{"id":101043,"date":"2025-08-29T15:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/101043\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T15:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:02:09","slug":"unpacking-the-sound-collage-that-closes-the-chaos-of-i-am-the-walrus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/101043\/","title":{"rendered":"Unpacking the sound collage that closes the chaos of \u2018I Am the Walrus\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Paul<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Fri 29 August 2025 13:00, UK <\/p>\n

After finally making the decision to quit touring in the summer of 1966, The Beatles<\/a> set to work realising the studio\u2019s full, creative potential.<\/p>\n

Shaking off the last vestiges of Beatlemania, the band was able to wield the recording possibilities now available to them without concern for how to perform live. They\u2019d already reached this point in spirit. Released days before their final tour across the US, Revolver was already boasting cuts far removed from their typical setlist, from \u2018Eleanor Rigby\u2019s\u2019 funereal strings, the scorching Motown that beams all over \u2018Got to Get You into My Life\u2019, and the lysergic wanders of mortality that haunt the surrealist album closer \u2018Tomorrow Never Knows\u2019.<\/p>\n

But with touring now fully severed, The Beatles\u2019 pop hinterland was cast wide open. That November, the band entered EMI Studios to cut the immortal \u2018Strawberry Fields Forever\u2019, a seismic leap forward in their LSD-guided sonic experiments. Issued as a double A-side single along with \u2018Penny Lane\u2019 to appease label pressure for a release, the Fabs began the sessions for Sgt Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the kaleidoscopic marvel dropped amid the \u2018Summer of Love\u2019 and heralded the \u2018album era\u2019 for good.<\/p>\n

Still lost in their psychedelic fancies, the band rustled up another handful of songs to score the Magical Mystery Tour TV feature. Conceived and largely captained by Paul McCartney<\/a>, Magical Mystery Tour depicted the far-out happenings that take place aboard the titular expedition, involving a groovy coach trip and the mystical escapades it encounters at the hands of mischievous magicians, played by The Beatles themselves.<\/p>\n

While the feature was panned after its Boxing Day broadcast on BBC One, the songs contained on the accompanying EP soundtrack, issued as an LP Stateside with various singles tacked on its second side, boasted a collection of grade-A Beatles numbers. Sitting at Magical Mystery Tour\u2019s centre is John Lennon\u2019s aggressively weird \u2018I Am the Walrus\u2019, another slice of leftfield pop that demanded hefty studio time to create its artful swirl of heady compositions and hallucinatory aural collage.<\/p>\n

Dreamed up from his childhood love of Lewis Carroll\u2019s \u2018The Walrus and the Carpenter\u2019 with lines sketched out during two acid trip sessions, Lennon sought to throw all manner of nonsensical references, schoolyard nursery rhymes, and a touch of transcendental mantra in an effort to poke fun at the intense scrutiny and faux-academic analysis of much of The Beatles\u2019 songbook. According to Hunter Davies\u2019 authorised biography, Lennon quipped, \u201cLet the fuckers work that one out\u201d while working on the humorous piece.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

First heard as the B-side to \u2018Hello Goodbye\u2019, released two weeks before the Magical Mystery Tour EP, \u2018I Am the Walrus\u2019 cacophony of strange samples and sounds gave the band\u2019s supposed chin-stroking sleuths plenty to chew over. Aside from its colourful orchestral arrangements and Lennon\u2019s warped vocals, \u2018I Am the Walrus\u2019 dreamlike crescendo is what elevated the track to the psychedelic heights of \u2018Tomorrow Never Knows\u2019 or \u2018Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite!\u2019<\/p>\n

Melding in its dazzling brew is a mosaic of recording trickery and found sounds. The bizarre chorus of shrieking commands and whooping yells is all bellowed from the 16-voice Mike Sammes Singers group, given an unusual direction from producer George Martin to bleat phrases and incantations such as \u201coompah, oompah, stick it up your jumper\u201d and \u201ceverybody\u2019s got one\u201d to create the offbeat choral finale.<\/p>\n

Coated in early flanging delay effects and sound signal rotations is the memorably eerie capture of a mysterious, dramatic reading. Inspired by avant-garde composer John Cage\u2019s 1956 work \u2018Radio Music\u2019, on \u2018I Am the Walrus\u2019 final sessions on September 29th, the evening of the final overdubs was interrupted by Lennon, eager to record directly from an AM radio for an extra layer of fuzzed-out odd. Tuning in to the BBC Third Programme, just days before its BBC Radio 3 rebrand, a happenstance capture of William Shakespeare<\/a>\u2019s The Tragedy of King Lear, specifically Act IV, Scene six, found its way into the mix.<\/p>\n

Performed by Mark Dignam as Earl of Gloucester, Philip Guard as Edgar, and John Bryning as Oswald, \u2018I Am the Walrus\u2019 grapples in detuned, fragmented blasts of Edgar talking to his blinded Earl father and his later murder of Oswald. As the song tapers off into the psychedelic ether, the final exchange is heard in shreds of clarity in the parting ascent:<\/p>\n

EDGAR: I know thee well, a serviceable villain,
As duteous to the vices of thy mistress,
As badness would desire.
GLOUCESTER: What, is he dead?
EDGAR: Sit you down, father; rest you.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a magic flourish that adds a captivating dimension to Lennon\u2019s joyous and bizarre collage prank. Edited and captured in the studio like an alchemist in a laboratory, \u2018I Am the Walrus\u2019 skewed grab at vocal choirs, electronic trickery, and excerpts of Shakespeare all serve its confoundingly colourful character, and no doubt kept up many an earnest Beatles nut into the early hours trying to crack its absurdist coda.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Fri 29 August 2025 13:00, UK After finally making the decision to quit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,26940,25396,49293,128,24566,10447,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-101043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-george-harrison","tag-john-lennon","tag-magical-mystery-tour","tag-music","tag-ringo-starr","tag-the-beatles","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}