Review of The Beatles' Self-Titled Album

"We don't like their sound and guitar music is on the way out," Decca Records famously said in 1962, as they rejected The Beatles. The Beatles (1968), more commonly known as The White Album, marked the band's tenth release, so perhaps this was not such a wise decision. Additionally this is the band's biggest selling album of all time.

One of the most striking features of this record is the divergence in styles. Whereas the earlier albums had a more distinctive and cohesive sound, rather than being a Beatles' double album this seems more like a collection of songs from four different artists (namely John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr).

Lennon is the most prolific contributor. Typically some of his songs, such as "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" and "Glass Onion," walk a fine line between insipid and inspiring. Everyone will have their own opinions on this. However a song like "Julia" (his mother's name), a beautiful ballad, clearly illustrates a very emotional and talented musician.

McCartney's offerings are much more straightforward. "Back in the USSR" is reminiscent of the Beach Boys. A lot of his songs are rather quaint - "Martha My Dear," "Blackbird" and "Honey Pie" being obvious examples - while other efforts - such as "Helter Skelter" and "Why Don't We Do It in the Road" illustrate a more hard core rock 'n' roll approach.

Harrison, unfortunately (mainly because of band politics), is only allowed four songs. Two of these - "Piggies" and "Savoy Truffle" - walk that Lennon tightrope between clever and stupid. The other two, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Long, Long, Long" show the emergence of a songwriting talent to match the intimidating standards of Lennon-McCartney. The first of these is a stirring guitar piece with Cream's Eric Clapton on lead, while the second cleverly alternates between soft ballad and a louder approach.

Finally come the low points of The White Album. "Don't Pass Me By," written and performed by drummer Ringo, is lame. "Good Night," the final track, is a lullaby written by Lennon and given to Starr. Both songs show that as a singer, Ringo makes a pretty good drummer. Even worse is the unnecessary "Wild Honey Pie" and the unspeakably long and boring "Revolution 9."

This is certainly a collection of good songs, not to mention some outstanding ones. Still it's hard to shake the impression that this is a showcase of four individual musicians, rather than the greatest band in the history of rock 'n' roll. Even if some of the attempts at

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic