# Deep Tracks - The Beatles - "The Beatles" - (1968) - Sides One & Two



## Guest (Sep 16, 2018)

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There is *No Limit* to the number of selections allowed for this particular poll.

Note: There are *two separate polls* for this release - _*(Sides 1 & 2)*_ and _*(Sides 3 & 4)*_.

Also please note that on the original release Side One contained eight tracks and Side Two contained 9 tracks for a total of 17. The poll software used to create this thread has an in-built limitation of 15 selections per poll and thus two tracks from Side Two have to be carried over to the second poll. These tracks are "I Will" and "Julia".

On all polls created if you click on the number of votes following the song title the username of all voters and their chosen selections will appear.

The tunes themselves will be found below the poll itself as links rather than as embedded videos due to bandwidth issues for those who wish to reacquaint themselves with a tune that may have receded a bit too far into the past to be remembered with the clarity that came when they were first released...

Next up is - The Beatles - "The Beatles" - (1968)

"The Beatles", also known as "The White Album", is the ninth studio album by the Beatles, released on 22 November 1968.

A double album, its plain white sleeve has no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed,
which was intended as a direct contrast to the vivid cover artwork of the band's previous LP "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

Although no singles were issued from "The Beatles" in Britain and the United States, the songs "Hey Jude" and "Revolution" originated from the same recording sessions and were issued on a single in August 1968. The album's songs range in style from British blues and ska to tracks influenced by Chuck Berry and by Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Most of the songs on the album were written during March and April 1968 at a Transcendental Meditation course in Rishikesh, India.

The group returned to EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London at the end of May to commence recording sessions that lasted through to mid-October. During these sessions, arguments broke out among the foursome over creative differences.

Another divisive element was the constant presence of John Lennon's new partner, Yoko Ono, whose attendance in the studio broke with the Beatles' policy regarding wives and girlfriends not attending recording sessions. After a series of problems, including producer George Martin taking a sudden leave of absence and engineer Geoff Emerick suddenly quitting, Ringo Starr left the band briefly in August. The same tensions continued throughout the following year, leading to the eventual break-up of the band in April 1970.

On release, "The Beatles" received favourable reviews from the majority of music critics, but other commentators found its satirical songs unimportant and apolitical amid the turbulent political and social climate of 1968. The band and Martin later debated whether the group should have released a single album instead. Nonetheless, "The Beatles" reached number one on the charts in both the United Kingdom and the United States, and has since been viewed by some critics as one of the greatest albums of all time.

"The Beatles" was recorded between 30 May and 14 October 1968, largely at Abbey Road Studios in London, with some sessions at Trident Studios. The group block-booked time at Abbey Road through to July, and their times at Rishikesh were soon forgotten in the tense atmosphere of the studio, with sessions occurring at irregular hours.

The group's self-belief that they could do anything led to the formation of a new multimedia business corporation Apple Corps, an enterprise that drained the group financially with a series of unsuccessful projects.

The open-ended studio time led to a new way of working out songs. Instead of tightly rehearsing a backing track, as had happened in previous sessions, the group would simply record all the rehearsals and jamming, then add overdubs to the best take. Harrison's song "Not Guilty" was left off the album despite recording 102 takes.

The sessions for "The Beatles" marked the first appearance in the studio of Lennon's new domestic and artistic partner, Yoko Ono, who accompanied him to Abbey Road to work on "Revolution 1" and who would thereafter be a more or less constant presence at all Beatles sessions. Ono's presence was highly unorthodox, as prior to that point, the Beatles had generally worked in isolation, rarely inviting wives and girlfriends to recording sessions. McCartney's girlfriend at the time, Francie Schwartz, was also present at some sessions, as were the other two Beatles' wives, Pattie Harrison and Maureen Starkey.

The studio efforts on The Beatles captured the work of four increasingly individuated artists who frequently found themselves at odds. Author Mark Lewisohn notes that several backing tracks do not feature the full group, and overdubs tended to be limited to whomever wrote the song.

Sometimes McCartney and Lennon would even record simultaneously in different studios, each using different engineers. Late in the sessions, Martin, whose influence over the band had gradually waned, spontaneously left to go on holiday, leaving Chris Thomas in charge of production.

Lennon's devotion to Ono over the other Beatles, and the couple's increasing use of heroin, made working conditions difficult as he became prone to bouts of temper and lethargy.

Within the band, according to the author Peter Doggett, "the most essential line of communication ... between Lennon and McCartney" had been broken by Ono's presence on the first day of recording. While echoing this view, Beatles biographer Philip Norman comments that, from the start, each of the group's two principal songwriters shared a mutual disregard for the other's new compositions: Lennon found McCartney's songs "cloyingly sweet and bland", while McCartney viewed Lennon's as "harsh, unmelodious and deliberately provocative".

The album's sleeve was designed by pop artist Richard Hamilton, in collaboration with McCartney. Hamilton's design was in stark contrast to Peter Blake's vivid cover art for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and consisted of a plain white sleeve.

The band's name, in Helvetica, was crookedly blind embossed slightly below the middle of the album's right side, and the cover also featured a unique stamped serial number, "to create", in Hamilton's words, "the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies".

In 2008, an original pressing of the album with serial number 0000005 sold for £19,201 on eBay. In 2015, Ringo Starr's personal copy number 0000001 sold for a world record $790,000 at auction.

Later vinyl record releases in the US showed the title in grey printed (rather than embossed) letters. The album included a poster comprising a montage of photographs, with the lyrics of the songs on the back, and a set of four photographic portraits taken by John Kelly during the autumn of 1968 that have themselves become iconic. The photographs for the poster were assembled by Hamilton and McCartney, and sorted them in a variety of ways over several days before arriving at the final result.

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On release, "The Beatles" gained highly favourable reviews from the majority of music critics. Others bemoaned its length or found that the music lacked the adventurous quality that had distinguished Sgt. Pepper.

According to the author Ian Inglis: "Whether positive or negative, all assessments of "The Beatles" drew attention to its fragmentary style. However, while some complained about the lack of a coherent style, others recognized this as the album's raison d'être."

Rob Sheffield, writing in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), said that its songs ranged from the Beatles' "sturdiest tunes since Revolver" to "self-indulgent filler". He derided tracks including "Revolution 9" and "Helter Skelter", but said that picking personal highlights was "part of the fun" for listeners.

Among reviews of the 2009 remastered album, Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph found that even its worst songs work within the context of such an eclectic and unconventional collection, which he rated "one of the greatest albums ever made".

In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked The Beatles at number 10 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Charles Manson first heard the album not long after it was released. He had already claimed to find hidden meanings in songs from earlier Beatles albums, but in "The Beatles" he interpreted prophetic significance in several of the songs, including "Blackbird", "Piggies" (particularly the line "what they need's a damn good whacking"), "Helter Skelter", "Revolution 1" and "Revolution 9", and interpreted the lyrics as a sign of imminent violence or war. He played the album repeatedly to his followers, the Manson family, and convinced them that it was an apocalyptic message predicting an uprising of oppressed races, drawing parallels with chapter 9 of the Book of Revelation.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_(album)

Your commentary on any and every aspect of the album and especially any memories reawakened as a result of the poll is welcomed.


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## Guest (Sep 16, 2018)

"*Back In The U.S.S.R.*" -






"*Dear Prudence*" -






"*Glass Onion*" -






"*Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da*" -






"*Wild Honey Pie*" -






"*The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill*" -






"*While My Guitar Gently Weeps*" -






"*Happiness Is a Warm Gun*" -






"*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?*" -


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

As is usually the case with this period of the Beatles, I prefer covers by other people. In this case I chose Ob-la-di and Blackbird as covered by Sergio Mendez. I don't know if it's inherently a better rendition or if it's just the recording I heard the most; my parents listened to the grown-up station, and that station played Mendez more than the Beatles.


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

My favourite Beatles album along with _Revolver_. Much discussion has been had over the decades on whether it would be better as it is or boiled down to a single album. For what it's worth, of the two options I reckon it's best left as it is - the minor tracks have the curious effect on me of making the good stuff sound better still. In any case, one could trim at least twenty minutes off it and it would still be a double album due to its original extra-long running time.


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## Rach Man (Aug 2, 2016)

I like the Beatles but the White Album was not one of my favorites. It does have some really good tunes on it. But overall, it doesn't hit me.

Having said that, I do love love _Dear Prudence_. What a great song. Lennon wrote it for Prudence Farrow (Mia's sister).

I just love the way the song builds and builds until John just nails the ending crescendo . . . then the calming guitar.

I _always_ get goose bumps. :guitar:


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