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ON THIS DATE (56 YEARS AGO)
November 22, 1968 – The Beatles: The Beatles is released.
# ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 5/5
# Allmusic 5/5
# Rolling Stones (see original review below)
# Disc and Music Echo (see original review below)

The Beatles is the ninth album by The Beatles, a double album released on November 22, 1968. It is also commonly known as "The White Album" as it has no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed (and, on the early LP and CD releases, a serial number) on its plain white sleeve. It reached #1 on the Billboard 200 Top LP's chart in its third week, spending a total of nine weeks at the top. In all, The Beatles spent 155 weeks on the Billboard 200. It debuted at #1 on the UK album chart and totaled eight weeks at that position, and spent a total 24 weeks on the UK chart.

Most of the songs were conceived during a transcendental meditation course with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India in the spring of 1968. The retreat had required long periods of meditation, initially conceived by the band as a spiritual respite from all worldly endeavours—a chance, in John Lennon's words, to "get away from everything." Both Lennon and Paul McCartney had quickly found themselves in songwriting mode, however, often meeting "clandestinely in the afternoons in each other's rooms" to review the new work. "Regardless of what I was supposed to be doing," Lennon would later recall, "I did write some of my best songs there." Close to forty new compositions had emerged in Rishikesh, twenty-three of which would be recorded in very rough form at Kinfauns, George Harrison’s home in Esher, in May 1968.

The Beatles had left Rishikesh before the end of the course, with Ringo Starr and then McCartney departing, and Lennon and Harrison departing together later. According to some reports, Lennon left Rishikesh because he felt personally betrayed by rumours that Maharishi had made sexual advances toward Mia Farrow's sister Prudence, who had accompanied The Beatles on their trip. Shortly after he decided to leave, Lennon wrote a song called "Maharishi" which included the lyrics, "Maharishi/You little twat"; the song became "Sexy Sadie". According to several authors, Alexis Mardas (aka "Magic Alex") deliberately engineered these rumours because he was bent on undermining the Maharishi's influence over each Beatle. In a 1980 interview, Lennon acknowledged that the Maharishi was the inspiration for the song: "I just called him 'Sexy Sadie'."

The group returned to the studio for recording from May to October 1968, only to have conflict and dissent drive the group members apart. Ringo Starr quit the band for a brief time, leaving Paul McCartney to perform drums on some of the album's songs. Many of the songs were "solo" recordings, or at least by less than the full group, as each individual member began to explore his own talent.

The album was the first that The Beatles undertook following the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, and the first released by their own record label, Apple.

The Beatles was recorded between 30 May 1968 and 14 October 1968, largely at Abbey Road Studios, with some sessions at Trident Studios. Although productive, the sessions were reportedly undisciplined and sometimes fractious, and they took place at a time when tensions were growing within the group. Concurrent with the recording of this album, The Beatles were launching their new multimedia business corporation Apple Corps, an enterprise that proved to be a source of significant stress for the band.

The sessions for The Beatles marked the first appearance in the studio of Lennon's new girlfriend and artistic partner, Yoko Ono, who would thereafter be a more or less constant presence at all Beatles sessions. Prior to Ono's appearance on the scene, the individual Beatles had been very insular during recording sessions, with influence from outsiders strictly limited. McCartney's girlfriend at the time, Francie Schwartz, was also present at some of the recording sessions.

Author Mark Lewisohn reports that The Beatles held their first and only 24-hour recording/producing session near the end of the creation of The Beatles, which occurred during the final mixing and sequencing for the album. The session was attended by Lennon, McCartney, and producer George Martin.

Despite the album's official title, which emphasized group identity, studio efforts on The Beatles captured the work of four increasingly individualized artists who frequently found themselves at odds. The band's work pattern changed dramatically with this project, and by most accounts the extraordinary synergy of The Beatles' previous studio sessions was harder to come by during this period. Sometimes McCartney would record in one studio for prolonged periods of time, while Lennon would record in another, each man using different engineers. At one point in the sessions, George Martin, whose authority over the band in the studio had waned, spontaneously left to go on holiday, leaving Chris Thomas in charge of producing. During one of these sessions, while recording "Helter Skelter", Harrison reportedly ran around the studio while holding a flaming ashtray above his head.

Long after the recording of The Beatles was complete, Martin mentioned in interviews that his working relationship with The Beatles changed during this period, and that many of the band's efforts seemed unfocused, often yielding prolonged jam sessions that sounded uninspired. On 16 July recording engineer Geoff Emerick, who had worked with the group since Revolver, announced that he was no longer willing to work with the group.

The sudden departures were not limited to EMI personnel. On 22 August, Starr abruptly left the studio, explaining later that he felt that his role was minimised compared to that of the other members, and that he was tired of waiting through the long and contentious recording sessions. Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison pleaded with Starr to return, and after two weeks he did. Upon Starr's return, he found his drum kit decorated with red, white, and blue flowers, a welcome-back gesture from Harrison. The reconciliation was, however, only temporary, and Starr's exit served as a precursor of future "months and years of misery", in Starr's words. Indeed, after The Beatles was completed, both Harrison and Lennon would stage similar unpublicized departures from the band. McCartney's public departure in 1970 would mark the formal end of the band's ensemble. He described the sessions for The Beatles as a turning point for the group. Up to this point, he observed, "The world was a problem, but we weren't. You know, that was the best thing about The Beatles, until we started to break up, like during the White Album and stuff. Even the studio got a bit tense then."

The album's working title, A Doll's House, was changed when the English progressive rock band Family released the similarly titled Music in a Doll's House earlier that year.
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THE COVER and PACKAGING

In the end the revolutionary nature of Richard Hamilton’s final design was in its utter simplicity.

Richard Hamilton, a notable pop artist who had organized a Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Tate Gallery the previous year, was responsible for the albums original sleeve design. It is the only sleeve of a Beatles studio album not to show the members of the band on the front. His design was in stark contrast to Peter Blake’s vivid cover art for Sgt. Pepper, and consisted of a plain white sleeve with the band’s name discreetly embossed slightly below the middle of the album’s right side. 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.”

Paul McCartney requested the design be as stark a contrast to Sgt Pepper’s day-glo explosion as possible… he got it!
~ Richard Hamilton

Hamilton intended the cover design to resemble the “look” of conceptual art, an emerging movement in contemporary art at the time. The album’s inner-gatefold opened at the top originally, not the sides.

Most assume the stark white cover that adorns The Beatles’ ninth LP was the brainchild of John Lennon or Yoko Ono. It’s minimalist and conceptual art influence was definitely in step with the pair’s avant-garde leanings. Lennon himself had utilized both a white canvas and white balloons in his “You Are Here” exhibition held July of that year at the Robert Fraser Gallery.
Hamilton produced an iconic masterpiece of minimalist modern design.

He had landed the job via mutual friend and gallery owner Robert Fraser. In the early stages of his design, he proposed that the white sleeve be augmented with a coffee cup stain, that was deemed “too flippant”. He then suggested that the cover be impregnated with apple pulp, in homage to The Beatles’ company Apple Corp, this too was considered “impractical” and was also rejected. In the end the revolutionary nature of Hamilton’s design was in it’s simplicity.

The inner-sleeve was a bit more conventional, with song titles listed on the inner-left gatefold, on the lower right, and four black and white portraits on the lower portion of the inner-gatefolds right side. The poster, with its collage of snapshots and contact sheets put together by Hamilton, along with the color portraits of the individual members, was also included with the album. As the music contained within was less a collaboration and more the result of three distinct songwriters in John, Paul and George, so too did Hamilton’s design, with it’s utilization of solo shots of each band member, focus on The Beatles as individuals rather than a group.

The first two million copies of the LP also had an individual edition number. Copies were numbered, the same system used at all 12 pressing plants (so there are 12 1s, 12 2s, etc). Also, due to a dispute over banding (where the space between songs is visible on the record disc), some copies are banded and some aren’t — even between copies pressed at the same plant. John got 00001 “because he shouted the loudest” recalled Paul. No singles were issued from the album until 1976, when “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” was released as a single with “Julia” as the B-side.

The album included a set of four color photographs taken by John Kelly during the autumn of 1968. Richard Hamilton also came up with the montage idea for the large free poster, which included the lyrics on it’s rear. Original copies of the album also had a top opening sleeve, and black paper inner sleeves.

The first UK release album cover had outlets at its top, as it was called as the “Open Top” cover. Flaps inside the gatefold cover were visible at the left and the right sides. Early copies were issued with a protector sheet placed on the top of each photo and had a custom black inner sleeve. The music publisher’s name for George’s and Ringo’s songs was printed “Apple Publishing Ltd.” on the first printing and was changed afterwards to “Harrisongs Ltd.” and “Startling Mus.”

The albums design and art direction are officially credited to Richard Hamilton, Gordon House and Jeremy Banks, with photography by John Kelly.
__________

73 BOB IS THE COST OF THE NEW BEATLES LP. PAY UP AND SMILE

by PENNY VALENTINE
Disc and Music Echo-November 9, 1968, p24

AND SO after a year in the making, "The Beatles"- their hour and a half long, 30 track, 73 bobs worth of brilliance-is ready.

To hear it leaves you punch-drunk and breathless and wondering exactly what you can say. how you can put into words any constructive criticism of this double venture.

And when all the hoo hah has died down. When all the bouquets have stopped flooding in. when yet another crown has been put on the four crown-filled heads, and the superlatives have ceased raving round the world, what does "The Beatles" finally prove?

That the songwriting has got even better? Yes. That the arrangements, orchestrations and actual thought behind each track have surpassed all before'! Yes.

But possibly, more than anything else. it proves two things. One is that, as someone pointed out most succinctly, on tracks that are really R & B based, the Beatles are a very good GROUP, never mind anything else. And the other that where "Sgt Pepper” was, in a way, a continuation or a musical trend already progressing in America. This is The Beatles pure and simple.

In cold harsh criticism, one cant wax poetical endlessly - what comes to light of the 30 tracks only two are a little above average, 27 are brilliant and at least four will become standards pop numbers. This then is ''The Beatles," on sale November 16.

SIDE ONE:
Back In the U.S.S.R. Paul sings lead on a song which the great American society -with all it’s nervous reactions will hate. An incredible loud, light determined feel to the whole number made more so by end jet plane noises. "We're flying for Miami Beach." they sing and then comes a glorious Beach Boy send up.

Dear Prudence:
John sings about a man who lives for his girlfriend's smile. For John this is a very gentle pretty little love song with warm guitar and voices merging in the background. It builds slightly towards the end with piano and brass.

Glass Onion:
A send-up song dedicated to all the people who think -there is deep inner significance to all the Beatles songs, lyrics. John does his "Walrus' voice and there are mentions of "Fool On The Hill."

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da:
If you say the title quickly, you will, in fact, realise that the first word is Oh Bloody, which really doesn't have any deep significance as the song is sung with a kind of West Indian joviality and rampages through with a Jamaican band backing. Paul sings it with some hard crisp backing voices, avery good cheery chorus, and someone sayihg "Thank You" out of the blue at the end.

Honey Pie (part one):
The real Honey Pie---on side 4 - bears absolutely no relation to this tiny track. Nevertheless it is here and has very hysterical voices with mad Indian sounds in the background.

The Contlnuing Story of Bungalow Bill:
Anyone who remembers Saturday morning pictures will warm to this track. John sings the saga of a White Game Hunter with splendid ferocity. "In case of accidents" it goes ''He'd always take his mum.'' A story with a moral it also mentions Captain Marvel and there is a great deal of worthy appause and whistling at the end.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps:
The first George Harrison track on the album - there are three more - which has a lot of whining hard guitar work and George singing in a plaintive voice of descending notes. Nice sharp cymbals in there too.

Happriness Is a Warm Gun:
There's always a sharp dividing line between the songs Lennon writes and the songs McCartney writes - and they are always apparent. This is so typically Lennon, lyrically ful1 of astounding connotations, it inveigles its way upon you until the whole thing breaks up into a great 1950's pop song send-up.

SIDE 2:
Martha My Dear:
Paul wrote this about his beloved sheepdog, but in fact it's likely to be done very straight by nearly every group in the land. Paul plays some lovely piano and sings of his dog as though it is the greatest love in his life - which it no doubt is.

I'm So Tired:
Lennon in a terrible state because of his girlfriend.”Please give me peace of mind," he pleads having cancelled all the daily papers for three weeks. His sad,edgy voice is double tracked and builds to screaming pitch with sharp guitar.

Blackbird:
The first Beatles track to be done unaccompanied. It's just Paul singing, playing guitar and tapping his foot. A very sweet, intensely pretty song with blackbird sound track sounds in the background. Another song which will be taken off the album to be done by a lot of other people.

Piggies:
George’s second song. a beastly little piece about piggy people, with piggy habits and piggy wives. Harpsichord and cellos make it into a frantic mock - Elizabethan piece with, naturally a lot of real pig grunting and squealing at the end.

Rocky Raccoon:
The saga of poor old Rocky who knew his girl was doing him wrong. Paul starts off in a hard Western voice with Dylan harmonica and then turns sweet as he unfolds the sad tale. Bar room piano is added to great effect.

Don’t Pass Me By:
The first-ever Ringo Starr composition. Sung by Starkey in person with great vigor and a village band backing. It’s nice enough but it goes on too long.

Why Don't We Do It In The Road:
This is the first of the really hard R & R tracks. Apart from some mind-boggling three lines - which is all the song consists of -and do WHAT tn the road one might wonder? It has a very Canned Heat feeling. Paul, versatile as a chameleon brings out his hard-raving voice for this one.

I Will:
A pure pop song that will probably be taken and softened up more by Astrud Gilberto. A very gentle number with guitars and light bongos.

Julie:
John sounding much warmer than usual on a very sweet love song that is destined to be taken, changed slightly, and turned into a standard song by someone like Jack Jones.

SIDE 3
Birthday:
A real rock-n-roll track with Paul doing his Uncle Richard bit. Very very hard guitar and an incredible drum break with people yelling and stomping.

Yer Blues:
A big, crashing, home-grown blues number - as if it was sung by Blind Lemon Jefferson, you'd never know it wasn't the authentic stuff. Until, that is, John breaks into a send up of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel”gobbly voice echo chamber, the lot.

Mother Nature's Son:
A very small pretty song in the Donovan vein, but so obviously McCartney it hurts. Paul sings with very soft, beautiful guitar, gentle brass and a tremendous warmth.

Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey:
Typical John song which has led the inhabitants of Apple to make a lot of guesses as to whom John's monkey might be! This really shows the Beatles up as a group-with a tremendous rhythm section. Paul on bass and John going literally vocally bonkers.

Sexy Sadie:
On first hearing, at least, not one of the great tracks on the album. Nice enough, though, and perhaps one does after a while tend to get super critical. Paul singing. A song that slides into itself with very few breaks.

Helter Skelter:
If by now your neighbors have not yet bashed on the walls--this will be the one that finally makes them do it! The hugest, noisiest, fullest track on the album. Paul sings about trying to "make" this girl and he's coming down fast, so watch out! Watch out indeed. It’s a track of instant aggressiveness that finally gathers momentum into screeching madness. The end goes away and comes back again like an underground train. “I’ve got blisters on my fingers," screeches the poor unfortunate guitarist at the end- and no wonder.

Long, Long, Long:
George's third song. 1t’s very pretty and less mysterious than usual for George. At times it's really almost basically waltzy with very light organ and some crashing drum splitting the waltz rhythm

SIDE 4:
Revolution:
This is, in fact, a different track from the original ‘B’ side of " Hey Jude." Same song is done much slower without all the distortion. It’s far more insinuating than before

Honey Pie:
And so to the real Honey Pie. The story line, as told by Paul, is about a chap whose girlfriend goes to America and makes it big as a star. Apparently, it took Paul "years of research” to get the authentic sounding 1920's backing. It was worth it - you really would never know it hadn't come out of one of those great Hollywood musicals with thousands of girls shot from above so that they looked like a giant sunflower.

Savoy Truffle:
Harrison’s songwriting has improved. This last of George's offering sounds like it was inspired by the contents of a chocolate box. Apparently after you've eaten the Savoy Truffle you go mad and eat the rest of the box, which are described in candy detail.

Cry Baby Cry:
Based on a fine old classic, "Four And Twenty Blackbirds" (back to school, kids), John sings this strange little song which is hard to suss out. 1f you feel in the mood you may consider to be either a send-up of high society, a send up of suburban life-or just a song

Revolution 9:
A track the people at Apple consider is going to go down “very big on the West Coast"- as, in fact, did "I Am A Walrus. '' It will definitely appeal to the same brigade, being merely many minutes of distorted tapes set out like a montage. It will either send you screaming up the wall or you will sit in blind fascination trying to catch the sounds. In there somewhere are pieces from classical orchestra recitals, film soundtracks, crowds chanting, and a man endlessly muttering “Nine, nine, nine. nine." It reeks of John Lennon almost final contribution to the world. “This is what I have to say to you," he almost seems like saying.

Good Night:
And so to the end this utterly exhausting, stimulating offering comes the final and complete send-up. In fact, it will be taken seriously because, when all is said and done, it's very, very pretty. It is sung by Ringo with massive oozy strings and all the intense balladeers in the country will grab it to sing. In fact. Mantovani will probably record it. It sounds like an Ovaltine advert and it's really very sweet.
__________

ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW

The power of rock and roll is a constantly amazing process. Although it is Bob Dylan who is the single most important figure in rock and roll; and although it is the Rolling Stones who are the embodiment of a rock and roll band; it is nonetheless Our Boys, the Beatles, who are the perfect product and result of everything that rock and rolls means and encompasses.

Never has this been so plainly evident as on their new two album set, The Beatles (Apple SWBO 101). Whatever else it is or isn’t, it is the best album they have ever released and only the Beatles are capable of making a better one. You are either hip to it, or you ain’t.

The impact of it is so overwhelming that one of the ideas of the LP is to contain every part of extant Western music through the all-embracing medium of rock and roll, that such categorical and absolute statements are imperative. Just a slightly closer look shows it to be a far more deliberate, self conscious, pretentious, organized and structured, coherent and full more perfect album than Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Sgt. Pepper’s applied the concept of the symphony to rock and roll, adding an incredible (and soon overused) dimension to rock and roll. Nothing could have been more ambitious than the current release: The Beatles in the history and synthesis of Western music. And that, of course is what rock and roll is, and that is what the Beatles are.

Not only the origin of rock and roll, but also the short history of it can be seen as a series of hybridizations, the constantly changing styles and fads, as rock assimilates every conceivable musical style (folk, blues, soul, Indian, classical, psychedelic, ballad, county) not only a recent process, but one that goes back to the Drifters, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and so on. Rock and roll’s longevity is its ability to assimilate the energy and style of all these musical traditions. Rock and Roll at once exists and doesn’t exist; that is why the term “rock and roll” is the best term we have, as it means nothing and thus everything and that is quite possibly the musical and mystical secret of the most overwhelming popular music the world has known.

By attempting such a grandiose project with such deliberation and honesty, they have left themselves extremely vulnerable. There is not the dissemblance of being “our boys” from Hard Day’s Night, nor the disguise of Sgt. Pepper’s band; it is on every level an explanation and an understanding of who and what the Beatles are.

As usual, the personal honesty is met with an attack (The secret is that innocence is invulnerable, and those who rush too quickly for the kill, are just themselves dead). On the level of musical ignorance, I read the very first review of this record that appeared; it was in the New York Times. In about 250 words the “critic” dismissed the album as being neither as good as the Big Brother Cheap Thrills LP nor as the forthcoming Blood Sweat and Tears album. You come up with only one of the two answers about that reviewer: he is either deaf or he is evil.

Those who attacked the Beatles for their singing Revolution” should be set down with a good pair of earphones for a listen to Side Four, where the theme of the single is carried out in two different versions, the latter with the most impact. And if the message isn’t clear enough, “Revolution No. 9″ is followed by “Goodnight.”

To say the Beatles are guilty of some kind of revolutionary heresy is absurd; they are being absolutely true to their identity as it has evolved through the last six years. These songs do not deny their own “political” impact or desires; they just indicate the channeling for them.

Rock and Roll has indeed become a style and a vehicle for changing the system. But one of the parts of the system to be changed is “politics” and this includes “New Left” politics. There is no verbal recognition required for the beautifully organized music concrete version of “Revolution.” A good set of earphones should deliver the message to those we have so far been able to reach. Maybe this album would be a good gift from them, “with love from me to you.”

As to the Beatles, it is hard to see what they are going to do next. Like the success of their earlier albums and the success of all others in the field, whether original artists or good imitative ones, the success of it is based on their ability to bring these other traditions to rock and roll (and not vice versa, like the inevitable excess of “folk-rock,” “raga-rock” and “acid rock”) and especially in the case of Dylan, the Stones, The Beatles and to a lesser extent all the other good groups in rock and roll, the ability to maintain their own identity both as rock and roll and as the Beatles, or as Bob Dylan, or as the Rolling Stones, and so on.

Thus, the Beatles can safely afford to be eclectic, deliberately borrowing and accepting any outside influences or idea or emotion, because their own musical ability and personal / spiritual / artistic identity is so strong that they make it uniquely theirs, and uniquely the Beatles. They are so good that they not only expand the idiom, but they are also able to penetrate it and take it further.

“Back in the USSR,” this album’s first track, is, of course, a perfect example of all this: it is not just an imitation (only in parts) of the Beach Boys, but an imitation of the Beach Boys imitating Chuck Berry. This is hardly an original concept or thing to do; just in the past few months we have been deluged with talking “going back to rock and roll,” so much that the idea (first expressed in the pages of Rolling Stone) is now a tiresome one. Because it is, like all other superficial changes in rock and roll styles, one that soon becomes faddish, over-used and tired-out.

In the past few months we have been the Turtles doing The Battle of the Bands and Frank Zappa and the Mothers with their Ruben and the Jets. The Turtles were unable to bring it off (they had to ability to parody, but not the talent to do something new with the old style) and the Mothers were able to operate with a strictly circumscribed area with their usual heavy-handed satirization, a self-limiting process.

It is all open to the Beatles. It would be too simple to say that “Back in the USSR” is a parody, because it operates on more levels that that: it is fine contemporary rock and roll and a fine performance thereof; it is also a superb commentary on the United States S R, hitting every insight honey disconnect the phone.” As well as a parody it’s also a Beatles song.

The song is undoubtedly the result of Paul McCartney’s three trips to the United States in 1968 before the album was made (not including a four day visit to New York this past November after the album was done). It is the perfect introductory song for this set. What follows is a trip though the music of the U.S. (SR).

From here on, much of the material is from India, songs the Beatles came back with after their sojourn at the Maharishi’s table. “Dear Prudence” is about a girl the Beatles met while meditating in India. The Beatles were always trying to get her to come out of her room to play, and this is about her.

“Looking through a Glass Onion” is, of course, the Beatles on the subject of the Beatles. Whatever they may feel about people who write about their songs and read things into them, it has undoubtedly affected them eating away at their foundations and always forcing that introspection and that second thought. And so here is a song for all those trying to figure it out don’t’ worry. John’s telling you right here, while he is rolling another joint.

Part of the phenomenal talent of the Beatles is their ability to compose music that by itself carries the same message and mood as the lyrics. The lyrics and the music not only say the same thing, but are also perfectly complementary. This comes also with the realization that rock and roll is music, not literature, and that the music is the most important aspect of it.

“Obladi Oblada” where they take one of the familiar calypso melodies and beats, is a perfect example. And it’s not just a calypso, but a rock and roll calypso with electric bass and drums. Fun music for a fun song about fun. Who needs answers? Not Molly or Desmond Jones, they’re married with a diamond ring and kids and little “Obladi Obladda.” All you need is Obladi Oblada.

“Wild Honey Pie makes a nice tribute to psychedelic music and allied forms.

“Bungalow Bill,” the mode of the Saturday afternoon kiddie shows, is a tribute to a cat the Beatles met in Marrakesh, an American tiger hunter (“the all American bullet headed saxon mother’s son”) who was there accompanied by his mother. He was going out hunting, and this song couldn’t put the American in better context, with his cartoon serial morality of killing.

“While my Guitar Gently Weeps” is one of George Harrison’s very best songs. There are a number of interesting things about it: the similarity in mood to “Blue Jay Way” recalls California, the simple Baja California beat, the dreamy words of the Los Angeles haze, the organic peace lapping around every room as if in invidible waves.

Harrison’s usual style, in lyrics has been a slightly self-righteous and preaching approach, which we have here again. One cannot imagine it being a song about a particular person or incident rather a general set of incidents, a message, like a sermon, impersonally directed to everyone.

And this song speaks at still another level, the very direct one of the title: it is a guitarist’s song about his guitar, how and why and what it is that he plays. The music mimics the li near, continuous line of the lead guitarist. It is interesting to note that the song opens with a piano imitating the sound of an electric guitar playing the heavy Spanish lead line well before the guitar picks up the lead. I am willing to be something substantial that the lead guitarist on this cut is Eric Clapton, yet another involution in the circular logic on which this song is superbly contracted as a musical piece.

The title, “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” comes from an advertisement John read in an American rifle magazine. That makes this track the first cousin of “Revolution.” The three parts of it; the break into the wonderful 1954 C-Am-F-G style of rock and roll, with appropriate “Bang, Bang, choo, choo.” What can you say about this song except what is obvious?

Part of the success of the Beatles is their ability to make everything they do understandable and acceptable to all listeners. One needn’t have an expert acquaintance to dig what they are doing and what they are saying. The other half of letting rock and roll music be receptive of every other form and style of music, is that rock and roll must be perfectly open and accessible to every listener, fulfilling the requirement of what it is a popular art.

Paul demonstrates throughout the album his incredible talent as one of the most prolific and professional songwriters in the world today. It is embarrassing how good he is, and embarrassing how he can pull of the perfect melody and arrangement in any genre you would care to think of.

Just name it and Paul will do it, like say, for instance, a love song about a dog in the Gilbert and Sullivan style, with a little ragtime, a little baroque thrown in. “Martha, my dear,” about Paul’s English sheepdog of the same name, with hairy puns (“when you find yourself in the thick of it) and all. And of course, it works on the level of the send up and also as an inherently good song, standing fully on its own merits.

“Blackbird” is one of the beautiful Paul McCartney songs in which the yin-yang of love is so perfectly fitted: the joy and sorrow, always that ironic taste of sadness and melancholy in the lyric and in the minor notes and chords of the melody (remember” “Yesterday” “Eleanor Rigby” “Good Day Sunshine” prominently among many) The irony makes it so much more powerful.

Not only irony: these songs and “Blackbird” share other qualities the simplicity and sparseness of instrumentation (even with strings) make them penetrate swiftly and universally. This one is done solely with an acoustic guitar. And of course there is the lyric: “Take these sunken eyes and learn to see; All your life you were only waiting for this moment to be free.”

“Rocky Raccoon” is another one of those McCartney offhand tour-de-force’s. Perhaps the Mound City Blue Blowers, circa 1937? Paul is so incredibly versatile not only as a writer, but also as a singer and a musician. Dig the vocal scatting, the saloon-hall piano; then the perfect phrasing, enunciation, the slurring (as in the phrase “I’m gonna get that boy”) the song is so funny and yet dig the lyrics: “To shoot off the legs of his rival.” Not just to kill, mind you, but to maim. And so why does this song come off so funny? Death is funny.

“I will” is simply another romantic ballad from Paul’s pen. He uses every available musical device and cliche' available””melodies, instrumentations, arrangements, harmonies, everything and he does something entirely professional.

If Paul can do songwriting as easily as some people do crossword puzzles (and that is not to say that he is flippant or careless, because Paul has allowed himself to display his absolute professional ability with song to a point that it can only be seen as a form of personal honesty), John’s songs are agonizing personal statements, They are painful to hear.

“Julia” is a song to his mother, whom John saw killed in a car accident when he was 14 years old. It is the most emotionally revealing pieces on the album. The whole world has been witness to the personal lives of the Beatles, and it seems that a record album is most appropriate place for such a message, sung to, sung for, his mother. And as always John is protected by his innocence.

“I’m so tired” begins in the manner of the late night jazz singer (I wonder should I get up and fix myself a drink.) if not, again, one of the many early styles of rock and roll with those elegantly placed electric guitar chops. And again, it uses this only as a base, a take off point to go on into completely modern, extremely powerful choruses: “You know, I’d give you everything I’ve got for a little peace of mind,” where everything arrangement, vocal, instruments, melody perfectly evokes the agony of the plea.

David Dalton says of this song, “It reminds me of how many changes John has gone through since he was the plump cheeky leader of the Fab Four. Jesus Christ, Sgt. Pepper, leading the Children’s Crusade through Disneyland: a voyage to India as victims of their own propaganda: Apple, a citadel of Mammon … even two years ago, the image of Lennon as a martyr would have seemed ludicrous, but as his trial approaches, a gaunt spiritual John hardly recognizable as his former self emerges. This metamorphosis has taken place only at the cost of an incredible amount of energy, and the weariness of this song seems to fall like the weight of gravity.”

Other songs on side two include one by George and one by Ringo. George’s “Piggies” is an amazing choice to follow “Blackbird” with such an opposite mood and message. “Blackbird” so encouraging, “Piggies” so smug (though accurate: “what they need’s a damn good whacking”). Ha! By comparison, both “Piggies” and Ringo’s polka, “Don’t pass me by” (trust Ringo to find the C&W music of any culture) are weak material against some of the superb numbers, although on their own, they’re totally groovy.

But it brings forward two interesting points: neither Paul’s near-genius ability with notes nor John’s rock and rolling edge of honesty are sine qua non for the Beatles. The taste and sense of rightness in their music, to choose the perfect musical setting, the absolutely right instrument, are just as important.

The second is that there is almost no attempt in this new set to be anything but what the Beatles actually are: John, Paul, George and Ringo. Four different people, each with songs and style and abilities. They are no longer Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and it is possible that they are no longer The Beatles.

When they get together it’s “Why Don’t We Do it in the Road,” which whatever else it may sound like it ain’t nothin’ but a Beatles field holler.

This is one of many observations to be made about this album. It is at once both their simplest (plain white cover) and yet most complex effort to date.

Someone will do the work, and maybe come up with a list of old and new rock and roll songs and styles which each of these tracks is supposed to be based on. “Birthday” might be Hendrix or Cream, maybe even Larry Williams. The point is that it is, like “Helter Skelter” and “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide” as well, all of these; the very best traditional and contemporary elements in rock and roll brightly are suffused into the Beatles. The “hard rock” aspect of the Beatles is one often over looked and neglected, often times purposely in the attempt to get them to be something they are not. They are a rock and roll band, after all, and they can do that thing. The straight rock is some of their most exciting and mature material (They don’t however cut the best of the Stones or the Who).

If “Birthday” is based on, say the guitar licks of Jimi Hendrix or Clapton, it takes what is best form it and uses it in its own fashion, perfectly within context and joined with something new in rock and roll sound recording, which in this case is the wavering piano sound, obtained by using the leakage from the original piano track onto an empty track as the final take for the mix.

In “Everybody’s God Something to Hide Except for me and my Monkey,” all the old elements of the Beatles are brought back, right up to date, including use of all the old fashions and conventions in such a refreshingly new manner.

Take the structure of the song, for example: it is based on the old I-IV-V twelve-bar progression in approach, but in actuality they never do the old thing. From IV they go to VII. When they get back to V after that, they take the most unusual way in sound and melody to get back to I. They also use those old Beatle harmonic tones (By way of comparison, set this song against what Steppenwolf is now popular at doing with this same material)

“Helter Skelter” is again both tradition and contemporary””and excellent. The guitar lines behind the title words, the rhythm guitar track layering the whole song with that precisely used fuzztone, and Paul gorgeous vocal, Lord, what a singer! Man, you can”˜t sit still. No wonder you have blisters on your fingers.

As completely wide-open eyed artists, sensitive like all others in McLuthanville, they are of course caught up and reflective in their music of what’s happening around them, especially the recent scenes they have been through.

Many of these songs if not the vast majority of them were written while the Beatles were with the Maharishi. “Everybody’s got something to hide” is certainly reflective of it in its lyric. “Sexy Sadie” is the Maharishi. The harmonies and other vocals lines are exquisite, especially the “s’s” The lyrics and the vocal delivery are to sincere and yet so sarcastic. John is still John.

“You may be a lover, but you ain’t no dancer,” what a choice for the next track.

Another very deliberate parody is “Yer Blues”, a song that does away with most all of this “blue revival” nonsense out of Great Britain these days. With the exception of Eric Clapton, the Jeff Beck Group, and maybe one or two as yet unfamous individuals, the Beatle are simply better at it. And that makes it so ludicrous.

The organ riff at the end of the last chorus so perfectly tells the whole story; it is based on the very boring and repetitious style of those new blues musicians who will pound the shit out of some mediocre change or short riff as if it is the riff which has got them to such incredible heights of feeling and style.

The Beatles of course, make it interesting, because it is so stylistically in context with the piece in which it is set. Some of the opening lyrics “Yes I’m lonely wanna die.” The lines “black cloud crossed my mind” is in phrasing and content a parody of the “black cat crossed my path,” and yet a good line by itself and as part of this song.
Forgetting the parody for a moment, it’s a very good modern rock and roll blues. Dig the lines “My mother was of the sky/My father was of the earth/But I am of the universe/And you know what it’s worth.”

Getting back to the message (even in the title), here’s Mr. Dalton again, on the English blue scene, “The trendy transvestites of the English blue scene: Pretentious and ludicrously out of context a cult of the blues boarding on intellectual snobbery and purism. It is hard to imagine anything more incongruous: the English blue fans fanatically denomcing a group for adding horns, field breaking out of the audience at the Blues Festival. Mr. Jones (which the Beatles refer to in this song) is said to be Dylan’s grisly portrait of the folk purist, with his intellectual hang ups, who could not accept the brash commercial forces of rock and roll. The blues purist who looks down on Soul Music as a debased commercial form is just Mr. Jones in a sheepskin jacket.”

If you take anyone of these songs and really get down with it, to where every piece of excellence and craftsmanship is explained and understood fully (and it’s always just as good and always even better when you do), whatever you say about that one song is as true for the rest.

Revolution No 1″ is a better piece, in texture and substance, than the single, although the latter was better as a single. “No1” carries the message more easily and more successfully. The horns at the end are a gas, and even, I think, a little “Day Tripper” by George on the left earphone.

“Honey Pie” is another one of those perfect Paul McCartney evocations of a whole musical era, understanding the essence so finely, that it could be as good as the original. Lovin’ the rhymes: crazy-lazy, tragic-magic, frantic-Atlantic. He not only is able to re-create such moods and eras with his melody, his words, his arrangements, instrumentations, but also with his voice. He is equally expert in all these areas.

“Honey Pie” is also more sophisticated version of “When I’m 64,” just as “Savoy Truffle” is a more sophisticated look at “Lucy in the Sky with Diamond” and “Back in the USSR” a more sophisticated “Sgt. Pepper” It is unlikely that “With a little help from my friends” will ever be topped as a song for Ring. The question is whether they are better songs. I am inclined to think so, but only the acquaintances of time will tell, and it doesn’t really matter anyways.

If these are weaker songs, they are the only flaws of this album set. It is relatively minor point and considered at a longer view, an almost irrelevant one. No creative persons in history were able to match their own brilliance with absolute consistency.

“Cry Baby Cry” hits me at first as a throwaway; but the further acquaintance says this “another top notch Beatles song. Every time they are exploring and opening new possibilities and combinations. Every time they make them work.”

So many factors enter into the success of the Beatles in what they do. Some of them have been touched on. In addition to everything else, they are excellent musicians (Ringo’s drumming on this LP is his best, and among the very best to be heard on any rock and roll record; George’s leads are continually well-placed, well written and well played). We see them all in their varied strengths on this record.

In short, it is the new Beatles record and fulfills all our expectations of it. In general you could say that this new release (excellent) stands in the same relationship to Sgt. Pepper (incredible) and Revolver (excellent) was to Rubber Soul (incredible). And that is to say, the next one ought to be incredible.

Good night. Sleep tight.
~ Jann Wenner (December 21, 1968) Rolling Stone Magazine Issue No.24

TRACKS:
All songs written and composed by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted.
Side one
1 Back in the U.S.S.R. - 2:43
2 Dear Prudence - 3:56
3 Glass Onion - 2:17
4 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - 3:08
5 Wild Honey Pie - 0:52
6 The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill - 3:14
7 While My Guitar Gently Weeps (George Harrison) - 4:45
8 Happiness Is a Warm Gun - 2:43

Side two
1 Martha My Dear - 2:28
2 I'm So Tired - 2:03
3 Blackbird - 2:18
4 Piggies (Harrison) - 2:04
5 Rocky Raccoon - 3:33
6 Don't Pass Me By (Richard Starkey) - 3:51
7 Why Don't We Do It in the Road? - 1:41
8 I Will - 1:46
9 Julia - 2:54

Side three
1 Birthday - 2:42
2 Yer Blues - 4:01
3 Mother Nature's Son - 2:48
4 Everybody's Got Something to Hide... - 2:24
5 Sexy Sadie - 3:15
6 Helter Skelter - 4:29
7 Long, Long, Long (Harrison) - 3:04

Side four
1 Revolution 1 - 4:15
2 Honey Pie - 2:41
3 Savoy Truffle (Harrison) - 2:54
4 Cry Baby Cry - 3:02
5 Revolution 9 - 8:22
6 Good Night - 3:11

#thebeatles #johnlennon #paulmccartney #georgeharrison #ringostarr #whitealbum

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