Fretful Friday

The Evolution of Revolution:


While meditating in India, John decided it was time for the Beatles to get political. He wrote "Revolution" and brought it to the table at George's house for inclusion on their next album. At that time, the line in the song was "But when you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out".

They began recording, at which point John added "in" to the line. He later said he threw it in there because he was undecided in his sentiments. John recorded most of the vocals while lying on his back and the dirty guitar sound came from plugging the guitars directly into the audio board.



John had really wanted to use this song as their next single, but Paul felt it was too controversial. Paul and George argued that the song was too slow. John would not be thwarted however, so he recorded it again - this time faster and louder. And he also dropped the "in" from the destruction line. The song ends rather abruptly, in contrast to the fadeout of the earlier version.



A month later, they filmed a promo for the song, using live vocals on top of the pre-recorded instrumental track. I love this clip for a few reasons - I love seeing John play his guitar so passionately, and I've always loved his Epiphone. He didn't play lead often and it suits him on this track. I love how everyone gets riled up with this song. Even the typically subdued George lets out a "whoo!" at the 1:00 minute mark. Ringo sings along, bobbing his head, as usual. In addition to adding the original "shoo-bee-doo-wop's" back in, John decides again that he is undecided about whether you can count him in or out, apparently. But what I love most is the beginning, when Paul does the opening scream. If John had screamed as he did at the beginning of the studio recording, he wouldn't have had the breath to start singing, so Paul did it. With Paul mostly being "the cute one" with the "puppy dog eyes", it's nice to see him scream once in a while.

Also, notice George at 0:20, saying to Paul, "John's mic is shit!"