The Glorious, Quixotic Mess That Is the Beatles' 'White Album'

PopMatters ^ | February 19th, 2016 | by Chris Gerard

[Mariner]

The Beatles’ kaleidoscopic opus Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band arrived in 1967, the “Summer of Love”, the season of psychedelia and LSD, free love and hippy idealism. That all faded into 1968, a year of violence and dread. The Vietnam War raged with no end in sight, civil rights protests and vicious backlashes roiled across America, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, the hippie enclave at Haight-Ashbury descended into a quagmire of hard drugs and crime, protesters and police skirmished at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Czechoslovakia was invaded, numerous countries around the world were held in the stone fist of brutal dictatorships, protests in Northern Ireland erupted in violence… the world was wrought with chaos and fear.

The time for the mystical fantasies of Sgt. Pepper had passed. Something more elemental was required. It’s no coincidence that the Rolling Stones released their dark classic Beggar’s Banquet in 1968, with its incendiary cornerstone tracks “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Street Fighting Man”. The darkness was in the air.

So what next for the Beatles? Their longtime manager and restraining influence, Brian Epstein, was dead of a drug overdose. The band’s Magical Mystery Tour TV special was savaged by critics and became the group’s first significant failure. The stakes were high for pop music’s biggest band, who suddenly found themselves cut adrift in a very different world. Their solution was the Anti-Pepper… simply called The Beatles but promptly dubbed the White Album for its stark white cover. Where Sgt. Pepper was all vibrant colors and imagery, the White Album couldn’t be more different—raw, often unrefined, frequently veiled in shadow.

[Mariner]

Could it really have been 48yrs ago?

The White Album and Revolver were the Beatles finest.

[cuban leaf]

[Signalman]

My favorite Beatles album: Rubber Soul (U.S.version).

[Flick Lives]

I’m back in the US, back in the US, back in the USSR!

[cuban leaf]

I own everything they produced, barring any outliers. I even have a one sided Mobile Fidelity labs test disc for Sgt Pepper.

I think there is good stuff on all of their albums. My personal favorite is Rubber Soul, for a variety of reasons, not least of which where I was in my life at the time.

There is an interesting history behind TaxMan.

I’ve never been able to get into Rocky Racoon though.

[dfwgator]

You could hear the “beginning of the end of the Beatles” on this album, you can clearly sense they wanted to go their separate ways.

[cuban leaf]

My favorite Beatles album: Rubber Soul (U.S.version).

---

You may like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAOo0NPtCaQ

[jessduntno]

If you have an un-recovered Butcher Album, it’s worth a TON.

[Mariner]

"I’ve never been able to get into Rocky Racoon though."

Yeah, I think they could have deleted all the McCartney stuff except Helter Skelter, Blackbird and Back in the USSR.

I was never much of a McCartney fan, I guess I just don't like the silly love songs much.

[867V309]

The White Album and Revolver were the Beatles finest.

Sgt Peppers

[dfwgator]

Yeah, I think they could have deleted all the McCartney stuff except Helter Skelter, Blackbird and Back in the USSR.

You don't care for "Why Don't We Do It In the Road?"

[Forgotten Amendments]

It’s almost sad to listen to because you could tell they were trapped in the studio being forced to create. Very unhealthy. No wonder they got on each others’ nerves. But, there were some great tunes.

BTW FReepers, RUBBER SOUL was OK. But REVOLVER was the greatest record ever recorded by anyone.

[Mariner]

"But REVOLVER was the greatest record ever recorded by anyone."

Seconded.

[Oshkalaboomboom]

IIRC While My Guitar Gently Weeps sent shockwaves through the music scene. Up until them most thought the Beatles didn’t need anybody so when Clapton was invited in for a solo it not only was considered a major oddity it became the linchpin for rumors of an impending breakup of the band.

[Mariner]

The break-up could be seen from miles away.

And you're right, it was the White Album where it first showed.

The hubris of McCartney, Harrison bursting at the seams, Ringo walking out (due to McCartney) and Lennon's mean, nasty "wit".

They had essentially lived together for 8 years by then, without a break for anything. They couldn't go anywhere without great fanfare and personal danger.

Twelve studio albums in 8 years. NOBODY does that (Stones were close). Movies, one of which is still a classic. Started a media empire, Apple.

In just 8 short years.

[dadfly]

miss John. miss George. wonder what they’d be working on now. ah well, that’s the problem with getting old.

[Scrambler Bob]

M4L Beatles

[iowamark]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted.
Side one
No. Title Lead vocals Length
1. “Back in the U.S.S.R.” McCartney 2:43
2. “Dear Prudence” Lennon 3:56
3. “Glass Onion” Lennon 2:17
4. “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” McCartney 3:08
5. “Wild Honey Pie” McCartney 0:52
6. “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” Lennon 3:14
7. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (George Harrison) Harrison 4:45
8. “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” Lennon 2:43
Side two
No. Title Lead vocals Length
9. “Martha My Dear” McCartney 2:28
10. “I’m So Tired” Lennon 2:03
11. “Blackbird” McCartney 2:18
12. “Piggies” (Harrison) Harrison 2:04
13. “Rocky Raccoon” McCartney 3:33
14. “Don’t Pass Me By” (Richard Starkey) Starr 3:51
15. “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” McCartney 1:41
16. “I Will” McCartney 1:46
17. “Julia” Lennon 2:54
Side three
No. Title Lead vocals Length
1. “Birthday” McCartney and Lennon 2:42
2. “Yer Blues” Lennon 4:01
3. “Mother Nature’s Son” McCartney 2:48
4. “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey” Lennon 2:24
5. “Sexy Sadie” Lennon 3:15
6. “Helter Skelter” McCartney 4:29
7. “Long, Long, Long” (Harrison) Harrison 3:04
Side four
No. Title Lead vocals Length
8. “Revolution 1” Lennon 4:15
9. “Honey Pie” McCartney 2:41
10. “Savoy Truffle” (Harrison) Harrison 2:54
11. “Cry Baby Cry” Lennon, with McCartney 3:02
12. “Revolution 9” Speaking from Lennon, Harrison, George Martin and Yoko Ono 8:22
13. “Good Night” Starr 3:13

[Mariner]

And well over 1,000 documented concerts up until 1966 when they had to stop.

[driftless2]

The White Album has a few good songs but is mostly trivial filler. I have four Beatles music books and love to play them. But I don’t play much from TWA. Poor melodies for most of them. Other albums like Revolver and Rubber Soul are far superior.