WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.419 In 1987, one of the most famous musicians on 00:00:02.419 --> 00:00:04.620 earth hired a left -handed bass player, zipped 00:00:04.620 --> 00:00:08.759 him into a giant Walrus suit, and just initiated 00:00:08.759 --> 00:00:11.439 a lie that would fool millions of fans for well 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:14.039 over a decade. Yeah. It really was wild. And 00:00:14.039 --> 00:00:16.760 the craziest part is he didn't do it to cover 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:19.280 up some massive scandal. He did it to build a 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:21.339 puzzle. Right. It was this brilliant, highly 00:00:21.339 --> 00:00:25.480 calculated piece of public manipulation, really. 00:00:25.899 --> 00:00:27.879 We're looking at an artist who totally understood 00:00:27.879 --> 00:00:30.410 that sometimes The absolute best way to deal 00:00:30.410 --> 00:00:32.869 with the monumental legacy is to, you know, just 00:00:32.869 --> 00:00:34.909 turn it into a game. Welcome, everyone. Today 00:00:34.909 --> 00:00:37.329 we are taking you on a custom tailored deep dive 00:00:37.329 --> 00:00:40.649 into George Harrison's 1988 single When We Was 00:00:40.649 --> 00:00:43.590 Fab. Such a great track. It really is. And we're 00:00:43.590 --> 00:00:46.210 exploring how he weaponized nostalgia to trick. 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:49.240 delight, and ultimately reclaim his own legendary 00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:52.399 past. Exactly. So our mission for this deep dive 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:55.859 is to explore how a massively famous artist successfully 00:00:55.859 --> 00:00:58.640 packages their own history into a cohesive piece 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:00.700 of nostalgic art. Yeah, how you take your own 00:01:00.700 --> 00:01:03.520 myth and box it up. Right, and to do this we 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:06.120 are relying on a really comprehensive Wikipedia 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:08.859 article. It details the song's production, its 00:01:08.859 --> 00:01:11.700 chart history, the incredibly detailed cover 00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:14.560 art and of course that legendary music video. 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:16.959 Oh the video is a masterpiece. We're going to 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:19.239 examine how this whole project operates not just 00:01:19.239 --> 00:01:22.739 as like standard pop music but as a densely layered 00:01:22.739 --> 00:01:25.459 historical scavenger hunt designed specifically 00:01:25.459 --> 00:01:28.500 for you the listener to decode. It really is 00:01:28.500 --> 00:01:30.640 a master class in self -reflection. I mean it's 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:33.480 George Harrison looking back at the 1960s the 00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:36.140 era when the Beatles were first dubbed the Fab 00:01:36.140 --> 00:01:39.340 Four right? Right. And figuring out how to articulate 00:01:39.340 --> 00:01:41.879 that experience decades later. Yeah. But doing 00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:44.239 it without sounding bitter or, you know, stuck 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:46.519 in the past. OK, let's unpack this because we 00:01:46.519 --> 00:01:48.480 have to start with the core foundation of this 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:50.579 nostalgia trip, which is the music itself. The 00:01:50.579 --> 00:01:52.379 literal sound of it. Right. Before we get to 00:01:52.379 --> 00:01:54.420 the video or how the public reacted, we need 00:01:54.420 --> 00:01:56.319 to understand the mechanics of how Harrison built 00:01:56.319 --> 00:01:59.959 a sonic bridge. back to the 1960s. So it was 00:01:59.959 --> 00:02:02.719 released in January 1988 as the second single 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:06.180 from his 1987 album, Cloud Nine. A fantastic 00:02:06.180 --> 00:02:09.020 album. It was. And he co -wrote and co -produced 00:02:09.020 --> 00:02:11.719 this track with Jeff Lyn. Ah, Jeff Lyn. Yeah. 00:02:11.939 --> 00:02:14.120 And I want you, the listener, to think of this 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:19.419 song like a sonic Trojan horse. On the outside, 00:02:19.699 --> 00:02:23.560 it's this polished, upbeat 1980s pop music with 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:26.259 Jeff Lyn's characteristically shiny production. 00:02:26.300 --> 00:02:28.939 Very shiny. But then once it gets inside your 00:02:28.939 --> 00:02:32.500 ears, the trapdoor opens and outpours this army 00:02:32.500 --> 00:02:36.639 of 1967 psychedelic ghosts. I kind of view it 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:39.659 like a meticulously curated museum exhibit of 00:02:39.659 --> 00:02:43.120 1967, where every instrument is a distinct historical 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:45.340 artifact placed behind glass for us to view. 00:02:45.400 --> 00:02:47.479 Oh, that's a great way to put it. What's fascinating 00:02:47.479 --> 00:02:49.979 here is the actual mechanics of auditory nostalgia. 00:02:50.500 --> 00:02:52.699 Harrison and Lynn synthesize specific sounds 00:02:52.699 --> 00:02:55.219 to instantly trigger a reaction in the listener's 00:02:55.219 --> 00:02:56.819 brain. They aren't just playing instruments here. 00:02:56.919 --> 00:02:59.719 They are turning musical tools into psychological 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:02.340 anchors for the Beatlemania era. Take the sitar, 00:03:02.340 --> 00:03:04.620 for instance. Oh, the sitar is iconic. Right. 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:07.860 Harrison famously introduced this complex Indian 00:03:07.860 --> 00:03:10.439 stringed instrument to Western pop music back 00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:13.500 in the mid -1960s. So when you hear that distinctive 00:03:13.500 --> 00:03:17.580 buzzing resonance in When We Was Fab, your brain 00:03:17.580 --> 00:03:20.099 doesn't just hear a nice melody. No, you're just 00:03:20.099 --> 00:03:22.759 suddenly there. Exactly. It subconsciously transports 00:03:22.759 --> 00:03:26.180 you directly back to 1967. And then there are 00:03:26.180 --> 00:03:28.870 the backwards relayed tape effects. which I love. 00:03:28.949 --> 00:03:31.330 Oh yeah, those are classic. For anyone who hasn't 00:03:31.330 --> 00:03:34.830 sat in a vintage analog recording studio, it 00:03:34.830 --> 00:03:37.110 is literally what it sounds like. Back during 00:03:37.110 --> 00:03:39.590 the Sada Pepper era, the Beatles popularized 00:03:39.590 --> 00:03:41.969 this by physically taking the magnetic recording 00:03:41.969 --> 00:03:44.370 tape and threading it through the playback machine 00:03:44.370 --> 00:03:46.610 in the wrong direction. Which is just so cool 00:03:46.610 --> 00:03:50.210 to think about. It creates this completely unnatural 00:03:50.210 --> 00:03:53.009 sweeping sound where the fade out of the note 00:03:53.009 --> 00:03:55.449 actually happens before the sharp attack of the 00:03:55.449 --> 00:03:58.150 instrument. Wow. Yeah, it completely defies the 00:03:58.150 --> 00:04:00.930 normal laws of acoustics. By recreating that 00:04:00.930 --> 00:04:04.509 specific auditory physics in 1988, Lin and Harrison 00:04:04.509 --> 00:04:06.949 are cueing the listener's brain that they've 00:04:06.949 --> 00:04:08.629 stepped into a time machine. That makes total 00:04:08.629 --> 00:04:11.129 sense. Add in a string quartet and a cello, which 00:04:11.129 --> 00:04:13.669 was played here by Bobby Koch, and you have a 00:04:13.669 --> 00:04:16.029 complete auditory resurrection of their psychedelic 00:04:16.029 --> 00:04:18.199 peak. Wait, wait. So he is essentially quoting 00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:20.779 his own musical resume. Basically, yeah. He's 00:04:20.779 --> 00:04:22.839 legally plagiarizing his 20 -year -old self. 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:25.720 Our source material actually notes the track 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:28.519 shares direct musical similarities with I Am 00:04:28.519 --> 00:04:32.160 the Walrus from 1967 and the continuing story 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:35.699 of Bengalo Bill from 1968. Oh, yeah. Even the 00:04:35.699 --> 00:04:38.379 fade out of the song. contains a really distinct 00:04:38.379 --> 00:04:42.459 musical nod to the melody of Drive My Car. And 00:04:42.459 --> 00:04:44.800 the lyrics amplify that effect entirely. I mean, 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:47.079 they serve as a literal bibliography of the era. 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:49.920 He references the Smokey Robinson track, the 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:52.180 Beatles' famously covered, You Really Gotta Hold 00:04:52.180 --> 00:04:55.040 On Me. Oh, right. He name drops his own philosophical 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:57.180 Beatles composition, Within You, Without You. 00:04:57.220 --> 00:04:59.339 Which is a great song. Incredible song. And he 00:04:59.339 --> 00:05:01.579 throws in a nod to Bob Dylan with the line, It's 00:05:01.579 --> 00:05:04.180 all over now, baby blue. Harrison and Lynn were 00:05:04.180 --> 00:05:06.420 deliberately using George Martin's signature 00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:08.779 production techniques as a color palette. And 00:05:08.779 --> 00:05:10.879 just for context, George Martin was the Beatles' 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:13.540 legendary producer. The fifth Beatle, some say. 00:05:14.040 --> 00:05:17.480 Exactly. Long before digital software existed... 00:05:17.480 --> 00:05:20.160 Martin would physically cut the magnetic recording 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:22.959 tape with a razor blade and splice it back together 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:25.480 to create these sudden surreal shifts in the 00:05:25.480 --> 00:05:27.800 music. Which took forever to do. I can't even 00:05:27.800 --> 00:05:30.420 imagine. And the music press at the time completely 00:05:30.420 --> 00:05:33.279 understood the assignment. Cashbox magazine actually 00:05:33.279 --> 00:05:35.600 reviewed the single when it came out and called 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:38.740 it a historical recreation, complete with cellos, 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:41.980 George Martin -like edits, sitars, and time machine. 00:05:42.250 --> 00:05:44.750 They totally got it. They even brought in Ringo 00:05:44.750 --> 00:05:47.149 Starr to play drums and provide backing vocals 00:05:47.149 --> 00:05:49.930 on the track. No way. Yeah. So you literally 00:05:49.930 --> 00:05:52.310 have half of the actual Beatles physically present 00:05:52.310 --> 00:05:54.750 in the studio recreating the sound of their own 00:05:54.750 --> 00:05:57.910 youth. OK. So what does this all mean? Because 00:05:57.910 --> 00:05:59.970 I have to push back a little here. There is a 00:05:59.970 --> 00:06:03.110 massive inherent artistic risk. in doing this. 00:06:03.189 --> 00:06:05.670 How so? Well, is there a danger in a musician 00:06:05.670 --> 00:06:09.069 relying so heavily on their past legacy? Like, 00:06:09.209 --> 00:06:11.410 does it risk coming off as a desperate cash grab 00:06:11.410 --> 00:06:13.529 or just showing that they're completely out of 00:06:13.529 --> 00:06:16.750 fresh ideas? That's a fair point. But if we connect 00:06:16.750 --> 00:06:19.970 this to the bigger picture, the 1988 public reaction 00:06:19.970 --> 00:06:21.810 completely validates the approach. OK, let's 00:06:21.810 --> 00:06:23.269 look at the numbers. Let's look at the chart 00:06:23.269 --> 00:06:25.889 performance. The song kicked at number 25 on 00:06:25.889 --> 00:06:28.269 the UK singles chart. In the U .S., it reached 00:06:28.269 --> 00:06:30.889 number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it went 00:06:30.889 --> 00:06:33.649 all the way to number two on the U .S. mainstream 00:06:33.649 --> 00:06:36.970 rock chart. Number two. Wow. Yeah. Furthermore, 00:06:37.189 --> 00:06:39.569 it became Harrison's last Top 40 hit in the U 00:06:39.569 --> 00:06:42.930 .S. But, I mean, does the Top 25 hit actually 00:06:42.930 --> 00:06:45.009 prove it was a generous gift to the culture? 00:06:45.629 --> 00:06:47.230 Or does it just prove that the Beatles brand 00:06:47.230 --> 00:06:49.370 was so bulletproof in the 80s that you could 00:06:49.370 --> 00:06:51.730 put a sitar on literally anything and guarantee 00:06:51.730 --> 00:06:54.149 radio play? Well. Because to put that number 00:06:54.149 --> 00:06:57.490 23 peak into perspective, Harrison was a 45 -year 00:06:57.490 --> 00:06:59.970 -old man competing on the pop charts in 1988 00:06:59.970 --> 00:07:02.810 against Michael Jackson's bad, Whitney Houston 00:07:02.810 --> 00:07:05.790 and Def Leppard. That is a tough crowd. The pop 00:07:05.790 --> 00:07:08.050 landscape was totally dominated by drum machines 00:07:08.050 --> 00:07:11.250 and heavy synthesizers. The fact that a psychedelic 00:07:11.250 --> 00:07:13.550 throwback track survived in that specific environment 00:07:13.550 --> 00:07:16.430 is staggering. But its survival in that synth 00:07:16.430 --> 00:07:19.689 -heavy 1980s pop landscape is exactly the point. 00:07:20.220 --> 00:07:23.180 By the late 1980s, the bitter dust of the Beatles 00:07:23.180 --> 00:07:25.939 breakup had long settled. That's true. So when 00:07:25.939 --> 00:07:28.660 this incredibly organic nostalgic track hit the 00:07:28.660 --> 00:07:31.079 radio, it wasn't perceived as a lack of ideas. 00:07:31.379 --> 00:07:34.079 It succeeded as a very catchy modern pop song, 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:37.000 modern for 1988 anyway. Right, right. But its 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:39.740 deeper value lay in how it allowed fans to safely 00:07:39.740 --> 00:07:42.339 process their shared cultural memory of the Fab 00:07:42.339 --> 00:07:44.459 Four. Our sources actually point out this was 00:07:44.459 --> 00:07:47.379 his second major hit explicitly reflecting on 00:07:47.379 --> 00:07:50.100 his years as a Beatle. The first one was... all 00:07:50.100 --> 00:07:52.800 those years ago, released in 1981. Oh, right. 00:07:52.860 --> 00:07:55.279 Which was largely a tribute to John Lennon shortly 00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:57.459 after his assassination. And that is a crucial 00:07:57.459 --> 00:08:00.220 distinction. The 1981 track was born of tragedy 00:08:00.220 --> 00:08:02.240 and mourning. Yeah, it was very heavy. Exactly. 00:08:02.819 --> 00:08:05.740 But by 1988, Harrison was acknowledging the era 00:08:05.740 --> 00:08:08.620 with real affection and musical accuracy, giving 00:08:08.620 --> 00:08:11.019 the audience permission to revel in the nostalgia 00:08:11.019 --> 00:08:14.240 of the 1960s without it feeling somber. The Beatles 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:16.040 were a phenomenon that belonged to the world, 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:18.120 and Harrison was essentially acting as a generous 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:21.220 custodian of that. And it has genuine enduring 00:08:21.220 --> 00:08:25.839 popularity. In 2010, AOL radio listeners actually 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:29.540 voted When We Was Fab as number nine on their 00:08:29.540 --> 00:08:32.480 list of the ten best George Harrison songs. Number 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:35.340 nine. That's impressive. It wasn't just a flash 00:08:35.340 --> 00:08:37.940 -in -the -pan novelty hit. But to make this nostalgia 00:08:37.940 --> 00:08:40.639 trip truly effective, the audio was only half 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:43.120 the battle. So the audio was a massive success, 00:08:43.500 --> 00:08:47.259 but a sonic time machine only goes so far. To 00:08:47.259 --> 00:08:49.879 fully resurrect the Beatles mythology for an 00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:52.620 MTV generation, Harrison had to translate those 00:08:52.620 --> 00:08:56.100 auditory ghosts into f - physical visual proof. 00:08:56.480 --> 00:08:58.299 Transitioning the nostalgia from the ears to 00:08:58.299 --> 00:09:00.580 the eyes. And they started that process before 00:09:00.580 --> 00:09:02.720 you even pulled the vinyl record out of the sleeve. 00:09:02.779 --> 00:09:05.139 Oh, with the cover art. Exactly. The single cover 00:09:05.139 --> 00:09:07.039 is brilliant. It was created by Klaus Vormann. 00:09:07.240 --> 00:09:09.620 And for those who don't know, Vormann is a legendary 00:09:09.620 --> 00:09:11.779 figure in Beatles history himself. Very much 00:09:11.779 --> 00:09:15.059 so. He created the iconic 1966 black and white 00:09:15.059 --> 00:09:17.960 line drawing cover for the Revolver album. Right. 00:09:18.179 --> 00:09:20.340 And for When We Was Fab, Vorman incorporates 00:09:20.340 --> 00:09:23.259 his original 1966 drawing of Harrison. You can 00:09:23.259 --> 00:09:26.299 literally see the letters ER from the word revolver 00:09:26.299 --> 00:09:29.000 in the image. I love that detail. It's so good. 00:09:29.299 --> 00:09:33.159 He puts that alongside a brand new updated drawing 00:09:33.159 --> 00:09:36.639 of Harrison from 22 years later. We actually 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:39.220 have a revealing quote from Klaus Vorman from 00:09:39.220 --> 00:09:42.539 a May 2020 issue of Uncut magazine. What did 00:09:42.539 --> 00:09:44.740 he say? He said, George said, I have a song. 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:47.120 It's reminiscing about the old days. Can you 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:49.779 do a cover? I took the same picture from the 00:09:49.779 --> 00:09:52.620 revolver cover, the old George, and put a new 00:09:52.620 --> 00:09:55.200 George on the bottom. Wow, just directly stacking 00:09:55.200 --> 00:09:57.039 them. Yeah, it's highly effective because it 00:09:57.039 --> 00:09:59.100 forces the viewer to look at the unvarnished 00:09:59.100 --> 00:10:01.679 passage of time directly. Here's where it gets 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:04.309 really interesting though. Because if the cover 00:10:04.309 --> 00:10:07.429 art was a clever juxtaposition of old and new, 00:10:07.929 --> 00:10:10.690 the music video was an absolute explosion of 00:10:10.690 --> 00:10:13.009 visual mythology. Explosion is the perfect word 00:10:13.009 --> 00:10:15.490 for it. It was directed by the duo Godly and 00:10:15.490 --> 00:10:17.990 Krem and filmed at Green Food Studios in London 00:10:17.990 --> 00:10:22.409 in December of 1987. It was so meticulously crafted 00:10:22.409 --> 00:10:25.590 that it garnered six nominations at the 1988 00:10:25.590 --> 00:10:29.230 MTV Video Music Awards. Six. Yeah, including 00:10:29.230 --> 00:10:31.830 a nomination for Best Art Director for Sid Bartholomew. 00:10:32.169 --> 00:10:35.210 I want you, the listener, to think of this video 00:10:35.210 --> 00:10:37.549 as an interactive Where's Waldo of British Ross 00:10:37.549 --> 00:10:40.190 lore. That is exactly what it is. The premise 00:10:40.190 --> 00:10:42.529 of the video is seemingly simple. George Harrison 00:10:42.529 --> 00:10:45.230 is busking, which, you know, simply means playing 00:10:45.230 --> 00:10:47.009 music on the street for loose change in front 00:10:47.009 --> 00:10:49.549 of a brick wall while various people pass him 00:10:49.549 --> 00:10:52.230 by. Pretty standard music video setup. Right. 00:10:52.850 --> 00:10:55.690 But the execution is totally loaded with symbolic 00:10:55.690 --> 00:10:58.340 weight. First of all, Harrison is depicted with 00:10:58.340 --> 00:11:01.419 multiple arms playing multiple instruments simultaneously. 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:04.500 Like an illusion. Yes, evoking the many armed 00:11:04.500 --> 00:11:07.379 gods of Hindu traditions, which is a direct nod 00:11:07.379 --> 00:11:09.879 to his deep spiritual connection to India. Oh, 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:12.820 of course. He's also wearing his highly distinctive, 00:11:13.220 --> 00:11:15.399 brightly colored outfit from the cover of Cy 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:17.899 Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. You can't miss 00:11:17.899 --> 00:11:20.600 it. No, you really can't. And there's a prominent 00:11:20.600 --> 00:11:23.620 visual of a green apple. the undeniable corporate 00:11:23.620 --> 00:11:26.419 logo of the Beatles company, Apple Records. And 00:11:26.419 --> 00:11:29.840 the cameos. It's a literal street parade of British 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:32.440 music royalty. It's insane who shows up. You've 00:11:32.440 --> 00:11:34.879 got Ringo Starr showing up twice. Yeah. First 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:36.879 as Harrison's roadie, and then later as a drummer. 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:39.600 You got his co -producer, Jeff Lynn. You have 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:41.820 Elton John walking by and dropping a coin into 00:11:41.820 --> 00:11:44.340 Harrison's busking cup. I love that Elton John 00:11:44.340 --> 00:11:46.460 is just casually dropping a coin in. I know, 00:11:46.460 --> 00:11:49.220 it's so funny. Percussionist Ray Cooper is there. 00:11:50.039 --> 00:11:52.929 And... maybe the most poignant cameo of all. 00:11:53.470 --> 00:11:56.610 Neil Aspinall, The Beatles, former road manager 00:11:56.610 --> 00:11:59.769 and head of Apple Corps, walks by holding a physical 00:11:59.769 --> 00:12:04.090 copy of John Lennon's 1971 album, Imagine. Yeah. 00:12:04.250 --> 00:12:06.629 Aspinal holding the Imagine album is a really 00:12:06.629 --> 00:12:09.330 profound visual metaphor. It definitely hits 00:12:09.330 --> 00:12:11.629 hard. It's a way of ensuring Lennon's presence 00:12:11.629 --> 00:12:14.710 is felt in this retrospective, honoring him without 00:12:14.710 --> 00:12:17.490 disrupting the playful tone of the video. The 00:12:17.490 --> 00:12:20.049 history of the Beatles was incredibly burdensome 00:12:20.049 --> 00:12:21.750 for the individuals involved. Oh, absolutely. 00:12:21.809 --> 00:12:23.769 The pressure must have been immense. Definitely. 00:12:24.029 --> 00:12:26.490 So by dressing up in the old iconic suit and 00:12:26.490 --> 00:12:28.629 literally playing for loose change on the street, 00:12:29.070 --> 00:12:31.309 Harrison is playfully reclaiming his own narrative. 00:12:31.590 --> 00:12:34.250 He's stripping away the untouchable God -like 00:12:34.250 --> 00:12:36.269 myth of the band and bringing it back down to 00:12:36.269 --> 00:12:38.730 earth. But the funny thing is, by playing with 00:12:38.730 --> 00:12:40.830 the myth, they deliberately created a brand new 00:12:40.830 --> 00:12:43.309 one. Yep, they did. Digging into the specific 00:12:43.309 --> 00:12:45.929 imagery of this video naturally leads us to the 00:12:45.929 --> 00:12:48.909 most enduring mystery it generated. It proves 00:12:48.909 --> 00:12:51.769 that this visual scavenger hunt was almost too 00:12:51.769 --> 00:12:53.769 successful at getting people to look for hidden 00:12:53.769 --> 00:12:56.070 meanings. You're referring, of course, to the 00:12:56.070 --> 00:12:58.429 walrus. I am referring to the walrus. OK. So 00:12:58.429 --> 00:13:01.090 in the video, there is a figure entirely enclosed 00:13:01.090 --> 00:13:04.230 in a full body walrus suit playing the bass guitar. 00:13:04.990 --> 00:13:07.529 And notably, the bassist is playing the instrument 00:13:07.529 --> 00:13:10.220 left handed. Which is the massive clue. Right. 00:13:10.840 --> 00:13:12.519 Now anyone who knows anything about the Beatles 00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:15.399 knows that Paul McCartney is a famous left handed 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:18.820 bass player. So instantly the rumor mill explodes. 00:13:19.610 --> 00:13:21.769 Everyone is convinced that Paul McCartney is 00:13:21.769 --> 00:13:24.210 in the video secretly wearing the walrus suit 00:13:24.210 --> 00:13:26.769 to complete a stealthy Beatles reunion. And Harrison 00:13:26.769 --> 00:13:29.289 actively fueled the myth. He leaned right into 00:13:29.289 --> 00:13:31.750 it. He totally did. In a televised interview 00:13:31.750 --> 00:13:34.389 around 1988, he was asked about the rumor and 00:13:34.389 --> 00:13:36.210 he flat out claimed that McCartney was in the 00:13:36.210 --> 00:13:38.789 video. His exact quote was that McCartney was 00:13:38.789 --> 00:13:40.909 camera shy that day and he kept his walrus mask 00:13:40.909 --> 00:13:43.409 on. Which is just a brilliant, cheeky response. 00:13:43.889 --> 00:13:46.610 But the truth was finally revealed by Paul McCartney 00:13:46.610 --> 00:13:50.370 himself in a 1995 interview with Record Collector 00:13:50.370 --> 00:13:53.389 magazine. Oh, what did Paul say? Courtney said, 00:13:54.009 --> 00:13:56.230 George wanted me to be in it, but I wasn't available. 00:13:56.480 --> 00:13:58.860 So I suggested that he put someone else in the 00:13:58.860 --> 00:14:01.399 walrus and tell everyone that it was me. Oh my 00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:03.720 gosh This raises important question about the 00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:06.340 mechanics of pop culture mythology. Well, yeah, 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:09.139 why lie? I mean, why would two of the most famous 00:14:09.139 --> 00:14:12.179 musicians on earth? Intentionally lie to their 00:14:12.179 --> 00:14:14.639 millions of fans, right? Was it just an inside 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:17.419 joke between two old friends who were tired of 00:14:17.419 --> 00:14:20.259 the media circus? Or was it a brilliant deliberate 00:14:20.259 --> 00:14:23.500 marketing tactic to ensure people kept analyzing 00:14:23.500 --> 00:14:25.820 and talking about the video? It's really a collaborative 00:14:25.870 --> 00:14:27.830 making exercise. You have to remember the context 00:14:27.830 --> 00:14:30.269 these two men lived through. Harrison and McCartney 00:14:30.269 --> 00:14:32.929 survived the Paula's dead rumors of the late 00:14:32.929 --> 00:14:36.269 1960s. Oh, where fans genuinely believed McCartney 00:14:36.269 --> 00:14:38.909 had died in a car crash and been replaced by 00:14:38.909 --> 00:14:42.100 a look -alike. Exactly. They watched the public 00:14:42.100 --> 00:14:44.759 play their records backwards, looking for secret, 00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:48.259 demonic messages. They watched people overanalyze 00:14:48.259 --> 00:14:50.879 every square inch of their album covers, looking 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:53.240 for clues. It must have been exhausting. It was. 00:14:53.879 --> 00:14:56.820 But they understood first -hand that an unsolved 00:14:56.820 --> 00:14:59.519 mystery is often far more engaging to the public 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:02.179 than the simple, boring truth of a scheduling 00:15:02.179 --> 00:15:04.639 conflict. When Harrison and McCartney lied about 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:07.299 the Walrus suit, they were tapping into something 00:15:07.299 --> 00:15:09.879 fundamental about human nature. Yeah. We don't 00:15:09.879 --> 00:15:12.720 want the boring truth. We want a puzzle. Always. 00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:14.919 Think about how you feel when a movie director 00:15:14.919 --> 00:15:17.720 hides an Easter egg in a background frame. It 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:19.539 makes you feel like an insider, like you're part 00:15:19.539 --> 00:15:22.759 of a secret club. Right. Harrison was mass producing 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:25.659 that exact insider feeling. And it wasn't even 00:15:25.659 --> 00:15:27.980 the only rumor the video spawned. There was a 00:15:27.980 --> 00:15:30.460 secondary rumor going around for years that Paul 00:15:30.460 --> 00:15:32.899 Simon was the figure pushing a cart in the video. 00:15:33.049 --> 00:15:35.289 Oh, I remember that one. Yeah, that one actually 00:15:35.289 --> 00:15:38.149 had to be shot down decades later in 2020 by 00:15:38.149 --> 00:15:40.700 the video's director, Kevin Godley. He went on 00:15:40.700 --> 00:15:42.919 the Nothing is Real podcast and stated he had 00:15:42.919 --> 00:15:44.960 no recollection of Paul Simon being involved 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:47.139 at all. It just goes to show how effectively 00:15:47.139 --> 00:15:50.039 this video trained the audience's brains. It 00:15:50.039 --> 00:15:52.500 taught viewers to look at every extra, every 00:15:52.500 --> 00:15:55.139 prop and assume it held deep, secret significance. 00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:57.580 It's a perfect synthesis of audio and visual 00:15:57.580 --> 00:15:59.799 storytelling. So let's recap this incredible 00:15:59.799 --> 00:16:02.419 journey of when we was fab. We started with a 00:16:02.419 --> 00:16:04.919 perfectly crafted sonic tribute. George Harrison 00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:08.519 and Jeff Lin, utilizing string quartets, backwards 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:11.720 magnetic tapes, and buzzing sitars to intentionally 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:15.059 trigger the psychological anchors of 1967. We 00:16:15.059 --> 00:16:17.799 then saw how that auditory time machine really 00:16:17.799 --> 00:16:19.620 resonated with the public, climbing the charts 00:16:19.620 --> 00:16:22.100 in an era dominated by synthesizers, and proving 00:16:22.100 --> 00:16:24.299 that there is a deep human need to safely process 00:16:24.299 --> 00:16:26.879 shared cultural memories. And finally, we unpacked 00:16:26.879 --> 00:16:28.879 the visual puzzle box of the cover art and the 00:16:28.879 --> 00:16:32.019 MTV nominated music video. A project so dense 00:16:32.019 --> 00:16:34.259 with historical cameos, visual metaphors, and 00:16:34.259 --> 00:16:36.360 deliberate Easter eggs that it spawned decades 00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:38.940 of rumors, including a collaborative lie between 00:16:38.940 --> 00:16:41.860 old bandmates just to keep the mythology alive. 00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:45.039 By embracing his past with humor, musical precision, 00:16:45.259 --> 00:16:48.059 and a bit of mystery, Harrison ensured that the 00:16:48.059 --> 00:16:50.220 legacy of the Beatles continued to be a living, 00:16:50.220 --> 00:16:53.019 breathing thing rather than just a dusty chapter 00:16:53.019 --> 00:16:55.100 in a history book. And that ties directly back 00:16:55.100 --> 00:16:57.740 to you, the listener. It's about the power of 00:16:57.740 --> 00:17:01.000 embracing and playfully remixing your own history 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:03.240 rather than running away from it. You don't have 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:05.359 to hide from your past. You can put on a sweet 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:07.819 pepper suit and busk with it. I love that. Which 00:17:07.819 --> 00:17:09.980 leaves us with a final lingering thought to mull 00:17:09.980 --> 00:17:13.420 over today. We know George Harrison used a literal 00:17:13.420 --> 00:17:16.079 walrus mask and a fake left -handed bass player 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:18.819 to playfully manipulate his own band's massive 00:17:18.819 --> 00:17:22.950 mythology. If you were to create a piece of art 00:17:22.950 --> 00:17:25.529 reflecting on your own past, what deliberate 00:17:25.529 --> 00:17:27.890 masks or misleading Easter eggs would you leave 00:17:27.890 --> 00:17:30.849 behind to confuse or delight the people trying 00:17:30.849 --> 00:17:32.190 to decode your personal history?