My introduction to “Glass Onion” wasn’t via listening to The Beatles self-titled album (or The White Album) from 1968, but through The Beatles’ official mash-up album “LOVE“. Mind you the version on that album only contains John Lennon singing “Oh yeah”, “Nothing is real”, and the last verse before the creepy string outro mixed with a lot of elements from other Beatles songs. But I still thought it was alright. It made me want to listen to the whole track. So I did.

“Glass Onion” is a track written by John Lennon in which he makes several references to other Beatles songs in order to freak out the conspiracists and general strange people who thought there was more to The Beatles than the four members were actually letting on. The song references range from “There’s a Place” from their 1963 debut to “https://www.youtube.com/embed/v2i1WhHXyBY“>The Fool on the Hill” from 1967’s “Magical Mystery Tour” – the latter getting its own musical nod when Paul plays the recorder near the end of the song. Ringo Starr actually plays on this track too; he does not appear on “Back in the U.S.S.R.” or “Dear Prudence” has he had temporarily left the band when times were rough. So whether the track starting off with the jarring drum fill was meant to signal his entrance or just a coincidence is up for questioning. The vocals and rhythm section come to an abrupt end and give way to the aforementioned scaling strings section that brings the song to an ominous end, fading out (and sounds like it begins to slow down weirdly in the last few seconds) before the clanging pianos of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” begin.

And so there you have it. Probably the most meta track The Beatles ever made. And one of their most darker sounding ones too.