White Album keepers
rift was the checks and balances that the two main songwriters typically imposed on one another’s work. McCartney in particular tossed out some of the flimsiest songs of the Beatles era (“Martha My Dear,” “Honey Pie”). Starr inexplicably earned his first songwriting credit on a Beatles recording (the forgettable “Don’t Pass Me By”), while Harrison continued to feel neglected (not for nothing did he enlist his pal Eric Clapton to play on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” in a last-ditch effort to salvage a song that the Lennon-McCartney brain trust had rejected).
Tensions ran so high that Starr briefly quit the band, recording engineer Geoff Emerick exited the sessions altogether and Martin, feeling underutilized, took an unannounced vacation and left the recording in the hands of fledgling engineers Chris Thomas and Ken Scott.
One of the reasons Martin left was that he felt he was being ignored and wouldn’t be missed, according to a forthcoming book, Kenneth Womack’s “Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, the Later Years, 1966–2016.”
The producer never much liked the “White Album.” As he later told Beatles biographer Mark Lewisohn, “I really didn’t think that a lot of the songs were worthy of release, and I told them so. I said, ‘I don’t want a double album. I think you ought to cut out some of these, concentrate on the really good ones and have yourself a really super album. Let’s whittle them down to 14 to 16 titles and concentrate on those.’”
It was an opinion echoed by Harrison and Lennon. As it turns out, they were right. The “White Album” would’ve been a
“Back in the USSR”: A good portion of the album finds the Beatles appropriating and in some case satirizing beloved peers and influences, none more so than the leadoff track with its nods to Chuck Berry’s “Back in the USA” and the Beach Boys’ “California Girls.” Yet in Starr’s absence, the remaining trio led by McCartney piles on the excitement: piano flurries, exuberant Beach Boys-style harmonies, a wicked guitar solo.
“Dear Prudence”: Squishy bass, a tolling guitar and harmony vocals swim atop the psychedelic breeze.
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”: The Harrison track was nearly orphaned until Clapton came aboard to play the solo, and then it was buried as the seventh track on Side 1. Poor George couldn’t catch a break, but he was right to fight for the song. It’s one of the album’s most enduring moments.
“Happiness is a Warm Gun”: Lennon’s multipart masterpiece serves as a minihistory of rock ‘n’ roll (folk finger-picking, blues chords, hard rock, doo-wop vocals) while skewering America’s obsession with guns in the wake of the King and Kennedy assassinations.
“Blackbird”: A sparse beauty of a protest song as McCartney’s poignant melody and poetic wordplay allude to the longing and perseverance of the civil rights struggle.
“Julia”: Lennon’s heartbreaking ode to his late mother casts a dreamlike spell as it yearns for something that could never be.
“Yer Blues”: The Beatles rarely dabbled in blues, but Lennon dives into the deep end with caustic guitars and cauterizing vocals. Even as he parodies white British kids who reverently imitated African-American blues singers, he also oneups them.
“Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey”: Clanging bells, agitated guitars, a song pitched on the edge of hysteria as Lennon finds hard-won love amid an atmosphere of tension and paranoia.
“Sexy Sadie”: Lennon left India feeling used by the Maharishi, and this vicious diatribe does some score-settling. It also inspires one of the singer’s most expressive vocal arrangements.
“Revolution 1”: Lennon was not a follower. He expresses his skepticism about the counterculture revolution with typical slyness and wit over a deceptively laid-back arrangement that draws on blues and doowop.
“Helter Skelter”: In response to the electric storm whipped up by Jimi Hendrix and Cream, McCartney goes toe-to-toe with the heavyweights. His Little Richardinspired vocal fights for space amid the heavy-metal carnage of Ringo “I’ve got blisters on my fingers” Starr and the boys.
“Long Long Long”: Harrison’s spiritual quest has never sounded more haunting.
Contenders: “Glass Onion”; “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”; “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill”; “I’m So Tired”; “Piggies”; “Rocky Raccoon”; “I Will”; “Birthday”; “Savoy Truffle”; “Mother Nature’s Son”; “Cry Baby Cry.”
Duds: “Wild Honey Pie,” “Martha My Dear,” “Don’t Pass Me By,” “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?,” “Honey Pie,” “Revolution 9,” “Good Night.”