I Am the Walrus - No I Am: Can Paul McCartney Transpose the Ubiquitous Lennon/McCartney Songwriting Credit to Read McCartney/Lennon - An Exploration of the Surviving Beatle's Attempt to Re-Write Music Lore, as It Pertains to the Bundle of Intellectual Property Rights
![handle is hein.journals/pepplr34 and id is 199 raw text is: I Am the Walrus., - No. I Am!: Can
Paul McCartney Transpose the
Ubiquitous Lennon/McCartney
Songwriting Credit to Read
McCartney/Lennon? An
Exploration of the Surviving Beatle's
Attempt to Re-Write Music Lore, as it
Pertains to the Bundle of Intellectual
Property Rights
1. See THE BEATLES, 1 Am the Walrus, on MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR (Capitol Records 1987)
(1967). Some of the history behind this song foreshadows the acrimonious songwriting credits
dispute that is the focus of this Comment. Though credited to Lennon/McCartney, true authorship
of this song is settled as belonging solely to Lennon. See WILLIAM J. DOWLDING, BEATLESONGS
198 (1989). Nevertheless, Lennon himself created a degree of controversy when in the song Glass
Onion, another Lennon composition, he declared in lyric form that [t]he walrus was Paul. See id.
at 224; see also THE BEATLES, Glass Onion, on THE BEATLES (THE WHITE ALBUM) (Capitol
Records 1988) (1968). There is no indication that this lyric was to ever be taken as an attribution of
authorship, but at least on a symbolic level it alludes to an incongruousness lurking beneath the
tandem's collaborative efforts. Lennon only added to this confusion when commenting on the
unusual Glass Onion lyric: It's a very perverse way of saying to Paul, you know, 'Here, have this
crumb, this illusion, . . . this stroke, because I'm leaving.' See DAVID SHEFF, ALL WE ARE
SAYING: THE LAST MAJOR INTERVIEW WITH JOHN LENNON AND YOKO ONO 87-88 (G. Barry Golson
ed., St. Martin's Griffin 2000) (1981). But see JOHN LENNON, God, on PLASTIC ONO BAND (Capitol
Records 2000) (1970) (lyric stating I was the walrus, but now I'm John). Perhaps the final word
on the mystery of the walrus belongs to the actor Matthew Broderick, whose character Ferris Bueller
once declared: A person should not believe in an 'ism,' he should believe in himself. I quote John
Lennon, 'I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.' ... After all, he was the walrus. I could be
the walrus - I'd still have to bum rides off of people. See FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF (Paramount
Pictures 1986) (emphasis added).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/pepplr34&div=13&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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