The Top 100 Album Review: #10 – The Beatles “The White Album”, The Beatles (1968)

Probably Should Have Been One LP.

But who cares — it’s still so good!

Rolling Stone’s Ranking: #10/100
My Rating:

A favorite pastime of music critics, amateur and professional alike, is to pontificate how The Beatles could have done it better.  I mean, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band might be the best album of all-time, but didn’t you find the chord progression on Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds a little lacking? Wasn’t Let it Be  a total let down with only 6 or 7  amazing songs?

The gripe with The White Album is its length. Clocking in at over a hour and half, there is so much material. I’ve had this album on rotation since October, and I finally feel comfortable writing about it. Yes, there is a lot to sift through, some of it meh, but much of it is amazing — so who cares.

[OVERVIEW]

Taking a break from being The Beatles and the massive success of Sgt. Pepper, the gang went to a meditation course in India to get away from it all. In between sessions, song writing was the focus. The only instrument they had was an acoustic guitar which led to many of the final songs for the album retaining that format.

While India was a kumbaya session, the actual recording was a whole other story. Ringo Starr left in the middle of recording sessions because he was so pissed and had to be coaxed back. Lennon made everyone mad by allowing Yoko Ono to hang around during recording sessions. McCartney and Lennon hated what each other was trying to do musically.

The solution: every man for themselves. Listening to The White album is like listening to three different solo artists. Within seconds, it is easy to peg each song by the appropriate composer. This leads to a wide variety of styles that change track by track.

[TRACKLISTING]

1. Back In The USSR
2. Dear Prudence
3. Glass Onion
4. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
5. Wild Honey Pie
6. The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps*
8. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
9. Martha My Dear
10. I’m So Tired
11. Blackbird
12. Piggies*
13. Rocky Raccoon
14. Don’t Pass Me By
15. Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?
16. I Will
17. Julia
18. Birthday
19. Yer Blues
20. Mother Nature’s Son
21. Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
22. Sexy Sadie
23. Helter Skelter
24. Long, Long, Long*
25. Revolution 1
26. Honey Pie
27. Savoy Truffle*
28. Cry Baby Cry
29. Revolution 9
30. Good Night

*George Harrison tracks. The rest are Lennon-McCartney.

[BEST TRACK BY MCCARTNEY: Blackbird]

There’s two versions of what the song is about: either a blackbird McCartney saw fly away in India or the plight of black women (blackbird) fighting for civil rights in America. Either way, killer song.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free

[BEST TRACK BY LENNON: Dear Prudence]

About a meditation mate who wouldn’t come out of her room, this song features a new style of guitar playing for Lennon which Donovan taught him: clawhammer. Normally, you pick a guitar with an up motion by your fingers and a down motion by your thumb. Here, all motions are a down, hitting the string with the back of your fingernail. It creates the distinct sound heard here.

Dear Prudence, won’t you come out to play?
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It’s beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence, won’t you come out to play?

[BEST TRACK BY HARRISON: My Guitar Gently Weeps]

This is a continuation of Harrison’s growth as his own composer. The other Beatles did not want to participate in this song, so he had to recruit his friend Eric Clapton to do the guitar work.

I look at you all see the love there that’s sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping
Still my guitar gently weeps.

[SECOND BEST TRACK BY MCCARTNEY: Martha My Dear]

A little bit of everything, it opens with a Bach-esque scale, has some brass backing, uses clapping to good effect, and randomly rocks out at different points.

Martha, my dear
Though I spend my days in conversation, please
Remember me
Martha, my love
Don’t forget me
Martha, my dear

[BEST TRACK IN THE BACK-HALF: Birthday]

Lennon would call this song garbage in 1980, but I found it the main standout of all the material on the later half of the album. It’s a more classic Beatles song and refreshing break from all the pretentious ones.

You say it’s your birthday
It’s my birthday too, yeah
They say it’s your birthday
We’re gonna have a good time
I’m glad it’s your birthday
Happy birthday to you

[CONCLUSION]

It’s The Beatles. It’s thirty songs. It’s mostly (5/6ths) awesome.

Other People’s Takes:

• Beatlely: “The Beatles ‘White Album’ has always been my favorite album, not only by The Beatles- but by anybody.”
• 1960s Days of Rage:“Fifty years later, the White Album, the Beatles’ masterpiece, is still good, still indelible, still as clean and pure as its sleeve, requiring no explanation or description beyond the band’s name.”
• Music 2 Commute 2: “In these circumstances the White Album seems to signpost the beginning of the end, easy as it is to be preconditioned that such a large collection of songs highlight each Beatles individuality rather than a cohesive band effort. “