I Am the Walrus [from the Film "Magical Mystery Tour"] by The Beatles on AllMusic

"I Am the Walrus" was one of the strangest and most avant-garde Beatles songs. For all its weirdness, however, it wasn't devoid of some conventional melodic pop appeal, and it was used on the B-side of "Hello Goodbye" (as well as on the Magical Mystery Tour album and film). "I Am the Walrus" is the densest and most symphonic track from the Beatles' psychedelic period, with so many layers of sounds and effects that it takes quite a few listenings to get to the bottom of them. Sung and written by John Lennon (although credited to Lennon-McCartney), the ominous mood of the song is established by the opening two-note riff, inspired by the sound of a police siren. Swooping strings then embellish the sense that listeners are about to embark on something resembling a bad acid trip. The very first line is fair warning that listeners are not going to sit back and be entertained by a straightforward story, with its almost nonsensical string of pronouns, as if Lennon is taking absurdist revenge on all those 1963 Lennon-McCartney lyrics in which the composers determined to use as many "you" and "I" pronouns as possible. "I Am the Walrus" is, in fact, a stitching together of several fragments that could have been developed into entirely different songs, but what could have been a mess flows together quite well, aided by the esteemed producer George Martin. In the verses, Lennon cleverly alternates between similar, but not exactly similar, melodies in which the surreal images fly at a furious rate. It's free association which does not make sense -- and Lennon always said they weren't intended to make sense -- like sitting on a cornflake, penguins singing "Hare Krishna," and, most unforgettably, the yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye (the last of which was actually adopted from a British school children's rhyme). There's the brief sexual reference (about a girl letting her knickers down) that showed up in many a mid-'60s Beatles song, and what may be the first deliberate reference to another Beatles song ("Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"); "I Am the Walrus" itself would later be referred to in another Beatles track ("Glass Onion"). At one point, "I Am the Walrus" suddenly derails into a burst of white noise jabber -- as if a radio tuner has suddenly switched channels -- and mournful strings introduce a dreamy line about sitting in an English garden that has no apparent melodic or lyrical relation to anything else in the composition. That detour is quickly steered back to the chorus, as if it's a miniature break from the nightmare (or from the absurd reality of life?). And what a strange chorus it is: Lennon declaring that he is the eggman, whatever that is, and is also the walrus, ending with a nonsense lyric, as responsive harmonies follow the ascending melody like a chorus of ghouls. The lengthy fade-out is no less weird than the rest of the track, with those ghoulish harmonizers (actually the Mike Sammes Singers) sounding like a children's nursery rhyme run amok and the memorable addition of dialog from a BBC broadcast of Shakespeare's King Lear (a snippet of dialog also appears earlier in the song). One would think that "I Am the Walrus" would actually scare away potential cover versions due to the complexity of its arrangement and its sheer oddness, but it has actually attracted its share of attempts over the years, including a heavy rock interpretation by Spooky Tooth, a damned strange one by British avant-garde musician Lol Coxhill, and another by 1990s Brit-pop stars Oasis.