Comments on: #9 Dream

By: Cbrmale

Cbrmale — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 04:05:53 +0000

John began Surprise, Surprise after the first time he made love with May, which was during the Mind Games sessions.

By: james warren

james warren — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 23:12:58 +0000

In the last year or so, I was told that on the Lennon song “Come Together” the vocal begins with him saying “Shoot me.” Literally. I had always assumed it was just a nonsensical vocal sound Lennon added.

I have gone back to listen to it again and again and it certainly sounds like it COULD be “shoot me.”

I also remember hearing that Paul didn’t want John to sing or record it.

I hear and read a lot of things. Who knows if all this is true. The only thing I believe absolutely is that Paul is NOT dead.

Yet.

By: Gilbert J Ramos

Gilbert J Ramos — Sat, 06 Oct 2018 17:54:23 +0000

Same for me. Something like “George, Hare Krishna, George.”

By: Erik

Erik — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 12:59:45 +0000

I’m a bit surprised that nobody else has offered the interpretation the lyrics have for me. It was recorded toward the end of a period of estrangement from a partner who had taken him to another level emotionally, spiritually, and, creatively, Yoko. A soulmate.

I suspect that anyone who has had the experience of finding a soulmate and then parting with them (I have) can relate to the feeling of how strange and otherworldly looking back on such an intense relationship can seem. Wondering if it was even real, if it even happened at all. Something that while one was in it, was the most important thing, the center, an unfolding miracle every day, and is now just sand on the beach.

So the words

“So long ago
Was it in a dream?
Was it just a dream?
I know, yes I know
It seemed so very real
Seemed so real to me”

And

“I thought I could hear
Hear
Hear
Hear
Somebody call out my name (John)
As it started to rain
Two spirits dancing so strange”

And

“Was magic in the air?
I believe, yes I believe
More I cannot say
What more can I say?”

No matter how many times I’ve listened to the song, it brings me near tears, especially the way he raises his voice in pitch on every “hear,” almost as if the memory is fading with each repetition.

The impossibility of describing to anyone else exactly how it feels and the strange things that can happen when someone else’s soul resonates so strongly with our own: “More I cannot say. What more can I say?”

I like the idea that some of it can be about pondering the magic he and The Beatles made together, too. The “river of sound” and all, although by that time, he had surely been making music with his wife for a few years.

By: Andrew G

Andrew G — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 23:48:00 +0000

For years I have thought the song goes “Music touching my soul (George), Something warm, sudden cold (Krishna… George)”. In fact I’ve just listened to it again and I swear it does!

By: Tommy

Tommy — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 23:09:42 +0000

That is my most favorite song of John Lennon. I listen to it when I am alone. It brings out my deepest thoughts of happiness and sadness

By: Tomek

Tomek — Sat, 02 Apr 2016 23:10:07 +0000

Dreaming is almost like a Stargates adventures

By: chris j

chris j — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 19:43:18 +0000

I just heard a demo version of it on John Lennon “Rarities / Demos” Volume 2 on youtube, and there’s even a bit that has disappeared in the final version where he starts singing the slide guitar theme of My Sweet Lord and repeats it.

By: James Ferrell

James Ferrell — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 18:20:26 +0000

I agree–the chorus of #9 Dream sounds like the background vocals of MSL. Same chord progression too. Good observation!

By: chris j

chris j — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 17:36:48 +0000

The string arrangement on “took a walk down the street” is also similar to the strings on “Within You Without You”

By: chris j

chris j — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 19:02:03 +0000

I’d always thought the “Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé” part was an obvious wink to George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord (written in 1969) which itself borrowed from different sources and was in the middle of a huge copyright infringment suit from “Bright Music” since 71, complicated by their split up with their manager Allen Klein in March 73 who then helped “Bright Music” getting more money for the resemblance to 1963’s “He’s so fine” by the Chiffons. Harrison said he was more consciously inspired by “Oh Happy Day !”

Turns out John Lennon said it came to him in a dream (while dozing off listening to “All Things Must Pass” ?).

Ah! Böwakawa, my sweet Lord
Halleluya pussy pussy

Hare Krishna, pussy pussy
Hare Rama,pussy pussy

By: Mauricio Pellegrini

Mauricio Pellegrini — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 14:43:09 +0000

This is it! An spiritual event for sure… extraterrestrial beings? maybe. Deja vu of his death also probable…. Nice comment dude. I agree with you.

By: lynne smith

lynne smith — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 07:08:40 +0000

Bawakawa means ‘ beetle ‘ in swahili…

By: SMiLE

SMiLE — Sat, 27 Jun 2015 05:33:39 +0000

In a YouTube comment to the song, someone claims that “böwakawa” means “beetle” in Swahili and “Ah, böwakawa poussé poussé” could be interpreted as “The Beatles are getting back together” in Swahili. While I think that it was just nonsense words John heard in a dream, it’s open to anyone’s interpretation what the words really mean.

By: vinny dapp

vinny dapp — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 19:27:41 +0000

My plate on my 1973 cuda is #9 dream. And my car is called double fantasy.

By: Graham Paterson

Graham Paterson — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 11:08:05 +0000

This is one of my favorite songs of all time by anybody. A beautiful melody and Lennon himself did a great job of the production, The album it came off Walls and Bridges is so underrated. Recorded near the end of the Lost Weekend when he was still with May Pang he and a great group of musicians put together a mid 70s classic. This wonderful song is the high point of an album that summarizes so well what he had recently been through. Lennon at his autobiographical best. This song came in a dream to John Lennon literally with all that the number 9 meant to him. Inspired creativity at its best.

By: AJ

AJ — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 23:27:04 +0000

Pousse DOES mean “shoot”, but as in a sprout of a plant lol. Thank God for Google Translate.

By: ForgetScowl

ForgetScowl — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 05:12:13 +0000

Aside from all of this lyrical imagery interpretation is the production/arrangement of this song which is brilliant and no surprise that it was Lennon himself who mastered those controls. I remember the use of this song to ease me from the pain of crashing down hard from a very high place. It was the sound of his voice and his production of sound that soothed me like a baby from a nightmare. Another accomplishment of his artistic possibility.

By: TC

TC — Sun, 12 Oct 2014 07:30:13 +0000

“pousse” in French is the past tense of push. i.e. pushed, or if spelled “poussez” (pronounced the same way) is the imperative form (i.e. a command to someone) “push”.

By: Muncil O'Cluck

Muncil O'Cluck — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 18:32:09 +0000

The song “Surprise Surprise” which John wrote for May, is the song that was written during the Mind Games sessions, not #9 Dream.