THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

80-Beatles-I Am the Walrus.

1967-It has never been released as a single in the UK.

Best Bit-At 2.36. I can vaguely remember being sat in an English literature lesson at school, I must have been around 12 years old. The subject was dissecting and understanding the meaning of the Beatles song ‘She’s Leaving Home.’

John Lennon (1940-1980) (see also best songs 927-473-456-168 and 20) got the idea for these, what appear to be randomly put together lyrics when he received a letter from a student who explained that his English teacher was having the class analyse Beatles songs. On the completion of this song Lennon told his close friend Pete Shotton, (1941-2017) ‘Let the f…..s work that one out.’

‘I Am the Walrus’ was conceived by John Lennon from many different ideas. He wrote the line,’Mis-ter cit-y police-man,’ to the melody of a siren he had heard in the street. The ‘Walrus’ refers to the Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) (see also best songs 512) poem ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter,’ which appears in the book ‘Through the Looking Glass,’ which was published in 1871. Lennon’s friend and former member of ‘The Quarrymen,’ Pete Shotten, had recently reminded Lennon of a playground nursery rhyme that they used to sing,’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.’ ‘Semolina pilchard’ refers to Sergeant Norman Pilcher (1935-2021) of the London drug squad. The words ‘Elementary penguin’ means it is naive to just go around chanting ‘Hare Krishna,’ or putting all of your faith in one idol. The voices you hear towards the fade out of the song were recorded by Lennon from a BBC radio broadcast of the Shakespeare play King Lear.

In 1980 Lennon reflected on his use of the Lewis Carroll poem ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter,’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 realised that the walrus was the bad guy in the story, and the carpenter was the good guy. I thought, Oh, s–t, I picked the wrong guy. I should have said, ‘I am the carpenter,’ but that wouldn’t have been the same, would it?’

‘I Am the Walrus’ was one of six original compositions written by the Beatles for their 1967 television film ‘Magical Mystery Tour,’ which was meant to be a surreal comedy, and was first broadcast on BBC1 television on December 26th, 1967, to poor reviews. As with all of the Beatles songs the writing is credited to Lennon/McCartney, but ‘I Am the Walrus’ was the work of Lennon. In the UK, all six songs were released on a double ‘EP,’ while in America an Album was issued which included all six tracks on side 1, and five of the Beatles recent singles filled side 2. Whereas the film had received mostly negative reviews, the six songs that were included on the soundtrack were critically acclaimed.

‘I Am the Walrus’ much to the disappointment of Lennon was not chosen for release as a Beatles single, and was relegated to the ‘B’ side of the Paul McCartney (see also best songs 646 and 107) composition ‘Hello Goodbye,’ which Lennon considered to be far inferior,’Hello Goodbye’ which is also on the soundtrack of the ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ went on to top the charts in both the UK and U.S. in 1967.

As well as all four Beatles (see also best songs 599-319-238-218-157-141-51-10 and 5) playing on ‘I Am the Walrus,’ there is also an orchestra, whose arrangement was directed by this songs producer George Martin (1926-2016.) Providing backing vocals were Ray Thomas, (1941-2018) and Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues, (see also best songs 313) and also the 16 strong ‘Mike Sammes Singers,’ led by Mike Sammes (1928-2001.)

John Lennon went on to name check the ‘Walrus’ in three of his subsequent songs. In the 1968 Beatles song ‘Glass Onion’ he sings, “I told you ’bout the walrus and me, man. You know that we’re as close as can be, man. Well here’s another clue for you all, the walrus was Paul.’ In the third verse of his 1969 song ‘Come Together,’ he sings the line ‘He bag production, he got walrus gumboot,’ and in his 1970 solo song ‘God’, Lennon admits,’I was the walrus, but now I’m John.’

‘Expert, texpert choking smokers don’t you think the joker laughs at you. See how they smile like pigs in a sty see how they snide, I’m crying.’