Glass Onion

"Glass Onion" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). The song was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney.

For the large hand-blown glass bottles, see Glass onion.

"Glass Onion"
Sheet music cover
Song by the Beatles
from the album The Beatles
Released22 November 1968 (1968-11-22)
Recorded11–13 September & 10 October 1968
StudioEMI, London
GenrePsychedelic rock[1]
Length2:17
LabelApple
Songwriter(s)Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)George Martin
Music video
"Glass Onion (2018 Mix)" on YouTube

Lyrics

Lennon wrote the song to confuse people who "read in" to Beatles songs, searching for a hidden meaning, which annoyed him.[2][3] With this in mind, the lyrics are intended to confuse the listener. Most lines refer to earlier Beatles songs, including "Strawberry Fields Forever", "I Am the Walrus", "Lady Madonna", "The Fool on the Hill", and "Fixing a Hole". The song also refers to the "Cast Iron Shore", a coastal area of south Liverpool known to local people as "The Cazzy".[4][5][6] Lennon 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.[7]

"Glass Onion" was a name suggested by Lennon for the Iveys, a group who signed to Apple in 1968 and later became Badfinger.

Recording

The song was one of several recorded as a demo at George Harrison's Esher home in 1968 before the recording sessions for the "White Album". The Esher demo was first released on Anthology 3 (1996) and the 2018 deluxe edition of the "White Album".[8] Anthology 3 also included an alternate version which contained various sound effects rather than the string arrangement.

This is the first track on the 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".

Legacy

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its release, Jacob Stolworthy of The Independent listed "Glass Onion" at number 10 in his ranking of the White Album's 30 tracks. He wrote of the song: "Lennon embraced his cheeky side with "Glass Onion", a self-referential track which parades as symbolic. Instead, it was designed to trick fans into thinking their songs meant more than they actually do."[9] For the 50th anniversary editions of the White Album, a music video for the song, created by Alasdair Brotherston and Jock Mooney, was released.[10]

Personnel
Personnel per Ian MacDonald[12]

References
  1. Jim DeRogatis, Greg Kot. The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones: Sound Opinions on the Great Rock 'n' Roll Rivalry. p. 79.
  2. Wenner, Jann (21 January 1971). "Lennon Remembers, Part One". Rolling Stone. San Francisco: Wenner & Gleason. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  3. Lennon, John (8 December 1970). "Lennon Remembers" (Interview). Interviewed by Jann Wenner. New York City: Rolling Stone. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  4. allertonOak 2009.
  5. Bowman, Jamie (24 June 2015). "Take a closer look at Aigburth's St Michaels in the Hamlet Church as it celebrates its 200th anniversary". Liverpool Echo. Liverpool. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  6. Crowley, Tony (2017). The Liverpool English Dictionary: A Record of the Language of Liverpool 1850–2015 on Historical Principles. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-78694-061-2.
  7. Lennon, John; McCartney, Sir James Paul; Harrison, George; Starkey, Sir Richard (1 September 2002). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. p. 306. ISBN 978-0-81183-636-4.
  8. "The Beatles (White Album) – The Tracklisting". thebeatles.com. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  9. Stolworthy, Jacob (22 November 2018). "The Beatles' White Album tracks, ranked – from Blackbird to While My Guitar Gently Weeps". The Independent. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  10. O'Donnell, Michael (20 November 2018). "Alasdair & Jock Peel Back the Glass Onion for The White Album's 50th Anniversary". Working Not Working. Brooklyn, New York City: Working Not Working. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  11. White Album (Super Deluxe Book). Apple Corps. p. 69.
  12. MacDonald 2005, pp. 311–14.

Bibliography
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