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.

129 thoughts on “The White Album”

  6. Interestingly enough, I had a Hofner Bass same as MC Cartneys ( right handed) not cack handed 1964 . Sold it on eBay.

    Recoverd from a skip in 1972.

    Used to plug away in my bedroom to Floyd/ zeppelin..

    Now used by a proper musician..!

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  7. I had a White Album on white vinyl (a tenth anniversary pressing from 1978). Flogged it on Ebay for a silly amount of money, after hiipster cunts and students jumped on the vinyl bandwagon.

    Billy Preston – a great keyboardist – added to the Beatles sound in 1969. But he didn’t hang around long, and I don’t blame him.

    When he saw Fucking Ono bringing her huge bed into the studio because she was ‘ill’, and she had a mic over said bed to bark our orders for gophers, and offer the band and their production team ‘suggestions’ and ‘advice’. Billy must have thought ‘Fuck this’ and did one sharpish.

    Lennon was a pussywhipped mummy issues cunt. But Macca wasn’t much better. In the Get Back film (from 2021), Linda is seen and heard, sticking her conk in and voicing her ‘opinions’ on band and business matters. And they allowed this. No wives, girlfriends or wimmin should be allowed near any band. Once they get in, that’s it. The beginning of the end. And, so, it came to pass.

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