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Beatles forums => Albums => Topic started by: JimmyMcCullochFan on September 23, 2010, 08:32:06 AM

Title: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: JimmyMcCullochFan on September 23, 2010, 08:32:06 AM
For my analyzation paper for my writing class I chose to do it on the White Album and what made it stand out. So Beatle fans, why did the White Album stand out in your mind?  :)
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: tkitna on September 23, 2010, 10:36:39 AM
The fact that its mostly solo wrote songs in my opinion.

Its never been one of my favorites and would have been better off as a single album.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Mairi on September 23, 2010, 04:07:23 PM
The fact that it's so all over the place, and because it's such a departure from their previous two albums, which were more psychedelic. Also, just some of the subject matter. Piggies, chocolates, doing in the road, the ladies of the Soviet Union... not exactly your typical pop music fare.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: LovelyLennon. on September 23, 2010, 05:05:51 PM
The White Album stands out in my mind because there's so many different genres covered. And after hearing Sgt. Pepper, it's such a different album. In the meaning that it's not psychedelic, the White Album is a bit more back-to-basics concept.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Bobber on September 23, 2010, 08:03:37 PM
It's the first double album that really mattered. Although we can argue whether it was a good idea to make it a double or single LP.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Hello Goodbye on September 23, 2010, 08:37:46 PM
It's the first double album that really mattered...


...to many of us.  To some of us it was Blonde on Blonde.


(http://www.amiright.com/album-cover-themes/images/album-Bob-Dylan-Blonde-on-Blonde.jpg)
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Brynjar on September 24, 2010, 08:09:26 AM
The White Album stands out in my mind because there's so many different genres covered.

This.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Bobber on September 24, 2010, 08:10:35 AM
...to many of us.  To some of us it was Blonde on Blonde.


([url]http://www.amiright.com/album-cover-themes/images/album-Bob-Dylan-Blonde-on-Blonde.jpg[/url])



LOL! Mind you, I didn't even know that was a double. ha2ha
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Hello Goodbye on September 24, 2010, 03:19:47 PM
LOL! Mind you, I didn't even know that was a double. ha2ha

I know what you mean.  Side 4 consists of only one song, "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands."  It goes on and on and on and on and on.......

;)
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: peterbell1 on September 29, 2010, 03:12:00 PM
...to many of us.  To some of us it was Blonde on Blonde.

According to Wikipedia .....

"The first double album was Benny Goodman's Live at Carnegie Hall, released by Columbia Records in 1950. The first rock double album, and first studio double album was Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde in 1966, also on Columbia"

So Bob beat the Beatles to it by a good two years! Zappa, Hendrix, Cream, Donovan, Frank Sinatra, and the Animals (plus several others) also released double LPs before the fabs.

There were some great double LPs before, and lots more after, but I still think the White Album is my favourite double album - if not my favourite album EVER.
It covers a whole range of musical styles and diverse lyrical themes, has some of the greatest Beatles vocals ever recorded, a guest appearance by Clapton, some classic songwriting, swings from 1920s pastiche to late '60s way-out experimentation in the space of a few tracks, goes from solo acoustic songs to full-on orchestral arrangements, etc etc.
And it is packaged like no other album - they were so big they could get away with a plain white album sleeve, with every sleeve individually numbered.
While Sgt Pepper seems to me to be very much of its time, the White Album could be released today and still sound fresh.
An amazing piece of work all round. Doesn't matter that the band was falling apart at the time - in fact, that is part of what makes it great.
I LOVE it!
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Kevin on September 29, 2010, 04:16:53 PM
^ nice post. I agree - calling the White Album "the 1st double album to matter" is being a bit Beatlecentric to say the least. Dylan surely must have first dibs.
Many people I know who are into rock and would not dream of having a Beatles album will own The White album.
I think that's because it is their most straight-forward rock album. While it does have a huge variety of styles (but what post Rubber Soul album didn't?) they're all wrapped up nicely by guitar/bass/piano/drum arrangements. Revolver/Pepper-like bells and whistles are at a minimum. Can't be arsed counting but I would bet percentage wise this is their most electric-guitar-heavy album since With The Beatles.
And somehow it's gained an aura of mystery and menace mixed in with the fun (fun is important. It went a little AWOL for Pepper and Revolver.) Maybe it's the knowing lyrics, the obvious post summer of love hangover or my inate pomposity. Who knows.   
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Joost on September 29, 2010, 04:49:38 PM
Apart from the things that were already mentioned above, I think the cover is also something that made it stand out. Here's this band that had the most extraordinary album cover ever and what do they follow it up with? A blank one.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: tkitna on September 30, 2010, 04:04:21 PM
I think the White album has as much filler as it does good stuff too, but being a double album, how couldnt it?
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Mairi on September 30, 2010, 04:31:24 PM
And somehow it's gained an aura of mystery and menace mixed in with the fun (fun is important. It went a little AWOL for Pepper and Revolver.) Maybe it's the knowing lyrics, the obvious post summer of love hangover or my inate pomposity. Who knows.   

I think you're definitely right about TWA being fun, Kevin. The album sounds like four friends just having a ton of fun, laughing it up in the studio (Though Beatle fans and insiders know better.)
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Gary910 on October 09, 2010, 04:23:07 AM
The White Album was the first "album" I bought. Even though it was a cassette with the running order different. I owned 20 Greatest Hits and Live At The Hollywood Bowl first but the first "album" was the White Album.

I didn't know what to think of it the first time I heard it, it was not what I was expecting. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, I just didn't know what to think. I bought it on knowing 'Back In The USSR'. As I listened and heard the diversity, I was excited at what I heard. This was not the pop album I was expecting. Now, some 25 years after I heard it for the first time, and hundreds of listenings since, I am still excited at what I hear.

This is still not like any other album I have ever heard. I have about a thousand albums in my library. 'The Beatles' still stands out to me as a diverse album. It is hard to put the album into words. From the opening jet sounds to the last strings it is an enjoyable ride. Some have said that they skip over some songs such as "Revolution 9" or "Wild Honey Pie", I don't understand this, and I enjoy these pieces equal to any others.

"It's the Bloody White Album"...
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Bobber on October 19, 2010, 12:45:45 PM
Still it's strange that there's no songs that you like better, White Album or not.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: 7 of 13 on January 24, 2011, 07:03:39 PM
there is for me anyway, a very comfortable feel to the album,
i can't really explain this in any reliable sense.
it is so much different than say, rubber soul or magical mystery tour.
birthday and helter skelter, both songs have such a nice bounce
and rock and roll feel to it.
happiness is a warm gun, i still don't get what that song's about, in fact.  ;)
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Gary910 on March 13, 2011, 03:20:28 PM
happiness is a warm gun, i still don't get what that song's about, in fact.  ;)

John told the story that he saw a gun magazine that George Martin had. The magazine had on it's cover, "Happiness Is A Warm Gun". There has also been speculation that it refers to sticking a needle in your arm and the warm feeling that you get. I think the former is the more plausible answer.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Hombre_de_ningun_lugar on March 13, 2011, 05:24:20 PM
The White Album stands out in my mind because there's so many different genres covered. And after hearing Sgt. Pepper, it's such a different album. In the meaning that it's not psychedelic, the White Album is a bit more back-to-basics concept.

That's it. It's certainly the most eclectic Beatles album.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: 7 of 13 on March 13, 2011, 11:48:00 PM
John told the story that he saw a gun magazine that George Martin had. The magazine had on it's cover, "Happiness Is A Warm Gun". There has also been speculation that it refers to sticking a needle in your arm and the warm feeling that you get. I think the former is the more plausible answer.
oh i know all that, quite shocking actually. and i have seen that explanation dozens of times. the song just has such a warm, inviting and dreamy feeling to it, somewhere between lucy in the sky, and your bird can sing and i'm so tired.
 ;yes
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: nimrod on March 14, 2011, 01:21:55 AM
its stands out for me because I didnt have to buy it  ;D

I was 15 at the time and a girl was bessoted with me (cant think why) anyway she just bloody bought it for me, I never had money at 15 so it was a big deal for me..

Well apart from that, if you were around at the time it seemed as big an event as Pepper, it was all over the radio, the charts, people were talking about it everywhere, loads of people had it etc
It came over as truly magical (as did Pepper) no-one had seen a cover like it with seperate high qaulity photo's that we all hung on our bedroom walls.
I cant describe the sheer fantasticness of the month it came out, so many types of songs, so many different instruments, it was just a brilliant time to be alive and young, and that album (like Pepper before it) was central to the mystique and magic of the time.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: 7 of 13 on March 14, 2011, 09:30:52 PM
its stands out for me because I didnt have to buy it  ;D
yeah that was a neat album, chock full of surprises.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Hello Goodbye on March 25, 2011, 05:11:07 AM
its stands out for me because I didnt have to buy it  ;D

Well, I did buy it, nimrod.  I was 18 at the time and stood on line all night at Macy's in New York City to buy it the day it was released.  I gave it to a girlfriend about a year later.

I no doubt had a low serial number album which would be worth a lot today.  But who knew this at the time?  ;)
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Gary910 on March 25, 2011, 02:14:28 PM
It is nice, you guys make me feel young...
I was 18 at the time and stood on line all night at Macy's in New York City to buy it the day it was released.

I was 15 at the time and a girl was bessoted with me (cant think why) anyway she just bloody bought it for me, I never had money at 15 so it was a big deal for me..


I was 3 in 1968.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Bobber on March 25, 2011, 02:16:29 PM
It is nice, you guys make me feel young...

I was 3 in 1968.

We share the same year of birth I suppose!
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: Hello Goodbye on March 25, 2011, 05:48:46 PM
It is nice, you guys make me feel young...

Ah, but I was so much older then.  I'm younger than that now.
Title: Re: White Album - What made it stand out?
Post by: 7 of 13 on March 30, 2011, 10:34:00 PM
yeah i had a serial numbered album, i used to play that album alot.
;yes