Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 5, 6, 27, 29 September 1967
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott
Released: 24 November 1967 (UK), 27 November 1967 (US)
Available on:
Magical Mystery Tour
Anthology 2
Love
Personnel
John Lennon: vocals, pianet electric piano
Paul McCartney: bass guitar, tambourine
George Harrison: electric guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Peggie Allen, Wendy Horan, Pat Whitmore, Jill Utting, June Day, Sylvia King, Irene King, G Mallen, Fred Lucas, Mike Redway, John O’Neill, F Dachtler, Allan Grant, D Griffiths, J Smith, J Fraser: backing vocals
Sidney Sax, Jack Rothstein, Ralph Elman, Andrew McGee, Jack Greene, Louis Stevens, John Jezzard, Jack Richards: violin
Lionel Ross, Eldon Fox, Bram Martin, Terry Weil: cello
Gordon Lewin: clarinet
Neil Sanders, Tony Tunstall, Morris Miller: horn
John Lennon’s final masterpiece of 1967 found him at his surrealistic, sneering best. ‘I Am The Walrus’ was included on the soundtrack of the Magical Mystery Tour TV film, and first released as the b-side of ‘Hello, Goodbye’.
Lennon had wanted ‘I Am The Walrus’ to be The Beatles’ next single after ‘All You Need Is Love’, but Paul McCartney and George Martin felt that ‘Hello, Goodbye’ was the more commercial song. The decision led to resentment from Lennon, who complained after the group’s split that “I got sick and tired of being Paul’s backup band”.
The song was written in August 1967, at the peak of the Summer of Love and shortly after the release of Sgt Pepper. Lennon later claimed to have written the opening lines under the influence of LSD.
The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend, the second line on another acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
‘I Am The Walrus’ was a composite of three song fragments. The first part was inspired by a two-note police siren Lennon heard while at home in Weybridge. This became “Mr city policeman sitting pretty…”
Hunter Davies recounted the beginnings of the second part in his authorised 1968 biography of The Beatles:
He’d written down down another few words that day, just daft words, to put to another bit of rhythm. ‘Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the man to come.’ I thought he said ‘van to come’, which he hadn’t, but he liked it better and said he’d use it instead.
The third part of ‘I Am The Walrus’ started from the phrase “sitting in an English country garden” which, as Davies noted, Lennon was fond of doing for hours at a time. Lennon repeated the phrase to himself until a melody came.
I don’t know how it will all end up. Perhaps they’ll turn out to be different parts of the same song – sitting in an English garden, waiting for the van to come. I don’t know.
The Beatles, Hunter Davies
The chord sequence was described by critic Ian MacDonald as “the most unorthodox and tonally ambiguous sequence he ever devised.” He ingeniously referred to the looped sequence as “an obsessive musical structure built round a perpetually ascending/descending MC Escher staircase of all the natural major chords”.
‘I Am The Walrus’ was one of the highlights of the Magical Mystery Tour film. For the performance, filmed in West Malling in Kent, Lennon tellingly wore an 18th century madman’s cap.
Interesting, Marcus. You have good ears. That´s typical Lennon: At the same time he is singing a straight melody on the same notes, the accompaniment is descending! That´s more evident in Strawberry Fields Forver (“Living is easy with eyes closed”) and Julia, where the desceding notes are more numerous than in Walrus.
According to McCartney himself in Many Years From Now, he didn´t contribute anything to the song. Amazing is even the switch to “sitting in an English garden…”.That is a change from darkness to light, so typical for — as a matter of fact — Wagner!
The recording is far superior to the melody-less, random-words song.
This song and lyrics are endlessly fascinating. Far superior to anything else on MMT. Are sound collages, oblique lyrics, odd time signatures, and vivid imagery too heavy for you, Mike P? Or is it the 100-0 in John’s favor that turns you off? Hehe
Hardly the best song on MMT but to each his own.
I think it’s so far and away the best song on MMT that I can’t criticise anyone that thinks otherwise for I recognize that all of our tastes are remarkably different and even those that agree often do so for many different reasons.
Pete Shotten, in the same book as some of his more dubious Eleanor Rigby recollections, also said he contributed 50% of the lyrics to I Am The Walrus, including ‘yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog’s eye’, amongst others. Shotten was as big a user of LSD as John and they’d known each other since infant school. Eric Burden also said he was the inspiration for the Eggman. So maybe this song should also be a group co-write…
So maybe this song should also be a group co-write…
I think not.
I also think Pete Shotton was somewhat fanciful in his recollections of some of his lyrical contributions. Maybe he never truly got over John chucking him out of the band when they were younger. Hurt and vengeance travel a long way together.
Reply
And 58 years later Paul suddenly reveals that it was his idea for the live radio feed based on a John Cage recording. This statement is a subtle way of saying Paul was a fan of John Cage and therefore he was avant garde and he contributed to IATW. I think it’s time to change the name of the band to ‘The Beatles Featuring Paul McCartney’ and give him all the credit he wants.
Ya, no. I’ve been a huge fan of the band since Ed’s show. In the time since, it’s become glaringly obvious that Paul is a historical revisionist. Further, his stories have changed considerably over the years. That salt n pepper story? It wasn’t his idea at all! Eleanor Rigby? He’s told three completely different stories, none bearing resemblance to the first that came out in the 60’s. None.
Paul has changed the narrative so many times, and usually to make him the centre of anything significant in the band.
Sadly, the Beatles world is/was inhabited by many a parasite, claiming they helped make the band who they are. Shotton is/was one of them. Not sure but I think Shotton also helped Robert Plant write the lyrics to Stairway and further aided Blackmore with the chords for Smoke On the Water and may have done the heavy lifting for Jackson’s Thriller.
Not sure about far superior. It’s great . But so are Fool on the Hill; Strawberry Fields Forever, and Penny Lane. And the rest is at least good.
Hogwash, Mike. You’re like a deaf pig fried from an impotent gun – or something.
Seriously, dude, your don’t know your hindmost from a bag of beans!
That was unnecessarily harsh.
I downloaded a clean stereo version of this masterpiece from YouTube and it’s the only version I listen to now. It has a “full” sound all the way through without any abrupt jumps into one side of the stereo picture. The orchestration comes through beautifully. I listen to most music at home through headphones so this “stereo-all-the-way-through” effect is much more pleasing
I assume the King Lear stuff is missing then, since that was added live during the mono mixing session.
I realize it’s been 5 years, but maybe this will send you an email letting you know you have a reply!
Did you ever happen to figure out where that stereo recording came from? I assume it’s just from one of the seemingly dozens of pressings that exist for each album, but I’d like to purchase whichever one yours is from, if I can figure out what it is and it’s reasonably available.
I mostly listen to the mono versions of the early stereo stuff for exactly the reason you specify—they really didn’t know how to use stereo yet, with all the crazy panning back and forth and whatnot.
(Side note, I wonder why you didn’t at least share the link back then, ha.)
Linky dink?
bless you grandfather bless you
It’s “Sit you down father, rest you”
It’s from Shakespeare’s King Lear.
They should have just released it as an A-Side with any other song from the EP as a B-side, and did the same for Hello Goodbye and everybody would have been happy. I’m a little surprised he didn’t push the subject a little more, but I guess that would have been too many singles coming from an EP.
This song is SO much an example of the magic of music. How many post-ers claim it as one of their favorites Beatle songs (myself included). But I can’t tell you WHY, and I bet others would have trouble putting it into words also. IT’s MUSIC, DANGIT, don’t make me explain! (and others just don’t resonate with it…)
Closest I can come to describing it’s effect on me, is like standing in the hot sun, and having someone slowly dump a 55 gallon barrel of cool gumbo over you- your all awash in multiple textures, pieces of food, smells,
and its a gloriously refreshing feeling.
Reading over my post, I am aware of how strange it sounds. But, that’s just me. It’s music dangit!
Wikipedia list Ray Thomas and Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues on backing vocals also
Frank Zappa used to play “I am the walrus” very seriously on stage, he must have loved and respected a lot this song. In 1976 when I first listened to MMT, I found it too far out for me, but it grew on me, and I’ve loved it for ages now
I have enjoyed Frank’s version of Walrus. Very weird in light of the comments he has made about certain songs that were played in the Fillmore East jam with john and yoko in 1971.
Frank said John took his songs “renamed them” and put it out as his own. That’s what’s being said.
Spooky Tooth did a smokin’ slowed down cover of I Am The Walrus.
What is John saying in the transition right before “Sitting in an English Garden”? Is it anything understandable to anyone?
I always wondered what the weird voice was saying before the strings take over for the beginning of the “english garden” section. But I guess that’s what John wanted everyone to do; anaylize and not get answers.
Walrus is such an amazing and ugly song. It washes you dirty, and your left breathless. This is why the Beatles are just so up there and out there. 1966 Tomorrow Never Knows, 1967 I am the walrus. John Lennon at his best.
I totally agree. When John wrote Tomorrow Never Knows there was nothing close to that song in popular music world. So far ahead of everyone. Same with Walrus. In the late 80’s Kurt Cobain was writing grunge music while we all listened to big hair rock and rap. He was ahead of his time too. Also a Lennon fan.
But…it is important to remember all those loops sounds in Tomorrow Never Knows that gives that fantastic feeling and made it totally revolutionary were Paul’s contribution. He was the one immersed in avant garde sounds and suggested the loops. Even his laughter is part of it. Ringo and George also gave contribution.
But it seems “I am the Walrus ” is a work only by him and …George Martin!
Well Paul and Ringo both play on it. So they would have come up with their parts.
Great song and…great video. By the way I remember a different video than that on the MMT. And it is even better. So interesting interaction between John and Paul.
I have to say that I can’t understand why some fans have to compare. What a waste of time…And lack of respect for The Beatles. When I listen to MMT I simply enjoy all those amazing songs. Why would I start ranking the songs? Or trying to find which one is better? And yet I see it all the time from people that say they are fans. I don’t think they are. Even here I saw comment saying this is the best song on the album. Oh really? How can a person get to such a conclusion after listening to so many fantastic songs? And…for what?
Actually, the “loops” were at the suggestion of George Martin – RIP.
George Martin: “It was Paul, actually, who experimented with his tape machine at home,” remembers George Martin, “taking the erase-head off and putting on loops, saturating the tape with weird sounds. He explained to the boys how he had done this and Ringo and George would do the same and bring me different loops of sounds. I probably had about 40 or 50 tapes they brought in to me. I listened to each one at different speeds and backwards. Some were absolute rubish, no good at all, some were very interesting. So we selected the ones we thought were good.” (Quoted in Beatlesebooks)
George Martin: “There was still more of the weird and wonderful to come on this song, and it came from Paul. Paul was very much into what we called the avant-garde in those days . . . modern music by the likes of John Cage, Stockhausen . . . He constructed these ‘loops’ of tape . . . he told the others and they too took the wipe heads off their recorders . . . They would nbring me in these loopsd like cats bringing in sparrows.” (Summer Of Love pp. 79-80)
I have the audio of the end part of the King Lear. But I’m still missing the audio from the third chorus (“Now good sir”, “poor man, made tame to fortune” and “good pity”. Does anyone have these?
“I Am the Walrus (“”No You’re Not,”” said little Nicola)” is a miraculous composition on every level. Théâtre at its best, the piece defies all convention. It is a masterpiece… the best “song” on the best album “The Magical Mystery Tour” our beloved Beatles ever recorded. It is my favourite… no beyond that, it is my preference.
Poetry may be for sound as well as meaning, and as such, attempts to “define” words here are silly.
Let it go, people, and enjoy the sound. The words are splendid, full of delightful humour… and the music is funny, too.
Americans had the advantage in 1967 to purchase a full LP with “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields” on Side 2, whilst poor British people had to settle for the EP of the 5 MMT “songs”. I believe the American import did become available at a shocking price. Well, hallelujah, all may now enjoy the CD version with everything on it. You can’t beat progress.
I do have some regrets.
“King Lear” really should have been presented in complete Act form; or perhaps at least a scene. The part where Lear is presented with the obvious comment that he was now old, but without having become wise, would have been perfect.
The Lewis Carroll piece might have been included as well.
Of course that would have been too much for the “fans” who might have fallen asleep at being exposed to so much serious literature. Apparently literature has a worse reputation than drugs, which are discussed here at length, whereas literature is passed over as something toxic. Legalise literature, one cries, or at the very least decriminalise it.
Cheers.
I’m pretty sure millions of copies of literature in some form are sold every year – so not very taboo, lol.
Their music is like one of your favorite movies, you’ve seen it multiple times yet you notice a part in a scene you somehow missed before and when you do you feel a bit more assured your a step further into the club.
Yes! I keep hearing ‘bits’ I never heard before (in almost all songs, not just this fabulous one), and I *have* been listening since ’62! 🙂
Has a Country Music band ever recorded I Am The Walrus?
Well, the Beatles were a nice little country and western combo.
I think the “everybody’s got one” refers to the opinions the students had analyzing Lennons songs..IMO. And has anyone else read or heard that “sitting on a cornflake” means passing gas?
Actually, in an interview (in Playboy Magazine I believe) John Lennon reveals the lyric is ‘Everybody’s got one.” When the interviewer asked him “one what?” he replied “One penis, one vagina, you name it.”
I read Eric Burden of the Animals say he was the “eggman” after telling John of his experience in Jamaica with a lady who broke eggs on his body and proceeded to clean it off. Apparently John thought it was a good story.
In the top 5 of all Beatles songs. George Martin’s orchestral arrangement is brilliant. I love how it seems to be commenting on and reacting to the lyrics and overall sneering quality of the vocal.
John Lennon was very good friends with Harry Nilsson. In 1970, Nilsson released his album, “The Land of Point”. In it, “everybody has one” which Nilsson sings is “a point”, a point of view which is deeply frowned upon by the powers to be. For having a point, the protagonist and his dog, Arrow, are banished. It sounds simple and childlike, but it’s a wonderfully creative album/story, if you’re not familiar with it.
I guess “my point” is that perhaps Lennon’s “I Am The Walrus” and the chanting of “everyone has one” inspired Nilsson in the composition or concept of this album. Or maybe Nilsson influenced Lennon with “Walrus”. Not that this matters, but it’s interesting to speculate.
Come to think of it, Nilsson’s protagonist is called “Oblio”. This is not too far removed from “Obla-di”. The song, “(Me and My) Arrow” is from The Land of Point.
Thanks
I remember listening to “I am the walrus” for the very first time, when my brother came home with the “NEW” Beatles single! Both songs blew me a way! I was in love with both! Well, back then, anything The Beatles put out “I LOVED” they could do NO wrong, and its true! I loved everything about “WALRUS”
especially John Lennon’s vocals! I don’t know if anyone here on this message board ever experienced a “NEW” Beatles song or album??? Truly Amazing… And you cant wait for the next one! It was always different from the previous!!
“See how they run like pigs in a sty! From the Beetles “The Walrus”
During the Boor Wars men were shooting children with live bullets in a pig pen and and the children were running and crying while trying to dodge bullets !!!
The men thought it was hilarious !
I am unclear from reading the text here. Does an isolated orchestral version exist? I mean, just the George Martin 18-24 takes? And if so, are they commercially available?
Perhaps a more significant reference to “Semolina pilchard” being Sgt. Pilcher is that Pattie Boyd makes the same suggestion as Marianne Faithfull in her 2007 autobiography Wonderful Tonight.
Can someone please tell me if they know who’s shoes they are by Ringo’s drums on the “I am the Walrus” video? I only ask because some one from the PID community said the shoes were given to lennon from McCartney’s car crash (madness I know!)
Obviously, they’re Paul’s, since Paul is standing there in his socks.
Anybody knows something about the Hello Goodbye/I am the walrus (mono) single?
I think it’s a different version than the album, the single has a long bridge in the middle of the song, before the “sitting in an english garden wating for the sun”.
[Sorry for my english, is not to well 🙁 ]
John’s feelings for Brian were complicated and didn’t really get through to us, but I like to think of this song as John’s memorial song for Brian.
Even if we think about it that way, it is very difficult for us to understand John’s feelings for Brian. John’s lyrics are made to be difficult to understand, in the style of Lewis Carroll, who was influenced by him, and I think that John did leave them difficult to understand.
At the end, in true John style, he sends “words of encouragement” for Brian to depart on his journey.
At the end of the song, he recorded lines from Shakespeare’s King Lear, thinking of Brian, who was a theater student, and said, “I never thought I’d die so soon.”
When John said that he wanted the vocals to be able to be heard from the moon, he wanted the vocals to be able to reach Brian even though he was so far away, and he said that the song would not fade even after 100 years. I think it means that his memories with Brian will never change.
I interpreted the song freely based on what actually happened, the social situation at the time, and what John might think.
The lyrics seem to be simply a string of strange words, but they use the cutting technique (a technique of cutting sentences into pieces and randomly combining them to create new texts) of the American writer William Burroughs, who influenced John at that time.?Burroughs’ face appears in the center of the cover of the album SGT, next to Monroe.
Words like Cornflake, the van to come, Corporation tee-shirt and Stupid bloody Tuesday all seem to describe events that occurred during their early concert tours and US tours.
Walrus was inspired by the poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter” from Lewis Carroll’s story “Alice in Wonderland” and is a symbol of capitalism.
Yellow-matter custard dripping from a dead dog’s eye, Crabalocker, fishwife, and pornographic priestess are all words I think that refer to Brian’s temper.
Semolina pilchard refers to Detective Pilcher, a narcotics investigator, and elementary penguin refers to a music event hosted by Allen Ginsberg in January 1967 (which also featured Bhaktiveda Swami Hare Krishna, founder of Hare Krishna).
The ending “Umpa Umpa” (Stick It Up Your Jumper) is a repeated chant of “stick it up your ass,” and the final line is taken from Act 4, Scene 6 of King Lear, lamenting the early death of a servant.
When George said to Hunter Davies, “Why can’t you have people f*****g as well? It’s going on everywhere in the world, all the time. So why can’t you mention it? It’s just a word, made up by people… It doesn’t mean a thing, so why can’t we use it in a song? We will eventually,” he seemed to be oblivious to the fact that Paul had mentioned this in 1963’s “Hold Me Tight” and he’d mentioned it in “Love You To” when he’d sung “make love all day long/make love singing songs…”
For me, the ultimate Beatle song. If a gun were put to my foot and the gunsmith said “Pick a favourite, now !”, “walrus” would it. I don’t really think in terms of favourites, I think in terms of songs I love. And by golly, I love I am the Walrus.
When my little brother was 7, he looked at a cassette and thought “The Long and Winding Road” was called “The Long And.” I wonder if, since 1967, anyone reading the label for the first time of whatever medium the song has come on, has ever thought this song was called “Ian the walrus” !!!