Beatles album of the week: The Beatles ("The White Album")

[AKA]

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)
[b]Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey (Lennon/McCartney)
[b]Sexy Sadie (Lennon/McCartney)
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 (1963)
With The Beatles (1963)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Beatles For Sale (1964)
Help! (1965)
Past Masters Volume One (1988)
Rubber Soul (1965)
Revolver (1966)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
Yellow Submarine (1969)

See also:
Let It Be (1970)
Past Masters Volume Two (1988)
Abbey Road (1969)

Beatle Facts

[AKA]

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

[AKA]

Here's the collage that appeared in the packaging.

[AKA]

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.

[AKA]

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

[Brian]

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.

[AKA]

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

[Penny Lane]

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!

[Dean Winchester]

Dear Prudence

[Steve M.]

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."

[Steve M.]

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. )

[AKA]

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.

[Steve M.]

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!

[Brian]

Originally posted by Steve M.


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

Didn't U2 also cover that song?

[AKA]

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!