12 tracks
Side one "Going Down on Love" "Whatever Gets You thru the Night" "Old Dirt Road" "What You Got" "Bless You" "Scared" Side two "#9 Dream" "Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)" "Steel and Glass" "Beef Jerky" "Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out)" "Ya Ya"

12 tracks
Side one "Going Down on Love" "Whatever Gets You thru the Night" "Old Dirt Road" "What You Got" "Bless You" "Scared" Side two "#9 Dream" "Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)" "Steel and Glass" "Beef Jerky" "Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out)" "Ya Ya"

"#9 Dream"

Single by R.E.M.

from the album Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur

Released

May 2007

Genre

Alternative rock

Length

4:39

Label

Warner Bros.

Writer(s)

John Lennon

R.E.M. singles chronology

"Wanderlust"
(2005)

"#9 Dream"
(2007)

"Supernatural Superserious"
(2008)

"#9 Dream" is a song written by John Lennon and first issued on his 1974 album Walls and Bridges. It was released as the second single from that album months later, on Apple Records catalogue Apple 1878 in the United States and Apple R6003 in the United Kingdom. Coincidentally, it peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it hit number 23 on the British singles chart. A video for the song was made in 2003.

"#9 Dream" came to Lennon in a dream. Lennon has said that the song was just "churned out" with "no inspiration."

That's what I call craftsmanship writing, meaning, you know, I just churned that out. I'm not putting it down, it's just what it is, but I just sat down and wrote it, you know, with no real inspiration, based on a dream I'd had.

According to May 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. Pang added that Al Coury of Capitol Records initially protested against the use of the word "pussy" in the chorus, but after Lori Burton, the wife of studio engineer Roy Cicala, suggested that it should be sung as "poussé," as if in a foreign language, the lyrics were kept.

The song was notable as a favourite of Lennon's, despite his later claim that the song was a "throwaway." Pang said on the matter, "This was one of John's favorite songs, because it literally came to him in a dream. He woke up and wrote down those words along with the melody. He had no idea what it meant, but he thought it sounded beautiful."

Lennon liked the string arrangement he wrote for Harry Nilsson's rendition of "Many Rivers to Cross," originally by Jimmy Cliff, from the album Pussy Cats so much that he decided to incorporate it into the song.

...
Wikipedia