I Am the Walrus

This song puts real places in the words (Eiffel Tower, English garden), and it deals in the motifs of smoking and drugs too. The lyric is written in stream of consciousness, a habit 3 years old by this point, and 18 songs deep. It reaches outside the Beatles for a line (Lewis Carroll's 'The Walrus and the Carpenter'), and they had done the same on 'Paperback Writer' a year earlier. An extrametrical rhyme arrives once, "naughty boy / Tuesday". The language is dealing in violence or mortality ('dead dog's eye', 'untimely death') and full of nonsense words ('goo goo g'joob', 'crabalocker', 'umpa'). Idle but true, "pornographic" is a word they sang exactly once, here.

In A major at roughly 86 BPM, 'I Am the Walrus' is a psychedelic and art rock song, and the writing shows the influence of Goons and avant-garde. It brings in a woodwind group, one of 22 across the catalogue, 1968 being the year for it. Then, the record has a descending bass (outro Moebius strip A G F E D C B) and an ascending bass (verse 2 F-G-A Aeolian ascent). The outro departs from the rest of the song (spoken Shakespeare distinct from all sections). A curiosity, its A → F♯m7 → F → E chord progression is the move 'Free as a Bird' makes as A → F♯m → F → E.

Sixteen rhythm-track takes were cut at EMI Studio 2 before orchestral and choral overdubs. Lennon tuned an AM radio to a BBC broadcast of King Lear during the final mix. Part of it was taped in EMI Studio 1, one of only fifteen Beatles records to use that room. The Hohner Pianet was played by John Lennon. ADT (double tracked vocal) was used in making the record. It is taken out on a fade-out, a habit 4 years old by this point, and 46 songs deep. Among the 25 songs they began recording in 1967 this was the 21st, and the 142nd of the career.

The track is Lennon’s, both the writing and the voice. Friends of the band are in the room for it, Ray Thomas and Mike Pinder. Contrabass clarinet, violin, cello, french horn and clarinet play behind them, the fourth record to carry strings, brass and woodwind at once, after 'Penny Lane' did it first. The electric piano on this one is a Hohner Pianet, played by Lennon. BBC King Lear radio broadcast. Peggie Allen, F Dachtler and June Day sing behind them.

The record was issued as the B-side of Hello, Goodbye in the UK and US. The single topped the UK charts while the Magical Mystery Tour EP reached #2 simultaneously. This song was the 18th of the 24 records the Beatles released in that year, and the 136th they ever made.