Happy 40th Birth­day to the White Album

While it’s not as flaw­less as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolver, or Abbey Road (which I rank #2, #3, & #4 respec­tively) I think it’s spec­tac­u­lar vari­ety makes it the most inter­est­ing lis­ten over the long term. I’ve been lis­ten­ing to The White Album fre­quently since I first dis­cov­ered it twelve years ago. And even now, 12 years later, I still dis­cover new things about it. Songs that I used to think were drag­ging the album down a bit are now among my favorites. It’s an album that has just con­tin­ued to grow on me over the years.

Many have argued that The White Album should have been cut down to a sin­gle album. That some of the album’s less per­fect songs such as “Bun­ga­low Bill” & “Don’t Pass Me By” could (and should) have been axed along with the exper­i­men­tal avant-garde “Rev­o­lu­tion #9.” In fact the Bea­t­les’ pro­ducer (George Mar­tin) him­self has made that argument.

I strongly dis­agree with that point of view. A great part of what gives the album it’s endear­ing charm are these songs that would have been chopped to make it into a sin­gle album. While I don’t lis­ten to “Rev­o­lu­tion #9″ every time I play the album, I do enjoy lis­ten­ing to it when I’m in the mood. It’s an expe­ri­ence like none other.

While “Don’t Pass Me By” is def­i­nitely among The Bea­t­les worst songs, it still has some charm. In a way it’s charm­ing almost because it’s not such a great song. It’s neat to hear the other Bea­t­les try to give life to Ringo’s less than stel­lar tune.

And how about songs like Paul McCartney’s great “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?” & “Pig­gies.” These are songs that would be unlikely to make such a sin­gle album ver­sion and yet I find them to be extra­or­di­nar­ily inter­est­ing. Some peo­ple would call songs like these “filler” just because they are not hit sin­gles. I would say to peo­ple like that: “Open your ears & your mind.” Put away your Bea­t­les 1 CD and put in The White Album. It may be a more dif­fi­cult lis­ten at first but it’s also a far more reward­ing one in the long term.

Not that The White Album doesn’t have some “hits” as well. Songs like “While My Gui­tar Gen­tly Weeps,” “Birth­day,” “Back in the USSR,” & “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da” among the Bea­t­les’ most well-known and well-loved songs. “Black­bird” & “I Will” are cer­tainly among The Bea­t­les most beau­ti­ful songs.

The White Album is my favorite album of all time. Not despite any imper­fec­tions and not because of them either, but because of the album as a whole. It’s an incred­i­ble jour­ney through many dif­fer­ent types of music. So many dif­fer­ent styles but the one com­mon thread is The Bea­t­les amaz­ing song­writ­ing tal­ent. Whether it is “Hel­ter Skel­ter” or “Julia.” “Hap­pi­ness is a Warm Gun” or “Martha My Dear.” This is bril­liant music that has def­i­nitely stood the test of time.

Happy Birth­day to The White Album! Not all music sounds so good when it hits the big four-0.

By: Mar­vin J Markus | Art & Enter­tain­ment
12 May 2008