Glass Onion

"Glass Onion"
Song by The Beatles
Album	The Beatles
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
Dear Prudence (2 of disc 1) "Glass Onion" (3 of disc 1) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (4 of disc 1) Love track listing "Get Back" (2) "Glass Onion" (3) "Eleanor Rigby/Julia (transition)" (4) )

"Glass Onion"^[1] is a song by The Beatles from The Beatles (also known as The White Album) primarily written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon/McCartney. The song is a response to those who attempted to find hidden meanings in Beatle songs, and references "I Am the Walrus, "Strawberry Fields Forever", "There's a Place", "I'm Looking Through You", "Within You Without You", "Lady Madonna", "The Fool on the Hill", and "Fixing a Hole". 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.^[2] 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. According to Lennon, "Glass Onion" was a throwaway song, much like "I Am the Walrus":

This is the first track on the White Album to feature Ringo Starr on drums. Starr had left the band briefly, so McCartney drummed on "Back in the USSR" and "Dear Prudence".

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

Credits per Ian MacDonald^[4]

Notes

1. ^ "Glass onion" is British slang for a monocle.
2. ^ Wenner, Jann S (2000). Lennon Remembers (Full interview from Lennon's 1970 interview in Rolling Stone magazine). London: Verso, 87. ISBN 1-85984-600-9. 
3. ^ The Beatles (2000). Anthology, page 306. 
4. ^ MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, Second Revised Edition, London: Pimlico (Rand), 311-314. ISBN 1-844-13828-3.