| "Glass Onion" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by The Beatles
from the album The Beatles |
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| Released | 22 November 1968 | |||
| Recorded | 11 September 1968 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 2:17 | |||
| Label | Apple Records | |||
| Writer | Lennon/McCartney | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| The Beatles track listing | ||||
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"Glass Onion"[1] is a song by The Beatles from The Beatles primarily written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon/McCartney. This is the first track on the White Album to feature Ringo Starr on drums. Starr briefly left the group during recording sessions for the album and was replaced on drums by Paul McCartney on both "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence".
Contents |
Lyrics
The song refers to several earlier Beatles' songs, including "Strawberry Fields Forever", "I Am the Walrus", "Lady Madonna", "The Fool on the Hill", and "Fixing a Hole". There are also subtle, passing references to "There's A Place", "I'm Looking Through You", and "Within You Without You".[2] The song also refers to the "Cast Iron Shore", a coastal area of south Liverpool, known to local people as "The Cazzy".[3]
The song's "The Walrus was Paul" lyric is both a reference to "I Am the Walrus" and Lennon saying "something nice to Paul" in response to changes in their relationship at that time.[4] Later, the line was interpreted as a "clue" in the "Paul is dead" urban legend that alleged McCartney died in 1966 during the recording of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and was replaced by a look-alike and sound-alike. The line is preceded with "Well, here's another clue for you all".
Lennon himself dismissed any deep meaning to the mysterious lyrics:
| “ | I threw the line in—'the Walrus was Paul'—just to confuse everybody a bit more. It could have been 'The fox terrier is Paul.' I mean, it's just a bit of poetry. I was having a laugh because there'd been so much gobbledygook about Pepper—play it backwards and you stand on your head and all that.[5] | ” |
Personnel
- John Lennon – double-tracked vocal, acoustic guitar
- Paul McCartney – bass, piano, recorder
- George Harrison – lead guitar
- Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine
- George Martin – string arrangement
- Henry Datyner – violin
- Eric Bowie – violin
- Norman Lederman – violin
- Ronald Thomas – violin
- John Underwood – viola
- Keith Cummings – viola
- Eldon Fox – cello
- Reginald Kilby – cello
- Alex Ashtiani – banjo
- Personnel per Ian MacDonald[6]
Notes
- ^ "Glass onion" is British slang for a monocle.
- ^ I Am The Beatles 2009.
- ^ allertonOak 2009.
- ^ Wenner 2000, p. 87.
- ^ The Beatles 2000, p. 306.
- ^ MacDonald 2005, pp. 311–314.
References
- The Beatles (2000). Anthology.
- "Glass Onion". I Am The Beatles. 2009. http://www.iamthebeatles.com/article1157.html. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
- MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised Edition ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-844-13828-3.
- Wenner, Jann S (2000). Lennon Remembers (Full interview from Lennon's 1970 interview in Rolling Stone magazine). London: Verso. ISBN 1-85984-600-9.
- "South Liverpool: Toxteth, Wavertree, Aigburth and Garston". allertonOak. 2009. http://www.allertonoak.com/merseySights/SouthLiverpoolTA.html. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
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