The Beatles’ “Rain” and the Advent of Backward Vocals
How John Lennon's "creative accident" became one of rock 'n' roll's greatest innovations.
The Beatles’ unprecedented sonic experimentation on their 1966 album Revolver make it one rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest albums. But ironically, one of the album’s greatest innovations happened on a B-side that came out before the final album.
Backward guitar and sitar solos appear throughout Revolver, which is credited as the first popularized use of “backmasking”, the intentional recording of a track in reverse. But songs like “Love You To” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” were not the first songs the band recorded backward.
The real birth of the Beatles’ backmasking came in the form of John Lennon’s reversed vocals during the outro of “Rain”, the B-side to lead single “Paperback Writer” that came out in the U.S. on May 30, 1966.
It was not the first time anyone had tried recording backwards – it had been available since the early days of Edison’s phonograph and avant-garde composers experimented with it as early as the 1950s. But the Beatles are universally credited with bringing the technique to the mainstream.
The Beatles recorded the first five takes of “Rain” on the night of April 14, 1966 at Abbey Road Studios. They employed several innovative recording techniques in addition to backmasking, which created a warm, dream-like effect for listeners.
Engineer Geoff Emerick described backmasking in The Beatles Recording Sessions as “an enveloping of sound…It draws you in. It’s like someone putting their arms around you.”
By: Matt Dolloff
Source: WZLX
