Beatles: Revolution #9 Meaning

Song Released: 1968

Revolution #9 Lyrics

[Bottle of Claret for you if I had realised…

Well, do it next time.

I forgot about it, George, I'm sorry.
Will you forgive me?

Yes.]

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9,...

1. anonymous

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   Apr 27th 2011 !⃝

   Yeah when he says number 9 multiple times if that part is played backwards you here turn me on dead man
2. anonymous

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   Apr 11th 2011 !⃝

   Thing song just terrifies me, whether it has a meaning to it or not.
3. anonymous

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   Feb 22nd 2011 !⃝

   If you say Number Nine in a recorder, it will sound like "Turn me on dead man". It is just inflections of the voice, and no real subliminal message. Maybe John knew about it.
4. anonymous

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   Jan 9th 2011 !⃝

   They were very high
5. anonymous

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   Jun 23rd 2010 !⃝

   Yoko was involved in the Fluxus art movement, which was inspired by John Cage. This is just experimental music... There is/was plenty more like it, during, before and after Revolution #9 was recorded. The idea that it has any meaning played backwards is just the imagination of confused people on drugs. You can read about Indeterminacy, Fluxus, and Musique Concrete if you want more of an explanation about this type of music.
6. anonymous

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   Jun 23rd 2010 !⃝

   Yoko was involved in the Fluxus art movement, which was inspired by John Cage. This is just experimental music... There is/was plenty more like it, during, before and after Revolution #9 was recorded. The idea that it has any meaning played backwards is just the imagination of confused people on drugs. You can read about Indeterminacy, Fluxus, and Musique Concrete if you want more of an explanation about this type of music.
7. anonymous

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   Jun 2nd 2010 !⃝

   It was meant as a part of the Paul is Dead Hoax.... play it backwards and you can hear things like 'Paul is doomed' and 'turn me on dead man'... It wasnt meant to have a deep meaning
8. anonymous

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   May 24th 2010 !⃝

   A lot of people seem to have trouble with the idea of “Revolution 9” lacking “meaning”. To a lyrics-based art form like most rock, “meaning” is connected with verbal meaning, ie what story the lyrics are telling. If “meaning” had such a restrictive term within music, then all instrumental music like most jazz would be “meaningless” too.
   
   The other way to talk about “meaning” in music is in terms of music theory. Even if a piece of music entirely lacks verbal meaning, it can possess “meaning” through something other than words, like the logical progression of chords, the use of modulation and the “line” of the melody.
   
   “Revolution 9” lacks “meaning” under both senses of the word. That is, the “lyrics” mean nothing, and there’s really nothing from a music theory perspective going on (though I do like the little atmospheric piano figures that turn up from time to time, and the hypnotic effect of the phrase “number nine”.
   
   However, the way I think Lennon meant this piece to be “meaningful” was more basic than that. A percussion instrument, for instance, is normally not designed for any particular pitch. A bash on a cymbal or a shake of maracas is not meant to be any particular note. Yet percussion instruments are an accepted kind of pitchless “noise” that is a part of much music without actually “making sense” from a music theory perspective, especially if the instrument is being played with no particular rhythm.
   
   You can see Lennon’s intention here, like some other avant garde musicians, essentially to extend this concept to all parts of a piece of music. So you can see all parts of “Revolution 9” as being pitchless “noise” like a gigantic, tape-sampled percussion instrument. There is normally no particular “rhythm” to this noise, so it isn’t really percussion; however, you can accept pitchless noise as being worth listening to of itself, with no note values or rhythm.
   
   Yes, it’s cerebral and not very accessible. And to tell the truth, I don’t like “Revolution 9” very much. But to me it is not “meaningless”; there is a particular effect to listening to this collage of sound, and it comes from something other than pitch or rhythm.
9. anonymous

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   May 9th 2010 !⃝

   after listening to this a couple times and paying close attention to the screams that sound like they are coming from john, i have come to a final conclusion that this song is about John having a nightmare of Paul getting in his famed "car accident" and "dying". now i personally dont believe in the whole "Paul is dead" stuff, but in this case, it does make sense. and also, if you play the song backwards (way better than it is forwards), there are portions that say stuff like half lies here, the other half there. and it is talking about paul. no doubt in that. and when "number 9" is played backwards, it says "turn me on dead man" which could add more to "pauls death". otherwise, it has no meaning for that part. great song and i listen to it as if it is an actual song.
10. anonymous

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    Apr 14th 2010 !⃝

    It was what John thought music was going to be in the future and unfortunately other than his 1966 quote. No one could be as right but it's a good assistant scare if you're watching a Kubrick or Hitchcock with this on.
11. anonymous

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    Apr 10th 2010 !⃝

    I heard somewhere it was all just Subliminal messages....
12. anonymous

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    Feb 20th 2010 !⃝

    Take this brother, and may it serve you well. LSD ANYONE? Its obvious!!
13. anonymous

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    Feb 17th 2010 !⃝

    Pauls dead
    
    turn me on dead man
    
    -__-
    scary shit right there
    
    i'm scared
14. anonymous

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    Feb 14th 2010 !⃝

    Its simply a dead on interpretation of an acid trip,just like the Mighty Zeps' Dazed and confused,and whole lotta love.
15. anonymous

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    Nov 29th 2009 !⃝

    I thought it was John being fed up with Paul's Ob-la-di-type songs, so he made this weird thing..

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