Deconstructing "Dear Prudence": Isolated Tracks

Deconstructing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps": The 8-Track Session Tape

New Beatle Disc Is A Revolution

January 23, 1969

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of a two part article concerning the Beatles' new album. It was prepared by the Capitol Record Company.

Side three of "The Beatles" is a rock showcase.

BIRTHDAY is the hard rock of the 1960s. YER BLUES is good Cream about which George slyly comments, "You never knew we were really from Chicago, did you? We learned all the basic blues rhythms and patterns when we were young lads living there, so we thought we'd get back into it for a bit."

"MOTHER NATURE'S SON is Paul singing about himself and EVERYBODY'S GOT SOMETHING TO HIDE EXCEPT ME AND MY MONKEY is John Lennon singing about himself," says George.

SEXY SADIE is seen in the same almost wistful light as Lovely Rita. It's followed by HELTER SKELTER, which comes on like hard acid rock and sounds like this description by George: "Do you have helter skelters here, things in fun fairs that you get on a mat and slide 'round and 'round? You start at the top and come down--and then go back up."

The final cut is an example of what's best in folk rock.

One of the real sleepers in this collection is by Geroge and titled LONG, LONG, LONG.

The fourth and last side begins with REVOLUTION NO. 1 which George says: " . . . was recorded before the other side of HEY JUDE, has less attack, not as much of a revolution, more the Glen Miller version."

HONEY PIE is the kind of ragtime nostalgia Tiny Tim might choose to do. SAVOY TRUFFLE sounds like something that would have been used in those marathon dances, but George says that it's " . . . probably a box of chocolates, or a chocolate."

CRY BABY CRY could be about the "she" in SHE'S LEAVING HOME. Of it George says "It's all in the mind, really."

REVOLUTION NO. 9 is an electronic experience. George said "I don't know what the meaning is, but the effects came from live effects we created ourselves or things we already found on tape by editing (these) tapes and making loops of tapes; and we built the whole thing out of that. We got a lot just from the tape library; we cut sounds out of old records."

After that, there could only come the end. It's called GOOD NIGHT. It works in the same way that A DAY IN THE LIFE worked for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

George, when asked about the use of different musical styles in this collection, summed up the impact of these 93 minutes. "I suppose because we're influenced by a lot of different types of music, then the influence must show in the stuff we write."

'The Beatles' New Album Has Some For Everyone

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is taken from a release from Capitol Records describing the Beatles' latest album, telling what their latest effort "is all about." Today's article is the first of two describing the double pocket album, the second of which will appear Thursday.

One of the comments heard about the Beatles' latest album is that they have returned to their "old Bag."

No so. They've returned to everybody's old bag.

From the first cut on, it's a revolution in every sense of the word. George Harrison said flatly that the first cut was "Paul's tribute to Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys), whom he digs very much."

American performers have been spreading the joys of the U.S.A. for some time. The Beatles pay tribute to home as it would have been done in another country--and titled it BACK IN THE USSR.

George says that Paul's first inspiration came from the "I'm backing the U.S.S.R." I think it was originally "I'm backing U.S.A." There were several more ideas, but that's how it ended up.

DEAR PRUDENCE has simple and almost child-like lyrics (not as surrealistic as LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS) coupled with the latest in electronic sounds.

George says of GLASS ONION: "It's just nice, the imagery of that 'looking through a glass onion.'" Phrases and titles from STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER, THE FOOL ON THE HILL, I AM THE WALRUS, and LADY MADONNA parody the Beatles' own style.

OB-LA-DI, OB-LA-DA was once planned as a single. HEY JUDE's success curbed that, however. Here are echoes of African folk music.

"There's a fellow in London, Jimmy Scott, and his Obladi Oblada Band," George says. "He made it up based on some African saying. Obladi Oblada, life goes on, man."

The side continues with the barest fragment of a lament, typical of hyper-rock. George says the cut is wild, and they called it WILD HONEY PIE.

BUNGALOW BILL is a lilting, happy treatment of a theme typical of "Jungle Book" type movies. It confronts the adult governed world.

On WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS, George blends voice and instrument so each plays an equal part in softly crying, "sad."

Then there's the shock ending to the last cut. With that old Gene Chandler DUKE OF EARL styling, John defies belief by saying "Happiness is a warm gun." Its origin confirms the feeling that this is a powerful argument for gun control.

"After Kennedy--the second Kennedy--was killed, British papers printed ads from American gun mags, and one of the selling things was 'Happiness is a warm gun,' believe it or not," George says.

In MARTHA MY DEAR, "Martha is a big sheep dog," according to George. I'M SO TIRED brings back the '50s and the plaintive ballad with a rock beat.

BLACKBIRD will go into a lot of folk singers' repertoires. About PIGGIES, George says it was written almost three years ago. It's got the last word on ticky-tacky houses all in a row.

ROCKY RACCOON starts out country-heavy, but there's a quick jump to Dylan, and a Nilsson Scat type ending which refers to the Gideon Bible.

Like ACT NATURALLY, the sixth cut is a country song for Ringo. This time his request is DON'T PASS ME BY.

WHY DON'T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD is like Elvis at his dirtiest; I WILL is updated Bobby Vee at his cleanest, and JULIA is one of those sweet things Donovan can do without sounding like he's trying to convince you he's calling out to his real girl friend.

Next: sides three and four.

New Beatle Disc Has Paul In Nude

November 15, 1968

Nudity--the pop world's latest fashion--has spread to Beatle Paul McCartney.

Paul appears in the all-together in a special montage included with the Beatles' new long-playing record to be released next week. A small snapshot shows him in his bathroom, standing behind a narrow pillar.

"You can't really see anything," Paul said Wednesday. "I don't really think the picture is offensive."

Also in the montage is a picture of John Lennon, shown sitting in the nude answering the telephone while his girl friend, Japanese actress Yoko Ono, is seen in bed alongside him.

The photograph is considerably less revealing than the one Lennon and Miss Ono chose for the cover of their experimental "Two Virgins" album.

Record companies refused to distribute the record. Now a small company, Tetragrammaton Records, has agreed to issue the disc in America providing it is sold inside a brown paper bag.

The Beatles (The White Album)

The Beatles is the ninth official British album and the fifteenth American album by The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is more commonly known as The White Album as it has no text other than the band's name (and, on the early LP and CD releases, a serial number) on its plain white sleeve. The album was the first The Beatles undertook following the death of their manager Brian Epstein. Originally entitled A Doll's House, the title was changed when the British progressive band Family released the similarly titled Music in a Doll's House earlier that year.

Composition

Most of the songs that would end up on The Beatles had been conceived during the group's visit to Rishikesh, India in the spring of 1968. There, they had undertaken a transcendental meditation course with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Although the retreat, which had required long periods of meditation, was initially conceived by the band as a spiritual respite from all worldly endeavors — a chance, in Lennon's words, to "get away from everything" — both Lennon and Paul McCartney had quickly found themselves in songwriting mode, 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 40 new compositions had emerged in Rishikesh, a little more than half of which would be laid down in very rough form at Kinfauns, George Harrison’s home in Esher.

The Beatles left Rishikesh before the end of the course, with Ringo Starr and then McCartney departing first, and Lennon and Harrison departing together later. According to some reports, Lennon left Rishikesh because he felt personally betrayed by rumors that Maharishi had made sexual advances toward Mia Farrow, 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 rumors because he was bent on undermining the Maharishi's influence over each Beatle. Lennon himself, in a 1980 interview, acknowledged that the Maharishi was the inspiration for the song. "I just called him 'Sexy Sadie'." In May 1968, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison assembled at Kinfauns, and demoed 23 songs that they composed at Rishikesh.

Recording sessions

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, during which occurred the final mixing and sequencing for the album. The session was attended by Lennon, McCartney, and producer George Martin.

Division and discord in the studio

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 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 his role was minimized 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. According to Mark Lewisohn's book The Complete Beatles Chronicle, McCartney played drums on "Back in the U.S.S.R." However, according to Lewisohn, in the case of "Dear Prudence" the three remaining Beatles each took a shot at bass and drums, with the result that those parts may be composite tracks played by Lennon, McCartney and/or Harrison. As of 2009, the actual musician/instrument lineup is still undetermined. 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, whose public departure in 1970 would mark the formal end of the band's ensemble, 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."

Other musicians

Harrison asked Eric Clapton to play lead guitar on Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Harrison soon reciprocated by collaborating on the song "Badge" for Cream's last album Goodbye. Harrison explains in The Beatles Anthology that Clapton's presence temporarily alleviated the studio tension and that all band members were on their best behavior during his time with the band in the studio.

Clapton was not the only outside musician to sit in on the sessions. Nicky Hopkins provided electric piano for the single cut of "Revolution" (recorded during these sessions) as well as acoustic piano for a few others; several horns were also recorded on the album version of "Revolution." "Savoy Truffle" also features the horn section. Jack Fallon, a bluegrass fiddler was recruited for "Don't Pass Me By," and a team of orchestral players and soothing background singers ended up being important contributors to "Good Night."

Technical advances

The sessions for The Beatles were notable for the band's formal transition from 4-track to 8-track recording. As work on this album began, Abbey Road Studios possessed, but had yet to install, an 8-track machine that had supposedly been sitting in a storage room for months. This was in accordance with EMI's policy of testing and customizing new gear, sometimes for months, before putting it into use in the studios. The Beatles recorded "Hey Jude" and "Dear Prudence" at Trident Studios in central London, which had an 8-track recorder. When they found out about EMI's 8-track recorder they insisted on using it, and engineers Ken Scott and Dave Harries took the machine (without authorization from the studio chiefs) into the Number 2 recording studio for the group to use.

Songs

Although most of the songs on any given Beatles album are usually credited to the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team, that description is often misleading, and rarely more so than on The Beatles. With this album, each of the four band members began to showcase the range and depth of his individual songwriting talents, and to display styles that would be carried over to his eventual solo career. Indeed, some songs that the individual Beatles were working on during this period eventually were released on solo albums (Lennon's "Look at Me" and "Child of Nature," eventually reworked as "Jealous Guy"; McCartney's "Junk" and "Teddy Boy"; and Harrison's "Not Guilty" and "Circles").

Many of the songs on the album display experimentation with unlikely musical genres, borrowing directly from such sources as 1930s dance-hall music (in "Honey Pie"), classical chamber music (in "Piggies"), the avant-garde sensibilities of Yoko Ono and John Cage (in "Revolution 9"), and the sentimentality of elevator music (in "Good Night"). Such diversity was quite unprecedented in global pop music in 1968, and the album's sprawling approach provoked (and continues to provoke) both praise and criticism from observers. "Revolution 9," in particular, a densely layered eight-minute-and-thirteen-second sound collage, has attracted bewilderment and disapproval from both fans and music critics over the years.

The only western instrument available to the group during their Indian visit was the acoustic guitar, and thus most of the songs on The Beatles were written and first performed on that instrument. Some of these songs remained acoustic on The Beatles (notably "Rocky Raccoon," "Julia," "Blackbird" and "Mother Nature's Son") and were recorded in the studio either solo, or by only part of the group.

Individual compositions

Lennon's contributions to the album are generally more hard-edged lyrically than his previous output, a trend which carried over to his solo career. Examples include his pleas for death on "Yer Blues," his parodic "Glass Onion," which mocks fans who read too much into The Beatles' lyrics, and what may be references to drug addiction in "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" ("I need a fix..."). Lennon's intensely personal "Julia" may be seen as foreshadowing his later song "Mother" from his first solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band; the political "Revolution 1" begins a pattern of overtly political songs like "Give Peace a Chance" and "John Sinclair"; "Revolution 9" reflects extensive contribution and influence from Ono, another feature of much of Lennon's solo output. Lennon's songs on The Beatles embrace a wide array of styles, including blues ("Yer Blues"), acoustic ballads ("Julia" and "Cry Baby Cry"), and rock ("Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey"). Lennon would later describe his contributions to the The Beatles as among his favorite songs recorded with The Beatles.

McCartney's songs for the album include pop ballads ("I Will"), the proto-heavy metal "Helter Skelter," a Beach Boys homage ("Back in the U.S.S.R."), the up-beat "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," and a music-hall foxtrot ("Honey Pie") among others. The soothing, stripped-down "I Will" foreshadowed themes of McCartney's later solo career.

Harrison's sparse ballad "Long, Long, Long" is stylistically quite similar to much of his earlier solo output. His songs on The Beatles also includes the lyrically sophisticated "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," a chronicle of gastronomic excess and dental trauma in "Savoy Truffle," and a class-driven piece of social commentary in "Piggies."

Even Starr was given leave to include the first song composed entirely by himself on a Beatles album, the country number "Don't Pass Me By."

The album is the first by the group not to feature any genuine Lennon-McCartney collaborations; in fact, there would only be one more co-write from the pair in the remainder of the band's career ("I've Got a Feeling" from the Let It Be album). This new lack of co-operation and focus is reflected in several fragmented, incomplete song ideas that were recorded and released on the album ("Why Don't We Do It in the Road?", "Wild Honey Pie," and an officially untitled McCartney snippet at the end of "Cry Baby Cry" often referred to as "Can You Take Me Back"). On previous albums, such undertakings might have been either abandoned or collaboratively developed before release, but here again, The Beatles represented a change of course for the band. The trend continued for the rest of the band's recording career: such song fragments were presented by joining them together as a long suite of songs on side two of Abbey Road.

Self-reflection and change

Many of the songs are personal and self-referencing; for example, "Dear Prudence" was written about actress Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, who attended the transcendental meditation course with The Beatles in Rishikesh. Often she stayed in her room, engaged in Transcendental Meditation. "Julia" was the name of Lennon's beloved but frequently absent mother, who died during his youth. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" expresses concern over being "bought and sold," a theme in later songs about Harrison himself, such as "Handle with Care," recorded with The Traveling Wilburys. "Glass Onion" is a Beatles song about other Beatles songs.

Some of the songs on The Beatles mark important changes in the band's recording style. Previously, no female voices were to be heard on a Beatles album, but Yoko Ono made her first vocal appearance on this record, adding backing vocals in "Birthday" (along with Pattie Harrison); she also sang backing vocals and a solo line on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" and, as noted earlier, was a strong influence on Lennon's musique concrète piece, "Revolution 9," an avant-garde sound collage that McCartney initially did not want to include on the album.

Compositions not included

A number of songs were recorded in demo form for possible inclusion but were not incorporated as part of the album. These included "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam" (both of which would be used for the medley on Abbey Road); "Child of Nature" (recorded with drastically different lyrics as "Jealous Guy" for Lennon's Imagine), "Jubilee" (later retitled "Junk" and released on McCartney's first solo LP); "Etcetera" (a McCartney composition that remains unreleased); "Circles" (which Harrison would return to fourteen years later on his 1982 album Gone Troppo); "The Long and Winding Road" (completed in 1969 for the Let It Be LP); "Something" (which ended up on Abbey Road); and "Sour Milk Sea" (which Harrison gave to friend and Apple artist Jackie Lomax for his first LP, Is This What You Want). Other songs recorded for, but ultimately left off The Beatles received significant exposure via bootlegs, notably Harrison's "Circles" and "Not Guilty" (which he would eventually re-record as solo tracks and release on his 1982 album, Gone Troppo and 1979 self-titled album, George Harrison respectively) and Lennon's manic "What's the New Mary Jane."

Editing concerns, and release

The Beatles was the first Beatles' album released by Apple Records, as well as their only original double album. Producer George Martin has said that he was against the idea of a double album at the time and suggested to the group that they reduce the number of songs in order to form a single album featuring their stronger work, but that the band decided against this. Interviewed for the Beatles Anthology, Starr said he now felt it should have been released as two separate albums. Harrison felt on reflection that some of the tracks could have been released as B-sides, but "there was a lot of ego in that band." He also supported the idea of the double album, to clear out the backlog of songs the group had at the time. McCartney, by contrast, said it was fine as it was and that its wide variety of songs was a major part of the album's appeal.

The Beatles (1968) shares the same November 22 release date as The Beatles' second album, With the Beatles (1963).

Singles

Although "Hey Jude" was not intended to be included on any LP release, it was recorded during the White Album sessions and was released as a stand-alone single before the release of The Beatles. "Hey Jude"'s B-side, "Revolution," was an alternate version of the album's "Revolution 1." Lennon had wanted the original version of "Revolution" to be released as a single, but the other three Beatles objected on the grounds that it was too slow. A new, faster version, with heavily distorted guitar and a high-energy keyboard solo from Nicky Hopkins was recorded, and was relegated to the flip side of "Hey Jude." The resulting release — "Hey Jude" on side A and "Revolution" on side B — emerged as the first release on the Beatles' new Apple Records label. It went on to become the best selling of all Beatles' singles in the US.

Four tracks from the White Album were released on two American and one British single almost eight years after the original album was released. In the summer 1976, to promote the compilation album, Rock 'n' Roll Music, EMI's Parlophone label in the UK and its Capitol label in the US each released a single that contained A and B-sides that appeared on the compilation album. In Britain, Parlophone issued "Back in the U.S.S.R." as the single (its B-side was "Twist and Shout," which originally appeared on the group's first album, Please Please Me). In America, Capitol released "Got to Get You Into My Life" (from the group's 1966 album, Revolver) on the A-side, but selected "Helter Skelter" to serve as the flip side. "Helter Skelter" was likely chosen for the B-side because a cover version of the song had been prominently featured in a made-for-tv movie about the Charles Manson murders that had aired on CBS shortly before the release of Rock 'n' Roll Music. The singles were successful, with "Got to Get You into My Life" hitting No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and "Back in the U.S.S.R." hitting No. 18 on the New Musical Express chart in Britain. Both records also helped sell Rock 'n' Roll Music, which hit No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. With the success of the singles from the compilation album, Capitol followed-up "Got To Get You Into My Life" with the release of another single in November of 1976. Instead of taking two more tracks from Rock 'n' Roll Music, however, Capitol selected two White Album tracks—"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as the A-Side, and "Julia" as the B-Side. The "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" single was sold in an individually-numbered white picture sleeve that mimicked the design of the original album. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" did not duplicate the success of its predecessor, however, as it failed to make the Top Forty, stalling out at No. 49 on Billboard.

Mono version

The Beatles was the last Beatles album to be released with a unique, alternate mono mix, albeit one issued only in the UK. Twenty-eight of the album's 30 tracks ("Revolution 1" and "Revolution 9" being the only exceptions) exist in official alternate mono mixes.

Beatles' albums after The Beatles (except Yellow Submarine in the UK) occasionally had mono pressings in certain countries (such as Brazil), but these editions—Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be—were in each case mono fold-downs from the regular stereo mixes.

In the U.S., mono records were already being phased out; the U.S. release of The Beatles was the first Beatles LP to be issued in the U.S. in stereo only.

Sleeve

The album's sleeve was designed by Richard Hamilton, a notable pop artist who had organized a Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Tate Gallery the previous year. Hamilton's design was in stark contrast to Peter Blake's vivid cover art for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and consisted of a plain white sleeve. The band's name was discreetly embossed slightly below the middle of the album's right side, and 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." Indeed, the artist intended the cover to resemble the "look" of conceptual art, an emerging movement in contemporary art at the time. Later vinyl record releases in the U.S. showed the title in gray printed (rather than embossed) letters. Early copies on compact disc were also numbered. Later CD releases rendered the album's title in black or gray. The 30th anniversary CD release was done to look like the original album sleeve, with an embossed title and serial number, including a small reproduction of the poster and pictures.

The album's inside packaging included a poster, the lyrics to the songs, and a set of photographs taken by Richard Avedon during the autumn of 1968 that have themselves become iconic. This is the only sleeve of a Beatles studio album not to show the members of the band on the front.

Tape versions of the album did not feature a white cover. Instead, cassette, reel-to-reel, and 8-track versions (first issued on two cartridges in early 1969) contained cover artwork that featured a black and white (with no gray) version of the four Avedon photographs. In both the cassette and 8-track versions of the album, the two tapes were sold in a black slip-cover box that bore the title, "The BEATLES" in gold lettering along the front. This departure from the LP's design not only made it difficult for less-informed fans to identify the tape in record stores, but it also led some fans at the time to jokingly refer to the 8-track or cassette not as the "white album" but as the "black tape." In 1988, Capitol/EMI re-issued the 2-cassette version of the album, still with the same cover artwork as the original cassettes — but without the black slip-cover box.

Critical reception and legacy

The Beatles were at the peak of their global influence and visibility in late 1968. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released the previous year, had enjoyed a combination of commercial success, critical acclaim, and immense cultural influence that had previously seemed inconceivable for a pop release. Time, for instance, had written in 1967 that Pepper constituted a "historic departure in the progress of music — any music," while Timothy Leary, in a widely quoted assessment of the same period, declared that the band were prototypes of "evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with mysterious powers to create a new human species." After creating an album that had delivered such critical, commercial, and generational shockwaves, The Beatles faced the inevitable question of what they could possibly do to top it. The next full-length album, whatever it was, was destined to draw considerable scrutiny. The intervening release of Magical Mystery Tour notwithstanding (released as a double-EP package in the UK), The Beatles represented the group's first major musical statement since Sgt. Pepper, and thus was a highly anticipated event for both the mainstream press and the youth-oriented counterculture movement with which the band had by this time become strongly associated. Expectations, to say the least, were high. The reviews were mixed.

* Tony Palmer, in The Observer, wrote shortly after the album's release: "If there is still any doubt that Lennon and McCartney are the greatest songwriters since Schubert, then . . . [the album The Beatles] . . . should surely see the last vestiges of cultural snobbery and bourgeois prejudice swept away in a deluge of joyful music making. . . ."

* Richard Goldstein, writing in The New York Times on December 8, 1968, described the album as a "major success."

* Another review in The New York Times, this one by Nik Cohn, considered the album "boring beyond belief" and described "more than half the songs" as "profound mediocrities."

* Alan Smith, in an NME review entitled "The Brilliant, the Bad, and the Ugly," derided "Revolution #9" as a "pretentious" example of "idiot immaturity" and, in the following sentence, assigned the benediction "God Bless You, Beatles!" to "most of the rest" of the album.

Smith's review established a pattern that has endured for much of the critical assessment that followed. Many of the reviews since 1968 — and The Beatles surely ranks among the most-reviewed releases in rock history — have tempered rapturous enthusiasm with a consistent note of criticism about the album's seemingly undisciplined structure. Unlike such albums as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Revolver, The Beatles is a release that, four decades on, tends to provoke heated discussions of such topics as continuity, style, and integrity.

* The New Rolling Stone Album Guide praises the album but maintains that it has "loads of self-indulgent filler," identifying "Revolution #9" in particular as "justly maligned," and suggests that listeners in the CD era, who can program digital players to skip over unwanted tracks, may have an advantage over the album's original audience.

Some contemporary critics say the album's inclusion of supposedly extraneous material is a part of its appeal. The allmusic.com review contends that:

* "Each song on the sprawling double album The Beatles is an entity to itself, as the band touches on anything and everything they can. This makes for a frustratingly scattershot record or a singularly gripping musical experience, depending on your view, but what makes the White Album interesting is its mess."

One important current trend in critical assessments of the album is to draw parallels between the band's disintegrating ensemble and the chaotic events of the tumultuous year in which The Beatles was created, 1968. Along these lines, Slant Magazine observed that:

* "(The album) reveals the popping seams of a band that had the pressure of an entire fissuring generational/political gap on its back. Maybe it's because it shows The Beatles at the point where even their music couldn't hide the underlying tensions between John, Paul, George, and Ringo, or maybe because it was (coincidentally?) released at the tail end of a year anyone could agree was the embittered honeymoon's end for the Love Generation, the year when, to borrow from a famous Yeats poem, the center decidedly could not hold ... for whatever reason, The Beatles is still one of the few albums by the Fab Four that resists reflexive canonization, which, along with society's continued fragmentation, keeps the album fresh and surprising."

In 1997, The Beatles was named the 10th greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 1998, Q magazine readers placed it at number 17, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 7 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.

In 2001, the TV network VH1 named it as the 11th greatest album ever.

It was ranked number 10 in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003.

In 2006, the album was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time.

On the 40th anniversary of the album's release the Vatican issued an unusual review of the album. The official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published a lengthy article which declared that "Forty years later, this album remains a type of magical musical anthology: 30 songs you can go through and listen to at will, certain of finding some pearls that even today remain unparalleled." Forgiving John Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remark, the paper called the White Album the "creative summit" of the Beatles' career, comparing it favorably to contemporary music and taking note of the now antiquated equipment used, concluding that "a listening experience like that offered by the Beatles is truly rare."

Cultural responses

Ian MacDonald, in his book Revolution in the Head, argues that The Beatles was the album in which the band's cryptic messages to its fan base became not merely vague but intentionally and perhaps dangerously open-ended, citing oblique passages in songs like "Glass Onion" (e.g., "the walrus was Paul") and "Piggies" ("what they need's a damn good whacking"). These pronouncements, and many others on the album, came to attract extraordinary popular interest at a time when more of the world's youth were using drugs recreationally and looking for spiritual, political, and strategic advice from The Beatles. Steve Turner, too, in his book A Hard Day's Write, maintains that, with this album, "The Beatles had perhaps laid themselves open to misinterpretation by mixing up the languages of poetry and nonsense." Bob Dylan's songs had been similarly mined for hidden meanings, but the massive countercultural analysis of The Beatles surpassed anything that had gone before.

Even Lennon's seemingly direct engagement with the tumultuous political issues of 1968 in "Revolution 1" carried a nuanced obliqueness, and ended up sending messages the author may not have intended. In the album's version of the song, Lennon advises those who "talk about destruction" to "count me out." As McDonald notes, however, Lennon then follows the sung word "out" with the spoken word "in." At the time of the album's release — which followed, chronologically, the up-tempo single version of the song, "Revolution," in which Lennon definitely wanted to be counted "out" — that single word "in" was taken by many on the radical left as Lennon's acknowledgment, after considered thought, that violence in the pursuit of political aims was indeed justified in some cases. At a time of increasing unrest in the streets and campuses of Paris and Berkeley, the album's lyrics seemed to many to mark a reversal of Lennon's position on the question, which was hotly debated during this period.

The search for hidden meanings within the songs reached its low point when cult leader Charles Manson used the record, and generous helpings of hallucinogens, to persuade members of his "family" that the album was in fact an apocalyptic message predicting a prolonged race war and justifying the murder of wealthy people. The album's association with a high-profile mass murder was one of many factors that helped to deepen the accelerating divide between those who were profoundly skeptical of the "youth culture" movement that had unfolded in the middle and late 1960s in the UK, the United States and elsewhere, and those who admired the openness and spontaneity of that movement. Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi wrote a best-selling book about the Manson "family" that explicated, among other things, the cult's fixation with identifying hidden messages within The Beatles; Bugliosi's book was entitled Helter Skelter, the term Manson took from the album's song of that name and construed as the conflict he thought impending.

Cultural responses to the album persisted for decades, and even offer a glimpse into the process of collective myth-making. In October 1969, a Detroit radio program began to promote theories based on "clues" supposedly left on The Beatles and other Beatles albums that Paul McCartney had died and been replaced by a lookalike. The ensuing hunt for "clues" to a "cover-up" The Beatles presumably wanted to suppress (and simultaneously publicize) became one of the classic examples of the development and persistence of urban legends.

Sales

The album was a major commercial success, spending a total of eight weeks at #1 in the UK (the first week being that of December 7, 1968), and nine weeks at #1 in the United States (the first week being that of December 28, 1968). Total US sales are estimated at over 9.5 million copies (19 million units).

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, The Beatles is The Beatles' best-selling album at 19-times platinum and the tenth-best-selling album of all time in the United States.

Re-issues

Two re-issues in 1978 (one by Capitol Records, the other by Parlophone) saw the album pressed on white vinyl, completing the look of the "white" album. In 1985, EMI Electrola released a DMM (direct metal mastered) white vinyl pressing of the album in Germany, which was imported to the United States in large numbers. Another popular white vinyl pressing was manufactured in France. The 1978 Parlophone white vinyl export pressing and the German DMM pressing are widely considered the best-sounding versions of the album. This is due to the use of the famed Neumann lathe on the 1978 export pressing and the use of the DMM process on the 1985 pressing.

On January 7, 1982, Mobile Fidelty Sound Lab released the album in a non-embossed unnumbered version of The White Album cover with the ORIGINAL MASTER RECORDING banner at the top. Neither the poster nor portraits were included. The labels to the discs are white with primarily black text and the Capitol dome logo at three o'clock. The MFSL discs were made with Super Vinyl, a heavy and hard compound that that provides an extraordinary quiet playing surface. Although MFSL leased the album from Capitol and used the company's sub-master, the discs still sound superior to the standard British and American pressings. The discs were stored in "rice paper" static-free, dust-free inner sleeves enclosed in an off-white gatefold reinforced stiff board that fit into the custom fabricated album jacket.

In 1998, a 30th anniversary reissue of the album was released on a two-disc compact disc version in the United Kingdom. The packaging of this release is virtually identical to its vinyl counterpart. It has the same pure white gatefold cover, complete with the title "The BEATLES" in a slightly raised, embossed graphic at a slight angle. It also included the now-classic sequentially numbered serial number on the front of this cover, thus making this one a real limited edition. The interior of this cover features the song titles on the left-hand side, and the four black-and-white photos of the group members on the right. This version of the cover even accurately mimics the original British vinyl pressing from 1968, with the openings for the discs at the top rather than the sides. There are miniatures of the four full-color glossy portrait photos included, as well as an exact replica of the poster with the photo collage on one side, and the album's complete song lyrics on the opposite side. The CDs are housed in black sleeves, which were also used for the original British album. This commemorative double CD album is housed in a clear plastic slipcase.

Influences, parodies and tributes

The album's cover, though stark and minimalistic, has been highly influential. Goth band The Damned released The Black Album in 1980, and is considered the first album to draw influence from the cover, as well as the first band to use the term "Black Album." The 1984 Rob Reiner "rockumentary" This Is Spinal Tap also pays homage with their own "Black Album," which is juxtaposed to the original by A&R staff Bobbi Fleckman, who notes in a debate about appropriate packaging material: "What about the White album? There's was nothing on that Goddamned cover." The band are generally less enthusiastic, referring to it variously as "a black mirror," "none more black" and "death." The self-titled debut album of They Might Be Giants is commonly referred to as "The Pink Album" due to the amount of the color pink on the cover. Comedian Dennis Miller released a stand-up comedy recording in October 1988 titled "The Off-White Album" which mimicked the design of The Beatles. In the 1990s, both Prince and Metallica released self-titled albums with their names printed against mostly plain black covers, and are both informally referred to as "The Black Album." In 2003, rapper Jay-Z released an album officially called The Black Album. DJ Danger Mouse produced the mash-up The Grey Album by combining vocals from Jay-Z's Black Album with samples from The Beatles. Two compilations of Beatles' material, released in 1973 as 1962–1966 and 1967–1970, are often referred to as "The Red Album" and "The Blue Album" respectively, in reference to their color scheme. The Bob and Tom Show named their first collection of material as The White Cassette (later renamed The White Album when released on CD). All three of Weezer's self-titled albums borrow from this idea as well and fans refer to them respectively as "The Blue Album" (1994), "The Green Album" (2001), and "The Red Album" (2008). 311's self-titled release from 1995 is often referred to as "The Blue Album," and The Dells' 1973 self-titled album is often known as "The Brown Album," as is The Band's 1969 self-titled album. Australian comedy duo Martin/Molloy also released a CD called The Brown Album in 1995, while American rock band Primus did likewise in 1997. The animated television series The Simpsons and SpongeBob Squarepants both used the title The Yellow Album for their spin-off CDs, with the latter also parodying the plain cover. The British electronica duo Orbital released their first two albums without definite names, which in time became known as The Green Album and The Brown Album, while their final release is known as The Blue Album. The satirical Australian alternative rock band TISM released The White Albun [sic] in 2004. The band Phish covered the album in its entirety for their second set of their three set Halloween show in 1994.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Lennon/McCartney, except where noted.
Side one
# Title lead vocals Length
1. "Back in the U.S.S.R." McCartney 2:43
2. "Dear Prudence" Lennon 3:56
3. "Glass Onion" Lennon 2:17
4. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" McCartney 3:08
5. "Wild Honey Pie" McCartney 0:52
6. "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" Lennon 3:14
7. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (George Harrison) Harrison 4:45
8. "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" Lennon 2:43
Side two
# Title lead vocals Length
1. "Martha My Dear" McCartney 2:28
2. "I'm So Tired" Lennon 2:03
3. "Blackbird" McCartney 2:18
4. "Piggies" (Harrison) Harrison 2:04
5. "Rocky Raccoon" McCartney 3:32
6. "Don't Pass Me By" (Richard Starkey) Starr 3:50
7. "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" McCartney 1:41
8. "I Will" McCartney 1:46
9. "Julia" Lennon 2:54
Side three
# Title lead vocals Length
1. "Birthday" McCartney with Lennon 2:42
2. "Yer Blues" Lennon 4:01
3. "Mother Nature's Son" McCartney 2:48
4. "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" Lennon 2:24
5. "Sexy Sadie" Lennon 3:15
6. "Helter Skelter" McCartney 4:29
7. "Long, Long, Long" (Harrison) Harrison 3:04
Side four
# Title lead vocals Length
1. "Revolution 1" Lennon 4:15
2. "Honey Pie" McCartney 2:41
3. "Savoy Truffle" (Harrison) Harrison 2:54
4. "Cry Baby Cry" Lennon with McCartney 3:01
5. "Revolution 9" N/A 8:22
6. "Good Night" Starr 3:11

The arrangement of the songs on the The Beatles follows some patterns and symmetry. For example, "Wild Honey Pie" is the fifth song from the beginning of the album and "Honey Pie" is the fifth song from the end. Also, three of the four songs containing animal names in their titles ("Blackbird", "Piggies", and "Rocky Raccoon") are grouped together. "Savoy Truffle," the fourth song from the end of the album, contains a reference to "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," the fourth song from the beginning. In addition, the four songs composed by Harrison are distributed with one on each of the four sides.

Personnel

The Beatles

* George Harrison – lead, harmony and background vocals; lead and rhythm (electric and acoustic) guitars, four- and six-string bass guitar; Hammond organ; drums and assorted percussion (tambourine, hand-shake bell, handclaps and vocal percussion) and sound effects
* John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; lead and rhythm (electric and acoustic) guitars, 4 and 6-string bass guitar; pianos (electric and acoustic), Hammond organ, harmonium, mellotron; drums and assorted percussion (tambourine, maracas, thumping on the back of an acoustic guitar, handclaps and vocal percussion); harmonica, saxophone and whistling; tapes, tape loops and sound effects (electronic and home-made)
* Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; lead and rhythm (electric and acoustic) guitars, 4 and 6-string bass guitar; pianos (electric and acoustic), Hammond organ, drums, timpani and assorted percussion (tambourine, handclaps and vocal percussion; drums on "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence"); recorder, flugelhorn and sound effects
* Ringo Starr – drums and assorted percussion (tambourine, bongos, cymbals, maracas, vocal percussion); lead vocals, electric piano and sleigh bell (on "Don't Pass Me By") , lead vocals (on "Don't Pass Me By" and "Good Night") and backing vocals ("The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill")

Guests musicians

* Eric Clapton – lead guitar on "While my Guitar Gently Weeps"
* Mal Evans – backing vocals and handclaps on "Dear Prudence","The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" and "Birthday", saxophone and sound effects on "Helter Skelter"
* Jack Fallon – violin on "Don't Pass Me By"
* Pattie Harrison – backing vocals on "Birthday"
* Jackie Lomax – backing vocals and handclaps on "Dear Prudence"
* Jimmy Scott – congas on "Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da"
* Maureen Starkey – backing vocals on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill"
* Yoko Ono – backing vocals and handclaps on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" and tapes and sound effects on "Revolution 9", backing vocals on "Birthday"

Session musicians

* Ted Barker – trombone on "Martha My Dear"
* Leon Calvert – trumpet and flugelhorn on "Martha My Dear"
* Henry Datyner, Eric Bowie, Norman Lederman, Ronald Thomas (all on "Glass Onion"), Bernard Miller, Dennis McConnell, Lou Soufier and Les Maddox (all on "Martha My Dear") – violins
* Reginald Kilby (on "Glass Onion" and "Martha My Dear"), Eldon Fox (on "Glass Onion") and Frederick Alexander (on "Martha My Dear") – cellos
* Harry Klein – clarinet on "Honey Pie", saxophone on "Savoy Truffle"
* Alf Reece – tuba on "Martha My Dear"
* The Mike Sammes Singers – backing vocals on "Good Night"
* Stanley Reynolds and Ronnie Hughes – trumpet (all on "Martha My Dear")
* Tony Tunstall – French horn on "Martha My Dear"
* John Underwood, Keith Cummings (all on "Glass Onion"), Leo Birnbaum and Henry Myerscough (all on "Martha My Dear") – violas

Production team

* Geoff Emerick – engineer, vocal on "Revolution #1" ("Take 2")
* George Martin – record producer and mixer; string, brass, clarinet, orchestral arrangements and conducting; piano on "Rocky Raccoon"
* Ken Scott – engineer and mixer
* Chris Thomas – producer; mellotron on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill," harpsichord on "Piggies" and piano on "Long, Long, Long"

Released: 22 November 1968
Recorded: 30 May – 14 October 1968, Abbey Road Studios and Trident Studios, London, United Kingdom
Genre: Rock
Length: 93:35
Language: English
Label: Apple, Parlophone, EMI
Producer: George Martin

Wikipedia

White Album and Mad Day Out, 1968

It's handy having Paul's house so near the EMI studios. Sometimes if we're feeling a bit peckish by midnight or thereabouts, we troop round to his place for a nosh break. George is getting great at cooking fry-up suppers and his specialty in the kitchen line is a hearty blend of eggs, bacon, tomatoes and fried bread, which stimulates everyone in readiness for the rest of the night's recording!

Incidentally, talking about George reminds me about the fabulous new guitar he gave to our great little Apple singer, Mary Hopkin. Mary came along to one of the LP sessions and, on the spur of the moment, George decided to go out and get her a guitar as a gift. It was a really good one, too. When he came back to the studio with it he must have felt a bit shy about handing it over. So, when we were leaving I gave Mary the guitar saying, very simple, "It's a present from George." She couldn't say "thank you," but her six-foot-deep smile seemed to fit the bill.

Before I finish off for this month I must tell you a bit about the very special photo session we had one Sunday just a few weekends ago. The idea was to get together a whole new collection of pictures, really good ones, from which the fan clubs could have fresh supplies. This time the Beatles were determined to do something a bit better than just putting their four heads together in front of a wall. After all, a selection of pictures would be going all the way round the world to more than 40 different branches of the Beatles Fan Club, so it was worth a bit of special effort to turn out good ones.

We met at Paul's house around lunchtime and set out in a little cavalcade of vehicles. John came with me in my car and I'd brought my small son Gary along for the ride. The others piled into Ringo's white Mercedes and a van carrying all the different costumes and clothes trailed behind us as we crossed London from St. John's Wood through the West End to Fleet Street and beyond. First stop was the Sunday Times building where we used the roof to do the first set of pictures. And we used a wind machine to get nice effects on the fellows' hair. In fact I think it helped to produce some of the first group photographs to show all four Beatle foreheads uncovered beneath wind-swept hair!

Next we turned West again and headed for Bayswater. Our destination was a little place called the Mercury Theatre which is situated not too far from the headquarters of The Beatles Monthly. Good job it was a Sunday with all this town travelling to be done. To try criss-crossing London by road on a weekday would have meant spending half the afternoon getting out of traffic jams!

At the Mercury we dug out loads of strange costumes, had tea in the theatre bar and then did some more pictures. A zoological man brought along a brightly-coloured parrot which settled peacefully upon Ringo's left shoulder and didn't mind having his picture taken!

From there we went East again stopping in a suburban residential area to do a few street shots in front of houses before heading for the London Docks.

Finally, we returned to St. John's Wood and Paul's house for more tea and the last lot of photographs. This time Paul's massive dog Martha got into the act like she always does. Not that anyone minded because she's a great dog and very photogenic what's more!

Paul had the ideal spot for picture-taking. We trooped down to the foot of his garden. There, hidden away behind all the trees, Paul has this fantastic glass-domed sun-thingy. I know there's a special word for it but I'm sure you know what I mean, anyway! It's quite high, a square building at the bottom with glass walls. Four pillars go right up to the glass roof and there's a round hydraulic lift. You just stand on the step and up you go into the dome. Got some great pictures up there with Paul, Ringo and Martha, plus a few shots of all the four fellows. Anyway, if and when you start collceting the new set of photographs which the Fan Club is offering, you'll know all about the background to them. Oh yes . . . and the ones in goggles and crash helmets were done on the Sunday Times roof, too. So now you know!

MAL EVANS

The Making of "Hey Jude"

by Mal Evans

On Friday, July 26, John and Paul spent most of the day at Paul's house putting the final touches to their latest composition, "Hey Jude." The following Monday evening at EMI they began to rehearse it with George and Ringo.

The next night we had a load of film people in to take movies of the "Hey Jude" session at EMI for a 50-minute feature about the national music of Britain.

Then, on the Wednesday, we moved from EMI to Trident which is where the rest of the work was done on "Hey Jude." In fact a fresh version of the number was started from scratch with George on electric guitar, Paul on piano and Ringo playing the tambourine. To the first backing tracks Paul added his solo vocal and then the others joined him to put on the harmony stuff.

On Thursday, August 1, we imported a 40-piece orchestra, the largest group of accompaniment musicians we'd used since the Beatles did "A Day In The Life" for Sgt. Pepper well over a year ago. As you all know by now "Hey Jude" starts out as a plaintive ballad with Paul's voice well up in front of a fairly simple backing. Then the arrangement begins to build up towards an exciting climax. That's where the big orchestra came in. Mostly they just held single notes for long periods to underline and emphasise the whole atmosphere of the recording.

Towards the end of the evening we decided to make double use of the 40 musicians by asking them if they'd like to do a bit of singing and clap their hands. They were quite pleased to oblige and the entire orchestra stood up, clapped and sang their "la-la-la" bits under Paul's close supervision!

So "Hey Jude" was finished that night at the end of a highly spectacular session. The next day we went back to Trident to do the final "remix" job on the tapes and by Friday afternoon we had the first rough discs, the advance acetates as they are called, back up at the Apple offices for everyone to hear.

I can't go into great detail about most of the other July and August sessions just yet because they were all in connection with the next LP and the titles are still "hush-hush" until a bit nearer the release date. All I can say is that there's some terrific material on tape, more than half the LP is ready and the rest of the tracks are being done this month. Ringo has recorded two titles--the one he wrote himself and another which John and Paul did for him and which has a 30-piece orchestra, choir and even a harp on it! And, of course, there's a new George Harrison specialty. One of the new numbers Paul wrote turned into a 24-minute recording, a right old jam session, with John playing bass guitar just for a change. Doubt if it will still be 24-minutes long by the time it reaches the LP because it would fill most of one side if it did!

The Eighteenth Single

How the Beatles recorded their new single

By Mal Evans

"Hey Jude" and "Revolution" has become the Beatles' eighteenth single, their very first to be released on their own Apple label almost five years to the day after "She Loves You," which came out at the end of August 1963.

So here are some statistics to start you off. "Revolution" was John's idea--one of the songs he started work on while he was at the Maharishi's place in India--and if you can say this recording has a lead vocalist then it must be John.

"Hey Jude" is a more recent number, based on one of Paul's ideas, but worked on with much joint effort from both John and Paul before it reached the recording studios.

The first version of "Revolution" was put on tape more than three months ago. At that stage it lasted a little over ten minutes. If you read the July issue of The Beatles Monthly you will remember that there was the first exclusive report about "Revolution" in there. At one point it looked as if this might be the main side of the new single. But three further versions of "Revolution" were recorded before the Beatles were thoroughly happy about the finished production.

Work was started on Version Number Three on Tuesday, July 9. That night Ringo arrived at EMI earlier than the rest of the fellows. So he dropped in on a session in one of the other studios and did a bit of hand-clapping on a record Solomon King was making! As usual the first job was to lay down on tape the initial layers of the accompaniment. In other words to make the backing tracks. Nothing extraordinary was used in the way of instrumentation--just the normal line-up of three guitars and drums. Then, when there was a break Paul, Ringo, and I trotted off to a nearby pub for toasted cheese sandwiches.

Before the end of the month there were four completed variations of "Revolution" to choose from, and it's the fourth and final one which went onto the "B"-side of the single.

Meantime there was plenty of other studio activity. Album numbers were being worked on very busily. Ringo was adding a bit of piano-playing to his own item called "Don't Pass Me By." Paul was getting going on a Calypso-type song he'd written.

By the end of July a total of seven recordings had been completed for the next Beatles LP album. In addition the fellows had been getting pretty involved with some of the other Apple singles. George had been supervising the recording of Jackie Lomax's "Sour Milk Sea" and "Eagle Laughs At You." Paul had been producing the Mary Hopkin single, "Those Were The Days" and "Turn, Turn, Turn." And there had been the first sessions with yet another Apple discovery, James Taylor. All this work had been done at studios we had never used before, Trident in Wardour Street. The basement studio there is just great. Large enough to give plenty of scope, but small enough to be comfortable and informal. Although they had all been along there, the Beatles had yet to arrange one of their own group sessions at the Trident Studio.

Review: Revolution take... your knickers off!

Label: His Master's Choice, HMC 006

Review

After years of a dwindling Beatles outtakes supply comes this release, featuring one of the most interesting takes to surface perhaps ever. The full 11-minute "Revolution 1" has the familiar recording we all know (minus additional orchestration) plus several minutes of jamming, which eventually went on to form the basis for "Revolution 9." The title of the bootleg comes from John's talk at the start; the engineer announces "Revolution take..." and John replies "Take your knickers off and let's go!" The recording apparently runs off-speed and some enterprising folks have gone through the trouble of speed correcting it (it now runs 10:46). Disc 1 continues with more outtakes from 1968, less exciting than "Revolution 1," but still nice to have. Their variations are described below. The remainder of the two discs are filled with Beatles-related session tapes. The "Step Inside Love" Cilla Black session features Paul McCartney on guitar and disc 2 has Badfinger sessions for "Come And Get It" and "No Escaping Your Love," with Paul on piano and vocals. Definitely one to seek out; listen to some audio samples below:









Footage from the Cilla Black session (January 28, 1968):



DISC ONE

1. Revolution #1 (RM 1) (11:32)
…Here for the first time in its full 10 minute+ glory…
2. Revolution (Single version, no piano) (3:26)
…from the initial session that the recording heard on this disc is taken, complete with cunt-in and no fade out…
3. Across the universe (Alternate mix take 8) (3:49)
…This version presented here, an alternate mix from take 8, contains various overdubs – some backwards – that were not used in the released version., together with pre-song banter and a full ending…
4. Dear Prudence (4:10)
…an alternate mono mix, complete with a post-song comment from John Lennon and other extraneous noises from the original master tape…
5. Julia (instrumental take 1+2) (4:38)
…a collection of John Lennon home recordings of his song Julia, in far better sound quality and from a longer tape source than has ever appeared before.
6. Julia (SI onto take 2) (3:03)
…a vocal track and a second guitar… The quality of this source tape is incredible…
7. Julia (SI onto take 2 2nd try) (4:13)
…a second try at overdubbing…
8. Step Inside Love (2:53)
9. Step Inside Love (4:37)
10. Step Inside Love (2:56)
11. Step Inside Love (4:16)
12. Step Inside Love (take 1) (3:23)
13. Step Inside Love (take 2) (3:04)
14. Step Inside Love (takes 3 & 4) (3:09)
15. Step Inside Love (chat) (2:28)

Total time: 61:56

DISC TWO

1. Come And Get It (take 1) (2:29)
2. Come And Get It (takes 2 & 3) (1:11)
3. Come And Get It (take 4) (0:59)
4. Come And Get It (take 5) (2:15)
5. Come And Get It (take 6) (2:43)
6. Come And Get It (take 7) (0:47)
7. Come And Get It (take 8) (0:47)
8. Come And Get It (take 9) (1:10)
9. Come And Get It (take 10) (2:41)
10. Come And Get It (take 11) (0:27)
11. Come And Get It (take 12) (0:48)
12. Come And Get It (take 13) (2:42)
13. Come And Get It (take 14) (2:30)
14. Come And Get It (take 15) (2:23)
15. Come And Get It (take 16) (0:35)
16. Come And Get It (take 17) (0:51)
17. Come And Get It (take 18) (2:29)
18. Come And Get It (takes 19 & 20) (2:41)
19. Come And Get It (take 21) (2:32)
20. Come And Get It (takes 22-25) (2:37)
21. Come And Get It (take 26) (2:24)
22. No Escaping Your Love (take 1) (2:20)
23. No Escaping Your Love (takes 2 & 3) (2:23)
24. No Escaping Your Love (take 4) (2:25)
25. No Escaping Your Love (take 5) (1:22)
26. No Escaping Your Love (take 6) (2:16)
27. No Escaping Your Love (take 7) (2:19)
28. No Escaping Your Love (take 8) (2:18)
29. No Escaping Your Love (take 9) (1:22)
30. No Escaping Your Love (take 10) (2:19)
31. No Escaping Your Love (take 11) (2:18)

Total time: 59:22

Making Friends with Every Sikh

The Beatles’ songwriting in Rishikesh

The Beatles began their trek to Rishikesh, India hoping to further their studies in transcendental meditation. The experience in the long run was to become far more valuable for their songwriting and forthcoming album rather than the original intention of the journey, for it was to be the disillusioned Lennon and indifferent McCartney who would dominate the songwriting for the Beatles in the following months, this time on a much larger scale than ever before. Even with meditation on their minds, the Beatles could never be without their music, and so John and Paul came prepared by bringing their Martin D-28 acoustic guitars (being identical models Paul had to play his upside down), and George brought his sitar.

Fellow British musician Donovan, also at the Maharishi’s camp, became an important musical presence for the Beatles, giving feedback on the constant flow of ideas, and co-authoring some central elements to the new music. Donovan’s first major contribution was to teach John a guitar finger picking style that he had gone through great lengths to learn, and once John learned it he, in turn, passed it along to George. The new style meant a new source of creativity for Lennon, who then went on to write “Dear Prudence” and “Julia” in this genre.

“Dear Prudence” was written for Prudence Farrow who, along with her sister Mia, had first heard the Maharishi speak at a January 1968 lecture in Boston, and was now spending most of her time meditating in her cottage and rarely coming out. John and George were selected to try and bring her outside, and John wrote “Dear Prudence.” Prudence remembers being informed by George that John had written a song about her, “but I didn’t hear it until it came out on the album. I was flattered. It was a beautiful thing to have done.”

“Julia” was, in John’s mind, a song about a combination of two people: as the title suggests, his mother Julia, and Yoko Ono, with whom he had now begun exchanging letters. Lennon was interested in producing an album by Yoko: “I was in India meditating about the album, thinking what would be the best LP cover, when it suddenly hit me. I thought, ‘A ha! Naked!’ So I wrote to Yoko, with a drawing.” This idea went on to become the cover for their first collaboration, the infamous Two Virgins. So in “Julia,” Yoko was the “ocean child,” that being the meaning of her name in Japanese. The line about “seashell eyes” was taken from Kahlil Gibran’s poem “Sand And Foam.” The song went on to retain its acoustic nature, and is notably the only number performed solo by Lennon in the Beatles’ catalogue.

Paul first showed John the chorus to “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” in Rishikesh, which was all he had written at this stage, and the two played the chorus over and over until Paul wrote the words for the storyline. The title phrase was Yoruba for “life goes on,” and was first spoken to McCartney by Nigerian conga player Jimmy Scott. Though Scott later played congas on an early version of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” his relationship with Paul was not always cordial. Scott believed he deserved a cut of the royalties for the song, having “written” the catch phrase. Paul was deeply angered at the British press taking Jimmy’s side, and caustically told the other Beatles in 1969 about a particular article: “It just says, ‘Currently, Lennon/McCartney are doing quite well out of a riff they borrowed from Jimmy Scott, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” which is topping the charts.’ Cunts. But I mean . . . you haven’t got a riff when you say ‘hello,’ that’s the riff I got off Jimmy Scott. Those two words, you know, fuckin’ hell, you’d really think we’d sort of taken his life. It’s not as though he wrote the song.” McCartney bailed Scott out of jail in 1969, and in return for having his legal bills paid, Jimmy dropped his case against Paul.

An American college graduate, Richard Cooke III, visiting his mother Nancy in Rishikesh was to form the basis of Lennon’s account of their tiger hunt, “The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill.” A meeting with the Maharishi after the killing of a tiger had Cooke explaining to John and Paul, “It was either the tiger or us. The tiger was right where we were.” This was to form the lyric: “If looks could kill it would have been us instead of him.” Lennon then created the name of the title character: “There used to be a character called Jungle Jim, and I combined him with Buffalo Bill.” The song to John was “a sort of teenage social-comment song and a bit of a joke.”

Having heard the Russian folk song “Those Were The Days” years before at the Blue Angel in London, Paul was eager to get another artist to record it. He first suggested it to the Moody Blues, and now to Donovan in India, who also loved the piece, but it was only when Apple signed Mary Hopkin that McCartney got his wish.

Donovan had his eye on Jenny Boyd, Pattie Harrison’s sister, and wrote “Jennifer Juniper” for her, but Jenny was not interested. Jenny herself spent a lot of time with John, who at times found it difficult adjusting to his surroundings. Suffering from insomnia, Lennon would turn to songwriting to get him through the late nights, and the songs in turn reflected his mood and outlook, “I’m So Tired” being the most representative of this. Jenny remembers: “When I was at my lowest, he made a drawing of a turbaned Sikh genie holding a big snake and intoning, ‘By the power within, and the power without, I cast your tonsil lighthouse out!’ Sometimes, late at night, I can still hear John singing those sad songs he wrote during those evenings.”

Lennon believed that he was writing some of his best material, and was fully aware of the irony of meditating many hours of the day, trying to reach God, and writing suicidal songs: “It was that period when I was really going through a ‘What’s it all about? Songwriting is nothing! It’s pointless and I’m not talented, and I’m a shit, and I couldn’t do anything but be a Beatle and what am I going to do about it?’” The psychological ego problems for John that had begun in the Sgt. Pepper period still remained. The Maharishi told him that the ego could be a good thing if looked after, but Lennon believed that and his ego were too far gone: “I had really destroyed it and I was paranoid and weak. I couldn’t do anything.”

Lennon’s “Yer Blues” reflected this attitude and the more direct nature of his lyrics. Here the sentiments of loneliness and despair were very real, and not masked by imagery in the third-person. Even free from the influence of drugs, he would go on hallucinatory trips for periods of four hours. A parody of English Blues, “Yer Blues” was Lennon contemplating the end of his marriage, and referencing “Mr. Jones,” from Bob Dylan’s “Ballad Of A Thin Man.” He also thought of a statement against the Vietnam War, a song called Revolution: “I still had this ‘God will save us’ feeling about it, that it's going to be all right . . . but that's why I did it, I wanted to talk, I wanted to say my piece about revolution.” Lennon originally envisioned it as a faster number, but when first brought into EMI Recording Studios, it had been completely slowed down, and unusable as a single. The initial recording, though, was to form the basis of two songs on the new album, “Revolution 1” and “Revolution 9.”

Musically, Lennon was disappointed in not having a piano to compose on, even though his skills on that instrument were lacking. He missed having the ability to “discover” new chords and compose songs around new melodic changes. Several of his newest songs had been piano-based in origin, including “Hey Bulldog” and “Across The Universe.” One such song, “Cry Baby Cry,” had been in Lennon’s head for months and had come from an advert that said: “Cry baby cry, make your mother buy.” In India, he had the opportunity to rework the idea on acoustic guitar and add new lyrics, which were based in part on the nursery rhyme “Sing A Song Of Sixpence.” A similar source was used in “What’s The New Mary Jane,” a wild Lennon-“Magic” Alex Mardas collaboration, which was based on A. A. Milne’s “When We Were Very Young.” A song based more on food than its apparent drug connotations, “Mary Jane” would later cause tensions between John and Paul, the latter not participating in its recording. It was eventually dropped from the White Album, and John would briefly attempt to refurbish as a Plastic Ono Band single, but it was to remain unreleased and gain near-mythological status until Anthology 3.

Inspired by Chuck Berry’s “Back In The USA,” Paul composed the story of a spy returning home from America, in “Back In The USSR.” One morning at the breakfast table, Paul showed the song to fellow attendee Mike Love of the Beach Boys, who suggested the idea of mentioning girls from Russia, the Ukraine and Georgia in the song. Mike Love’s presence at the ashram, no doubt, also helped incorporate the idea in Paul’s mind of using Beach Boys-style harmonies when it came time to record.

An early medley of sorts, Paul’s “Martha My Dear” was made up of two songs: “Martha My Dear” and “Silly Girl,” the former being an ode to his Old English sheepdog. It did not begin as a conscious attempt to write about any one subject in particular, as the opening line merely came to him and to Paul held no meaning. “It is about my dog,” Paul said in 1968. “I don’t ever try to make a serious social comment, you know. So you can read anything you like into it, but really it’s just a song. It’s me singing to my dog.”

Sitting on a roof of one of the chalets, Paul introduced the chords of “Rocky Sassoon” to John and Donovan. All three, equipped with their acoustic guitars, began making up words for the song very quickly as Paul wrote them down. Paul changed “Sassoon” to “Raccoon” in an attempt to find a more cowboy-sounding name. Paul likened the song to a one-act play, and its creation being akin to the writing of John’s two books of free-form poetry and stream-of-consciousness verse. “I don't know anything about the Appalachian mountains or cowboys and Indians or anything . . . I just made it up.”

At this point, Paul had only the melody of “I Will,” a song which, in Paul’s words, was “a pretty sort of smootchy ballad” that was actually titled “Ballad” until suitable words could be found. McCartney tried writing some lyrics with Donovan, using universal imagery, but in the end, Paul used his own set of straightforward love song lyrics, which he wrote upon his return to England. “Wild Honey Pie” came from a spur-of-the-moment sing-along at the ashram, and two other acoustically driven numbers written in India, “Junk” and “Teddy Boy,” would later end up on his first solo LP, McCartney. Lennon also wrote in this period the plaintive “Look At Me,” which he would hold onto until the Plastic Ono Band LP. He also had two throwaways that would find their way into the medley on side two of Abbey Road. “Mean Mr. Mustard,” a song inspired by a newspaper article “about this mean guy who hid five-pound notes, not up his nose but somewhere else,” and “Polythene Pam,” written about a girl who actually dressed up in polythene, though “she didn't wear jackboots and kilts, I just sort of elaborated. Perverted sex in a polythene bag. Just looking for something to write about.”

Monkeys mating out in the open inspired Paul’s “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?”: “That's how simple the act of procreation is . . . we have horrendous problems with it, and yet animals don’t.” John’s “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey” was “just a nice line which I made into a song.” It was a reference to his relationship with Yoko, with filler lines from the Maharishi’s words. Some of these same words would form the basis for Paul’s “Cosmically Conscious,” a song that would remain unreleased until it closed off his 1993 album Off The Ground.

Mal Evans, always to be found taking care of the Beatles’ needs everywhere they went, was to be found also in Paul’s dreams one evening in Rishikesh. He came to him in a vision saying, “let it be.” Paul was struck by the words of wisdom, and later wrote a song around it in late 1968 on his piano in his home at Cavendish Avenue. Driving around London, Paul asked Mal if he minded that “Brother Malcolm” be changed to “Mother Mary” in the song, as the original lyrics in Paul’s mind might have been confusing to listeners, and Mal had no objections. Paul would occasionally slip in the use of “Brother Malcolm” in the song during the Get Back rehearsals of 1969, but here was another instance where Mal was essentially written out of Beatles history. McCartney conveniently changed his source of inspiration in later recollections after Evans’ death, and the real story behind the song never got out.

Though the press rarely captured footage of the Beatles in Rishikesh, one acoustic jam session and singalong was captured for Italian television. After a spirited performance “When The Saints Go Marching In” fronted by Harrison and Mia Farrow, the Maharishi urged them to “fathom the infinity, dive in the Ganges, fathom the infinity.” George replied, “Hey, we don’t merely exist.” More cheerful renditions of standards followed, with “You Are My Sunshine,” “Jingle Bells,” and “She’ll Be Comin’ Around The Mountain.” Donovan took things over with a proficient run-through of “Happiness Runs,” later to be issued on his 1969 Barabajagal LP. A Donovan instrumental was blended into “Blowin’ In The Wind” by Harrison, Bob Dylan never being far from his mind in an acoustic session. The group then intoned the “Hare Krishna Mantra,” Paul belted out “O Sole Mio,” which was followed by a Harrison-Donovan duet on the latter’s hit, “Catch The Wind.”

On March 15, Mike Love’s birthday, a tape recorder onsite in India was able to capture a rare McCartney composition about meditation and the Rishikesh experience. Possibly titled “Spiritual Regeneration,” the song bears a rhythmic resemblance to “Back In The U.S.S.R.,” in addition to using the alphabet in its lyrics and thanking their “guru Dev.” The performance was followed by a rendition of “Happy Birthday” for Mike, and a reprise of “Spiritual Regeneration” using the birthday lyrics. Many evenings in Rishikesh were spent in the large hall where the Maharishi would sit on a platform and give lectures, and occasionally mini-concerts would take place. At one such concert, Paul, George and Donovan composed a spontaneous tribute to the Maharishi, with the words:

When the sun is tucked away in bed
You worry about the life you’ve led
There is only one thing to do
Let the Maharishi lead you

The song ended with a quiet incantation of “Maharishi.” The Maharishi’s lectures in this hall were also a source of inspiration for the new Beatles music. One particular lecture on nature motivated both John and Paul to write compositions on the subject. John wrote “Child Of Nature,” a song much like “Across The Universe” with its wistful quality and poetic lyrics. After becoming disillusioned with the Rishikesh experience, Lennon changed the song’s setting from Rishikesh to Marrakesh, a city in Morocco. The song was abandoned and never seriously rehearsed or used by the Beatles, resurfacing with new words on Lennon’s 1971 Imagine album as “Jealous Guy.” Paul was inspired to later write “Mother Nature’s Son” at his father’s home in Liverpool, combining the Maharishi’s words with childhood memories of bicycle rides in the countryside. “The only thing about this one, however, it says ‘Born a poor young country boy’ and I was born in Woolton hospital actually, so it’s a dirty lie.”

The last thing George came to do in Rishikesh was to write songs, and he even chastised Paul for thinking of the next album (tentatively titled Umbrella, at this point). George only brought a sitar to India, and had to borrow a guitar off John or Donovan, so his opportunities for songwriting was limited. He wrote a verse for Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” which was eventually left off the final recording: “When truth gets buried deep beneath a thousand years of sleep, time demands a turnaround and once again the truth is found.” Harrison wrote “Sour Milk Sea,” later recorded by Apple artist Jackie Lomax, in ten minutes: “Even though I was in India, I always imagined the song as rock ‘n’ roll. That was the intention.” Harrison got some inspiration for what later became “Long, Long, Long” in India, but largely finished it off in England, using chords from Bob Dylan’s “Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands.” Literary influence on Harrison’s music was key in this period, and most of his White Album work was to come from reading materials found back in England. Harrison’s final major composition in India was “Dehra Dun,” co-written with Donovan, concerning a town 25 miles to the northwest of Rishikesh. He would attempt to record it during sessions for All Things Must Pass, but the song remains unreleased.

The final Beatles song composed in India was representative of the whole Rishikesh experience for John Lennon: “Maharishi, what have you done?” Their bags packed, John and George were the last two Beatles to leave the ashram, waiting for the taxi for what seemed like an eternity. “We thought, ‘they’re deliberately keeping the taxi back so as we can’t escape from this madman’s camp,” recalled Lennon. “Magic” Alex calling it “black magic” did not help the situation. Their ride finally did arrive, and on the drive down, Lennon thought of calling his new song “Maharishi” until George observed: “You can’t say that, it’s ridiculous.” George instead suggested the title of “Sexy Sadie,” which John viewed as a cop out.

The Rishikesh experience was over, and the Beatles left “with a bad taste,” as John put it. The Beatles came back with a treasure trove of new songs, but Lennon emphasized that “it could have been the desert or Ben Nevis,” the location itself was not important. Still, the time spent in Rishikesh was to represent the last great spurt of creativity for Lennon during his time with the Beatles, as he would regularly tap his 1968 pool of songs for the next two years. The experience was to remain on Lennon’s mind even a decade on, his thoughts culminating into two songs written for his unrealized play, “The Ballad Of John And Yoko.” The first of these, “The Happy Rishikesh Song,” is a satirical piece that makes light of the meditation and mantras that promised to divulge all the answers. Of special interest is the coda to the song, which in sharp contrast to the title, steers towards suicidal lyrics reminiscent of “Yer Blues” with the sentiment that “something is wrong.” The second tribute, “India,” is written in the present tense, as if Lennon is in Rishikesh, remarking that he left his “heart in England” with Yoko. The song also touches upon the search for an answer in India, and that the answer would not come from Rishikesh, but was already in his mind. As Lennon said in 1980, “That was the competition in Maharishi’s camp: who was going to get cosmic first. What I didn’t know was I was already cosmic.”