3 Intentionally Confusing Beatles Songs

The Beatles had an extensive catalog of songs, and some of them are quite confusing. Fans of the band pored over their lyrics and attempted to pull meaning from their music. Sometimes, they were able to find the meanings behind the songs. Other times, though, it was completely impossible. The band wrote at least three songs with the intention of confusing listeners. 

‘I Am the Walrus’

John Lennon wrote the song “I Am the Walrus” with the help of a childhood friend, Pete Shotton. He asked Shotton if he could remember a nursery rhyme they used to sing as children. Shotton responded with, “Yellow matter custard, green slop pie, all mixed together with a dead dog’s eye. Slap it on a butty, 10ft thick, then wash it all down with a cup of cold sick,” (per The Times).

After working part of this rhyme into the song, Lennon turned to Shotton.

“Let the f***ers work that one out,” he said.

Lennon admitted that the people who sought meaning in The Beatles’ songs inspired “I Am the Walrus,” at least in part.

“The words didn’t mean a lot,” he said, per Mental Floss. “People draw so many conclusions, and it’s ridiculous. I’ve had tongue in cheek all along — all of them had tongue in cheek. Just because other people see depths of whatever in it…What does it really mean, ‘I am the Eggman?’ It could have been ‘The pudding Basin’ for all I care. It’s not that serious.”

‘Glass Onion’

Lennon wrote “Glass Onion” as a follow-up to “I Am the Walrus,” and it was even more confusing. In it, he referenced the other song by including the line, “The Walrus was Paul.” He said he did this to confuse listeners. 

“That’s me, just doing a throwaway song, à la ‘Walrus,’ à la everything I’ve ever written,” he said, per the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview With John Lennon and Yoko Ono by David Sheff. “I threw the line in — ‘The Walrus was Paul’ — just to confuse everybody a bit more. And I thought ‘Walrus’ has now become me, meaning ‘I am the one.’ Only it didn’t mean that in this song.”

He said he likely could have written anything for this line, as long as it confused people.

“It could’ve been ‘The fox terrier is Paul,’ you know,” he said. “I mean, it’s just a bit of poetry. It was just thrown in like that.”

‘Dig a Pony’

Lennon described the song “Dig a Pony” as “another piece of garbage.” Once again, Lennon was the songwriter. He wrote the song as a love song to Yoko Ono, but he composed it by stringing together a series of nonsensical phrases. 

“I-I-I-I-I load a lorry/Well you can syndicate any boat you row,” he sings, as well as, “I-I-I-I-I pick a moon dog/Well you can radiate everything you are.”

Even for fans poring over the lyrics for hours, it would be difficult to find meaning in this or any of these songs.