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 Essential Oct 21, 2009
In spite of the band falling apart at the seams, I find this CD to be the Beatles at their best. Eccentric, ecclectic,and oh so creative. Its o hard to pick a favorite tune on this masterpiecec. Somedays its the upbeat Back In The USSR, other days its the passionate While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and sometimes its the oddball Happiness Is A Warm Gun.
Truthfully if I was stuck on a desert island, this would be among the ten discs that I would take with me. It has it all.
Best Ever Oct 21, 2009
This was their best ever. It shows the depth of their creativity. "Rocky Raccoon" will stay in your head all day. Appreciate it for what it is. A magnificent production,superior composition and merger of technology."Today is your Birthday" is a classic as well as "Revolution #9", and after 22 yrs.of marriage, I do agree "That Happiness Ia A Warm Gun". If you weren't born in the 50's you may not get it, but for the old heads this is a must have. Still have my original vinyl LP. I'm sure many other do to also.
Chris Nickson's (official review on Amazon) is ridiculous Oct 12, 2009
I have to write a review of the White Album in response to the official review on Amazon by Chris Nickson. Of course, as Chris points out, it IS a legendary album. And both Lennon and McCartney displayed once again that they were each genius songwriters. However, Nickson's assertion that Lennon emerged as one of the towering rock figures of the time, while McCartney simply could STILL rock is absurd. First off, the hardest (and best) rocking songs on the album are McCartney's: Back in the USSR, Helter Skelter (the hardest rock song the BY FAR the beatles ever recorded), and Birthday (which Lennon may have helped with a little). Even Why Don't We Do it in the Road could be counted in this category. As for the rest of McCartney's songs, while not as hard rocking, they are (overall) brilliant and represent for the most part the best and most diverse of the White Album. While Lennon also had some great hard-rockers (yer blues, everybody's....monkey) he also wrote the softest and (arguably) least effective songs on the album. As an example, compare McCartney's acoustic/softer white album songs (i.e. Blackbird, I Will, Mother Nature's Son, Martha My Dear, Rocky Raccoon, Honey Pie) with Lennon's: (Cry Baby Cry, Julia, I'm So Tired, Dear Prudence, Sexy Sadie, Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill, Goodnight). While Sexy Sadie is probably a better song that Martha My Dear, most of the comparisons between songs (while great on both sides) tend to obviously tilt toward Mccartney:
1. Rocky Raccoon is far better than Bungalow Bill
2. Blackbird is far better than Julia (Julia was written using Blackbird's style
3. Each Beatle wrote a song to parody older styles of music (honey pie has to be considered better than goodnight)
4. And as good as Dear Prudence is, I have to go with a song like Mother Nature's Son (Its just got a better melody and is more of a classic)
Also, lets not forget that one of the few songs left off the White Album (but from the same sessions) was possibly the greatest Beatles song of them all: Hey Jude.
Additionally, another great McCartney song from 1968 (although before the sessions for the White Album) was Lady Madonna.
Additionally, I noticed that some reviewers tended to laud "Revolution #9" as a great achievement of Lennon's and that it called for repeated listens. Cmon - gimme a break, I havent listened to that song all the way through for years, and havent felt the urge to. Most people agree that this quote on quote song is nothing worth hearing more than once. Additionally, contrary to what most people think, McCartney was the avante garde Beatle who first experimented with the tape loops and various sounds that were used to make Revolution #9. In fact, in early 1967, during the beginning of the Sgt. Pepper sessions, McCartney led the group through a recording using these tape loops and sounds effects which became the famous unreleased Beatles song known as "Carnival of Light". Ultimately, the track was never released due to the fact that McCartney never envisioned that the song would be released. Instead, the song was just the result of McCartney's desire to experiment with new sounds in the studio. He felt that any notion of releasing such a sound collage as a song was absurd due to the fact that Beatles fans didn't want to hear such spontaneous experimentation, and instead wanted real songs. Of course, the tape loops were used to great effect in "Tommorow Never Knows", and the groundbreaking use of tape loops in this song are one of the main reasons that the song is so highly regarded today. Once again, while many attribute the tape loops to Lennon, their use was 100 percent the result of McCartney's avante garde inclinations during the mid '60s.
In closing, the main point of writing this review was to contradict many who say that Lennon was more important than McCartney during the sessions for the White Album. However, I contend that even during 1968, when Lennon (who had experienced a songwriting drought in '66 and '67 - something Lennon later even admitted), experienced a resurgence in his songwriting capabilities, McCartney was the dominant songwriter in the group writing the bands greatest songs (Hey Jude, Blackbird, Helter Skelter, Back in the USSR, Why Don't We Do it in the Road?, Mother Nature's Son, Lady Madonna, I Will, Rocky Raccoon, Birthday). After all, most of McCartney's songs from this era are far more famous today than Lennon's.
Of course, I love Lennon's Beatles songs and always maintain that John Lennon was a great musical genius (I would rank him the greatest ever behind McCartney). However, it is quite apparent to me that from 1966 onward (The Beatles most experimental and influential era), McCartney was the dominant musical genius in the band (and, yes, overall an incredible lyricist as well.)
Response to Adam Rugo Oct 11, 2009
In his July, 2004 review, Mr. Rugo shows considerable knowledge of what went into the making of the Beatles music and has a few interesting insights as well. However, his half hearted praise and overly harsh criticism of McCartney is way off base. He refers to songs such as "Blackbird," "I Will" and "Mother Nature's Son" as being among his "mildest, sweetest songs," whereas "Honey Pie," "Martha, My Dear" and "Rocky Raccoon" are "syrupy music hall kitsch," and his overall assessment is: "None of McCartney's tracks here are deep." First of all, Paul said that "Blackbird" is a political allegory about the civil rights movement in the United States during the sixties. If one is aware of that, and the vast majority of serious Beatles fans are, it brings in another level of meaning to the song. Moreover, it adds additional poignancy. "Blackbird" is beautiful and deep. Next, "I Will" was written for Linda McCartney; Paul poetically expresses the depth of his love. Yes, "Honey Pie" is a tribute to twenties music hall tunes, but it is sweet and delightful. "Martha, My Dear" is a bouncy piano rocker and "Rocky Raccoon" is a satirical western pastiche. Neither of the last two fall into the syrupy kitsch category and only cynics would classify "Honey Pie" that way. Granted, most of McCartney's "White Album" songs are light escapist fare but he was also capable of deep thoughts and feelings. Let us not forget that this is also the man who wrote deep songs such as "Eleanor Rigby," "Here, There and Everywhere," "For No One," "The Fool on the Hill" and "Hey Jude." Just because McCartney loved lighthearted songs doesn't mean he ought to be continually maligned for lacking depth. One can be serious and one can have fun, the two moods are not mutually exclusive and great art can be created in either category. By the way, Lennon did not write "Helter Skelter." That was Paul's. As for what he was writing about, I'm not sure. However, this reviewer would never be so arrogant as to say it is "completely empty of meaning." For his part, Lennon could be lighthearted too, as in his self described "teenage social comment song," "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill." Lastly, don't forget about George, he really comes through here, and don't skip over Paul's "Why Don't We Do It in the Road ?," Not only does he play all the instruments on this virile rocker but his vocal phrasing is brilliant and funny. "Good Night, " John's tender lullaby, was written for Ringo and is also worth a listen. However, skip "Revolution 9;" Yoko pushed John to do this jumbled mess of electronic sounds.
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 All White? Not really no!! Oct 08, 2009
This album is rubbish!! It's a shame I have to give it even one star.
There's not one reference to snow, paper, talcum powder, dandruff or anything else white including Xmas!!!
Nope, it's all over the show, no structure to the album at all, songs all jumbled up. I think The Beatles must have still been on drugs when they put this album together. Oh Bla Di, Oh Bla Da????? Oh Bloody Hell more like.
Brian Epstein died just before this album was released, and personally, I think he had some insider knowledge as to how this album sounded. This album also coincides with Oh-no making an appearance. Something which must have put them all off their stride, judging by the sounds of it!!
They even had to rope in Eric Clapton to try and make it sound better, but that failed miserably.
Nope, this is a rubbish album by a rubbish band. The Monkees were the original boy band, were far better and produced better songs too.
The beatless have become nothing more than a brand.
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