John Lennon Tried to Sing Like a Police Siren on The Beatles’ ‘I Am the Walrus’
TL;DR:
- John Lennon revealed the nonsensical words that evolved into The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus.”
- He said Bob Dylan inspired his attitude toward writing.
- “I Am the Walrus” was more popular in the United States than in the United Kingdom.
John Lennon said he wanted to sing like a siren on The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus.” He revealed where the siren sounds were supposed to be in the song. Notably, “I Am the Walrus” was commercially overshadowed by its A-side.
John Lennon said The Beatles’ ‘I Am the Walrus’ started with 2 lines he wrote
During a 1968 interview with Rolling Stone, John revealed the origin of The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus.” “With ‘I Am the Walrus,’ I had ‘I am here as you are here as we are all together,'” he said. “I had just these two lines on the typewriter, and then about two weeks later I ran through and wrote another two lines, and then when I saw something after about four lines I just knocked the rest of it off.
“Then I had the whole verse or verse and a half and then sang it,” he added. “I had this idea of doing a song that was a police siren, but it didn’t work in the end [sings like a siren]: ‘I-am-here-as-you-are-here-as.’ You couldn’t really sing the police siren.”
John Lennon said Bob Dylan inspired his writing during his time with The Beatles
In the same interview, John gave fans more insight into his writing. “I used to write a book or stories on one hand and write songs on the other,” he said. Notably, John wrote three books: In His Own Write, A Spaniard in the Works, and Skywriting by Word of Mouth.
“And I’d be writing completely free form in a book or just on a bit of paper, but when I’d start to write a song I’d be thinking ‘dee duh dee duh do doo do de do de doo,'” he said. John said Bob Dylan made him realize there isn’t much difference between writing songs and writing fiction. “And it took Dylan and all that was going on then to say, ‘Oh, come on now, that’s the same bit, I’m just singing the words.'”
How ‘I Am the Walrus’ performed in the United States and the United Kingdom
The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus” wasn’t much of a hit, reaching No. 56 on the Billboard Hot 100. It stayed on the chart for four weeks. “I Am the Walrus” was the B-side to The Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye.” The latter was No. 1 for three of its 11 weeks on the chart.
The Official Charts Company reports “I Am the Walrus” never charted in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, “Hello, Goodbye” topped the chart for seven of its 12 weeks on the chart. “Hello, Goodbye” became a hit again in the 1980s, reaching No. 63 and remaining on the chart for two weeks.
“I Am the Walrus” wasn’t a juggernaut but it has an interesting backstory.
