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The Beatles - I Am The Walrus (Patreon)

Published:
2026-04-05 15:00:16
Imported:
2026-09
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PHEW! * Wipes sweat off brow * That was a project!

I honestly feel like I could talk MORE about this song based on it's creation and it's history. I leaned really hard into Lennon and his back story here, but looking into the history of this song really gave me a window into the importance of The Beatles and their impact on music through their active years.

I learned a lot from this small project and I hope you enjoy my poor reporting skills in this video. 😅

SOURCES:Article - "I Am/Was the Walrus" by Daniel Beller-McKennaThe Beatles Story, Liverpool - Song Facts: I Am The WalrusThe Beatles - Magic Mystery TourWikipedia - I Am The Walrus

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P in D

First, probably NOT what you expected to hear from The Beatles 😉. Wonderful reaction and analysis ... chefs kiss. Try “L”ucy in the “S”ky with “D”iamonds … 😊… fyi - lysergic acid diethylamide. Yes, I had my share ... don't worry as I had your share too ... John wrote a lot of this to the sound of a British police siren … very astute listening 😉 .Wee-ooo Wee-ooo Wee-ooo While the Beatles band and history is a hugely deep rabbit hole I think this song is a microcosm of the amount of lore published about them. There is a flaw in the lyrics in the video … the line is “Expert, textpert, choking smokers” … For those of you that could not tell, I tried to “set NittPicc up” so to speak, by giving her the lyric video hoping she would then focus on the words even though musically it is quite interesting. I failed :p . She was too smart for me 😉 . To add some detail, after receiving a letter from a student, Stephen Bayley, a pupil at his old primary school, Quarry Bank High School for Boys, about how their literature classes were analyzing the Beatles' songs, Lennon wrote "I Am the Walrus" to confuse those who tried to interpret it. There have nevertheless been many attempts to understand the meaning of the lyrics. Lennon saying "let the fuckers work that one out". Producer George Martin arranged and added orchestral accompaniment that included violins, cellos, horns, and clarinet after receiving direction from Lennon who sung the parts to him. Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come - "Paul is Dead" Myth: Proponents of this conspiracy theory argue the line refers to a police van at the scene of Paul McCartney's supposed car accident. The "Man" vs. "Van": According to Beatles biographer Hunter Davies, Lennon originally wrote "waiting for the man to come". When Davies misheard it as "van," Lennon liked the sound of it better and changed the lyric. Lennon drew inspiration from two different LSD trips, a local police siren he heard at his home, and Lewis Carroll's poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter". The term "eggman" refers to Humpty Dumpty, but it was also Lennon's nickname for Eric Burdon of the Animals, based on a specific sexual anecdote involving eggs. Lennon stated “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?” "I Am the Walrus" holds the distinction of reaching numbers one and two simultaneously from being the B side to Hello Goodbye and being a song off of the Magical Mystery Tour album. 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" and the term “pornographic priestess”. The lyrics not published but heard at the end of the track buried under other sounds. Oompa, oompa, stick it up your jumper Everybody's got one, everybody's got one Shakespearean Inclusion - The chaotic fade-out at the end of the song features a live BBC radio broadcast of Shakespeare's King Lear, which was added to the mix while the song was being recorded from a radio Lennon was tuning. "Villain, take my purse If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body And give the letters which thou findst about me To Edmund Earl of Gloucester: seek him out upon the English Party Oh, untimely death, death" "I know thee well, a serviceable villain As duteous to the cices of thy Mistress As badness would desire" "What, is he dead?" "Sit you down, Father; rest you" See - http://www.beatlesebooks.com/walrus and https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/i-am-the-walrus/ for all the details.

Kevin (WhirlwindMediaStudio)

Sounds like you need to host a few movie watching streams of the Beatles cinematic adventures…

Randy Hammill

The unusual stereo soundstage is partially a result of having only four tracks to work with. The backing track (electric piano, guitar, drums, tambourine) was recorded first, then reduced down to a single track. That can no longer be separated and was panned right. Since the vocal was then recorded on its own track, it could be panned independently (center). The orchestra was recorded on its own track, so could only be panned as a whole, etc. John based the vocal melody (and the song as a whole) on a British police siren. The initial recording in particular was very colored by the fact that Brian Epstein had just died. This was the first track they started on, and John introduced, right after that. Regarding drugs, LSD was a synthetic drug isolated in the ‘30s. The CIA attempted to use it as a sort of truth serum in the ‘50s. It was legal in the US and UK until California and the UK banned it in 1966. Other states and the US as a whole would ban it by 1968. The Beatles, along with other artists in the mid-‘60s, were exploring philosophy, spirituality, and enlightenment and drugs were part of that culture. They went to India as part of this exploration which had a profound effect on George Harrison in particular, but also John. It also became a big musical influence and the “swoops” and slides in the orchestral and choir were scored by George Martin to emulate Indian music that incorporated these techniques. It was extremely unconventional for orchestras at the time. Other artists, like Donovan and the Rolling Stones, incorporated a lot into their music as well from the trip to India. This period was, I think, the earliest period or incorporating world music elements into pop/rock music.

Bill Whitaker

I discovered The Beatles in 1964. I was 10 years old. There was something about their songs and their sound that captivated me. They were my absolute favorite band... until I heard Band-Maid. I'm sorry Fab Four, but you are my number 2 now. At first, like many, Paul was my favorite. But as I grew older and my musical taste matured, I began appreciating John more and more. There was always music in my house. I began school band in the 5th grade, was in high school band, pep band, jazz band, and was a music major for 2 years in college, so I have a good understanding of music and music theory. John's songs were complex. They grabbed your attention right away.

Juan San

As a longtime Beatles fan, I can tell you this is an important video. I love the depth of detail and the desire to learn and teach that's evident in it. This compositional period of the band was truly off the rails, and it's difficult to understand where their goals lay—perhaps they didn't have any—but maybe that's precisely why they created a unique and original soundscape. For me, the ensemble of instruments used to create this piece, the arrangement composed by George Martin with 8 violins, 4 cellos, 3 horns, and a clarinet, and the collaboration of a 16-person choir are what make this wonderful song truly unique. Recording it on four tracks makes it nothing short of miraculous. How The Beatles Made "I Am the Walrus": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmyuiRmJhT0

Juan San

I would love it if you did something similar with "A Day in the Life," in my humble opinion the best song ever written.

Glenner7

I was 12 when this album came out - the music of the Beatles and Donovan and Simon and Garfunkel have made a significant impression on me that has lasted all my life (Band-Maid does that for me now). When most of us first heard I am the Walrus, it would have been in mono on an AM radio. A new Beatles album release was a BIG deal on commercial radio. Then to buy the album and hear the full stereo effect was very satisfying. Apparently the Beatles only really cared about the mono versions of their recordings until the white album - they often left the earlier stereo mixes to others. As Randy points out in the comments here, this amazing music was recorded on 4-track equipment - that is astounding! There were no looper pedals; if you wanted a loop you cut and spliced a physical loop of recorded magnetic tape and ran the tape through the machine, using a pencil to maintain tension and contact with the playback head. FYI, images of Edgar Allen Poe and Lewis Carrol appeared on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. From my first listen, I always loved this stanza: Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun If the sun don't come you get a tan from standing in the English rain Many years later, I was able to visit England for two months in the summer, where I think I got some insight into what Lennon might have been talking about here. All the rain clichés about the UK are true - one afternoon the sun was shining and I decided that I was looking too white and pasty, so I went out into the garden of my B&B to get some rays. As soon as I was all settled, it started to rain. I thought of those very lines, which made me laugh out loud on the spot. As for when John met Yoko at the art gallery, he was legally married... to his wife Cynthia Powell. :-) After his divorce, John and Yoko got married in 1969 in Gibraltar (there's a Beatles song called The Ballad of John and Yoko that talks about their wedding adventure).

Bill W

👏 Let me start off the slow clap for, not only the length of the video, but the amount of research you were willing to do. Holy crap.

Bill W

All the songs written by John and/or Paul were credited to both. During their first recording sessions they had developed a writing partnership, often composing songs literally side by side. They agreed all songs would receive co-authorship, but most often you could identify the main contributor by who is singing the lead vocal. They established Northern Songs Publishing Co. with manager Brian Epstein and 2 other publishing execs. (George's songs would be published under Harrisongs Publishing and Ringo's under Startling Music Publishing). John and Paul would also contribute songs to other artists of the era (in the early days), also credited to Lennon-McCartney. As the years went on, they wrote more and more separately, but the co-authorship agreement would remain in place as long as the partnership (band) was intact. The writing partnership proved fruitful in multiple ways- each helping the other finish, or polish up songs- but also developing a friendly rivalry- each forcing the other to become better songwriters. Both John and Paul had begun to break away from the usual pop songs/love songs as early as 1965’s Help! Album. Inspired by artists like Bob Dylan, they began writing lyrics that were much more introspective as well as philosophical- songs like Help, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, and Yesterday. Their interest in musical experimentation began to emerge on the next album, 1965’s Rubber Soul with songs like Norwegian Wood, featuing George on sitar, and The Word which introduces a psychedelic feel as well as Paul’s creative bass work. The Revolver album (which featured Eleanor Rigby) would display a significant shift in both song content and production techniques and generally marks the ‘later’ Beatles period. By mid-1966 the Beatles had already made their last public performances (until the rooftop)- with the UK’s ending with Top of the Pops, and the US ending with their concert at SanFrancisco’s Candlestick Park. Just as well since the sound of their next few albums would be difficult-impossible to recreate on stage without backing tracks. Something had to fill the void of performing live, and that something was television…ie The Magical Mystery Tour.

Bill W

Regarding John's bizarre lyrics on "Walrus", he had already had much practice by compiling 2 books of nonsense poetry, silly rhymes and wordplay..and cartoon drawings. (1964- John Lennon- In His Own Write, and 1965- A Spaniard in the Works). On their next album 'The Beatles' (aka The White Album), John would submit another song, "Glass Onion" in which he would reference five other Beatles' tunes, including "I Am The Walrus"- saying "here's another clue for you all, the walrus was Paul." It was all meaningless, again, just to confuse people. (although I think by then people may have caught on.) To me, that's the epitome of John- imagine being upset that people are interested enough to not only listen to, but also discuss your music? He was often annoyed and difficult to please.