Take this Brother, May It Serve You Well

A few weeks into my time at the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, I was sitting in my room, listening to The Beatles on my iPod.  The song "Revolution #9" came on, and my attention was immediately riveted.  I'd heard the song dozens of times over the previous 30 years or so, but for the first time I really got it, or at least got it in a way understandable to a mind currently undergoing a crash course in awareness and meditation.  The swirling elliptical loop of sounds and voices is of course 'monkey mind,' leaping here and there and everywhere.  The refrain, "Number 9, Number 9,' is the return to the breath, the attempt to cut through the nonsense of mental clutter.  

Though the song has been for many an audio representation of the psychedelic experience (which of course is also true), it really is a meditation in itself.  


Revolution 9 from Eduardo Correia Pinto on Vimeo.




On the turntable:  Bill Laswell, "Final Oscillations"