Revolution 1

The song touches on money, and on the motifs of revolution and cultural snapshot, something the Beatles had reached for on 'A Hard Day's Night' 4 years earlier. The writing reaches for double meaning ('Count me out, in' - deliberate ambivalence), and 1968 is the year they reached for it most. Oddly enough, the title carries a number ("1"). Incidentally, the line "Don't you know it's gonna" turns up in 3 Beatles songs, among them 'Revolution' and 'Don't Let Me Down'.

'Revolution 1' is a blues rock piece that moves at about 85 BPM, in A major. Listen to scat singing (sha-la, Shoo-be-doo-wah doo-wop). Also, the harmony reaches for an added sixth chord, one that 21 of the Beatles' records feature, such as 'From Me to You' and 'She Loves You'. Listen for call and response, the singer and the band trading lines (Lennon answers hypothetical interlocutor). Underneath it is a plain 12-bar blues, the shape behind 32 of their recordings, alongside 'Money (That's What I Want)' and 'Roll Over Beethoven'. As it happens, the chords run A → D6 → A → D6 → A → D6 → E7, the same shape 'Good Morning Good Morning' plays as A → D → A → D → A → D → E. The meter is 12/8, not the usual four.

Built from take 18 - over ten minutes long - with later overdubs producing take 20, and a brass section added on 21 June at EMI Studios. The back end of the original take was edited off and later became 'Revolution 9'. Harrison used the Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster here, his guitar, in use since 1965 and heard on 42 Beatles records in all, such as 'Another Girl' and 'Ticket to Ride'. They reached for the Ludwig Super Classic, and it ends on a fade-out. Two songs share the day with this one among them, the 152nd and 153rd of their career.

This one is Lennon's, written and sung. There is a role swap on it, Lennon on lead guitar, and trumpet and trombone are in there too. Some of the circle round the band turn up on it, Francie Schwartz on backing vocals, and Chris O'Dell and Pete Shotton on handclaps, most common in their 1967 songs.

No single, no B-side. It arrived with The Beatles (The White Album) on November 22, 1968. This song was the 29th of the 34 records they released in that year, and the 171st they ever made.