Number 9 Dream

"#9 Dream" is a song written and performed by John Lennon and featured as the seventh track on his 1974 album Walls and Bridges. In January 1975, it was released as the second single from that album backed by another album track, "What You Got". It continues Lennon's fascination with the number nine (he was born on October 9). On The Beatles' White Album he and Yoko Ono contributed a track titled "Revolution 9". The backing vocal is provided by May Pang, Lennon's mistress at the time.

According to Pang's website, two working titles for the song were "So Long Ago" and "Walls & Bridges". Pang also states that the phrase repeated in the chorus, "Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé", came to Lennon in a dream and has no specific meaning.[1] Lennon then wrote and arranged the song around his dream, hence the title and the atmospheric, dreamlike feel of the song including the use of cellos in the hook.

In an interview Lennon said the song was written in the spirit of 'craftsmanship' rather than true inspiration. He liked the string arrangement he wrote for Harry Nilsson's rendition of Many Rivers to Cross so much that he decided to write a song around it. "#9 Dream" was the result of this process. The arrangement forms the vocal melody during the verse.

[edit] The Number 9

The number nine appeared repeatedly in Lennon's life, leading some (himself included) to believe the number was of metaphysical significance, as evidenced by the facts that:

Lennon was born on October 9, 1940.
His son Sean was also born October 9 (1975).
Brian Epstein first saw Lennon and the Beatles at the Cavern on November 9, 1961, and secured their recording contract with EMI on May 9, 1962.
On the cover of Walls and Bridges, there is a painting of Lennon's from when he was eleven years old of a football player with a big "9" on his shirt.
In addition to "#9 Dream", Lennon constructed the sound collage "Revolution 9", and he also wrote the song "One After 909".
John met Yoko on November 9, 1966; 9 years after he met Paul McCartney, and 9 years before the birth of Sean.
He was murdered late in the evening of December 8 in New York,but it was already the early hours of the morning of December 9 in the country where he was born.