Revolution 9

N

Nalencer

New member
I put this in here because I'm not sure where else to put it.

Anyway, I'm recording a tribute to the White Album, and here's my question. The next song I'm due to do is Revolution 9. As most will know this is a 7 minute mayhem basically. A mixing experiment with tape loops, backwards recordings and all manner of other sound effects.

Now, for my tribute, I don't want to do it the same as the original. Most covers are okay to make a pretty straight version, but it would feel wrong to me to reproduce something like that. Something so random and creative.

Anyway, I have a ton of ideas for background noises, sound effects and such. My real problem is the basis. This is seven minutes of mayhem as I said. What do you base it on? What is the seven minute recording you put everything else onto?

Now, I could jam on the guitar for seven minutes, but most of it wouldn't be useable because this isn't a hard rocking song. Most of the loud areas are strings and brass popping up. I can program things like that in MIDI. But I'm at a loss as to what will form the basis of this track. Any ideas?
 
If I read you right, you are actually asking for an artistic decision - or at least an idea - on what direction to take the composition itself. Wow, that's a large question and a large problem.

But the real key to the answer you need is, "What do you feel?"

But since you asked...

I personally might - just off the top of my head - instead of trying to literally recreate the chaos of "Revolution 9", do a song that made an analogy of the song "Rev#9". Think of Prince with the song and the lyric, "I'm gonna party like it's 1999."* The simple date "1999" is worth a thousand words of description; when he sings that line, we know exactly how hard he's going to party. I might try using the title of the song "Revolution Number 9" as a similiar conceptual lyric. Perhaps a chorus that referrs to somethng like "and that [meaning whatever the verse was about] sent me spinning into revolution #9".

I'd also actually try to counterpoint the Beatles composition by making it a moody ballad. Still throw in some of those effects you have lined up, probably during the chorus or for a bar or two when transitioning from the chorus back to the next verse. Or possibly make the bridge all Rev#9-like chaos. But the verses themselves would be more laid back and smokey. The closest example I could think of arrangement-wise would be Radiohead's "Creep", except think of Rev 9 sound effects instead of (or maybe in concert with) the power chords in the chorus.

But no matter what you wind up with, you have a fun and challenging mix job ahead of you. Sounds like a really fun project.

G.

*OK, that's a similie, not an analogy. So sue me :D)
 
Nalencer said:
What do you base it on?
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The only way to do it justice without remaking the song is to go after it's source; 2C-B, harmaline, LSD, hallucinogens, and Human psychopharmacology in general. IMO, of course.
 
mshilarious said:
A single plum, floating in perfume, served in a man's hat.
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Good one, Yoko and Barney.

Handels Messiah is in there Backwards, the Hallelujah chorus part. Try it, youll see.

As for the rest, its aleatory. Dont plan it, just assemble random clips backwords and forwards. There IS a theme to the piece and a structure, its not as weird as you might think. If you want to you can get it pretty close or just put 7 minutes of crap down.
 
I read somewhere that Rev 9 was mainly written by John and Yoko. But yeah i mean just sit back and use your imagination. think of any kinda sounds you can use. weird sounds, tape reverses, explosions, screaming, loud noises that come out of no where, stuff like that and just peice all the sounds together and before you know it, you'll have at least 7 minutes. and sorry about the spellin, this is what Gold Slogger will do to ya ;)

Hey that's even a better idea, just go do some LSD and set in your studio alone all nite and by day break you will have a master peice :D


Good luck man,

Zeke
 
Maybe I wasn't clear enough - it's the basic track I'm wndering about. The track I lay all the rest on top of. I'm just not all that sure what to put on it, or if I even need a basic track. I actually have a book that has the scores for the original, but as I said, I don't want to redo it. It is a good source for structure research though. I'll go over it now and see what I can see. All ideas are still welcome.
 
Let's deconstruct. Let's play with David's word aleatoric. It means chance, music that was written to incorporate an element of randomness, an element of surprise, but also an element of power and freedom for the performer.

Its greatest proponent was John Cage. I attended a concert of one of his aleatoric pieces. The instrumentation was cello, flute, piano, and percussion. So don't feel you have to depart from whatever instrumentation you normally use.

On the other hand, the percussion included an eggbeater, and a glass of water poured into a bucket. So don't be afraid to experiment.

Finally, give yourself some freedom to perform, but within a context of a structure. In creating an aleatoric composition, Cage didn't allow for total randomness. That wouldn't have been a composition at all. Instead, he changed the elements that are usually fixed. So instead of a meter, maybe there was a fixed amount of time each instrument could perform, to be spread out as the player deemed.

So start with a concept for a structure. Instead of a rhythm, it could be a motif, a mathematical equation, a conceit, an artificial constraint. If you are right-handed, play left-handed, for example.

Incorporate the number 9. Use a 9-note scale. Use 9/8 time--a slip jig Revolution #9!--or just a 9/8 polyrhythm. Use 9 instruments.

I think right now you are intimidated because everything is a variable. Decide on a few (novel) constants, and let the rest of your performance be variable.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
I think he is intimidated because he doesn't have a song.

G.
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It's got a good beat but I just cant dance to it. :)

Nalencer:

Its the musical equal of throwing paint on a canvas, it doesnt really matter. There is no "first track" or "main track", its a bunch of noise. Dont even use a first track, start on track 3.Backwards.

I would do it blindfolded. I would randomly pick a synth sound, play the keyboard upside down, etc. Then fart into a mic, put a reverb on it and I have a sonic, pungent masterpiece. :eek:
 
Here's my version.

It got this review:

strat0tele said:
BEST COVER EVER!!!
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I was sitting at the dining room table with a Carvin C68 in my right hand, plugged into a Yamaha MG10/2 using a schmantzy Mogami cable. The mixer was plugged into the cheesy built-in soundcard on my laptop which was running Cubase LE. My left hand was manually panning the channel on the mixer during my vocal performance. Then, while remaining seated at the dining room table, I flipped the TV on in the living room, turned it up, turned the mic up, and started flipping through the Sirius music stations on the Dish, with the mic still in my hand. I recorded two additional tracks this way. I went into Cubase and deleted the silence during the channel changes in the music trax. I applied compression and limiting to the vox, panned one music track left and the other right, and made a mixdown file. I then ran that through some light compression and limiting and put in the fadeout, sent that file over to the kitchen desktop PC and pulled it into Cubasis and used that MP3 encoder, moved the MP3 over to my laptop and uploaded to the host. All the work was done using my $20 Sony headphones from Wal~Mart, which Timboz also likes.

It's a cinch.
 
DavidK said:
There is no "first track" or "main track", its a bunch of noise. Dont even use a first track, start on track 3.Backwards.
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"That's the beauty of 'Smelly Cat', there is no 'top'." ;)

G.
 
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