later, he remarked that he thought Dylan got away with murder at times and that heâd decided âI can write this crap too.â
The only serious part of the lyric, apparently, was the opening line with its vision of the unity behind all things.
The âelementary penguinâ which chanted âHare Krishnaâ was John having a dig at Allen Ginsberg who, at the time, was chanting the Hare Krishna mantra at public events. The walrus itself came from Lewis Carrollâs poem âThe Walrus and the Carpenterâ.
The âeggmanâ was supposedly a reference to Animalsâ vocalist Eric Burdon who had an unusual practice of breaking eggs over his female conquests while making love and became known among his musical colleagues as the âegg manâ. Marianne Faithfull believes that âsemolina pilchardâ was a reference to Det. Sgt. Norman Pilcher, the Metropolitan police officer who made a name for himself by targeting pop stars for drug possession.
The recording of âI Am The Walrusâ began on September 5. It lasted on and off throughout the month because George Martin was trying to find an equivalent to the flow of images and word play in the lyrics by using violins, cellos, horns, clarinet and a 16-voice choir, in addition to the Beatles themselves. On September 29, some lines from Shakespeare (King Lear Act IV Scene VI) were fed into the song from a BBC broadcast.
LADY MADONNA
âLady Madonnaâ was the first single to show that the way forward for the Beatles now lay in returning to the basic rockânâroll of their early days. After Sgt Pepperâs Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour , it was assumed that musical progression would mean more complexity, but the Beatles again defied expectations.
The main riff was taken from Johnny Parkerâs piano playing on the instrumental âBad Penny Bluesâ, a 1956 hit in Britain for jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton and his band, that had been produced by George Martin. âWe asked George how they got the sound on âBad Penny Bluesâ,â said Ringo. âGeorge told us that they used brushes. So I used brushes and we did a track with just brushes and piano and then we decided we needed an off-beat, so we put an off-beat in.â Lyttelton didnât mind at all, as Parker had taken the riff from Dan Burley anyway. âYou canât copyright a rhythm and rhythm was all that they had borrowed,â he said. âI was very complimented. Although none of theBeatles cared for traditional jazz, they all knew and liked âBad Penny Bluesâ because it was a bluesy, skiffley thing rather than a trad exercise.â (Dan Burley and His Skiffle Boys, formed in 1946, was the source of the description âskiffle musicâ first applied to the folk-blues-country style of Lonnie Donegan in Britain during the early 1950s.)
The song was intended by Paul to be a celebration of motherhood which started with an image of the Virgin Mary but then moved on to consider all mothers. âHow do they do it?â, he asked when interviewed by Musician in 1986. âBaby at your breast â how do they get the time to feed them? Where do they get the money? How do you do this thing that women do?â
The singer Richie Havens remembered being with Paul in a Greenwich Village club when a girl came up to him and asked whether âLady Madonnaâ had been written about America. âNo,â said Paul. âI was looking through this African magazine and I saw this African lady with a baby. And underneath the picture it said âMountain Madonnaâ. But I said, oh no â Lady Madonna â and I wrote the song.â
Released as a single in March 1968, âLady Madonnaâ went to Number 1 in Britain but stalled at Number 4 in America.
THE INNER LIGHT
On September 29, 1967, John and George were guests of David Frost on the live late-night television show
The only serious part of the lyric, apparently, was the opening line with its vision of the unity behind all things.
The âelementary penguinâ which chanted âHare Krishnaâ was John having a dig at Allen Ginsberg who, at the time, was chanting the Hare Krishna mantra at public events. The walrus itself came from Lewis Carrollâs poem âThe Walrus and the Carpenterâ.
The âeggmanâ was supposedly a reference to Animalsâ vocalist Eric Burdon who had an unusual practice of breaking eggs over his female conquests while making love and became known among his musical colleagues as the âegg manâ. Marianne Faithfull believes that âsemolina pilchardâ was a reference to Det. Sgt. Norman Pilcher, the Metropolitan police officer who made a name for himself by targeting pop stars for drug possession.
The recording of âI Am The Walrusâ began on September 5. It lasted on and off throughout the month because George Martin was trying to find an equivalent to the flow of images and word play in the lyrics by using violins, cellos, horns, clarinet and a 16-voice choir, in addition to the Beatles themselves. On September 29, some lines from Shakespeare (King Lear Act IV Scene VI) were fed into the song from a BBC broadcast.
LADY MADONNA
âLady Madonnaâ was the first single to show that the way forward for the Beatles now lay in returning to the basic rockânâroll of their early days. After Sgt Pepperâs Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour , it was assumed that musical progression would mean more complexity, but the Beatles again defied expectations.
The main riff was taken from Johnny Parkerâs piano playing on the instrumental âBad Penny Bluesâ, a 1956 hit in Britain for jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton and his band, that had been produced by George Martin. âWe asked George how they got the sound on âBad Penny Bluesâ,â said Ringo. âGeorge told us that they used brushes. So I used brushes and we did a track with just brushes and piano and then we decided we needed an off-beat, so we put an off-beat in.â Lyttelton didnât mind at all, as Parker had taken the riff from Dan Burley anyway. âYou canât copyright a rhythm and rhythm was all that they had borrowed,â he said. âI was very complimented. Although none of theBeatles cared for traditional jazz, they all knew and liked âBad Penny Bluesâ because it was a bluesy, skiffley thing rather than a trad exercise.â (Dan Burley and His Skiffle Boys, formed in 1946, was the source of the description âskiffle musicâ first applied to the folk-blues-country style of Lonnie Donegan in Britain during the early 1950s.)
The song was intended by Paul to be a celebration of motherhood which started with an image of the Virgin Mary but then moved on to consider all mothers. âHow do they do it?â, he asked when interviewed by Musician in 1986. âBaby at your breast â how do they get the time to feed them? Where do they get the money? How do you do this thing that women do?â
The singer Richie Havens remembered being with Paul in a Greenwich Village club when a girl came up to him and asked whether âLady Madonnaâ had been written about America. âNo,â said Paul. âI was looking through this African magazine and I saw this African lady with a baby. And underneath the picture it said âMountain Madonnaâ. But I said, oh no â Lady Madonna â and I wrote the song.â
Released as a single in March 1968, âLady Madonnaâ went to Number 1 in Britain but stalled at Number 4 in America.
THE INNER LIGHT
On September 29, 1967, John and George were guests of David Frost on the live late-night television show
Similar Books
