Maybe …
Toward the end of “Revolution 9,” the sound collage and penultimate track in the Beatles’ white album, a sparse football crowd can be heard chanting, “Hold that line! Hold that line!”
There is a hesitation, and apparently the line did not hold, because the group starts chanting, “Block that kick! Block that kick!”
It is a small tribute to hope, the eternal human belief that if we just keep trying, something good will happen: The line will hold. The kick will be blocked.
I have been fascinated by “Revolution 9” since I first heard it on Christmas Day 1968, when the album was under the Christmas tree.
Most people look at me funny when I say I love it. I feel its rhythms, its ebbs and flows, its musical themes, no really, I’m not kidding — its callback to “Revolution” and “Revolution 1”: “All right,” “Riiiiiiiight ….”
Who’s to know? Take this, brother; may it serve you well.
Maybe, even then …