The song is in the key of A, and the instrumental introduction starts in the Lydian mode of B major. I should have said, 'I am the carpenter.' But that wouldn't have been the same, would it? 'I am the carpenter. I thought, Oh, shit, I picked the wrong guy. Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the bad guy in the story and the carpenter was the good guy. I never went into that bit about what he really meant, like people are doing with the Beatles' work. It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist system. In those days I was writing obscurely, à la Dylan. The words 'Element'ry penguin' meant that it's naïve to just go around chanting Hare Krishna or putting all your faith in one idol. It was Ginsberg, in particular, I was referring to. I'd seen Allen Ginsberg and some other people who liked Dylan and Jesus going on about Hare Krishna. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko. The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. Lennon claimed he wrote the first two lines on separate acid trips he explained much of the song to Playboy in 1980: According to Pattie Boyd, Harrison's wife at the time, the words "semolina pilchard" refer to Sergeant Pilcher of the London Drug Squad, who waged a campaign against British rock stars and underground figures during the late 1960s. According to this biography, Lennon remarked to Shotton, "Let the fuckers work that one out." While the band were studying Transcendental Meditation in India in early 1968, George Harrison told journalist Lewis Lapham that one of the lines in "I Am the Walrus" incorporated the personal mantra he had received from their meditation teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Beatles' official biographer, Hunter Davies, was present while the song was being written and wrote an account in his 1968 book The Beatles. Shotton was also responsible for suggesting that Lennon change the phrase "waiting for the man to come" to "waiting for the van to come". Lennon borrowed a couple of images from the first two lines. Then wash it all down with a cup of cold sick. Shotton recalled the rhyme as follows:Īll mixed together with a dead dog's eye, The final piece of the song came together during a visit from Pete Shotton, Lennon's friend and former fellow member of the Quarrymen, when Lennon asked him about a playground nursery rhyme they sang as children. Lennon later expressed dismay upon belatedly realising that the walrus was a villain in the poem. The walrus refers to Lewis Carroll's poem " The Walrus and the Carpenter" (from the book Through the Looking-Glass). The lyric also included the phrase "Lucy in the sky", a reference to the Beatles' earlier song " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Unable to finish the three different songs, he combined them into one. The second idea was a short rhyme about Lennon sitting amidst his garden, while the third was a nonsense phrase about sitting on a corn flake. The lyric came from three song ideas that Lennon had been working on, the first of which was inspired by hearing a police siren at his home in Weybridge Lennon wrote the lines "Mis-ter cit-y police-man" to the rhythm and melody of the siren. Shortly after release, the song was banned by the BBC for the line "Boy, you've been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down".Īccording to author Ian MacDonald, the "model" for "I Am the Walrus" was most likely Procol Harum's " A Whiter Shade of Pale", which was a hit single during the summer of 1967 and Lennon's favourite song of the period. Since the "Hello, Goodbye" single and the Magical Mystery Tour EP both reached the top two slots on the British singles chart in December, "I Am the Walrus" holds the distinction of reaching numbers one and two simultaneously. The Mike Sammes Singers, a 16-voice choir of professional studio vocalists, also joined the recording, variously singing nonsense lines and shrill whooping noises. Producer George Martin arranged and added orchestral accompaniment that included violins, cellos, horns, and clarinet. He was partly inspired by two LSD trips and Lewis Carroll's 1871 poem " The Walrus and the Carpenter". Lennon wrote the song to confound listeners who had been affording serious scholarly interpretations of the Beatles' lyrics. In the film, the song underscores a segment in which the band mime to the recording at a deserted airfield. Written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney, it was released as the B-side to the single " Hello, Goodbye" and on the Magical Mystery Tour EP and album. " I Am the Walrus" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1967 television film Magical Mystery Tour.
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