# Number 9, Number 9 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2017, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-9-number-9/780804 "2017-02-26T02:51:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frank\_Manning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cc9497/32.png) [@Frank\_Manning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank_Manning)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-9-number-9/780804/1 "2017-02-26T02:51:22Z")
Who knows the identity of the man that says, “Number 9” in the Beatles song Revolution Number 9? Surely the man himself recognized it and remembered something about when he was recording that snip. Everything else about the Beatles seems to have been documented, but I never did see or hear exactly who this guy was. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-9-number-9/780804/2 "2017-02-26T02:59:46Z")
**Moderator Action** Although factual, since this is about a song let’s move it to CS (from GQ). ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-9-number-9/780804/3 "2017-02-26T03:04:33Z")
This is what John Lennon had to say to Rolling Stone about it: > [@](#): > > “All the thing was made with loops, I had about thirty loops going, fed them onto one basic track. I was getting classical tapes, going upstairs and chopping them up, making it backwards and things like that, to get the sound effects. One thing was an engineer’s testing tape and it would come on with a voice saying ‘This is EMI Test Series #9.’ I just cut up whatever he said and I’d number nine it. Nine turned out to be my birthday and my lucky number and everything. I didn’t realize it; it was just so funny the voice saying ‘Number nine’; it was like a joke, bringing number nine into it all the time, that’s all it was.” So apparently it was some engineer on a testing tape. ---
**Author:** ![Frank\_Manning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cc9497/32.png) [@Frank\_Manning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank_Manning)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-9-number-9/780804/4 "2017-03-11T20:06:56Z")
Yeah, Robot, I read that same account in Lennon Remembers. But that’s not a full answer. That engineer has a name, and he probably told all his friends and relatives to listen for his voice on the White Album. I am just curious. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2017, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-9-number-9/780804/5 "2017-03-11T20:28:42Z")
Who is Robot? ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-9-number-9/780804/6 "2017-03-11T21:05:45Z")
Who’s Yehudi? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2017, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-9-number-9/780804/7 "2017-03-11T21:50:21Z")
[Who’s Yehudi?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCsLwq2MybU) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2017, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-9-number-9/780804/8 "2017-03-11T22:35:52Z")
[I am not a number. I am a person!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0LaT6qVRpg)