The White Album

The Beatles is all about versatility. Having the musical ability to go from some real rockers to such soft acoustic songs and have it work on the same album is mind-blowing. When you think you’ve heard too much, they slow it down and take the album into another direction. Even the songs that you don’t think fit, do. Each song has its infinite place. 

Throughout the majority of the recording process Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison would often be found in different studios working on their own individual songs. This album signifies the beginning of the end in most cases; it’s more a group of songs from each individual Beatle instead of a collaborative piece of work. This offered up a new side we’d never seen before. The audience was able to take a different look at each diverse personality within the group. 

Some of the very best Beatles songs have come from this album including “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and “Blackbird,” but then there’s also the odd ones that the album can’t live without. “Glass Onion” takes you down memory lane without the story feeling like its over by mentioning previous Beatles songs. The Beach Boys and Chuck Berry inspiring McCartney but introducing a twist on it for “Back in the USSR.”

The Beatles, more commonly known as the White Album, is truly a timeless classic that is painfully under-appreciated for what it brings musically compared to others from the Beatles' catalogue. The journey it takes you on feels like each song is its own piece of the puzzle.

The way each song is placed on the album is indescribably brilliant. Going from one of the hardest sounding songs on the album in “Helter Skelter” to one of the softest with “Long, Long, Long.” And then doing the same lyric wise from “Yer Blues” to “Mother Nature’s Son.” The track list is intentional but still feels effortless.

The Beatles knew what they were doing when creating this album, whether it was separate or together. This complex, wonderful, imperfect group of chaos is what was needed next from them. This album is what made the Beatles seem human. After the critical success they received on Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band it was only time to see this well-oiled machine has its flaws. 

But that’s the thing about the Beatles, their “flaws” make the album what it is. They add the character necessary to even call it a Beatles album. Each musician is a genius at what they do and each has quirky sides to their personalities that translates to their writing. Every song has its place and even the ones that don’t add something special.

McCartney provides a glimpse into his life before fame with the show tune, “Honey Pie” that borrows influence from the songs he grew up listening to his father play. After venturing more into the art scene thanks to Yoko Ono, Lennon experiments with avant-garde on “Revolution 9.” And Harrison? He showed everyone his songwriting skills by writing one of the greatest songs of all-time, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

After first listen one might find the White Album to be a jumble of complexity with no real direction, put together during a time of stress that ended in triumph. If just one detail was had been off during the making of this album, the result could’ve been completely different but, almost in spite of all its obscurity, it flows. The chance they inevitability took paid off and set the standard for double albums from then on.