Back in the U.S.S.R.
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Wild Honey Pie
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is a Warm Gun
Martha My Dear
I'm So Tired
Blackbird
Piggies
Rocky Raccoon
Don't Pass Me By
Why Don't We Do It in the Road?
I Will
Julia
Birthday
Yer Blues
Mother Nature's Son
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
Sexy Sadie
Helter Skelter
Long, Long, Long
Revolution 1
Honey Pie
Savoy Truffle
Cry Baby Cry
Revolution 9
Good Night
The cracks were becoming fault lines as The Beatles chased down their hefty post-Pepper double album, with the band members scattering throughout Abbey Road to work in isolation, only convening when there was a warm gun to their heads.
It follows that the White Album has a lack of cohesion, while there’s a strong case it would have been twice the record at half the length (begone Rocky Raccoon and Revolution 9).
Even so, the record wins back brownie points with the tearing Chuck Berry-meets-Beach Boys Back In The U.S.S.R., McCartney’s delicate I Will and the Clapton-bolstered While My Guitar Gently Weeps. With better quality control, it might have been their finest hour.
In 2018, it was reissued as a deluxe edition, with all 30 album tracks newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell in stereo and 5.1 surround audio. Also included were 27 early acoustic demos along with 50 session takes – most of which had been previously unreleased.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
Other albums released in November 1968
- Living the Blues- Canned Heat
- Wonderwall Music - George Harrison
- Sweet Child - Pentangle
- Neil Young - Neil Young
- The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks
- Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins - John Lennon and Yoko Ono
- Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
- Ars Longa Vita Brevis - The Nice
- Head - The Monkees
- Back Here On Earth - Gordon Lightfoot
- Blues From Laurel Canyon - John Mayall
- The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse - Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
- The Marble Index - Nico
- Release of an Oath - The Electric Prunes
- Time Out! Time In For Them - Them
- Wee Tam And The Big Huge - The Incredible String Band
What they said...
"The Beatles can safely afford to be eclectic, deliberately borrowing and accepting any outside influence 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." (Rolling Stone)
"It does present the Fab Four in a more gritty light, which is refreshing given the popular mind’s eye has The Beatles as either four mop-tops singing ‘She Loves You’s or in fluorescent psychedelic attire singing about peace and love and walruses. The Beatles is what talented musicians outgrowing their band sounds like: it’s indulgent, unfocused, at times disinterested, in others inspired, all underpinned with the gnawing feeling that all involved aren’t having that much fun anymore." (The Independent)
"The White Album is a breaking point, one which begins to feel a tad overwhelming at times, more by the sheer volume of material at hand, rather than its quality. One of the few albums where plenty of energy is needed. It remains one of the most demanding and most satisfying albums available." (Cult Following)
What you said...
Dale Munday: The beginning of the end for the Fab Four. Recorded amidst a myriad of internal struggles, which even saw Ringo quit the band.
Indeed, only 16 of the tracks can count all four members on them.
It is often argued that it would have made an excellent single album. That may be a valid point, but for me, I like the chaos and the inconsistency, with no two tracks the same.
Being a fan of musique concrete, I'll even speak in defence of Revolution 9. This whole album is a trip and must have caused a stir at the time, which hasn't stopped it from becoming one of their biggest-selling albums. 10/10
Greg Schwepe: If there ever was an example of an album transporting me like a Way Back Machine, it’s the White Album by The Beatles. Music takes you back and puts you where you might have heard it first.
When I was six or seven-ish, my Mom’s youngest brother came to live with us. This uncle, about eight years my senior, spent time sharing a bedroom with his spunky nephew (that would be me!) until he decided that the basement offered more privacy for a high schooler, and part of it became his bedroom. This cool uncle also had a stereo, lots of albums, and was an incredible musician. And one album I heard a lot on that stereo emanating from the basement was the White Album. With a massive dose of osmosis, that album became part and parcel of my early library of musical knowledge.
Back In The U.S.S.R. Heard it coming from the basement. Why Don’t We Do It In The Road.” Heard it while cutting through the basement to get to the tool bench. What were they doing in the road? Rocky Raccoon. Heard it while building a model car in my corner of the basement. Oh-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. Heard it coming from the basement and wondered what exactly is a “barrow” and why did Desmond need it? Embedded in my brain, I say!
So now that we’re done with my usual unneeded extended back story, we have the album at hand. The Beatles, being a prolific group with four songwriters, probably had no problem filling four sides of vinyl.
The usual case against the double album is that it can be too wandering, not focused, filled with too many parodies and other random stuff. But can’t that also be the case for a double album? Heck, just throw it all on there and make it a great adventure. I'm looking at you, Revolution 9. This album has flat-out the hardest Beatles rocker of all time, Helter Skelter. And the greatest fingerpicking guitar song of all time, Blackbird. If you’re a guitar player, you’ve tried your hand at this.
While Lennon and McCartney may be known as the heavy-hitting songwriters, George Harrison throws down the gauntlet with While My Guitar Gently Weeps. "Hey, I’ll write a great song and get Eric Clapton to play on it. Take that!”
The White Album is a milestone. This is a Beatles greatest hits album all by itself. Such was the musical download of this album on me when I was younger, when I finally bought a copy for myself years later, I was surprised at how many of the songs that weren’t radio standards that I still had memorised. Yes, I heard all four sides of that album growing up.
There are tons of Beatles Experts out there with far more knowledge about the history of this album than me. But this one just goes from track to tack and you get that “oh yeah, this one too” feeling.
I think I finally have to give an album a 10 out of 10 rating for the first time ever. The range of classic songs on this album is just too hard to believe. Glad I heard it coming from our basement.
Henry Martinez: My Beatles ranking of albums always has an undisputed top three: Abbey Road, Revolver and The White Album. After that, you can throw Sgt. Pepper and Rubber Soul in whichever order, followed by the rest.
This double album is at once too much and not enough. Too much because it does have throwaway tracks like Wild Honey Pie, Why Don't We Do It In The Road and yes, Revolution 9. And not enough because including Hey Jude and Revolution here instead of as standalone singles would have helped it leap past Revolver in my ranking. (Sorry, nothing tops Abbey Road, my greatest album of all time.)
Now, in terms of highlights, where to start? Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps, with Eric Clapton in tow, announces to his bandmates that he's no longer messing around. This is the best song on the album, followed very closely by McCartney's ethereal Blackbird and Lennon's shimmering Dear Prudence. Then there's a special place for Helter Skelter which, before it was defaced by Charles Manson, served as proto-metal before Zeppelin and Sabbath even existed.
Yes, in my alternate universe, Disc 1 would have ended with Hey Jude and Disc 2 would have concluded with Revolution. Good Night isn't my cup of tea, but I get what they were trying to do. The White Album is glorious, messy and the sound of four solo albums jumbled into one. But as Paul once said, "It's the bloody White Album, so shut up!"
Jim Husk: There are very few albums in which every track is a hit or a winner. However, it is hard to be critical of a Beatles album. They always brought honesty and rawness to their music; they wrote what was on their hearts, and generations of listeners have admired and benefited from allowing us into their world.
Philip Qvist: OK, let's discuss the big elephant in the room first: Revolution 9 should not be on any album, far less a Beatles' album, and artistic experimentation be damned. And it isn't the only filler on the White Album (or to give its proper title, The Beatles) either; with Why Don't We Do It On The Road and Wild Honey Pie being perfect examples.
The White Album is a perfect example of a classic and great single album dying to get out of a very good double album, and it wouldn't be the last double album to suffer that fate. It is also a product of a band that is clearly falling apart at the seams, with a lot of solo-sounding tracks or numbers that only involved two, maybe three, band members.
And yet, despite the above negative comments, this is a fascinating album, because it has plenty of red-hot songs that are amongst the Beatles' best tracks. Songs such as Back In The USSR, Blackbird, Dear Prudence, Revolution 1, Helter Skelter, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Julia, Birthday and Long Long Long. The songwriting is dominated by the Lennon / McCartney partnership, but George Harrison's four tracks are some of the record's best numbers, while Ringo Starr's first solo effort Don't Pass Me By isn't bad either.
For sure, the White Album has its flaws, and it is no Rubber Soul, Revolver or Abbey Road, but it has more than its fair share of gems. This is an album where the Beatles made a statement and basically removed all the boundaries and broke all the rules when it came to recording an album. For that alone, The Beatles gets an 8.5 from me.
Steve Henshaw: When it hits (Back In The U.S.S.R., Revolution 1, Blackbird, Julia, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Yer Blues, Helter Skelter) it hits hard. When it misses (Wild Honey Pie, Revolution 9) it misses pretty hard, too.
But show me another album from that era with the same breadth and depth that proved that you didn't have to "stay in your lane" when creating art. I'll wait.
Adam Ranger: Not a huge fan of the Beatles, and rarely listen to them out of choice. I do, however, acknowledge the huge influence they had on modern pop/rock music. So how do you review the Beatles without sounding silly or uninformed?
In a Nutshell, the White album is too long and has too many arty or boring filler tracks. However, with songs like Back In The USSR, Helter Skelter, Dear Prudence, Revolution 1, While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Blackbird, it could and should have been a killer single album
Mark Herrington: As a child, I grew up with my parents playing Beatles songs in the background in the 60s. I was always entranced with the utter hypnotic catchiness of much of their output. Masters of both the joyful and the poignant in their songs.
Consequently, my most-played albums are their collections, usually Red, Blue or the wonderful Beatles Ballads. My favourite regular albums are Rubber Soul, Revolver and Abbey Road as they are full of those consistently strong hooks. So, a lot of the White Album is to my liking, but I tend to skip the overindulgent or just odd tracks. They are at their best when utilising their seemingly effortless yet unique skill, with some of the best earworm songs ever written.
Evan Sanders: I've been a Beatles fan for years and lived in a family with cousins and uncles who are still huge fans, so I am unable to be objective about what I think is a deliberately unpolished masterpiece. The greatness of the White Album lies in what would have been criticised if done by other artists, and frankly, has not always been done well by other artists. For example, Bob Dylan fell flat with his Self Portrait double album two years after the White Album, and the Beach Boys began a multi-year decline when they tried to be more experimental following Pet Sounds. But the Beatles? As others have said, only they could get away with Revolution 9.
One area I'd like to address is the long-held belief that the album is the product of a group that was starting to break up. I always believed this, until the recent release of the Super Deluxe version, which included a disc called the Esher Demos. These were basically raw recordings of most of the White Album songs, done by John, Paul, and George in George's home studio. Rather than being evidence of four people who no longer wanted to be with one another, the demos show them running through the songs, all with interspersed pleasant banter. 30+ years later, these types of recordings are what many artists have repackaged as Unplugged albums.
I'll give the White Album 9/10, missing one star only because 10/10 goes to Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, and Abbey Road.
Chris Elliott: I don't particularly like any of the Beatles "rock" albums. The extreme highs are separated by a lot of filler (or Lennon thinking he's arty again) - and they let Ringo write. The fact that singles and albums were kept separate really emphasises the problem - the singles/EPs were uniformly great.
Don't misunderstand me. The Blue album is a near-perfect collection of music - but their actual albums after Help! I generally avoid. Most have a great EP wrapped in an album, This, if you include Hey Jude, is a great single album hidden in a patchy double.
The fact that it's Lennon or McCartney with minimal interaction in songwriting shouts loud and clear throughout. When they're good - they're really good - but it's a chasm between great and the rest.
Mike Canoe: Honestly, I don't really like the Beatles all that much. Yes, I agree that they are the wellspring of life and all music since their inception is either inspired by them or a reaction to them, but I just don't play their albums very often. But there's something special about The White Album. When I listen to it, I find myself thinking "Only the Beatles could make that work" or, say, in the case of something like Revolution 9, "Only the Beatles could get away with that."
There's an endearing wooliness and weirdness to the White Album and with 29 songs and one non-song stuffed into 93 minutes, nothing really overstays its welcome - except for, arguably, that one non-song.
I suggested this album based on the strength of belters like Back In The U.S.S.R., Helter Skelter, and Birthday, as well as personal favourites like the fabulously titled Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey and the two Ringo numbers, Don't Pass Me By and Good Night.
But re-listening to it today, I was reminded, oh yeah, Dear Prudence is on here too. And Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da... and While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Blackbird and Julia. For an album with no singles released from it, there sure are a lot of well-known songs. Throw in Rocky Raccoon, Bungalow Bill, Mother Nature's Son, Revolution 1 and on and on to where there really isn't anything I don't like. Even the non-song, Revolution 9, generally tends to ramble along without me skipping.
As a teen in the 80s, I didn't want to hear (or hear about) the Beatles. That was my parents' music. Of course, that was a long time ago and my musical tastes are wider and deeper. Turns out, the Beatles are a pretty good band after all. Especially on The White Album.
Gary Claydon: The Beatles is fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. The former is largely due to the fragmented nature of its inception and the stories that arose from it, the latter to the resulting scattergun approach to creative control plus a liberal dose of self-indulgence. The result is a somewhat bloated mix of the magnificent (Dear Prudence, Back In The USSR, Helter Skelter, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Revolution 1) and the mind-numbingly dull (err, take your pick, but I'm especially looking at you, Revolution 9, Wild Honey Pie and Why Don't We Do It In The Road!).
The Beatles is seen by many as the band re-inventing themselves in some way, but I'd argue that they already did that following their retirement from the rigours of touring. This allowed the Lennon and McCartney axis to laser-focus their songwriting and explore different avenues. Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt.Pepper's... all illustrate this perfectly (and are better albums) as well as their desire to utilise increasingly sophisticated studio techniques. In that respect, The Beatles could even be regarded as a step backwards, given the fact that because the band members were rarely together during recording, the more advanced technology had to be laid aside to a large degree.
In the end, though, the only thing that The Beatles really proves is that, by then, the Fab Four had nothing left to prove.
Brian Carr: It seems to me that many double studio albums leave me with more questions than simply “why?” The Beatles likely leaves me with even more questions. But rather than jumping into Wikipedia or some other internet source, I grabbed three Beatles books off my shelf for some background. To no surprise, the making of The White Album was just as disjointed as it is to listen to.
My questions have to do with the creative process, something that fascinates me, especially with regards to the legendary Beatles. Did they have leftover tracks from their previous albums? If not, maybe they were unaccustomed to leaving tunes off. In The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz, “(John), George and Paul had written “so much material” in India that to do otherwise (releasing a double album) would have meant scrapping too many good songs.” That sure isn’t my assessment - the amount of dreck here makes the album a rare listen for me. The fact that George Martin appears to have felt the same way makes me feel justified in my assessment.
What made the band incapable of self-editing? Ego? Drugs? Probably both and more. The real frustration is that when the album hits, it smashes and does so often. The brilliant moments are certainly examples of why The Beatles are the most important band in the history of rock and pop music. Maybe now that I’ve listened and pondered, I’ll carve out a time to pare it down to a single album playlist to see how it flows.
John Davidson: Like most double albums, the White Album would make an excellent single LP. Even for those of us who lived through the CD period, ninety-plus minutes of music is hard to consume in one sitting. Lord knows what it would do to the Tik Tok generation.
The test of any attempt to condense a double album down to its core is to find consensus on what songs remain and which should be relegated to the bonus disc/directors cut if such existed. Despite the absence of singles, the album is crammed with well-known tunes and covers a multitude of moods and musical subgenres.
Any album with Back in the USSR, Dear Prudence, Blackbird, Helter Skelter and When My Guitar Gently Weeps is going to have an impact. The question then is what distinguishes the ‘deep cuts’ from the dross.
Despite becoming a hit for Marmalade, Obla Di, Obla Da is the sort of song that gets McCartney a bad name among those who prefer their music to be more serious, and to mean something. But let’s be honest, compared to The Frog Chorus and Maxwell's Silver Hammer, it’s a masterpiece.
The rest of the album is a decidedly mixed bag. Apart from Helter Skelter, disc two is largely ‘b sides’, but it’s a bit more even than the other songs on disc one, most of which aren’t worth a third listen. 7/10
Chris Downie: Laying my cards on the table, I am one of the casual fans who sees Revolver as the watershed moment and can thus take or leave the albums before it (except for the generally impressive singles), but have a lot more time for what came after. The White Album sits just behind what I would deem their very best efforts (Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road) but is both impressive in its eclecticism and frustrating in its disjointed nature.
During its conception, the members were often pulling in different directions (of course, a common theme in their later years) and here it shows. While McCartney brought his A-game for the most part (Back In The USSR, Blackbird and Helter Skelter) and Harrison chipped in with a career-defining While My Guitar Gently Weeps, it's clear Lennon's head was all over the place and there are fillers which weigh it down.
Throughout history, double albums have often been scrutinised on the basis of whether they would have been more impactful as a single release. While some fantastic exceptions to the rule do exist (Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti, the Gabriel-era Genesis swansong of Lamb Lies Down... or, in more modern times, Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie... double set) it's hard to argue that the White Album was anything other than a proverbial kitchen sink which, if whittled down to its strongest 45 mins, would have gone down as undoubtedly one of their definitive statements, as opposed to one that ignites pub arguments to this day. 8/10
Final score: 8.42 (84 votes cast, total score 707)
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