I Am The Walrus

A unique angle on one of the weirdest songs ever recorded.
The peak of surrealism in The Beatles film; 'Magical Mystery Tour.

I Am The... more

by Jonathan Morrill

Original - Not For Sale

Price

Not Specified

Dimensions

20.000 x 16.000 inches

Title

I Am The Walrus

Artist

Jonathan Morrill

Medium

Painting - Acrylic On Canvas

Description

A unique angle on one of the weirdest songs ever recorded.
The peak of surrealism in The Beatles film; 'Magical Mystery Tour".

"I Am The Walrus" was John Lennon's final masterpiece of 1967,
which found him at his surrealistic, sneering best.
I Am The Walrus was included on the soundtrack of the Magical Mystery Tour TV film,
and first released as the b-side of Hello Goodbye.

The chord sequence was described by critic Ian MacDonald as "the most unorthodox and tonally ambiguous sequence he ever devised." He ingeniously referred to the looped sequence as "an obsessive musical structure built round a perpetually ascending/descending MC Escher staircase of all the natural major chords".
I Am The Walrus was one of the highlights of the Magical Mystery Tour film.
For the performance, filmed in West Malling in Kent,
Lennon tellingly wore an 18th century madman's cap.

Lennon had wanted I Am the Walrus to be The Beatles' next single after
All You Need Is Love, but Paul McCartney and George Martin felt that Hello Goodbye
was the more commercial song.
The decision led to resentment from Lennon, who complained after the group's split that "I got sick and tired of being Paul's backup band".

The song was written in August 1967, at the peak of the Summer of Love and shortly after the release of Sgt Pepper. Lennon later claimed to have written the opening lines under the influence of LSD.

"The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend, the second line on another acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko.
John Lennon, 1980
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
I Am The Walrus was a composite of three song fragments. The first part was inspired by a two-note police siren Lennon heard while at home in Weybridge. This became "Mr city policeman sitting pretty..."
Hunter Davies recounted the beginnings of the second part in his authorised 1968 biography of The Beatles:
He'd written down down another few words that day, just daft words, to put to another bit of rhythm. 'Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the man to come.' I thought he said 'van to come', which he hadn't, but he liked it better and said he'd use it instead.
The third part started from the phrase "sitting in an English country garden" which, as Davies noted, Lennon was fond of doing for hours at a time. Lennon repeated the phrase to himself until a melody came.
I don't know how it will all end up. Perhaps they'll turn out to be different parts of the same song - sitting in an English garden, waiting for the van to come. I don't know."
- John Lennon, The Beatles, Hunter Davies.

"I Am The Warus" is one of two pieces submitted and accepted into
The National Arts Program's 2018 "Share The Art" exhibition held at the Orlando International Airport.
The exhibition was held at the Orlando International Airport,
from August 23rd through October 25th, 2018.

Uploaded

November 25th, 2017