'I Am The Walrus' is probably that song where The Beatles most succesfully blended their (i.e. Lennon's) surrealistic explorations into an orthodox, almost mainstream-ish rock song. It is not like 'A day in a Life' where the 'freaky' bits are isolated towards the end, or 'Tomorrow never knows' which hardly qualifies as a mainstream or standard rock song. And obviously, 'Revolution nr. 9' is just way way too much. I'd prefer Barney Gumble's version instead.The lyrics in 'I Am The Walrus' are heavy stuff inspired by Lennon's LSD trips and his general feeling of disillusion. In september´67 The Summer of Love is over (at least for Lennon), their manager Brian Epstein was dead and the police were faring aggressively, arresting friends like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones (being MBE's The Beatles were immune of such unpleasanties). But in all its aggresive disillusion, the song has a undeniably bad-ass groove that is as catchy as anything.
We all know the original The Beatles version, and you probably also know Oasis' version who for extended periods has used the song as a show closer. If you think Oasis remains too close to the original, then dig the version by Jim Carrey! That man can sing! Hands down. There is lots of great ideas in his approach to the song, even if some of them are highly unorthodox. What a character...
UPDATE: We were notified about Bono's performance on I Am The Walrus in the movie Across The Universe... Jim Carrey beats this:
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