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'I Am the Walrus,' The Beatles: I Freakin' Love This Song
- Posted on Oct 5th 2010 5:30PM by Ed Berenhaus
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B-side of 1967 single 'Hello Goodbye'
When I first heard the pulsating, hypnotic sound of 'I Am the Walrus' in 1967, John Lennon was well into a mind-bending musical journey that helped usher in the psychedelic rock era. The Beatles ruled rock 'n' roll, and Lennon was determined to push the limits of music production to create new sounds. Like many other musicians Lennon was experimenting with the drug LSD and producer George Martin helped transform John's hallucinatory visions into layers of kaleidoscopic sounds. Lennon's 'Tomorrow Never Knows,' 'Strawberry Fields Forever,' 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' and 'A Day in the Life' quickly became instant classics, decades before multi-track recording and digital production were invented.
When Lennon recorded 'I Am the Walrus,' I practically wore out my LP listening to this delightfully strange masterpiece! John's intense and urgent singing demands your attention as he practically shouts out the strange and confusing lyrics. A playful arrangement of orchestral strings and horns surround Lennon's vocals as a powerful chorus of voices chant silly, syncopated phrases and make shrill whooping sounds whenever Lennon proclaims, "I am the Eggman." Added to the mix is a seemingly random assortment of sound effects and a long snippet of Shakespeare's 'King Lear.'
'I Am the Walrus' will never grow old for me. Its many musical facets keep it sounding vital and fresh and will easily attract new fans for generations to come. Goo goo g'joob!
Ed Berenhaus is associate producer of the John Lennon 30th Annual Tribute, which will take place on Friday, Nov. 12, at the Beacon Theatre in New York. More information about the program can be found at lennontribute.org.
- Filed under: I Freakin' Love This Song
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tatt2wand
This is also my favorite Beatles tune. Always has been.
Just after I purchased my Box set (most of my vinyl was stolen over the course of years) I came across a site (via FARK) called The Beatles Rewind were the author rates all the originals (no covers) from least favorite to most favorite with insightful critiques on the whole lot of them. The dude knew his stuff. Unfortunatly, I just checked my bookmark for the same page and it's no longer there. Anyway, I listened through his listing track by track (no looking ahead) and while I didn't agree with all his placements for the most part ... pretty spot on. I knew from the get go what his #1 choice would be but as I got to the top 20 I wondered if perhaps I'd missed "I Am the Walrus" further back. As I got to the top 10 I was fairly sure I had. By the top 5 I was almost positive, yet I knew I was very diligent about the listening of every song listed. Top 3. No way. Got to #2 and PAY OFF. Played it over and over again. The guy who did the rating was like a scholar when it comes to The Beatles. All the recording dates, techniques the whole shootin' match.
Was driving my kids to school 2 days ago and the song came on the radio. They both dug it. Just sayin' good choice as your favorite Beats tune.
Chris
I too love The Beatles. Greatest band ever. No question. However, it's always a little irritating when people get carried away with hyperbole, which only feeds the argument that some people make - that The Beatles are overblown.
''...quickly became instant classics, decades before multi-track recording and digital production were invented.''
Multi-track recording existed at that time. As a matter of fact, it's what allowed The Beatles to create songs like I Am the Walrus and the others you mention. In addition, digital audio was only about a dozen years away, not 'decades'. Just so you know...
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