Forbidden Fruit: Solving the Hidden Puzzle in the Beatles' Works (eBook)

Chapter 3

Making Sense of “I am the Walrus”

The best place to start the search for critical word clues is with the most baffling song, which for most people would be “I am the Walrus.” As mentioned before, few have been able to make any sense of the lyrics to this song whatsoever. That’s because most of the lyrics to the song were never meant to make any sense. “I am the Walrus” is primarily a collection of word clues. While the other Beatles songs from this era are sprinkled throughout with word clues, most of the lines in “I am the Walrus” contain almost nothing except word clues, and that makes it the perfect song to start with, since the necessary focus here is on words and not on lyrics per se.

Those words point to one thing – to the city of Seattle. Additionally, “Glass Onion” on The Beatles (The White Album) is actually a follow-up song in which John addresses those who didn’t get the clues in “I am the Walrus,” i.e., pretty much everyone who wasn’t an insider. In this follow up song, he is giving even more word clues that lead to Seattle, and to its immediate vicinity, as well as other clues as to the overall story he is telling that involves Seattle. What could possibly be so important about Seattle where the Beatles are concerned, though?

Some researchers believe that Seattle was the last place where the original Paul McCartney was seen alive in public.32 This was on August 25, 1966, toward the end of the Beatles’ 1966 American tour. Others believe that he disappeared in September or later, and actually there are a few pictures and film clips that are alleged to be of the original Paul after August 25th. These pictures cannot be relied on, though. Some of them are actually recycled from an earlier date, while others have been altered in a variety of ways. Examples of the various types of altered or recycled pictures of Paul are referenced in Appendix D.

There are still other pictures that definitely were taken after August 25th, 1966, but that actually show Paul’s doubles. For example, on August 29th, the date of the Beatles’ final concert on the tour, which was at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, there were many pictures taken of “Paul McCartney” at the airport. They actually show a very recognizable double. Pictures of this double can be viewed alongside pictures of the original Paul online.33

Joey Armato, who was a security guard at Candlestick Park on August 29th, also witnessed the use of a double for Paul McCartney that night at the concert, and noted that the double was taller than John Lennon.34 The real Paul McCartney was the same height as John. Of course, the use of a double doesn’t prove that Paul had been replaced at that time, but it’s important to eliminate those pictures that show a double when searching for evidence that Paul was still around.

The opening act for the Beatles at their San Francisco concert was a group called The Remains. One member of that group, Barry Tashian, said that it was an unusual concert in that the stage was placed far away from the screaming fans. “The audience was about 200 feet away – much farther than usual,” he remembered. “It made us feel extremely isolated…”35 As a result, fans could not see the performers nearly as well as they normally could.

Perhaps this isolation was necessary so that the audience could not see that the real Paul was not on the stage. In addition to this, The Memoirs of Billy Shears claims that Paul and John made a recording during the first week of August, 1966 that was played at the end of their tour. If John and “Paul” were not singing live in San Francisco, but lip syncing, because the real Paul was not on stage, this would have been another reason to keep the audience at a distance.36

Whether the real Paul was there or not, though, given that some researchers point to Seattle as the last place Paul was seen alive, the fact that there are a substantial number of clues in “I am the Walrus” that clearly point to Seattle is particularly interesting. There are at least 25 of those clues. Among them are 22 key words that form a collage of word clues that very definitely paints a picture of Seattle in the 1960s. The 22 words are:

1. “walrus,”

2. “eggman,”

3. “eggmen,”

4. “pigs,”

5. “cornflake,”

6. “corporation,”

7. “tee-shirt,”

8. “bloody,”

9. “Tuesday,”

10. “crab,”

11. “locker,”

12. “fishwife,”

13. “pornographic,”

14. “priestess,”

15. “English,”

16. “garden,”

17. “rain,”

18. “semolina,”

19. “pilchard,”

20. “elementary,”

21. “penguin,” and

22. “Krishna.”

Then there are 3 other clues that reinforce the picture of Seattle created by these 22 word clues. They are:

23. the Eiffel Tower,

24. the author Edgar Allen Poe, and

25. the fact that a scene from Shakespeare’s King Lear is quoted toward the end of the song.

Obviously, each of these last three clues by themselves point to a place other than Seattle. The Eiffel Tower, of course, suggests Paris, while Edgar Allen Poe hints at Baltimore and King Lear points to Great Britain. Each of the 22 word clues when taken in and of itself might also point to some other place, or to no place at all, but the 25 clues taken as a whole point to one specific place – Seattle.

The Beatles stayed in Seattle both in 1964 and in 1966. Later chapters will discuss clues that indicate that this song is definitely referencing something important that happened on their 1966 visit. The group stayed downtown at the Edgewater Inn, starting in the late morning on the 25th of August, 1966. It was here that they gave their last press conference before the original Paul McCartney is alleged by some to have gone missing.37 So, it’s significant that each of the 25 clues above point to something that the Beatles were likely to have either seen or learned about from having stayed in downtown Seattle.

The word “walrus” as a word clue refers to the Arctic Building in downtown Seattle. This building is also known as the Walrus building, because of the 27 terra cotta walrus heads lining the building’s façade at the 3rd floor level. It is a very well-known Seattle landmark, and is located on the NE corner of Third Avenue and Cherry St.

The “eggman” and the “eggmen” clues also appear to refer to specific locations in downtown Seattle. At the time “I am the Walrus” was written, there was a small, short-order café that was not far away from the Arctic Building. It was called the Golden Egg Café, and as the name would suggest, its specialty was eggs. A short-order cook who specializes in cooking eggs is often referred to as an egg man. The owner of this little restaurant, whether he was actually the main egg cook or not, could also have been called the egg man. That’s because he had placed a giant golden egg above its entrance, advertising that he sold eggs.38

Although his café was located at 7th and Pike, an area thought to be particularly sinful by many who referred to Seattle at that time as “Sin City,” it was actually still in the heart of downtown Seattle. It was also not far from the Beatles’ hotel, a new hotel on the waterfront. Because of the visual prominence of this giant golden egg, the egg was likely to have been seen by anyone driving around downtown sight-seeing, and could easily have inspired the “eggman” clue, especially since there were some “eggmen” located just a few blocks towards the waterfront from the restaurant. These “eggmen” were the farmers from nearby chicken ranches who sold their eggs at the Gem Egg Market.39 This was a very popular place because it was here that residents could buy the freshest eggs available in Seattle at that time.

Together, these three sites (the Golden Egg, the Gem Egg Market and the Walrus Building) provide the ingredients for the chorus to “I am the Walrus,” which is about an “eggman,” some “eggmen” and a “walrus.” Couldn’t that all just be coincidence, though? Of course. So, let’s look at more Seattle clues.

The Gem Egg Market was part of a larger complex that is still there, known as The Public Market (now known as the Pike Place Market). This market is located between 2nd Ave and the Waterfront, and the hotel where the Beatles stayed is only 6 blocks away.40 The Public Market was a bustling place in the 1960s. Not only could one buy a variety of fresh local food products, as well as gift items and books from the area, but also local musicians would perform there.

In late 1966 and 1967, individuals chanting the Hare Krishna mantra also began appearing there. They were there chanting in the area around the market because, in 1966, the founder of the Krishna organization (ISKCON) had decided to move to the west coast and expand his operations. He was building a temple in Seattle, which would explain why the lyrics to “I am the Walrus” mention Krishna.41

The Public Market also had, and still has, a “world...