Extract – The Beatles: White Album – Rock ClassicsÂ
  Incredibly, The Beatles had not only risen with the tide but had adopted a leading role in this revolution. What had started as a standard rhythm and blues (r&b)/rock ‘n’ roll cover band, had developed into a highly original teeny-bop band that had taken the whole world by storm with their energy, originality and effervescent personalities. That might have been it if they had not been so clever and creative, so eager to absorb new ideas and develop. Their infamous meeting with Bob Dylan in August 1964, the experimentation with pot and acid, the delving into Indian music, folk, country, electronic and blues coupled with their interest in Beat poetry, art and fashion, set them apart from their contemporaries. They absorbed and evolved; always enthusiastically pushing the limits. The songwriting became more varied and sophisticated with greater depth of poetic lyric coupled to expanding musicality. The folkie essence of Beatles For Sale evolved into the harder pop-rock of the soundtrack Help and thenveered off into greater elaboration with Rubber Soul whichsaw the beginning of a new type of songwriting ultimately exploding into full ferocity in Revolver. The Beatles had transitioned. By 1967, with the help of George Martin and all the possibilities of unlimited studio time and the latest equipment, that transition culminated in the psychedelic masterpiece, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It set a new standard in writing, performing and complexity. Rock music had come of age and even the most avant garde bands were looking to the Beatles to set the standard.
SonicBond are slowly but surely bringing out their books (my books) in Kindle versions. The Beatles Classic Album is one of them. It is now available in both paperback and kindle versions!
Everything you ever dreamed of knowing about the greatest Beatles album, its recording and inception!
The Beatles White Album and controversial Revolution No. 9
There is huge controversy over this album among Beatle fans. The sprawling double album with its range of styles, solo efforts, experimental tracks and spontaneous jams, divides opinion, Some rave about it and enjoy the rawness, versatility and daring. For them the variety piques the attention. Others see it as being full of fillers and unhoned numbers and would have preferred a single album of more carefully crafted songs. I’m firmly with the former. For me the album shines precisely because of its range and rawness.
The most controversial number of all was Lennon’s Revolution No.9. Many people wrote this off as a Lennon indulgence, a meaningless pile of junk – and I must admit that I used to feel the same. It was one of a few tracks that I used to skip.
Not anymore. When I came to write the book I had to study each track in detail. Here’s an extract from the book that might help explain:
Revolution 9 (Lennon McCartney)
There is no doubt that Yoko really turned John on. He’d become lost, searching and feeling desperate, as we heard in ‘Yer Blues’. Yoko, with her uncommercial avant garde approach, quirky humour and zany perspective provided a stimulating life-line. It awakened aspects of John that had lain dormant. Suddenly he had a desire to be authentic, say what he thought, and do what he wanted, regardless of the consequences. She’d unshackled him. It was no longer about image and creating commercially successful songs. He wasn’t just a Beatle; he was John.
The other Beatles, press and public, found this new Lennon hard to understand. He wasn’t following the rules. Yoko unleashed a new burst of creativity and it did not always head off in the direction people wanted. Being accessible and commercial were no longer considerations. Being artistically authentic was all that mattered. Nowhere was this more obvious than on this Beatles track and the three experimental albums he released with Yoko in 1968/69 – Unfinished Music No.1 – Two Virgins, Unfinished Music No.2 – Life With The Lyons and Wedding Album.
‘Revolution 9’ and these three albums largely used the same techniques – cut-up, backwards sections, tape loops and spoken word. The two of them were having fun producing soundscapes – painting abstract aural compositions with noise. It might leave the other Beatles, critics and the public bemused but they were enjoying themselves.
Saxonmotherson summed up the situation perfectly: ‘Sigh…where were YOU in 1968? I was 17. MLK & RFK were assassinated, there were race riots, cities burned, Anti-Vietnam demonstrations, all over Europe, there were student demonstrations. When MLK was killed, there were army tanks (ARMY TANKS!) in the field behind our house. There was a police riot in Chicago. First time I heard R #9, it made perfect sense to me. In retrospect, it still does. It is 1968. It is the aural version of Guernica by Picasso.’- comment on Beatles Bible.
At the time, 1968, with the French fighting in the streets, and black riots in a number of US cities, there was much talk of revolution. Violent revolution really seemed a possibility. Speaking to Jan Wenner in his 1971 Rolling Stone interview John articulated his thoughts on violent revolution: ‘At 17 I used to wish a fuckin’ earthquake or revolution would happen so that I could go out and steal and do what the blacks are doing now. If I was black, I’d be all for it; if I were 17 I’d be all for it, too. What have you got to lose? Now I’ve got something to lose. I don’t want to die.’ ‘Revolution’ was a really important song for him. He was breaking out of the straitjacket and saying something from the heart. The Vietnam War and Civil Rights issues were exploding and he was determined to have a voice in it. He had been dismayed by the overcautious reaction of the rest of the band and their rejection of it as a single.
I’d been introduced to the Beatles when my mate Tony Hum played the Please Please Me album and was hooked. I’d bought all the singles Love Me Do, Please Please Me and From Me To You as well as that first album. I remember excitedly waiting for the second album. You never had to wait too long back then.
The 22nd of November 1963 found me heading off to our local record store – Birkheads on Walton High Street – to collect my album (all ordered and paid for).
I was fourteen-years-old and full of the kind of excitement that only a fourteen-year-old can muster. I was standing outside when the shop opened at nine-o-clock and came out clutching my album wrapped in a brown paper bag. I immediately took it out of the bag, in amongst the shoppers,and examined it – checking the track listing, reading the notes, feeling the adrenaline. I rushed home to bung it on the old dansette.
That’s where it went wrong. The bloody record player wouldn’t work. I examined the plug, changed the fuse, but it was as dead as Cliff Richard. Horror. You can’t imagine the frustration!
At that moment my friend Jeff, from down the road, popped in. He knew I’d bought the album and wanted to cop a listen. I showed him the album while loudly lamenting the demise of the record player. He commiserated. We sat for a while forlornly reading the back cover and looking at the front artwork. That only served to make it even more miserable.
Then Jeff suggested that, as I couldn’t play it, couldn’t he borrow it for a few days – just until I managed to get my record player fixed. Like a fool I let him. I remember him scuttling off down the road clutching my prize possession and he never even invited me for a listen!
So it was that I bought the Beatles second album on day one but never got to play it for a whole week!
Finally I was able to play it – every bit as great as I had built it up to be! Perhaps the wait added a sparkle?
Excerpt – 1967 had been the year of great change. Psychedelia had swept through with the Pink Floyd’s piper, Hendrix’s experience, Traffic’s fantasy and Cream’s gears. Acid rock had stormed in from the West Coast. Bringing the strange days of the Doors, Captain Beefheart dropping out, Zappa freaking out, the Byrds being notorious, Love forever changing, Country Joe and the Fish applying electric music for the mind, and Jefferson Airplane taking off.
The music had evolved. In the 1950s, rock ‘n’ roll had been viscerally subversive; in the 1960s that had taken on a more sophisticated cerebral direction. Whereas rock ‘n’ roll had been music to madly jive to, psychedelia was music to get stoned with, to lose yourself in its intensity and nuance, to dance expressively, listen intently with friends or sit with headphones on and absorb the sounds and words. An album had to be pawed over, concentrated on and sucked dry of all that it contained. The cover and liner notes were studied and analysed, the lyric sheet searched for meaning and the music internalised through repeated listening. Albums were sacred.
But by 1968 the rot had started. The tendrils of exploitation were creeping in. Revolution was big business. Money bred excess. The values were already being undermined and trust tested. The casualties were beginning to surface. Reality hit home. In San Francisco in October 1967, they held a march for ‘The Death of Hippie’ in protest at how the values had become commercialised. The ‘Summer of Love’ was officially dead. The sharing culture, love and peace, equality and freedom, was tainted.
Rock Album Classics: Arguably the greatest album by the best rock band ever, The Beatles – also known as The White Album – proved to be a watershed recording. Coming as it did, after manager Brian Epstein’s death; after the disillusionment with the Maharishi; in the middle of the break-up of long-term relationships, and following on from the psychedelic masterpiece Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it heralded changes of style and the marked the start of the falling apart of the previously tight-knit group. The album’s diversity and creation are analysed and its background and dynamics revealed. This extraordinary double album reflects a remarkable time and period. As the sixties came to an end, so too did the band. They mirrored the times they lived in. The album also followed on from their first highly criticised TV flop Magical Mystery Tour, the success of the first global satellite triumph of ‘All You Need Is Love’, and the highly ambitious Apple business venture. George Martin ducked out and ructions broke out between band members. But, among all the pressures and stress they found time to write and record an incredible array of songs; songs that synergised into a spectacularly successful album with a fascinating story. This is the tale of every track and every facet of this remarkable record.
Arguably the greatest album by the best rock band ever, The Beatles – also known as The White Album – proved to be a watershed recording. Coming as it did, after manager Brian Epstein’s death; after the disillusionment with the Maharishi; in the middle of the break-up of long-term relationships, and following on from the psychedelic masterpiece Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it heralded changes of style and the marked the start of the falling apart of the previously tight-knit group.The album’s diversity and creation are analysed and its background and dynamics revealed. This extraordinary double album reflects a remarkable time and period. As the sixties came to an end, so too did the band. They mirrored the times they lived in. The album also followed on from their first highly criticised TV flop Magical Mystery Tour, the success of the first global satellite triumph of ‘All You Need Is Love’, and the highly ambitious Apple business venture. George Martin ducked out and ructions broke out between band members. But, among all the pressures and stress they found time to write and record an incredible array of songs; songs that synergised into a spectacularly successful album with a fascinating story. This is the tale of every track and every facet of this remarkable record.
I grew up with the Beatles. They changed the world.
As a solo artist he produced a couple of brilliant albums and a few great singles – not mad about the rest.
He was widely lambasted for his activism – the bed-ins, bag-ins, acorns for peace and such like – but I thought that was all great. He was promoting PEACE. What could be better than that? He was attempting to use performance-art stunts to gain publicity, to focus the media on a positive message. He was using his celebrity to try to make the world a better place. He didn’t mind if it was unpopular or made him look silly – as long as it gained publicity for PEACE. If only everyone famous or wealthy would do the same. If only Elon Musk would put his money to good use instead of spreading hate and disinformation and doing vanity projects.
John and Yoko tried. I admire them for it.
John would have been 83 today. He (and us) was already robbed of forty three years!
On Track – Every Album, Every Song: Roy Harper, Bob Dylan, Captain Beefheart, Neil Young, Phil Ochs (released on the 18th October) and Leonard Cohen (In editing right now – due out later this year)
Classic Albums: Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home and The Beatles White Album
