about making the political statement and only relenting after recording the faster version, which became the b-side to "Hey Jude." The arguments over all of the versions of "Revolution" are legendary and excruciating to read about; you really can feel the band disintegrating at this time.
It was during the first recordings of this song that John brought Yoko into the studio, and she became glued to him at all times thereafter. As Geoff Emerick described it: "From that point on, wherever John went, she went. If he went into the toilet, she'd walk him down the hall and wait outside, hunched down on the floor. When he came out, she'd walk with him back into the studio or control room and sit down beside him again. ...if he was sitting on one end of the piano bench, she'd be at the other end. If he slid over a bit, she'd slide with him." In this particular recording, that extended to lying down on the floor with him as he sang the lead vocal on this version of the song. John had decided he'd be more comfortable lying down to sing this, so a boom mike was rigged to suspend above him during the recording. And Yoko curled up right there next to him.
I like this song and even appreciate the slow pace, though I prefer the single version. What I dislike about this one are the "shoo-be-doo-wah"s. I dunno.
Mr. krista: "It’s like they had a decent idea for a song and just kept playing it and playing it and playing it. Beatles were best when they just got to the ####### point."
Suggested cover: Not really sure which version I would call this is a cover for, but it's never a bad idea to listen to
Nina Simone.
If we had a working search function I wouldn't have had to scroll through the whole damn thread to find this. I was wondering if I had already written enough about the next selection and could just be lazy here, but it looks like I punted. Crap.
34. Revolution (single, 1968)
Beatles version:
Spotify YouTube
At this point I could randomly choose anything from 13-34 and be happy with it making my top 25, so please consider all of the songs I list from 1-34 as being in my top 25, just as I consider all of my 1-12 to be in my top 10. Getzlaf will be by to explain the math there.
As discussed above, this was the b-side to "Hey Jude," much to John's dismay. He lobbied hard first for Revolution 1 to be the next single, but was vetoed by Paul and George Martin, who told him it was too slow. Convinced that this could be a single, he reworked the song into this faster, more biting version, but unfortunately for him, before they were done Paul brought in "Hey Jude," which everyone agreed would be more commercially appealing. It appears, since this is at #34 and "Hey Jude" hasn't yet been ranked, that I consider this the greatest single of all time, surpassing Strawberry Fields/Penny Lame and We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper. Hmph.
As touched on above, John wanted to try a song that commented upon the Vietnam War and other concepts of revolution. He'd been restrained by Brian Epstein from doing so, but after Epstein's death he felt free to share more of his political thoughts with the world. As mentioned above, while on "Revolution 1" John expressed ambivalence with "Count me out...in," by the time of the single version he clearly indicated in the lyrics that he should be counted out: "Count me out if it's for violence. Don't expect me on the barricades unless it's with flowers. ... I want to see the plan. Waving Chairman Mao badges or being a Marxist or a thisist or a thatist is going to get you shot, locked up. If that's what you want, you subconsciously want to be a martyr. As for as overthrowing something in the name of Marxism or Christianity, I want to know what you're going to do
after you've knocked it all down. If you want to change the system, change the system. It's no good shooting people." So while the song is entitled "Revolution," it's actually an anti-revolution song - or at least a critique of the actions of revolution thought perhaps not the ideas - and it was met with scorn and severe attacks from some on the Left.*
I don't really have to say what I love about this song, right? It's obvious to everyone?
Fuzzy guitars!!! Filthy, filthy, filthy. But so unheard of at the time that many record buyers tried to exchange their singles because they thought the "Revolution" side was damaged. John hammered Geoff Emerick on this notion of wanting the guitar to be biting and dirty. During the sessions for the White Album, John wanted everything to be louder and louder, winding his guitar amp to its loudest position and becoming angry when anyone told him that at some point the volume caused the sound to become a mess. In response to John's demand to make his guitar dirtier on this song, Emerick overloaded two preamps for the two guitars and patched them together into each other, then moved the knobs ever-so-gently as they played to try to find the maximum overload the sound board could take without bursting into flames. The entire song has that feel, of being on the precipice of burning up, from John's shriek at the beginning continuing through to the crescendo of "All right"s at the end and finally Ringo's amped-up snare fill over the searing guitars fading in and out...a listener must have found himself exhausted upon first hearing this song. It was the heaviest song the Beatles had recorded to this point, perhaps only to be outdone by "Helter Skelter" a few months later.
Mr. krista: "I love that absolutely filthy guitar sound. All the instruments are completely distorted, just totally blowed. His voice is that muffled, singing through a megaphone type thing. Another ironic song called Revolution but the lyrics are endorsing the status quo. I think charitably you could say he’s advocating more nuanced thinking. But you don’t have to go revolution, do you? I think he took some #### from the left for that."
Suggested cover: See above.
*Some more Lennon quotes I found interesting regarding the meaning of this song, left here just so as not to muck up the whole write-up above with quotes. Keep in mind, though, that all of these quotes are well after the recording, and Paul has indicated that he thinks John ascribed more meaning to the lyrics later than he actually had at the time:
"What I said in 'Revolution' is 'change your head.' These people that are trying to change the world can't even get it all together. They're attacking and biting each others' faces, and all the time they're all pushing the same way. And if they keep going on like that it's going to kill it before it's even moved. It's silly to ##### about each other and be trivial. They've got to think in terms of at least the world or the universe, and stop thinking in terms of factories and one country. ... If they'd just realize the Establishment can't last forever. The only reason it has lasted forever is that the only way people have ever tried to change it is by revolution. And the idea is just to move in on the scene, so they can take over the universities, do all the things that are practically feasible at the time. But not try and take over the state, or smash the state, or slow down the works. All they've got to do is get through and change it, because they will be it."
"These left-wing people talk about giving the power to the people. That's nonsense – the people have the power. All we're trying to do is make people aware that they have the power themselves, and the violent way of revolution doesn't justify the ends."
"f you want peace, you won't get it with violence. Please tell me one militant revolution that worked. Sure, a few of them took over, but what happened? Status quo. And if they smash it down, who do they think is going to build it up again? And then when they've built it up again, who do they think is going to run it? And how are they going to run it? They don't look further than their noses."
It's really no big deal. One song goes missing. This bird has flown. 
