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. sisterpaul

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   Nov 18th 2008 !⃝

   The song starts out "Can you take me back where I came from can you take me back?" And there is Yoko saying "When you become naked", and also there is a heat beat somewhere in there. Maybe by "being naked" they meant stripped of all the belief systems and brainwashing one has through life. My interpretation is that if one strips away their entire belief system, it is a chaotic and crazy journey. John was always into finding out the reality of himself. I saw this song as the journey back to the core self. Although it may be the very hard to listen to, knowing John and Yoko, it wasn't just junk to them. And the above #9 interpretations of birthdates may fit along with my interpretation.
2. marinus

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   Nov 13th 2008 !⃝

   Only John & Yoko are responsible for this joke of a song, how they managed to persuade the others to include it...probably only because it was a double album. But the funy thing is it works somewhat, it's intriguing, though not enjoyable. It's a bit like an lsd trip or something, and it definitely has contributed to the album's status over the years though arguably for the wrong reasons. But I find somehow it fits perfectly onto the white album, plus it's followed by Goodnight which brings everything back to normal and kind of wakes you up from the nightmare
3. anonymous

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   Sep 24th 2008 !⃝

   Just throwing this out but the reason number 9 appears in many of these different Beatles songs and later in john's solo albums (#9Dream) etc. Is because the number nine has impacted John Lennon in so many ways like he was born on the ninth, Sean was born on the ninth, he married Yoko on the ninth and many others also each song referring to nine in one way or another opens up John's direct emotions at that time...in my opinion
4. anonymous

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   Jan 13th 2008 !⃝

   I wish I could believe there was some really cool meaning behind this song...but it's not. Originally a piece of avant-garde music created by John and Yoko which the other 3 didn't want to be included. John comments "the whole thing was made with loops. I had classical tapes, going upstairs and chopping them up, make it backwards and things like that, to get the sound effects.
   
   One thing was an engineers testing tape and it would come up with a voice saying "this is EMI Test series number 9" Paul is heard playing piano and John was born on Oct 9. 9 is his favorite number. Thats what JOHN quoted to the public. why would the Beatles add to the Paul is dead rumor? that was created by the public. not them.
   
   For those who don't know, some idiot American DJ Russ Gibbs from a Detroit FM station, stated that Paul and the others got in an argument at abbey road studio 9 and Paul stormed out and got decapitated in a crash. In the Abbey road cover there are "signs" like Paul being barefoot which is a mafia (Grecian) sign of death. also Paul holds a cig in his right hand when everyone knows Paul is a lefty. That is apparently a clue of an impostor with an incredible plastic surgeon to fill in for Paul. Also the registration number 28IF on the Volkswagen car in the background indicated Paul would have been 28 IF he lived. Paul actually was 27 at the time.
   
   Paul told another DJ Paul Gambaccini "I just turned up at the photo session. It was a really nice hot day and I think I wore sandals. I had me sandals off and on for the session....turns out to be some old mafia sign of death or something." I think everything about this rumor was the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
5. anonymous

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   Sep 26th 2007 !⃝

   The song is seriously disturbing. Backwards it not only has "turn me on dead man." It has Yoko Ono say, "Satan look at me, Satan. Look at me Satan." At the very end (the beginning when played backwards) is Paul singing "take me back" and he's screaming through out the whole thing. Among all the hidden stuff in this song, I think, for the most part it is about Paul's death.
6. anonymous

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   Jul 21st 2007 !⃝

   Miss him is on I'm so tired, actually
7. anonymous

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   Jul 18th 2007 !⃝

   The "miss him" part is the end of I'm only sleeping...I think.....revolution 9 backwords says "turn me on, dead man. Turn me on, dead man."
8. anonymous

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   Jul 18th 2007 !⃝

   Personally I think it just a song they made so tripping people would listen to it and be like "whoa that's weird, we should look really deep into this." It's a song to make you trip harder by putting in ambient noises and weird gibberish. They pump so much arbitrary nonsense into this song that it can't have a meaning. None of the things are the song are even loosely connected. I think it was just an idea that the Beatles had when they were stoned or tripping and decided that it was weird enough for the white album and that it would make a bunch of trippin hippies do a double take, listen to it again, and then trip a little harder because they mind is going a million miles a second trying to follow and interpret everything they are hearing.
   
   -the almighty bob
9. anonymous

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   May 1st 2007 !⃝

   Backwards it says John is gone, MISS HIM MISS HIM.. The site is Jeffmilner.com/backmasking.
   I think it was before he died...
10. anonymous

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    Apr 22nd 2007 !⃝

    Pure randomness.... no, no joke
11. anonymous

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    Mar 11th 2007 !⃝

    I think that this song talks about the dead of Paul mc cartney its suposstly that Paul die in a car accident and the Paul that we see today its a double like in the movies!!! and in the song if you ask for the lyrics you can see that it said metaphoric that something big its going down and in this time the beatles said that they were bigger than god so I think they will loose all the fame and all that so they contract in secret a double and that`s it that`s my theory n.n good luck
12. messiah_says

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    Oct 10th 2006 !⃝

    Charles Manson's interpretation was that it represented "revelation" chapter 9 in the bible. In it he draws connections between the Beatles, and their hippies through the symbolism in the bible. The Beatles, and this song, then became a indicator of the end times.

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