Steel and Glass
| "Steel and Glass" | |
|---|---|
| Song by John Lennon | |
| from the album Walls and Bridges | |
| Published | Lenono Music |
| Released | 26 September 1974 (US) 4 October 1974 (UK) |
| Recorded | July – August 1974 |
| Genre | Rock |
| Length | 4:47 |
| Label | Apple |
| Songwriter(s) | John Lennon |
| Producer(s) | John Lennon |
| Walls and Bridges track listing | |
|
12 tracks
|
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"Steel and Glass" is a song written and performed by John Lennon, released on his 1974 album Walls and Bridges. A dark folk song, the song has been interpreted as an attack on Lennon's former business manager Allen Klein.
The song contains a lick performed by violins and horns in the chorus that's reminiscent of Lennon's song "How Do You Sleep?", an attack on Lennon's former Beatle Paul McCartney.
In 1973, before work began on Mind Games, Lennon recorded an acoustic demo of "Steel and Glass". While Lennon's ideas were taking shape, it was largely based upon a single piano chord - from the final studio recording. Before recording Walls and Bridges in July 1974, Lennon spent somewhat 10 days in pre-production at Sunset Studios and Record Plant East, New York. During this time he rehearsed a few songs with the musicians he had recruited for the sessions.
John Lennon admitted to a Detroit radio station, during an interview in 1974, that he reused "licks" from a certain song, in response to the interviewer bringing up the similarity of "Steel and Glass", and what he was wondering could be a second part to the Paul McCartney dig "How Do You Sleep?".
An alternative take of "Steel and Glass" was included on the posthumous collection Menlove Ave., released in 1986. Take 8 was released on the 1998 box set John Lennon Anthology. Take 9 was the master used for Walls and Bridges.
In a mixed review for the Walls and Bridges album, Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone found "Steel and Glass" "boring and needless, but its unalloyed hatred is peculiarly compatible with the optimism of ["#9 Dream" and "Surprise, Surprise"]."
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