1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die - #134. The Beatles - The Beatles (aka White Album) (1968)

The Beatles - The Beatles (aka White Album) (1968)

Label – Apple
Producer – George Martin
Art Direction – Richard Hamilton
Nationality – UK
Running Time – 93:43

Track Listing (standout tracks listed in bold)

Disc: 1
1. Back In The U.S.S.R.
2. Dear Prudence
3. Glass Onion
4. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
5. Wild Honey Pie
6. The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
8. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
9. Martha My Dear
10. Im So Tired
11. Blackbird
12. Piggies
13. Rocky Raccoon
14. Don't Pass Me By
15. Why Don't We Do It In The Road
16. I Will
17. Julia

Disc: 2
1. Birthday
2. Yer Blues
3. Mother Nature's Son
4. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me & My Monkey
5. Sexy Sadie
6. Helter Skelter
7. Long Long Long
8. Revolution 1
9. Honey Pie
10. Savoy Truffle
11. Cry Baby Cry
12. Revolution 9
13. Good Night

‘The Beatles’ by the Beatles. Just another in a series of masterpieces by the Beatles. It was their ninth official British album and the fifteenth American album by The Beatles, and it was a double album. It is commonly known as “The White Album” as it has no photo or writing of any kind on the sleeve other than the band's name on its plain white sleeve. It was also the first released by their own record label, Apple.
The Beatles was written and recorded directly after visiting the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India and the group had a wealth of material to record, hence the double record. Unlike their last studio record, “Sgt Pepper’s”, gone was the experimentation that defined that record, and here was the Beatles essentially stripped bare. Each song has a life of it’s own.
John and Paul take center stage throughout the record. There is the rocking "Back in the U.S.S.R." and the bluesy "Yer Blues", each delivered as straight ahead rockers, but each writer, essentially working alone now, turn in very true to their personality tracks.
John Lennon contributed two of his best ballads with "Dear Prudence" and "Julia", he moved into the avante garde with "Revolution 9", turns on the crooner for Ringo's closing track "Good Night". pokes some fun of the Beatles with "Glass Onion" and tops it off with the classic "Cry Baby Cry."
Paul McCartney doesn't branch out as far yet his songs touch several musical genres. Music hall romp on "Honey Pie," country on "Rocky Raccoon," the Jamaican ska bounciness of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," and heavy metal with "Helter Skelter."
Clearly John and Paul are the driving force but it's clear from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," (with Eric Clapton on lead guitar) the soul of "Savoy Truffle," the spooky "Long, Long, Long," and the humor of "Piggies" that George Harrison was developing into a songwriter who rivaled his bandmates. Even Ringo turns in his first original track "Don't Pass Me By." On their own each song would fit nicely on a solo record by all four, yet somehow it all makes sense and the Beatles (against producer George Martin’s wishes who wanted a singe record) delivered two albums worth of new classics.
When release in late 1968, the record received mixed reviews but of course reached the #1 spot on the charts in the United Kingdom and United States almost immediately. “The Beatles” is regarded as one of the greatest albums in rock history. In 2003, the album was ranked number 10 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
It is HIGHLY recommended.


You can purchase the CD here

ROCK BIRTHDAYS FOR MARCH 5
Alan Clark from Dire Straits is 58; John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers is 40;

ON THIS DATE
1960 Elvis Presley is discharged from the Army
1963 The Beatles record "From Me To You"
1977 The Rolling Stones perform in a nightclub in Toronto, and some of those tracks ended up on Love You Live
2002 The Osbournes premieres on MTV
2004 Todd Harrell of 3 Doors Down is arrested in Moss Point, Mississippi after allegedly assaulting a newspaper carrier who accused him of stealing papers from a coin-operated vending machine
2008 Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver pleads not guilty of driving under the influence of drugs when he was arrested on a Los Angeles freeway on-ramp the previous November
2009 Experience Hendrix and Authentic Hendrix file a trademark-infringement lawsuit in a federal court in Seattle charging the Las Vegas-based HendrixLicensing.com with selling unauthorized Hendrix-branded merchandise

IN CONCERT
Saturday, May 1 BLUE OYSTER CULT Coachman Park Clearwater

IN THE NEWS
Elton John Recording Album With Leon Russell
David Bowie's New Makeover: Rock 'n' Roll Recluse
Bret Michaels Gets Busy With Miley Cyrus, 'Celebrity Apprentice'