Originally coming out in November, 1968, The Beatles “White” album is being commemorated with an ambitious reissue project. Overseen by Giles Martin, the 49-year old son of famed Beatles producer Sir George Martin, the reissue of the 2 album set is coming out in a variety of formats of cd, vinyl and streaming, ranging from 3 to 7 discs and a collection of booklets and photos.
The 50 year anniversary was an opportune time for Martin to re-examine the original tapes, clean up the sound and give the music a more modern and organic sound, as opposed to the more “primitive” separation of the late 60s. The resulting sound is close to revelatory, with the “hits” such as “Back in the USSR,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and the prototypical heavy metal “Helter Skelter” sounding ear opening and fresh, making you feel that you’re actually in the studio.
When the album first came out (I remember paying the outrageous fee of $6.47 for it), the general reaction was a mixed bag. The cliché’ was that “it would have made a solid single album” with a handful of songs that were considered throwaways, and what was “Revolution 9” about except for clues regarding Paul’s death when played backwards?
With the perspective of time, it’s clearer that John, Paul, George and Ringo were attempting to put their own signature on essentially every genre of music that they’d grown up hearing. Chuck Berry-like rockers, Depression era Tin Pan Alley, campfire yarns, hoe-downs, ska, Monty Pythonesque self parodies, heavy metal, biting social commentary, elegant parlor, acoustic and electric blues all got puree’d through the Fab Four blender, creating their own set of Standards that have been absorbed by subsequent generations.
As for as the songs themselves, returning to an album of having listened to this album 100s of times as a youth after more than 40 years of absence, a few observations come to the front. 1) The Beatles, unlike 95% of today’s music, understood the value of vocal harmony, and a simple tune turns into a gorgeous etude with the strong four voices adding texture to the tunes. 2) While the “rockers” were the initial attention-getters, the graceful acoustic pieces are timeless. Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird” is a gorgeous and subtle protest piece, “I Will” a tender love paene, and John Lennon’s “Julia” is an agonizingly personal love note to his dearly beloved mom. Music doesn’t get more visceral than this, and it’s done with classic British restraint. 3) Barring very few exceptions, there really aren’t any solos beyond 8 bars; the song and arrangement is the thing, and it’s pretty nice that way. 4) As a group, the Beatles had their own signature sound, something of which every artist has as a goal, and while the subsequent solo albums displayed the unique contributions to the whole, the rich texture of the four gents gives ample support to idea of the importance of the whole body over the separate parts, something every family learns through wisdom or error.
Included in the 3 and 7 disc/album sets are revelatory demos and rehearsals that are the things of which dreams are made. Material that would end up on future Beatles albums include acoustic takes of “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Polythene Pam” as well as the template for solo projects such as Paul McCartney’s “Junk.”
The collection of the acoustic and informal demos give a richly spartan look at the plugged in tunes such as “USSR,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Glass Onion,” but even the more gentle pieces like “Julia” and “Blackbird” have a relaxed quality to them, and “Yer Blues” is arguably better than the final issue. The banter between the Fab Four is insightful and heartwarming, reflecting a long time relationship that is appreciated even more through the telescope of time. Not a revolution, but a revelation.