This is an analysis of the Beatles' sound montage, "Revolution #9". I endeavor to show that John would consider it among his best works, and show what I feel are the autobiographical elelments of the piece.

From "Lennon Remembers" (1971), pg. 29:

Jann Wenner: "Let me ask you again, are you pleased with the new album (PLASTIC ONO BAND)?"

John: 'I think it's the best thing I've ever done. I think it's realistic and it's true to me...that has been developing over the years from "In My Life", "I'm a Loser", "Help", "Strawberry Fields." They're all personal records. I always wrote about me when I could. I didn't really enjoy writing third person songs about people who lived in flats and things like that...'

The only true songs I ever wrote were "Help" and "Strawberry Fields." I can name a few... I can't think of them offhand, that I always considered my best songs.'

Now, the way I remember it, John had wanted to release "Revolution #9" as a single, but the other guys wouldn't allow it. In this alone, you would think John considered
this a "best song". Add this to the fact that the song is very biographical, which by Lennon standards qualifies his best work. You can set a biographical time span on
the song by zeroing in on the time Beatlemania makes it appearance in the piece. This is a good place to plot the son's timeline from:

At 4:02, a clip of an actual Beatle audience awaiting the arrival of the group is introduced. The fans are all excited, you can kind of sense a "hey, Beatles!" attitude
among the guys, and the female fans are obviously ready to start screaming. At approximate 4:06, you get a tune up, like a group preparing to go on: a tone of an
instrument, and a singer warming up like a "mi, mi- mi- mi, mi-mi". This is the Beatles at their moment. What follows at 4:18 is the sound and feel of their tours. John on
touring:

"[The Hunter Davies book] was really bullshit...there was nothing about the orgies and the shit that happened on the tour... I mean we had that [innocent] image, but man, our tours were something else...you know, the Beatles tours were like Fellini's SATYRICON." (Ibid. pg. 84)

At 4:18, after you hear the shrill screaming of the female admirers (remember, an actual Beatle sound clip), we are introduced to the sounds of a debauched, orgiastic
event, with John "licking his lip's and smecking", so to speak, perhaps the most insidiously powerful moment in the piece. Notice the sound of the crashing cymbal,
like a whip cracking over everything. The Beatles on tour. The Beatles marketing phenomenom. The height of Beatlemania! The whip cracks over everything. This
mounts until..

4:50. Public acclaim from both (all) sides, sounds like an audience applauding after a show. The boys have done it, they're a universal success. John is on a crazy ride.

At 5:00, the "hold that line" tape is introduced. The only thing I can make of this is that in England, you have the "firms" of the football crowd, blokes and birds that go
and get crazy over their teams. Drunkenness, fights with rival firms, etc. are common at these bashes. They are known as very violently loyal fans. This could imply
intoxication, or something going on in the streets...

5:28. The Sgt. Pepper period is introduced, with the final note of a "Day in the Life" (again, actual Beatle sound clips, LSO recordings from the Pepper sessions). This is
repeated three times (5:28, 5:42, 5:48), and once more at 6:24. The war sound effects in this section might be a comment on VietNam; they could refer to "How I Won the War".

At 6:25 the whip starts cracking again.

But by 6:30, the song starts moving out of the past, and into the present (at least the present when the song was made). We hear a miltary band (Pepper playing for the
fans?), then jump from the past to the present at the immediate "Take this brother, may it serve you well", 6:47. We are present at the moment of artistic creation, so to
speak...

6:50. Inside with John and Yoko. We are witness to an true autobiographical moment, getting so close to John and Yoko that it feels like we're in their bedroom. Yoko is expounding, John is waking up, and starts droning something as in the backround, a crooner parody of Paul singing a period-piece song goes on ("Good fishes again in the kettle?" Paul as the Walrus? Just what is he saying?). This part ends with Yoko inviting us to get naked with the Lennons: John's life has been laid bare, so to speak, in an experimental musical piece...

This is just an outline; it's a little more difficult plotting the timeline from the beginning of the 'song' to the the emergence of Beatlemania, but not impossible. A baby crying - John's youth? "Every one of them knew that as time went by they'd get a little bit older and a little bit slower" - John growing up? How about the honking horns of the first part of the song? Is this a memory of the accident which claimed his mother's life? &c.

As you see, there's a good case to consider this one of John Lennon's best pieces, in my and probably in his own opinion. Don't let the experimental nature of the work alienate you. I have a strong feeling this song will stand the test of time and will someday be considered a Beatles masterpiece, brushstrokes and all...

As this piece deserves more credit than it usually gets, it gets my vote for Most Underrated Beatles Song ever.

Cheers,
Isaac Samuel 70004.2001@CompuServe.COM