Track Listing

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. Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
8. Happiness Is a Warm Gun
9. Martha My Dear
10. I'm 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 And 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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #98 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.com essential recording
Better known as the "White Album," this was meant to be the record that brought them back to earth after three years of studio experimentation. Instead, it took them all over the place, continuing to burst the envelope of pop music. Lennon and McCartney were still at the height of their powers, with Lennon in particular growing into one of rock's towering figures. But even McCartney could still rock, and the amazement on "Helter Skelter" was that he had vocal cords at the end. From Beach Boys knock-offs to reggae and to the unknown ("Revolution #9"), this has it all. Some records have legend written all over them; this is one. --Chris Nickson

Customer Reviews

Great Album!
Although I tend to prefer The Beatle's earlier work, this album is one of their best in my opinion. Double CD and all the songs are great. Worth every penny! You really can't go wrong with any Beatle album.

Listening for the truth
Beginning with the release of Rubber Soul in 1965, The Beatles began to be recognized as major, "serious" artists whose best songs stood comparison with great classical music. As their music became more ambitious, they drew progressively away from their rock and roll roots. After their last scheduled concert in August 1966, The Beatles gave up live performance to become exclusively a studio band. Their withdrawal reached its limits in 1967's Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, when they assumed the identities of fictional performers. The pendulum turned the following year. As suggested by its self-title, The Beatles (The White Album) was an effort by The Beatles to return to their original essence. In this quest, they faced great difficulties arising both outside and within the group.

The first obstacle The Beatles confronted was that of history. Between the time of their first stardom in the early 1960s and their making of The White Album in 1968, the world transformed. The album was recorded during a time of political assassinations, Vietnam War casualties, and a sense of impending chaos. At a fundamental level, the meaning of everything had changed. In The Beatles' darker tone and loss of ebullience, one can sense how deeply affected they were as their musical home in rock and roll became a foreign place "back in the U.S.S.R."

In addition, the individual Beatles had by now drawn far apart musically. John Lennon's shattering introspections ("Yer Blues," "Happiness Is a Warm Gun") had little in common with Paul McCartney's bursts of pure melody ("Blackbird," "I Will"). In songs such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," George Harrison emerged on The White Album as Lennon and McCartney's compositional equal, upsetting a balance in which his two band mates had been the dominant songwriters. Ringo Starr, too, moved more to the forefront with the recording of his first song, "Don't Pass Me By." Although The Beatles were still an ensemble, the White Album became very much a collaboration of four solo artists.

Searching for their past, The Beatles broke new ground. The White Album's range is vast, with calypso ("Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"), blues rock ("Yer Blues"), early heavy metal ("Helter-Skelter"), Indian-influenced rhythms ("Dear Prudence"), 1930s dance hall ("Honey Pie") and electronic sound collage ("Revolution 9") just a few of the forms represented. Instrumentation varies from the sparse guitar and bird song accompaniment of "Blackbird" to the luxurious, full orchestration of the concluding lullaby "Good Night." There are contrasting lyrics of distant love ("I Will") and uninhibited sex ("Why Don't We Do It in the Road"); pastoral repose ("Mother Nature's Son") and insomnia ("I'm So Tired"); forfeited time ("Long, Long, Long") and birthday celebration ("Birthday"). There are parodies of The Beach Boys ("Back in the U.S.S. R.") and The Beatles themselves ("Glass Onion"). Each of the album's nearly thirty songs and assorted fragments is unique. Together, they make up a library of styles reaching across all of music.

To truly listen to The White Album is to wonder if, in the midst of its immensity, The Beatles have found their old voices. It is a question vital not only to these four musicians but to our entire era, for what we are asking about The Beatles we must also ask of ourselves. As we drift into a trackless future, is there a way back to our foundations? Somewhere in The White Album is an answer.

Black and White
The Beatles (aka The White Album) is a fascinating mix of many diverse styles and finds the Beatles stretching out a bit more as far as stylistic daring goes. As a casual Beatle fan, however, I feel there is also a lot of what I do not love about them all that much. There are too many lightweight songs mixed in with the bona-fide genius of others. I am sure die hards love this sort of thing and find the appeal of those songs all the more endearing. I am, however, not in that category and can't help but feel there is one solid single album somewhere in between these grooves. I mean, all double albums give a band the opportunity to branch out and approach styles they would not normally test out for the public. That's not the problem. The problem lies in the filler material, in which there is plenty of.

I cannot blindy call this album a Beatles' classic when in comparison to "Abbey Road", "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul". EVERY song on those mentioned albums was stellar (well, maybe not Yellow Submarine) but you get the point. Unlike popular belief, The Beatles weren't always perfect and The White Album, which for most of it is as good as good music gets, is the real beginning of the cracks that had begun to appear in their relationships with one another. You have Fluff like "Wild Honey Pie", "Bungalow Bill", "Why Don't We Do it in the Road", "Honey Pie", "Savoy Truffle", "Good Night" and the eight minute catastrophe of "Revolution 9" alongside masterpieces such as "Dear Prudence", "Ob La Di", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Blackbird", "Birthday" and "Helter Skelter". Even the version of "Revolution 1" is not as good as the single version.

All that being said, any understanding of the developement of modern pop music must start with The Beatles. The White Album, however, is not the place to start, in my opinion. Yes, it is better than just about anything else that was released during it's time by bands working the same territory, but it is not the best The Beatles have to offer. This is along the lines of "Let it Be", "Magical Mystery Tour" and (oh here come the comments) "Sgt Pepper". All classics, but not the creme de la creme.