On November 22, 1968, the Beatles released their tenth album, The Beatles. Due to its minimalist cover packaging (more specifically, a white cover with embossed lettering), the album became known as "The White Album."

"The White Album," which marked the debut of the Beatles' newly-created Apple label, was the band's first double LP release. It contained thirty tracks:

Side One:
Back In The U.S.S.R. (Lennon/McCartney)
Dear Prudence (Lennon/McCartney)
Glass Onion (Lennon/McCartney)
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Lennon/McCartney)
Wild Honey Pie (Lennon/McCartney)
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill (Lennon/McCartney)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Harrison)
Happiness Is A Warm Gun (Lennon/McCartney)

Side Two:
Martha My Dear (Lennon/McCartney)
I'm So Tired (Lennon/McCartney)
Blackbird (Lennon/McCartney)
Piggies (Harrison)
Rocky Raccoon (Lennon/McCartney)
Don't Pass Me By (Starkey)
Why Don't We Do It In The Road? (Lennon/McCartney)
I Will (Lennon/McCartney)
Julia (Lennon/McCartney)

Side Three:
Birthday (Lennon/McCartney)
Yer Blues (Lennon/McCartney)
Mother Nature's Son (Lennon/McCartney)
Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey (Lennon/McCartney)
[b]Sexy Sadie (Lennon/McCartney)
[b]Helter Skelter (Lennon/McCartney)
Long, Long, Long (Harrison)

Side Four:
Revolution 1 (Lennon/McCartney)
Honey Pie (Lennon/McCartney)
Savoy Truffle (Harrison)
Cry Baby Cry (Lennon/McCartney)
Revolution 9 (Lennon/McCartney)
Good Night (Lennon/McCartney)

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of the All Music Guide says:
Each song on the sprawling double album The Beatles is an entity to itself, as the band touches on anything and everything they can. This makes for a frustratingly scattershot record or a singularly gripping musical experience, depending on your view, but what makes the White Album interesting is its mess. Never before had a rock record been so self-reflective, or so ironic; the Beach Boys send-up "Back in the USSR" and the British blooze parody "Yer Blues" are delivered straight-faced, so it's never clear if these are affectionate tributes or wicked satires. Lennon turns in two of his best ballads with "Dear Prudence" and "Julia"; scours the Abbey Road vaults for the musique concrete collage "Revolution 9"; pours on the schmaltz for Ringo's closing number, "Good Night"; celebrates the Beatles cult with "Glass Onion"; and, with "Cry Baby Cry," rivals Syd Barrett. McCartney doesn't reach quite as far, yet his songs are stunning — the music-hall romp "Honey Pie," the mock country of "Rocky Raccoon," the ska-inflected "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," and the proto-metal roar of "Helter Skelter." Clearly, the Beatles' two main songwriting forces were no longer on the same page, but neither were George and Ringo. Harrison still had just two songs per LP, but it's clear from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," the canned soul of "Savoy Truffle," the haunting "Long Long Long," and even the silly "Piggies" that he had developed into a songwriter who deserved wider exposure. And Ringo turns in a delight with his first original, the lumbering country-carnival stomp "Don't Pass Me By." None of it sounds like it was meant to share album space together, but somehow The Beatles creates its own style and sound through its mess.

Previous albums:
Please Please Me (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?threadid=100547) (1963)
With The Beatles (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?threadid=101481) (1963)
A Hard Day's Night (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?threadid=102404) (1964)
Beatles For Sale (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102919) (1964)
Help! (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=103610) (1965)
Past Masters Volume One (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=104326) (1988)
Rubber Soul (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=105066) (1965)
Revolver (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=105824) (1966)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=106820) (1967)
Magical Mystery Tour (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=107263) (1967)
Yellow Submarine (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=107978) (1969)

See also:
Let It Be (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=109387) (1970)
Past Masters Volume Two (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=110082) (1988)
Abbey Road (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=110655) (1969)

Beatle Facts (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&postid=1686371)

The cover of The Beatles may have been minimalist, but the packaging sure wasn't!

Here's the collage that appeared in the packaging.

The Beatles marked the debut of the band's new Apple Records. This is where they would remain for the rest of their existence as a band.

More on Apple later.

Four posters came with The Beatles. These were the four individual portraits of each Beatle seen below.

My favorite song from there has to be Helter Skelter. It is not like any Beatles song that you would normally hear on a regular basis (like 8 Days a Week or She Loves You). I also like Back in the U.S.S.R. but that is a distant second from Helter Skelter.

Alternate versions of songs from The Beatles:

Beatles:
"Back In The U.S.S.R."
-Album version with clean outro (no crossfade at end), 1968 - 1967-1970

"Glass Onion"
-Demo, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3
-Alternate take, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
-Take 5, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
-Acoustic demo, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Happiness Is A Warm Gun"
-Demo, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"I'm So Tired"
-Edit of takes 3, 6 and 9 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Blackbird"
-Take 4, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Piggies"
-Demo, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Rocky Raccoon"
-Take 8, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Don't Pass Me By"
-Edit of takes 3 and 5 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"
-Take 4, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"I Will"
-Take 1, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Julia"
-Take 2, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Mother Nature's Son"
-Take 2, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Sexy Sadie"
-Take 6, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Helter Skelter"
-Take 2 (edit), 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Revolution 1"
-Faster single version, 1968 (under the title "Revolution") - Past Masters Volume Two

"Honey Pie"
-Demo, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Cry Baby Cry"
-Take 1, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

"Good Night"
-Edit of rehearsal and take 34, 1968 - The Beatles Anthology 3

Solo:
"Back In The U.S.S.R."
-Live; Tokyo, 1990 - Paul McCartney - Tripping The Live Fantastic
-Live; venue unknown, 2002 - Paul McCartney - Back In The U.S., Back In The World

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
-Live; New York City, 1971 - George Harrison and Eric Clapton - The Concert For Bangla Desh
-Live; Japan, 1991 - George Harrison and Eric Clapton - Live In Japan
-Live; London, 2002 - Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton - The Concert For George

"Blackbird"
-Live; venue unknown, 1976 - Paul McCartney & Wings - Wings Over America
-Live; Limehouse Studios in London, 1991 - Paul McCartney - Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)
-Live; venue unknown, 2002 - Paul McCartney - Back In The U.S., Back In The World

"Piggies"
-Live; Japan, 1991 - George Harrison - Live In Japan

"Don't Pass Me By"
-Live; New York City, 1998 - Ringo Starr - VH1 Storytellers
-Live; Toronto, 2003 - Ringo Starr And His All-Starr Band - Tour 2003

"Birthday"
-Live; Knebworth, England, 1990 - Paul McCartney - Tripping The Live Fantastic

"Yer Blues"
-Live; London, 1968 - John Lennon - The Rolling Stones' Rock And Roll Circus
-Live; Toronto, 1969 - John Lennon - Live Peace In Toronto

"Mother Nature's Son"
-Live; venue unknown, 2002 - Paul McCartney - Back In The U.S., Back In The World

I did not like this album when it first came out! I have come to appreciate the diversity in it! My favorite song is O Bla Di O Bla Da. It is such an upbeat happy song! I also like Honey Pie for the same reason. Paul was much more of an upbeat songwriter than John. But I love them both so much!:D

Dear Prudence

This album should have been called An Embarrassment of Riches, because that's exactly what it is. It's hard to pick one song from this record, though I went with "Dear Prudence." :)

Various White Album covers:

"Back In the U.S.S.R." - Billy Joel

"Dear Prudence" - was it Siouxsie and the Banshees?

"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" - Marmalade, Joel Grey

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" - Kenny Rankin

"Blackbird" - Kenny Rankin, Crosby, Stills and Nash

"I Will" - I think James Taylor covered this one.

"Mother Nature's Son" - John Denver

"Helter Skelter" - Pat Benatar, Siouxsie and the Banshees

("We'll save covers of "Revolution" for Past Masters, Volume Two. ;) )

Rejected "White Album" songs:

Junk (McCartney)
A beautiful, acoustic number that later found its way onto Paul's debut solo album.

What's The New Mary Jane (Lennon/McCartney)
An avante-guard piece along the same lines as "Revolution 9." Slightly less weird.

Not Guilty (Harrison)
The Beatles recorded over 100 takes of this song, but felt they couldn't get it right. George later recorded this song for his 1979 self-titled solo album.

Beatle-era renditions of all three songs can be found on The Beatles Anthology 3.

Two things I like about the White Album are a) the diversity of popular musical styles, as the Beatles cover everything from jazz and orchestrated pop to country and folk to blues and rock, and b) the various interpretations of the songs. No one can still quite figure out what "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is all about, and "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" can be heard as either a) a satire on machismo, b) a jibe at the the way mainstream America idolizes big-game hunters like Hemingway or John Wayne types who shoot first and ask questions later, or c) an animal-rights activist song!

Originally posted by Steve M.


"Helter Skelter" - Pat Benatar, Siouxsie and the Banshees



Didn't U2 also cover that song?

Originally posted by Brian
Didn't U2 also cover that song?

Yep. It can be found on their live album, Rattle And Hum. U2 also did a cover of "Happiness Is A Warm Gun."

Also, Phish covered the whole darn album (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006LHWI/qid=1083980712/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-1818101-8642555)!

The Beatles "White Album" was a huge success as the Fab 4 released their first album on Apple Records. The songs were great except one song that is so weird was called "Revolution 9". The songs on this album includes "Helter Skelter" the song later covered by U2 off the album "Rattle & Hum" and featured Paul's ad lib at the end "I got blisters on my fingers!":lol: "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" was a fun song that it was used as the theme song from the TV series "Life Goes On". "Revolution 1" was an alternate version. The single version was released as the "B" side of "Hey Jude" called "Revolution". "Goodnight" was a kiddie lullaby as "The White Album" comes to a close. "Back in the USSR" was the song that opens up the album. The harmonies on this first song on the album was sounded exactly copyed their style from the Beach Boys.:eek: The most weirdest cut of them all was "Revolution 9" featuring a series of sound effects and tape loops including the test tape repeated the words "#9, #9, #9, #9..." I turned the record backwards with my fingers where they played in reverse "Turn me on dead man, turn me on dead man".:lol: AKA do you want to see the picture of the label? I have the album with an 80's Capitol label featuring the famous late-50's colorband. Back in 1969, since I weren't born, Roby Yonge did his last overnight show on WABC in NYC talking about rumors about Paul McCartney's death. There is another one where Roby was talking about the "White Album".:) You should listen to it and find out.:) The link is:
http://musicradio.computer.net/images/robylast.ram

The White Album must be listened to in it's entirety to be fully appreciated IMO. This album wasn't about singles. It's hard to pick one single song as a favorite off of this incredible album

Guest musicians on The Beatles:

Eric Clapton - lead guitar on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
Mal Evans - tambourine and hand-claps on "Dear Prudence; hand-claps on "Birthday;" trumpet on "Helter Skelter"
Jack Fallon - violin on "Don't Pass Me By"
Patti Harrison - vocals on "Birthday"
Jackie Lomax - hand-claps on "Dear Prudence"
George Martin - honky-tonk piano on "Rocky Raccoon;" harmonium on "Cry Baby Cry"
Yoko Ono - vocals on "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill," "Birthday" and "Revolution 9"
Maureen Starkey - vocals on "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill"
Chris Thomas - mellotron on "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill;" harpsichord on "Piggies"

This is my all time favorite Beatles album. There isn't a weak moment on the entire album. My favorite song would have to be "Dear Prudence".

Next week: join us at Twickenham Film Studios as all hell breaks loose!

From The Beatles Anthology book and film:

RINGO: Sgt. Pepper did its thing – it was the album of the decade, of the century maybe. It was very innovative with great songs. It was a real pleasure and I’m glad I was on it. But “The White Album” ended up a better album for me.

GEORGE: When we started, I don’t think we thought about whether “The White Album” could do as well as Sgt. Pepper – I don’t think we ever really concerned ourselves with the previous record and how many it had sold. In the early Sixties, whoever had a hit single would try to make the next record sound as close to it as possible – but we always tried to make things different. Things were always different, anyway – in just a matter of months we’d changed in so many ways there was no chance of a new record ever being like the previous one.

JOHN: All the stuff on “The White Album” was written in India when we were supposedly giving our money to Maharishi, which we never did. We got our mantra, we sat in the mountains eating lousy vegetarian food and writing all those songs. 1980

We wrote about thirty new songs between us. Paul must have done about a dozen. George says he’s got six, and I wrote fifteen. And look what meditation did for Ringo – after all this time he wrote his first song. 1968

GEORGE MARTIN: They came in with a whole welter of songs – I think there were over thirty, actually – and I was a bit overwhelmed by them, and yet underwhelmed at the same time because some of them weren’t great.

For the first time I had to split myself three ways because at any one time we were recording in different studios. It became very fragmented, and that was where my assistant Chris Thomas did a lot of work (which made him into a very good producer).

GEORGE: The experience of India and everything since Sgt. Pepper was all embodied in the new album. Most of the songs that were written in Rishikesh were the result of what Maharishi had said.

When we came back, it became apparent that there were more songs than would make up a single album, and so “The White Album” became a double album. What else do you do when you’ve got so many songs and you want to get rid of them so that you can write more? There was a lot of ego in the band, and there were a lot of songs that maybe should have been elbowed or made into b-sides. Having said that, there would just have been more bootlegs today because all of those that weren’t put on the album would be out there.

JOHN: That [“The White Album”] was just saying: “This is my song, we’ll do it this way. That’s your song, you do it that way.” It’s pretty hard trying to fit three guys’ music into one album – that’s why we did a double. 1969

After getting into electronics and heavy arrangements, I finally shook all that off and my songs on the double album were fairly simple and basic. It was a complete reversal from Sgt. Pepper, and I preferred a lot of the music. 1971

GEORGE MARTIN: During Magical Mystery Tour, I became conscious that the freedom that we’d achieved in Pepper was getting a little bit over the top, and they weren’t really exerting enough mental discipline in a lot of the recordings. They would have a basic idea and then they would have a jam session to end it, which sometimes didn’t sound too good. I complained a little about their writing during the later “White Album” [sessions], but it was fairly small criticism.

I thought we should probably have made a very, very good single album rather than a double. But they insisted. I think it could have been made fantastically good if it had been compressed a bit and condensed. A lot of people I know think it’s still the best album they made. I later learnt that by recording all those songs they were getting rid of their contract with EMI more quickly.

RINGO: There was a lot of information on the double album, but I agree that we should have put it out as two separate albums: the “White” and the “Whiter” albums.

PAUL: I think it’s a fine album. It’s great, it sold. It’s the bloody Beatles “White Album!” Shut up!

PAUL: People seem to think that everything we say and do and sing is a political statement, but it isn’t. In the end, it is always only a song. One or two of the tracks will make some people wonder what we are doing – but what we are doing is just singing songs. 1968

GEORGE: I wrote “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at my mother’s house in Warrington. I was thinking about the Chinese I Ching, “The Book Of Changes.” In the West we think of coincidence as being something that just happens – it just happens that I am sitting here and the wind is blowing in my hair, and so on. But the Eastern concept is that whatever happens is all meant to be, and that there’s no such thing as coincidence – every little item that’s going down has a purpose.

“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was a simple study based on that theory. I decided to write a song based on the first thing I saw upon opening any book – as it would be relative to that moment at that time. I picked up a book at random, opened it, saw “gently weeps,” then laid the book down and started the song.

We tried to record it, but Paul and John were so used to just cranking out their tunes that it was very difficult at times to get serious and record one of mine. It wasn’t happening. They weren’t taking it seriously and I don’t think they were even all playing on it, and so I went home that night thinking, “Well, that’s a shame,” because I knew the song was pretty good.

The next day I was driving into London with Eric Clapton (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB020404142046112448&sql=Bnt5e8q9tbtn4) and I said, “What are you doing today? Why don’t you come to the studio and play on this song for me?” He said, “Oh, no – I can’t do that. Nobody’s ever played on a Beatles record and the others wouldn’t like it.” I said “Look, it’s my song and I’d like you to play on it.

So he came in. I said, “Eric’s going to play on this one,” and it was good because that then made everyone act better. Paul got on the piano and played a nice intro and they all took it more seriously. (It was a similar situation when Billy Preston (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB020404142046112448&sql=Bq2j97i6jg74r) came later to play on Let It Be and everybody was arguing. Just bringing a stranger in amongst us made everybody cool out.)

PAUL: We’d had guest instrumentalists before – Brian Jones (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB020404142046112448&sql=Bor62mpn39f8o) had played some crazy stuff on sax [for “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)”], and we’d used a flute and other instruments – but we’d never actually had someone other than George (or occasionally John or me) playing the guitar.

Eric showed up and he was very nice, very accommodating and humble and a good player. He got wound up and we all did it. It was good fun, actually. His style fitted him very well with the song and I think George was keen to have him play it – which was nice of George because he could have played it himself and then it would have been him on the big hit.

JOHN: “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” was another one which was banned on the radio – they said it was about shooting up on drugs. But they were advertising guns and I thought it was so crazy that I made a song out if it. It wasn’t about “H” at all. George Martin showed me the cover of a magazine that said: “Happiness is a warm gun.” I thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you’ve just shot something. 1971

I love it. I think it’s a beautiful song. I like all the different things that are happening in it. I had put together three sections of different songs, it seemed to run through all the different kinds of rock music. 1970

JOHN: We’ve just done two tracks. The second one is Ringo’s first song. He composed it himself in a fit of lethargy. 1968

RINGO: I wrote “Don’t Pass Me By” when I was sitting round at home. I only play three chords on the guitar and three on the piano. I was fiddling with the piano – I just bang away – and then if a melody comes and some words, I just have to keep going. That’s how it happened: I was just sitting at home alone and “Don’t Pass Me By” arrived. We played it with a country attitude. It was great to get my first song down, one that I had written. It was a very exciting time for me and everyone was really helpful, and recording that crazy violinist was a thrilling moment.

I also sang John’s song “Good Night.” I’ve just heard it for the first time in years and it’s not bad at all, although I think I sound very nervous. It was something for me to do.

JOHN: [“Glass Onion”] That’s me, just doing a throwaway song, a’la “Walrus,” a’la everything I’ve ever written. I threw the line in – “the Walrus was Paul” – just to confuse everybody a bit more. It could have been “The fox terrier is Paul.” I mean, it’s just a bit of poetry. 1980 I was having a laugh because there’d been so much gobbledygook about Pepper – play it backwards and you stand on your head and all that.

At that time I was still in my love cloud with Yoko. I thought, “Well, I’ll just say something nice to Paul, that it’s all right and you did a good job over these last few years, holding us together.” He was trying to organise the group and all that, so I wanted to say something to him. I thought, “Well, he can have it. I’ve got Yoko. And thank you, you can have the credit.” 1970

The line was put in partly because I was feeling guilty because I was with Yoko and I was leaving Paul. It’s a very perverse way of saying to Paul: “Here, have this crumb, this illusion, this stroke – because I’m leaving. 1980

JOHN: I spent more time on “Revolution 9” than I did on half the other songs I ever wrote.

The slow version of “Revolution” on the album went on and on and on, and I took the fade-out part and just layered all this stuff over it. It has the basic rhythm of the original “Revolution” going on with some twenty loops we put on; things from the archives of EMI. I was getting classical tapes, going upstairs and chopping it and making it backwards and things like that to get the sound effects.

There were about ten machines with people holding pencils on the loops – some only inches long and some a yard long. I fed them all in and mixed them live. I did a few mixes until I got one I liked. Yoko was there for the whole thing and she made decisions about which loops to use. It was somewhat under her influence, I suppose. 1980

“Revolution 9” was an unconscious picture of what I actually think will happen when it happens; just like a drawing of revolution. It was just abstract, musique concrete, loops, people creaming… I thought I was painting in sound a picture of revolution – but I made a mistake. The mistake was that it was anti-revolution. 1970

It’s like an action painting. The “number nine, number nine, number nine” was an engineer’s voice. They have test tapes to see that the tapes are all right, and the voice was saying: This is number nine megacycles…” I just liked the way he said “number nine” so I made a loop and brought it in whenever I felt like it. 1974 It was just so funny, the voice saying “number nine,” it was like a joke, bringing number nine in it all the time, that’s all it was. There are many symbolic things about it, but it just happened. 1970

In June 1952, I drew four guys playing football and number nine is the number on the guy’s back and that was pure coincidence. I was born on 9th October, I lived at 9 Newcastle Road. Nine seems to be my number so I’ve stuck with it, and it’s the highest number in the universe, after that you go back to one. 1974 It’s just a number that follows me around (but numerologically, apparently I’m a number six or a three or something, but it’s all part of nine). 1980

PAUL: “Revolution 9” was quite similar to some stuff I’d been doing myself for fun. I didn’t think that mine was suitable for release, but John always encouraged me.

JOHN: I don’t know what influence “Revolution 9” had on the teeny-bopper fans, but most of them didn’t dig it; so what am I supposed to do? 1969

PAUL: A nice thing about the album was the cover. I had a lot of friends in the art business, and with Sgt. Pepper I had been involved with Robert Fraser. I knew a lot of artists through him, and one of his people at the time was Richard Hamilton.

I’d been to a couple of exhibitions and I liked Richard’s work, so I rung him up and said, “We’ve got a new album coming out. Would you be interested in doing the cover? He said he would, so I asked everyone. They said “yes” and then they let me get on with it, really. I used to go out to his house in Highgate and chat about it, and one day he said, “OK. Get lots of snapshots, go back to all your baby photos, get photos of yourselves – any kind – and I’ll make a collage.”

It was very exciting for me because I’m into art, and I could be his assistant for the week – liaising between the guys, getting the photographs and having them copied. Then I just sad round for the week watching him put the collage together. It’s lovely just watching someone paint. The great thing at the end of it was that when he’d filled the whole collage with photos, his final move was to take pieces of white paper and place them strategically to give space through the whole thing, so that it wasn’t just crammed with pictures. He explained that this was so the picture could breathe. You could see through negative space (which apparently is what it’s called). I think I would have just left it as it was, because it looked great anyway; but if you look at that poster now, the white areas are very clever.

Then in the end he said: “What are we going to do for the cover now that we’ve got the poster? What’s the album called?” And he asked, “Have you ever had an album called The Beatles?” I said “no” and checked back because I wasn’t sure. It had always been: Beatles For Sale, Meet The Beatles, With The Beatles. There had always been something similar, but never just The Beatles. So Richard said that was what we should call it, and everyone agreed.

Richard was very minimalist, and he wanted to have a completely white cover and emboss the word “Beatles” on it. At that time he had a friend who always smudged things, like a bit of chocolate or whatever, so Richard wanted to put an “apple smudge” on a piece of paper. That proved hard to do, so we said” “Look, let’s just leave it at the white cover.”

Then he had the idea to number each album, which I thought was brilliant for collectors. You’d have 000001, 000002, 000003, and so on. If you got, for example, 000200 then that would be an early copy – it was a great idea for sales. EMI weren’t as easy to persuade and they said they couldn’t do it. I said: “Look, if a milometer can turn over, you must be able to do that with every record that goes out.” And they found a way. I think they stopped at some point, so not all “White Albums” have the numbers on them. But it was a good idea and we got the first four. John, I think, got the first one. He shouted loudest!

RINGO: I got number one – because I’m lovely! John was actually the kindest and loving overall, when he could be. And he wasn’t quite as cynical as everyone expects. I got number one here and number four in America.

GEORGE MARTIN: I can recall Yoko spending a lot of time with John in the studio whilst we were recording “The White Album” – so much, in fact, that when at one time she was actually ill, John would not let her be ill at home so she had a bed in the studio. While we recorded, there was Yoko lying in bed.

There was a huge bond between John and Yoko. There’s no doubt about it: they were completely together mentally and I think that as the bond grew, so John lessened his bond with Paul and the others – which obviously caused problems. It was no longer the happy-go-lucky foursome – fivesome, with me—that it used to be.

GEORGE: Yoko just moved in. Well, John moved in with Yoko – or she moved in with him – and from that point on they were never to be seen without each other (for the next few years at least). So she was suddenly in the band, she didn’t start singing or playing, but she was there. Just as Neil and Mal were there, or George Martin was there, Yoko was there. She had a bed wheeled into the studio, so while we were all trying to make a record she would be in the bed, or under the piano on a mattress.

At first it was a novelty, but after a while it became apparent that she was always going to be there and it was very uncomfortable, because this is us at work and we were used to doing it in a certain way. Maybe it was just a habit that we’d got into, but there were just the four of us and George Martin. Occasionally people would come in and visit. Brian Epstein or the odd girlfriend or wife or whatever would come and go, but we never actually had somebody who was a stranger to all of us except John.

It was very odd, her sitting there all the time. It wasn’t just that it was Yoko or that we were opposed to the idea of having a stranger sitting there; there was a definite vibe, and that’s what bothered me. It was a weird vibe.

JOHN: Everybody seemed to be paranoid except for us two, who were in the glow of love. Everything is clear and open when you’re in love. Everybody was tense around us. “What is she doing here at the session?” All this madness is going on around us because we just happened to want to be together all the time. 1980

PAUL: Yoko was in the studio a lot. John and she had a very intense romance when they got together. She’s a very strong woman, a very independent woman, and I think John always liked strong women. If you thin about it, his Aunt Mimi was a strong woman, and so was his mother, but Cynthia wasn’t’ and maybe that was why they divorced. Cynthia is a nice woman, but she was not able to dominate, whereas Yoko, I think, was.

She was a conceptual artist and John was very fascinated by her. She was into a lot of other topics. She would say things like: “I do not know Beatles,” so it was like: “Wow! Here is the one person who doesn’t know about The Beatles.” That was very attractive to John.

She would say: “Oh, I love guys in leather jackets,” so he’d get back into his leather and start acting like a teenage hoodlum again. It was a good excuse to get into all that stuff that he hadn’t done for a long time, and I think she opened a lot of artistic avenues for him. The trouble, for us, was that it encroached on the framework for what he’d had going for us.

NEIL ASPINALL: This was the first album that I wasn’t in the studio for. I was at Savile Row, taking care of the business and all the rest of it. I remember going over there once and John said to me, “What are you doing here? You should be in the office.” Which felt a bit bad, you know. I didn’t like being in the office, it wasn’t my gig.

Yoko went everywhere with John, it wasn’t just that she was in the studio all the time – it was that the two of them went everywhere together, so if he was in the studio, then she was.

RINGO: Yoko being in the studio a lot was a new thing. It was all new. We’re very Northern: the wives stayed at home and we went to work – we dug coal and they cooked dinner. It was one of those flat-cap attitudes which we were losing by then. I think if Maureen came to the studio five or six times that would be about it, and in all the years Pattie came several times at the most. I don’t remember Cynthia coming much when she was married to John. It was just something that didn’t happen. And suddenly we had Yoko in the studio.

It created tension because most of the time the four of us were very close, and very possessive of each other in a way; we didn’t like strangers coming in too much. And that’s what Yoko was (not to John, but to the three of us). That was where we were together, and that’s why we worked so well. We were all trying to be cool and not mention it, but inside we were all feeling it and talking in corners.

I used to ask John, “What’s this about, what’s happening here? Yoko’s at all the sessions!” He told me straight, “Well, when you go home to Maureen and tell her how your day was, it takes you two lines: ‘Oh, we had a good day in the studio…’ Well, we know exactly what’s going on.” And that’s how they started to live – every moment together. (That was something Barbara and I took up when we got married; we were absolutely moment-by-moment together for the first eight years of our marriage.) I was fine after that, and relaxed a lot around Yoko.

PAUL: Now John had to have Yoko there. I can’t blame him, they were intensely in love – in the first throes of the first passions – but it was fairly off-putting having her sitting on one of the amps. You wanted to say, “Excuse me, love – can I turn the volume up?” We were always wondering how to say: “Could you get off my amp?” without interfering with their relationship.

It was a very difficult time. I felt that when John finally left the group he did it to clear the decks for his relationship. Anything prior to that meant the decks weren’t clear – he had all his Beatle baggage, all his having to relate to us. He just wanted to go off into the corner and look into Yoko’s eyes for hours, saying to each other “It’s going to be all right.” It was pretty freaky when we were trying to make a track.

Looking at it now you can be amused by it, and it was quite a laugh, really. But at the time, this was us and it was our careers. We were The Beatles, after all, and here was this girl… It was like we were her courtiers, and it was very embarrassing. “The White Album” was a very tense one to make.

JOHN: Paul was always gently coming up to Yoko and saying, “Why don’t you keep in the background a bit more?” I didn’t know what was going on. It was going on behind my back. 1972

GEORGE: Maybe now if you talk to Yoko she may say she likes The Beatles or that she liked The Beatles. But she didn’t really like us because she saw The Beatles as something that was between her and John. The vibe I picked up was that she was a wedge that was trying to drive itself deeper and deeper between him and us, and it actually happened.

It may be unfair to blame Yoko totally for any break-up because we’d all had enough by then, anyway. We were all going our own ways and she might have become the catalyst for speeding up that situation, whatever it was. I don’t really regret any of that, but at the time I was definitely uncomfortable about her being there.

JOHN: If it is Yoko and Linda’s fault for breaking up The Beatles, can they have the credit for all the great music that each of us have made individually? Linda and Yoko never had an argument ever. How can two women split up four strong men? It’s impossible. 1971

Looking back, I understand there’d been four guys very close together, and the women that were with them, wives or girlfriends, had been the old-fashioned type of female that we know and love. The one that was in the kitchen the whole time with the baby – she never came to the sessions even. You never saw the wives, only for openings and when they did their hair. And suddenly we were together all the time; in a corner mumbling and giggling. And there were Paul, George and Ringo saying, “What the hell are they doing? What’s happened to him?” And my attention completely went off them. Now it wasn’t deliberate, it was just I was so involved and intrigued with what we were doing… And then we’d look round and see that we weren’t being approved. But I understand how they felt, because if it had been Paul or George or Ringo that had fallen in love with somebody and got totally involved… 1980

I always preferred it to all the other albums, including Pepper, because I thought the music was better. The Pepper myth is bigger, but the music on “The White Album” is far superior.

I wrote a lot of good **** on that. I like all the stuff I did, and the other stuff as well. I like the whole album. I haven’t heard it in a long time, but I know there’s a lot of good songs on it. 1972

PAUL: I think it was a very good album. It stood up, but it wasn’t a pleasant one to make. Then again, sometimes those things work for your art. The fact that it’s got so much on it is one of the things that’s cool about it. The songs are very varied. I think it’s a fine album.

I don’t remember the reaction. Now I release records and I watch to see who likes it and how it does. But with The Beatles, I can’t ever remember scouring the charts to see what number it had come in at. I assume we hoped that people would like it. We just put it out and got on with life. A lot of our friends liked it and that was mainly what we were concerned with. If your mates liked it, the boutiques played it and it was played wherever you went – that was a sign of success for us.

I was in Scotland and I read in Melody Maker that Pete Townshend (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB020404142046112448&sql=Bqya9kect7q7m) had said: “We’ve just made the raunchiest, loudest, most ridiculous rock ’n’ roll record you’ve ever heard.” I never actually found out what that track it was that The Who (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB020404142046112448&sql=Bfmozefukhgfo) had just made, but that got me going; just hearing him talk about it. So I said to the guys, “I think we should do a song like that; something really wild.” And I wrote “Helter Skelter.”

You can hear the voices cracking, and we played it so long and so often that by the end of it you can hear Ringo saying, “I’ve got blisters on my fingers.” We just tried to get it louder. “Can’t we make the drums sound louder?” That was really all I wanted to do – to make a very loud, raunchy rock ’n’ roll record with The Beatles. And I think it’s a pretty good one. (That’s why I get annoyed when people say: “You just do the ballads; you’re the soppy one.” I say: “Have you checked? Have you listened?” Not that I like justifying myself, but there is the other side of me.

RINGO: “Helter Skelter” was a track we did in total madness and hysterics in the studio. Sometimes you just had to shake out the jams, and with that song – Paul’s bass line and my drums – Paul started screaming and shouting and made it up on the spot.

PAUL: Then it got over to America – the land of interpretive people. And as a DJ would later “interpret” the fact that I had no shoes on the Abbey Road cover, Charles Manson interpreted that “Helter Skelter” was something to do with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. I still don’t know what all that stuff is; it’s from the Bible. “Revelations” – I haven’t read it so I wouldn’t know. But he interpreted the whole thing – that we were the four horsemen, “Helter Skelter” the song – and arrived at having to go out and kill everyone.

It was terrible. You can’t associate yourself with a thing like that. Some guy in the States had done it – but I’ve no idea why. It was frightening, because you don’t write songs for those reasons. Maybe some heavy metal groups do it nowadays, but we certainly never did.

Bob Dylan thought that the line in “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was “I get high, I get high, I get high.” So there had been some funny little misinterpretations, but they were all harmless and just a bit of a laugh. Jake Riviera, Elvis Costello’s manager, thought that “living is easy with eyes closed” was “living is easy with nice clothes.” But after all those little interpretations there was finally this horrific interpretation of it all. It went wrong at that point, but it was nothing to do with us. What can you do?

JOHN: All that Manson stuff was built around George’s song about pigs and Paul’s song about an English fairground. It has nothing to do with anything and least of all to do with me. 1980

He’s barmy. He’s like any other Beatle fan who reads mysticism into it. I mean, we used to have a laugh putting this, that or the other in a light-hearted way. Some intellectual would read us, some symbolic youth generation wants it, but we also took seriously some parts of the role. But, I don’t know, what’s “Helter Skelter” got to do with knifing somebody? 1970

RINGO: It was upsetting. I mean, I knew Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate, and – God! – it was a rough time. It stopped everyone in their tracks because suddenly all this violence came out in the midst of all this love and peace and psychedellia. It was pretty miserable, actually, and everyone got really insecure – not just us, not just the rockers, but everyone in LA felt: “Oh, God, it can happen to anybody.” Thank god they caught the bugger.

GEORGE: We had incredible things happening in our lives. We had wonderful clothes, psychedelic motor cars, houses; everything. All our songs were about “All You Need Is Love,” and “Revolution,” and so on. It was a “turn on, tune in, drop out” mentality, and even nowadays a lot of people feel threatened when they don’t understand something, or if they feel that their lifestyle – the little rut that they’ve got in – is threatened by what you’re saying. They will dismiss you or they’ll think you’re a crank, or even that you’re crazy.

They’ve just about said everything by now, they’ve even said how wonderful we are and how horrible we are, and they’ve been through up/down/up/down so many times that it doesn’t make any difference. In some way we went beyond it all. We transcended the tabloids; they still have their field day now and again – still write their silly little things – but it doesn’t really have any effect on us. Yet they don’t like to hear something that’s a deviation from that cosy little safe routine that people have for their lives.

Everybody was getting on the big Beatle bandwagon. The police and the promoters and the Lord Mayors – and murderers, too. The Beatles were topical and they were the main thing that was written about in the world, so everybody attached themselves to us, whether it was our fault or not. It was upsetting to be associated with something so sleazy as Charles Manson.

Another thing I found offensive was that Manson suddenly portrayed the long hair, beard and moustache kind of image, as well as that of a murderer. Up until then, the long hair and beard were more to do with not having your hair cut and not having a shave – a case of just being a scruff or something.

RINGO: While we were recording “The White Album” we ended up being more of a band again, and that’s what I always love. I love being in a band. Of course, I must have had moments of turmoil, because I left the group for a while that summer.

I left because I felt two things: I felt I wasn’t playing great, and I also felt that the other three were really happy and I was an outsider. I went to see John, who had been living in my apartment in Montagu Square with Yoko since he moved out of Kenwood. I said, “I’m leaving the group because I’m not playing well and I feel unloved and out of it, and you three are really close.” And John said, “I thought it was you three!”

So then I went over to Paul’s and knocked on his door. I said the same thing: “I’m leaving the band. I feel you three guys are really close and I’m out of it.” And Paul said, “I thought it was you three!”

I didn’t even bother going to George then. I said, “I’m going on holiday.” I took the kids and we went to Sardinia.

GEORGE: I can’t remember exactly why Ringo left. Suddenly one day, somebody said, “Oh, Ringo’s gone on holiday.” Then we found out that he thought that the three of us all got on so well and he didn’t. It was just one of those things. Everybody felt the same, we were all getting cheesed off. I felt: “What’s the point in me being around here? They all seem so cool and groovy and I just don’t fit.” And I actually left on the next album.

PAUL: I think Ringo was always paranoid that he wasn’t a great drummer because he never used to solo. He hated those guys who went on and on, incessantly banging while the band goes off and has a cup of tea or something. Until Abbey Road, there was never a drum solo in The Beatles’ act, and consequently other drummers would say that although they liked his style, Ringo wasn’t technically a good drummer. It was a bit condescending and I think we let it go too far.

I think his feel and soul and the way he was rock solid with his tempo was a great attribute. I always say if you can leave a drummer and turn your back on him, then you’re very lucky. You could tell Ringo how it went and leave him – there was always this great noise and very steady tempo coming from behind you. Rock ’n’ roll is all about feel, really, and sound. So at that time we had to reassure him that we did think he was great.

That’s what it’s like in life. You go through life and you never stop and say: “Hey, you know what? I think you’re great.” You don’t’ always tell your favourite drummer that he’s your favourite. Ringo felt insecure and he left, so we told him, “Look, man, you are the best drummer in the world for us.” (I still think that.) He said “thank you,” and I think he was pleased to hear it. We ordered millions of flowers and there was a big celebration to welcome him back to the studio.

JOHN: I love his drumming. Ringo is still one of the best drummers in rock. 1972

"Revolution 1"

Originally posted by little insomniac
"Revolution 1"

Yeah, that's a good one too!Yup!:nod:

I dislike the way all original Beatles albums are treated on CD, but I really hate the original 1987 "White Album" CD, for its packaging and the incorrect track indexes.

In 1998, a thirtieth anniversary limited edition was released. It was a miniature replica of the original packaging. Too bad this isn't on shelves anymore; it's great.

Originally posted by AKA
I dislike the way all original Beatles albums are treated on CD, but I really hate the original 1987 "White Album" CD, for its packaging and the incorrect track indexes.

In 1998, a thirtieth anniversary limited edition was released. It was a miniature replica of the original packaging. Too bad this isn't on shelves anymore; it's great.

I have the 1998 reissue! My copy is number 0298527. :)

I have 0392742.

The 30th Anniversary Edition of The Beatles was not remastered. They used the original CD master from 1987 (but it sounds better because it was pressed using better equipment). They did, however, fix the messed-up track indexes for "Bungalow Bill" and "Revolution 9."

Here are those "White Album" facts:

Back in March of 1991, CKEY 590 in Toranto played the last song on the Beatles' "White Album" called "Good Night" before the station goes off the air after they stopped playing oldies. After the last song, a heartbeat was pounded from the airwaves.

On the Beatles documentry "Paul McCartney Is Alive and Well... Maybe" on Buffalo's WKBW back in 1969, there are other clues from these songs. Here are the following:

1. On "Glass Onion", the songs says "The Walrus was Paul, standing on the cat back oh yeah!" The announcer was saying these clues that the song reads "Standing on the cast..." something, I know that, the rhythm jumps out and left out of beat, because it was edit.

2. On "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", at the end of the song, when you are isolating the channels, you'll hear the words "Oh, Paul."

3. On "Revolution 9", it says "#9" repeated over and over again. That means a numeralogical number for death. If you have the song on a record, you can play it backwards and says "Turn me on, dead man!". The piece contains a whole bunch of sounds like crackling cellophane, police sirens amplifine and echoed, mumbling and talking, some distinct and some quite not, fire, war, football chants includes "Hold that line!" and "Block that kick!" and some weird stuff. If you want to isolate the channels, you will hear something saying "Who can tell what he would saying, his voice was low, and his eyes are glassy." The next part they were saying "He went to the dentist to give him a pair of teeth and weren't that good at all. So he went to the Navy at sea." The next one says "My wings are broken and so as my hair. But I'm not in the mood for words" (includes fire in the background). This is how it goes in that part "Finding the watchman" and "A fine natural embalance". The last part that says "You've must've gotten it between the shoulder blades".

AKA, you can listen to it while you are isolating the channels on your stereo system.:) I can isolating my channels on my stereo myself. As I said, I have the record. I love all the facts about the "White Album".:)

Previous Beatles songs referenced in "Glass Onion"

"Strawberry Fields Forever"
"I Am The Walrus" (which, itself, references "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds")
"Lady Madonna"
"The Fool On The Hill"
"Fixing A Hole"

"Glass Onion" was originally mixed by John Lennon with sound effects ranging from a telephone to glass breaking (the onion?) to soccer commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme repeatedly shouting "It's a goal!" over the roar of a soccer crowd. What was that all about? :lol: You can hear it on Anthology 3. George Martin didn't care much for it and so suggested a string score.

Originally posted by Steve M.
"Glass Onion" was originally mixed by John Lennon with sound effects ranging from a telephone to glass breaking (the onion?) to soccer commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme repeatedly shouting "It's a goal!" over the roar of a soccer crowd. What was that all about? :lol: You can hear it on Anthology 3. George Martin didn't care much for it and so suggested a string score.

I like the "It's a goal!" loop better.

When it was suggested to Paul McCartney that the White Album was too long and undisciplined, he replied, "It's the bloody White Album, shut up!" :lol:

The rejected third verse from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," as heard on Anthology 3:

I look from the wings of the play you are staging,
While my guitar gently weeps.
As I'm sitting here doing nothing but aging,
Still my guitar gently weeps.

Wouldn't it be cool if someone covered "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and included this lyric? (Can one do that?) :D

My favorite album of all time. If I had to pick one song, it'd be "Dear Prudence" or "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

I chose "Back In The U.S.S.R."

ROCKY RACCOON!!

This time I chose "Good Night."

Various White Album covers:

"I Will" - I think James Taylor covered this one.




Actually, I think it was his son Ben who covered it.

And Barbra Streisand, I've been told, covered "Honey Pie" and "Good Night."

Actually, I think it was his son Ben who covered it.

And Barbra Streisand, I've been told, covered "Honey Pie" and "Good Night."

That was from her album "What About Today?"

This album should have been called An Embarrassment of Riches, because that's exactly what it is. It's hard to pick one song from this record, though I went with "Dear Prudence." :)Oh my indeed Stevie!!

I picked Back in the USSR but Dear Prudence is also good....

THE WHOLE ALBUM KICKS!!!

Yep. It can be found on their live album, Rattle And Hum. U2 also did a cover of "Happiness Is A Warm Gun."


Yes, and Bono introduced "Helter Skelter" by saying, "Charles Manson stole this song from the Beatles. We're stealing it back!" :)

White Album fun facts:

George Martin had been opposed to the Beatles making a double album. He preferred that they be selective and make on really good single album.

Most of the album's songs were written in the spring of 1968 at the Maharishi's retreat in Rishikesh, India, where the Beatles were studying Transcendental Meditation.

"Dear Prudence" was about Mia Farrow's sister and her refusal to come outside from her cabin in Rishikesh because she was too busy meditating.

"The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" was about an American tiger hunter visiting his mother at Rishikesh. He was the all-American athletic type that was considered uncool in 1968.

"Martha My Dear," though it took the name from Paul's English sheepdog, has been rumored to be a farewell to Jane Asher after she and Paul broke their engagement.

Paul has recently insisted that "Blackbird" was about the struggle for equality by Negro women in America. Women were called "birds" in the sixties, Negroes are blacks - black bird, "blackbird," get it? No one really believes Paul on this one.

John Lennon was the only Beatle to play on "Julia," the only such occurrence in the group's career. He recorded it with Paul's help, though, as the Anthology 3 outtake of the song shows.

Ringo walked out on the White Album sessions and stayed away for ten days. During that period, "Back In the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence" were recorded, with Paul on drums. Thus, Ringo's drum intro on "Glass Onion" is the first time you hear Ringo play on the White Album. (Ironically, Ringo played drums on Back In the U.S.S.R." with the Beach Boys during the Beach Boys's Washington Mall concert in 1984, even though he hadn't played on the original record.)

"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" was the first Beatles song to be recorded with outside musicians, then rejected in favor of a remake. The remake included something the original recording (on Anthology 3) did not - a reference to transvestism (two years before the Kinks's "Lola") in the final verse.

The Beatles had planned to call the White Album A Doll's House, after Henrik Ibsen's play, but on July 19, 1968, the Beatles had to come up with another title when a progressive rock band from Leicester issued their Dave Mason-produced debut album, the sleeve of which is depicted below.

For what it's worth, Family's Music In a Doll's House is one of the greatest debut albums of all time.

"They've got a fantastic blend of sound, the best I have heard in a long time." - John Lennon on Family

Thank you for all that buddy!!