Today is the day Barack Obama gives a speech to a joint session of Congress in defense of his healthcare initiatives. The stakes couldn't be higher, this could make or break the most important piece of legislation of his first year as President. It's truly an historic day. But not for the reasons you may think.
Today is also September 9, 2009, or 09/09/09, a day on which the numbers align like planets in a chronomatic solar system. It is also one of the biggest days for Beatles fans in the history of the band.
Today, all thirteen studio albums are being re-released on enhanced CDs, each with documentary footage, and other computer-specific content. Today is also the day in which Beatles Rock Band is released.
This morning, on the way to work, I went to the Best Buy at the Cambridgeside Galleria to a special event brought to us by Mike FM. There, you could sign up to win a trip to Abbey Road Studios, or sign up for a chance to win an X BOX 360. Besides that, I had my picture taken at a special booth with a psychedelic background and played a couple of songs on the Beatles Rock Band game. Since I have short fingers I had to play on Easy, so it was kind of lame to strum every few seconds on "Twist and Shout" as a rhythm guitarist. I had more fun singing "And Your Bird Can Sing."
But there's a pretty specific reason 09/09/09 was chosen as a release date.
The number nine dominated John Lennon's life.
* John Ono Lennon (ne John Winston Lennon) was born on 9 October 1940.
* Sean Lennon was also born on that date in 1975.
* Brian Epstein first saw the Beatles at the Cavern Club on 9 November 1961 (an upside-down year) and secured their contract with EMI exactly 6 months later (9 upside-down).
* Their debut record, "Love Me Do" was registered as Parlophone 4949.
* John and Yoko met on 9 November 1966.
* Their first New York apartment was on W 72nd Street (the digits, of course, add up to 9). At first, the Dakota also had the number 72.
* John took the 72 bus to Liverpool Art College.
* His mother's house was a 9 Newcastle Rd, Wavertree, Liverpool (All three place names have nine letters).
* Perhaps conscious of this observation he included the number in several song titles: Revolution 9, One After 909, #9 Dream.
* Regarding that last song, it was released on John's ninth record in the ninth month of 1974, it peaked at #9 on the New Musical Express Charts, and its chorus has exactly nine syllables.
* John Lennon died late at night on December 8th, 1980. The digits of the year obviously add up to a multiple of nine, but he died in the US Eastern Time Zone. If he died in Liverpool it would have been on 9 December 1980.
Source: John Lennon by Ray Coleman
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