The Beatles (Lennon, Harrison, Starr) Revolution 9 (8:13) Lyrics

Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine
Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine
Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine
Number nine, number nine, number...
...Then there's this Welsh Rarebit wearing some brown underpants
...About the stortage of grain in Hertfordshire
Everyone of them knew that as time went by they'd
Get a little bit older and a little bit slower but...
It's all the same thing, in this case manufactured by
Someone who's always umpteen (...)
Your father's giving it diddly-i-dee district was leaving...
Intended to die (...) Ottoman...
(...)...Long gone through...(...)
I've got to say irritably and...
(...) Floors, hard enough to put on (...) Per day's md in our district
There was not really enough light to get down,
And ultimately (...) Slumped down
Suddenly...
They may stop the funding...
Place your bets
The original
Afraid she'll die (...)
Great colours for the season
Number nine, number nine
Who's to know?
Who was to know?
Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine
Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine
Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine
I sustained nothing worse than (...)
Also, for example
Whatever you're doing
A business deal falls through
I informed him on the third night, when fortune gives...
People ride, people ride
Ride, ride, ride, ride
Ride
Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine
Ri-i-i-i-ide
Ri-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ide
Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine
(...) I've missed all of that
It makes me a few day's late
Compared with, like, wow!
And wierd stuff like that...
(...) Taking our sides sometimes
(...) Floral bark
Rouge doctors have brought this specimen
I have nobody's short-cuts, aha...
Nine, number nine
(...) With the situation
They are standing still
The plan, the telegram...
(Hubbbbba, hubbbbba, hubbbbbba, hubbbbba, hubbbbba
Number nine, number Hubbba)
A man without terrors from beard to false
As the headmaster reported to my son
He really can try, as they do, to find function...
Tell what he was saying, and his voice was low and his hive high,
And his eyes were low...
Alright!
It was on fire and his glasses were the same
This thing know if it was tinted,
But you know it isn't
To me it is...
Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine
Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine
Number nine, number nine, number nine
So the wife called me and we'd better go to see a surgeon
to price it (...) Yellow underclothes
So, any road, we went to see a dentist instead
That gave her a pair of teeth which wasn't any good at all
So I said I'd marry, join the f___ing navy and went to sea
Block that kick, block that kick
In my broken chair, my wings are broken and so is my hair
I'm not in the mood for whirling
How?
Dogs for d_____g, hands for clapping
Bird's for birding, and fish for fishing
Them for themming and when for whemming
...Only to find the night-watchman
Unaware of his presence in the building
Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine
Number nine, number nine
Industry allows financial imbalance
Thrusting it bewteen his shoulder blades
The watusi, the twist
Eldorado
Take this, brother, may it serve you well
Maybe it's nothing
What, what oh...
Maybe, even then, impervious in London
...Could be difficult thing...
It's quick like rush for peace because it's so much
Like being naked
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright
It's alright
If, you've become naked
Block that kick, block that kick, block that kick, block that kick
Block that kick, block that kick, block that kick, block that kick
Block that kick, block that kick, block that kick, block that kick
Block that kick, block that kick, block that kick, block that nixon

Revolution 9 (8:13)
Recorded: May 30, 1968 at Abbey Road, London, England with effects added June 6, 10, 11, 20 and 21, 1968
John Lennon - voice, tape loops
Paul McCartney - piano (at the beginning)
George Harrison - voice
Ringo Starr - voice
Author - John Lennon, Yoko Ono

STORY BEHIND THE SONG (REVOLUTION 9)
'Revolution 9' was neither a Lennon and McCartney song nor a Beatles' recording but an 8 minute and 15 second-long amalgamation of taped sounds which John and Yoko mixed together.

The album track of 'Revolution' originally clocked in at over 10 minutes, more than half of it consisting of John and Yoko screaming and moaning over a range of discordant sounds, created to simulate the rumblings of a revolution. Subsequently, they decided to clip the chaotic section and use it as the basis of another track, which turned into 'Revolution 9'.

At this point, homemade tapes of crowd disturbances were brought in and other sound effects were found in EMI's library. Due to the lack of sophisticated multitrack recording, all three Abbey Road studios had to be commandeered, with machines being specially linked together and tape loops held in place with pencils. John operated the faders to create a live mix.

With so many overlapping sounds, it is almost impossible to identify all the individual noises and spoken comments. Mark Lewisohn. who studied the original four-track recording, divided these into: a choir; backwards violins; a backwards symphony; an orchestral overdub from 'A Day In The Life'; banging glasses; applause; opera; backwards mellotron; humming; spoken phrases by John and George, and a cassette tape of Yoko and John screaming the word 'right' from 'Revolution'.

The most memorable tape, (which supplied part of the t__le), was the sonorous voice intoning 'Number Nine, Number Nine'. This was apparently discovered on a library tape, which may have formed part of a taped examination question for students of the Royal Academy of Music.

Once again, Charles Manson thought that John was speaking personally to him through the hubbub, taking the number 9 with its vision of the coming apocalypse. Manson thought John was shouting 'rise', rather than 'right', and interpreted it as an incitement to the black community to rise against the white middle class. 'Rise' became one of Manson's key phrases and was found painted in blood at one of the murder scenes.

Paul was in America when 'Revolution 9' was put together and was disappointed at its inclusion on The Beatles, particularly as he had been making sound collages at home since 1966 and realized that John would now be seen as the innovator.