The White Album

It seems the Beatles album everyone goes nuts for is Sgt Pepper, but myself, John Lennon, and Charles Manson have a different preference, the self-titled double album released in November 1968, better known as simply the White Album.

My introduction to the album came from the “Blue Album” compilation, The Beatles ’67-70.  But only three tracks, “Back in the USSR”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, and “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da” made it onto that compilation – barely the tip of the iceberg. 

I did get it on vinyl – the American version, in stereo.  It included 4 portrait photos of the band and a poster, one pic showing John naked on a bed.  See that once and then fold up the poster forever.  Most of the material was written when the band was in India, but recorded in the UK when they returned.  Ringo quit the band briefly, later persuaded to return. 

Back in the USSR.  In March 1983 our school trip took us to the USSR – back when it still was the USSR.  I brought my Walkman (remember those?) and several tapes, including this one.  We all gathered in our room at the Hotel Bratislava in Kiev and listened to this one.  I seem to recall we even sang the chorus to “Rocky Raccoon”. 

Side 1.  “Back in the USSR”, “Dear Prudence”, “Glass Onion”, “Ob-La-Di, “Ob-La-Da”, “Wild Honey Pie”, “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (with guitar by Eric Clapton), and “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”.   Of these, the opener and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” are my favorites.  “Happiness” took awhile to grow on me, but I eventually accepted it.

Side 2.  “Martha My Dear”, “I’m So Tired”, “Blackbird”, “Piggies”, “Rocky Raccoon”, “Don’t Pass Me By”, “Why Don’t We Do It In the Road?”, “I Will”, and “Julia”.  RR used to be my favorite at first, but I immediately liked “Don’t Pass Me By” and got hooked on “I’m So Tired” on the Russia trip.

Side 3.  “Birthday”, “Yer Blues”, “Mother Nature’s Son”, “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey”, “Sexy Sadie”, “Helter Skelter”, and “Long, Long, Long”.   “Helter Skelter” is my favorite, one of the heaviest songs the Beatles ever recorded: thank you, Paul.

In fact, I liked “Helter Skelter” so much, that for a long time I never got around to listening to Side 4 [the same reason I ignored side two of Led Zeppelin IV, after the final track of side one].  I mean, how could they top “Helter Skelter”? 

Side 4.  “Revolution 1” [much slower than the single version of “Revolution”, which I prefer], “Honey Pie”, “Savoy Truffle”, “Cry Baby Cry”, “Revolution #9”, and “Good Night”.  #9 is one of the Beatles’ worst songs, and Yoko Ono’s role in this is probably why.  As annoying and unlistenable as R#9 is, your reward for continuing to the end is the delightful “Good Night”, sung by Ringo.  Nowadays with CD players and iTunes you can simply > to “Good Night”, but with vinyl you’re rarely motivated enough – even by R#9 – to get off your ass and move the needle. 

In addition to the trip of seeing Tony Iommi play guitar with Jethro Tull, and an excellent performance of “A Quick One” by the Who, another advantage of watching the Rolling Stones’ Rock’n’Roll Circus is to see “Dirty Mac” (Lennon, Clapton, Keith Richards on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums) play “Yer Blues”, although the usually talented Clapton completely drops the ball on the solo.  The Stones’ own performance is actually pretty good.  Brian Jones was still there, Keith plays a Les Paul Custom, and Mick has yet to degenerate into his androgynous persona of the 1970s.  They’re promoting Beggar’s Banquet, but the material is solid. 

Helter Skelter.  We can’t do this without mentioning Manson, can we?  Vincent Bugliosi, the L.A. prosecutor who put Manson and his family behind bars, studied Manson’s views extensively to develop his theory on the case.  Why did Manson order his followers to murder Tate & her friends, and the LaBianca couple?  Since Manson himself did not murder anyone, Bugliosi had to have some sort of explanation for a conspiracy.

            Manson believed that a race war was inevitable between blacks and whites in California.  The blacks would win, of course, but they needed some encouragement.  Manson hoped that attacking affluent whites, while having his lunatics scrawl “PIGS” and such on the walls, would convince whites that blacks were behind this and stoke up white hatred for blacks.  Instead, everyone just realized the killers were crazed lunatics, regardless of what race they were.  By the way:  Manson’s plan was that after the blacks took over, they would be clueless on how to rule.  The Manson family, having hidden out in Death Valley while the war was going on, would emerge safely, confront the blacks, and put them in their places telling them to “go back and pick cotton”.  Yes, that was what the Beatles supposedly told Manson in “Helter Skelter”. 

Sgt Pepper is an excellent album.  And coming right after Revolver, it blew people’s minds.  Hell, I can even enjoy “Within Without You” (though when it comes to Harrison’s Indian-flavored material, I prefer Revolver’s “For You To”).  The White Album is all over the place.  While it has two of the worst songs (“Wild Honey Pie” and “R#9”) it also has some of their best, including “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Helter Skelter”.  I suppose after being treated to a concept album, this heterogenous mix is a letdown; I beg to differ – leave consistency to concept albums and allow the rest to be enjoyed as they were meant to be, as a collection of songs which may have nothing to do with each other but share excellence.  To me it’s an epic masterpiece, and deserves more recognition and respect relative to Sgt. Pepper.   Enjoy.