Classic Review: The Beatles (White Album) [Super Deluxe]- The Beatles
CLASSIC/10
Have whatever opinion you please about which Beatles album is the best - The White Album is undoubtedly the most interesting. Written and recorded in early 1968, after the release of the game-changing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the death of manager Brian Epstein, The Beatles' self-titled record captures a snapshot of the band at a moment they had never been in before and never would be in again. Band tensions were at an all-time high, largely due to the growing rift between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. John was becoming increasingly strung out on Yoko Ono and heroin, and consequently was writing the harshest, most cynical compositions of his career. Meanwhile, Paul was making a full descent into his love for the schmaltzy love songs of his childhood, and both artists resented the other for their direction. The two avoided each other whenever possible, and amidst the fighting, the band lost their engineer, forced 5th Beatle producer George Martin to take a leave of absence, and even caused Ringo Starr to briefly quit the band. Sessions were grueling and cutthroat (famously, the band recorded 102 different takes of George Harrison's "Not Guilty" just to leave it off the album), and much of the resentment that destroyed the band in 1969 was a carryover from making The White Album. Make no mistake - what you are hearing here is the disintegration of the greatest rock band that has ever existed.
That being said, The Beatles represents each member of the band's zenith as a songwriter. This is a claim rarely argued against by music historians because the proof is obvious in the music. The White Album is bursting with musicianship across its 30 tracks. It is impossible to write about the songs of this record in a way that is not cliched as each song represents such a foundational piece of the cultural identity of the biggest musical act of all time. Simply put, the ideas present in this album are not meant to be written about in a review; they are meant for a novel. Even a cursory listen to John's "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and "Dear Prudence" reveals songwriting that utterly transcends what a writer could describe with words. It needs to be experienced to be realized. Every member of the band has multiple similar moments here that display musical skills at their most honed. It is an impossible notion to fathom, that one band could contain four of the best songwriters that had ever lived, but luckily the proof has been recorded. How is it possible that Paul could have a record with both "Helter Skelter" and "I Will" on it? How were "Yer Blues", "Dear Prudence" and "Julia" all written by John? George's growth shown on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is staggering and the album's most irresistibly bouncy track, "Don't Pass Me By", is a Ringo composition. The funny songs here are the funniest the Beatles ever released ("U.S.S.R"), the minimalist ones are the most hauntingly beautiful ("Julia", "Blackbird"), the schmaltz is the most pleasant (Paul's tongue is practically pushing a hole in his cheek during "Honey Pie"), and the heavy songs are the most punishing ("Yer Blues", "Helter Skelter"). Fittingly, the band's self-titled is their most Beatle-esque record, in the sense that all the things that made The Beatles so special peaked during its gargantuan 93-minute runtime.
The 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe reissue of the album features over three hours of extras, as well as a brilliant remaster by Giles Martin. The album has never sounded better than this version. While the boost in fidelity is not quite as astounding as last year's reissue of Sgt. Pepper's, it is perfect for the album, which is not nearly as busy or layered as Pepper's. The most important part of this reissue is easily the inclusion of the Esher tapes (legendary, never before released ground-floor demos). The Esher demos are worth every single ounce of hype fans had assigned to them in the last 50 years. This is in large part because they do something once thought to be impossible: humanize The Beatles at their most inhuman. For an aspiring songwriter, these demos are the most inspiring yet soul-crushing thing imaginable. To think that these songs started so small, so full of mistakes and questionable songwriting choices, almost makes their creation seem obtainable. Then, hearing how the incomplete melodies and structures already feel intangibly special when performed with just a voice and acoustic guitar snaps a listener back to reality. There is a reason we aren't The Beatles. The outtakes are slightly less essential than the demos, although far more viscerally entertaining. The only song that undergoes any sort of major transformation is "Helter Skelter", which goes from a plodding Paul-led blues jam to the punchy piece of proto-metal it appears as on the record. Hearing Paul play around with his vocal echo at the start of one "Helter Skelter" demo is capably representative of the outtakes' many humorous and humanizing moments, but then his throat-shredding scream during the song's intro serves as a quick reminder that you and I are not Paul. Take 1 of "Hey Jude" is also included here, to jaw-dropping effect. The rest of the takes range from fun variations of the album versions to regrettable paths-thankfully-not-taken ("Rocky Raccoon Take 8" is the most offensively awful thing I have ever experienced) but are more interesting in how they show The Beatles as craftsmen. As a whole, the extra material here is a priceless look into an artistic process that has eluded mere mortals for over 50 years.
Over time, the concept of The White Album has become a stereotype in rock music. Any time an artist deals with their most experimental period by overindulging, it intuitively calls back to 1968. Zen Arcade, Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Quadrophenia, Double Nickels on the Dime, Use Your Illusion, Sign 'O' The Times, Bitches Brew, The Wall, the list goes on. Countless albums follow in the lineage of The Beatles, but very few (if any) reach it. Even the other pop masterpieces of 1968 - Beggars Banquet, Electric Ladyland, Aerial Ballet, White Light/White Heat, Astral Weeks, etc. - are dwarfed in the shadow of The White Album as both an artistic and historical statement. Within a year the effort of capturing such genius would ruin the band, and in a decade John would be dead. The Beatles was the inarguable apex of the band's creative trajectory, a masterwork of reveling in one's own glorious mistakes and excess, a timeless piece of art capable of highlighting the contradictions between beauty and pain, triumph and laziness, humor and self-righteousness, and above all, excellence and failure, and the Super Deluxe version is a flawless representation of an album that encompasses all these things, from its very inception to the thrown away 102nd take of "Not Guilty".
Over time, the concept of The White Album has become a stereotype in rock music. Any time an artist deals with their most experimental period by overindulging, it intuitively calls back to 1968. Zen Arcade, Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Quadrophenia, Double Nickels on the Dime, Use Your Illusion, Sign 'O' The Times, Bitches Brew, The Wall, the list goes on. Countless albums follow in the lineage of The Beatles, but very few (if any) reach it. Even the other pop masterpieces of 1968 - Beggars Banquet, Electric Ladyland, Aerial Ballet, White Light/White Heat, Astral Weeks, etc. - are dwarfed in the shadow of The White Album as both an artistic and historical statement. Within a year the effort of capturing such genius would ruin the band, and in a decade John would be dead. The Beatles was the inarguable apex of the band's creative trajectory, a masterwork of reveling in one's own glorious mistakes and excess, a timeless piece of art capable of highlighting the contradictions between beauty and pain, triumph and laziness, humor and self-righteousness, and above all, excellence and failure, and the Super Deluxe version is a flawless representation of an album that encompasses all these things, from its very inception to the thrown away 102nd take of "Not Guilty".
