50th anniversary: Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus
I Am The Walrus has one of the most bizarre lyrics by The Beatles, and that is no coincidence. The song is inspired in part by a letter from a student of John Lennon's old school, the Quarry Bank High School. In it Lennon read that an English teacher analyzed lyrics from The Beatles during the lesson. Amused that a teacher did so much effort to understand the Beatles’ lyrics, he decided to write the most confusing lines in his next song. The lyrics should therefore not be taken too seriously:
Walrus' is just saying a dream - the words don't mean a lot. People draw so many conclusions and it's ridiculous... What does it really mean, 'I am the eggman'? It could have been the pudding basin for all I care. It's not that serious.
John Lennon
Video: I Am The Walrus (snippet)I Am The Walrus was written in the summer of 1967, shortly after the release of Sgt. Pepper. The song is made up of three different fragments: The first part was inspired by a two-tone police siren that Lennon heard when he was at home. To the rhythm and melody of the siren he wrote "Mr. city policeman sitting pretty ..."; The second part was about "sitting in a English garden" and he still had the nonsense line "sitting on a cornflake". The three parts were eventually merged, after which the rest was written, partly under the influence of LSD trips.
While I Am The Walrus was written entirely by Lennon, Hello Goodbye is completely written McCartney. In my opinion, the song is a bit of a sequel to the theme of Sgt. Pepper: Hello, here's the new band and Goodbye ‘old’ Beatles. An idea that is strengthened by the accompanying video clip, in which The Beatles perform the song in their Sgt. Pepper outfit, with a shot of the band members, waving in their famous Beatles suits.
In reality, the song is the result of a word association exercise between Paul McCartney and Alistair Taylor, the later general manager of Apple, after Taylor asked him how he writes songs:
Paul marched me into the dining room, where he had a marvellous old hand-carved harmonium. 'Come and sit at the other end of the harmonium. You hit any note you like on the keyboard. Just hit it and I'll do the same. Now whenever I shout out a word, you shout the opposite and I'll make up a tune. You watch, it'll make music'. (…) 'Black,' he started. 'White,' I replied. 'Yes.' 'No.' 'Good.' 'Bad.' Hello.' 'Goodbye.'
Alistair Taylor
In September 1967, I Am The Walrus was recorded, followed by Hello Goodbye in October and November. If it had been for John Lennon then I Am The Walrus would have become the A-side, but he was overruled by McCartney and George Martin, who both felt that Hello Goodbye was more commercial. They might be right in that, but musically I Am The Walrus is superior to Hello Goodbye. And not only that, the psychedelic I Am The Walrus is also much more representative of what the band was working on at the time. The controversial choice for Hello Goodbye bothered Lennon for years:
( I Am the Walrus) was the B side to 'Hello, Goodbye'! Can you believe it?
John Lennon
George Martin and McCartney were right that Hello Goodbye became a commercial success. In the UK, the single became the Beatles’ fifth Christmas number 1 hit in a row. But given the status of The Beatles at the time, the single with I Am The Walrus as A-side, or as double A-sided single, undoubtedly had achieved that position as well. I Am The Walrus deserved more than the B-side. And now fifty years later, Hello Goodbye still seems to be receiving some preferential treatment: On the Beatles' YouTube channel, only a thirty-second fragment of the I Am The Walrus-video is shown, while for Hello Goodbye the complete video is published:
Video: Hello Goodbye
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