Lennon borrowed a couple of images from the first two lines. Then wash it all down with a cup of cold sick. Shotton recalled the rhyme as follows:Īll mixed together with a dead dog's eye, 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.

Lennon later expressed dismay upon belatedly realising that the walrus was a villain in the poem. The walrus refers to Lewis Carroll's poem ' The Walrus and the Carpenter' (from the book Through the Looking-Glass). The lyric also included the phrase 'Lucy in the sky', a reference to the Beatles' earlier song ' Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'. Unable to finish the three different songs, he combined them into one. The second idea was a short rhyme about Lennon sitting amidst his garden, while the third was a nonsense phrase about sitting on a corn flake. The lyric came from three song ideas that Lennon had been working on, the first of which was inspired by hearing a police siren at his home in Weybridge Lennon wrote the lines 'Mis-ter cit-y police-man' to the rhythm and melody of the siren. Shortly after release, the song was banned by the BBC for the line 'Boy, you've been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down'.Īccording to author Ian MacDonald, the 'model' for 'I Am the Walrus' was most likely Procol Harum's ' A Whiter Shade of Pale', which was a hit single during the summer of 1967 and Lennon's favourite song of the period. Since the 'Hello, Goodbye' single and the Magical Mystery Tour EP both reached the top two slots on the British singles chart in December, 'I Am the Walrus' holds the distinction of reaching numbers one and two simultaneously. The Mike Sammes Singers, a 16-voice choir of professional studio vocalists, also joined the recording, variously singing nonsense lines and shrill whooping noises.

Producer George Martin arranged and added orchestral accompaniment that included violins, cellos, horns, and clarinet. He was partly inspired by two LSD trips and Lewis Carroll's 1871 poem ' The Walrus and the Carpenter'. Lennon wrote the song to confound listeners who had been affording serious scholarly interpretations of the Beatles' lyrics.

In the film, the song underscores a segment in which the band mime to the recording at a deserted airfield. Written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney, it was released as the B-side to the single ' Hello, Goodbye' and on the Magical Mystery Tour EP and album. ' I Am the Walrus' is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1967 television film Magical Mystery Tour.

Who sings we are one