By Nicko
Nine Ways To Make it Count …
“Nine, yeah, it’s the… it’s all… many symbolic things about it, but it just happened.”
John Lennon in Wenner, Lennon Remembers.
His birthday, favourite number, highest digit and just funny for Revolution 9.
Means different things to different people. Very good if not perfect (9 out of 10, 99%), everything (nine yards), something stitching in time saves nine of, nine Muses, desirable water vapour-based locality (Cloud 9) and perhaps more.
Not as many idiomatic noms as I thought, but songwriters might have been too busy applying the number to trains.
That’s e-neuf from me. Here are some tunes. After a little intro, courtesy of an anonymous EMI engineer.
Sun Ra And His Solar Arkestra – Rocket Nine Take Off For The Planet Venus (Fred Erickson)
Some spaced out jazz from extraterrestrial Sun Ra. Second stop Jupiter. Also see the guru’s list.
Linda Thompson – Nine Stone Rig (severin)
Folk and murder do seem to go hand in hand. Here at the nine stones (one fallen over) at Ninestane Rig. On a blood-stained moor, natch.
Albert Hammond – 99 Miles From LA (Fred Erickson)
Al’s driving and he’s longing. Getting distracted by signs and telephone poles. I hope she’s there.
Suzanne Vega – 99.9 F (Shoegazer)
Hot, he's combustible on the verge of burning. I admit that 99.9 F has a better ring than 37.2 C or 310.9 K.
Texas Gladden – The Devil’s Nine Questions (@tincanman)
You have answered my questions nine
Sing 99 and 90.
This is ye olde trad folkie Riddles Wisely Expounded, by a more explanatory name. You get nine questions from the devil to see if you are his or the other bloke’s. It’s Child ballad number 1. Perhaps missed a trick there, could’ve been number 9, although not all of the many versions have nine questions.
The Sisters Of Mercy – Nine While Nine (vanwolf2)
Nine while nine, and I'm waiting
For the train.
80s dark and portentous, and cold and miserable and he’s talking to himself again. An online suggestion is nine while nine refers to shops open between those hours.
Patti Smith – Nine (Uncleben)
Reputedly a birthday song for Johnny Depp. His birthday is the 9th June. The nine of diamonds appears, not much any other. Tom Verlaine’s guitar compensates.
The Damned – Plan 9 Channel 7 (vanwolf2)
A tribute to Vampira, citing her star turn in Plan 9 From Outer Space. Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi to her Mum. The theme to P9FOS wasn’t nommed. Nice library music.
Sonny Boy Williamson II – Nine Below Zero (Uncleben)
Designated classic…such that bands have named themselves after it. As a teenage blues freak, unreformed, this was always in mind. See also the guru’s list.
Wilson Pickett – Get Me Back on Time, Engine Number 9 (Pt. 1 & Pt. 2) (Loud Atlas)
Phunky from Philly. Southern soul Wilson went north (on the train?) and Gamble and Huff said play dirty to the MFSB and Bobby Eli said “great, I can use that fuzzy distortion gizmo I got for Christmas” (maybe).
Tarheel Slim – Number 9 Train (ShivSidecar)
Happy to see this one nommed. Numerous No 9 train songs of course. I guess because ‘nine’ rhymes with ‘line’ and at a pinch ‘time’. And who could resist his name?
Pam Grier – Long Time Woman (AltraEgo)
A US 99-year prison term for murder song. Not the only one, see the guru’s list. There’s a reason Pam didn’t sing much, but she did star in woman in prison exploitation movies (aka chicks in chains). Including The Big Doll House, featuring essentials such as mud wrestling. Later borrowed by Q. Tarantino to use with Pam in Jackie Brown.
Alt -J – "❦" (Interlude 1) (The Ripe & Ruin) (@tincanman)
First interlude on the album. Interludes were just given the fruit symbol on the cover. This one is also called The Ripe And The Ruin. A lot of fuss for a short track…oh, about 9 steps making 18 in total.
Henry Cow – Nine Funerals For The Citizen King (TatankaYotanka)
Seems the Cow’s history is off. There were eight assassination attempts on Louis Phillipe I, not nine if they are the ‘funerals’. It’s got Carroll's Snark, Stein's rose is a rose is a rose and Dada. Go to Wiki for some discussion of music and meaning, but don’t expect much help from Tim Hodgkinson’s statement. Just enjoy the trip.
Nine Ways To Make it Count A-List:
Sun Ra And His Solar Arkestra – Rocket Nine Take Off For The Planet Venus (Fred Erickson)
Linda Thompson – Nine Stone Rig (severin)
Albert Hammond – 99 Miles From LA (Fred Erickson)
Suzanne Vega – 99.9 F (Shoegazer)
Texas Gladden – The Devil’s Nine Questions (@tincanman)
The Sisters Of Mercy – Nine While Nine (vanwolf2)
Patti Smith – Nine (Uncleben)
The Damned – Plan 9 Channel 7 (vanwolf2)
Sonny Boy Williamson II – Nine Below Zero (Uncleben)
Wilson Pickett – Get Me Back on Time, Engine Number 9 (Pt. 1 & Pt. 2) (Loud Atlas)
Tarheel Slim – Number 9 Train (ShivSidecar)
Pam Grier – Long Time Woman (AltraEgo)
Alt -J – "❦" (Interlude 1) (The Ripe & Ruin) (@tincanman)
Henry Cow – Nine Funerals For The Citizen King (TatankaYotanka)
The Nein, Didn’t Quite Make It But Still On The B-List Playlist:
Rita Hayworth (Anita Ellis) – Terpsichore (Marconius 7)
From the flick. Very a-musing. Lots of muse-inspired people cited.
Esperanza Spalding – Formwela 9 (untergunther)
Just the number of the ‘formwela’. Interesting project and sound.
Caetano Veloso – Nine Out Of Ten (Uncleben)
Walking down Portobello Road to reggae. Going the flicks while in exile, even as 9/10 movies stars make him cry. Evidently feeling some mortality.
Nguyên Lê – If 6 Was 9 (BenazirGalbasi)
Jimi of course.
Einstürzende Neubauten – Neun Arme (Vikingchild)
Spooky. Nine tentacles or nine arms? You decide. Not to be confused with the Otis Redding song These Arms Of Nine.
R.E.M. – 9-9 (Maki)
As in Nine To Nine, meaning? Stipe says it’s not meant to be understood. Track 9 on their debut. Has the nine yards reference.
The Moldy Peaches – Lucky Number Nine (TarquinSpodd)
A few DIY sounding tracks nommed. This was a lucky (nine) one.
The Now – Nine O’Clock (severin)
Terrific little rocker.
The Robins – Riot In Cell Block #9 (Uncleben)
The riotous original.
Woody Guthrie – 900 Miles (BenazirGalbasi)
A standard, and Woody is always good value. A train song but not the number 9 train necessarily.
Dickey Lee – 9,999,999 Tears (SweetHomeAlabama)
The record for 9-based number this week. No relation to Dickey Knee, which only Australians might understand.
Roxy Music – Three and Nine (Vikingchild)
In the old money.
John Lennon wtih The Plastic Ono Nuclear Band - #9 Dream (Uncleben)
Many ordinal nine tracks. If Revolution 9 was his fever dream, this is his ninth dreamy dream. Has made up words.
3rd Line Butterfly – Nine Days (untergunther)
Korean? This is in English. It’s nine days or a million.
Gwen McRae – 90% Of Me Is You (pejepeine)
Long time fave of mine. But not quite 9-y enough for the A.
The Seeds – 900 People Daily (Making Love) (Tarquin Spodd)
Spreading seed? Pretty Doorish in part, pretty long. I like it but not niney enough for the A and it does go on.
A Seven-of-Nine Guru’s Wildcard List:
Red Hot + Ra – Nine Rocket For the Planet (featuring Metá Metá and Edgar)
A project of the Red Hot AIDS musical charity, this one in Brazil to a loose grouping doing Sun Ra tunes. I really like this take on the tune in the A-list. Sun Ra is speaking at the beginning of the vid.
Heliocentrics – 99% Revolution
Seems to be about state control and resistance. Dark anyway. Tone and groove.
Sonny Boy Williamson II – Ninety Nine
Nine Below Zero is better known and listed. Here’s another one from Alex. He’s always a dollar short. AKA “99”.
Julius Daniel – Ninety-Nine Year Blues
More than one blues 99-year song about the prison sentence for murder. This is one of the best known. Special nod to Blind Joe Reynolds – his 99 Blues is because he has 99 women and wants 19 more (sadly ultra-noisy recordings only).
Sister Rosetta Tharpe – 99½ Won’t Do
Wilson Pickett did a secular one (and CCR nommed), this is the gospel one. Notable version later by Mavis Staples, and others, but Rosetta was first.
The Monroe Brothers – Nine Pound Hammer Is Too Heavy
Nine Pound Hammer is a country/bluegrass standard. Trad origin. Dates to 1927, this is Bill and Charlie Monroe in 1936. Bill basically invented bluegrass and his band the Blue Grass Boys gave their name to the genre.
Joe Simon – Nine Pound Steel
Joe’s in prison, working on the chain gang. It’s good morning to the steel. Has hammer sounds. Sometime he’ll be free. Soul weepy.
Their plan was an ode to Vampira …
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: We’re up to the nines: songs about the number IX. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
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