About the Album:
The Beatles self-titled double album came late in their career at a time when they were “a tense alliance of daunting individual talents.” 500 “The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein was dead and…in the middle of these sessions, Ringo was the first Beatle to temporarily quit the band.” TL
The four “were seldom all in the studio at the same time.” TL “After heading to India to search for answers, John, Paul, George, and Ringo could barely stand to be in the same room. But somehow, it still yielded some of the band's most beautiful and honest moments.” EW’12 “Each of the three main songwriters was pursuing his own vision, with the other members, however reluctantly, serving as backup musicians.” 500 “The music they made when they all hated being in a room together is infinitely better than the music being made by bands who adore each other.” PM
The Sprawling Double Album
“John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison all insisted that their favorite songs be included.” 500 “Producer George Martin fought hard to edit the project down to a consistent single album, but the Beatles were right to keep the scraps, experiments, and jokes – the tension and confusion of the time became central to The Beatles (which was originally called A Doll’s House, a fitting title for its odds-and-ends feel.” TL
“Sure, you could pare the tracks down to a dozen or so classics…Do so, though, and you lose what makes The Beatles special…The confounding moments, the ones that only work in context, lift the album from pop to art.” CQ As a result, “the Beatles used the White Album as an opportunity to tinker with everything but the kitchen sink.” PM
It makes for “a 90-minute whirlwind of non-cohesive post-modernism that, somehow, worked.” PM It “is brimming with everything from country, blues, folk, field recordings, doo-wop, proto-punk and music hall. Its smorgasbord of zigs and zags.” PM “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.” AM
Detractors were correct in calling the album “an overstuffed mess…They are entirely correct. It is an overstuffed mess. That’s why it’s great.” CQ “Not all of its parts make perfect sense,” AD but “the cumulative effect of everything that’s here does create a masterpiece.” AD It is “an exhilarating sprawl – some of the Beatles’ most daring and delicate work” 500 – “brilliant and amazingly eclectic, but long-winded.” JA “The album’s diversity is its strength.” CM
What the Beatles Thought
Paul McCartney said, “I think it was a very good album…but it wasn’t a pleasant one to make.’” 500 According to John, however, “Paul never liked it because, on that one, I did my music, he did his, and George did his…First, he didn’t like George having so many tracks, and second, he wanted it to be more a group thing, which really meant more Paul…I always preferred it to all the other albums…because I thought the music was better.” CM
The Cover
“Beyond its stylish minimalism, the essentially blank cover of The Beatles, better known as the White Album, served a symbolic purpose. The band could find no honest way to visually represent itself as a coherent unit.” 500 It was created by “Britain’s leading pop artist, Richard Hamilton, whose minimal design turned out to be as iconic as Sgt. Pepper’s.” CM
John Lennon
“Clearly, the Beatles’ two main songwriting forces were no longer on the same page,” AM but “Lennon and McCartney were still at the height of their powers, with Lennon in particular growing into one of rock’s towering figures.” AZ “Lennon turns in two of his best ballads with Dear Prudence and Julia.” AM The former sports “harmonic experiments that put the Byrds to shame.” JA The latter is “an ode to motherhood with a melancholy melody inspired by Bob Dylan rival Donovan.” RV
“The message of Happiness is a Warm Gun is muffled, with interpretations ranging from drug use to his love for Yoko Ono to masturbation. Regardless, it's an imperial psychotic symphony of wordplay.” RV
Lennon also “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.” AM He also delivers a “horndog howl on Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey,” AM “the British blooze parody Yer Blues,” AM and the “heartbreaking” CM ballad Long, Long, Long.
He also delivers what has often been called “the worst thing The Beatles ever did.” AD Indeed, “the musique concrete collage Revolution 9” AM was the Beatles at their “weirdest.” TL It was one of the few remnants of the studio experimentation which marked the Beatles’ studio work a year before. Its “ambient noise… seems like a sick joke, but in context the joke makes perfect sense. You can’t explain it, but somehow you know why it’s there. The Beatles is the sound of the biggest band ever breaking all the rules. It’s a messy process.” CQ
Paul McCartney
“McCartney doesn’t reach quite as far” AM but “his songs are stunning.” AM “Paul McCartney’s masterful melodies and poignant lyrics stand out on Blackbird, a ballad of hope in a dark world: ‘Take these broken wings and learn to fly / All your life / You were only waiting for this moment to arise.’ He moves beyond mere pop tunes by experimenting with new sounds.” RV
Paul also offers “the ska-inflected Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” AM “the music-hall romp Honey Pie,” AM “tinkers with folk” RV on “the mock country of Rocky Raccoon” AM with its “inventive story telling.” CM
He also proved he “could still rock.” AZ When he kicks off the album with the “exuberance” 500 of “the Beach Boys send-up Back in the U.S.S.R.” AM “it is clear that “the production is much more ‘live’ here than either the Revolver or Sgt. Peppers’ recordings.” AD There’s also Birthday and “the proto-metal roar” AM of the “unbridled” CM and “hard-hitting Helter Skelter,” RV which “reveals the Beatles at their hardest.” TL The latter “was a response to Pete Townshend's accusations that The Beatles weren't a real rock band.” RV
George Harrison
Harrison “had developed into a songwriter who deserved wider exposure.” AM He “displays his strength as a songwriter on this album more than ever before.” RV On While My Guitar Gently Weeps, “Eric Clapton drops by to deliver a blistering guitar solo” JA which “could easily be mistaken for the work of Lennon or McCartney.” RV
“The growing strife among the group is most evident in George Harrison's song Savoy Truffle, in which he sings, "You know what you eat you are, But what is sweet now, turns so sour / We all know Obla-Di-Bla-Da / But can you show me, where you are?’” RV
On “the haunting Long Long Long,” AM George delivers “a mellow number in the style that would dominate his ‘70s work.” DBW He also offers “the canned soul” AM of “the horn-powered rocker Savoy Truffle” DBW and “the silly Piggies.” AM
Ringo Starr
“Ringo turns in a delight with his first original, the lumbering country-carnival stomp Don't Pass Me By.” AM “It’s such a simple song yet the bass lines and whole execution sounds so truly ludicrous that it works as a piece of entertainment.” AD
Notes: A 2018 super deluxe edition added four discs of demos and alternate takes.
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