Editing I Am the Walrus (section)

==Composition==
According to author [[Ian MacDonald]], the "model" for "I Am the Walrus" was most likely [[Procol Harum]]'s "[[A Whiter Shade of Pale]]", which was a hit single in mid-1967 and Lennon's favourite song of the period.{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|pp=268, 443}} The lyric came from three song ideas that Lennon had been working on, the first of which was inspired by hearing a police siren at his home in [[Weybridge]]; Lennon wrote the lines "Mis-ter cit-y p'lice-man" to the rhythm and melody of the siren. The second idea was a short rhyme about Lennon sitting amidst his garden, while the third was a nonsense phrase about sitting on a corn flake. Unable to finish the three different songs, he combined them into one. The lyric also included the phrase "Lucy in the sky", a reference to the Beatles' earlier song "[[Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds]]".

The walrus refers to [[Lewis Carroll]]'s poem "[[The Walrus and the Carpenter]]" (from the book ''[[Through the Looking-Glass]]'').{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=268}} Lennon later expressed dismay upon belatedly realising that the walrus was a villain in the poem.{{sfn|Sheff|2000|p=185}}

The final piece of the song came together during a visit from [[Pete Shotton]], Lennon's friend and former fellow member of [[the Quarrymen]], when Lennon asked him about a playground nursery rhyme they sang as children. Shotton recalled the rhyme as follows:
{{poemquote|Yellow matter custard, green slop pie,
All mixed together with a dead dog's eye,
Slap it on a [[sandwich|butty]], ten-foot thick,
Then wash it all down with a cup of cold [[vomit|sick]].{{sfn|Davies|2002}}}}

Lennon borrowed a couple of images from the first two lines. Shotton was also responsible for suggesting that Lennon change the phrase "waiting for the man to come" to "waiting for the van to come". The Beatles' official biographer, [[Hunter Davies]], was present while the song was being written and wrote an account in his 1968 book ''[[The Beatles: The Authorised Biography|The Beatles]]''. According to this biography, Lennon remarked to Shotton, "Let the fuckers work that one out." While the band were [[The Beatles in India|studying Transcendental Meditation in India]] in early 1968, [[George Harrison]] told journalist [[Lewis H. Lapham|Lewis Lapham]] that one of the lines in "I Am the Walrus" incorporated the personal [[mantra]] he had received from their meditation teacher, [[Maharishi Mahesh Yogi]].{{sfn|Lapham|2005|p=56}} According to [[Pattie Boyd]], Harrison's wife at the time, the words "semolina pilchard" refer to [[Norman Pilcher|Sergeant Pilcher]] of the London Drug Squad, who waged a campaign against British rock stars and [[UK underground|underground]] figures during the late 1960s.{{sfn|Boyd|2007|p=129}}

Lennon claimed he wrote the first two lines on separate [[lysergic acid diethylamide#Psychological|acid trips]]; he explained much of the song to ''[[Playboy]]'' in 1980:{{sfn|Sheff|2000|p=184}}
{{blockquote|The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met [[Yoko Ono|Yoko]]{{nbsp}}... I'd seen [[Allen Ginsberg]] and some other people who liked [[Bob Dylan|Dylan]] and Jesus going on about [[International Society for Krishna Consciousness|Hare Krishna]]. It was Ginsberg, in particular, I was referring to. The words 'Element'ry penguin' meant that it's naïve to just go around chanting Hare Krishna or putting all your faith in one idol. In those days I was writing obscurely, à la Dylan. [...]

It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the [[capitalist]] system. I never went into that bit about what he really meant, like people are doing with the Beatles' work. Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the bad guy in the story and the carpenter was the good guy. I thought, Oh, shit, I picked the wrong guy. I should have said, 'I am the carpenter.' But that wouldn't have been the same, would it? [Sings, laughing] 'I am the carpenter ...'}}