The Walrus And The Carpenter

“The Walrus And The Carpenter” is a song from Donovan, released on his UK-only 1971 LP, “HMS Donovan“. In November 1968, when in the studio with Paul McCartney for the recording of Mary Hopkin’s album “Post Card“, Donovan started playing this song.

Transcript of Paul McCartney and Donovan recorded during the sessions for Mary Hopkin’s Postcard LP as heard on the “No. 3 Abbey Road N.W. 8” bootleg CD. (reproduced from https://davidgray101.tripod.com/PaulandDonovan.html )

[…] Donovan: Right. I got one that I’ve been working on but I never got ’round…something like this.

Paul: You know it’s just…(Donovan starts playing his guitar, and only snippets of what Paul is saying can be heard)…turning people on…story with all this…but how would you get radio play?

Donovan: Right, that’s what I was doing the other day…

Paul: (speaking in a low, cartoonish voice) “Ha, ha ha, hello, children! Ha, ha!”

Donovan: Yeah, that’s great. Well, it was a beautiful one. It started off like…(singing) “Da, da, da, da, da, da-da, da-da”, with a funny organ and a recorder. And then somebody who had just come back from (unintelligible) said, (in a funny Italian voice) “Presento the fantastico cicurasa…! A spectacurana…!” You know, one of these Italian circuses, with this lovely, echoey sort of little organ. “Victoriano on the high-a wire!” You know, with that lovely circus thing, and then fade it out slowly, and then begin The Walrus and the Carpenter. (Donovan pauses, and after a moment, Paul and Mary, sensing that they’re supposed to respond, laugh lightly. Donovan carries on in a soft narrator’s voice) “The Walrus and the Carpenter were walking down the…”

At this point, Paul coughs and begins saying something, but the tape suffers one of it’s points of worst distortion of some kind, and this, combined with the fact that Donovan and Paul are talking at the same time, makes for very little intelligible speech to transcribe. Eventually, it is Paul we understand first.

Paul: …you know, big orchestras! Make it, man! […]

Bootlegs

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.