# Beatles White Album



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

The first three sides have some good songs, some not so good. But the fourth side, which I dismissed as filler on first hearing, later became (to me) the apotheosis and end of an era. Or was it just my age at the time?

One sweet dream
Pick up the bags and get in the limousine
Soon we'll be away from here
Step on the gas and wipe that tear away
One sweet dream came true today
Came true today
Came true today (Yes it did)


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## Guest (Jun 11, 2017)

I've never quite understood the concept of 'filler', or perhaps, it's the misuse of it I object to. And particularly in the case of this album. So, yes, I agree with your revised opinion.

I'm not a particular fan of Revolution 1, but it has its place on an album which showcases their attempts at experimenting. As for the remaining tracks, they make a perfect confection, culminating in what was, for the time, an innovative piece (not that The Beatles were the only band experimenting in this way, but possibly the only mainstream band pushing musique concrete to a mass audience. _The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny _had been released 6 months before but Zappa could hardly claim to be a pop act!)


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I always listen to the complete album in one go and not have a problem - _Revolution 9_ used to grate on me but I accept now that because it's different to anything else on the album it makes up just one part of a wonderful diverse 'warts and all' whole.

Each album leading up to this was pretty much a logical progression of the one which preceded it, but with the _White Album_ there was no real connective tissue (although the early 1968 _Lady Madonna_ single which unceremoniously dumped psychedelia was an indicator of things to come) - as if the Beatles were starting from some kind of Year Zero.

What is at the back of my mind when listening is knowing that the _esprit de corps_ which had bound the band together for the previous 6 years was beginning to irretrievably rot away: the aftershock of Epstein's death the year before, the dissatisfaction with their stay at Rishikesh, business headaches at Apple, Lennon distancing himself from the group as his infatuation with Yoko Ono grew - all this destabilised the group to the degree where they eventually lost the collective will to live but the fact that they put up with all this for six sometimes excruciating and claustrophobic months and still managed to give us an album containing over an hour and a half (more or less a triple album in terms of length) of new and often brilliant music was an incredible achievement. As the Byrds' Chris Hillman once said, '...tension can still make for great creative endeavour'...

Couldn't help but notice that those lyrics are from _Abbey Road_, Ken...


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Can't say I ever heard the White Album, but that last track, One Sweet Dream, sounds very familiar.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Great album. I like it way more than both Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road for sure, as perverse as that sounds. I find the songs and production more convinceing. Wild Honey Pie, as weird and funny as it is, still appeals to me.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Florestan said:


> Can't say I ever heard the White Album, but that last track, One Sweet Dream, sounds very familiar.


It's from the _You Never Give Me Your Money_ section from side two of Abbey Road just before the _1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 - All Good Children Go To Heaven_ segue into _Sun King_.


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## Guest (Jun 11, 2017)

Florestan said:


> Can't say I ever heard the White Album, but that last track, One Sweet Dream, sounds very familiar.


The last track wasn't _One Sweet Dream_...at least, not on the versions I have.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

elgars ghost said:


> It's from the _You Never Give Me Your Money_ section from side two of Abbey Road just before the _1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 - All Good Children Go To Heaven_ segue into _Sun King_.


That's the one I am familiar with. Thanks for the clarification!


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Top filler tracks. Revolution 9 makes this list. Wild Honey Pie made it on another one by Stylus.

http://www.radiox.co.uk/features/10-filler-songs-on-classic-albums/#7lD1PxJoazzxJZ56.97


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## Guest (Jun 11, 2017)

No, I don't skip Rev No 9. Wild Honey Pie isn't on side 4. And if I skip a track, doesn't make it filler. Could be I just don't like it.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Of all their songs, Revolution 9 might be their greatest achievement. Or at least on equal footing with A Day in the Life, Within You Without You, Abbey Road Medley, Strawberry Fields Forever and perhaps some others that arent too far behind...


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

KenOC said:


> The first three sides have some good songs, some not so good. But the fourth side, which I dismissed as filler on first hearing, later became (to me) the apotheosis and end of an era. Or was it just my age at the time?
> 
> One sweet dream
> Pick up the bags and get in the limousine
> ...


hi i am confused this is off the Abby Road Album. i do not remember it on the White Album. did i miss something? 
ps lets play "Revolution 9" backwards and listen as it plays "i buried Paul"!!


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## Marc (Jun 15, 2007)

The most interesting Beatles album IMHO. Believe me, it's great. 

Which is quite remarkable, because they got quite fed up with each other. Lennon versus McCartney, Lennon/McCartney versus Harrison, Yoko with her critical input, George Martin in distress... Ringo got sick of it and left the band during the recordings! Can you believe that? Of course he returned, and found his drum kit decorated with flowers.

_Don't pass us by, 
don't make us cry, 
don't make us blue.
Cause you know, Ringo,
we love only you._



Hard to say which is my favourite song of this great double album.
With a shotgun pointed at my head, I would probably scream *all right, all right, it's HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN!*


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## Marc (Jun 15, 2007)

ldiat said:


> [...]
> ps lets play "Revolution 9" backwards and listen as it plays "i buried Paul"!!


There is no "one sweet dream" on the White Album, and there's no "I buried Paul" in 'Revolution 9' backwards either, but "turn me on, dead man", which is of course quite a different kettle of fish. 
(And there's a lot of other utter baloney on that track, too, either forwards or backwards.)

The mumbled words at the end of 'Strawberry Fields Forever' have been identified as "I buried Paul", but it was probably "I'm very bored", even though John once stated it was "cranberry sauce". I personally think it was "I married Paul".

These are all very important issues, but I don't know if I can stand another Paul=Faul debate.


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## Marc (Jun 15, 2007)

AfterHours said:


> Of all their songs, Revolution 9 might be their greatest achievement. Or at least on equal footing with A Day in the Life, Within You Without You, Abbey Road Medley, Strawberry Fields Forever and perhaps some others that arent too far behind...


Yeah, let's start a thread with personal Top 100 (or 150) Beatles songs.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Marc said:


> Yeah, let's start a thread with personal Top 100 (or 150) Beatles songs.


Somebody else can if they want  Once I get maybe 15-20 deep, I lose too much interest. Too many mediocre songs after that and throughout their discography. I know that's the reverse of what many people think, but I'm much more interested in music with more emotional depth (whether cheerful, angry, sad, etc) and once I get past Lennon's (or mostly Lennon) best efforts, there just isn't too much of that left. Of their pre-Revolver period I would say that the songs A Hard Days Night, Help and Yesterday are probably the most effective. Help really nails the delirium, capping the sensation of Beatlemania perhaps better than any of their other songs.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Oops, stayed up too late last night! Not the White Album, of course! I'm so embarrassed...


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## Marc (Jun 15, 2007)

KenOC said:


> Oops, stayed up too late last night! Not the White Album, of course! I'm so embarrassed...


Too late, mate!
It's about the White Album now here... or *is* it?


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## Marc (Jun 15, 2007)

AfterHours said:


> Somebody else can if they want  Once I get maybe 15-20 deep, I lose too much interest. Too many mediocre songs after that and throughout their discography. I know that's the reverse of what many people think, but I'm much more interested in music with more emotional depth (whether cheerful, angry, sad, etc) and once I get past Lennon's (or mostly Lennon) best efforts, there just isn't too much of that left. Of their pre-Revolver period I would say that the songs A Hard Days Night, Help and Yesterday are probably the most effective. Help really nails the delirium, capping the sensation of Beatlemania perhaps better than any of their other songs.


It would be problematic for me, too, yet for different reasons.
I happen to like them and their songs an aweful lot.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Marc said:


> I happen to like them and their songs an *aweful* lot.


So we're in agreement! :lol:

No, in all seriousness, I do think Sgt Pepper and Abbey Rd are excellent, and The White Album and Magical Mystery Tour pretty good, and their other albums usually have a couple or small handful of songs I like well enough.


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

Marc said:


> There is no "one sweet dream" on the White Album, and there's no "I buried Paul" in 'Revolution 9' backwards either, but "turn me on, dead man", which is of course quite a different kettle of fish.
> (And there's a lot of other utter baloney on that track, too, either forwards or backwards.)
> 
> The mumbled words at the end of 'Strawberry Fields Forever' have been identified as "I buried Paul", but it was probably "I'm very bored", even though John once stated it was "cranberry sauce". I personally think it was "I married Paul".
> ...


thats right see how confused i am to day(only)


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## Guest (Jun 12, 2017)

I was 10 when the White Album came out and I was intrigued by all the songs (my older brother bought it and I listened to it while he was at work). While most Beatles fans hate "Revolution 9," it was my favorite cut (with "Helter Skelter" running a close second). First of all, the radio stations wouldn't play it except this underground station we had in the area at one time. I was too young to know anything about avant-gard and musique concrete and organized sound and tape loop collages (although I spent years doing nothing but that type of thing while reading subversive literature and making dadaist art in my late teens and early twenties) so this was the first time I had heard anything like it and it awakened something inside me that the conventional music did not. While it is listed as a Lennon-McCartney, Paul actually had little if anything to do with the piece. It should be listed as a Lennon-Ono piece or, really, an Ono-Lennon piece. Most of the voices you hear are John's, George's and Ono's ("If you become naked"). John and Yoko used 154 samples from at least 15 sources.

You can also hear some of Schumann's _Symphonic Etudes_, Op. 13. Some of the piano work is Yoko. You can also hear a snatch of the string section from "A Day in a Life" played backwards and looped. When you hear John say, "Take this, brother, may it serve you well" you also hear Yoko behind him singing a drawn out A note. The voice saying, "Number nine" over and over was an engineer from an EMI session doing a test. John included it because he had always considered 9 to be his lucky number. When it came down to select the pieces to go on the album, John insisted that "Revolution 9" be on it but the rest of the band did not want it on there. It was one of the things that drove John to break up the band. He felt they were too formulaic instead using their juggernaut status to explore the musical freedoms few bands could demand from their labels.

I was even more intrigued by the album after the Manson murders in 1969 which I remember quite well and followed closely--everybody did but, for me, it was mainly when i found out about the Beatles angle, that the murders were inspired by the album and that Manson considered "Revolution 9" the most important piece on the album because it would be the sound of Helter-Skelter when it finally came down and whites would take control after a bloodbath and that made me think of the album cover being all white. Although even at 10 and 11 years of age I knew Manson was a total crackpot, I was intrigued by how obsessed he was with the album and that turned my own obsession with it a notch higher. While I got nothing about a race war from my first 300 listenings (I listened to the White Album in its entirety almost everyday from the time my brother brought it home to the time the Manson murders occurred and I became aware of the Beatles connection to it), I was intrigued by that angle, about Revolution 9 being the sound of Helter Skelter coming down. Probably not a healthy thing for a kid that young but it wasn't my doing.

I wondered where Manson got that idea and I learned that he belonged to or at least consorted with the OTO under Jean Brayton who taught her followers to listen to rock songs for hidden messages about what was coming as set down in the book of Revelation. Some of her followers did, in fact, believe a race war was imminent. No doubt some of them were using the White Album and Manson picked up on it but added his own twist to it--and I do mean twist.

And I realize now, in the last year or so, Helter Skelter is coming down pretty fast. It was not derailed by Manson's capture and incarceration which only propagated it far and wide. He is a hero to a lot of people today who share his vision and that they are found in all walks of life and they now hold the political power in this country. Truly, they always did. As William Burroughs once wrote, "There is something wrong with this white race."


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Marc said:


> ... and there's no "I buried Paul" in 'Revolution 9' backwards either...


All this talk about the White Album, and now Marc's observation ... reminds me: when I play the White Album backwards, it turns black. Can you imagine that?


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## Marc (Jun 15, 2007)

AfterHours said:


> So we're in agreement! :lol:
> 
> No, in all seriousness, I do think Sgt Pepper and Abbey Rd are excellent, and The White Album and Magical Mystery Tour pretty good, and their other albums usually have a couple or small handful of songs I like well enough.


Yeah, I deliberately wrote 'aweful' instead of 'awful'.
I was 13 or 14 years old when I bought an album called _20 Golden Hits_, and yes, I was fully in awe. And it never changed, really.
Nowadays Bach is my musical homeland, but I still listen to The Beatles (and others, for that matter) with much pleasure. They are still able to excite and/or move me. Hard to say which albums are my favourite ones, but I have a very weak spot for the 'transition' albums _Rubber Soul_ and _Revolver_. _The Beatles_ (White Album) is a funny melting pot, but it manages to 'drill' all possible emotions. So yes, it's another treasured one for me.


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## Marinera (May 13, 2016)

I had half of the songs from the White Album in various compilations. Liked what I had, but it's just as well that I didn't have the whole production. Revolution and Piggies probably would've driven me up the wall. Can't stand anything piggy or piglet themed after reading and not finishing 'Speaker for the dead'. Piggies tried my patience and won.


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## cpalmer (Jan 11, 2014)

lot to like, and some to not like on this album. Too few "band" songs and a bit of grandstanding filler. But, sound quality is top notch.. the first "modern sounding" Beatle album.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

You guys prrobably know this but the White album was originally going to be called "A Doll's House" but when the band Family release an album called "_Music in a Doll's House" - __the album name was changed to the white Album
_Below is an illusation for the original cover.....refer below for info









http://www.thewhitealbumproject.com/


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## Marc (Jun 15, 2007)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> [...] the album name was changed to the white Album [...]


Actually, the album name never changed to the White Album. It's not an official name.
The album's name was and is _The Beatles_, as the article mentions in the title "The Beatles self-titled double album [...]".
Fans & press nicknamed it 'the White Album', which quickly became the 'household' name.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Just listened to this album again today. A true multifaceted album with a kaleidescope of moods and styles. Often called the first heavy metal song, Helter Skelter has a great aggressive sound: distorted guitars, great vocals, chaotic sax sound. Back in the USSR is a fun mix of the Beach Boys, pounding piano, and nice plane sample. Dear Prudence is probably my favourite song on the album, great arrangements. I think this may be their most uncompromising album. It doesn't have the artsiness or pretension of Sgt. Pepper.


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