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I told you about strawberry fields
You know the place where nothing is real
Well here's another place you can go
Where everything flows.
Looking through the bent-backed tulips
To see how the other half live
Looking through a glass onion.
I told you about the walrus and me, man
You know we're as close as can be, man
Well here's another clue for you all
The walrus was Paul.
Standing on the cast iron shore, yeah
Lady Madonna trying to make ends meet, yeah
Looking through the glass onion
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah
Looking through the glass onion.
I told you about the fool on the hill
I tell you man he's living there still
Well here's another place you can be
Listen to me.
Fixing a hole in the ocean
Trying to make a dove-tail joint, yeah
Looking through a glass onion.
You know the place where nothing is real
Well here's another place you can go
Where everything flows.
Looking through the bent-backed tulips
To see how the other half live
Looking through a glass onion.
I told you about the walrus and me, man
You know we're as close as can be, man
Well here's another clue for you all
The walrus was Paul.
Standing on the cast iron shore, yeah
Lady Madonna trying to make ends meet, yeah
Looking through the glass onion
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah
Looking through the glass onion.
I told you about the fool on the hill
I tell you man he's living there still
Well here's another place you can be
Listen to me.
Fixing a hole in the ocean
Trying to make a dove-tail joint, yeah
Looking through a glass onion.
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they refer to fixing a hole in the ocean and trying to make a dove-tail joint, two nearly impossible tasks, like the almost impossible task of seeing past the glass onion onto reality.
the reference to the paul hoax exposed how ludicrous society is at jumping to conclusions and gossip.
music is art, and the beauty of art is there's no right answer. this is just my personal interpretation, listening to the song through my glass onion!
:-)
1) This song rocks. One of my favorites these days.
2) The vesion on Anthology #3 is equally (?) awesome. (We cold argue which one is better, but I would say both versions are great).
3) CurioJeff -there are no musical responses to the Paul-Is-Dad Hoax, as the hoax started in fall of 1969.(unless they are thrown into the post-production of Let it Be.)
4) It seems that most of the songs alluded to in the song are McCartney songs, (Lady Madonna, Fool on the Hill, Fixing a Hole). It got me wondering, like Bankrobber suggests, that maybe it's Lennon poking fun of McCartney.
Basically they're wishing they could live a better life, like the other half they see doing so.
The whole Paul thing however, stems all the way back to "The Walrus and the Carpenter." In interviews and such, John has said that when he first read the story, he thought that the Walrus was good (or at the very least, the lesser of two evils), and that the Carpenter was the villain. He was very saddened to find out it was the other way around. In this, he is simply correcting it, saying Paul was the bad guy, as he believes he is the "Carpenter" in this.
The Beatles met a guy who owned a high-end restaurant in London - an expensive place to eat. He invited the four of them to eat there, which they did. But they felt out of place and unwelcome, with people staring at them, noise turned up.
On the table, they had glass art work as center pieces. Hence..
Looking through the bent backed tulips
To see how the other half lives
Looking through a glass onion.
John used that experience, that image, to create a song.