The Experimental Movement That Created The Beatles' Weirdest Song, "Revolution 9"

'Revolution 9', with over 13.8 million plays on Spotify, remains an enigmatic piece in The Beatles' catalog. While it showcases avant-garde influences from artists like John Cage and William S. Burroughs, its eight-minute sound collage is often skipped even by die-hard fans. Ian MacDonald describes it as the world's most widely distributed avant-garde artifact, emphasizing its mainstream packaging for an audience unfamiliar with its experimental roots. In a recent video, Noah Lefevre explores its influences and implications in the context of The Beatles' broader body of work.

As Ian MacDonald writes in Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, this eight-minute exercise in aural free association is the world's most widely distributed avant-garde artifact.

While the cut-up texts of Burroughs, the collages of Hamilton, and the musique concrète experiments of Cage and Stockhausen have remained the preserve of the modernist intelligentsia, Lennon's sortie into sonic chance was packaged for a mainstream audience.

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