Someone said: "The Beatles were not a band, they were a miracle!" I couldn´t agree more!!!... It was as if God decided we needed a boost of sheer joy in our lives... And gave us an enormous one...
I think John was having a go at 'intellectuals' analysing Beatles lyrics for deep meaning ..... and chucked this one in as a 'there you go, analyse that'!
This is just a brilliant piece of music. John's lyrics were meant to confuse those who tried to analyze every Beatles song. Great reaction, Harri the Eggman👍👍
Isn't it amazing these guys were doing She Loves You (a great song too!) four years ago and come up with this? That's one of their biggest appeals, they always changed their musical style.
I am the 18th. Hahaha! I love how different people react to the lyrics of this song. Just know that John Lennon absolutely loved it when people said, “It doesn’t make any sense!” That’s the whole point. Lennon’s messin’ with ya’!!
By chance the next year detective Pilcher arrested John and Yoko for marijuana possession. John always claimed it was planted. Detective Pilcher was making a lot of drug busts during the time of famous celebs, before the song came out as well. Some have theorized that's what John was getting at. Curiously that detective later was put into prison for being corrupt! I don't think the line means that but it sure is a coincidence...
GOOD ONE!! Hahaha!! Remember, we all thought at the end, that they were saying, “Smoke pot, smoke pot, everybody smokes pot - smoke pot, smoke pot, everybody smokes pot - Everybody smoke pot - everybody smoke pot - everybody smoke pot - everybody smoke pot”. Still sounds like that to me.
I know you love ELO, they drew much of their inspiration from this period of The Beatles. Jeff Lynn got to pay them back by producing their '90's reunion songs where Paul, George and Ringo completed John's unfinished songs: Free as a Bird and Real Love.
Your observations are spot on! Lennon was amazed& annoyed that Beatles lyrics were being dissected & analyzed....so he took bits of Thurber, Lewis Carroll & his own whimsy & came up with this.Kudos to George Martin once again for a brilliant string & choral arrangements.
@@HarriBestReactions Their Fan Club Friend was Reading Fan Letters, and a Student wrote that His Teacher was making the Students Analyze Beatle songs to look for Hidden Messages. So John wrote Walrus, with a Goose Step March to Scare the Military Nuts, Backwards Talking, and Nothing made Sense, BUT Sounded Fishy. Then He ended the Set with, " Now let Them Figure that One Out"
My college roomate pointed out that some buried lines 'A servicable villian...", "Oh, untimely death...", "Sit you down father, bless you", are from Shakespeare. Brilliant and timeless.
Can you imagine being one of those actors - on one of the most famous songs in the world? Closing line, even. I doubt if they could sue. Thank you for identifying King Lear -- I was wondering.
A teacher at John's old school would give assignments to analyze Beatles lyrics. When John heard of this, this song became a project to really set that teacher off.
This is one of my favorite John Lennon songs! John is actually singing through a Leslie speaker so his voice sounds fuzzy and otherworldly. Even though the lyrics make no sense, the song creates a strange world, just like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. But you gotta admit that John Lennon is the Original Troll! Props to him!
@@tombeyerlein3813 OK. So, it looks like Lennon did distort his voice on the vocals but not with a Leslie Speaker. Instead, he sang through a low fidelity talk-back microphone used by engineers when they 'talk back' to musicians in the recording studio. I knew that Lennon had distorted his voice somehow, just not the exact manner in which he did it.
In his autobiography, Pete Shotton, John's childhood friend who remained friends with the Beatles throughout their career, tells the story of John wanting to write a song based around a police siren that had kept him up the night before, and then they came across a letter from a student in their old grammar school who told them about one of their former teachers -- one who had hated John and Pete -- who was making them analyze Beatles lyrics and their meanings. John and Pete basically brainstormed the lyrics of this tune to mess with that teacher. John was partially inspired by the Lewis Carroll poem The Walrus and the Carpenter from Alice Through The Looking Glass and got the title from that.
I love that you described the song with the word “abstract.” It’s the perfect word to describe this. As usual, I love watching you react to hearing this song for the first time. You’re coming at it after watching the band mature professionally, just as we did back in the day. Love you, Harri!
This came out in 1967, can you imagine listening to this for the first time in stereo either with or without headphones. It had to be absolutely mind blowing at the time!!
From my understanding Lennon based this on the works of Lewis Carroll, who often wrote in madeup nonsense words, and whose output includes the Walrus and the Carpenter and Alice in Wonderland, which included Humpty Dumpty, the Eggman. To me, his influence is obvious here. Cheers, brother Harri, you have literally gone down the rabbit hole with this one!
Maybe not _quite_ literally, but certainly literarily. :-) And probably the most famous literary rabbit hole. Do you (or anybody else for that matter) happen to know if the phrase "going down the rabbit hole" is derived from the story, or if Carroll took the phrase/metaphor and made Alice turn it into a literal rabbit hole (in the story anyway)?
Okay Harri, I think you are now ready to listen to "Tomorrow Never Knows." It was the precursor to "I Am the Walrus" and all their psychedelic period. I predict you will love it and stand in awe. You're right, the Beatles used the power that their fame gave them, to push artistic boundaries, do whatever the hell they wanted in the studio, and have it played on the radio. Never content to rest on their laurels!
Love the Beatles. Love how you bring fresh eyes and ears to the subject! Love your joy and delight, and I also hear songs now I’ve heard many times before in a fresh new way through your eyes!
Lennon said later after he read the Lewis Carroll poem he realized the walrus was really the villain. He said, "dammit, I wrote the song about the wrong guy, I probably should have gone back and made it, "I Am The Carpenter."
Harri @ 2:10, the phrase, "...like Lucy in the Sky..." is reference to a very interesting Lennon song off the previous Sgt. Peppers album called "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds". A Beatles song you should do next. For another song that does this try "Glass Onion" that also has a couple of throwbacks to earlier songs. In fact, you'll hear a reference to I Am the Walrus! Beatles were probably the first band (and perhaps only) to include in lyrics that references earlier hit songs. Listening to their albums as they came out, we immediately got those references. I just heard you say "abstract" describing this song. That is so spot-on! That's exactly how I describe it, either as abstract or surreal forms of music like the visual art forms. So many people today are used to songs with a story, understandable situations, a lost love, a new love. Well the Beatles, particularly John, created abstract music forms too as you see (hear) here. 😁 It's the early experimentation in the so-called emerging psychedelic rock, that others like Pink Floyd and Yes flourished in. Also keep in mind the social/political unrest going on at the time, and the scores of interpretations coming from the public in that regard. Anyway, another awesome reaction. BTW, I (we) first heard this when it came out in late '67, and we are STILL trying to figure it out! LOL! Doesn't matter if we do or not. The song just grooves, man! ✌️😎
@@yohannbiimu Thank you for pointing that out, and I fixed the comment. It was Glass Onion I meant. Harri, if your read all this recommend you do "Fool on the Hill" and "Lady Madonna", before doing "Glass Onion", to get the references. I think you've covered the other song references for Glass Onion and Savory Truffle. Enjoy! ✌️😎
You have that kind of references back and forth also in Frank Zappa's texts. It is slightly later (and Zappa was well aware of Beatles' music and text) but I think it is quite independent anyway. It is the way of internal jokes between friends - but made public!
FYI - a lot of radio stations refused to play this one. Mostly due to the line ‘you let your knickers down’; plus ‘yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog’s eye’. There water only a few renegade stations
@@larrydavis8249 Oh! Canada! And that makes sense if the BBC banned it. Sheesh. So I guess THAT’S how I got corrupted way back when🤪. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area that had “free-form” radio stations that played it with no problem.
Your love of E.L.O. is well founded, Jeff Lynne stated that the bands inspiration was to carry on from where I Am The Walrus ended. This was a perfect stating point for them
What the Beatles did was not just change music but change the world, change the thinking and conscience of humanity. They were a turning point of how to look and think of life
Recently I found out who “The Eggman” was by chance. Reading Eric Burdon’s Wikipedia page it said that John had nicknamed him that because of something involving an egg.I can’t go into it here, so curious minds can go there to read for yourselves .......
@Thomas Dodd Let's add another layer to this and speculate that Constable Ventriss of the Aidensfield police was often seen snacking on boiled eggs in the office... which was set in the mid-60's time period. Clearly a shout-out to Beatle fans who could identify him as the eggman! :-) [reference to 1990's British TV show "Heartbeat" for those not in the know]
I don’t think John had any idea what he was talking about either. I believe he stated, let them figure this one out, referring to some school children who were studying Beatle songs in class. He refers to the Walrus in his song “Glass Onion” from the White Album. Great and fun reaction, as usual. Thanks...
Your joy in Beatles is a delight. I'm a Beatlemaniac since 1964. In 1963 our president hero was murdered and the Beatles came to our rescue and broke the grief spell and joy came back to radio (yes Beach Boys of course, as well). Goo goo ga joob. They say that they were chanting "smoke pot smoke pot everybody's smokin' pot" at the end of the song. That's how I sing it.
John said he based the "melody" on a police siren. The lyrics are inspired by Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter" John later said he misunderstood the work and he was actually in fact the carpenter. "I Am the Carpenter" just doesn't sound right.
This song is one of my favorites, because John has a great sense of humo(u)r, and whimsey, plus he toys with language devices such as alliteration, and the orchestration is amazing.
I've been a Beatle fan for over 50 years and a musician for over 40. This is by far my favorite song by anyone. Old men talking, classical strings everywhere, Beatles chanting, Popeye cartoons, gross lyrics, all with that steady 4/4 beat.......whats not to LOVE???
The best part of this song is the chanting at the end "Oompah, oompah, stick it up your jumper" while the alternate chorus sings "Everybody's got one"....not that part, but the high voices that are going "yop! yop!" or something like that....it's HILARIOUS!
One of my fave top 3 of the Beatles! So glad you did a reaction video to it. When I was married and raising my stepson.... when things got really crazy in the house I would just pop out "Coo coo Cachoo".... letting everyone know we were headed or in a nonsense situation and to just go with the crazy. Peace and love ❤️
The brilliance of John, he wrote this song as a reply for those who insisted to explain to school students the supposedly meaning of each one of the Beatles' songs.
Great analysis as always. I think we can't ignore Semolina Pelchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower and Sgt. Norman Pilcher of the Metropolitan Police Department, who in the ‘60s was climbing the ranks, and who quite recently published a book called 'Crooked Coppers,' who planted contraband on members of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. There is 'The Walrus And The Carpenter' and then there’s Humpty Dumpty who sat on the wall and had a great fall, as a possible source for the egg man.
Harry, I Am The Walrus was released in 1967 and was featured on their art film (short movie) Magical Mystery Tour. What inspired John Lennon to create the amazing lyrics of the song was he loved the author of "Alice in Wonderland", Lewis Carroll who let his imagine run wild while constructing his word play. The Walrus is inspired by the poem, "The Walrus and the Carpenter", which is part of Alice's memories in Wonderland. The "Eggman" is derived from Carroll's "Through The Looking Glass" character, Humpty Dumpty who has a section where he exchanges non-sequiturs with Alice. Just another example to prove The Beatles were way ahead of their time.
Hey Harri, I'm an Old Beatles Fan & I am having fun listening to these old Tunes 50+ years old !!! plus the other Artist your throwing on as I haven't heard in years! always a Thumbs Up!
John was really fond of working class rhymes like 'oompah oompah stick it up your jumper' we used at school, Lucy in there too and so many other hidden meanings when you know what to listen out for. George Martin brought it all to fruition. we played it over and over again in our local pub when it first came out, I think Paul was the Eggman. John himself obviously the Walrus.
With all the wordplay, humorous little voices & sound effects in the background I can totally hear John's love of The Goons in this, mixed with his love for Lewis Carroll (which is obviously where "The Walrus" came from).
No one mentions the ending background vocals calling Smoke pot ,smoke pot, everybody smoke pot, followed by Get F'd,get f'd everybody get f'ed! What a chorus!
He's saying a lot of hilarious stuff yet, he's crying throughout the song ... Enigmatic ! I've heard that song thousands of times, over the decades and I can still play it many times in a row ... I call it "The Symphony of madness" :D
Yeah, there's something about music listeners today - most can't comprehend the use of abstract poetry. They think you have to have a meaning. Maybe John's lyrics here had meaning and maybe they didn't. But it makes you think. It takes you on a stream of consciousness. And it takes to a place that you couldn't go to in a song of today. It generates a mood that would not be achieved otherwise. Maybe someday people will be open to abstract again, and understand the significance.
That particular song always struck me like an auditory, and lyrical, version of a Salvador Dali, or some other, surrealist painting. Very stream of consciousness lyrics, made more to create vivid mental pictures, while allowing the listener to fill in their own blanks. No preconceived story or moral to weigh down your experience. Lennon (and Dylan as well) both had a knack for that.
George Martin's arrangement sounds like he dropped acid before writing it. John at his Carrollesque best! I was just seventeen, ( you know what I mean, )first time hearing it. John's penchant for twisting a phrase. He took the expression, " spanner in the works, " and changed it to his book title. A Spaniard in the Works. Brilliant!
I do remember The Eggman from old time radio. It was a character on either The Great Gildersleeve or maybe Fibber McGee and Molly. It was so long ago, I don't recall which.The show was from the 1940's, an impressionable time for young Mr. Lennon. Whether that influenced John in the lyrics, I have no idea, as I don't know if these shows played in England.
I "recommend you watch that program on YT called "kids react". The reporter explained to the kids after they listened to the full song & trying to understand & deconstruct it that the Beatles wrote this song because they were sick & tired of critics overanalyzing every single song they made, so they chose "I'm the walrus" to give them something to reflect on.
Yay! You reacted to my second favorite Beatles song! My first favorite is A Day in The Life, which I think you have already reacted to. Third, for me, is Eleanor Rigby (which you have also reacted to). Tomorrow Never Knows is my fourth favorite Beatles song, and I'll bet I'm not alone in recommending it to you. It's a classic, and historical in the context of audio recording and engineering. Cheers!
I'm not sure what John was thinking about when he sings "thw egg man". But when I was growing up in NYS back in the 50'sand 60's, we had an egg man who delivered farm fresh eggs to our homes each morning, along with a milk man, and a bread man.
John is not afraid to allow the sound and musicality of words to manifest in his writing. Intuitively he is a genius of wordage. Read "In His Own Write" and "A Spaniard in the Works", written and illustrated by Mister Lennon.
John was a prankster. Smarmy. And whimsical. A fan of Lewis Carroll, he was inspired this time by Alice innWonderland and... I'm trying to remember... The character in a poem by LC, the Walrus and Crocodile? Anyway, trippy song in 66/67... And still a trippy song in 2021.
The "yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye" was taken from a song that Lennon and his classmates sang when they were in grade school. The full limerick is _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._
Harri it’s great to enjoy the impossibility of it all , and since you also enjoy ELO try listening to “ last train to London “ and “Midnight Blue “ and you’re welcome 😊
“What happened to she loves you ya ya ya ?” LOL Sort of describes the whole trajectory of the 60’s and the Beatles were major trend setters in that period. Cheers bro’
I'm crying- Brian Epstein, the Beatles manager had just died from a drug overdose.Tbe ending- everybody got one and everybody smoke pot! My favorite Beatles song!When The Anthology version was released in the 90s it was like getting a new Beatles record. I wore it out naturally
Two geniuses, one great late-blooming talent, one ace drummer. What a group they were.
And all grew up within five miles of one another in Liverpool -- but needed to meet, too. The stars truly were aligned.
Imagine the odds of two of the worlds greatest songwriters living 10 mins apart and finding eachother
That's all very well but they certainly didn't start off as songwriting geniuses. They all developed together over the years.
Someone said: "The Beatles were not a band, they were a miracle!"
I couldn´t agree more!!!... It was as if God decided we needed a boost of sheer joy in our lives... And gave us an enormous one...
I think John was having a go at 'intellectuals' analysing Beatles lyrics for deep meaning ..... and chucked this one in as a 'there you go, analyse that'!
@David Bradley it was also said he also wanted to stump college professors who were dissecting his lyrics in classes
This is just a brilliant piece of music. John's lyrics were meant to confuse those who tried to analyze every Beatles song. Great reaction, Harri the Eggman👍👍
Exactly.
Only the Beatles could write and do a song like this and make it work to perfection , pure genius, just another example of them forever changing music
The ultimate psychedelic song. Both the first and the best. That's the Beatles for you.
Isn't it amazing these guys were doing She Loves You (a great song too!) four years ago and come up with this? That's one of their biggest appeals, they always changed their musical style.
I am the 18th. Hahaha! I love how different people react to the lyrics of this song. Just know that John Lennon absolutely loved it when people said, “It doesn’t make any sense!” That’s the whole point. Lennon’s messin’ with ya’!!
A sound masterpiece.
All you need is a friend like Dr Robert and you to can see semolina pilchards climbing up the Eiffel tower !
By chance the next year detective Pilcher arrested John and Yoko for marijuana possession. John always claimed it was planted. Detective Pilcher was making a lot of drug busts during the time of famous celebs, before the song came out as well. Some have theorized that's what John was getting at. Curiously that detective later was put into prison for being corrupt! I don't think the line means that but it sure is a coincidence...
GOOD ONE!! Hahaha!! Remember, we all thought at the end, that they were saying, “Smoke pot, smoke pot, everybody smokes pot - smoke pot, smoke pot, everybody smokes pot - Everybody smoke pot - everybody smoke pot - everybody smoke pot - everybody smoke pot”. Still sounds like that to me.
@@Kairon111161 It does sound a bit like that, but in fact it's " everybody's got one"
Oompah, oompah, stick it up your jumper!
yup, and John WAS Dr. Robert....
Harri's videos are must watch as soon as they become available.
Every time.
Thank you
Thanx Christopher ✌🏾🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
I know you love ELO, they drew much of their inspiration from this period of The Beatles. Jeff Lynn got to pay them back by producing their '90's reunion songs where Paul, George and Ringo completed John's unfinished songs: Free as a Bird and Real Love.
Cf also the Traveling Wilburys!
Your observations are spot on! Lennon was amazed& annoyed that Beatles lyrics were being dissected & analyzed....so he took bits of Thurber, Lewis Carroll & his own whimsy & came up with this.Kudos to George Martin once again for a brilliant string & choral arrangements.
Hahahah great stuff!
I wonder if after he finished writing this, John Lennon sat back and thought to himself, "Let's see you try to analyze THIS, sons of b******!"
@@HarriBestReactions Their Fan Club Friend was Reading Fan Letters, and a Student wrote that His Teacher was making the Students Analyze Beatle songs to look for Hidden Messages. So John wrote Walrus, with a Goose Step March to Scare the Military Nuts, Backwards Talking, and Nothing made Sense, BUT Sounded Fishy. Then He ended the Set with, " Now let Them Figure that One Out"
My college roomate pointed out that some buried lines 'A servicable villian...", "Oh, untimely death...", "Sit you down father, bless you", are from Shakespeare. Brilliant and timeless.
It's said that they recorded it directly from a radio performance. I wonder if they got grief from the BBC for doing that...?
It was a performance of King Lear
Can you imagine being one of those actors - on one of the most famous songs in the world? Closing line, even. I doubt if they could sue. Thank you for identifying King Lear -- I was wondering.
Of course, they used that as another clue in the "Paul is dead" theory. "Is he dead?" and "Bury my body" were cited.
I can only hope the Beatles responded "Then please don't play ANY of our records" and let that get into the OTHER press.
A teacher at John's old school would give assignments to analyze Beatles lyrics.
When John heard of this, this song became a project to really set that teacher off.
Spot on...🤟🏻😎👍🏻
John is quoted as saying “let the fuckers work that one out”.
@@rydelldownward7808 That's what I heard too.
This is one of my favorite John Lennon songs! John is actually singing through a Leslie speaker so his voice sounds fuzzy and otherworldly. Even though the lyrics make no sense, the song creates a strange world, just like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. But you gotta admit that John Lennon is the Original Troll! Props to him!
I believe John sang through a Leslie on Tomorrow Never Knows, not I Am the Walrus.
@@tombeyerlein3813 OK. So, it looks like Lennon did distort his voice on the vocals but not with a Leslie Speaker. Instead, he sang through a low fidelity talk-back microphone used by engineers when they 'talk back' to musicians in the recording studio. I knew that Lennon had distorted his voice somehow, just not the exact manner in which he did it.
Man, you nailed this one! This is EXACTLY what he did with the lyrics!! He even said " Let them try to figure THIS ONE out" LOL!!
John Lennon was big on “word play” and he was damn good at it. “Pornographic priestess “ “semolina pilchard”” man was killing it.
Ahhhh...you've entered the full-Lennon twilight zone. It's a fascinating place, In't it?
😀
In his autobiography, Pete Shotton, John's childhood friend who remained friends with the Beatles throughout their career, tells the story of John wanting to write a song based around a police siren that had kept him up the night before, and then they came across a letter from a student in their old grammar school who told them about one of their former teachers -- one who had hated John and Pete -- who was making them analyze Beatles lyrics and their meanings. John and Pete basically brainstormed the lyrics of this tune to mess with that teacher. John was partially inspired by the Lewis Carroll poem The Walrus and the Carpenter from Alice Through The Looking Glass and got the title from that.
Thank you Applesauce! I never heard this story before.
All I can say is John sure is singing passionately about this purposely no sense song. A masterpiece.
Agreed. Love that slight distortion they put on to dirty up his vocals (Along with the obligatory ADT, invented by Ken Townsend at John's request)
@@marascusbomm But like the best Dylan lyrics, they SEEM like they mean something.
This and Revolution #9 were my favorites in those days. ("Block that kick! Block that kick!") 🎵🎶🎵🤯😳
I love that you described the song with the word “abstract.” It’s the perfect word to describe this. As usual, I love watching you react to hearing this song for the first time. You’re coming at it after watching the band mature professionally, just as we did back in the day. Love you, Harri!
Big love back at cha Kyle! 💙✌🏾
Smoke pot, smoke pot, everybody smoke pot! That’s what my friends and I thought they’re chanting and the end!!!💭😳
Oompah oompah stick it up your jumper.
"Within You, Without You" is one of the Beatles deepest songs. It's a Harrison song with sitar. Appreciate if you could react to it.
This came out in 1967, can you imagine listening to this for the first time in stereo either with or without headphones. It had to be absolutely mind blowing at the time!!
From my understanding Lennon based this on the works of Lewis Carroll, who often wrote in madeup nonsense words, and whose output includes the Walrus and the Carpenter and Alice in Wonderland, which included Humpty Dumpty, the Eggman. To me, his influence is obvious here. Cheers, brother Harri, you have literally gone down the rabbit hole with this one!
Why don't you enlighten us then, @@dylanbyrum?
@b phillip I think you will find John’s book was called A Spaniard In The Works. What did you do, just google this info and misread it?
Maybe not _quite_ literally, but certainly literarily. :-) And probably the most famous literary rabbit hole. Do you (or anybody else for that matter) happen to know if the phrase "going down the rabbit hole" is derived from the story, or if Carroll took the phrase/metaphor and made Alice turn it into a literal rabbit hole (in the story anyway)?
@@lhpl Love that play on 'lit...'
'’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.. Carroll was something else indeed. Words like syrup slipping into our minds.
Okay Harri, I think you are now ready to listen to "Tomorrow Never Knows." It was the precursor to "I Am the Walrus" and all their psychedelic period. I predict you will love it and stand in awe. You're right, the Beatles used the power that their fame gave them, to push artistic boundaries, do whatever the hell they wanted in the studio, and have it played on the radio. Never content to rest on their laurels!
Spot on Buddy!
Or in this case case have it banned on the radio by the BBC thanks to the "Let your knickers down" line :)
A Day in the Life was also banned because of the line I'd Love to Turn You On...
@@betsyab121 Right On. Add Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds & you have the trilogy of Beatle songs banned by the Beeb
The Beatles could have made music out of a telephone directory and made it a classic. Their brilliance had no boundaries
Manfred Mann has a song where they sing the text of a product warranty ,😂
When you said forget about the lyrics you really hit the nail on the head. That was John’s intention. The most gibberish song with a cool groove.
Love the Beatles. Love how you bring fresh eyes and ears to the subject! Love your joy and delight, and I also hear songs now I’ve heard many times before in a fresh new way through your eyes!
The Walrus is theorized to be the same one in Lewis Carrol's "The Walrus and the Carpenter". John was apparently a big fan of his work.
Lennon said later after he read the Lewis Carroll poem he realized the walrus was really the villain. He said, "dammit, I wrote the song about the wrong guy, I probably should have gone back and made it, "I Am The Carpenter."
So love this song.
Band by the BBC because of the word knickers welcome to England
Harri @ 2:10, the phrase, "...like Lucy in the Sky..." is reference to a very interesting Lennon song off the previous Sgt. Peppers album called "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds". A Beatles song you should do next. For another song that does this try "Glass Onion" that also has a couple of throwbacks to earlier songs. In fact, you'll hear a reference to I Am the Walrus! Beatles were probably the first band (and perhaps only) to include in lyrics that references earlier hit songs. Listening to their albums as they came out, we immediately got those references. I just heard you say "abstract" describing this song. That is so spot-on! That's exactly how I describe it, either as abstract or surreal forms of music like the visual art forms. So many people today are used to songs with a story, understandable situations, a lost love, a new love. Well the Beatles, particularly John, created abstract music forms too as you see (hear) here. 😁 It's the early experimentation in the so-called emerging psychedelic rock, that others like Pink Floyd and Yes flourished in. Also keep in mind the social/political unrest going on at the time, and the scores of interpretations coming from the public in that regard. Anyway, another awesome reaction. BTW, I (we) first heard this when it came out in late '67, and we are STILL trying to figure it out! LOL! Doesn't matter if we do or not. The song just grooves, man! ✌️😎
...Glass Onion and Savoy Truffle come to mind when references to other Beatles' songs.
@@yohannbiimu Thank you for pointing that out, and I fixed the comment. It was Glass Onion I meant. Harri, if your read all this recommend you do "Fool on the Hill" and "Lady Madonna", before doing "Glass Onion", to get the references. I think you've covered the other song references for Glass Onion and Savory Truffle. Enjoy! ✌️😎
You have that kind of references back and forth also in Frank Zappa's texts. It is slightly later (and Zappa was well aware of Beatles' music and text) but I think it is quite independent anyway. It is the way of internal jokes between friends - but made public!
Thanx M...You always have great analysis
@@HarriBestReactions Thank you. You always have great reactions, AND in depth analysis too. Keep it up my friend! ✌️😎
"oh an untimely death" at the end was eerily prophetic
Thank you for sharing your wonderful interpretation of this song
FYI - a lot of radio stations refused to play this one. Mostly due to the line ‘you let your knickers down’; plus ‘yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog’s eye’. There water only a few renegade stations
I only know that the BBC refused to play it. Do you know if that happened too in the U.S.?
@@Jonni1027 I’m not sure in the US (but, likely - especially in the southern states); I’m referring to Canada when I was a teenager!
That was my favourite line alonh with i am the eggman 😀😀
@@larrydavis8249 Oh! Canada! And that makes sense if the BBC banned it. Sheesh. So I guess THAT’S how I got corrupted way back when🤪. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area that had “free-form” radio stations that played it with no problem.
@@Jonni1027 I envy you; always admired San Fran!
Your love of E.L.O. is well founded, Jeff Lynne stated that the bands inspiration was to carry on from where I Am The Walrus ended. This was a perfect stating point for them
Lennon's lyrics here are so surreal and amazingly the words just tangle you brain and you feel exactly what he means, whatever that is. Brilliant.
What the Beatles did was not just change music but change the world, change the thinking and conscience of humanity. They were a turning point of how to look and think of life
"Ha ha ha ha Everybody's got one"
Thanks Harri!
Recently I found out who “The Eggman” was by chance. Reading Eric Burdon’s Wikipedia page it said that John had nicknamed him that because of something involving an egg.I can’t go into it here, so curious minds can go there to read for yourselves .......
@Thomas Dodd Let's add another layer to this and speculate that Constable Ventriss of the Aidensfield police was often seen snacking on boiled eggs in the office... which was set in the mid-60's time period. Clearly a shout-out to Beatle fans who could identify him as the eggman! :-) [reference to 1990's British TV show "Heartbeat" for those not in the know]
Eric was messy boy.
i was11 years in secondary school when this was playing on the radio i am 70 years old! and the song is still marvelous!
I don’t think John had any idea what he was talking about either. I believe he stated, let them figure this one out, referring to some school children who were studying Beatle songs in class. He refers to the Walrus in his song “Glass Onion” from the White Album. Great and fun reaction, as usual. Thanks...
And he refers to Lucy in the Sky in this one! a chain!
Your joy in Beatles is a delight. I'm a Beatlemaniac since 1964. In 1963 our president hero was murdered and the Beatles came to our rescue and broke the grief spell and joy came back to radio (yes Beach Boys of course, as well). Goo goo ga joob. They say that they were chanting "smoke pot smoke pot everybody's smokin' pot" at the end of the song. That's how I sing it.
It's unusual for someone to get this song on the first listen. Bravo!
John said he based the "melody" on a police siren. The lyrics are inspired by Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter" John later said he misunderstood the work and he was actually in fact the carpenter. "I Am the Carpenter" just doesn't sound right.
The Beatles didn't shy away from experimentation and surreal lyrics.
What were they doing you asked? They were literally almost single-handedly changing the course of rock and roll!!
This may not be The Beatles greatest song... but it is definitely my favorite Beatles song!
This song is one of my favorites, because John has a great sense of humo(u)r, and whimsey, plus he toys with language devices such as alliteration, and the orchestration is amazing.
I've been a Beatle fan for over 50 years and a musician for over 40. This is by far my favorite song by anyone. Old men talking, classical strings everywhere, Beatles chanting, Popeye cartoons, gross lyrics, all with that steady 4/4 beat.......whats not to LOVE???
Great recording. The louder the better, too!
The best part of this song is the chanting at the end "Oompah, oompah, stick it up your jumper" while the alternate chorus sings "Everybody's got one"....not that part, but the high voices that are going "yop! yop!" or something like that....it's HILARIOUS!
One of my fave top 3 of the Beatles! So glad you did a reaction video to it. When I was married and raising my stepson.... when things got really crazy in the house I would just pop out "Coo coo Cachoo".... letting everyone know we were headed or in a nonsense situation and to just go with the crazy. Peace and love ❤️
When Walrus came to radio we were mesmerized. "Flippin Beatles change music, AGAIN!'".
The beginning of the song was inspired by the sound of an ambulance John heard while he was sitting at the piano and he tried to reproduced. Amazing
At the end. Sokin’ pot ,smokin’ pot ,everybody’s smokin’ pot”. Lol the 1960’s baby !
Really! Consider starting with Love Me Do and arriving at I Am the Walrus. What an evolution!
You ought to watch Jim Carrey singing this, directed by George Martin!!!! It's fantastic! Great reaction as usual! Thx, Harri.
Umpar umpar, stick it up your jumper!........always makes me laugh! So much humour in Beatles songs.
The brilliance of John, he wrote this song as a reply for those who insisted to explain to school students the supposedly meaning of each one of the Beatles' songs.
Probably the best lyrics ever written. Poetry in song. When you get the chance, look up the lyrics just to see what they are.
Great analysis as always. I think we can't ignore Semolina Pelchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower and Sgt. Norman Pilcher of the Metropolitan Police Department, who in the ‘60s was climbing the ranks, and who quite recently published a book called 'Crooked Coppers,' who planted contraband on members of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. There is 'The Walrus And The Carpenter' and then there’s Humpty Dumpty who sat on the wall and had a great fall, as a possible source for the egg man.
Harry, I Am The Walrus was released in 1967 and was featured on their art film (short movie) Magical Mystery Tour. What inspired John Lennon to create the amazing lyrics of the song was he loved the author of "Alice in Wonderland", Lewis Carroll who let his imagine run wild while constructing his word play. The Walrus is inspired by the poem, "The Walrus and the Carpenter", which is part of Alice's memories in Wonderland. The "Eggman" is derived from Carroll's "Through The Looking Glass" character, Humpty Dumpty who has a section where he exchanges non-sequiturs with Alice. Just another example to prove The Beatles were way ahead of their time.
Hey Harri, I'm an Old Beatles Fan & I am having fun listening to these old Tunes 50+ years old !!! plus the other Artist your throwing on as I haven't heard in years! always a Thumbs Up!
✌🏾😀
love ringo singing "ompa opmpa skick up yir jumper"
Those haunting voices come from a Shakespeare play on the radio. They do something to me.
John was really fond of working class rhymes like 'oompah oompah stick it up your jumper' we used at school, Lucy in there too and so many other hidden meanings when you know what to listen out for. George Martin brought it all to fruition. we played it over and over again in our local pub when it first came out, I think Paul was the Eggman. John himself obviously the Walrus.
The egg man is the man that delivers fresh eggs every Wednesday afternoon, round about four o'clock...
You are exactly correct . When John brought this to George Martin , George said or thought " what do you want me to do with this "
With all the wordplay, humorous little voices & sound effects in the background I can totally hear John's love of The Goons in this, mixed with his love for Lewis Carroll (which is obviously where "The Walrus" came from).
It's kind of interesting and also makes me feel old to see young people listening to those familiar songs as if they were new.
No one mentions the ending background vocals calling Smoke pot ,smoke pot, everybody smoke pot, followed by Get F'd,get f'd everybody get f'ed! What a chorus!
John's avant-garde stream of consciousness orchestral noodling. Genius
as usual, the drums are perfect
A portal to another dimension.
He's saying a lot of hilarious stuff yet, he's crying throughout the song ... Enigmatic ! I've heard that song thousands of times, over the decades and I can still play it many times in a row ... I call it "The Symphony of madness" :D
Yeah, there's something about music listeners today - most can't comprehend the use of abstract poetry. They think you have to have a meaning. Maybe John's lyrics here had meaning and maybe they didn't. But it makes you think. It takes you on a stream of consciousness. And it takes to a place that you couldn't go to in a song of today. It generates a mood that would not be achieved otherwise. Maybe someday people will be open to abstract again, and understand the significance.
That particular song always struck me like an auditory, and lyrical, version of a Salvador Dali, or some other, surrealist painting. Very stream of consciousness lyrics, made more to create vivid mental pictures, while allowing the listener to fill in their own blanks. No preconceived story or moral to weigh down your experience. Lennon (and Dylan as well) both had a knack for that.
"I shan't let you down Father, bless you' incredible taped inserts at the end, no doubt by Yoko.. I've come to like her influence on John.
This is a clear example of their pioneering spirit. I'd call this progressive. 👍
John said on Glass Onion I think " The walrus was Paul : and that is all we need to know. I am sure that clarins things lol Harri
The Beatles were brilliant.
George Martin's arrangement sounds like he dropped acid before writing it. John at his Carrollesque best! I was just seventeen, ( you know what I mean, )first time hearing it. John's penchant for twisting a phrase. He took the expression, " spanner in the works, " and changed it to his book title. A Spaniard in the Works. Brilliant!
I do remember The Eggman from old time radio. It was a character on either The Great Gildersleeve or maybe Fibber McGee and Molly. It was so long ago, I don't recall which.The show was from the 1940's, an impressionable time for young Mr. Lennon. Whether that influenced John in the lyrics, I have no idea, as I don't know if these shows played in England.
I "recommend you watch that program on YT called "kids react". The reporter explained to the kids after they listened to the full song & trying to understand & deconstruct it that the Beatles wrote this song because they were sick & tired of critics overanalyzing every single song they made, so they chose "I'm the walrus" to give them something to reflect on.
"Glass Onion" is a great song as well and it gives you a clue about the walrus lol.
Eggmen: Did people deliver eggs back in the day? There were certainly "Milkmen."
People delivered eggs then. They deliver them now. But Lennon wasn’t singing about a delivery man
Yay! You reacted to my second favorite Beatles song! My first favorite is A Day in The Life, which I think you have already reacted to. Third, for me, is Eleanor Rigby (which you have also reacted to). Tomorrow Never Knows is my fourth favorite Beatles song, and I'll bet I'm not alone in recommending it to you. It's a classic, and historical in the context of audio recording and engineering. Cheers!
I'm not sure what John was thinking about when he sings "thw egg man". But when I was growing up in NYS back in the 50'sand 60's, we had an egg man who delivered farm fresh eggs to our homes each morning, along with a milk man, and a bread man.
John is not afraid to allow the sound and musicality of words to manifest in his writing. Intuitively he is a genius of wordage. Read "In His Own Write" and "A Spaniard in the Works", written and illustrated by Mister Lennon.
John was a prankster. Smarmy. And whimsical. A fan of Lewis Carroll, he was inspired this time by Alice innWonderland and... I'm trying to remember... The character in a poem by LC, the Walrus and Crocodile? Anyway, trippy song in 66/67... And still a trippy song in 2021.
A sign of the times. Especially at the very end when everyone is chanting “ Every body’s smoking pot!!!”
The "yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye" was taken from a song that Lennon and his classmates sang when they were in grade school. The full limerick is
_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._
Harri it’s great to enjoy the impossibility of it all , and since you also enjoy ELO try listening to “ last train to London “ and “Midnight Blue “ and you’re welcome 😊
“What happened to she loves you ya ya ya ?” LOL Sort of describes the whole trajectory of the 60’s and the Beatles were major trend setters in that period. Cheers bro’
I am the first one here.... Goo goo g'joob
Gezundheit! 😁
Wow. What a major accomplisment. Does the babysitter know you're playing on Mommy's computer again?
In my top 5 Beatles tunes
@@fidge54 No. And don't tell her
@@MrTCHOSS hahaha, hehehe, HAHAHA!
Legend has it that a live radio broadcast of Hamlet was mixed in toward the end.
Actually, it's King Lear.
I'm crying- Brian Epstein, the Beatles manager had just died from a drug overdose.Tbe ending- everybody got one and everybody smoke pot! My favorite Beatles song!When The Anthology version was released in the 90s it was like getting a new Beatles record. I wore it out naturally
The images from his lyrics are wonderful! Man you should've seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe. Long live the music of The Walrus!!