Lot Essay
I Am The Walrus, unquestionably the most enigmatic of Lennon's lyrics, has been described by critic Jon Savage as ..what might be the greatest Beatles song. Issued as the b side to Hello Goodbye and also on the Magical Mystery Tour double ep in 1967, it was Lennon's only contribution to the Magical Mystery Tour film which the B.B.C. premired on December 26th, 1967. The song also viewed as ...a Lennon 'tour de force' [Ray Coleman] is probably the most analysed of all Lennon's lyrics. As Steve Turner points out in A Hard Day's Write - The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song - a great deal has been written about the song's symbolism and there are various interpretations of its message. It is generally accepted however that with The Walrus Lennon was being deliberately inscrutable.
It has been suggested that one of the catalysts which inspired the song came when Lennon learnt, to his great amusement, that pupils at his old school Quarry Bank High, were being asked to analyse his lyrics in their English classes. Indeed, in a letter to a pupil of Lennon's former school - in September 1967 [sold through these rooms in August, 1992] Lennon answered questions about his personal motives for writing ...all my writing...has always been for laughs or fun whatever you call it - I do it for me first - whatever people make of it afterwards is valid, but it doesn't necessarily have to correspond to my thoughts about it..
Lennon's unique style of writing as seen in these lyrics, reveals an amalgamation of influences from popular culture such as playground chants, The Goon Show and other comic heroes to literary heavy-weights such as Lewis Carroll and James Joyce. As Richard Goldstein says in his article on these lyrics The Greatest Beatles Song? [published in CSK Art Magazine July, August, September issue] Lennon ..frequently bragged that 'I Am The Walrus' had been written on acid trips or inspired by the sound of a police siren and though he may have been sincere in his explanations, they are hardly the whole truth... It is clear that the Walrus character is directly borrowed from Lewis Carroll's poem The Walrus and the Carpenter from Alice In Wonderland. Lennon said of Carroll's poem ...To me, it was a beautiful poem. It never occurred to me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist and social system...Later I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the good guy. I thought, Oh shit, I picked the wrong guy!.... Also although Lennon denied that Joyce was an influence, as Goldstein indicates ..critics point out that the song's most memorable bit of gibberish - 'Goo goo g'joob' - appears in 'Finnegan's Wake'...
Critic John Robertson refers to the significance the song held for Lennon himself who ...later rated 'I Am The Walrus' as his favourite Beatles song and ...the one that gave him the greatest pleasure to record... Indeed, John Lennon is quoted in The Beatles Anthology describing The Walrus as "...one of my favourite tracks..it has enough little bitties going to keep you interested even a hundred years later..." Interestingly, also in the Anthology, Paul McCartney uses The Walrus in his defence against the panning the film Magical Mystery Tour received from the critics, saying "...I defend it on the lines that nowhere else do you see a performance of 'I Am The Walrus' - that's the only performance ever.."
To conclude with Richard Goldstein's words ..'I Am The Walrus' is the first lyric Lennon wrote in which he allowed the full range of his artistic consciousness to 'cross over' into his pop persona. It is nothing less than a watershed in the Beatles oeuvre - and in the culture of the '60s.
It has been suggested that one of the catalysts which inspired the song came when Lennon learnt, to his great amusement, that pupils at his old school Quarry Bank High, were being asked to analyse his lyrics in their English classes. Indeed, in a letter to a pupil of Lennon's former school - in September 1967 [sold through these rooms in August, 1992] Lennon answered questions about his personal motives for writing ...all my writing...has always been for laughs or fun whatever you call it - I do it for me first - whatever people make of it afterwards is valid, but it doesn't necessarily have to correspond to my thoughts about it..
Lennon's unique style of writing as seen in these lyrics, reveals an amalgamation of influences from popular culture such as playground chants, The Goon Show and other comic heroes to literary heavy-weights such as Lewis Carroll and James Joyce. As Richard Goldstein says in his article on these lyrics The Greatest Beatles Song? [published in CSK Art Magazine July, August, September issue] Lennon ..frequently bragged that 'I Am The Walrus' had been written on acid trips or inspired by the sound of a police siren and though he may have been sincere in his explanations, they are hardly the whole truth... It is clear that the Walrus character is directly borrowed from Lewis Carroll's poem The Walrus and the Carpenter from Alice In Wonderland. Lennon said of Carroll's poem ...To me, it was a beautiful poem. It never occurred to me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist and social system...Later I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the good guy. I thought, Oh shit, I picked the wrong guy!.... Also although Lennon denied that Joyce was an influence, as Goldstein indicates ..critics point out that the song's most memorable bit of gibberish - 'Goo goo g'joob' - appears in 'Finnegan's Wake'...
Critic John Robertson refers to the significance the song held for Lennon himself who ...later rated 'I Am The Walrus' as his favourite Beatles song and ...the one that gave him the greatest pleasure to record... Indeed, John Lennon is quoted in The Beatles Anthology describing The Walrus as "...one of my favourite tracks..it has enough little bitties going to keep you interested even a hundred years later..." Interestingly, also in the Anthology, Paul McCartney uses The Walrus in his defence against the panning the film Magical Mystery Tour received from the critics, saying "...I defend it on the lines that nowhere else do you see a performance of 'I Am The Walrus' - that's the only performance ever.."
To conclude with Richard Goldstein's words ..'I Am The Walrus' is the first lyric Lennon wrote in which he allowed the full range of his artistic consciousness to 'cross over' into his pop persona. It is nothing less than a watershed in the Beatles oeuvre - and in the culture of the '60s.