The Beatles (The White Album)

Although I tend to prefer The Beatle's earlier work, this album is one of their best in my opinion. Double CD and all the songs are great. Worth every penny! You really can't go wrong with any Beatle album.

Beginning with the release of Rubber Soul in 1965, The Beatles began to be recognized as major, "serious" artists whose best songs stood comparison with great classical music. As their music became more ambitious, they drew progressively away from their rock and roll roots. After their last scheduled concert in August 1966, The Beatles gave up live performance to become exclusively a studio band. Their withdrawal reached its limits in 1967's Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, when they assumed the identities of fictional performers. The pendulum turned the following year. As suggested by its self-title, The Beatles (The White Album) was an effort by The Beatles to return to their original essence. In this quest, they faced great difficulties arising both outside and within the group.

The first obstacle The Beatles confronted was that of history. Between the time of their first stardom in the early 1960s and their making of The White Album in 1968, the world transformed. The album was recorded during a time of political assassinations, Vietnam War casualties, and a sense of impending chaos. At a fundamental level, the meaning of everything had changed. In The Beatles' darker tone and loss of ebullience, one can sense how deeply affected they were as their musical home in rock and roll became a foreign place "back in the U.S.S.R."

In addition, the individual Beatles had by now drawn far apart musically. John Lennon's shattering introspections ("Yer Blues," "Happiness Is a Warm Gun") had little in common with Paul McCartney's bursts of pure melody ("Blackbird," "I Will"). In songs such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," George Harrison emerged on The White Album as Lennon and McCartney's compositional equal, upsetting a balance in which his two band mates had been the dominant songwriters. Ringo Starr, too, moved more to the forefront with the recording of his first song, "Don't Pass Me By." Although The Beatles were still an ensemble, the White Album became very much a collaboration of four solo artists.

Searching for their past, The Beatles broke new ground. The White Album's range is vast, with calypso ("Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"), blues rock ("Yer Blues"), early heavy metal ("Helter-Skelter"), Indian-influenced rhythms ("Dear Prudence"), 1930s dance hall ("Honey Pie") and electronic sound collage ("Revolution 9") just a few of the forms represented. Instrumentation varies from the sparse guitar and bird song accompaniment of "Blackbird" to the luxurious, full orchestration of the concluding lullaby "Good Night." There are contrasting lyrics of distant love ("I Will") and uninhibited sex ("Why Don't We Do It in the Road"); pastoral repose ("Mother Nature's Son") and insomnia ("I'm So Tired"); forfeited time ("Long, Long, Long") and birthday celebration ("Birthday"). There are parodies of The Beach Boys ("Back in the U.S.S. R.") and The Beatles themselves ("Glass Onion"). Each of the album's nearly thirty songs and assorted fragments is unique. Together, they make up a library of styles reaching across all of music.

To truly listen to The White Album is to wonder if, in the midst of its immensity, The Beatles have found their old voices. It is a question vital not only to these four musicians but to our entire era, for what we are asking about The Beatles we must also ask of ourselves. As we drift into a trackless future, is there a way back to our foundations? Somewhere in The White Album is an answer.

The Beatles (aka The White Album) is a fascinating mix of many diverse styles and finds the Beatles stretching out a bit more as far as stylistic daring goes. As a casual Beatle fan, however, I feel there is also a lot of what I do not love about them all that much. There are too many lightweight songs mixed in with the bona-fide genius of others. I am sure die hards love this sort of thing and find the appeal of those songs all the more endearing. I am, however, not in that category and can't help but feel there is one solid single album somewhere in between these grooves. I mean, all double albums give a band the opportunity to branch out and approach styles they would not normally test out for the public. That's not the problem. The problem lies in the filler material, in which there is plenty of.

I cannot blindy call this album a Beatles' classic when in comparison to "Abbey Road", "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul". EVERY song on those mentioned albums was stellar (well, maybe not Yellow Submarine) but you get the point. Unlike popular belief, The Beatles weren't always perfect and The White Album, which for most of it is as good as good music gets, is the real beginning of the cracks that had begun to appear in their relationships with one another. You have Fluff like "Wild Honey Pie", "Bungalow Bill", "Why Don't We Do it in the Road", "Honey Pie", "Savoy Truffle", "Good Night" and the eight minute catastrophe of "Revolution 9" alongside masterpieces such as "Dear Prudence", "Ob La Di", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Blackbird", "Birthday" and "Helter Skelter". Even the version of "Revolution 1" is not as good as the single version.

All that being said, any understanding of the developement of modern pop music must start with The Beatles. The White Album, however, is not the place to start, in my opinion. Yes, it is better than just about anything else that was released during it's time by bands working the same territory, but it is not the best The Beatles have to offer. This is along the lines of "Let it Be", "Magical Mystery Tour" and (oh here come the comments) "Sgt Pepper". All classics, but not the creme de la creme.

Released forty years ago, "The Beatles" aka "The White Album" is notable for many reasons. It's the Fab Four's only double album. It differs greatly from the band's previous two psychedelic albums for a more back-to-basics approach which would continue with their following albums. It's a sprawling and at times schizophrenic record that documents the falling apart of the band as most songs are primarily composed by whomever is singing the lead with the rest of the boys as backup band. Though this is true going back to about "Beatles For Sale", it especially applies to this album as Ringo briefly quit for a while with Paul playing drums on "Back In The U.S.S.R." and a few other songs; Yoko Ono's presence in the studio which irritated everyone with the exception of John; and other personal events that had the band unraveling.
Kicking things off to a rousing start is "Back In The U.S.S.R.", an inspired mixture of Chuck Berry and The Beach Boys. Sung by Paul with wonderful backup singing by John & George, it has a great melody and witty tongue-in-cheek lyrics. John's "Dear Prudence" with a sweet, cascading guitar line the boys became known for follows. This song was inspired by Mia Farrow whom they met during their stay in India for the purpose of studying meditation with Maharashi Mahesh Yogi. Next up is the lyrically self-referential "Glass Onion", another brilliant song by John. For me, the pseudo-reggae of Paul's "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is cute but ultimately somewhat forgettable. It's another of the Beatles' children's songs in the tradition of "Yellow Submarine". "Wild Honey Pie" is another track that could easily have been left off the album, sounding totally like filler. John's "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill" is mainly notable for its satiric lyrics and Yoko's unique backup singing. Its melody is especially weak when compared to George's stately, lovely "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" which follows. Graced with guitar solos by George's pal Eric Clapton, this song firmly establishes Mr. Harrison as a songwriter on par with Lennon & McCartney. "Guitar" also utilizes that trademark cascading guitar figure that bonds the verses with the choruses. This song is beautifully straight forward, abandoning the psychedelia (which I nonetheless adored) of compositions like "Within You Without You" from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Blue Jay Way" from "Magical Mystery Tour". "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" is a song in three parts and the second song from this album in which John mentions guns. Spooky. In light of his tragic assassination in 1980, was this guy psychic? The verses on this one are a bit folk, the bridge is bluesy and the chorus is inspired by doo-wop. Again, the lyrics are delightfully tongue-in-cheek. Paul's "Martha My Dear" is a great little number that was inspired by his dog. John follows this with another bluesy tune, "I'm So Tired". Paul's sublime "Blackbird" was inspired by the American Civil Rights movement. It's just Paul, an acoustic guitar and birdsong and it's absolutely lovely in its simplicity. George's "Piggies" is another satire, this time concerning class differences. The first reference to Bob Dylan on "The Beatles" is "Rocky Raccoon" with Paul emulating the American poet in the lyrics and general form and tone of the song. Ringo makes his writing debut with the country song "Don't Pass Me By". The lyrics are dryly funny but like the songs that immediately precede and follow it (Paul's "Why Don't We Do It In The Road"), the tunes sound a bit tossed off, a bit throwaway. "I Will" is another very pretty song by Paul that is instrumentally minimalist with just acoustic and bass guitar. Disc 1 ends with John's ode to his mother, the delicate acoustic guitar ballad "Julia". It's a very touching song and its simplicity, it mirrors "I Will" perfectly.

Disc 2 opens with the rocking "Birthday" which is followed by John's "Yer Blues", a tortured blues number that references "Ballad Of A Thin Man" with the line 'just like Dylan's Mr. Jones'. Paul's gorgeous "Mother Nature's Son" is next. Largely acoustic, it also features a lovely horn section. John brings back the rock 'n roll with "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey" with its rollicking guitar bits. The piano-driven "Sexy Sadie" was written by John about the boys' fallout with the Maharishi. Lovely background vocals enhance an already terrific song. "Helter Skelter" proves that although best known for his beautiful ballads, Paul could rock like a hell-hound. 'Blisters on my fingers', indeed. Did he invent heavy metal with this song? I believe it predates Black Sabbath's debut album by a couple of years! George's "Long,Long,Long" makes a 360 degree turn from the heavy rock of "Helter Skelter". Anchored by organ, this song is a sublime marvel. The shift in tone, like so many from this album, is what gives "The Beatles" the schizophrenic feel I noted earlier. The version of "Revolution 1" on this album is quite different than the single version. Its focus is more acoustic and again owes a debt to doo-wop. I don't share Paul's love of the music hall/vaudeville genre but if you're curious about it, the second (!) "Honey Pie" is a great example of it. George's tribute to sweets, "Savoy Truffle" follows. It's a nice little rocker with swinging horns. John's haunting, beautiful "Cry Baby Cry" precedes the Beatles' most experimental track, "Revolution 9", which was constructed from various tapes John made. His association with avant-garde artist Ono becomes crystal clear after a listen to this mind-blowing 'song'. Paul & George had enjoyed making tracks out of tapes going back to "Pepper's" at least but had never released them under the Beatles name. It has enormously influenced my own music. If you enjoy "Revolution 9" then check out the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the original practitioners of musique concrete. "The Beatles" fittingly closes with "Good Night", a wonderfully wistful tune perfectly sung by Ringo.
Needless to say and despite its flaws, "The Beatles" is an essential part of this amazing band's catalog. You won't regret owning it.

Disc 2 skips in the begining.......not cool..but it was great to hear this CD since I traded my white album years ago to my brother!