Spoke wrote
On that site you found (the “Joyce in Music” one at http://www.rpg.net/quail/libyrinth/joyce/music/joyce.music.main.html )
The page writer says
To me, “Goo Goo Goosth” is close enough to “Goo Goo G’joob” that I’m satisfied that this was Lennon’s inspiration.
Fenris
Fenris
The problem with that “goo goo goosth” explanation is that the particular passage in question doesn’t have anything to do with Humpty Dumpty, which means that Gregg Zion was wrong on that point. This leads me to question how trustworthy he is on his basic assertion that Lennon was inspired by Finnegans Wake at all.
The other problem I have is that the similarity between “goo goo ga joob” and “coo coo ca-choo” leads me to believe that they are variations on the same phrase, and that they have a common source. Somebody give Paul Simon a call, and let’s get this mess straightened out once and for all…
“Every time you think, you weaken the nation!” --M. Howard (addressing his brother, C. Howard).
I’m not really sure that “GGGJ” and “CCCC” are related at all. They have the same rhythm, and that very well might be it.
Plus, if you were to play that same rhythm on, say, a trumpet, and then add a cymbal crash at the end, it sounds a lot like something that might have been played at the end of a variety show clown sketch.
Did I make any sense just there?
Sucks to your assmar.
Here’s another possibility:
Lennon was a big Edward Lear fan, and it’s possible that it could have been from one of his poems.
I’ve been leafing thru my Lear, and will post back if anything turns up.
BTW, “coo coo ca-chew” does sound like something that Lear would have in a poem–just don’t know that he did.
I just read in an interview with Paul McCartney that when they used to say it, it meant f**k off. I saw it in a magazine in Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks ago. Now, that doesn’t address the origin, but it gives some insight.
More likely it was McCartney’s way of telling the interviewer to fuck off, and stop pestering him about the meaning of a nonsense song written 45 years ago by somebody else.
In the context of I am the Walrus", the notion that “Goo go bajoob” is code or slang for “fuck off” makes no sense, and, furthermore, it does not seem a very plausible as a substitute for “fuck off” inany context. Certainly I have never heard or heard of the expression being used this way, and I was around at the time the song came out.
I think both “goo goo bajoob” and “coo coo cachoo” are just scat nonsense phrases, like “hey nonny nonny” or “lalalala”.
Or, you know, maybe he just made it up by himself. :rolleyes:
Welcome to the SDMB, Zaibatsu! 
No, the Graduate soundtrack album came first - January 1968. The Mrs. Robinson single and Bookends album came in April. Supposedly Paul Simon repurposed a half-finished song called Mrs. Roosevelt when the movie was due to come out and he hadn’t come up with the material he promised. I don’t know if he knew anything about the Mrs. Robinson character - if not it might explain why the lyrics don’t seem to have much to do with the film other than a general scourging of an unpleasant woman.
Yes, the Beatles song came first, on a 45 where the way John sings it sounds like “coo coo ca-choo”, and I would guess Paul Simon liked the rhythm of it and found a place for it in his hastily scribbled song. (When the Walrus lyrics were printed in the Magical Mystery Tour sleeve, it was rendered as GOO GOO GOO JOOB but who knows if that was Beatle-intended or some transcriber’s fudge.)
Speaking of the genesis of Beatles lyrics, I was amused to hear Paul include the snippet “O U T spells out!” on his latest album. I guess it’s from a children’s rhyme? The lyric shows up earlier in both their fan club record and then later when Ringo “covers” Christmas Time Is Here Again.
Moved to Cafe Society (which didn’t exist in 2000, when this thread was started).
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
It’s used in choosing-up rhymes like “Eenie meenie minie mo.”
So here was my childhood take on the song, having seen The Graduate either on TV or a the Drive-In when my parents took my brother & myself…
After the events of the movie, the truth about the affair came out, threatening the Robinsons’ marriage & her emotional stability, so much so that she either checked into or was committed to a mental health facility which had some sort of Christian affiliation.
Looking back, that was pretty sophisticated thinking for being around ten years old.
Just want to add that my earlier post from a dozen years ago (under a previous name) was 100% levity. I was simply adding artistic verisimiltude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
Wait, wasn’t “I am the walrus” the one they deliberately wrote to not make any sense, just to confuse scholars who were trying to unravel the meaning of their songs?
Ever since I heard The Rutles’ parody of I Am The Walrus, I can’t help but hear the phrase as “Do a poo-POO.”
IATW was Lennon, not “they”. I’ve always thought Lennon was under the influence of Dylan and LSD when he wrote that and that about 60% of it was just playing with the sounds and rhythms of words. Though, if some critic wanted to search for some deeper, inner meaning behind the line “Yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog’s eye”, it was probably cool with Lennon.
Careful, you’re liable to get your head chopped off.
I’ve always felt the same, although I’d say it was more like 95% sounds and rhythms of words. I Am the Walrus - Wikipedia has a lot of background info on the subject, including (for example)
“Yellow matter custard, green slop pie,
All mixed together with a dead dog’s eye,
Slap it on a butty, ten foot thick,
Then wash it all down with a cup of cold sick.”
Pete Shotton and John Lennon were hanging out dipping into one of the huge mail bags the Beatles used to receive. A teacher from their school had written talking about analyzing Beatles songs in his class. Lennon and Shotton recalled the schoolboy verse cited above (sort of the British equivalent of “Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts”), and Lennon adapted it with an attitude of “Let them try analyzing that!”
As detailed in the article I linked to.