Glass Onion

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Glass Onion is a song off The Beatles' 1968 self-titled album. It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Contents

Writing

This song was written in response to those who listened to their music to find hidden meanings. Because of these people, John intentionally includes obscure lyrics, refences to older Beatles songs, and red herrings. John later commented, "That's me, just doing a throwaway song, à la Walrus, à la everything I've ever written. 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 gobbledigook about Pepper - play it backwards and you stand on your head and all that. At that time I was still in my love cloud with Yoko. I thought, 'Well, I'll just say something nice to Paul, that it's all right and you did a good job over these few years, holding us together'... The line was put in partly because I was feeling guilty because I was with Yoko and I was leaving Paul. It's a very perverse way of saying to Paul: 'Here, have this crumb, this illusion, this stroke - because I'm leaving'." John also commented, "I was just having a laugh, because there had been so much gobbledegook written about Sgt. Pepper. People were saying, ‘Play it backwards while standing on your head, and you’ll get a secret message, etc.’ Why, just the other day I saw Mel Torme on TV saying that several of my songs were written to promote the use of drugs, but really, none of them were at all. So this was just my way of saying, ‘You’re all full of shit!’" Also besides the refences to past songs, John also included seemingly obscure imagery. "Glass Onion" is British slang for a monacle. The "Cast Iron Shore" is a real place in Liverpool. A "Dovetail Joint," although thought by many to be a drug reference, is really a reference to a type of joint in woodworking. Originally, John had suggested the name Glass Onion as a name change for Apple artists The Iveys, who later changed their name to Badfinger. Needless to say, they did not use this name. As for the "bent-backed tulips" in th song, it is a reference to the table arrangement at the restaurant Parke's. As Beatles press agent Derek Taylor said, "You'd be in Parkes sitting around your table wondering what was going on with the flowers and then you'd realise that they were actually tulips with their petals bent all the way back, so that you could see the obverse side of the petals and also the stamen. This is what John meant about 'seeing how the other half lives'. He meant seeing how the other half of the flower lives but also, because it was an expensive restaurant, how the other half of society lived."

Songs Referenced

Recording

The song was first recorded in demo form at John's home in Kenwood. It has John playing acoustic guitsr with double-tracked vocals. During the song, the vocal tracks randomly talk nonsense. This version was included on Anthology 3. Another version, very similar to the album version, is available on Anthology 3. The major difference is the ending. In this version, a sound effects collage created by Lennon ends the song, with the sound of a telephone ringing, glass breaking, an organ note, and sports commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme shouting "It's a goal!" The song was recorded on September 11, 1968, when 34 takes of the basic track were recorded, Take 33 being the best. The next day, John's vocals and Ringo's tambourine were added. On September 13, piano and another drum track were added. The sound effects mix was made on September 26. On October 10, the string arrangement was recorded, replacing the sound effects ending and finishing work on the song.

Recording and Mixing Sessions


LOVE Mix

The 2006 remix album LOVE has a version of this song. In addition to this song, it also has vocal parts from Hello, Goodbye, trumpet parts from Penny Lane, and vocal parts from Eleanor Rigby.

Personnel

The Beatles

Guest Musicians

Production

Available Versions

Available On

Cover Versions

  • Phish

Sources

Retrieved from "http://www.beatleswiki.org/wiki/Glass_Onion"
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