Monday, August 1, 2011

Beatles Final Paper


Anna White
Professor Roos
Study Abroad English
30 July 2011
“The Beatles (The White Album)” Analysis
In 1968 The Beatles released their ninth studio album that actually had no real title other than the bands name on the cover.  This double LP set is titled “The Beatles” but is commonly known by fans as “The White Album” because the album cover is just white with ‘The Beatles’ written on it. While in India in 1968, The Beatles seemed to have quite a few ideas for songs and for a new album.
“There’s about 35 songs we’ve got already, and a few of them are mine.  God knows which one of them will be the next single.  I suppose we’ve got a vague overall conception of the kind of album we want to do. But it takes time to work out…”
-George Harrison
             The boys began recording this album at EMI studios in London on May 20th.  They finished recording on October 14th 1968 and the album was released in a little over a month.
The very first song on the album is entitled “Back in the USSR” which begins with the sound of jet engines roaring.  Paul wrote this song while in Rishikesh, India studying Transcendental Meditation with the other band members and the Maharishi.  The song has a Beach Boys feel to it possibly because Mike Love (a member of the Beach Boys) was in India with them at the time the song was written.  Paul was definitely influenced by the Beach Boys and by Chuck Berry.  Berry had a song titled “Back in the USA” so this might have been Paul’s spin-off or parody of that. At the end of the song beginning at about 2:36 minutes in, there is a faint high-pitched sound that fades into the next song, “Dear Prudence”.
The second song on “The White Album”, “Dear Prudence”, was written by John, again while they were in India.  John wrote the song for a girl named Prudence Farrow, although she may not have known it at the time.  She was the younger sister of Mia Farrow who was a famous American actress.  Apparently she was so involved in her meditation that she would stay in the cottage they were living in and wouldn’t ever come out.  John and George were sent to try to get her to come out and John wrote “Dear Prudence” based on this event.  When Farrow found out later she was flattered.
Next comes “Glass Onion”, which happens to be one of my favorite songs on the album.  “Glass Onion” was written primarily by John and included Ringo on the drums for the first time on the album (Paul had filled in for “Back in the USSR” and “Dear Prudence”).  This song is particularly interesting to me because it took so much creativity to fit so many earlier song references into one song.  The earlier songs that are mentioned or have references to include “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “I Am the Walrus”, “Lady Madonna”, “The Fool on the Hill”, “Fixing a Hole”, “There’s a Place”, “I’m Looking Through You”, and “Within You Without You”.  For this song, George Martin had arranged a group of stringed instruments to play behind the band, which gives the song a little something extra.
The fourth song, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” to any Beatles fan is obviously a song written primarily by Paul.  Right in the very first line of the song he introduces two fictional characters, Desmond and Molly.  The song has a bit of a reggae feel, possibly because of its’ instrumentation but definitely because of the lyrics.  “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da life goes on, bra” was a phrase that Pauls’ Nigerian friend Jimmy Scott Emuakpor had used frequently.  Their surroundings and the people The Beatles met along their way to ultimate fame affected their song writing and even their musical composition.  John left during one of their recording sessions of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” and came back a few hours later (after supposedly smoking marijuana) and began to play the piano part of the song much louder and faster than they had been playing it before.  He said he thought that was the way the song should have been played and the other members agreed and used that version.  Without the influence of Bob Dylan (who first introduced The Beatles to marijuana), there may have never been a successful finished version of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da!
The next song on the album is “Wild Honey Pie”, which is another one of Paul’s creations.  The song is only 53 seconds long and the only lyrics are the words ‘honey pie’ repeated about 8 times.  Looking at the album as a whole, this song seems a lot like filler and sort of a transition from “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” into “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill”.
“The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” was a John written song and includes an appearance by Yoko Ono on vocals.  The song seems to tell a story about a fictional character, which is unlike Johns lyrical style and much more like Pauls’.  The real meaning behind the song has to do with people living along side the boys in India who would go hunt innocent tigers and then come back proud and boasting about their kills.  He created this ‘Bungalow Bill’ character to describe the actions of an American who came with his mother to the Maharishi’s meditation camp and would go out and hunt needlessly. 
“He went out tiger hunting with his elephant and gun in case of accidents he always took his mom.  He’s the all American bullet-headed saxon mother’s son”.
According to the book 100 Best Beatles Songs, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is listed as #10, which is pretty impressive since it was written and sung by the quiet Beatle, George! It’s also listed as #135 in the Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  This song could be considered one of the most famous and well known from the whole album. In my opinion it really is one of the most beautifully written and performed songs of all time.  It’s 4 minutes and 45 seconds long, making it the longest song on the album.  Eric Clapton was a friend of George’s and he played lead guitar for this song.  Clapton wasn’t sure if he should play guitar for the song because he thought that no one could play with The Beatles, they were too big.  He was honored when George asked him to play on it.
The next song is yet another John song, “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”.  He thought of the title of the song from a gun magazine, he showed George Martin and he thought it was genius.  The lyrics are very inventive and seem to be left to the listener to determine what exactly they mean.  There are sort of three individual sections that are all put into one.  The first starting out with the lyrics ‘she’s not a girl who misses much’ and ‘she’s well aquainted with the touch of the velvet hand’ which are describing a woman that apparently was seen or created while on an acid trip.  The next section starts with distorted guitar and concludes with John singing ‘I need a fix cause I’m goin’ down, down to the bits that I left uptown’.  Finally it goes into the chorus that’s repeated a few times, ‘Mother Superior jumped the gun’ and ‘bang, bang, shoot, shoot’.  The last part of the song has a very doo-wop feel, possibly rooting back to John’s early teenage years and childhood, being influenced by doo-wop and early rock and roll music.
If listening to the LP version of The White Album, “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” is the last song on the first side of the first disc.  “Martha My Dear” is the next song (the first on side 2), or for the younger Beatles fans, the 9th song on the CD.  This song was written and sung by Paul.  According to an interview with Playboy, John mentioned that he didn’t like the song, which isn’t really surprising when you consider the differing musical opinions of John and Paul later in their career and the bands mentality during this album.  The meaning behind “Martha My Dear” is unknown although there are a few ideas.  One is that it’s about his sheep dog Martha, the lyric ‘hold your head up you silly girl, look what you’ve done’ seems a bit like scolding a dog if you really think about it.  Another (more realistic) option of what the song is really about is Jane Asher.  Paul and Jane were supposed to be married in 1968 but they started seeing other people and it was called off.  The lyrics ‘Martha my dear, you have always been my inspiration please be good to me, Martha my love don’t forget me’ very well could be about their relationship.
“I’m So Tired” is the next song that was written by John while in India at one of their camps when he couldn’t sleep.  The lyrics are very simplistic and for the most part the music is very slow, alluding to the fact that John really was tired when he wrote it!  His insomnia and being so far away from Yoko was what inspired the song. “I’m So Tired” could be compared to his earlier song “I’m Only Sleeping” from the album Revolver.  The theme of his tiredness could really have something to do with his stress leading to insomnia.
“Blackbird” comes next and is listed as number 17 on the top 100 Beatles songs.  According to most fans, it’s definitely deserving of this position.  “Blackbird” was the first song written and recorded by just one Beatle, Paul.  The first three opening chords are copied from a composition of Bach, probably because Paul was especially partial to classical music.  In writing the song he said that he had an African American woman in mind, rather than a bird.  The civil rights movement was something that all four Beatles care passionately about so this song was Paul’s way of telling people to keep trying and never loose faith because there is hope for them. 
The next song has another animal title, “Piggies” and was written by George Harrison.  It includes a harpsichord and a string quartet.  There is one lyric from the song that was a bit controversial but neither Harrison, Lennon, or McCartney meant anything harmful by it.  ‘What they needs a damn good whacking’ was actually added in my Harrisons mother!
Next comes “Rocky Raccoon”.  This song has a more folk or country feel to it, and unfortunately did not make the top 100 Beatles songs.  It tells a story about a boy named Rocky Raccoon and the sort of love triangle he is involved in; once again a fictional story from Paul.  Paul created the characters Rocky, Magil (Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy), Dan (Danny Boy/Daniel), and the doctor (who came in stinking of gin) who seem to come to life while listening to the song.
            “His rival it seems had broken his dreams by stealing the girl of the fancy”
Following the short lived animal theme that Lennon and McCartney had created on the album is, “Don’t Pass Me By” by Ringo comes next.  It took him about five whole years to finally finish and get the song onto an album.  Although the song is still attributed to Lennon/McCartney, this one was all Ringo!  He sang, played drums and added in sleigh bells.  Neither John or George were included in the recording of this song but Paul played bass and piano.
Next comes, “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” which was supposedly written about two monkeys having sex in the middle of the street in Rishikesh, India.  This song surprisingly was written and sung by Paul and it was said that John was a bit jealous because it has more heavy rock feel.  He thought he could sing it better and that it was more his style.  The underlying competitiveness of John and Paul could be attributed to their success.  Each wanted to strive to be better than the other and ended up being the most famous and dynamic duo of all time! When the band broke up, this competitiveness was also prevalent in their solo careers.
Maybe as a way of redeeming himself from listeners who were offended by the previous song, Paul chooses “I Will” as the next song for the album.  On the Beatles Anthology Paul said that he had a song called “I Will” written while in India but didn’t have any lyrics for it.  This song is one of my favorites of Pauls’ because it’s one of the 16 Beatles songs that start out a cappella, which probably melted the hearts of quite a few young girls when it was first released!
Another kind-hearted song “Julia” was written by John about his mother Julia Lennon.  John sings and plays acoustic guitar.  This song could be compared to Pauls’ “Blackbird” because it was only one Beatle that sang and performed it.  In the very first sentence, John begins with, ‘Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you, Julia’, which to me alludes to the passing of his mother and how what he says now doesn’t matter but he wants to say it anyway because he loved her and grew closer to her right before she left him.
“Birthday” is the first song on side 3 of the LP and is also the first song of the second CD.  It is 99th of the 100 top Beatles songs.  It has a quick tempo, fun lyrics, and a very traditional rock n’ roll feel to it. 
The next song, “Yer Blues” was written by John again while in India.  The lyrics are actually quite depressing and rather suicidal.  He gave it sort of a goofy title so that he could play it off as a parody if criticized for it.  The American blues feel that the song has seems to be a preview to Lennon’s later solo work.
“Yes I’m lonely, wanna die, Yes I’m lonely, wanna die, If I ain’t dead already, girl you know the reason why”.
After such a sad song, Paul follows with “Mother Nature’s Son” which was based upon a lecture givin by the Maharishi in India.  The final recorded version only includes Paul McCartney and George Martin along with a brass arrangement. 
The next song, “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey” was written by John and is about John and Yoko.  McCartney believed that the song had something to do with Lennons’ heroin addiction, ‘the monkey’ being his drug, but Lennon says otherwise.  In an interview Lennon mentioned that being in love made everything more clear and that he and Yoko noticed that everyone around them was concerned or stressing about something but they weren’t because they were happy and in love.
“Sexie Sadie” is the next song, another written by John.  This song was actually about the Maharishi but George requested that the song’s title be changed to “Sexie Sadie”.  The Beatles were famous for their ‘cover-ups’ and changing the gender of people in songs.  For example, in the song “She Said She Said” from Revolver, the person they’re referring to is actually a male.  The Maharishi allegedly made sexual advances on a few of the girls that were staying with the group in India and this angered the boys.  This song was directed toward him as can easily be seen in the lyrics, ‘sexy Sadie, you broke the rules you laid it down for all to see’ and ‘sexy Sadie, the greatest of them all’ ‘however big you think you are’.
Following “Sexie Sadie” comes “Helter Skelter”, yet another Paul song that John was jealous of.  Paul was very influenced by The Who for this song and Pete Townsend said the song was “the loudest raunchiest, most ridiculous rock song you’ve ever heard”.
Breaking the Lennon/McCartney pattern, next comes “Long, Long, Long” by George Harrison.  Harrison is known for his ambiguity in his songs (especially during his solo career with “All Things Must Pass”), people don’t seem to really know whether they’re love songs or spiritual songs.
“It’s been a long long long time, how could I ever have lost you when I loved you”
The final side of the second LP of “The White Album” begins with “Revolution 1” which includes deliberately distorted electric guitar and heavily squashed drums that were played through a mixing board.  John plays lead guitar and Nicky Hopkins (who played for The Who and The Rolling Stones) plays electric piano.  The song was released as the B-side of “Hey Jude” which made for a very popular single that was #1 in the US for 9 straight weeks.  According to Stephen J Spingnesi and Michael Lewis, authors of 100 Best Beatles Songs, “Revolution 1” “can be boiled down to this: “Yes, change is good, but unless you guys can come up with a system to replace the one you want to tear down, then ‘you can count me out’”.  John was very opinionated when it came to political ideas and this song proves his passion for peace and change but also his lack of motivation to do something about it.  A perfect example of this would be John and Yoko’s bed in demonstrations.  They were peaceful demonstrations but were unable to make a real difference in the world. 
            Next comes another Paul song, “Honey Pie”.  This song has a lazy, American vaudeville feel to it.  It seems very American and even talks about the girl becoming famous in the ‘U.S.A.’.
            Following “Honey Pie” comes another George Harrison song, “Savoy Truffle”.  He originally wrote the song as a tribute to his good friend Eric Clapton’s chocolate addiction!  Following the theme of diverse musical styles on the album, Harrison comes out with this sort of psychadelic, bluesy rock and roll song, which is quite unlike the songs before and after it. 
            After “Savoy Truffle”, comes “Cry Baby Cry”, another Lennon song.  Geoff Emerick quit during the recording of this song partly out of frustration because of the previously recorded songs “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da “ and “Revolution 1” that took some real work for the band to get through.  Arguments began and continued throughout the sessions.  It was said that Lennon got some of the words to “Cry Baby Cry” from an advertisement in a magazine.
Contrary to the previous “Revolution 1”, the next song is not listed on the top 100.  “Revolution 9” created primarily by John is known as one of the worst Beatles songs of all time!  His idea for the song was to create the vision of revolution using sound.  The song is actually just the last 6 minutes of “Revolution 1” that was cut off and made to fit into this last part of the album.  Using tape loops that were superimposed, backwards piano loops, and other strange noises including the repetitive ‘number nine’ spoken word, the song has no real singing, chord progression, any specific key, or even any easily definable instrument(s)!  Many fans would blame this mistake of a song on the influence that Yoko Ono had on John.
So as not to end on such a bad note, the album is finished with the song “Good Night”.  The second time Ringo appears as lead vocal; this song was written by Lennon as a lullaby for his son Julian.  It was given to Ringo to sing most likely because John didn’t want people to know he had such a sensitive side.  The fade out at the end of the song ends The Beatles The White Album. 
The final assembling of the LP was finished on Wednesday, October 16th and Thursday the 17th. It was finally released on November 22nd, 1968 and was the #1 album in the US and the UK. It was named the ‘soundtrack to counterculture’. It would be very difficult to pinpoint just one specific genre that “The White Album” could be categorized under.  Each of the four band members contributed quite a lot to the making of the album but it was clear looking back at their musical styles and recording sessions that things were getting rocky. In late 1968 there were quite a bit of financial affairs that weren’t being dealt with and the other boys were beginning to become irritated with Johns’ infatuation with Yoko. Although there were problems, it must have been hard to imagine that they’d no longer be a band just two years later!  Fans still went wild for The Beatles music, no matter what style it was they played, their financial standings, or their relationship together as a band. For fans then and now, all 93 minutes and 35 seconds of “The White Album” was worth paying for and listening to again and again.






















Works Cited
The Beatles White Album. Web. 01 Aug. 2011.
<http://www.beatlealbum.com/>.

Gould, Jonathan. Can't Buy Me Love: the Beatles, Britain, and America. New York:
Harmony, 2007. Print.

Spignesi, Stephen J., and Michael Lewis. Here, There, and
Everywhere: the 100 Best Beatles Songs. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2004. Print.

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