John Lennon Compared 1 Beatles Song to Disco
The Beatles made songs in many different genres but disco was not one of them. Despite this, John Lennon compared one of the songs from The White Album to disco music. Interestingly, two members of the Fab For made disco songs after the band fell to pieces. In addition, another member of the band revealed he was a big fan of a disco hit.
John Lennon compared a Beatles blues song to disco songs
During a 1980 interview from the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, John discussed his band’s song “Revolution 1.” “Well, the slow version of ‘Revolution’ on the album went on and on and on and I took the fade-out part, which is what they sometimes do with disco records now, and just layered all this stuff over it,” he said. “It has the basic rhythm of the original ‘Revolution’ going on with some 20 loops we put on, things from the archives of EMI.
“We were cutting up classical music and making different-sized loops, and then I got an engineer tape on which some test engineer was saying, ‘Number nine, number nine, number nine,'” he said. “All those different bits of sound and noises are all compiled. There were about 10 machines with people holding pencils on the loops — some only inches long and some a yard long. I fed them all in and mixed them live. I did a few mixes until I got one I liked. Yoko was there for the whole thing and she made decisions about which loops to use.”
2 members of The Beatles made songs in that genre
Of course, “Revolution 1” doesn’t sound much like a disco song. It’s more of a blues number than anything. However, the “Imagine” singer was merely saying that “Revolution 1” was created in a manner similar to disco songs.
While The Beatles were not a disco group, some of the former Beatles dabbled in the genre. Ringo Starr released a flop disco album called Ringo the 4th. Paul McCartney released two hit disco songs: “Silly Love Songs” and his Michael Jackson duet “Say Say Say.” Neither of those tunes is a classic. However, Paul didn’t embarrass himself when he made disco the way Ringo did.
John didn’t “go disco” but he seemed to appreciate the genre. During a 1975 interview with Rolling Stone, he discussed some of the new music he enjoyed. The “Whatever Get You Thru the Night” singer picked out “Shame, Shame, Shame” by Shirley & Company as a personal favorite. While the tune isn’t well-remembered today, it was an international hit.
Not all rockers appreciate disco
To this day, many rockers decry disco. To them, disco music is frivolous and overly commercial. By definition, it cannot rise to the same level of artistry as rock. This attitude has become less and less common, but it’s not completely dead.
Meanwhile, Ringo, Paul, and John were all willing to experiment with the genre or at least respect it. Rock ‘n’ roll is many things. At the very least, the rock ‘n’ roll community should be able to recognize the value of different styles of music.
