John Lennon on "Revolution 9"

"'Revolution 9' was an unconscious picture of what I actually think will happen when it happens. That was just like a drawing of revolution. Because arbitrarily, I was making . . . all the thing was made with loops. I had about thirty loops going, I fed them onto one basic track. I was getting Beethoven and I'd go upstairs, chopping it up and making it backwards and things like that to get sound effects. And one thing was an engineer's testing [tape], where they'd come on talking and say, 'This is EMI test series number nine.' So I just cut up whatever he said, and I had 'number nine.' 'Nine' is--I don't know, it turned out to be my birthday and me lucky number and everything, but I didn't realise it. It was just so funny, the voice went, 'number nine.' It was like a joke, bringing 'number nine' in all the time. That's all it was."