The Beatles [Remastered]

by The Beatles

Overview

A legendary Beatles recording that defies the very pop music conventions they themselves created, this album is the longest effort by the Fab Four, clocking in at a wild and wonderful 93 minutes. By 1968, the Beatles were less a band than an amalgamation of four rapidly diverging personalities who still made incredible music together. From the airplane sample in "Back in the U.S.S.R." to the musique concrète experimentation of "Revolution 9," The White Album is never less than striking. Despite the presence of sweet tunes like "Blackbird," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (which, yes, featured Eric Clapton), and "Dear Prudence," this is a bitter, caustic, and often sardonic recording. "Glass Onion" rips those who misread their songs, "Back in the U.S.S.R." sends up the Beach Boys, and many a self-proclaimed freedom fighter was skewered by "Revolution 1." Even the internal friction is evident: When Harrison, the most serene of the four, wrote, "We all know Obla-Di-Bla-Da/But can you show me, where you are?" in the gourmet-savvy "Savoy Truffle," it was clear that the party was all but over.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/09/2009
Label:	Capitol
UPC:	0094638246626
catalogNumber:	82466
Rank:	18840

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Back In The U.S.S.R.
2. Dear Prudence
3. Glass Onion
4. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
5. Wild Honey Pie
6. The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
8. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
9. Martha My Dear
10. I'm So Tired
11. Blackbird
12. Piggies
13. Rocky Racoon
14. Don't Pass Me By
15. Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
16. I Will
17. Julia

Disc 2

1. Birthday
2. Yer Blues
3. Mother Nature's Son
4. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
5. Sexy Sadie
6. Helter Skelter
7. Long, Long, Long
8. Revolution 1
9. Honey Pie
10. Savoy Truffle
11. Cry Baby Cry
12. Revolution 9
13. Good Night
14. The Beatles Documentary

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Beatles   Primary Artist

Editorial Reviews

Each song on the sprawling double album The Beatles is an entity to itself, as the band touches on anything and everything it can. This makes for a frustratingly scattershot record or a singularly gripping musical experience, depending on your view, but what makes the so-called White Album interesting is its mess. Never before had a rock record been so self-reflective, or so ironic; the Beach Boys send-up "Back in the U.S.S.R." and the British blooze parody "Yer Blues" are delivered straight-faced, so it's never clear if these are affectionate tributes or wicked satires. Lennon turns in two of his best ballads with "Dear Prudence" and "Julia"; scours the Abbey Road vaults for the musique concrète collage "Revolution 9"; pours on the schmaltz for Ringo's closing number, "Good Night"; celebrates the Beatles cult with "Glass Onion"; and, with "Cry Baby Cry," rivals Syd Barrett. McCartney doesn't reach quite as far, yet his songs are stunning -- the music hall romp "Honey Pie," the mock country of "Rocky Raccoon," the ska-inflected "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," and the proto-metal roar of "Helter Skelter." Clearly, the Beatles' two main songwriting forces were no longer on the same page, but neither were George and Ringo. Harrison still had just two songs per LP, but it's clear from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," the canned soul of "Savoy Truffle," the haunting "Long, Long, Long," and even the silly "Piggies" that he had developed into a songwriter who deserved wider exposure. And Ringo turns in a delight with his first original, the lumbering country-carnival stomp "Don't Pass Me By." None of it sounds like it was meant to share album space together, but somehow The Beatles creates its own style and sound through its mess.

All Music Guide - Stephen Thomas Erlewine