GENIUS AT PLAY

- The Greatest Good Mess Ever Made -

The Beatles - White Album [Review]

The Beatles’s White Album is often called a glorious mess. So prolific were the Beatles at the time of its release and such was their grasp of styles and substance(s?) that they turned in one of the most diverse, eclectic double album of all time.

After their sojourn to the Maharishi Yogi’s retreat in India, the Beatles came back to England rejuvenated and changed, a far cry from the moptopped boy band they had been in the past. They also came back loaded down with songs they had written on the retreat. Their experiences, some bitter, some enlightened, all found their way into the album. Released over thirty years ago, the album has only recently been re-released on its anniversary (locally available as the White Album and sometimes wrongly titled as their Greatest Hits) which gives cause to reevaluate and review it.

Quite simply, The Beatles album or The White Album as it is generally known may not be their best album (it is not cohesive enough), but such is its diversity and the high quality songs on it that it is the one album most oft-cited as a desert island disc (i.e. the CD one would take along if one could take only one CD to a desert island) because it has something for every mood, for everyone.

This album came after the conceptually elaborate and creative peaks and studio wizardary of the Sargeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Yellow Submarine and was in fact a reaction to the extreme over-elaboration of those albums. It was particularly a response to Pepper which was the first concept album in Rock and was everything the White Album was not. In contrast to Pepper’s thematic songs, the While Album quite simply had songs that had little or nothing to do with each other and which were by en large stripped down musically. The White Album was even an antithesis to Pepper in its album cover as the Pepper album had an elaborate album sleeve and a long-winded title. The White Album had a plain white sleeve and did not even have a title. People actually came to call the album the White Album because of its white sleeve.

Diversity appears to have been the key on this album. It is rather mindboggling in the styles employed: From pop (Don’t Pass Me By, Ob-la-di-ob-la-da) to parody (Back in the USSR) to proto-Heavy Metal (Helter Skelter) to heartbreaking confessional ballads (Julia, Blackbird) to despairing blues (Yer Blues) to Avant-garde (Revolution 9) to social commentary (Piggies) to Agit-rock (Revolution) to Hard Rock (Back in the USSR, Everybody’s Got Something to Hide except for me and my Monkey) to reggae (Ob-la-di-ob-la-da) to weird jibes at fans (Glass Onion) to period pieces (Wild Honey Pie, Rocky Raccoon), the list goes on. Only Prince in the modern popular music idiom can match the breadth of styles employed here.

Each style is pulled off masterfully and each song – barring a few which may be deemed as high quality filler – is a unqualified and self-contained gem. The instrumental acumen is evident as is the excellent production by George Martin, often called the Fifth Beatle. As a matter of fact, there appears to have been significant growth in instrumental prowess on this album. A lot of this seems to have been down to interaction with other musicians at the Rishikesh retreat. Lennon picked up fingerpicking from Donovan at the retreat and turns in gems such as Julia and Dear Prudence. McCartney’s inteaction with Mike Love from the Beach Boys results in Back in the USSR which sounds much like the Beach Boys and is in fact a p-take on Back in the USA by the Beach Boys and Chuck Berry. And then there was that solo by Eric Clapton on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Often cited as a masterwork, Clapton’s solo is much too over-rated in this scribe’s opinion: it was not Clapton that made the song; rather the song that made Clapton. After all, the superiority of the Beatles as songwriters is amply demonstrated on this album as most tracks on this album are superior to anything Clapton has ever done, all through his long drawn out career.

Moreover, the White Album is also a compelling document of the strife that the Beatles were undergoing at the time as one can easily see the cracks appearing the esprit de corp of the Fab Four. The top team of Lennon and McCartney did not work together as a team anymore: they composed separately. Rather than co-operating, on the White Album they goaded each other on by composing in the other’s style. McCartney did Helter Skelter, Why Don’t We Do It In The Road and Honey Pie as screamers that Lennon would often do. Lennon countered with tender ballads (Julia, Dear Prudence) that were often McCartney’s forte. Even George tried to be socially relevant like Lennon with his Piggies. The recording session of this album were fraught with tension by all accounts and indeed it is here that Ringo quit the band for a week or so and had to be begged back. However as evident in quality of the songs, for now, the Beatles harnessed the tension creatively, but only for now. Soon the acrimony would turn into full-fledged sniping and war and would railroad the band. With this foresight, the White Album is a fascinating document to examine. Questions arise like, “Is ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ really crying over a lost lover or is it crying over the strained friendships in the band?” (just like ‘You never give me your money’ later worked also as a barbed document of the Beatles’ financial wranglings on their swan song Abbey Road.)

Having said that the album is a snapshot of its time, one must also add that it has not dated despite all of that. Much of its universal and timeless appeal must rest on the excellent lyrics and the spirit encompassed in the songs. For example, Dear Prudence is a song written about and to Prudence Farrow who was with the Beatles at the retreat in Rishikesh. She was so absorbed in her meditation that she would not even come out to meet with others in free time. John wrote this song to her. However, the song works on a universal level too: it works well as a stand-alone song and on different levels: on one level it is a rather spiritual message to anyone who in the name of prudence hesitates to live life up to the fullest (Dear Prudence / Won’t you come out to play?/ The sun is up/ the sky is blue/ it is beautiful/ and so are you/ Dear Prudence / Won’t you come out to play). On another level it could be a more refined ancestor of Billy Joel’s hot-under-the-collar Only the Good Die Young.

Lyrically there are many highlights: There are songs lined with bile (Sexy Sadie, a roasting of the Maharishi Yogi who Lennon had fallen out with), Revolution (a jibe at wanna-be revolutionarites,) Blackbird (a song to racial tolerance and coexistence), to naked pained songs of confession and love (Julia, Lennon’s song to his long dead mother Half of what I say is meaningless/ but I say it just to reach you, Julia) and of nihilism (Yer Blues) and astute political comment (Piggies). There is so much substance here that people have often read stuff that isn’t here (or is it?) into the songs. Claiming to be inspired by Piggies and Helter Skelter the famous cult leader Charles Manson went on a killing spree in the ‘60s.

With as much being there on this album as there is, one feels there is some filler here too.

I think Savoy Truffle and Glass Onion are rather crap. But other Beatles musiciologists love Glass Onion and my kid sister swears that the highlights of the album are Savoy Truffle, Rocky Raccoon and Ob La Di Ob La Da (also weak in my opinion). This in turn just goes to demonstrate that they really are not filler and merit inclusion here.

Speaking of exclusions, it is remarkable to note that the quality of the songs on this album is so frighteningly high compared with most of what passes as albums (a couple of hits and a lot of filler) these days. What is even more startling is that the Beatles had enough songs at the time to leave two bona fide masterpieces recorded in the same sessions off of the album: the fast version of Revolution (better to the version included on the album) and Hey Jude.

Anyways nuff gushing over the album: I can go on and on, but I shall leave it by saying that this album is easily a masterwork, or more properly, a collection of masterworks. This used to be the best double album ever made until Prince’s Sign of the Times displaced it. Still, even in 2002 it is damn near unmatched and near perfect, tied in second place with the Clash’s London Calling, Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie & Infinite Sadness and Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. Check it out and be amazed at what a glorious mess the greatest band ever made.

(By Mohammad A. Qayyum)