"White Album" - what are the best things about it?
-
beatlesfanrandy:
Erik in NJ:
Realistically this should not have been a double album--had it been a single album it would have been a much bigger album, i.e., more accessible to the general public. Most of the big hits were Pauls and of course George contributed some good stuff (While My Guitar & Savoy Truffle), John had a couple nice ballads, but no blockbuster hits on this album which is unusual.
I'll just quote Paul from The Beatles Anthology to anyone who thinks the White Album is too long or has "too many"..."It sold. It's the bloody Beatles' White Album... Shut up!"
Just to play the Devil's Advocate, Randy, wouldn't anything Beatles-related have sold at that particular point in time? Having albums sell doesn't always reflect talent. (In this case it does reflect talent although some songs are questionable to many it seems). I have bought quite a few of Neil Diamond's albums over the years - some were not so great but I still bought them because as a loyal fan I always hope for the best. If I had been a hard-core Beatles fan back then I would have bought that White Album without even hearing it in advance. It would have been the "cool" thing to do for that time period in the late 60's. And also, any self-respecting Beatles fan would have liked to brag that you owned all of the Beatles albums, right? I see this double album as a very clever marketing tool...you release the double album, you charge more than you would for a single album and fans buy it just because it's The Beatles. The big name sells no matter what the product is.
-
Scarlett14:
...I see this double album as a very clever marketing tool...you release the double album, you charge more than you would for a single album and fans buy it just because it's The Beatles. The big name sells no matter what the product is.
You might sell a million or two at first because you're The Beatles, but you don't keep selling more than 20 million worldwide over 45 years of anything if it's a piece of crap. I don't care who you are! U.S. sales facts: 3.3 million sold to retailers in the first 4 days of release. 19x Platinum awarded 3 years on Billboard Top 200 Albums 10th best selling album OF ALL TIME in the U.S. #2 selling Catalog Album of 2009. (I like stats)
-
The White Album is where the Beatles went from a pop band to a rock band. They never rocked harder than they did on this album, & even the "softer" songs sound menacing, eerie, or unique. The album represented a major step up from their 1967's psychedelic, melodic pop.songs There is no other album the Beatles did that sounds anything like it.
-
JoeySmith:
The White Album is where the Beatles went from a pop band to a rock band. They never rocked harder than they did on this album, & even the "softer" songs sound menacing, eerie, or unique. The album represented a major step up from their 1967's psychedelic, melodic pop.songs There is no other album the Beatles did that sounds anything like it.
It was the first album they produced using an 8-track recorder. EMI had a brand new 8-track recorder in storage at Abbey Road but had never hooked it up. When The Beatles found out about it they insisted they be allowed to use it. The machine was then pulled out of the storage closet and connected by their engineers, and used without authorization from EMI heads. This is one reason the production of the White Album sounds spacious and clean, compared to Sgt. Pepper which was recorded on only 4-tracks and has a more blended and denser sound.
-
"I told you 'bout the fool on the hill...I tell you man he's living there still...and here's another clue for you all..The Walrus is Paul ...and US ALL! Ask Me...I Watched It All Unfold!
-
Just to expound on the limitation of 4-track recording, I saw a documentary called The Making of Sgt Pepper where George Martin stripped or denuded Strawberry Fields Forever and left only John's vocal. On that track, they also recorded a snare drum, so you cannot really separate those two. If they make John's vocal a bit louder now, same goes for the snare. Unless of course, they just mixed John's vocal and Ringo's snare drum tracks to put on that space.
-
For those who argue for a single-disc White Album, what exactly would have been done with the remaining 12 songs or so? Probably not B-sides as Beatles b-sides are just as good in terms of quality as their A-side. Maybe a double Yellow Submarine album
-
JoeySmith:
For those who argue for a single-disc White Album, what exactly would have been done with the remaining 12 songs or so? Probably not B-sides as Beatles b-sides are just as good in terms of quality as their A-side. Maybe a double Yellow Submarine album
As I mentioned in my earlier post I'd put them on another album but that album would not have sold as well as the others. Sure, it would still be bought by Beatles fans who buy everything related to The Beatles but it would not as been as well received by the general public. That's why I had seen it as a marketing tool to put two albums together like that. What other singers/bands had rock & roll double albums at that time? Were there any others before the White Album? I have heard of Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and Frank Zappa's Freak Out being released right before it I believe. It was a pretty gutsy, almost over-confident move, by ANYBODY, to have released a double album (that does not include "Greatest Hits) at that time, wouldn't you agree? Just as it was gutsy to release the over 7 minute Hey Jude. It had the DJs wondering if it would be accepted by the public, it just hadn't been done before.
-
Just scrap them. They had lots of songs that never made it on albums. Would anyone really have missed a song like "Wild Honey Pie?"
-
Paul should have never allowed John to release Revolution #9. Or at least, give it a 3:00 minute edit - not 8 minutes of noise better suited for 2 Virgins. Big mistake by Paul.
-
JoeySmith:
Paul should have never allowed John to release Revolution #9. Or at least, give it a 3:00 minute edit - not 8 minutes of noise better suited for 2 Virgins. Big mistake by Paul.
It isn't noise. It's a sound collage. It's a work of art by a genius. It's beyond simple pop and simple minds. That was the whole point of the sprawling double album. There was room for everything. Most people skip Revolution 9. That's easy! But some of us listen to it and love it. It's pure Lennon! And if Paul's Carnival of Light ever does come out, you'll hate it!
-
It's a sound collage of noise Sorry I have trouble seeing the "genius" in this sophmoric piece of work. Lots of tape loops played backwards with someone panning the recording control from left to right and back again. It's all a bit childish really. I thought it was cool when I was 17 (I even recorded it backwards), but listening to it now (I just sat through the full 8:21 of it) at 52 I think I can call a spade a spade. I would have rather seen the space used for 2-3 additional songs rather than this waste of space. A three sided album would have been cool, with one side of the second LP just smooth like the records of the days of old Then they could have left this one, "Wild Honey Pie" and some of the other junk off the album. Maybe relegated Revolution 9 to the A & B sides of a single--just in case you happened to wear one side out! Someone recently mentioned to me that Paul was upset about John putting it on the album, because he'd been experimenting with "sound collages" and then John slapped this "thing" on the album. "If you become naked...block that kick, block that kick..."
-
Excerpts from the book, "The Beatles, A Hard Day's Write" regarding "Revolution #9: The album track of "Revolution" originally clocked in at over 10 minutes; more than half of it consisting of John and Yoko screaming and moaning over a range of discordant sounds, created to simulate the rumblings of a revolution. Subsequently, they decided to clip the chaotic section and use it as the basis of another track which turned into "Revolution #9". With so many overlapping sounds it is almost impossible to identify all of the individual noises and spoken comments. Mark Lewisohn, who studied the original 4 track recording divided them into a choir, backwards violins, a backwards symphony, an orchestral overdub from "A Day In The Life", banging glasses, applause, opera, backwards mellotron, humming, spoken phrases by John and George and a cassette tape of Yoko and John screaming the word "right" from "Revolution". Once again, Charles Manson thought that John was speaking to him personally through the hubbub, taking the number nine as a reference to Revelations Chapter 9 with its vision of the coming apocalypse. Manson thought John was shouting "rise" rather than "right" and interpreted it as an incitement to the black community to rise against the white middle class. "Rise" became one of Manson's key phrases and was found painted in blood at one of the murder scenes. Paul was in America when "Revolution 9" was put together and was disappointed at its inclusion on "The Beatles", particularly as he had been making sound collages at home since 1966 and realized that John would now be seen as the innovator." ______________________________________________ Erik, please see the last paragraph that references Paul having made his own collages. I was fairly young when the Manson murders took place but I do recall the story being in the news quite a bit back then. I'm wondering if John and Yoko were ever questioned about whether they had ever met Mr. Manson or if there had ever been any connection to him and his followers given the odd nature of "Revolution 9". I picture the FBI and Scotland Yard just scratching their heads trying to figure out exactly what was going on in that "collage". That last sentence where Paul realizes that John will be seen as the innovator is very revealing. I can just imagine in my head that these two worked side by side all day in a studio in a friendly way and then the minute they got home they each were trying to think of something that the other one hadn't tried yet.
-
Paul also apparently pioneered the backwards sounds being added to songs. I would love to hear some of Paul sound collages--I wonder if they are available anywhere or if they will ever be released. So much for the pioneering genius of Lennon! I still say Revolution 9 is for the most part swill.
-
Erik in NJ:
Just scrap them. They had lots of songs that never made it on albums. Would anyone really have missed a song like "Wild Honey Pie?"
I would! The thing that's wonderful about the White Album is that it zigzags in all those crazy directions. To me, that's the charm of the thing. A stripped-down "greatest hits" version would ruin it for me.
-
Erik in NJ:
Paul also apparently pioneered the backwards sounds being added to songs. I would love to hear some of Paul sound collages--I wonder if they are available anywhere or if they will ever be released. So much for the pioneering genius of Lennon! I still say Revolution 9 is for the most part swill.
John was the pioneer of backwards sounds. I'M ONLY SLEEPING and RAIN were his songs, and they have backwards sounds all over them.
-
Erik in NJ:
It's a sound collage of noise Sorry I have trouble seeing the "genius" in this sophmoric piece of work. Lots of tape loops played backwards with someone panning the recording control from left to right and back again. It's all a bit childish really. I thought it was cool when I was 17 (I even recorded it backwards), but listening to it now (I just sat through the full 8:21 of it) at 52 I think I can call a spade a spade. I would have rather seen the space used for 2-3 additional songs rather than this waste of space. A three sided album would have been cool, with one side of the second LP just smooth like the records of the days of old Then they could have left this one, "Wild Honey Pie" and some of the other junk off the album. Maybe relegated Revolution 9 to the A & B sides of a single--just in case you happened to wear one side out! Someone recently mentioned to me that Paul was upset about John putting it on the album, because he'd been experimenting with "sound collages" and then John slapped this "thing" on the album. "If you become naked...block that kick, block that kick..."
You've obviously given some thought about this 8 min. piece of "noise" by John Lennon. There could be a whole thread devoted just to this one song on the White Album. There probably is. And that's what makes the White Album so amazing. It's sprawling diversity. I bet there's more than one song on it you love. Some love all of Paul's and can't stand John's. I'm not in that category but it's a good discussion. FYI, I was in 8th grade English class listening to and discussing the White Album with our English teacher in 1969. So I guess it has some merits, even Revolution 9.
-
Erik in NJ:
"If you become naked...block that kick, block that kick..."
It doesn't say..."if you become naked"...as in taking your clothes off...it says "if...you become naked"...as in...are you willing to bare your soul?
-
I LOVE all the songs on The White Album. There is SO much diversity of sound as beatlesfanrandy posted above. Revolution #9 has always fascinated me. It soothes me to listen to it. I really dig it. And for, "if...you become naked," as being willing to bare your soul. Last week I had nothing to wear and I just said out loud to these people I hardly knew, "Why don't we just go naked?" They laughed. In hindsight it was the right thing to say. As really I WAS saying, " I am willing to bare my soul." Wow, thanks for the deep thought SurSteven! Really. Peace & Love!
-
hey_kittay:
I LOVE all the songs on The White Album. There is SO much diversity of sound as beatlesfanrandy posted above. Revolution #9 has always fascinated me. It soothes me to listen to it. I really dig it. And for, "if...you become naked," as being willing to bare your soul. Last week I had nothing to wear and I just said out loud to these people I hardly knew, "Why don't we just go naked?" They laughed. In hindsight it was the right thing to say. As really I WAS saying, " I am willing to bare my soul." Wow, thanks for the deep thought SurSteven! Really. Peace & Love!
I should say!