Gloucester. (2:25) "Now, good sir, wh--" (Here Lennon changes the channel away from the station.)
Edgar. (2:28) -- "poor man, made tame by fortune --" (2:34) "good pity--"
Later, at the end of the song, John leaves the broadcast where it is, and we hear:
Oswald. (3:52) Slave, thou hast slain me: Villain, take my purse. If ever thou wilt thrive, (4:02) bury my body, and give the (4:05) letters which thou findest about me to (4:08) Edmund Earl of Gloucester. (4:10) Seek him out upon the British party. O, (4:14) Untimely Death!
Edgar. (4:23) I know thee well, a (4:25) serviceable villain. As duteous to the (4:27) vices of thy mistress as badness would desire.
Gloucester. What, is he dead?
Edgar. (4:31) Sit you down father, rest you.
Trivia:
- Although never specifically designated as such, "I Am The Walrus" was clearly considered the b-side to its single counterpart, "Hello Goodbye," by the band, producer George Martin, and just about everyone else. This infuriated John Lennon, who, spurred on by his new relationship with Yoko Ono, grew increasingly more anxious to have the Beatles singles move in a more avant-garde direction. This would be the first battle in a war which would eventually contribute to the band's breakup.
- After the "Paul Is Dead" rumors began in 1969, the question of who actually was the Walrus became significant in the minds of many Beatles fans, since, the rumor went, the Walrus was an Eastern religious symbol of death. This, it turns out, is not true. Yet Paul, not John, wears the walrus costume in the Magical Mystery Tour film. Furthermore, the back of the MMT album features the line "'No you're not!' said little Nicola." Little Nicola is a character in the accompanying MMT film, but she never says this to John. To further confuse matters, the Beatles song "Glass Onion" -- written as a nasty rebuke to the "Paul Is Dead" rumors -- also claims that "The Walrus wa s Paul." Yet in John's solo track "God," he claims " I was the Walrus / but now I'm John," making this, in the end, more of an existential question.
- The original mono mix that appears on the British Parlophone single of "I Am The Walrus" features several anomalies: six beats in the electric piano intro instead of four, two beats and a cymbal crash by Ringo before the first "Goo goo g'joob," and extra beats after the first "I'm crying." The original American single features only the first two of these anomalies, while the original stereo mix on the MMT album -- the version most are familiar with these days -- changes from true stereo to "mock stereo" (in which the mono mix is artificially divided into two sides) at exactly 2:00. The mix available on 1980's Rarities combined the mock stereo with the extra beats intro.
- An urban legend has the singers singing "Everybody smoke pot" at the end instead of the actual "Everybody's got one."
- Author Jeff Kent's biography The Last Poet: The Story of Eric Burdon 1989 claims that Burdon, the Animals' lead singer, was the "eggman" of this song; supposedly, Eric liked to break raw eggs on groupies' bodies, and Lennon, having witnessed this in person, gave him the name "eggman." But then why is John the eggman in the song?
- The Electric Light Orchestra's original stated intention upon forming was "to pick up where 'I Am The Walrus' left off." How well they succeeded is debatable, but the ELO song "Hello My Old Friend" is strikingly similar in many ways.
- Although there have been countless covers of and references to "I Am The Walrus" in popular culture, the Dead Milkmen's 1987 song of the same name, oddly, has nothing to do with this one.
