Songs › The Beatles › Revolution 1

The Beatles

Revolution 1

The Beatles (White Album) · 1968 · Lennon–McCartney

GLI57

Lennon Leaning

Confidence 76% · evidence quality, not position

The four Beatles in New York City, 7 February 1964. — United Press International (UPI Telephoto) · Public domain

The take ran ten minutes. The last six became a different track.

GARCIAPerformance creates the music

DEAD CENTERNeither wins

LENNONComposition creates the music

100

Revolution 1 · 57

Hollow marks: the other 49 scored songs · Hatched band: the Crossover Zone

The case

The strongest honest argument for each side, then the ruling.

The Garcia argument

Take 18 ran 10:17, and its last six minutes were a jam with feedback and screaming. The Beatles let a song run on with no plan to see what would happen. That ending was real enough to become the seed of another piece.

The Lennon argument

Lennon then cut it off. The album version keeps about 40 seconds of the jam, has a lead vocal re-recorded lying on the floor for its sound, and brass overdubbed three weeks later. The song underneath is a conventional verse and chorus that the band later remade fast as a single.

The verdict: GLI 57

A written song with one documented moment of letting go, which was then edited out and reused. The moment places it left of the scored Beatles records. The edit places it right of centre.

What is fixed

Verse and chorus
Lyric
The edit point
Brass overdub

What is open

The six minutes that were removed

Evidence dimensions

Each runs from 0, Garcia, to 100, Lennon. Their weighted composite is 57. The published GLI is 57, the same.

Structural FixityHow much of sequence, form and duration is settled beforehand?

Elastic

Fixed

A verse and chorus song. Its ending was open until it was cut off.

Performance ConsistencyHow far can two performances differ and still be the same work?

Transformative

Reproducible

A slow version, a ten-minute version and a fast single version all exist.

PredeterminationHow much of what matters exists before the performance begins?

Emergent

Predetermined

The song was written. Most of what the long take contained was not.

Development MethodHow does the music move forward?

Exploratory

Composed

A band take that ran on into free playing.

Recording SpecificityDoes the recording document an occurrence, or define the object?

Documents event

Defines work

The album cut is an edit with a re-recorded vocal and added brass.

Transformational tolerance

It was re-recorded fast as a single and was still the same song.

Confidence: 76%

The long take is documented. Sources disagree on its number.

Keep arguing

Every placement is relative. These are the songs this one was measured against.

The record

Take 18, recorded on 30 May 1968, ran 10:17. Its last six minutes were a discordant jam with feedback and screaming.Source ↗
Lennon split the ending off. The first part became Revolution 1 and the ending was developed into Revolution 9.Source ↗
The album version keeps about 40 seconds of that coda.Source ↗
Lennon re-recorded his lead vocal lying on the studio floor, and brass was overdubbed three weeks later.Source ↗

Where the sources disagree

Sources number the long take 18 or 20.
Track duration was not confirmed on any page opened.

Catalog facts

Catalog no.: GLI·TB·017
Artist: The Beatles
Writers: Lennon–McCartney
Release: The Beatles (White Album) (1968)
Released: 22 November 1968
Duration: Not verified

Sources

Classified 5 October 2026