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TL;DR:

  • John Lennon explained why a voice says “number nine” over and over on The Beatles’ “Revolution 9.”
  • The voice was originally saying something slightly different.
  • Fans voted “Revolution 9” one of the worst songs of the 1960s.
The Beatles' John Lennon with a guitar
The Beatles’ John Lennon | Harry Benson / Stringer

The Beatles‘ “Revolution 9” includes a voice saying “number nine” over and over. During an interview, John explained what the voice was originally saying. Notably, the track received a poor response from critics and fans.

The Beatles’ ‘Revolution 9’ was based on a track that was supposed to be part of ‘Revolution’

The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon includes an interview from 1974. In it, John was asked how much of “Revolution 9” was an accident. Initially, John couldn’t remember which song “Revolution 9 “was. He asked if “Revolution 9” was “the weird one,” and was answered in the affirmative.

John compared the song to a painting. He revealed he had a lot of tape loops when he was crafting the song. He also had a basic track that he intended to be the end of the song “Revolution.”

The Beatles’ John Lennon said 9 was his number

Subsequently, John fiddled with the track. “And I just played it sort of live into another tape and just brought them in on faders like you do as a DJ and brought them in like that, and it was accidental in that way,” he said.

“I think I did it twice, maybe, and the second one was the take. “And the ‘Number nine, number nine, number nine’ was an engineer’s voice, you know,” he added. “They have test tapes to see that the tapes are all right.”

John revealed what the original tape said. “And the voice was saying, ‘This is, uh, number nine megacycles,’ so he was talking like that, and I just liked the way he said ‘number nine,’ so I just made a loop of him saying ‘number nine’ and brought that in whenever I felt like it, and ninth of October, I’ll be 105, and nine seems to be my number, and it’s the highest number in the universe,” he opined. “After that, you go back to one.”

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Music critics and fans did not like ‘Revolution 9’

While The Beatles are highly acclaimed, “Revolution 9” was not. According to Billboard, many critics considered it too long and boring. The reputation has not exactly changed over time.

In a 2011 poll, the readers of Rolling Stone named “Revolution 9 “the fifth worst song of the 1960s. The only song to beat it out were The Association’s “Cherish,” Richard Harris’ “MacArthur Park,” “Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey,” and Ohio Express’ “Yummy Yummy Yummy.” Notably, “Revolution 9” is the only song in this top five that was not a hit in the United States.

“Revolution 9” is not one of the Fab Four’s most acclaimed songs but John gave fans insight into how it came together in the studio.

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