The Beatles were always known for being a bit playful with the general public. Making a film about how popular they are, doing an impromptu gig on the top of Apple Corps (heck, naming their record company Apple Corps), and that whole palava about being bigger than Jesus, they always knew how to toy with the press and their fans. They even admitted to having experimented with tea... and biscuits. But their public persona was just part of their cheekiness. The band's entire discography, particularly that which came out after they decided to quit touring and commit to the recording booth, is chock full of in-jokes, shout-outs and other cool tidbits explicitly snuck in there for their fanbase to obsess over decades into the future. There are, of course, all the call-backs to earlier songs that are always good for a smile - in I Am The Walrus John Lennon instructs you to "See how they fly like Lucy in the sky" and All You Need Is Love ends in a (somewhat impromptu) rendition of She Loves You's chorus. But they're obvious to anyone with even a passing knowledge of the Fab Four - there's much more hidden in their songs than those clear Easter eggs. So pop on your favourite album (on LP, ideally, although the 2009 CD remasters are a fine consolation) and take a look at eight awesome Easter eggs the greatest band of all time hid in their music.
Honourable Mention - The (Alleged) Homophobic, Anti-Semitic Slur In Baby, You're A Rich Man
One of the longest standing Easter egg rumours says that, at the very end Baby, You're A Rich Man, John Lennon can be heard twisting the song's lyrics a little to "Baby, you're a rich fag Jew", a rather barbed joke directed at the band's manager, Brian Epstein. It fits the theory that the song, which was a meshing of two separate pieces written by Lennon and McCartney, was somewhat directed at Epstein (particularly in reference to him kicking his drug habit) and the joke is what you expect from Lennon's sense of humour. However, it doesn't seem to be founded in any real truth - although the final seconds of the song do feature Lennon saying the title lyric with more purpose, it doesn't sound that much like the insult.
