the beatles white album

November 23, 2018

the beatles white album

The Beatles' White Album turned 50 yesterday. For an album to maintain popularity and timelessness for half a century is extremely impressive. For it not being as popular as their other albums at the time of itself release, what makes it so successful now?

The Beatles are arguably the biggest band in the world. Everyone who had some sort of pop culture consciousness in the last 60 years knows who they are, and has opinions of their own about them. i’ve been reading comments on forums and reviews from critics, and many of them come to the consensus that the White Album is not the Beatles' best work. it may not have done as well with a broad audience as Help! or Abbey Road did, but it has a lot to offer.

The album has 30 songs..yes, 30!! Fans, haters, and critics alike comment on this album saying that 30 songs are too many for a cohesive album, some songs are unnecessary filler, and that this album presented some of the Beatles’ worst songs. they also argue that this should be only loosely considered a Beatles album with it lacking songs written by the band as a whole, since most of it was either work by Lennon/McCartney or Harrison separately. personally, this is my favorite beatles album, with rubber soul holding a close second place. this album brought forward the range of genres that the band can perform, from the hard rock of Helter Skelter, to the old timey jazz feel of Honey Pie, to the soft, orchestral lullaby-esque Goodnight, and the classic Beatles sound of Birthday. Also, the more obscure, with the avant-garde Revolution 9 and the unpolished, random Wild Honey Pie. The seemingly out of place last 30 seconds of Cry Baby Cry take my breath away. Although they are exploring endless genres, their signature sound stays intact, which I find crazily impressive. No matter the sound or style of the song, you know who’s singing it. That just have that iconic essence in all their songs, and this album shows the extent of their creativity.

{“can you take me back where i came from? can you take me back?”} cry baby cry

My favorite song off this album, and debatably my favorite Beatles song overall, is Honey Pie. I am very much into jazz music, so I absolutely adore the old crooner style of this song. The fact that Paul McCartney wrote this as a tribute to his father is so sweet, since he always listened to that type of music. The New Orleans-esque instrumentals, as well as the fun vocals and great lyrics win my heart over. My favorite line is, “Honey pie, you are driving me crazy. i’m in love, but i’m lazy, so won’t you please come home”.

{“honey pie, you are driving me crazy. i’m in love, but i’m lazy, so won’t you please come home”. } honey pie

Par Hills own resident Beatles expert, Mr. Bechtler, had a few things to say on the topic of this album as well. Before this album, every Beatles album was perfectly polished and produced. For this one, they left some mistakes in the songs and had eclectic huge range of genres. Due to tension in the band, it was less of a collective effort. It was created more individually, but everything works together as a collection. Appreciation grew later, becoming influential to others and gaining greater acceptance as time went on. It's an album that has everything and over time, even though it wasn’t perfect, it shows the diversity of the band and the creativity ability of the band. It is definitely one of the riskier albums. His personal favorites are While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Happiness is a Warm Gun, and Dear Prudence.

Let me get my tangents together and explain clearly why the White Album is underrated. Taking into consideration the general knowledge of the music industry and what charts well, this album is a mess. But, that is what makes it so great. The Beatles’ ability to create fantastic songs of all genres, moods, and lengths, nevertheless have the inspiration to write, compose, and record 30 whole songs, is astonishing. That is not by any means easy. People get too technical when it comes to reviews and critiques, which hinders them from appreciating the songs individually, rather than trying to find a way for them to all relate since they are on the same album. Commercially, it did have a lot of radio successes, but considering the ratio of hits to the remaining songs, a lot of gems were missed. So here’s to the obscure, long, eclectic mess that is the White Album.