John Lennon Was Haunted By This Particular Number His Whole Life
From the day he was born on October 9, 1940, to his final breaths in a New York City hospital on 9th Avenue, John Lennon seemed to be perpetually followed by the number nine for better or worse. He alluded to his connection to the number nine in various tracks over the years, including “Revolution 9,” “One After 909,” and “#9 Dream.”
But the coincidences didn’t stop there. For someone who was notorious for his glib responses about songs having no real meaning (like, for example, “I Am the Walrus” or “Happiness is a Warm Gun”), Lennon was surprisingly open to the notion that there was an uncanny connection between his life’s overarching trajectory and one specific numerical value. John Lennon’s Connection to the No. 9 Started At Birth.
The Liverpudlian musician, author, and activist’s connection to the number nine started on his birthday, the 9th of October. While Western calendars classify October as the 10th month, Lennon’s birthday fell in the ninth month of the year according to the Chinese calendar.
His childhood address contained three nine-letter words: 9 Newcastle Road, Wavertree, Liverpool. Other early connections to the number nine revealed themselves in multiples of the number, like the No. 72 bus Lennon regularly rode as a student at Liverpool Art College. Two of Lennon’s first bandmates, Stuart Sutcliffe and Paul McCartney, had nine-letter surnames.
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
