A$# 035 Beatles | White Album

Of course its official name is "The Beatles" - but to millions of fans, it's known simply as the White Album.

There's much one can say about the massive, sprawling double album - about how it was really the beginning of the end of the Fab Four, how Ringo actually quit the group at one point, how its musical diversity underscores the rapidly diverging musical tastes of the four members of the group, etc.

At its core, though, the White Album is a really great record - or two records in one, if you'd rather. It's been oft told that George Martin wanted to release a single disc, but the Beatles insisted on the two-in-one. (As Paul said many years later,"It's the bloody Beatles White Album. Shut up!")

Much of it written during their famous trip to India, and recorded in dozens of fractious (or de facto solo) sessions throughout 1968, the White Album represented a vastly different approach to recording music than Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour did in 1967. As the Summer Of Love had rolled into the past, so too the music changed. Nonetheless, there are some really vital songs here.

George has four tracks - his ingenious While My Guitar Gently Weeps (with its famous Eric Clapton solo), the satirical Piggies, the otherworldly Long Long Long and the rocky Savoy Truffle. Ringo has his debut solo composition, Don't Pass Me By, and closes the album with John's lushly wrapped Good Night.

That leaves a dozen songs each for Paul and John: Paul rips things up with three great rockers - Back In The USSR, Birthday and the blistering Helter Skelter, and calms things down with gentler tracks like I Will, Mother Nature's Son, Martha My Dear and the classic Blackbird. His penchant for showstyle songs comes through on Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and Honey Pie, and his sense of humour comes through in Rocky Racooon and Why Don't We Do It In The Road.

John's experiences at the Maharishi's ashram come through in Dear Prudence, Sexy Sadie and Everbody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey ("it's such a joy, it's such a joy"). His satirical side also shows in The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill and Happiness Is A Warm Gun. He offers walrus clues in Glass Onion and crashes in I'm So Tired. He delivers with Cry Baby Cry, gets into heavy blues with Yer Blues and offers up a slow-tempo variation of a previous b-side with Revolution 1. Then there is the haunting and naked Julia, imho, John's most confessional Beatles track, and his real gem on the White Album.

That just leaves two tracks that are either, imho, superfluous (Paul's Wild Honey Pie) or dud material (John's Revolution 9).

Anyway you slice it, though, the White Album was an important album in 1968, in the evolution of the Beatles, and for all time.

Track Listing:

Disc: 1
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

Disc: 2
1. Birthday
2. Yer Blues
3. Mother Nature's Son
4. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
5. Sexy Sadie
6. Helter Skelter
7. Long, Long, Long
8. Revolution 1
9. Honey Pie
10. Savoy Truffle
11. Cry Baby Cry
12. Revolution 9
13. Good Night