We at Tone Marrow Reviews don’t get too sentimental about many things, but something we hope to do more in the future is celebrate our musical heritage and other musical landmarks. We begin that with this post celebrating the fortieth anniversary of The Beatles’ White Album.
On November 22, 1968 The Beatles self-titled double album (which came to be known as The White Album) was released and the effects of that recording are still being felt today. It represents The Beatles at the height of their creative powers. It is probably impossible to truly consider the effect this album has had on pop music because it has moved so many listeners and musicians. Though Charles Manson used it for grisly evil, fans and critics have made sure that its reputation would not be tarnished, or defined, or remembered by those events and largely they have succeeded. The White Album is a sprawling, ambitious affair, the likes of which are often seen in the arts as geniuses attempt to create things with such grand scope that they can barely stand up under their own weight. The White Album doesn’t falter because of its great length, in fact, it succeeds because of it. This is The Beatles’ most diverse recording, exploring a number of musical genres and subjects. Each Beatle contributes writing and takes a turn at lead vocals, though this is still largely the John and Paul show with George permitted his usual two songs per disc. Obviously, The White Album is far above the need of a review, so I don’t intend to write one here. Rather, I want to simply write a tribute to this earth-shattering recording–highlighting some of my favorite moments on it and recalling my own introduction to it.
The Beatles brought all of their influences to the foreground on this record and at the same time they were setting their trajectories for the future. It is clear that The Beatles were no longer of one mind musically as they were each exploring diverse territories. (This makes Abbey Road all the more amazing as it feels like the most cohesive, united work the band ever turned in, and they were largely not speaking during its creation–each member going to the studio alone to record their individual parts.) So while it was clear that there was turmoil stirring under these songs and they were each likely beginning to see the approaching end of The Beatles, they still had the same vision for The White Album. It was to be a towering structure that was built upon all that came before it in The Beatles career (and pop music in general) and it paved the way for all that would come after it for The Beatles–yet, it didn’t pave one road, but four.
The whole thing starts with the Beach Boys-esque “Back in the U.S.S.R.”–is it a tribute or a jab? This is a question that is asked frequently over the course of this 90-minute recording. There is so much humor, wit, and sarcasm here, particularly from Lennon’s pen. As one example, he mocks the fans who tried to figure out the songs on Magical Mystery Tour in the number “Glass Onion.” Eric Clapton appears uncredited on Harrison’s splendid “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Lennon makes use of thin meatphors for sex and drugs particularly on the classic “Happiness is a Warm Gun.” Ringo turns in his shining moment of song-writing with “Don’t Pass Me By” and things get primal musically and lyrically on McCartney’s “Why don’t we do it in the road?” Disc 1 comes to a touching close on Lennon’s “Julia,” named after his mother who died while he was young. This may be Lennon at his most most touching and emotionally bare as the song opens with one of the best delivered lines of the record, “Half of what I say is meaningless.” And there are so many other great moments on Disc 1 in “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,” “Blackbird,” “Martha, My Dear,” “I’m So Tired,” and McCartney’s country ballad “Rocky Raccoon.”
Disc 2 starts off with “Birthday,” a track that the classic rock radio station in my hometown has almost made me utterly detest as it was played nearly every morning while they discuss birthdays of famous people. I’ll be honest, I skip over it sometimes–but that is partly because I’m eager to get to the next track. “Yer Blues” is a glorious Lennon blues number showing him at his most raggedly morbid. I became a huge blues fan during college and I believe I can trace that back to this one song. I even had an email address at one point that was “yer_blues@…” Paul McCartney turns in the most wonderfully hard-rocking number of his career in the famous “Helter Skelter.” Yet, it is a song like “Long, Long, Long” which is one of the most powerful songs on either disc that reveals that Harrison’s craft was developing well in the background and he should have been given more writing opportunities on Beatles records. It was on their next release, 1969’s Abbey Road, that Harrison’s two songs, “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun,” were arguably its best. There is so much more to The White Album than could be covered in one essay. They are so many themes explored, not the least of which is the American Civil Rights Movement in McCartney’s endearing “Blackbird.” And there are lots of sounds explored as The Beatles bring in elements of the blues, hard rock, country, classical, experimental, country, and more; so it comes as no surprise that this record has become a touchstone for so many people.
I still remember the first time I heard The White Album. I was a senior in high school and was just starting to really develop my musical tastes. I had spent my early teenage years on punk rock, emo, pop-punk, etc.–but my senior year of high school I began going back in time to Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and others. However, no band captured me like The Beatles and as a result I still in many ways consider them my favorite band. I had been listening to Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s when my friend bought The White Album and I went to his house and we listened to it–and it blew me away. I just couldn’t believe how huge it was. It was so expansive, so grand in its scope–it felt like a journey of some kind, an exodus, an odyssey. There is so much more that could be said about The White Album, which is why it remains so important forty years later, it cannot be adequately summarized in one blog post. Great art inspires art, The White Album has been inspiring great art for forty years and it will continue to inspire people to listen, discuss, record, create, and write for years to come.
One question that fans have asked each other over the years is which disc is superior. To the ears of this listener, the peaks of Disc 1 are probably the highest of the recording, yet, it could be argued that Disc 2 is more consistent. If I had to choose only one to listen to the rest of my life, it would probably be Disc 1 though I would forever miss the songs of Disc 2. Fortunately, I’ll never have to make that choice, and fortunately The Beatles made the choice to keep this a double LP, though they could have easily cut some of it down. Beatles producer George Martin argued with the band that they should cut some of the fat and boil it down to just one disc. A stellar disc that would have made, no doubt. However, I think The Beatles were right to keep it big and grand. Its great size allows it to be a fitting summary of The Beatles’ career. If it were only one disc, it will be brilliant and amazing, but it would not be an epic–a larger than life recording, which is what it is today, forty years after its release. While The White Album is certainly not the Beatles most consistent album and it may not even be their best album (my vote for that honor goes to Abbey Road, though Sgt. Pepper’s and Revolver are certainly in the running), it is arguably their most important album and one of the landmark recordings of the twentieth century.
