Part 11/11

I was in college from the fall of 2003 to the fall of 2007 and like many college students, music was a huge part of my life. Blink 182’s self-titled album came out over the summer of 2003 and it was in constant rotation in my CD player over the next four years. I listened to a good bit of popular hits from the time including songs by Usher, Outkast, Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Franz Ferdinand, Justin Timberlake, the Raconteurs, the White Stripes, The Fratellis, My Chemical Romance and countless others.

And while much of my time was spent listening to the new releases of the era, college also introduced me to a number of other bands and genres that I hadn’t been adequately exposed to at the time. It’s when I got into both Death and Black Metal, various forms of Jazz, British Hip-Hop and more. My new appreciation for a variety of music genres also led me to rediscover bands who got us where we are today that I’d either never given a chance or full-on didn’t like to begin with, namely Elvis and (as much as I hate to say it) the Beatles.

Of course I knew some of the Beatles’ more bubble-gum hits like Love Me Do, She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand but they just weren’t my style. A close friend who was a giant Beatles fan was doing everything she could to turn me into a fellow fan and gifted me “1”, a compilation of the Beatles’ number-one hits. The record included the aforementioned titles, but it also had a few songs I wasn’t familiar with that piqued my interest in the band further. Songs like Day Tripper, Eleanor Rigby, Lady Madonna, The Ballad of John and Yoko and Let It Be showed me a side of the Beatles I hadn’t known before – a side I actually thoroughly enjoyed!

Around this time, I picked up Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by the band’s longtime engineer Geoff Emerick. The author came into the band’s life just as they stopped playing live due to the noise of the crowd making it so difficult to play. Being a studio-only band in the burgeoning rock and roll world of the 1960s was exciting because the band could now do things they didn’t have to worry about ever replicating in concert! The guys had been introduced to hard drugs and Bob Dylan, and now they had an engineer who was a supporter of ingenuity and experimentation in the studio.

By the time “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” came out in 1967, things were starting to get really trippy in the Beatles camp – a fair warning before “Magical Mystery Tour” came out later that same year. The fanciful, LSD-riddled rollercoaster, however, came to a mellow halt when the band began a transcendental meditation course in Rishikesh, India. Void of hard drugs, Lenon, McCartney and Harrison were able to tap into their creative subconsciouses to write a whopping 40 new songs, 26 of which eventually made it onto their next album:

11) The Beatles – The Beatles (The White Album)

Released November 22, 1968; Produced by George Martin

Fresh from their sabbatical in India (though I don’t believe either band member stayed the full duration), the band hit Abbey Road Studios in London in late 1968 poised to release their first-and-only double album. A variety of musical styles can be heard on the record including Rock, Blues, Folk, Country, Ska, Avante-Garde, Music Hall, Psychedelic, Western and (some would say) Heavy Metal.

Prolific though the guys were at the time, “The White Album” is said to be the soundtrack to the Beatles’ breakup. Lennon’s infatuation with Yoko Ono led to her being in the studio often (a practice the Beatles historically never allowed) which then led to other wives and girlfriends being present. Communication between band leaders Lennon and McCartney withered away and each band member’s ego fought for the center stage position. The tension led engineer Emerick to part ways with the band and drummer Ringo Starr briefly quit.

Regardless, the 30 tracks came together to create a powerhouse double-album the likes of which no one ever heard before or since.

Strong Points

Birthday (McCartney)

Lennon says Birthday is “garbage” but it’s a piece of sonic gold when you consider two of the greatest songwriters who ever lived more-or-less made it all up “on the spot.” This is a song I love to play along with on the drums since they are prominently featured in the intro and the brutally long eight-measure drum break that leads into the middle section of the song. It’s a fun-loving song and I use it to title my annual birthday post right here in the ol’ blog.

Blackbird (McCartney)

McCartney wrote Blackbird as a response to rising racial tensions in the United States. It’s an oddly romantic approach to encouraging American Blacks, especially women, to rise up. All acoustic, the song has a classical element to it that cannot be denied and McCartney’s lyrical prowess shines throughout. Interesting factoid: while researching this song, I learned that Charlie Manson interpreted the song’s lyrics as a call to Black Americans to join an apocalyptic race war led by the Manson family.

Dear Prudence (Lennon)

Dear Prudence is inspired by Lennon and Harrison’s experience trying to coax Prudence Farrow (sister of actress Mia Farrow) out of her bungalow while at the transcendental meditation course. Farrow had experienced a bad LSD trip and was seeking meditation as a means of coping with the scenario and ended up locking herself in her bungalow for days at a time. And while it’s merely lighthearted pleading for a woman to come out of her hut, the resulting song is a love story for nature.

Favorite Songs

Helter Skelter (McCartney)

You can say it’s cliche but this is one of my favorite Beatles songs. McCartney wrote it partially in response to critics saying he only wrote sappy love songs and also because he wanted to write a raucous tune much like what the Who were starting to do. That opening descending guitar riff is so loud and alarming, followed by McCartney’s screaming vocals. Riding that E chord for what seems like forever would eventually become a heavy metal and punk rock staple. I’m also a huge fan of how loud and somewhat trashy the drums sound with so many crash hits riding along behind the famous guitar riffs. Add to that the connection with the Manson family and this song earns even more heavy metal credibility, even if it wasn’t really the band’s intention.

Happiness is a Warm Gun (Lennon)

This song is a rollercoaster ride full of multiple movements and a variety of time signatures. Lennon admitted that the lyrics are meant to be a double entendre and were intended to be about sexual relations with Yoko Ono, which is disgusting but it makes for some beautiful poetry. Going along with the sexual connotation of the song, the first segment’s foreplay is slow, well thought out and intentional, while the mid-section is passionate yet repetitive, then the third segment of the song explodes in orgasmic finality as McCartney’s backing vocals croon “Bang bang, shoot shoot.” It’s a wild ride, but I can’t help but think Ono was, too. Gross.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Harrison)

George Harrison was my least favorite Beatle, yet between While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something and I Me Mine, the dude wrote many of my favorite Beatles tunes. McCartney’s piano pounding out the intro is startling and the phenomenal guitar playing provided by Eric Clapton is a blues masterpiece. Clapton said the song is Harrison’s response to his “spiritual isolation” within the group. It’s especially powerful when you consider some of the lyrics that were removed: “I look at the trouble and hate that is raging while my guitar gently weeps; while I’m sitting here, doing nothing but aging …” It’s a statement of pessimism given the current events of the era, and I can’t help but fully understand where he’s coming from.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (McCartney)

Out of nowhere comes the Beatles playing a Ska/Reggae song about Ska/Reggae legend Desmond Dekker. It isn’t a particularly deep or meaningful song but it’s Ska so it’s fun and the chorus is almost meaningless. Apparently some consider it one of the “worst songs ever” but I can’t help but love it! In Emerick’s book, he spoke of how McCartney was continuously displeased with how the song was sounding and his perfectionism drove many in the band to hysterics. At one point, John left the studio and proceeded to get completely wrecked on who knows what substances. As Paul continued trying to “get it right” in the studio, Lennon reportedly showed back up, completely blitzed, and declared he knew how the song should go and thereby wrote the opening piano riff and, by extension, the rest of the song.

After digging into “The White Album,” my life had officially changed. I no longer looked at the Beatles as a band only the pretentious and middle-aged love but a band whose existence started more musical movements than any other. The Beatles are the masters, the greatest of all time, and there’s a reason they have that reputation. Because of this album (and maybe “Rubber Soul”), I often look to the Beatles any time I need creative inspiration.

“The White Album” is widely considered one of the greatest records of all time. It went to number one in Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Norway, Sweden, Spain, the UK, the US and West Germany. It’s certified Gold in Argentina, Canada, Denmark and France, Platinum in Argentina and Italy, 2x Platinum in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, 8x Platinum in Canada and a whopping 24x Platinum (selling over 12 MILLION copies) in the United States.