First Time Hearing | The Beatles - Revolution 1| Reaction 

Just bear in mind that the Beatles really made a revolution without any destruction... they revolutionized the whole world with their music and their humor!!

In the "live," music video version of this song, John sings "when you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out...in." He said in an interview that was because he's human and he generally he's a pacifist, but as a last resort, he might be violent out of self-preservation. He was easily the most philosophical and introspective of the Beatles except maybe for George, who became Hindu after the Beatles visited India. The Beatles were an innocent rock band who wore suits in their early years, but 1966 was the year Revolver came out and they all tried LSD. It was also the year John Lennon proclaimed that the Beatles were "bigger than Jesus Christ." He clarified his statements as being about popularity, not greatness, but damage, particularly in the southern US, was already done and people were literally burning Beatles records. After that, they fully embraced the hippie movement, stopped touring (because the fans were so loud that they couldn't hear themselves play with 1960s technology), and produced some of their more ambitious and acclaimed albums ever.

The Beatles are saying look within. Change the world by changing yourself.

The Czech revolution was known as the Velvet Revolution because it was peaceful. The slower version on The White album is the one where they say out and then in.

This was the B-side of the single along with "Hey Jude"(which is also a must do reaction). It's amazing that so many of the Beatles' greatest songs never made it onto official albums because they were often released as singles. I think you would be safe with the LIVE David Frost Show performance of "hey Jude". I have seen scores of reactions to it.☮

"But when you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out?" The song came out during the years of the hippies "make love, not war." The hippies were trying to change the world peacefully. As for the White album, there's a whole lotta great songs on that!! My favorite is "Julia," but I think I may be unique in my opinion!

The Beatles changed music forever❤RIP John Lennon😢

Nicky Hopkins was the keyboard player on Revolution. He played on so many others’ records, The Stones, Steve Miller Band, Kinks, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Yardbirds and many other artists’ records.

This is actually titled "Revolution". "Revolution 1" is the same song with slower rocking beat from the White Album. That opening screaming guitar is iconic. I remember once when Nike tried to use that sound to sell shoes, then received the unpleasant reaction that their sacrilege deserved.

On Revolution I, after the line "if you want destruction, brother you know that you count me out", Lennon says "in", a much more radical statement that wasn't included on this. Just an interesting fact from an endlessly interesting and fascinating band. Edit: Also, as you know, MLK advocated non-violent protest and would have likely agreed with Lennon's approach on Revolution, and of course Malcolm X was in favor of a more radical action so he might have been one of those who criticized this.

There’s a great video of them doing this song live you should check out

This is the very first rock single that was ever recorded directly to the board. This gave the guitars and the mics a unique sound at the time. In the film of them doing this song, you can clearly see George Harrison lean over to Paul McCartney as soon as John starts singing. "His mic is shit" you can see him say, not liking the brash overdriven sound. NIKKI HOPKINS sat in the studio on the piano.

♥ this song! I suggest these Beatles songs: While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Norwegian Wood, Strawberry Fields Forever, Get Back, Hey Bulldog & I'm So Tired

"Revolution" The Beatles John Lennon - vocals, lead guitar, handclaps Paul McCartney - bass guitar, Hammond organ, handclaps George Harrison - lead guitar, handclaps Ringo Starr - drums, handclaps Additional musician Nicky Hopkins - electric piano

The Vietnam War and Civil Rights demonstrations were huge in the USA.

Outstanding song & reaction, cheers 💿👍

One of my favorites 😍

Glad to see you reacting to The Beatles. They were to the 60's what Led Zeppelin was to the 70's.

"Give me a revolution that didn't require a little destruction" Lol. Awesome take.

I like that you just react to the audio. When we (us baby boomers) heard these songs we were reacting to vinyl albums and hearing the songs on the radio. No music videos! So you're doing fine. I like your commentary. New sub!

At the time, John was also protesting the Vietnam war. If you watch the video, it's a lot better because you catch things you miss with just the recording. Of course, John's voice and passion is right on target. I'd have to watch it more closely to see who is doing the lead guitar. But that rock scream that preceded the song was Paul, and the high notes at the end of some of the verses were done by Paul. The camera catches it, then scans back to John who starts singing again. Let me add that it should have been released as an "A" side. Being released as the "B" side of Hey Jude, didn't do it justice. Just my own opinion, of course.

1st serious distortion i had ever heard back then. Was so cool.

You’ve really gotta listen with headphones to studio albums from brilliant producers and arrangers like the Beatles (and many others).

Gotcha! See? The Beatles made you think.

I like the after song discussions we get with you....keep up the good work ✌️

Bang to right, my man. All revolutions require a little head chopping.

He meant destruction as in riot. Back when this song came out there were a lot of protests going on.

I love your monologue about sometimes needing to break shit to get your point across but as you were coming down from it the irony struck me that the Beatles were breaking things right and left.

Keyboards for this on is uncredited, but it's session musician Nicky Hopkins. He, along with Billy Preston are the only two musicians who hold the distinction of recording with BOTH the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Quite the distinction, wouldn't you say?

John Lennon is playing "the beast", an Epiphone Casino, I think.

The revolution in my country on the 25th April 1974 which put an end to a 48 year long dictatorship, the only deaths were caused by the political police shooting from the windows when they realised they were cornered, everyone from writers to philosophers came over in the following months to try to understand how it happened. Having said that we spent most of 1975 on the brink of civil war. 1968 was also the yera the Czech people rebelled against the soviets they naively thought the western world would support them but nobody wanted to "upset" the russians who retaliated violently and the Prague Spring was over in a matter of days. Chairman Mao whom the lyrics refer to was Mao Zedong the leader of the Chinese Communist Party fom 1935 until his death in 1976.

Lennon said" "Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King are great examples of fantastic nonviolents who died violently. I can never work that out. We're pacifists, but I'm not sure what it means when you're such a pacifist that you get shot. I can never understand that.”

There are different way to rebel and a main way to do it is getting all people together on the same page like having a 1 day strike by all workers in either this country or the world stating we are not going back to work until healthcare is either free or affordable for all !❤️☮️people not just the wealthy or the poorest but the everyday working class!

In the main version John said 'in' after 'count me out' , Because some revolutions or protests need some violence or destruction.

A calm person is always respected more than a violent person,in my opinion) Force , no matter how subtle is always met with resistance.

Nicky Hopkins overdubbed the piano in the final version that was released. All of the piano was Nicky.

This is the single version. Revolution 1 was the slower White Album version where lennon says "you can count me out...in". also there's a good video of the live version. you should do all 3.

A revolution with love and peace, not violence, all you need is love, can you dig it?😎🌷

There is also a live studio video performance of this song and a laid back version on the White Album called Revolution 1.😮😊

The B side to Hey Jude. We were allowed to play Hey Jude at the youth club but Revolution was banned! 🤣

Love your thoughtful reaction.❤❤❤The Jesus Revolution ( see the movie!) of the late 60's was nonviolent. The mottos of the anti vietnam war mvmt were "flower power" & " make love not war". Martin Luther King and Ghandi preached peaceful non- violent revolution & they had a huge impact!❤🙏 ❤

you need to see the live video. 1. the guitar lead is john, not george. 2. the piano is billy preston 3. the bass is paul at his best. and then there is Ringo's typcical perfect beat

“Taxman” is a song with a message regarding an issue that affected the band members personally, and a lot of Britons at that time. But the song is one that might be heard in a go-go club at that time, or in a dance club.

They're talking about peaceful revolution. Ideologies, beliefs, prejudices, etc. can be destroyed without violence.

Peaceful revolutions have occurred, for independence in India, for example.

That was Billy Preston on piano.

3 different Revol 8:18 ution songs; 1, the acoustic album version: the rocking loud single version. And Rev#9 the artsy sound collage at the end of the white album. Lennon felt they HAD a duty/ call to say something about the late 60's revolt going on. Some kind of comment or responsibility considering they're fame/power involved with the youth etc. bear in mind, Lennon &Yoko would get phone calls from protests going on where police were coming into beat and arrest them and Lennon said, go, leave, we want you alive Fight another day ...

Beatles doing hard rock Heavy Metal

That's billy preston on the keys

Tax Man was written by George Harrison. England was becoming more and more socialistic and taxing heavily and the 4 lad's grew up in working class Liverpool and when they made it big and became wealthy they weren't too happy at the Government taking they're hard earned money, they were not overnight sensations and paid their dues before becoming popular.

This song was a direct answer to the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man"

This was not Revolution 1. Revolution 1 was the original version. (found on the white album). It is much slower and in it John Lennon sings “you can count me out… In“. Paul thought it was too slow to be released as a single, so they did this version for the flipside of “Hey Jude“

He is talking about a different type of revolution though besides that John was not as peaceful as as he spoke!

That was Billy Preston on the keys

That's kind of chaotic for the Beatles It sounds like a revolution.

How about MLK? Maybe I am wrong.

I had friends that bought the single for the B-side, Revolution, and not for the ballad on the A-side.

Yeah do Revolution #9 😂

The turbulence of the 60s was fueled mostly by both civil rights and Vietnam war concerns. Riots, protests that turned violent, and bombings of buildings were common fare on the news. There was a real fear of communism and the Cuban missle crisis put the fear of nuclear disaster in the minds of the youngest of us. Some political dissenters were marxists which advocates for violent overthrow of government hence the reference to Chairman Mao. The conflicts of the times didn't just stop with the 60s. The shooting of protesters by national guardsmen at Kent State took place in 70. Small town America wasn't spared. In the college town i grew up in race riots at the high school, shootings, and bombings of 2 buildings, one on the college campus, were new experiences for our locality.The junior high i attended then, received 2 bomb threats for which we were evacuated. Interesting times for sure.

English pianist Nicky Hopkins played the keys on this track. But Billy Preston (American) played keys for most Beatles songs - he and George Martin are always referred to as the "fifth beatle"

Do while my guitar gently weeps

Billy Preston is on piano. George Harrison is lead guitar. John plays rhythm guitar. This is live on the roof of Abbey Road.

That might be Billy Preston on keyboards at this point in their career it's hard to tell but there's some George going on there.

The Beatles were always about peace and love. Ya, you gotta hear Tax Man. That’s a George song. Great baseline and guitar solo by Paul.

Billy Preston on electric piano

💙💙💙💙

You weren't alive at the time, but the young people in the US were strongly opposed to the pointless war in Viet Nam. As time went by and change was slow to take place, some activists felt that a more radical approach was needed. John Lennon and the other Beatles championed the idea of a non-violent revolution.

Check out Revolution 9

I recommend just doing all 210 songs.

That was the late great Nicky Hopkins on keyboards un credited

I've always viewed this song as John and The Beatles answering back at people who expected them to be more political.

you have "revolution 1" in the title. why didn't you play it? you could've heard both versions and contrasted them. and believe me, the left loved the beatles. its the silliest thing i ever heard to say people thought lennon betrayed any cause. on "revolution 1" and on the video lennon inserts the word "in" after "... count me out." besides the beatles were about LOVE, man. they weren't about violence. excellent song. all three versions are excellent. ("revolution 9" is no relation to this song. its not a song at all. its an experimental sound piece. very avant-garde.) thanks for the video.

As rich as Lennon was, he should of had a Off duty Nypd security Guard. A. Tax write off and Chapman is the one bleeding out on the side walk. He really should have known better. I damm well would if I was. Beatle. Or the Mayor of Dolton. Lol

can't get much different from Yesterday to this can you ?

It gets even more scathing than that, and yet of course it's John Lennon, lol. And it might seem like an obscure reference to you and it probably was even to a lot of people of the time that didn't know their history as young kids, but there's a line in there where he says And if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow. The events of the Chinese Revolution with Chairman Mao as their leader seemed in the past to me as a kid, but it turns out they really only happened not a whole lot more than a decade before my birth. And then later I saw that it was popular for extremists to carry around pictures of him as their really hardcore Communist push for actual revolution. So John Lennon is at once disparaging towards them but also saying, I get where you're coming from but that's just too much man.

Lennon is just borrowing that guitar riff and sound. Pee Wee Crayton - Do Unto Others (1954)

Billy Preston often played the keys for the Beatles not sure if it was him on this or not.

I believe that's Billy Preston on keyboards. He played on a lot of the later Beatles songs.

Ghandi's peaceful revolution leading to England's exit from India did not require destruction.

The lyrics are awesome, this song should be played at trump rallies 😅

Billy Preston keyboard

helter scelter

Peaceful demonstrations rather than violence and destruction of public property where innocent people are usually the ones that suffer. Peaceful protest for change and anti communist. All things I can get behind.

it's just the age old question - protest through non-violence, like Ghandi, or with violence like the bolsheviks

You have no idea of the political instability of the civil rights movement the antiwar movement, the generation gap, the fact that young people could be drafted at 18, but they couldn’t young people moving to Canada to avoid the draft. There is so much political music. In Revolution number one after he says, don’t you know that you can Count me out if you listen carefully, you’ll hear the words after that in

Billy Preston was on electric piano here.

Billy Preston on keys.

#9 is bad conceptual art. It was really John and Yoko. I prefer my own stream of consciousness, thanks.

Wrong. MLK. Non-violence. No destruction is acceptable! Only love can conquer hate