Difference between revisions of "I Am The Walrus"
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(New page: {{Infobox Single | Name = I Am The Walrus | Cover = I-Am-The-Walrus.jpg | Artist = The Beatles | a-side = "Hello, Goodbye" | Released = 24 Nove...) |
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Revision as of 19:58, 22 April 2008
| “I Am The Walrus” | |||||
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| Single by The Beatles | |||||
| Released | 24 November 1967 (UK) 27 November 1967 (US) |
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| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | Abbey Road Studios: 5 September 1967 |
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| Genre | Psychedelic rock/Experimental rock | ||||
| Length | 4:34 | ||||
| Label | Parlophone (UK) Capitol (U.S.) |
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| Writer(s) | Lennon/McCartney | ||||
| Producer | George Martin | ||||
| The Beatles singles chronology | |||||
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| “ | It can never be again! Everyone always talks about a good thing coming to an end, as if life was over. But I'll be 40 when this interview comes out. Paul is 38. Elton John, Bob Dylan — we're all relatively young people. The game isn't over yet. Everyone talks in terms of the last record or the last Beatle concert — but, God willing, there are another 40 years of productivity to go. I'm not judging whether "I Am The Walrus" is better or worse than "Imagine." It is for others to judge. I am doing it. I do. I don't stand back and judge — I do. | „ |
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—John Lennon, Playboy Interview |
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| “ | It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist and social system. I never went into that bit about what he really meant, like people are doing with the Beatles' work. 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 thought, Oh, shit, I picked the wrong guy. I should have said, 'I am the carpenter.' But that wouldn't have been the same, would it?" | „ |
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—John Lennon, Playboy Interview, 1980 |
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| “ | All You Need Is Love was John's song. I threw in a few ideas, as did other members of the group, but it was largely ad libs like singing "She Loves You" or "Greensleeves" or silly little things like that at the end, and we made those up on the spot. | „ |
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—Paul McCartney, 1994 |
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The opening ostinado — the repeating two notes — was inspired by the monotonous two-note beat of a police siren.
The song's opening line, "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together" is based on the song "Marching To Pretoria," which contains the lyric, "I'm with you and you're with me and we are all together."
When Lennon decided to write confusing lyrics, he asked his friend Pete Shotton for a nursery rhyme they used to sing. Shotton gave them this rhyme, which Lennon incorporated into the song: "Yellow matter custard, green slop pie, all mixed together with a dead dog's eye. Slap it on a butty, ten foot thick, then wash it all down with a cup of cold sick."
The choir at the end sings "Oompah, oompah, stick it in your jumper" and "Everybody's got one, everybody's got one."
Watch the performance from Magical Mystery Tour (film):
Check out [Frank Zappa covering this tune]!
