"#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 9 October, and, coincidentally, the track also peaked at number nine in the U.S. charts when it was released). The backing vocal is provided by May Pang, Lennon's partner 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. 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.
Lennon liked the string arrangement he wrote for Harry Nilsson's rendition of Many Rivers to Cross (from Nilsson's Pussy Cats which Lennon produced) so much that he decided to incorporate it into the song.
The musicians who performed on the original recording were as follows:
John Lennon - vocals, acoustic guitar
The 44th Street Fairies: May Pang, Lori Burton, Joey Dambra - backing vocals
Ken Ascher - clavinet
Jesse Ed Davis - guitar
Nicky Hopkins - electric piano
Arthur Jenkins - percussion
Jim Keltner - drums
Bobby Keys - saxophone
Eddie Mottau - acoustic guitar
Klaus Voormann - bass
It's the 9th September 2009, and for those of you that aren't already aware, 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 9 October 1940.
His son Sean was also born 9 October (1975).
Brian Epstein first saw Lennon and the Beatles at the Cavern on 9 November 1961, and secured their recording contract with EMI on 9 May 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 9 November 1966; 9 years after he met Paul McCartney, and 9 years before the birth of Sean.
Lennon lived at The Dakota, built in 1881 (1+8=9 & 8+1=9, 9+9=18, 1+8=9) in apartment 72 (which adds up to 9). The building is located on 72nd Street in New York City (which, again, adds up to 9).
He was murdered late in the evening of 8 December 1980 in New York, but it was already the early hours of the morning of 9 December in his birthplace of Liverpool, England. 1980 adds up to 9.
