Chords for Brad Mehldau Discusses and Plays The Beatles' "I Am the Walrus"

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Hello everyone, I'm Brad Meldow and thank you for your interest in Your Mother Should Know.
This is a new record of mine that's coming out.
And it was a program, it is a program of all music from the Beatles.
_ You know, there were so many songs to choose from that I loved.
_ And you know, you could maybe say that there's sort of groups of Beatles songs.
There's the classics that everybody knows that are kind of sing-along songs
that bring everybody together and they're beautiful and they have a simplicity. _
And then _ _ what I've always been struck by with a lot of the Beatles music,
particularly in their last, that great stretch of records that starts with, I guess,
Rubber Soul, _ _ Revolver, Sgt. _
Pepper's, _ _ Abbey Road, and Let It Be,
and the White Album, of course, _ _ _ is a strangeness in a lot of their music.
_ _ A strangeness in the harmony, _ _ in _ the form of the songs, _
_ _ in the length of the musical phrases,
_ _ and of course in a lot of the subject matter of the lyrics _ _ themselves.
_ _ _ And so I thought it would be fun and a nice challenge as a pianist _ _ _
and as an interpreter slash arranger to hone in on some of those stranger _ tunes.
_ _ _ _ So the album opens up _ with an interpretation of I Am the Walrus
from Magical Mystery Tour, _ which is really a showcase for John, of course. _ _ _ _
And it's definitely one of the stranger ones.
And I remember hearing it as a kid and I didn't like it.
It was unsettling to me.
And then of course I grew into it as I got older.
_ In fact, a lot of the Beatles music when I was young, I just wasn't ready for it
and it was more in my 20s that I really got entrenched in their music.
_ _ _ _ I Am the Walrus opens up with this introduction,
which is right away pretty strange _ harmonically.
And harmonically I mean the chords.
[B] We hear this progression.
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D#] _ [G] Most of that is what's called a whole-tone scale, _ the way [G#] it's descending.
_ _ And it's something you hear in impressionistic music.
You don't hear it in earlier classical music.
And you don't hear it too much in pop music, certainly.
[F#] _ _ [G] _ And then above that you have this little melody [B] that sort of snakes with it.
_ _ _ [A] _ _ [F#m] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ And right away it's an introduction that [N] sort of says,
OK, this is an unusual _ _ _ _ song.
And it continues from there with _ _ John's storytelling,
which is kind of Dadaist in nature,
stringing together these phrases where it's up to us, the listener,
to _ decide what he means.
So I'd like to play that one.
It's the first one on the record.
It's I Am the Walrus. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ [G] _ [Dm] _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ [E] _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [Em] _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
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_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
_ _ [F#] _ [A] _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ [Am] _ [Em] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [G#] _ [B] _ _ _ [C] _
_ [D#] _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
[Dm] _ _ _ [Bm] _ [D] _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ [B] _ [Am] _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
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[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
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_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ [D] _ [C] _ [F#] _
[A] _ _ [B] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ [A] _ [D] _ [D#] _ _ [D] _ _ [B] _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ [G] _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
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[D] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ [G] _ _ [A#] _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _
_ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Bm] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
[Cm] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [D] _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ [F] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ [D#] _ _ [D] _ [B] _ _
_ _ [Cm] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
[C] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ [A] _
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[Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [G] _ _ [Dm] _ [D] _ _ _
[C] _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [F#] _
_ _ [C] _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _ _
[A#m] _ _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ [B] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
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