Songs › The Beatles › I Am the Walrus

The Beatles

I Am the Walrus

Magical Mystery Tour · 1967 · Lennon–McCartney

GLI90

Pure Lennon

Confidence 86% · evidence quality, not position

The four Beatles in New York City, 7 February 1964. — United Press International (UPI Telephoto) · Public domain

Every note was scored except the radio, which was live.

GARCIAPerformance creates the music

DEAD CENTERNeither wins

LENNONComposition creates the music

100

I Am the Walrus · 90

Hollow marks: the other 49 scored songs · Hatched band: the Crossover Zone

The case

The strongest honest argument for each side, then the ruling.

The Garcia argument

During the mix a radio was tuned across the dial and a live BBC broadcast of King Lear was fed straight onto the tape. Lennon did not know what the play was. Whatever lines happened to be spoken in those minutes are part of the song for good. It is chance, used once.

The Lennon argument

Everything else was specified. A 16-piece ensemble played George Martin's score, sixteen singers sang written whoops and chants, and the master was made by splicing two of seventeen mixes. The radio could only be added because the piece is a tape. It could not have been performed.

The verdict: GLI 90

A constructed object with a window left open during the mix. The window makes it one of the best stories on the Index, and it costs only a few points, because the chance element was captured once and fixed like everything else.

What is fixed

Orchestral and choral scores
The splice
The radio extract as captured

What is open

What the radio was playing that evening

Evidence dimensions

Each runs from 0, Garcia, to 100, Lennon. Their weighted composite is 90. The published GLI is 90, the same.

Structural FixityHow much of sequence, form and duration is settled beforehand?

Elastic

Fixed

Fixed, with a splice in the middle.

Performance ConsistencyHow far can two performances differ and still be the same work?

Transformative

Reproducible

Inferred. Nothing here could be varied without loss.

PredeterminationHow much of what matters exists before the performance begins?

Emergent

Predetermined

Scored orchestra and choir, with one element left to whatever was on the radio.

Development MethodHow does the music move forward?

Exploratory

Composed

Layered construction over a basic track.

Recording SpecificityDoes the recording document an occurrence, or define the object?

Documents event

Defines work

The master is two mixes joined, with a live broadcast baked in.

Transformational tolerance

Very low. Even the Beatles could not have made the same mix twice.

Confidence: 86%

Sessions, scores and the mix are documented day by day.

Keep arguing

Every placement is relative. These are the songs this one was measured against.

The record

A 16-piece ensemble recorded George Martin's score, and sixteen session singers sang written parts.Source ↗
During mixing on 29 September 1967 a live BBC radio broadcast of King Lear was fed straight into the mix. Lennon did not know what the play was.Source ↗
Two of seventeen mono mixes were spliced to make the master.Source ↗
Sixteen takes of the basic track were recorded, five of them complete.Source ↗

Where the sources disagree

No source that was opened states whether the Beatles ever played it live.

Catalog facts

Catalog no.: GLI·TB·014
Artist: The Beatles
Writers: Lennon–McCartney
Release: First released as the B-side of Hello, Goodbye, November 1967, and on Magical Mystery Tour.
Released: 24 November 1967
Duration: 4:33

Sources

Classified 5 October 2026