"Carnival of Light" samples in "Revolution 9"

[therowdyman]

According to Geoff Emerick's book Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles, Lennon's calls of "Barcelona" and other sound bites from the session were later reused in 1968 for the White Album track "Revolution No. 9".

Midway through the recording of "Penny Lane," we spent the better part of an evening creating a tape of sound effects, under Paul's direction, for a live "happening" called the Carnival of Light. It was a bit of nonsense, really, but everyone had fun doing it. Whenever The Beatles tried something really outrageous, George Martin would roll his eyes and mutter a clipped "Oh my God" under his breath. Looking back, I guess that everyone was tripping his brains out that night, but we didn't know it then. When John started shouting "Barcelona" repeatedly in one of his Goon-like voices, Phil and I were doubled over in laughter. That line, and other bits and pieces from that night's sessions, were later used in the sound pastiche "Revolution 9" on the White Album.

To my ears, I've never been able to pick out any sound bite of John yelling "Barcelona". I have no idea how many alternate versions of "Revolution 9" have leaked into the Beatleg community. There's obviously, "Revolution 1 (Take 20)" and the officially released mono mix (which was a fold down) and the stereo remix and 5.1 mixes from the 2018 box set. Neither of these have the "Barcelona" line. Was Emerick misremembering this or is there another mix out there?

[hallucalation]

The Emerick book is full of fantasies.

[harrylime]

Indeed, there are countless threads on various forums about that, on the Hoffman forum Ken Scott even chimed in to comment on a lot of mistakes and straight out contradictory statements. Not to mention it was ghost-written, so we don't even know what Emerick actually claimed and what the writers just sourced from somewhere else. Seems like Emerick should have written his book back in the 80s or earlier. It also reminds me of Lewisohn mentioning, I think it was in the Nothing is Real podcast, that in the recent years historians like him avoid sourcing from Paul or Ringo or other still living first hand sources because their memory isn't dependable at all.

[Kwai Chang]

At least it's not a yarn about "I had this middle '8' that had no start or finish" AND, then Geoff said that John was on the roof looking for a way to end this little test tape about a goose that laid 9 golden eggs on the way to UFO Technicolor omelet. But, you know lore means 'lower' and pretty soon there's a Tribunal Of Recall and requests for admissions and discovery and when somebody who has or hasn't taken drugs starts to remember that they think they have taken them on a specific occasion or, borrowed the grand master tape from the session...then, you know that Geoff must have traded the Carnival Of Light tape for 5 magic beans and the giant beanstalk in the car park is planted in a handicap slot...but Paul wasn't on Revolution 9 except the very beginning "Can you give me back my carnival can you give it back?". Of course Lennon doesn't remember that You-Become-Naked was from the Cynthia Lennon tape from the Magic Alex micro-recorder of Yoko's first night in Cynthia's bathrobe on a completely different arrangement with the lyric "all big beanstalks go to heaven". It must be 'El Dorado Watusi' played backwards.
No, I checked...it says SHE LOVES YOU in reverse in stereo...yikes!
Nevermind.
Wrong Spaniard!
KC

John never had many toys. "Mimi, that cat ain't got no teeth!" (please, John...just leave it alone, it's really old)

[millerTEK]

if you listen carefully o Revolution 9 - and then listen to Revolution (Take 20)(MamaDada) from 6/4/68 - you already get the initial pieces John utilized when it was clear that song was going to get faded out at 4+ minutes. He took those and on 6/10 and on 6/20 added the new items to piece together a separate Revolution track he titled as 9.

Carnival of Light was not really a John and Yoko piece - so I doubt samples exist in Rev 9 from that unreleased track.

ALSO - since Carnival has never been released and we technically know NOTHING ABOUT WHAT SAMPLES created it...how can we even consider that samples from Carnival were used in Rev 9 - if we have NEVER HEARD CARNIVAL? LOL

[harrylime]

We are considering it because a first hand source, Emerick, makes that claim as mentioned in the topic start. Maybe you mean to ask how we could even verify it?

[therowdyman]

ALSO - since Carnival has never been released and we technically know NOTHING ABOUT WHAT SAMPLES created it...how can we even consider that samples from Carnival were used in Rev 9 - if we have NEVER HEARD CARNIVAL? LOL

Yes. All we have is the descriptions of Lewisohn. And from what Lewishon (and others) describe, there may have not even been "samples" as the "church organ" could have been made with Abbey Road's Mellotron.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7j1g04BAYU

And Lewishon heard the raw multi-tracks but not the RM1 tape that was taken from the studio and played at the event (and allegedly, according to Lewisohn in The Complete Beatles Chronicle, taken away by Ray Andersen back to the states). Barry Miles heard a stereo mix for Many Years From Now which I suspect was mixed for Anthology 2, as there would be zero purpose in a stereo mix of something played over a 1960s P.A. system in a giant open space like the Roundhouse.

Without hearing "Carnival of Light", it would be hard to judge it outside of its initial purpose of being a soundscape backdrop for Ray Andersen's psychedelic light show at The Roundhouse.

Speaking of "Carnival of Light" - how did it get that name, anyway? Its official title is "Untitled", even the event was called The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave. The only mention of the phrase "Carnival of Light" comes from a newspaper article from the time describing the event. Have we all assumed that it was called "Carnival of Light" all these years?



Lewisohn refers to the event as "a 'Carnival of Light' at the Roundhouse" in the introductory interview of The Beatles Recording Sessions.

[BDJ]

McCartney himself talks about 'Carnival of Light' as an existing track, that almost went onto Anthology. So it is available to EMI/Apple.

Therefore, I think the closest we have come to Carnival of Light is in the dying 20 seconds of 'Something' on the Love Album. There are some sounds there that I can't place in any other Beatles recording.

hxxps://we.tl/t-gSyC4fL23I

[harrylime]

Speaking of "Carnival of Light" - how did it get that name, anyway? Its official title is "Untitled", even the event was called The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave. The only mention of the phrase "Carnival of Light" comes from a newspaper article from the time describing the event. Have we all assumed that it was called "Carnival of Light" all these years?

I wouldn't agree it's 'the only mention', search any UK newspaper archive and you'll find mentions of the term going back decades earlier... It was a way of describing any 'light show', and in the second half of the 60s the term got a revival from the psychedelic perspective (eg with liquid light shows). In regard to the Million Volt Light and Sound, online sources just seem to parrot each other that it was colloquially called the "Carnival of Light Rave" too, but it's unclear how and why this was the case. It also doesn't help that most online sources for the event are the just the two artsy posters, a flyer and a newspaper advert.

McCartney himself talks about 'Carnival of Light' as an existing track, that almost went onto Anthology. So it is available to EMI/Apple.

Of course, it was documented by Lewisohn in Complete Recording Sessions too, and the John Barrett notes indicate it's on the same reel as the final Penny lane takes 8 and 9. Just the RM1 seems to be in private hands (if not lost).

Therefore, I think the closest we have come to Carnival of Light is in the dying 20 seconds of 'Something' on the Love Album. There are some sounds there that I can't place in any other Beatles recording.

My first guess would be it's from Abbey Road's effect tapes, just as John used for Rev 9, but there are numerous other possible sources. Like for the Day in the Life orchestral session there's also a set of 4 reels labelled "sound effects" that recorded the 'atmosphere' in the studio and possibly unused effects recorded that evening. And there's 'Anything (drum track)' from Feb 22nd 67 where supposedly Ringo bashed on his kit for 22 minutes but god knows what else is on that tape. But I agree it can't be ruled out to be from COL either.

Btw I also came across the theory before that Jessie's Dream features part of it, as it contains both a distorted guitar and a 'pub piano' as described by Lewishohn for the COL tape.

[therowdyman]

I wouldn't agree it's 'the only mention', search any UK newspaper archive and you'll find mentions of the term going back decades earlier... It was a way of describing any 'light show', and in the second half of the 60s the term got a revival from the psychedelic perspective (eg with liquid light shows). In regard to the Million Volt Light and Sound, online sources just seem to parrot each other that it was colloquially called the "Carnival of Light Rave" too, but it's unclear how and why this was the case. It also doesn't help that most online sources for the event are the just the two artsy posters, a flyer and a newspaper advert.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of the colloquial term "Carnival of Light". But yes, the details on the event's name are pretty much the two artsy posters and an advert from Melody Maker and another source. The term "Carnival of Light" doesn't appear in any of them.

My first guess would be it's from Abbey Road's effect tapes, just as John used for Rev 9, but there are numerous other possible sources. Like for the Day in the Life orchestral session there's also a set of 4 reels labelled "sound effects" that recorded the 'atmosphere' in the studio and possibly unused effects recorded that evening. And there's 'Anything (drum track)' from Feb 22nd 67 where supposedly Ringo bashed on his kit for 22 minutes but god knows what else is on that tape. But I agree it can't be ruled out to be from COL either.

The only thing I couldn't pick was the organ grinder music, which is probably a "Mr. Kite" sample played at regular speed.

Btw I also came across the theory before that Jessie's Dream features part of it, as it contains both a distorted guitar and a 'pub piano' as described by Lewishohn for the COL tape.

If this was the case, Lewishon would have spotted it when heard the tape and said as much. From an educated assumption based on the time they spent on the track (one take with overdubs in an evening) and "effects" would have been created by the mellotron. It was around the time of "Strawberry Fields" so the instrument wouldn't have been too far away. It can do a "church organ" and other trippy sounds. The pub piano with a few bars of "Fixing A Hole" could have been the Mrs Mills piano at Abbey Road that was already in Studio 2. As described by Lewishon, it sounds more like they created sounds live in the studio and added delay and reverb. To add tape loops and samples would have required someone going into the vaults to locate them (i.e. time and effort). From what McCartney describes, they created it with minimal effort and whatever was in the studio already. I think this is why he describes it as being "primitive". By contrast, "Revolution 9" was a much bigger undertaking in sourcing samples, working with tape loops (tape all over the studio) - it was a much more involved production. This is probably also why George Martin was reportedly not too impressed by COL, going by Lewisohn's description, he wouldn't have found it as interesting or challenging as "Revolution 9" to work on.