Backdated, archival post
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link to original on tumblr]
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For my Collection Audit project, I'm listening to a compilation album of Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, and I found something that might have influenced "I Am the Walrus." In both "I Am the Walrus" and the Miracles' "Ooh Baby Baby," there's a similarly-delivered line that's just "I'm crying." I'll admit that it's a pretty common lyric, but the delivery is quite similar, not only in how it's sung (with a sort of melisma on "crying"), but both have a bass note on the first syllable of "crying."
The Beatles had at least a passing familiarity with the Miracles, since they covered their "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" on
With the Beatles (and also performed it live, as evidence by the
Live on the BBC album and
Anthology 1).
