Pop Song 639 of 1000 'I Am the Walrus' The Beatles 1967

Pop Song 639 of 1000 'I Am the Walrus' The Beatles 1967
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July 13, 2024

Lennon wrote the song to confound listeners who had been affording serious scholarly interpretations of the Beatles' lyrics. He was partly inspired by two LSD trips and Lewis Carroll's 1871 poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter"

The final piece of the song came together during a visit from Pete Shotton, Lennon's friend and former fellow member of the Quarrymen, when Lennon asked him about a playground nursery rhyme they sang as children. Shotton recalled the rhyme as follows:

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.[6]

Lennon borrowed a couple of images from the first two lines. Shotton was also responsible for suggesting that Lennon change the phrase "waiting for the man to come" to "waiting for the van to come"

The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko ... I'd seen Allen Ginsberg and some other people who liked Dylan and Jesus going on about Hare Krishna. It was Ginsberg, in particular, I was referring to. The words 'Element'ry penguin' meant that it's naïve to just go around chanting Hare Krishna or putting all your faith in one idol. In those days I was writing obscurely, à la Dylan. [...] It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist 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?
I am he
As you are he
As you are me
And we are all together

See how they run,
Like pigs from a gun,
See how they fly.
I'm crying.

Sitting on a cornflake,
Waiting for the van to come.
Corporation tee shirt,
Stupid bloody Tuesday
Man, you been a naughty boy,
You let your face grow long.

I am the eggman, (Ooh)
They are the eggmen, (Ooh)
I am the walrus,
Goo goo g' joob.

Mister city p'liceman sitting pretty
Little p'licemen in a row
See how they fly,
Like Lucy in the sky
See how they run
I'm crying.
I'm crying, I'm crying, I'm crying.

Yellow matter custard,
Dripping from a dead dog's eye.
Crabalocker fishwife pornographic priestess,
Boy you been a naughty girl,
You let your knickers down.

I am the eggman, (Ooh)
They are the eggmen, (Ooh)
I am the walrus,
Goo goo g' joob.

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.

I am the eggman.
They are the eggmen.
I am the walrus.
Goo goo g' joob g' goo goo g' joob.

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 snied.
I'm crying.

Semolina pilchards
Climbing up the Eiffel Tower.
Element'ry penguin singing Hare Krishna,
Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.

I am the eggman, (Ooh)
They are the eggmen, (Ooh)
I am the walrus,
Goo goo g' joob..
Goo goo g' joob,
G' goo goo g' joob,
Goo goo g' joob, goo goo g' goo g' goo goo g' joob joob