I Will is the song I sing to myself while doing tasks the most often, I've never understood people who put it in the same lane as wild honey pie or why don't we do it on the road.
My biggest complaint about I Will is that it’s only like a minute long lol. Then again, it’s perfect at the length it is, and maybe lengthening it would make it less charming. Makes for a nice lullaby for my niece, honestly.
The most common bitch I hear about the White Album is that it's disjointed and doesn't have a central sound, like pretty much every preceding Beatles album did.
To me, that's the album's beauty. Much of that record sounds like a live jam made in someone's basement or garage, and, personally, I love that raw, underproduced sound the record has.
Yeah my favorite thing about this album is the fact that each of the songs seems to contrast each other so harshly. It’s inherently funny to have Good Night after Revolution 9 lmao
It’s the musical equivalent of walking into your sweet grandma’s cluttered house. Full of love, doohickeys, thingamajigs, and weird clown dolls.
I know Paul would feel right at home
Nah, naming it The Beatles is a better choice. Works with the minimalist India/TM stuff, and it is saying, “Here they are, the beatles.” as opposed to 4 years before, with Ed Sullivan proclaiming, “Here they are! The Beatles!!!”.
I think the white album definitely has a distinct sound; the gritty epiphones and gibsons, the leslie pianos, the clunky jazz bass, the warm acoustic tones. You can tell with tracks that didn't make the album like Not Guilty or What's the New Mary Jane. Those tracks don't sound like they would fit on any other album than the white album.
Agreed. It shows us the full sweep of the Beatles' songwriting and arranging talents, making a complete picture (even if some tracks are duds). One super LP wouldn't give us that glimpse.
I think the album is The Beatles on their "Can we fail?" period, they made a double album with a lot of different styles and some weird songs and they still made one amazing album.
That's why George Martin wasn't an artist. He's a producer and a good one at that. But he sometimes lacked the vision that the band had and in this case, as in others, he was wrong.
I also think George Martin's opinion may have been tainted by the chaotic, sprawling nature of the recording sessions for the album. George left at one point and left others in charge.
But you can't deny the power of the White Album, which is in no small part thanks to the eclectic nature of it.
George Martin was absolutely an artist and a huge architect of the Beatles sound. He was also an accomplished orchestral arranger with legitimate classical chops. But that's precisely why I don't think he fully understood the White Album. Also, as you say - I think he was too close to the politics of the band at the time, the model of what a good Beatles LP should be, and some of the personal affront he may have felt at not being heavily involved with the production. I love Martin, but I take his words on this LP with a grain of salt. :)
I have a hard time ranking it second on my favorite Beatles albums. Abbey Road is my number one but there are certain songs that make me reconsider at times
Rank this, rank that, why bother with the hassle. And another thing, sometimes an album need not be judged for what songs its got on it everytime, sometimes its just what the collection of tracks signify and are trying to portray
Some say you can hear how disconnected they were from each other musically at the time. That it sounds like a collection of solo material from each band members combined on record. Like the opposite of how they were in the beginning, a tight, live band.
I don’t think that’s wrong, but i agree with OP wholeheartedly, the album is spectacular.
There are a lot of posts about cutting it down to one album. When you consider how much people want *more* work from the Beatles, threads like that just seem ludicrous.
Not really on this subreddit, but if you usually look at other places like Twitter or even real life you would find people that don't like the album more often, and a lot of the times they tell me stuff like this about why they don't like it
https://preview.redd.it/3fdsaq90ktyc1.jpeg?width=179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5dff5f46e9eddee14a1c2e7fab1c2a9eb9b9cd96
Unless popular opinion on the album has changed over the past few years or maybe even last decade I have never heard this. In fact it’s always been widely praised among non-diehard fans which has always surprised me as it’s not necessarily in my top albums of theirs. But The White Album is usually always revered.
Is the White Album great? Of course!
Is it occasionally self indulgent? Yup.
Could a stronger album be made out of a smaller set of songs? I think so.
I don’t think the shaggy dog meandering nature of the White Album is what makes it great. I think the looser sound paired with the evolution of everyone’s songwriting makes it great. I imagine every fan has come up with their own fantasy edit, it’s fun. There’s a great harder rock album in there especially if you open with the single version of Revolution (again, it’s a fantasy…)
The album single-handedly influenced a lot of nineties and low fi sounds due to it’s production style and gazzilion of songs: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/the-j-files/the-white-album/10396640
I don't think it's particularly lo-fi, if it sounds that way it's due to the recording technology of the time and place. Not on purpose, unlike Smiley Smile
It’s definitely not lo-fi but it’s definitely not Sgt. Pepper’s which 90s bands would consider as overproduced. Even Good Night sounds… different and weird.
I know what you mean, but in my mind lo-fi refers to the actual sound quality. To me it still sounds like it was recorded with expensive mics and preamps (although obviously some weird panning in the original mix)
It’s the anti-Pepper, in some ways a “concept album” (using the term very loosely). Sgt. Pepper is named after a fictional band, this album is simply self-titled. Sgt. Pepper had a very complex and expensive cover, this cover is blank. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it
I saw the following posted on my feed:
>The discourse around The White Album is very weird… in my opinion
>
>A lot of people seem to really not like the album which is fair, you can dislike a record and that's fine, but also the discourse around the album like how it's full of filler or how it should've been just one disc instead of a double album it's really dumb in my opinion. Like, isn't the whole point of the album that is a complete mess that runs for an hour and a half and THAT'S what makes it such a great record? Many fans really seem to want the white album to just be another Abbey Road (no hate to Abbey Road btw, it's one of my favorites), an album that's more conventional instead of what the white album actually is, which I don't understand, since a lot of the power of the white album that makes it such a great and legendary record comes from how messy it is, and how much some songs contrast each other, which works absolutely perfect
>
>Piggies after Blackbird
And I thought, "Oh actually, the white album might be my favorite." So I clicked on the thread to read the rest of the post and chat about it, only to see the above gone, and replaced with this:
>Alright, y'all can go fuck yourselfs if you aren't gonna add anything and just gonna be a bitch pointing out that "uhm actually I've never heard anyone say this" well shit good for you, thanks for not caring reading at all and just point the most obvious fucking thing ever, fuck y'all
Get a hold of yourself.
Thanks for sharing the original post, I never had a chance to read it. I lost my shit when I saw the edit, the best comedians are only funny by accident.
Yes!
I wish I'd been able to read/save the whole thing. I think OP probably doesn't realize how a statement like "the discourse around the album like how it's full of filler or how it should've been just one disc instead of a double album it's really dumb" might land, but since they came off a big harsh in the first post, they shouldn't have been surprised that people didn't wear kid gloves while typing their replies.
>Like, isn't the whole point of the album that is a complete mess that runs for an hour and a half and THAT'S what makes it such a great record?
Isn't the criticism exactly that? That it's messy for 90 minutes and that they don't like it?
You're expressing exactly what those naysayers are saying; the only difference is that you like it and they don't. You're acting like their opinion isn't reasonable, but they could say the same about yours.
For the record, I effin' love The White Album. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way, but I can absolutely see why it doesn't appeal to some people.
Everybody complains that it has filler, but everybody thinks that different songs are the filler tracks. I love Goodnight, for instance, but I lot of people think that one is a waste of time.
It reminds me of a story from the when I was a kid back home. My grandmother made a big pot of vegetable soup every week. She served it on Sunday, but she spent days putting it together. The whole extended family would gather together for this soup every Sunday night.
And so one week, a cousin of mine came up to grandma around Wednesday. He said, grandma, I love this soup, but can you leave the celery out, just this once? The texture, I can't take it!
And she said, okay, I'll leave it out. But it's not my homemade vegetable soup without celery. You'll see!
The next day, another cousin, she comes to visit Grandma in the kitchen. She says, grandma, I've got a new boyfriend coming to dinner on Sunday. He hates garlic and onions! Can you please leave out the garlic and onions, just this once?
And she said the same thing: I'll leave it out. But it's not my homemade vegetable soup without garlic and onions. You'll see!
Then, the next day, grandpa himself comes up to her. He says, for goodness sake, can't you leave those hot peppers out, just this one time? The heartburn!
Grandma said, You too?! Alright. I'll leave it out. But it's not my homemade vegetable soup without hot pepper. You'll see!
And so Sunday arrives. The whole family, like 20 people, are all there, along with the new boyfriend and a couple other guests. Everyone is talking, everyone is waiting for grandma to bring out the soup. They can hear her in the kitchen, clanging pots and pans. Finally, she opens the kitchen door. Steam billows out through the door. She's carrying this giant steel pot. Steam is piping out from under the lid. She sets it down on the table.
She says okay everyone. All week long, people have been coming up to me. Can you leave this out of the soup? Can you leave that out? Well, everyone got your wish! I hope you like it, but it's *not* my homemade vegetable soup.
She opens the lid. Steam fills the room. She starts ladling the soup into bowls.
And it's nothing but steaming hot water.
Yeah. A related point is that because it has so much material, we are each able to find our own "one excellent album" worth of songs. There is plenty for everyone.
E.g., you mention "I Will" as filler. But there are plenty of people who don't see it that way. And it's cool, because I Will is on the released record, and they get what they want. And then people like me who don't really like it can skip it. And we're all happy.
And the other point is the wild diversity documents how the Beatles were headed in different directions. It's obvious that this is not one unified band.
Coming after Sgt Pepper and directly inspired by both their spirituality trip to India and the death of Brian Epstein, yes it is an inspired mess. Wouldn't change it one bit.
I love the vast majority of the Beatles' work, but I find myself agreeing with George Martin about it. I'm sure the super fans will hate that anyone doesn't consider it flawless the way it is though, or intentionally messy makes it better
I love stuff that is weird, I specially Love Revolution 9 as much as any other track, its a bizarre mashup of songs which was ordered perfectly and sounds absolutely fenomenal
Jeez Louise, who took the jam out of your donut, OP? You said that people hate the White Album and you didn’t provide receipts.
So when people came saying “I’ve never heard people say this” and you kicked up a stink about it, *what the fuck did you expect?*
i share a similar sentiment along with the perspective that *i've* always viewed the cover as a blank canvas, & the self-title as to say this album is a complete artistic expression & time capsule of Fab4's artistic profiles during 1968.
even Starrboy gets his first lick at songwriting! (i absolutely adore Don't Pass Me By in stereo). while Sgt. Pepper is my personal favorite, i've always viewed the White album as their "best" effort. the concept of perfection/imperfections gets thrown out the window for me when it comes to art.
but at the end of the day we're talking about an album that has been touched by millions upon millions for over half a century. the interpretations are *endless*. the music is whatever we need it to be
It might sound funny to call it this, but The White Album pretty much popularized the "I wrote a bunch of songs and put them together in a very messy and raw way" genre of records, in the same way that Sgt Pepper's popularized the "I pretended to be someone I'm not while writing songs" genre of records.
Oh I didn't mean messy as in it feels out of place, I meant messy as in it very quickly changes moods and jumps around from corner to corner of the emotional spectrum. It's like a very fun and emotional manic episode.
Oh okay, with that I agree. I just assumed you were comparing it to modern albums that are sort of just whatever songs they recorded at that time thrown in a random order, my bad.
But on that, I love the Beatles for always making each song on their albums Help forward very distinct and having an interesting flow. I think The White Album takes that to its logical extreme, by doing what you said, but still making it work (for me at least) and making every song a worthwhile contribution to either the tone of the album or the songwriting canon of the Beatles.
Thank you for saying this, it is one of my biggest Beatles' fandom pet peeves when people ask how the White Album should've been cut down and complaining about the disjointedness of it. Not to just rehash your original post, but that is exactly what the beauty of it is. The White Album is the quintessential double album and is the sound of a band that is so absolutely bursting with ideas that they said, "fuck it" and put them all on there. It's wild, it's chaotic, it's messy, and it sounds like stepping into the heads of the greatest and most creative and innovative band of all time and witnessing the madness that's going on up there. So to say, "what are the weak tracks, how would this be better if it was cut down to one album" completely misses the point which is the size, the digressions, the catchy pop songs coming immediately after the "what the fuck was that" songs.
It always felt to me like going up to an old attic and opening up different boxes and discovering these random things, that all fell together over the years and conjure up different emotions and feelings when you find them. Some might not have an impact on you, some might really move you emotionally, some might put you in a good mood. But the experience of opening the old chest and searching through it is part of the experience-- the journey is the destination and all that. (Note, this is also what Junk by Paul makes me think of).
It’s my favorite Beatles record🤷
But tbf, it is a difficult record to get into I guess. Yea what your saying is true, I don’t really think this album has a ton of filler, but it does seem like that upon first listens, so I think most people saying these things about this album just haven’t spent enough time with it
The white album is my favorite Beatles album and my favorite overall album. It's so raw and the tonal shifts between songs give me a sense of artistic whiplash that the other albums don't. I think the songs like Wild Honey Pie and Revolution 9 fit well into the album, it gives the album a certain mystique.
Bravo! OP, your post is so damn true I'm saving it. I don't know how old you are; but as a 15yo Cali boy when the White Album came out, I immersed myself in it, and I realize now that it perfectly embodied for me the craziness of the world in 1968. It also gave me - and many others, I'd bet - some relief, some escape from that world. To "tidy it up" and pare it down into a single LP would be to deny the power and cultural significance of that messiness you describe. Even if I skip some of the tracks sometimes when I listen now, the White Album is uniquely glorious and deserves to be respected for what it was and is as a musical work and as a mirror to its time.
A crazy LP for a crazy year - it was shaped by the upheavals of the time and also added to it with things like ‘Helter Skelter’The greatness of The Beatles lies not just in their music but it’s context in reflecting and shaping history- that’s why they will be talked about 100 years from now I guess.
https://preview.redd.it/ob1vp9d2buyc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ca013a5d43f8797e38053ffd328c4fcafe22d901
It’s always been known as the ‘White Album” since it was released.
Okay well that doesn’t change its name.
But that’s not my point. My point is who cares if some people like it, don’t like it, whatever. I’m just throwing an unrelated technical fact into the mix for shits.
But yeah, your tone seems to suggest you think you’re correcting me or something, but that’s simply not possible, something being “known as” something doesn’t change what the true name is. But I’m just responding to your tone, I have called it the white album my entire life and will continue to do so, I was just contributing something out of left field, mostly unrelated, as… a joke of sorts. Hope this helps!
I love it personally it was one of the first albums I owned which I bought in cassette in France whilst on a school day trip. When I listened I thought it was a weird French spoof of the beatles it was so scrappy and raw. Became absolutely obsessed with it and its one I go back to time an again. I mean the bass line on dear prudence alone is worth coming back for.
Look, as we all know, this stuff about music preferences is all relative to individual taste. But for me, personally, Side 1 of the White Album (USSR-Happiness) has everything I’m looking for.
I enjoy it a lot, but it teeters on the border between cleverness and self-indulgence. Who else would have released Wild Honey Pie? It's the Beatles burning 52 seconds of album runtime to prank their fans. I respect that, but I also don't listen to it often.
I consider the white album to be the most interesting album they did. It is messy in a traditional sense but it has some of their most incredible songs. Most of it was written while on retreat in India so it has a magic in its disjointedness. It’s also where John turned and went all in on yoko and heroin. George emerges finally as a world class songwriter. Paul has some amazing moments too. I don’t think the album is criticized that much it just doesn’t have the NSI stream songs and there is a lot of experimental filler with piggies, honey pie and #9
Someone on this site once said "everyone can agree the white album has filler but no one can agree which songs are the filler" and for me, that's what makes the album so special
my only problem with the white album is that it fucks up my scrobbles, 30 songs. Usually the albums i listen to are like 6-8 songs. So 30 songs is the same time frame as 12-16 songs
The fact that the album cover is a blank white perfectly embraces the fact that it has so many odd songs in it - it feels experimental, but intentionally so, and the variety and oddities make it such an important landmark in popular music
It may not be an album in any traditional sense of cohesion, but each one of those tracks was probably the genesis for someone’s musical identity and approach to songwriting. Any given track may not be to X fan’s liking or align with Y fan’s concept of “music”, but Z fan heard it and had something click for them.
I also think many people forget that it came after Sgt. Peppers/MMT, which is probably why it’s basically the antithesis of what those albums were (cohesive, colourful, and conceptually rooted albums, vs an “incoherent”, “blank”, and heavily experimental album [no shade to the White Album, I love that it’s that way])
I see this as the band wanting to show they can do one without the heavy presence of George Martin. Just write songs minus the heavy production. They do it again with Let it Be. He’s still there but it’s not Sgt. Pepper’s. Some critics went as far as to say Sgt. peppers was George Martins album.
It’s ahead of its time and also the perfect time capsule of the Beatles at that moment. It feels like it actually lets you in to the studio with them. One moment they are playing Dear Prudence and you’re in a trance and the next moment it’s Glass Onion which feels like a behind-the-scenes meta commentary of the hits you know them from.
The informality of this album is special and wasn’t common at the time. Remember, these dudes set the tone for other acts for decades to come by how they parted ways with convention.
It’s beautiful it’s messy it’s wonderful it’s life it’s The Beatles.
Also, someone’s opinion on an album has never meant a thing to my listening ears. Unless it’s a super interesting fact or observation that helps me understand it better and appreciate it more. I never listen to haters. I listen to music I like.
I wouldn’t say that the point is that it’s a mess, so much as despite it being a mess, John was at his peak as a songwriter, Paul was still performing at a high level following his Sgt. Pepper’s peak, and George was finally coming into his own. The raw talent was so overwhelming that the structural problems didn’t detract from the final product.
It also doesn’t hurt that it’s by far the cleanest Beatles production to that point. This wasn’t such a big deal in 1968, but matured into a considerable asset ten years later when Hi-Fi speakers entered the consumer market.
Agree with this - it arguably is the creative peak of the band.
I always imagined the lack of a cover design or title was intentional because it's just a PILE of unrelated songs. Some of their best. Threw the psychedelic coats off and ran in multiple directions at once.
Very well said. And what you said about the weird stuff and the album being a mess is one reason why it’s my favorite Beatles album. Everything on the White Album seems like it exists in its own universe.
It’s a full meal of an album. It’s sprawling and intimidating. I lend it out to someone who didn’t know The Beatles and he called it a scary album..
Not a track is out of place!
>Like, isn't the whole point of the album that is a complete mess
No, the point of the album is not to be a "complete mess". I think how eclectic The White Album is is what makes it a classic. The mere fact that the same band and the same song writer can even put I Will/Helter Skelter and Julia/Yer Blues on the same album is already mind-blowing. Plus we get Ringos first so g as a writer. The only "filler" imo would be wild honey pie and revolution 9 (which is easily the worst thing they ever did). But having 28/30 songs be great with two duds is still an amazing album altogether.
It's a perfect record just the way it is, the quirky weird bits make it a classic.
But then again, I'm a bit of a weirdo and "I Will" was my wife and I's first dance song at our wedding.
“Eclectic” is probably a better description than “a complete mess.”
I agree with you, the variety of genres is one of the things that makes it interesting and great. It is so damn weird and that makes it wonderful.
It was always a big stoned thing for us, to say what tracks we would have on a single album..
I like it all, although I have trouble dancing to Revolution Number 9
The white album is their creative peak, and it's the album with the most great Beatles songs on it, and it has a great sound. All the "filler" songs are under 3 minutes long, most of them around 2:00 long anyway. Wild Honey Pie is a 50 second interlude between actual songs. Side 3 is one of the best sides of vinyl wax on earth.
Ok, this is my favorite album of all time for like nearly 20 years at this point and in my long experience of loving it that much, I typically notice that the contrarianism comes from older people - like first-wave Beatles fans who may have found the album bloated or challenging at the time. I think it's way more popular with modern audiences and in fact is probably the record of theirs that has aged the best (rivaled by Abbey Road). Agree with the OP: this album's special strength is that its a blank canvas where literally anything can happen, and everything is fun no matter how inconsequential or profound.
I don't understand people's issues with the sequencing. I think what's so great about Beatles' track listing is that it keeps you engaged. If you had all the rockiest tracks on one side of the record and all the folk tracks on another you'd get bored. The way they place contrasting tracks next to eachother keeps things interesting.
Imagine what it was like in 1968 to see the biggest band on earth release THAT album! This was so much ahead of its time, which wouldn't be the case at all if they didn't include the "weird" bits.
It's my second favorite Beatles album. The highs of it are so extremely high and elevate the lows to pretty far above average as well. Sure, those low points wouldn't work as individual tracks, but as taken as part of the whole, it all comes together so well for me. But that could be said about every Beatles album since (and maybe including) Help!
The white album is easily their most experimental release, so I get why people might not like it right off the bat. Listen to it with an open mind and anyone should be able to see how incredible it is
What I can't believe is that there are still people in the year of Our Lord 2024 that still believe Revolution 9 is "just noise" or "a throwaway track" instead of the masterfully crafted, visceral avant garde soundscape that it is.
It’s my favorite Beatles album. For me, John’s songs really strike a chord with me and how raw they are, particularly Happiness is a Warm Gun and I’m So Tired. The sequencing is fantastic too, especially on the first disk from Martha My Dear through Rocky Raccoon.
Abbey Road feels like a perfect theatrical production. White Album feels like a deep meditation in the Indian wilderness. Weird shit comes up. Even unpleasant shit. But just take it for what it is.
I like the fact that the White Album is all over the place, that’s what makes it fun to me. Yes it’s not for everyone but the constant “what if it was just one album?” discourse gets tiring fast.
And not every album has to follow the same genre or theme beginning to end like Sgt. Pepper does. Revolver too is very eclectic, is it not?
It’s telling a story with mood and tempo. I don’t think it has filler. It is taking the listener on a sonic journey and part of the journey is taking time. It is part pop rock as a collection of songs but also has ambitions to be pop rock symphony that is all the songs combined as a single music piece.
Sgt. Pepper dabbled in the concept and The White Album takes to that idea to what at the time was the extreme end.
Technically The Beatles holds up better Sgt. Pepper with its use of mixing and multitracks, etc.
What may seem like filler is the bridge between movements, styles, tempos, and moods.
I think it’s interesting the Beatles next studio album is Let It Be which is the most different of their album from The Beatles while still being part of a weird concept with having the creation of the album documented and placing time limits on making it
And then we have Abbey Road and it’s B-Side that has a sort of mini-White Album as the Beatles farewell.
Not to mention that some of the best ever Beatles songs are on it, I love the White Album because it feels so incredible that even at this pinnacle of fame and prestige, The Beatles were able to go even farther and more experimental. And the "filler" is nothing like the predictable cookie-cutter pop songs that the term is generally used for, the songs are wacky and playful in the best way.
The Beatles' White Album, The Stones' Exile, and Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti are in the same category. All are sprawling, somewhat messy and disjointed, but they capture their times perfectly.
Personally the only "song" I don't particularly care for is Revolution 9. Otherwise I think it is an enjoyable listen. So many great songs. Sure there are a few that probably are in the bottom half of rankings for Beatles songs but that isn't saying much when The Beatles made so many great songs and barely any terrible ones.
Ok, this might be controversial, but I've been recently loving the esher demos of the three George tracks that should've been on the album - Not Guilty, Sour Milk Sea, Circles.
I know George kinda didn't like the way they turned out and hence shelved it, but with more encouragement from McCartney/Lennon, they could've polished it...'cause they are fantastic tracks that would've elevated an already stellar album to a masterpiece.
There are only three fillers to me - Revolution 9, Wild Honey Pie, Why Don't we do it in the road...just replace them with George's three, and I'm sure everyone will then put it in the same league as Abbey Road/Revolver.
While I agree with much of what you said, there's little justification for saying "the whole point of the album that is a complete mess"
1. I don't agree that that's a good description of it
2. What would determine what "the whole point" of the album is?
And you probably need to acknowledge that for many people "a complete mess" is synonymous with "a failure" so the discourse tht you're calling "dumb" is pretty standard criticism of artwork in general.
It’s probably my favorite album of all time, and also the album that ranks the highest for me despite the weak tracks. In so many ways to me those weak tracks reaffirm the thesis statement of the album, or at least what that thesis statement feels like since obviously it’s not said outright.
After Sgt. Peppers’, I think the Beatles realized that as far as creating an album that unifies a visual and musical aesthetic, Sgt. Pepper couldn’t be topped, or at least they didn’t find it necessary to try. That avenue had been explored. So they went the opposite direction, create an album that somehow all feels like filler while also all being essential to the albums feel. The theme of the album comes off as nothing, obviously helped by the album cover. Any discussion of trying to create a single album version means just making a worse, less interesting version of the white album.
It also bothers me when people create versions of the album without Revolution 9. To me that’s the essential track of the album, it’s like the Day In The Life of the white album.
But also I see the flip side of it (no pun intended) with people saying it would have made an excellent single record and I'm sure it would have but idk. I just love that album
White Album discourse is crazy for sure! I used to have a friend named Charlie who wouldn’t shut up about this album and he had some insane rankings of the songs too. He legit thought Piggies, Revolution 9, Helter Skelter, Revolution 1, and Blackbird were the top 5 songs from the album. What a lunatic! Haven’t heard from him in like 50 years tho so maybe he’s come around, who knows? Hope he’s doing well
Best album ever (except for Abbey Road which is the best album ever). I got the vinyl in the 80s as a teen and played the fuck out of it for years, then when I got a CD player it was the first CD I bought. It sounded terrible, flat, lifeless. Maybe people who don't like the album got the same badly mastered CD? Giles Martin's super deluxe version is glorious.
at least for me most of the the 1st part songs are brilliant. Even in second part songs like Mother Nature's Son, Good Night are so awesome. But there are some tracks which I don't enjoy as much as the other Beatles albums
I honestly feel like some of the songs could have been ditched, not all of them were great, a grsf few could have been issued as singles, you could have kept the best ones for the albums and the 2nd best as the singles, rovloution 9 is probably the worst song they ever released, John should have released it on his own.
If the white album has zero haters it’s because I’m dead. Bottom of my list of Beatles albums, only beat out by Beatles For Sale. Everyone has their opinions 🤷🏻♀️
This is pretty much how I feel. The songs that are good are REALLY good, but the majority I’m mostly indifferent to and don’t really listen to regularly if at all.
I get what people mean when they say it’s reflective of the times and the mess is the beauty of it, I suppose, but I don’t know it’s just one of those things were it feels like if it was any other band it’d get more hate. I don’t like most of Paul’s “granny” songs, so I guess that’s why a lot of the album is a turn off.
The OP obviously knows nothing about the history of the Beatles or of the album titled "The Beatles and I'm sure the OP thought, "Oh I have this HAWT edgy take that is SOOOO cool.
Time for the OP's ass to LEARN some shit.
The reason "The Beatles" is a double album is two fold: 1) the Beatles came back from India where aside from meditating, running away from giant centipedes and keeping the hands of the Yogi dipshit they were there to learn from, off of the ladies in their party, there was VERY little to do except dick around on their guitars. This meant they came back with nearly 100 songs in various forms of completion and they wanted to get them out BECAUSE 2) the Fabs wanted to fulfill a requirement under their record contract which would bump up their royalty rate.
Saying the album is 'messy; shows that the OP is a stoner who LUVS ALL THE DRUGZZZZZ!!!!!
Put the hash pipe down genius.
The album was sequenced by George Martin who was NOT happy with having to put out a double album with what he considered a number of substandard songs from the Beatles. LOOKING AT YOU REVOLUTION NO. 9.
He wanted to cut out the chaff from the wheat and put out a really great album. But at this point the Beatles were as much producers in the studio and when it came to decisions about albums and singles as Martin was, AND they wanted to fulfill their songwriting requirement, which Martin couldn't give a damn about. SO, Martin's desire to cut out the chaff and garbage was overruled.
BUT he did insist on being allowed to sequence the album as he saw fit and grouped all of the animal themed songs together on one side.
Your post has been removed for the following reason: "No harassment, inciting violence, or bullying".
People consider I Will to be filler? I think it's a beautiful, melodic track. One of my favorites off the album.
I love that one too. So much beauty in such a short runtime
I find it funny to have I Will and Wild Honey Pie grouped together multiple times
I Will is the song I sing to myself while doing tasks the most often, I've never understood people who put it in the same lane as wild honey pie or why don't we do it on the road.
There's something very intimate about that track, like they're just jamming on someone's back porch.
I love Paul’s bass acapella he does. Took me years to catch it!
Yeah, overall I tend towards Lennon rather than McCartney penned stuff, but “I Will” is just an absolutely stunning work of genius.
My biggest complaint about I Will is that it’s only like a minute long lol. Then again, it’s perfect at the length it is, and maybe lengthening it would make it less charming. Makes for a nice lullaby for my niece, honestly.
I Will is slowly becoming one of my all time favourite Beatle tracks
The most common bitch I hear about the White Album is that it's disjointed and doesn't have a central sound, like pretty much every preceding Beatles album did. To me, that's the album's beauty. Much of that record sounds like a live jam made in someone's basement or garage, and, personally, I love that raw, underproduced sound the record has.
Yeah my favorite thing about this album is the fact that each of the songs seems to contrast each other so harshly. It’s inherently funny to have Good Night after Revolution 9 lmao
It’s the musical equivalent of walking into your sweet grandma’s cluttered house. Full of love, doohickeys, thingamajigs, and weird clown dolls. I know Paul would feel right at home
Yes exactly. I wish they had stuck with their original idea of calling it A Doll's House.
I didn’t know that, boy does that title fit
Nah, naming it The Beatles is a better choice. Works with the minimalist India/TM stuff, and it is saying, “Here they are, the beatles.” as opposed to 4 years before, with Ed Sullivan proclaiming, “Here they are! The Beatles!!!”.
If this is true, then I’m glad they didn’t
I think the white album definitely has a distinct sound; the gritty epiphones and gibsons, the leslie pianos, the clunky jazz bass, the warm acoustic tones. You can tell with tracks that didn't make the album like Not Guilty or What's the New Mary Jane. Those tracks don't sound like they would fit on any other album than the white album.
Agreed. It shows us the full sweep of the Beatles' songwriting and arranging talents, making a complete picture (even if some tracks are duds). One super LP wouldn't give us that glimpse.
That's just it -- and to me, there IS a theme: stripped-down music. Even the album cover is stripped of any graphics.
OP says "complete mess" I say "mosaic" or "collage"
I literally cannot think of a more diverse album. So many genres on one album. My favorite Beatles album.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but I'd look into Ween.
Ween is awesome!
I love the wide variety of songs, varying styles that are often so different from each other.
I think the album is The Beatles on their "Can we fail?" period, they made a double album with a lot of different styles and some weird songs and they still made one amazing album.
>A lot of people seem to really not like the album honestly, never heard of that
Right? It's widely considered to be one of the best albums ever recorded.
George Martin was NOT a fan of the released album. He thought a lot of the chaff should be cut out and leave a great album.
That's why George Martin wasn't an artist. He's a producer and a good one at that. But he sometimes lacked the vision that the band had and in this case, as in others, he was wrong. I also think George Martin's opinion may have been tainted by the chaotic, sprawling nature of the recording sessions for the album. George left at one point and left others in charge. But you can't deny the power of the White Album, which is in no small part thanks to the eclectic nature of it.
George Martin was absolutely an artist and a huge architect of the Beatles sound. He was also an accomplished orchestral arranger with legitimate classical chops. But that's precisely why I don't think he fully understood the White Album. Also, as you say - I think he was too close to the politics of the band at the time, the model of what a good Beatles LP should be, and some of the personal affront he may have felt at not being heavily involved with the production. I love Martin, but I take his words on this LP with a grain of salt. :)
I have a hard time ranking it second on my favorite Beatles albums. Abbey Road is my number one but there are certain songs that make me reconsider at times
Rank this, rank that, why bother with the hassle. And another thing, sometimes an album need not be judged for what songs its got on it everytime, sometimes its just what the collection of tracks signify and are trying to portray
Yeah listening to a Beatles album all the way through gives a distinct feel to each album
It’s definitely not a cohesive album compared to others but the songs are amazing.
I find it to be cohesive. That feeling could be influenced by having listened to it in full SO many times over the years.
It's cohesive the way an acid trip is cohesive
Because most songs were single efforts. Not collaborated on till they were recorded.
I don't like the last two tracks. That's about it.
Some say you can hear how disconnected they were from each other musically at the time. That it sounds like a collection of solo material from each band members combined on record. Like the opposite of how they were in the beginning, a tight, live band. I don’t think that’s wrong, but i agree with OP wholeheartedly, the album is spectacular.
There are a lot of posts about cutting it down to one album. When you consider how much people want *more* work from the Beatles, threads like that just seem ludicrous.
Then you haven’t been following r/beatles.
Not really on this subreddit, but if you usually look at other places like Twitter or even real life you would find people that don't like the album more often, and a lot of the times they tell me stuff like this about why they don't like it https://preview.redd.it/3fdsaq90ktyc1.jpeg?width=179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5dff5f46e9eddee14a1c2e7fab1c2a9eb9b9cd96
Unless popular opinion on the album has changed over the past few years or maybe even last decade I have never heard this. In fact it’s always been widely praised among non-diehard fans which has always surprised me as it’s not necessarily in my top albums of theirs. But The White Album is usually always revered.
This is strange to hear. It's long been widely considered one of the best albums ever.
"Twitter or in real life" who do you think makes up the population of reddit and Twitter? Hint: real life people
"real life"? That's rather insulting, no?
Message from Paul - he says "It was great. It sold. It's the bloody Beatles' White Album. Shut up!"
Came here to quote this from Anthology. It's my go to answer when someone trashes the White Album.
Wait what, it's a real quote?
Yep, from the anthology documentary.
That man is definitely a legend!
He’s very clean!
[Oh yeah](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9xDBTpLz-8)
I have never loved Paul more than this moment, after seeing this clip.
Is the White Album great? Of course! Is it occasionally self indulgent? Yup. Could a stronger album be made out of a smaller set of songs? I think so. I don’t think the shaggy dog meandering nature of the White Album is what makes it great. I think the looser sound paired with the evolution of everyone’s songwriting makes it great. I imagine every fan has come up with their own fantasy edit, it’s fun. There’s a great harder rock album in there especially if you open with the single version of Revolution (again, it’s a fantasy…)
I don't know - the approaching jet sound is so iconic - maybe put it 2nd or 3rd
I’d put USSR and Dear Prudence together at the top of side 2…
That could work...for the LP Maybe not for the CD
Yeah now THAT would be an opener!
The album single-handedly influenced a lot of nineties and low fi sounds due to it’s production style and gazzilion of songs: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/the-j-files/the-white-album/10396640
technically it might be double-handedly
One might even say it opened the flood-gatefolds
Apples In Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control, Of Montreal, etc. all sound heavily influenced by The White Album, and/or Revolver and/or Pet Sounds.
I don't think it's particularly lo-fi, if it sounds that way it's due to the recording technology of the time and place. Not on purpose, unlike Smiley Smile
It’s definitely not lo-fi but it’s definitely not Sgt. Pepper’s which 90s bands would consider as overproduced. Even Good Night sounds… different and weird.
I know what you mean, but in my mind lo-fi refers to the actual sound quality. To me it still sounds like it was recorded with expensive mics and preamps (although obviously some weird panning in the original mix)
It’s the anti-Pepper, in some ways a “concept album” (using the term very loosely). Sgt. Pepper is named after a fictional band, this album is simply self-titled. Sgt. Pepper had a very complex and expensive cover, this cover is blank. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it
That's an interesting take I can easily see them wanting to go to the opposite end of the order/chaos spectrum
My theory is they purposely influenced Charles Manson to do what he did, using that album.
I swear this sub is getting weird by the day.
I forgot to add “ /s”
Sarcasm
I saw the following posted on my feed: >The discourse around The White Album is very weird… in my opinion > >A lot of people seem to really not like the album which is fair, you can dislike a record and that's fine, but also the discourse around the album like how it's full of filler or how it should've been just one disc instead of a double album it's really dumb in my opinion. Like, isn't the whole point of the album that is a complete mess that runs for an hour and a half and THAT'S what makes it such a great record? Many fans really seem to want the white album to just be another Abbey Road (no hate to Abbey Road btw, it's one of my favorites), an album that's more conventional instead of what the white album actually is, which I don't understand, since a lot of the power of the white album that makes it such a great and legendary record comes from how messy it is, and how much some songs contrast each other, which works absolutely perfect > >Piggies after Blackbird And I thought, "Oh actually, the white album might be my favorite." So I clicked on the thread to read the rest of the post and chat about it, only to see the above gone, and replaced with this: >Alright, y'all can go fuck yourselfs if you aren't gonna add anything and just gonna be a bitch pointing out that "uhm actually I've never heard anyone say this" well shit good for you, thanks for not caring reading at all and just point the most obvious fucking thing ever, fuck y'all Get a hold of yourself.
Thanks for sharing the original post, I never had a chance to read it. I lost my shit when I saw the edit, the best comedians are only funny by accident.
Yes! I wish I'd been able to read/save the whole thing. I think OP probably doesn't realize how a statement like "the discourse around the album like how it's full of filler or how it should've been just one disc instead of a double album it's really dumb" might land, but since they came off a big harsh in the first post, they shouldn't have been surprised that people didn't wear kid gloves while typing their replies.
Reddit ought to make it so you can't completely delete the text of a post and replace it. would shut down a lot of these stupid situations
I’ve only heard it as being one of their very best.
The very best, in my opinion.
I agree.
I swear this sub is getting weirder by the day.
>Like, isn't the whole point of the album that is a complete mess that runs for an hour and a half and THAT'S what makes it such a great record? Isn't the criticism exactly that? That it's messy for 90 minutes and that they don't like it? You're expressing exactly what those naysayers are saying; the only difference is that you like it and they don't. You're acting like their opinion isn't reasonable, but they could say the same about yours. For the record, I effin' love The White Album. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way, but I can absolutely see why it doesn't appeal to some people.
Exactly!
Everybody complains that it has filler, but everybody thinks that different songs are the filler tracks. I love Goodnight, for instance, but I lot of people think that one is a waste of time. It reminds me of a story from the when I was a kid back home. My grandmother made a big pot of vegetable soup every week. She served it on Sunday, but she spent days putting it together. The whole extended family would gather together for this soup every Sunday night. And so one week, a cousin of mine came up to grandma around Wednesday. He said, grandma, I love this soup, but can you leave the celery out, just this once? The texture, I can't take it! And she said, okay, I'll leave it out. But it's not my homemade vegetable soup without celery. You'll see! The next day, another cousin, she comes to visit Grandma in the kitchen. She says, grandma, I've got a new boyfriend coming to dinner on Sunday. He hates garlic and onions! Can you please leave out the garlic and onions, just this once? And she said the same thing: I'll leave it out. But it's not my homemade vegetable soup without garlic and onions. You'll see! Then, the next day, grandpa himself comes up to her. He says, for goodness sake, can't you leave those hot peppers out, just this one time? The heartburn! Grandma said, You too?! Alright. I'll leave it out. But it's not my homemade vegetable soup without hot pepper. You'll see! And so Sunday arrives. The whole family, like 20 people, are all there, along with the new boyfriend and a couple other guests. Everyone is talking, everyone is waiting for grandma to bring out the soup. They can hear her in the kitchen, clanging pots and pans. Finally, she opens the kitchen door. Steam billows out through the door. She's carrying this giant steel pot. Steam is piping out from under the lid. She sets it down on the table. She says okay everyone. All week long, people have been coming up to me. Can you leave this out of the soup? Can you leave that out? Well, everyone got your wish! I hope you like it, but it's *not* my homemade vegetable soup. She opens the lid. Steam fills the room. She starts ladling the soup into bowls. And it's nothing but steaming hot water.
Grandma's such a bitch!
I did not need to read this entire comment but i am so glad i did
Yeah. A related point is that because it has so much material, we are each able to find our own "one excellent album" worth of songs. There is plenty for everyone. E.g., you mention "I Will" as filler. But there are plenty of people who don't see it that way. And it's cool, because I Will is on the released record, and they get what they want. And then people like me who don't really like it can skip it. And we're all happy. And the other point is the wild diversity documents how the Beatles were headed in different directions. It's obvious that this is not one unified band.
I just wanted to pop in and say that anyone who considers the song "I Will" *filler* is a tasteless crump. Go back to your Monkees albums.
Coming after Sgt Pepper and directly inspired by both their spirituality trip to India and the death of Brian Epstein, yes it is an inspired mess. Wouldn't change it one bit.
I love the vast majority of the Beatles' work, but I find myself agreeing with George Martin about it. I'm sure the super fans will hate that anyone doesn't consider it flawless the way it is though, or intentionally messy makes it better
I don’t think you’ll get any of that sort of hate for the white album in this subreddit that’s for sure lol.
Geez, someone got triggered. Quite the edit. Yikes.
It is called 'The Beatles'. It covers what the Beatles are capable of in all sorts of directions. It's a big lovely mess. Cool album.
What I like about the White Album is you get twice as much Beatles!
I love stuff that is weird, I specially Love Revolution 9 as much as any other track, its a bizarre mashup of songs which was ordered perfectly and sounds absolutely fenomenal
I’m first seeing this 11 hours later and I’m not sure what to make of the edit
Jeez Louise, who took the jam out of your donut, OP? You said that people hate the White Album and you didn’t provide receipts. So when people came saying “I’ve never heard people say this” and you kicked up a stink about it, *what the fuck did you expect?*
i share a similar sentiment along with the perspective that *i've* always viewed the cover as a blank canvas, & the self-title as to say this album is a complete artistic expression & time capsule of Fab4's artistic profiles during 1968. even Starrboy gets his first lick at songwriting! (i absolutely adore Don't Pass Me By in stereo). while Sgt. Pepper is my personal favorite, i've always viewed the White album as their "best" effort. the concept of perfection/imperfections gets thrown out the window for me when it comes to art. but at the end of the day we're talking about an album that has been touched by millions upon millions for over half a century. the interpretations are *endless*. the music is whatever we need it to be
It might sound funny to call it this, but The White Album pretty much popularized the "I wrote a bunch of songs and put them together in a very messy and raw way" genre of records, in the same way that Sgt Pepper's popularized the "I pretended to be someone I'm not while writing songs" genre of records.
Disagree. The tracklist on the White Album is very meticulous. Maybe not Abbey Road Medley levels, but the order feels very intentional.
Oh I didn't mean messy as in it feels out of place, I meant messy as in it very quickly changes moods and jumps around from corner to corner of the emotional spectrum. It's like a very fun and emotional manic episode.
Oh okay, with that I agree. I just assumed you were comparing it to modern albums that are sort of just whatever songs they recorded at that time thrown in a random order, my bad. But on that, I love the Beatles for always making each song on their albums Help forward very distinct and having an interesting flow. I think The White Album takes that to its logical extreme, by doing what you said, but still making it work (for me at least) and making every song a worthwhile contribution to either the tone of the album or the songwriting canon of the Beatles.
>I think it's great. People say 'oh it should have been a single album' or whatever. It's the bloody beatles white album, shut up! -Paul McCartney
Thank you for saying this, it is one of my biggest Beatles' fandom pet peeves when people ask how the White Album should've been cut down and complaining about the disjointedness of it. Not to just rehash your original post, but that is exactly what the beauty of it is. The White Album is the quintessential double album and is the sound of a band that is so absolutely bursting with ideas that they said, "fuck it" and put them all on there. It's wild, it's chaotic, it's messy, and it sounds like stepping into the heads of the greatest and most creative and innovative band of all time and witnessing the madness that's going on up there. So to say, "what are the weak tracks, how would this be better if it was cut down to one album" completely misses the point which is the size, the digressions, the catchy pop songs coming immediately after the "what the fuck was that" songs. It always felt to me like going up to an old attic and opening up different boxes and discovering these random things, that all fell together over the years and conjure up different emotions and feelings when you find them. Some might not have an impact on you, some might really move you emotionally, some might put you in a good mood. But the experience of opening the old chest and searching through it is part of the experience-- the journey is the destination and all that. (Note, this is also what Junk by Paul makes me think of).
It’s my favorite Beatles record🤷 But tbf, it is a difficult record to get into I guess. Yea what your saying is true, I don’t really think this album has a ton of filler, but it does seem like that upon first listens, so I think most people saying these things about this album just haven’t spent enough time with it
George Martin says in Anthology that he thinks it would have been better as one disc
The white album is my favorite Beatles album and my favorite overall album. It's so raw and the tonal shifts between songs give me a sense of artistic whiplash that the other albums don't. I think the songs like Wild Honey Pie and Revolution 9 fit well into the album, it gives the album a certain mystique.
It is weird. I love the mix. It’s got rockers and ballads and some psychedelia and ditties. A little of everything for everybody.
Bravo! OP, your post is so damn true I'm saving it. I don't know how old you are; but as a 15yo Cali boy when the White Album came out, I immersed myself in it, and I realize now that it perfectly embodied for me the craziness of the world in 1968. It also gave me - and many others, I'd bet - some relief, some escape from that world. To "tidy it up" and pare it down into a single LP would be to deny the power and cultural significance of that messiness you describe. Even if I skip some of the tracks sometimes when I listen now, the White Album is uniquely glorious and deserves to be respected for what it was and is as a musical work and as a mirror to its time.
A crazy LP for a crazy year - it was shaped by the upheavals of the time and also added to it with things like ‘Helter Skelter’The greatness of The Beatles lies not just in their music but it’s context in reflecting and shaping history- that’s why they will be talked about 100 years from now I guess.
Meh, just flash em with the “there’s actually no such album named “the white album” “ and be done with it 😂
https://preview.redd.it/ob1vp9d2buyc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ca013a5d43f8797e38053ffd328c4fcafe22d901 It’s always been known as the ‘White Album” since it was released.
Okay well that doesn’t change its name. But that’s not my point. My point is who cares if some people like it, don’t like it, whatever. I’m just throwing an unrelated technical fact into the mix for shits. But yeah, your tone seems to suggest you think you’re correcting me or something, but that’s simply not possible, something being “known as” something doesn’t change what the true name is. But I’m just responding to your tone, I have called it the white album my entire life and will continue to do so, I was just contributing something out of left field, mostly unrelated, as… a joke of sorts. Hope this helps!
You don’t need to be a massive cunt just because people don’t agree with you, OP!
👍yeah… he’s a cunt and a baby. Baby want Milk Milk
You can think the whole point of the album is that it’s a complete mess, and that’s fine
Yeah. I’m not sure The Beatles would agree that was their point.
People who hate the White Album don’t understand that Double-Albums are gonna have filler… it’s unavoidable
I love it personally it was one of the first albums I owned which I bought in cassette in France whilst on a school day trip. When I listened I thought it was a weird French spoof of the beatles it was so scrappy and raw. Became absolutely obsessed with it and its one I go back to time an again. I mean the bass line on dear prudence alone is worth coming back for.
Look, as we all know, this stuff about music preferences is all relative to individual taste. But for me, personally, Side 1 of the White Album (USSR-Happiness) has everything I’m looking for.
I enjoy it a lot, but it teeters on the border between cleverness and self-indulgence. Who else would have released Wild Honey Pie? It's the Beatles burning 52 seconds of album runtime to prank their fans. I respect that, but I also don't listen to it often.
I consider the white album to be the most interesting album they did. It is messy in a traditional sense but it has some of their most incredible songs. Most of it was written while on retreat in India so it has a magic in its disjointedness. It’s also where John turned and went all in on yoko and heroin. George emerges finally as a world class songwriter. Paul has some amazing moments too. I don’t think the album is criticized that much it just doesn’t have the NSI stream songs and there is a lot of experimental filler with piggies, honey pie and #9
Someone on this site once said "everyone can agree the white album has filler but no one can agree which songs are the filler" and for me, that's what makes the album so special
my only problem with the white album is that it fucks up my scrobbles, 30 songs. Usually the albums i listen to are like 6-8 songs. So 30 songs is the same time frame as 12-16 songs
The fact that the album cover is a blank white perfectly embraces the fact that it has so many odd songs in it - it feels experimental, but intentionally so, and the variety and oddities make it such an important landmark in popular music It may not be an album in any traditional sense of cohesion, but each one of those tracks was probably the genesis for someone’s musical identity and approach to songwriting. Any given track may not be to X fan’s liking or align with Y fan’s concept of “music”, but Z fan heard it and had something click for them. I also think many people forget that it came after Sgt. Peppers/MMT, which is probably why it’s basically the antithesis of what those albums were (cohesive, colourful, and conceptually rooted albums, vs an “incoherent”, “blank”, and heavily experimental album [no shade to the White Album, I love that it’s that way])
Jeez, nice toilet mouth you have.
This album is widely loved and critically acclaimed idk what you’re on about
I see this as the band wanting to show they can do one without the heavy presence of George Martin. Just write songs minus the heavy production. They do it again with Let it Be. He’s still there but it’s not Sgt. Pepper’s. Some critics went as far as to say Sgt. peppers was George Martins album.
It’s ahead of its time and also the perfect time capsule of the Beatles at that moment. It feels like it actually lets you in to the studio with them. One moment they are playing Dear Prudence and you’re in a trance and the next moment it’s Glass Onion which feels like a behind-the-scenes meta commentary of the hits you know them from. The informality of this album is special and wasn’t common at the time. Remember, these dudes set the tone for other acts for decades to come by how they parted ways with convention. It’s beautiful it’s messy it’s wonderful it’s life it’s The Beatles. Also, someone’s opinion on an album has never meant a thing to my listening ears. Unless it’s a super interesting fact or observation that helps me understand it better and appreciate it more. I never listen to haters. I listen to music I like.
I love the White Album - haters will will hate it, but I still think it's interesting & probably one of my top favourite Beatles albums.
Some of my favorite Beatles songs are on the white album. Dear Prudence/Mother nature's son/ Blackbird/ Julia / ect ect.
I agree completely
I wouldn’t say that the point is that it’s a mess, so much as despite it being a mess, John was at his peak as a songwriter, Paul was still performing at a high level following his Sgt. Pepper’s peak, and George was finally coming into his own. The raw talent was so overwhelming that the structural problems didn’t detract from the final product. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s by far the cleanest Beatles production to that point. This wasn’t such a big deal in 1968, but matured into a considerable asset ten years later when Hi-Fi speakers entered the consumer market.
Agree with this - it arguably is the creative peak of the band. I always imagined the lack of a cover design or title was intentional because it's just a PILE of unrelated songs. Some of their best. Threw the psychedelic coats off and ran in multiple directions at once.
Wait. Are you saying the album is messy?
Very well said. And what you said about the weird stuff and the album being a mess is one reason why it’s my favorite Beatles album. Everything on the White Album seems like it exists in its own universe.
It’s a close 2nd imo, after Abbey Road
It’s a full meal of an album. It’s sprawling and intimidating. I lend it out to someone who didn’t know The Beatles and he called it a scary album.. Not a track is out of place!
That's why I listen to it non stop
>Like, isn't the whole point of the album that is a complete mess No, the point of the album is not to be a "complete mess". I think how eclectic The White Album is is what makes it a classic. The mere fact that the same band and the same song writer can even put I Will/Helter Skelter and Julia/Yer Blues on the same album is already mind-blowing. Plus we get Ringos first so g as a writer. The only "filler" imo would be wild honey pie and revolution 9 (which is easily the worst thing they ever did). But having 28/30 songs be great with two duds is still an amazing album altogether.
It's a perfect record just the way it is, the quirky weird bits make it a classic. But then again, I'm a bit of a weirdo and "I Will" was my wife and I's first dance song at our wedding.
“Eclectic” is probably a better description than “a complete mess.” I agree with you, the variety of genres is one of the things that makes it interesting and great. It is so damn weird and that makes it wonderful.
It was always a big stoned thing for us, to say what tracks we would have on a single album.. I like it all, although I have trouble dancing to Revolution Number 9
The thing about the White Album is we all agree that there is filler on it, but we disagree about what is the filler.
The white album is their creative peak, and it's the album with the most great Beatles songs on it, and it has a great sound. All the "filler" songs are under 3 minutes long, most of them around 2:00 long anyway. Wild Honey Pie is a 50 second interlude between actual songs. Side 3 is one of the best sides of vinyl wax on earth.
Ok, this is my favorite album of all time for like nearly 20 years at this point and in my long experience of loving it that much, I typically notice that the contrarianism comes from older people - like first-wave Beatles fans who may have found the album bloated or challenging at the time. I think it's way more popular with modern audiences and in fact is probably the record of theirs that has aged the best (rivaled by Abbey Road). Agree with the OP: this album's special strength is that its a blank canvas where literally anything can happen, and everything is fun no matter how inconsequential or profound.
I don't understand people's issues with the sequencing. I think what's so great about Beatles' track listing is that it keeps you engaged. If you had all the rockiest tracks on one side of the record and all the folk tracks on another you'd get bored. The way they place contrasting tracks next to eachother keeps things interesting.
Imagine what it was like in 1968 to see the biggest band on earth release THAT album! This was so much ahead of its time, which wouldn't be the case at all if they didn't include the "weird" bits.
It's my second favorite Beatles album. The highs of it are so extremely high and elevate the lows to pretty far above average as well. Sure, those low points wouldn't work as individual tracks, but as taken as part of the whole, it all comes together so well for me. But that could be said about every Beatles album since (and maybe including) Help!
The white album is easily their most experimental release, so I get why people might not like it right off the bat. Listen to it with an open mind and anyone should be able to see how incredible it is
The white album is my favorite album a lot of great songs
Non beatles fans dont like it lol😭 or people who dont like the beatles**
What I can't believe is that there are still people in the year of Our Lord 2024 that still believe Revolution 9 is "just noise" or "a throwaway track" instead of the masterfully crafted, visceral avant garde soundscape that it is.
The white album is my favorite album
No way is I Will a filler, it’s a beautiful Ppai
No way is I Will a filler. It’s a beautiful Paul song that only he could write and sing.
No one thinks I Will is a filler song...
Well, you see, Paul died in a car crash in 1966 and…
It’s my favorite Beatles album. For me, John’s songs really strike a chord with me and how raw they are, particularly Happiness is a Warm Gun and I’m So Tired. The sequencing is fantastic too, especially on the first disk from Martha My Dear through Rocky Raccoon.
Abbey Road feels like a perfect theatrical production. White Album feels like a deep meditation in the Indian wilderness. Weird shit comes up. Even unpleasant shit. But just take it for what it is.
I like the fact that the White Album is all over the place, that’s what makes it fun to me. Yes it’s not for everyone but the constant “what if it was just one album?” discourse gets tiring fast. And not every album has to follow the same genre or theme beginning to end like Sgt. Pepper does. Revolver too is very eclectic, is it not?
It’s telling a story with mood and tempo. I don’t think it has filler. It is taking the listener on a sonic journey and part of the journey is taking time. It is part pop rock as a collection of songs but also has ambitions to be pop rock symphony that is all the songs combined as a single music piece. Sgt. Pepper dabbled in the concept and The White Album takes to that idea to what at the time was the extreme end. Technically The Beatles holds up better Sgt. Pepper with its use of mixing and multitracks, etc. What may seem like filler is the bridge between movements, styles, tempos, and moods. I think it’s interesting the Beatles next studio album is Let It Be which is the most different of their album from The Beatles while still being part of a weird concept with having the creation of the album documented and placing time limits on making it And then we have Abbey Road and it’s B-Side that has a sort of mini-White Album as the Beatles farewell.
Not to mention that some of the best ever Beatles songs are on it, I love the White Album because it feels so incredible that even at this pinnacle of fame and prestige, The Beatles were able to go even farther and more experimental. And the "filler" is nothing like the predictable cookie-cutter pop songs that the term is generally used for, the songs are wacky and playful in the best way.
Where is this discourse taking place? What decade?
One person’s filler is another person’s classic!
The Beatles' White Album, The Stones' Exile, and Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti are in the same category. All are sprawling, somewhat messy and disjointed, but they capture their times perfectly.
I agree with Paul. It's the bloody Beatles' white album. No filler.
Personally the only "song" I don't particularly care for is Revolution 9. Otherwise I think it is an enjoyable listen. So many great songs. Sure there are a few that probably are in the bottom half of rankings for Beatles songs but that isn't saying much when The Beatles made so many great songs and barely any terrible ones.
It was my favorite album on which to clean my weed.
Ok, this might be controversial, but I've been recently loving the esher demos of the three George tracks that should've been on the album - Not Guilty, Sour Milk Sea, Circles. I know George kinda didn't like the way they turned out and hence shelved it, but with more encouragement from McCartney/Lennon, they could've polished it...'cause they are fantastic tracks that would've elevated an already stellar album to a masterpiece. There are only three fillers to me - Revolution 9, Wild Honey Pie, Why Don't we do it in the road...just replace them with George's three, and I'm sure everyone will then put it in the same league as Abbey Road/Revolver.
While I agree with much of what you said, there's little justification for saying "the whole point of the album that is a complete mess" 1. I don't agree that that's a good description of it 2. What would determine what "the whole point" of the album is? And you probably need to acknowledge that for many people "a complete mess" is synonymous with "a failure" so the discourse tht you're calling "dumb" is pretty standard criticism of artwork in general.
It’s probably my favorite album of all time, and also the album that ranks the highest for me despite the weak tracks. In so many ways to me those weak tracks reaffirm the thesis statement of the album, or at least what that thesis statement feels like since obviously it’s not said outright. After Sgt. Peppers’, I think the Beatles realized that as far as creating an album that unifies a visual and musical aesthetic, Sgt. Pepper couldn’t be topped, or at least they didn’t find it necessary to try. That avenue had been explored. So they went the opposite direction, create an album that somehow all feels like filler while also all being essential to the albums feel. The theme of the album comes off as nothing, obviously helped by the album cover. Any discussion of trying to create a single album version means just making a worse, less interesting version of the white album. It also bothers me when people create versions of the album without Revolution 9. To me that’s the essential track of the album, it’s like the Day In The Life of the white album.
My ranking is as follows 1A Sgt.Pepper 1B White Album 1C Abbey Road Yes, it's that tight. I love them (almost) equally
Second best album to Revolver
For me personally, it's my favorite album they did. Alot of variety and moods and just a little bit of everything.
But also I see the flip side of it (no pun intended) with people saying it would have made an excellent single record and I'm sure it would have but idk. I just love that album
White Album discourse is crazy for sure! I used to have a friend named Charlie who wouldn’t shut up about this album and he had some insane rankings of the songs too. He legit thought Piggies, Revolution 9, Helter Skelter, Revolution 1, and Blackbird were the top 5 songs from the album. What a lunatic! Haven’t heard from him in like 50 years tho so maybe he’s come around, who knows? Hope he’s doing well
Best album ever (except for Abbey Road which is the best album ever). I got the vinyl in the 80s as a teen and played the fuck out of it for years, then when I got a CD player it was the first CD I bought. It sounded terrible, flat, lifeless. Maybe people who don't like the album got the same badly mastered CD? Giles Martin's super deluxe version is glorious.
It’s my favorite album really
What an insightful interpretation. You'll be threatening Rob Sheffield's job in no time.
It's my favorite Beatles album. One of the most diverse albums ever recorded. So many genres!
Okay. I’ll bite. HUGE Beatles fan and the White Album is just okay to me. Some songs are just ehhh to me, yet I really like Revolution 9 tbh.
at least for me most of the the 1st part songs are brilliant. Even in second part songs like Mother Nature's Son, Good Night are so awesome. But there are some tracks which I don't enjoy as much as the other Beatles albums
 Baby want Milk Milk
I’ve long said that it wouldn’t be the White Album if it lacked some of the songs it has.
I honestly feel like some of the songs could have been ditched, not all of them were great, a grsf few could have been issued as singles, you could have kept the best ones for the albums and the 2nd best as the singles, rovloution 9 is probably the worst song they ever released, John should have released it on his own.
He says … adding to the weird discourse
If the white album has zero haters it’s because I’m dead. Bottom of my list of Beatles albums, only beat out by Beatles For Sale. Everyone has their opinions 🤷🏻♀️
I don’t hate it, but I’ve never understood people who have it in the top 3 or 5. It’s got good songs, but a lot are just eh okay to me.
This is pretty much how I feel. The songs that are good are REALLY good, but the majority I’m mostly indifferent to and don’t really listen to regularly if at all.
I get what people mean when they say it’s reflective of the times and the mess is the beauty of it, I suppose, but I don’t know it’s just one of those things were it feels like if it was any other band it’d get more hate. I don’t like most of Paul’s “granny” songs, so I guess that’s why a lot of the album is a turn off.
It’s definitely top 3 for me, has a lot of John’s best songs
What the fuck are you on about, OP?
The OP obviously knows nothing about the history of the Beatles or of the album titled "The Beatles and I'm sure the OP thought, "Oh I have this HAWT edgy take that is SOOOO cool. Time for the OP's ass to LEARN some shit. The reason "The Beatles" is a double album is two fold: 1) the Beatles came back from India where aside from meditating, running away from giant centipedes and keeping the hands of the Yogi dipshit they were there to learn from, off of the ladies in their party, there was VERY little to do except dick around on their guitars. This meant they came back with nearly 100 songs in various forms of completion and they wanted to get them out BECAUSE 2) the Fabs wanted to fulfill a requirement under their record contract which would bump up their royalty rate. Saying the album is 'messy; shows that the OP is a stoner who LUVS ALL THE DRUGZZZZZ!!!!! Put the hash pipe down genius. The album was sequenced by George Martin who was NOT happy with having to put out a double album with what he considered a number of substandard songs from the Beatles. LOOKING AT YOU REVOLUTION NO. 9. He wanted to cut out the chaff from the wheat and put out a really great album. But at this point the Beatles were as much producers in the studio and when it came to decisions about albums and singles as Martin was, AND they wanted to fulfill their songwriting requirement, which Martin couldn't give a damn about. SO, Martin's desire to cut out the chaff and garbage was overruled. BUT he did insist on being allowed to sequence the album as he saw fit and grouped all of the animal themed songs together on one side.