HELLO GOODBYE

This is another case where Paul McCartney's song would up on the a-side, and John Lennon's on the reverse. As a business decision this almost certainly the right move insofar as 'Hello Goodbye' was a worldwide #1 song; artistically, though, 'I Am the Walrus' is easily the superior song - - and I say this as someone who ordinarily prefers McCartney's work.

'Hello, Goodbye'

That the b-side is better, however, says little about 'Hello, Goodbye,' which is a nice pop song itself, though not quite a Beatles classic in my opinion. Lyrically it's a little thin; both the verses and the chorus are little more than a repetition of 'you say x, I say not x.' Its lack of a real bridge (I'm not counting the 'why-why-why... do you say goodbye' part) requires a third verse, and winds up being more structurally repetitive than we're used to for a McCartney a-side.

The chorus contains the interesting music, both in terms of melody and chord progression, but for me, this isn't enough to counter the d'j' vu of the verse-chorus-verse-chorus pattern. To be fair, the coda is nearly perfect.

'I Am the Walrus'

With 'Ticket to Ride,' 'Come Together,' and possibly one or two others, 'I Am the Walrus' is one of the very best songs John Lennon ever wrote. While the lyrics to his more straightforward songs - - 'In My Life,' for example, or '(Just Like) Starting Over' or 'Imagine' - - are as good as the average for a pop or rock song, I've always preferred the disjointed impressionism of 'Tomorrow Never Knows,' 'Come Together,' and 'I Am the Walrus.'

Lennon is foremost a great rock-and-roller, and often a good poet. I have no idea, no clue what 'I Am the Walrus' is about, or whether it was ever about anything. But if we assume that it has no meaning beyond an LSD-trip-fractured take on a passage of a poem from Through the Looking Glass, then it's about as deep as 'She Loves You' Or 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.' But even then it provides so many potential tangents - - 'Semolina pilchard,' anyone, 'climbing up the Eiffel Tower?' Or 'yellow matter custard,' perhaps? If it's all crazy, all drug induced, what more fitting chorus than the refrain of 'I am the Walrus?'

In the hands of another band, the words and music of 'I Am the Walrus' would've made for an amusing single for one of the new psychedelic-rock groups popping up in the late 1960s. Maybe it would've been memorable; maybe not. But in the event, Lennon and producer George Martin ensured the song's enduring renown with an arrangement as surreal as the composition itself. The icing, so to speak, was Martin's use of the Mike Sammes Singers.

Summary

In the US, this single was rendered inessential a week after its release, when both sides became available on the Magical Mystery Tour album. In the UK, 'Hello Goodbye' was a non-album single. Nonetheless, given the high quality of both sides, this is a three- star single.