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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: The Worst Lyrics You've Ever Heard
Message-ID: <1194@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Oct-84 10:12:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.1194
Posted: Tue Oct  9 10:12:12 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Oct-84 05:04:37 EDT
References: <1069@ihuxm.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 47
Keywords: Beatles, Lennon, Rutles

> A comment to WXRT listeners in Chicago - "I am the Walrus" was
> written as a snide practical joke to the Beatle fans at that
> time who were trying to interpret eveything that the Beatles
> wrote as some kind of message.

Not true.  "Walrus" was written as an outgrowth of multiple acid trips
by a certain Mr. J. Winston Ono Lennon.  The chorus is based on the
Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland) poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter".
Only later in life did Lennon realize that the poem was a Marxist (?)
sociological parable, with the walrus representing the greedy capitalist
and the carpenter representing the working man (or something like that).
Lennon realized he had chosen to be ("I am the ...") wrong thing, but
he also realized that the song might not have been as good if he had called
it "I am the Carpenter"...  (Goo goo ga joob)

The song you may be thinking of (a snide practical joke to Beatles fans)
was "Glass Onion" (one of my OTHER favorite Beatle cuts), in which he
chides "But here's another clue for you all, the walrus was Paul".
During the course of the "Paul is dead" craze (which professed that Sgt.
Pepper's cover was Paul's funeral, complete with car crash and flowers
and topiary bass guitar), someone decided that the walrus was a eskimo
symbol of death (??), and John then retorted that it was HE who wore the
walrus suit.  Until "Glass Onion"...

> The all time best worst lyrics were written by the Rutles.  
> The song was called "Cheese and Onions".  Best spoof ever done.
> Anybody remember it?

I remember when Neil Innes sang it on Saturday Night Live in John Lennon getup
(as Ron Nasty of the Rutles, prior to the film "All You Need is Cash" but
after Eric Idle's first appearance on SNL showcasing his Rutles film "I Must
Be in Love" from his Rutland Weekend TV show), complete with white piano.
The song was meant to parody John Lennon's first solo album replete with
unaccompanied piano and slapback echo voice.  For some reason it was included
on the Rutles album as a sort of parody of A Day in the Life (complete with
buildup orchestral ending, except that instead of ending in a mammoth sustained
piano chord, it ends with a single staccato G in the bass register).  I could
talk for weeks about the Rutles.  But if you want REALLY tasteless parody of
John Lennon's early solo period, try "Magical Misery Tour" from National
Lampoon's Radio Dinner album (a classic).

"Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, piggy in the middle, do a pooh pooh"

And, speaking of John Lennon's Dodgsonesque word play...
-- 
"Come with me now to that secret place where
 the eyes of man have never set foot."		Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr