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Explaining 'My White Album'

Submitted by JBM on 09/Sep/2008
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This was really hard in the end. I think you really find that the reason the White album works is ultimately because all the songs were left on it! Some songs were good because they were just 'great' songs even if they may have sounded a bit rough... and some were not as 'great' as it were, but were good recordings / had better sounding production / had good instrumentation, singing and playing etc. Hope you get what I mean. Paul McCartney once said 'What you're doin'' from 'Beatles for Sale' wasn't a 'great song' but it was a 'good recording'. I understood what he meant so I hope you get what I am saying here. Some songs were of course both 'great' songs and 'great recordings' of the song. 'Back in the USSR' has to open the white album. No doubt about it. Clever lyrics and the way they paraody Chuck and the Beach boys. 'Dear Prudence' is such a cool song in my mind - I've often seen it criticised in this debate about the white album but I think the guitar work is great (again to my mind) and I like the backing vocals and harmonies going on. 'Glass onion' - I like the 'stabbing' guitar work even though it becomes less prominent when the string parts come in - which I also happen to like. 'Obladi' is good and up-beat. I agree with that guy in the 'Revolution' book who said something like if you don't like the song because it's not supposed to be cool to like up-beat songs then there's something wrong with you. McCartney 's vocals are good I think on that one. Hapiness is a warm gun is definately one of the best songs altogether, if not the best. Three songs in one, excellent sound and brilliant backing vocals and harmony. Excellent lyrics too. While my guitar gently wheeps is a Harrison genious. Great piano intro by McCartney, great Macca harmonies as well and of course the Clapton solo. (Did I mention pretty much superb bass playing throughout the whole album - you can't deny it!) 'Martha my dear' has soppy lyrics let's face it but I love the instruments and arrangement and sound, and the bit where it goes 'take a goood look around you.......' 'I'm so tired' - great Lennon vocal. I like the Anthology version too. It's a good sounding recording. 'Blackbird' - speaks for itself - classic guitar part and good lyrics. 'Don't pass me by' - has that classic Ringo charm - no Beatle album complete without a Ringo song. I actually love that scrapy county fiddle going on and I like it because they purposely wanted it played rough and unprofessional sounding. 'Honey pie' is a good sounding recording and has that Lennon 'Wes Montgomery' Jazzy solo. 'Junk' to me ranks along side 'Blackbird' and 'Mother Nature's son' for the quality of the accoustic guitar. 'Why don't we do it in the road' is just cool for it's rawness and stripped down feel. And the sentiment - well....! Lennon raved about 'I want you' from Abbey road for the economy of it's lyrics rather than all the poetry and philosophy and stuff. 'Why don't we do it in the road' had already done it. 'Julia' has some more good accoustic guitar parts. I like the rawness again of 'Birthday' and I especially like the 'yes we're goin' to a party party' bit. (The Beatles were good at that 'climbing' thing in their songs) 'Mother Nature's son has nice accoustic parts. 'Everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey' is one of my favourites. I love the guitars and bass and all the riffing in the song and without doubt ringo's bell is fantastic! Sexy Sadie sounds a bit rough to me but I love the bits where it goes 'one sunny day the world was waiting for a lover.....and 'we gave you everything we owned just to sit at the table.....' 'Helter Skelter' is just so 'primal' and actually has some great backing vocals going on. I don't agree with all that rubbish and criticism that it was trying to be too heavy for the Beatles to pull off or that it was sub standard heavy metal or whatever. It wasn't even trying to be heavy metal. It's just a cool song. 'Long, long, long' can get a bit tedious and boring but it's one of those that I think is a good sounding recording. The bottle rattling on the piano at the end with the wailing is good. I like the 'hammondy organ' sound in 'Cry baby cry'. 'Good night' is overly lush but it's Ringo charm again. I actually like Ringo's voice for it's uniqueness. (I think the bit where they mix some of the orchestra from 'Goodnight' with Ringo's vocal for 'Octopusses garden' on the love album works really well.) Oh, and I forgot 'Yer Blues'. It's really rough sounding but that works to the songs advantage. (I don't know if I like the Rock'n'roll circus version better or not.) Well that's a whistle stop tour of my White album. The ecclectic mix is one of the things that makes the White album so interesting and it just stands out in it's content and style. It's nothing like Pepper and Mystery tour and it's nothing like Let it be and Abey road. Somehow it sits there like a bridge and just very unique.
PS I actually like 'wild honey pie' for it's freakiness, 'Piggies' is quite witty and the sound on 'Bungalow Bill' I like but I just couldn't fit them on.

Oh - I've just has to reduce each side of my White album! I ain't goin back to edit me comments!! Just take off the slower songs or ones with poorer lyrics then.

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