The White Album

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Not long ago I got back from the shops to find the wife playing the Beatles’ ‘White Album’. Again. This double album from the Fabs has been a source of amiable disagreement between us for years. She thinks it’s absolutely ace. I don’t.

Now let me say that my admiration for the Beatles is enormous. In that short period from 1963 to 1967, their influence, not just on music but on society and popular culture, was profound, and still resonates to this day. I think it no exaggeration to say that at their zenith, they were the four most famous people on the planet.

Unfortunately by 68, I reckon that the wheels were starting to come off the wagon for a variety of reasons (oh no, it’s Ono!). The breakup was underway, and it showed in the music, and no more so than on the ‘White Album’. There’s still the odd wonderful song; I’m thinking ‘Dear Prudence’, ‘Julia’, ‘Blackbird’. But there’s just too much stuff that by their standard, was plain poor. There’s too much second rate Lennon and Harrison, and McCartney was becoming increasingly irritating with naff nonsense like ‘Ob-la-di’, ‘Do It In the Road’ and the horrible ‘Honey Pie/Wild Honey Pie’. As for the likes of ‘Don’t Pass Me By’ and ‘Revolution 9’, well let’s not go there.

Nope, for me the writing was on the wall with the ‘White Album’. Sadly, it’s really simply not much cop. I think that George Martin was bang on when he said that they should have taken the best of the selection and put it out as a single album. It would have stood up so much better for my money.

There would be still be one last great hurrah in the form of ‘Abbey Road’, but that indefinable spark of greatness was dimming, and it’s very evident with the ‘White Album’. I’ll always love the Beatles. They brought joy into the life of a kid growing up in a miserable, bombed-out inner city slum in Birmingham, and I’ll always be listening to them. Just not to the ‘White Album’. It always makes me feel sad somehow.

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Nominated by Ron Knee.

109 thoughts on “The White Album”

  2. The White Album was when egos took over. Poor because nobody dare tell them what shit lots of it is.
    However, their legacy survives elsewhere.

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  3. The great George Martin was right.
    The filler, crap and anything involving that cunt Yoko should have been removed. ;Leaving a better and shorter album.

    My choice would be something like this…

    Side 1.

    1, Back In The U.S.S.R.
    2. Dear Prudence.
    3. Glass Onion,
    4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
    5. Happiness Is A Warm Gun.
    6. Blackbird.
    7. I Will.

    Side 2.

    1. Yer Blues.
    2. Everybody’s Got Something To Hide.
    3. Sexy Sadie.
    4. Helter Skelter.
    5. Long Long Long.
    6. Savoy Truffle.
    7. Can You Take Me Back (end of Cry Baby Cry)..

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    • Indeed, Norm. I agree Shite like Rocky Raccoon wasn’t even good enough for Ringo. Your choices would’ve probably resulted in the greatest Beatles album.

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    • Indeed, Norm. I agree Shite like Rocky Racc0-0n (I went into moderation) wasn’t even good enough for Ringo. Your choices would’ve probably resulted in the greatest Beatles album.

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      • I agree with how shite ‘Rocky’ is Captain.

        Other stinkers are Bungalow Bill (bloody Yoko all over it), Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Piggies, Revolution No. 9 (shite of the highest order) and John’s simpering tribute to his slag of a negligent mother, Julia.

  4. The Beatles were shite though. Overblown boy band that even Simon cowell would have told to fuck off. Other crap at the time were the stones and the who. Probably pissed off the whole of isac but don’t care, got my hard hat on.

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      • The Who
        The Doors
        Spooky Tooth
        John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers
        The Mothers of Invention
        Soft Machine
        MC5
        The Pretty Things
        Spirit
        Deep Purple
        Fairport Convention
        The Stooges
        Blue Cheer
        The Nice
        The 13th Floor Elevators…

      • Bonzo dog doodah band

        Captain beefheart & the magic band

        Jethro Tull

        Gong

        Animals

      • Family
        Ten Years After
        Free
        King Crimson
        Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac

      • I like them. Always been a rock/metal head, old and new from AC/DC to white zombie.

      • I was in a pizza restaurant the other week and AC/DC were on the stereo with that fucking screeching high pitched uber cunt Brian Johnson causing severe ear ache and brain damage.

        It was as much as I could do to not burn the place down. The sense of relief when that shit ended was palpable.

  5. Helter Skelter, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, Dear Prudence and While My Guitar Gently Weeps are magnificent.

    But, as George Harrison himself said in 1995, the egos on show were immense and uncontrollable. McCartney could not – and would not – take any kind of criticism, constructive or otherwise (the cunt still can’t). Lennon – of all people – was always more open to ideas and help off people who knew their shit. That’s how he did Tomorrow Never Knows and Strawberry Fields Forever. But Yoko Fucking Ono drove a wedge between him and everyone he’d ever loved, valued and worked with.

    There is a tale of the usually placid and proper English gentleman George Martin losing it with McCartney during sessions for this album. Martin offered Macca a bit of advice on singing a certain track. McCuntney threw a tantrum and said something like ‘Well, you come down here and bloody sing it!’ Martin then shouted, ‘You won’t let me do what I’m paid for. I can’t fucking help you!’ George Martin then left without telling them to go on a long holiday with his wife. Leaving Chris Thomas to produce the album in his absence..

    McCartney had that effect on others too. He hectored and bossed Ringo Starr during the sessions for Back In The U.S.S.R. Ringo eventually said ‘Don’t fucking tell me how to play drums.’ and he left the band properly for over two weeks. Harrison mainly persuaded him to return. I think all the other three do the drum parts on U.S.S.R and Dear Prudence, and it’s not a bad job. They were talented lads. They were just cunts sometimes, especially Macca.

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    • To digress about the football. It was best for Uni-Ted to have lost, now the don’t need to paint over the cracks and get to work fast.

      It was embarrassing seeing totty celebrate after their pathetic showing, with only one shot on target and that looked dubious. More like an own goal by fat arse.

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      • What we both were years ago, Sammy.
        How low have both United and Tottingham sunk….

        Busby and Nichoson,
        Law and Greaves.
        Best and Peters.
        Coppell and Ardiles.
        Robson and Hoddle.
        Cantona and Gascoigne.

        Spurs were often called the United of the South by the press. They had that mystique and glamour like us. Cunts like the Glazers (oh, my life) and Levy (alright, already) have sucked the life out of both great clubs. You are right, it is pathetic. Two once great clubs, fighting like two stray dogs over a a manky bone.

      • I agree about the defeat, Sammy.
        The more shit we get, the more angry fans will get.

        Had we won that thing the other day, a lot of dickheads would said we are still big and that we were going forward with Frank Spencer Amorim and Steptoe Ratcliffe. One can imagine a board meeting at Old Trafford.

        Frank Amorim: ‘Ooooh! Mister Ratcliffe. I need a birra monee. Cos United are playing like a great big whoopsee!’

        Steptoe Ratcliffe: ‘Yer not avin’ my money! It’s mine! Ge-eeeeergh!’

        Avi Glazer: ‘Oi Loike dese boys. Dere fackin useless. Alright already. Fink Oi’ll get ’em on the Golden Shot.’

    • I don’t think that it’s possible to over-estimate the part played by that ugly, howling boot Mono in the breakup of The Beatles.

      She reminds me of the malign influence of that other narcissistic cow on a certain Ginger Whinger. The parallels seem obvious to me.

      Afternoon all.

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      • Not for nothing have I in the past referred to her as Megain Markle Fucking Ono Cuntess of Sussex.

        Afternoon Ron. I reckon the Villa will thrash my shower of shit on Sunday.

  6. To me Norman, I was more into classical music at the time and sorry to make light of it. I remember plastic Beatle wigs and foam jackets without the collar. No warning about standing too close to the fire. Liked some of the early work, before seeing through them. Similar with the Rolling Stones. After Brian Jones died they went to pot, sorry about the pun.

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  7. Blackbird is a nice song in its original form. But Macca’ endless and relentless attempts to re-imagine it as a song about an oppressed black woman are sickening. It was nothing of the sort. Both Lennon and McCartney are or record on 60s radio and in the music press, saying it was about an actual Blackbird (and it can be heard tweeting on the record). But, after Macca’s revisionism, it is now ‘canon’🙄 that Blackbird is about some Angela Davis or Colour Purple type woman. Even Beyonce has hijacked it because of this right on woke bullshit.

    Nothing wrong with being about a little black feathered yellow beaked worm eating chap that makes a nice noise in the morning. But that’s not good enough these days. Everything has to be about them and for them. The 2022 deluxe reissue of Revolver spelled that out. Who did Apple/UMG get to do the notes for this box set? A peer of the Beatles? Keef? Townshend? Wilson? Dylan? Nah. A known historian or authority on the group and their life and times? Nah, they got some clueless treeswinger hip hop type called ‘Questlove’ (no, me nether) to do them. And, of course, this cunt made out it was all – ALL – owed to black music. Bollocks. Only Got To Get You Into My Life is influenced by Motown and Stax. The other stuff is influenced by psychedelia, LSD, The Byrds, Edward Lear, Noel Coward, William Burroughs, Ravi Shankar and even the Tibetan Book of the Dead. All down to black influences, my arse. But, McCartney is to blame for this. He peddles this black is better shite, and he even uses his old band to do it. Disgraceful to the memory of the two dead Beatles, George Martin and anyone else who worked with them.

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    • I dare say the results if you mentioned Noel Coward or Edward Lear to know it all Questcunt would be hilarious.

      He’d either look blank, or tell you they were late 50s English rockers. Like Cliff Richard and Tommy Steele.🤣

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  8. Im so tired
    I haven’t slept a wink
    Im sooo tired my mind is on the blink
    I wonder should I get up and fix myself a drink.
    No, no, no.
    I’m so tired I don’t know what to do.
    I’m so tired my mind is set on you.
    I wonder should I call you but I know what you’d do.
    You’d say I’m putting you on.
    But it’s no joke, it’s doing me harm.
    You know I can’t sleep, I can’t stop my brain
    You know it’s three weeks, I’m going insane.
    You know I’d give you everything I’ve got
    For a little peace of mind.
    I’m so tired, I’m feeling so upset
    Although I’m so tired, I’ll have another cigarette
    And curse Sir Walter Raleigh.
    He was such a stupid get
    You’d say I’m putting you on.
    But it’s no joke, it’s doing me harm.
    You know I can’t sleep, I can’t stop my brain
    You know it’s three weeks, I’m going insane.
    You know I’d give you everything I’ve got
    For a little peace of mind.

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  9. Ive got blisters on my fingers!!!

    Said Ringo.

    The album that sent Charlie Manson on a killing spree.

    But then yanks didnt get it.

    I like the White Album.

    Manson was going to kill that show off Steve mcQueen.
    But fucked up.

    Far out maaan

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    • Manson claimed he was offered a record deal by Byrds producer, Terry Melcher (son of Doris Day). Melcher said he said it just to get rid of the cunt. But barmpot Charlie pursued a vendetta. Manson then tried to get in with the Byrds. Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark promptly told him to fuck off. Gene was a bit of a hard lad and not to be messed with. So Manson backed off. Charlie then homed in on the increasingly messed up Beach Boys. Where silly sod Dennis Wilson fell for Charlie’s crap hook line and sinker. Melcher rented his LA house to Sharon Tate and other ‘society’ people of the time. The aim was to murder Melcher. But the ‘family’ butchered anyone who was there. Including a heavily pregnant Tate. Charlie was a thick insane fucker. He thought Helter Scelter (sic) was a call to racial civil war and that the Fabs were the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation. A right nutter then.

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      • Ringo’s shout was after over 20 takes of Helter Skelter.
        With McCartney (who else?) dictating how the drums should be played

        After the final take, John Lennon (on bass) is heard asking ‘How’s that?’ Starr screamed his now famous reply and threw his sticks at the wall.

  10. Number 9,Number 9,Number 9,Number 9,Number 9,Number 9,Number 9,Number 9,Number 9,Number 9,Number 9,………..

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    • A very odd inclusion; very odd indeed, especially as it’s followed immediately by ‘Goodnight’.

      I often wonder what the thinking was behind the decision to include this on the album. It seems like a piece of sheer, pretentious indulgence.

      I bet the ‘skip’ button on cd players everywhere has been hit many a time when this wank arrives.

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  12. The Beatles were fucking annoying.

    Well it’s champions league final tomorrow, Barcelona v Arsenal

    Yes I know it’s pussy ball but will be more interesting for Norm than Man United and better quality of football, and both teams are virtually all white 👍

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  13. “In that short period from 1963 to 1967, their influence, not just on music but on society and popular culture, was profound, and still resonates to this day.”

    Sorry Ron, but I don’t see it that way at all.

    They might have influenced bad haircuts but that’s about it.

    Their concerts were packed out with screaming girls.
    Boys didn’t try to emulate them.
    They didn’t influence the way that young men dressed.
    They didn’t have a cult following.

    It was girly music much the same as Sheeran today.
    But still, elderly men look back at them with nostalgia.
    It’s a mystery to me as I think that they were fucking shit and I think that almost everything that they produced was fucking shit too.

    The hippy movement was created by a host of other bands.
    The Beatles just jumped on board.

    Mods were heavily influenced by The Who.

    Hardly any young men would dress up like these supposed idols.
    We may have had a few of their records and albums but they didn’t have a huge following, just a shit load of publicity.

    I can’t imagine anything more horrible than having to listen to one of their tedious and childish albums today.

    Not that it would ever happen as nobody ever plays their albums in company.

    Such was their influence.

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    • I saw loads of young lads who wanted to look like Morrissey as The Smiths were in their pomp. Same with the Stone Roses in 89/90.

      There’s no doubt that the Beatles influenced other bands. The Stones cracked the charts with a Beatles tune. And the Byrds mixed Dylan style folk with Beatles pop chords. The Monkees were based entirely on the Beatles at first. And then there’s later on with Oasis.

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      • Yes, they influenced other bands, Norm. I get that.

        What I and Artful don’t get is why they are lauded as much as they are. They were massively successful in their era. No question. Fair enough. But success doesn’t equate to good. McDonalds sells a lot of burgers, but few would argue its the last word in haute cuisine. Similarly, Ed Sheercunt is very popular at the moment. Will his songs still be regularly played on the radio in 50 years’ time? Probably not, but I’m willing to bet the scouse cunts crap will be. Why FFS?

        I fail to see the artistic merit on any level of singing about living in a yellow submarine or wanting to hold someone’s hand or wanting to be a paperback writer or being back in the USSR. Some people will like that sort of thing and that’s fair enough. I just cannot fathom its enduring appeal or why it’s perceived as being any good at all.

    • It’s also true that a band can very popular with young men and not look like them. In the 70s, most young men didn’t dress like Slade. A lot of the time Slade (and Dave Hill in particular) looked ridiculous. But it didn’t mean these lads didn’t love Slade’s music and as a band. Because they did.

      And, in 1987 – love then or loathe them – U2 were massive. But you never saw anyone with a silly hat or a Bonio style leather waistcoat.

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      • When I was a kid I remember almost everyone (not me) wearing some form of tartan to show their allegiance to The Bay City Rollers. Sad but true.

      • And, I do admit IY, that I found their early scouse cheeky chappy thing a bit too staged and manufactured.

        Epstein was a clever bloke. He knew that if they were put in suits and did some Tarby/Doddy style ‘Oooh! Ello Mrs’ ‘scouse wit’ the whole of the Britsh public as it was in the 60s would lap them up. Kids liked them, mums like them and grannies did too. I think dads were the only ones who didn’t fall for it. ‘What’s this crap? Put Sinatra on’ said my friend’s father.

        But, the lovely boys you could take home to meet mother all scouse comedians thing did grate. And the ‘humour’ seen in A Hard Day’s Night’ seemed a bit put on to me I bet they drank and swore and womanised like dervishes (as Lennon later admitted). John said they were ‘bastards’ and the Beatles on the road was like ‘Ancient Rome’.

        Andrew Loog Oldham caught onto this. And turned the Stones into a dirtier, scruffier more ‘nasty’ version of the lovable mop tops. But that was just as manufctured as the Beatles thing. Jagger later said ‘It was bullshit. We visited kids hospitals, we were very clean in our habits. People forget we were middle class lads from Dartford.’😉

    • An interesting post indeed Artful.

      Clearly you don’t like The Beatles, they’re not your taste, which of course is absolutely fine. To each his own etc. Taste being the individual thing that it is.

      But ‘they might have influenced bad haircuts but that’s about it’? Honestly, and with all due respect, I can only reply ‘oh come on!’.

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      • I thought the haircut line was pretty funny.

        As someone whose music collection extends to over 3,000 titles, I know a little about what’s good and what’s average to OK. I can also appreciate artists (who I don’t collect) whose output is well written, well performed and well produced even if I personally don’t like it. A good example is Michael Jackson whose music I cannot stand.

        But the scouse cunts? Based upon what I’ve accidentally heard, it’s pretty melody pop of its time. I generally cannot stand pop music or love songs or anything which does not have depth, substance, atmosphere and impact. Again, based upon what I’ve heard the scouse cunts do not score very high when it comes to depth, substance, atmosphere or impact.

        And therein lies the conundrum. I just cannot understand their lasting appeal or why they are held in such high regard. Defend “Yellow Submarine” – I dare ya!

      • Oh well fair enough.

        I can only repeat that I think you’re utterly downplaying the significance of The Beatles in popular culture on the basis of personal dislike.

        Put it this way; Pablo Picasso, for example, is regarded as one of the most significant influences in 20th century art. As it happens, his work leaves me cold and uninspired; it’s just not my thing at all. However if I was to say ‘he might have influenced graffitists but that’s about it’…

      • No, but I’ll defend Eleanor Rigby.
        Made in 1966, and released as an A Side.

        No trace of teeny pop or love bollocks. In fact, no trace of pop at all. Some would say it was commercial suicide, only it was anything but.

        A song about two lonely misfits and figures of fun on the fringes of society. An aging lonely spinster (the line ‘Wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door’ is genius). And a local vicar who also leads a desolate life. (‘Writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear. No one comes near’).

        The two protagonists are – possibly – made for each other. But the only time McKenzie meets Eleanor is when he buries her (‘Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave. No One was saved’).

        Hardly a pop song of any kind. One solitary vocalist and a bleak and menacing sounding string quartet.

        While everyone was doing songs about pulling chicks or being blissed out. Eleanor Rigby was a No.1 single about a lonely aging woman who lived alone.. There was usually one in every street in 1966. I remember the one in ours, Mrs Hall. Widowed at a very early age, she lived alone for about forty years, I heard she died in 2008, still in Bradshaw Fold Avenue, New Moston. That song could have been her signature tune easily.

        Their early stuff is used as a stick to beat them with. And, some of it is trite and syrup drenched. But, they did have their moments of glory and genius.

      • There was also a milkman on every street.

        I wouldn’t say that ‘Ernie’ was musical genius.

        “Do you want it pasteurised ‘cos pasteurised is best?”
        She said, “Ernie I’d be happy if it comes up to my chest”

        I think that it got to number 1 anyway.

      • And that’s why I like you, Norm.

        You’ve avoided the ‘I like them and think they’re great so there’ argument.

        I’m not familiar with that song (Eleanor Rigby), but from how you’ve described it I can understand the point you’re making. Far removed from the typical subject matter of the day (love & feeling groovy) and instead focused on the darker and sad side of life. I can’t give it a listen to be fair because McCuntney’s voice tends to have a detrimental effect on my well being. I assume he ‘sings’ it.

        It’s also somewhat gratifying to read a fan say their early stuff was indeed how I perceive it. I’ve only ever (accidentally) heard what came on the radio or what’s been in films or TV shows. The usual pop dross they’re famous for.

        Maybe they did get edgy, deep and interesting on their albums. I’ll never know. My knowledge of them is limited (by choice) and I’m honest enough to say that’s never going to change.

      • The most irritating thing about Yellow Submarine is it’s been overexposed on shite pop music stations like Radio One over too many decades.

        It was never meant to be taken seriously, just a fun throwaway vehicle for Ringo on the great Revolver LP.

        Worst Beatles tracks imo: All Together Now, Maggie May, Why Don’t We Do It In The Road, Dig it, What’s the New Mary Jane.

  14. Depending upon when you were born, it’s natural to believe your era of music was the best. Nothing wrong with that I suppose.

    The thing with this lot though is I completely, utterly and absolutely do not get their enduring appeal or why so many people believe they were so good. You hear two pretty consistent arguments to support those views:

    1. They were iconic, evolutionary, ground breaking and changed music forever.
    That may be true to an extent, but I’d argue that Sex Pistols, Kraftwerk and Gary Numan had a far greater impact on music and were far more iconic, evolutionary and ground breaking. But those artists are rarely mentioned with the same degree of adulation the scouse cunts routinely get. Maybe the fans of those artists know the truth, are happy in their musical wisdom and don’t feel the need to virtue signal constantly about how iconic, evolutionary and ground breaking their favourite artists are. I mean let’s face it, for some reason it’s pretty much verboten to slag off ‘The Fab Four’ because they’re music royalty. Pfff.

    2. Their song writing.
    Much goes into creating a finished song. Obviously the instruments used, the arrangement, mixing, production and so on. But underpinning all that is the song itself. The words and the music. I think it’s objectively fair to say none of them were particularly gifted musicians. Maybe they were perceived that way due to the time in which they recorded. Ask me about great drummers and I’ll say Neil Peart (Rush), Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam/Soundgarden), Paul Ferguson (Killing Joke). Musically, Starr could not hang with those guys. Ask me about bass players and I’ll say Mick Karn (Japan), Pino Palladino, Geddy Lee (Rush). Musically, McCuntney could not hang with those guys. Ask me about guitarists and I’d say Geordie (Killing Joke), Keith Levene (Public Image), Steve Rothery (Marillion) – to name just 3 – Harrison could not hang with those guys. Ask me about keyboard players and I’ll say Jean-Michel Jarre, Billy Curie (Ultravox) and Rick Wakeman (Yes). The speccy twat could not hang with those guys. And as for lead male vocalists who have range, passion and drama in their delivery, don’t get me fucking started….Michael Hutchence (INXS), Chris Cornell (Soundgarden), Jaz Coleman (Killing Joke) – to name just 3 – vocally McCuntney can’t live in the same universe as those guys.

    Maybe the ‘magic’ is all in the lyrics then? Let’s take a look at some of their better known crap…sorry…..I meant iconic wordsmithing:
    Love, love me do/You know I love you/I’ll always be true/So please, love me do –
    She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah –
    Yeah, you’ve got that something/I think you’ll understand/When I feel that something/I wanna hold your hand –
    We all live in a yellow submarine/Yellow submarine/yellow submarine –

    Oh very profound. I get it now. Truly insightful, touches the soul and takes you to another place. Hahaha. What a lot of old crap! Now dross like that may have pass muster in the ’60s, but let’s be honest it was of its time and has not aged well. It’s trite, puerile, superficial and lacks substance, impact or atmosphere. It’s ‘throw away’ pop just like the Ed Sheercunts, Billie Irish and Ariana Grand Canyon of today.

    Yeah, the scousers wrote some pretty and catchy tunes (if you like that sort of thing – I don’t), but for the fucking love of all that is holy can someone explain why their catalog is held in such high regard? I just don’t get it.

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    • McCartney was a fine bass player. For all his faults, he was, The bass playing on Abbey Road is a masterclass.

      Best vocalist from that time? Between two men. Paul Rodgers and Steve Marriott.

      Best harmony vocalists? Crosby Stills and Nash.

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      • @norm… I’d put the everley brothers in that top harmony category, and the righteous bros as well 👍… slightly better than jedward 😩😁

      • Who is better than who? I said McCartney could play, I didn’t say he was better than Karn, John Entwistle or John Paul Jones or any of them others that were mentioned. And. it doesn’t matter if he is or he isn’t.

        Recording the bass for recording purposes and doing it live are two different methods, and both are jobs for proper musicians.

        To say McCartney can’t play is nonsense. He may come across as a cunt. But there are songs (and albums) where he has played almost every instrument on it.

        The bass playing on Come Together and Something are great. It’s not about virtuosity and frets or no frets. It’s about the feel and what is right for the song and the record. It’s a masterclass as far as committing it to master tape and being part of an album track and a band’s sound is concerned. Peter Hook was a very distinctive bass player for New Order. He was – some would say – limited. As he used almost exclusively high notes. But, was it right for New Order’s sound? Of course it was.

        My personal favourite bassists are Tim Bogert (Vanilla Fudge), Andy Rourke (The Smiths), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), Herbie Flowers (T.Rex, Bowie) and Mani (The Stone Roses). But they’re all different with varying degrees of style and ability.

        If you want to hear a real crap bass player, listen to Oasis. Regardless of which one is doing it.😉

      • I never said McCuntney couldn’t play. My point was, based upon what I’ve (accidentally) heard his contribution on bass is less than stellar. Ergo, not a particularly gifted, distinctive or technically proficient bass player. And yet is held in high regard which I absolutely do not understand.

        What is right and what fits for the song is a GREAT point. Maybe it’s fair to say McCuntney’s bass is just fine for what his band did. I get that.

        My counterpoint about what is or what is not a “masterclass” still stands though. Fretless bass is a more difficult instrument to play versus a regular (fretted) bass. It’s very common for all guitar players to watch their fretting hand while playing (although McCuntney ‘sang’ the tunes so he couldn’t do that all the time live to be fair) and in the studio, the bass player (or any musician) can have has many takes as needed to get it right.

        Playing fretless, deliberately not looking at your fretting hand and playing perfectly in front of a live audience is ballsy. Not many could pull that off.

        Bass is so often just sort of there and goes almost unnoticed because the tendency is to focus on the beat and the vocal. Some bass players just get noticed because they’re either incredible players and/or have a distinctive sound. Great point about Peter Hook. 3 notes in and you know who’s on bass. Lemmy the same. For me, McCuntney is a blah bass player. His bass is just sort of there and not doing anything particularly difficult, intricate, interesting or distinctive. That’s most bass players and that’s OK. My point is he, with the other 3, are lauded and held in super high regard and I don’t get why.

        Speaking of bass, recently I’ve been plugging some gaps in my mid ’90s alternative/indie rock collection and picked up an album by a band called Soul Coughing. They had a big hit in the US (maybe elsewhere too) with a song called Super Bon Bon which features upright bass. It’s a cool sound:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRqP52c0OLU

  15. They wouldn’t get away with calling it The White Album these days and it certainly wouldn’t get past the TV advert police, shower of pastel faced multicultural cunts that they are. Get fucked!

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  16. This talk about looking like your music idols.

    I remember walking into our house with spiky hair, leather studded jacket and tartan bondage trousers on.

    My dad ” hahaha! Fuck me its Rupert!”

    Instantly blowing my punk rock confidence 😕

    Bet Johnny Rottens dad was more supportive.

    Heres my heroes

    https://youtu.be/R6GDdKrQ8EI?si=RTVOt81UY7RdCh5h

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    • Talk about impact and influence, Mis! The Pistols had ONE album. You can’t even call that a career and yet they tore up the music biz rule book and started a revolution which lead to post-punk, new wave, new romantics, indie, alternative, industrial……

      But but but The Beatles had mop tops and suits and big smiles and songs about love and fields of strawberries and……oh do fuck off!!!!

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    • ‘But… But they couldn’t sing or play…’

      Nobody cared . The buzz, the attitude, the energy, the kick up the arse and the blowing away of cobwebs was what was needed. And we got it.👍

      And, what came in their wake… Buzzcocks, Specials, Joy Division, The Jam. was fantastic.

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      • To be fair, Steve Jones is a decent guitar player. People that have worked with him (producers, sound engineers, etc.) all say he’s the tightest most disciplined rhythm guitarist they’ve worked with. He also played the bass on Never Mind The Bollocks because Sid really couldn’t play.

        Paul Cook is an OK drummer. Not flashy or over doing it. Rock steady and keeps things going rather well.

        And then there’s our Johnny. No one sounds like him. The ‘tude and bile he delivered the lyrics with was timeless. And despite his personal setbacks in recent times, PiL are working on a new album. Yea!

        And Malcolm McClaren was a cunt. I think everyone who knew him agrees with that.

    • I bought The Kinks Ultimate Collection double CD a while ago. Yeah, I admit mostly for Come Dancing which was a big hit during a particularly memorable summer for me.

      Anyway, I was amazed by how many great tunes they recorded:
      – All Day and All of the Night
      – Tired of Waiting For You
      – Waterloo Sunset (how good is this?)

      What really amazed me was they wrote David Watts (covered by The Jam) and Stop Your Sobbing (covered by Pretenders). I did not know that before!

      The collection doesn’t have Picture Book which is an arse because I like that song a lot. It was featured in a very clever HP printer commercial many years ago and stuck with me.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lde77E4PY4Q

      Despite being a child of the late ’70s and ’80s I can appreciate some ’60s tunes. Just not fucking The B*****s. 🙂

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  18. I quite like “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey”. Quite apt in today’s Britain, especially places like London, Bradford, Leicester and Leeds.

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      • Hunter was a coked up dickhead.
        Suicidal to fuck with the Hells Angels.
        Waving a gun at Barger’s mob was the death of him.

      • I suppose the Stones played up to the scruffy cockney bit.
        Only Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts were working class and from London. Watts lived in a prefab throughout his childhood.

        Mick, Keith and especially Brian were middle class. Brian was from Cheltenham and his family were well posh.

    • I preferred the Stones, Mis. They didn’t play at needing a wash, just like me. I was given a ticket when Top of the Pops went out live at a church in Manchester. I had a resemblance to Mick Jagger at the time. After the show I had to go back in due to the girls trying to grab me. The Stones were laughing their heads off and told me to stay in their dressing room until after they’d gone.

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      • Irony is, Beatles were working class lads, whereas the Stones were middle class (which they furiously played down).

      • You’re quite right, Shit-cake Baker. The working classes always try to be clean and smart, whereas the middle classes don’t care. I don’t wash these days due to being old and don’t give a toss.

      • I have footage of the Stones doing The Last Time in that converted church in Manchester. A furtive looking George Best is in the audience, attempting to dance. Brian Jones is staring at something on the ceiling.

    • Agree, Dr.

      My loathing for The B*****s is so profound that I can’t listen to Siouxie’s version since I learned (years ago now) it was a cover.

      I used to use the expression “Goodnight Vienna” too, until I found out it’s the name of a shit album by that shit drummer, Ringo Shit Starr. Cunt.

      I think my favourite album by The Jam is Sound Affects. Imagine my horror when I watched a Paul Weller interview a while back when he said their song Start was effectively their cover of Taxman by The B*****s. He’s right. Different lyrics of course, but almost the same tune and rhythm. I’ve been in therapy ever since.

      You know how some people have TDS. I think I may have BDS. 🙂

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      • In my defence, part of my BDS comes from living in Yankland.

        Despite having lived here for over 20 years, I still speak with an obviously English accent. (Side note: The ex-pat cunts who pick up the American twang or the full blown Yank accent are weak willed wannabes who are a disgrace to The Homeland). Anyway, the moment you open your mouth, it’s all “Oh gee where are you fraaaam?” and “Oh wow, you must just love The B*****s”. And so on.

        Trust me, it got old pretty quickly. But you can have fun with it on the odd occasion. Yanks are crap at identifying different English accents. I sometimes get “Are you from Australia?”. To which my standard response is, “Do I look like a criminal?”. Laughter ensues. I’ve yet to deliver this line with an actual Australian within earshot. That would be great! Mate.

  22. I’m with Mrs Knee on this.

    Loved the White Album since the day of release, got it for Xmas 1968.

    LPs came in black inner sleeves, which no doubt appealed to Charlie Manson.

    Vinyl long gone, replaced with CDs in the 1980s.

    Rarely listen to it nowadays, but when I do I program out Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da, Don’t Pass Me By, Why Don’t We Do It In The Road, Mother Nature’s Son, Julia, and I Will.

    Pop trivia: Marmalade had a 1968 No.1 hit with Ob-La-Di…..

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  23. The white album. Racist isn’t it? I never got the Beatles, they are ok, occasionally great but I don’t understand why they are worshipped.

    The white album wouldn’t have gone on a knife rampage in Hamburg so it can’t be all bad.

    I won’t speculate on which album was responsible but…..,..

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  24. Beatles, nope.

    Sorry.

    But “While my guitar…”
    And
    Eleanor Rigby

    Are lovely songs.

    That’s it. Just them two.

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  25. I would like to thank imitation yank and artful cunter for sharing my opinion on those Scouse twats. I haven’t replied to any of their posts as they never go where you want them to.
    Just to add, personally I think any members of Tool are way up there musically and vocally wise and les claypool if primus is a bass master.

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  27. Sir M – glad I struck a chord with you (see what I did there?).

    I freely admit I cannot stand The B*****s, but some do and that’s perfectly OK. I just don’t understand why, all these years later, they’re still held in such high regard. Based upon what I’ve heard, it isn’t justified and I find that very annoying.

    Tool are sick musicians. I don’t have much of theirs in my collection, but some. Their bass player is distinctive and interesting. Unlike….well, you know.

    Although I have moved on from liking them as much due to their political posturing, Pearl Jam can play. Saw them live in London in 2000. To be honest, they don’t put on much of a show visually, but each of them are masters with their respective instruments.

    And the Primus bass player is bonkers. It sounds like he dreams up impossible bass lines, then improvises them making them a thousand times harder and more complex. As they say, if you’ve got it – flaunt it.

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