Looking Through the Glass Onion: A Beatles Song Podcast

Under pressure to finish recording Rubber Soul, John retreated to his home to write some new material. After several hours, he was unsuccessful. He decided to give up on writing a new song and go to bed. In that moment, he wrote ‘Nowhere Man’ in its entirety.

So many layers of the Glass Onion to unravel. How did they get that Strat sound? Jay knows. What new bit of gear did Paul play on this track? Billy will tell you. What makes this song different that any other Lennon/McCartney penned track prior to this one? You’ll have to listen. 

You don’t what you’re missing. 

Enjoy our look through the Glass Onion at Nowhere Man.

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Riff Riff Riff!! What are the ingredients that make a great Beatles song? Billy and Jay make up their list of must haves and ‘I Feel Fine’ definitely checks all of the boxes!

While recording the Beatles For Sale album, John’s guitar was left leaning on an amp. The result? The magical and mysterious opening to this track.

Some many goodies unraveling the layers of this classic Beatles number one hit. Billy and Jay discuss how The Beatles recorded it, how amazingly high it charted, what piece of gear they’d take from Mal, they ponder if this is Ringo’s best Beatles drum track and wait until until you hear what they’ve found on their deep dive

Side note: Billy practiced the riff after and finally got it correct after this episode was recorded.

Baby’s good to me, ya know she’s happy as can be ya know she said so. Enjoy Billy and Jay’s Glass Onion treatment of I Feel Fine.

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Can’t believe it took us this long to do this song! We’re doing our last song of the year and we’re going out with a bang. An example of self referential brilliance, Lennon’s gobbledegook lyrical style shines in the White Album gem, Glass Onion.

We told you about Strawberry Fields already, but Glass Onion has some deep dive gold in it. Find out all you’ve ever wanted to know about this one. Billy and Jay talk Paul Is Dead, Beatle gear and recording techniques and try to unpeel all the layers of this song while referring to themselves in 3rd person.

Here’s another clue for you all…Glass Onion on Glass Onion.

Happy New Year.

Sponsored by A Hill of Beans Coffee Roasters. ahillofbeans.com, billymcguigan.com

Baby, whatcha trying to do? In this episode of Looking Through The Glass Onion, Billy and Jay tackle their first Beatle cover song. Hidden within the layers of this track is the incredible story of Larry Williams, who wrote a string of 50s smash hits, three of which were covered by The Beatles. A cover song from their days in Hamburg, Slowdown was recorded in a brisk 30 minutes at Abbey Road studios June 1, 1964. That’s right, 30 minutes. After listening to the song, you can hear it the mistakes scattered throughout this catchy Beatles single.

We have a new layer of the onion that you’ll love - Billy and Jay pick the gear that they’d take from the session. Yeah, that’s right, we’ve introduced a time machine into our discussion. Find out what else we uncovered on our deep dive and find out why this one may get the lowest ratings from Billy and Jay yet.

As always, thank you to our sponsor, A Hill Of Beans Coffee. More information at www.billymcguigan.com/glassonionpodcast.

In the summer of ‘66 the post touring Beatles did something that had not happened since Beatlemania began. They took a break from being Beatles. John Lennon went to Almeira, Spain to shoot Richard Lester’s film, How I Won The War. Missing his musical brothers, John started to reminisce about his childhood in Liverpool. Perhaps the next Beatle album would be about Liverpool and the places where The Beatles grew up? He begins to write a song called It’s Not To Bad. After a couple of demos, the line Strawberry Fields Forever is added and one of the BEST Beatles tracks is born.

Billy and Jay dive deep on this classic as there is so much to uncover on this one. 

Find out what the best version of this song may be. 

- Billy and Jay break down each version released on the Anthology. 

- Find our how this song is a break from all of the things the Beatles did prior to this and a bridge into their psychedelic future. 

- And was the release of this song as a double A side with Penny Lane the biggest mistake in The Beatles career? 

- Billy and Jay discuss how they would remedy this issue.

Billy and Jay talk about the difficulties of playing this song live and also once again give kudos to the genius that is Ringo Starr. How many Glass Onions could this one get?

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see. Let us take you down, cause we’re going to Strawberry Field (s)…Forever.

Looking Through The Glass Onion is sponsored by A Hill of Beans Coffee Roasters in Omaha, NE. Shop signature coffee at billymcguigan.com/merchandise.

Is it a Beatles song? A money grab? A marketing ploy? The most macabre song ever recorded (so says Prince)? Or a classic Beatles track that reunited the world’s greatest band one last time?

 Billy and Jay take a deep dive on this one! Discussing how this “Threatles” came to existence.

 So, whatever happened to…the love that we once knew…always made me feel…Enjoy, Free As A Bird.

This amazing George Harrison song off of Abbey Road was a request from one of our Australian listeners. It ended up being our favorite song we’ve done.

We hope it’s one of your favorites too. Sun, sun, sun, here it comes.

What’s not to love about this one? Jangly Guitars. Killer harmonies. Rockin’ Bass line. Mysterious lyrics. A true gem on the Revolver record. What’s that? John Lennon called this one a ‘horror’ and a ‘throwaway’. As Jay Hanson says, ‘I like a lot of songs that John hates’.

We uncovered a lot of great info about this song! Peel back the layers on this one and you’ll find out something you may have never known about Frank Sinatra and his ‘bird’.

You tell me that you’ve heard every sound there is? AND your bird can swing? You can’t hear me. You can’t hear me! Enjoy AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING.

American Rifleman had an 1968 article that caught John Lennon's eye. A lovely little article about a kid hunting with his Dad. The title? Happiness Is A Warm Gun. This is a rollicking number by John penned and recorded in 1968 for The Beatles (White Album). Is it a drug song? Oh yeah. Is it a sexual innuendo? Oh yeah? Do we think it's awesome? Of course.

How many takes did it take to record it? What did John and Paul and George think of this one? Is it the MOST complicated Beatles track? What Cartoon inspired the song title and did you know that this song is a history of rock and roll in song form? This and more from inside the Glass Onion. You might even get a lesson on how to count out this song's complicated rhythmic section in this episode...but you don't seem like a listener that misses much. Do do do do do, oh yeah. Enjoy.

BONUS LISTENER QUESTION - What is George Harrison's best guitar solo? Our answers may surprise you! "

Here’s a question - Why don’t we do it in the road? No one will be watching us. Why don’t we do it in the road? Billy and Jay tackle these pressing questions. No one may be listening but, Billy and Jay tackle these pressing questions anyways. Enjoy!