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Since a certain someone asked for a post about the symbolic meaning of this song, here it is. The part "I am the walrus" is a reference to a Lewis Carroll poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter." When John Lennon wrote this song, he didn't realize that the walrus was actually the villain and Lennon even said "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? [Sings, laughing] 'I am the carpenter...." In the song Glass Onion, "the walrus was Paul" and in the song God "I was the walrus, but now I am John." Sorry, the walrus doesn't represent the man bringing down the world or anything. The Eggman also has no real special meaning. Eric Burdon (singer for The Animals) was known by John as the Eggman because of a certain egg related fetish.
The lines "yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye" is based off an old English nursery rhyme. As far as the rest of the lyrics of the song go, some are based off the three unfinished songs that became part of this song, the rest really are just random lyrics that don't make sense. When this song was being written, Lennon got a letter from someone who had a teacher who was giving a deep analysis of The Beatle's lyrics. That's where Lennon decided to add those random lyrics.
So there really is no special meaning behind this song. It's not about capitalism or drugs or war, it's just a bunch of really random thoughts put into a song. It wasn't that The Beatles needed drugs to write songs, it was probably more for their entertainment and while high they got some of their ideas. You may or may not have known this, but several inventors or philosophers (sorry I can't find any links) had been quoted saying things about being just a little bit high enough to get some different thoughts in their heads.
Link to information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_The_Walrus
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Well I appreiciate you went out of your way to answer my question, thanks. Dont get me wrong, I can appreciate the musical accomplishments and feats of the Beatles, they are, as a money making entity, amazing. There music is great to, but for me, i can't appreciate someone using drugs to "expand their mind."
ReplyDeleteAs for the philosophers and and inventors using drugs to get different thoughts, that really is... dumb, for lack of a better term. I've never seen drugs make someone smarter, only dumber. Drugs are against the law, they shouldn't be used.
I always tried to find a meaning to this song, but to no avail. At first, I just thought it was some kind of anti-government protest in song form. This isn't much of a surprise, however. John Lennon and George Harrison are known to make "weird" songs, such as Revolution 9 that have no meaning whatsoever and are made just for fun. Regardless, the song and the band is still equally as talented. If only John and George were alive to see how much they impacted music.
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