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The Beatles: the White Album | 
| Artist: The Beatles
Label: Apple
Category: Music
List Price: £24.99
Buy New: £11.47
You Save: £13.52 (54%)
New (27) Used (4) Collectible (1) from £11.46
Rating:  82 reviews
Sales Rank: 70
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.7 x 0.9
UPC: 077774644389
EAN: 0077774644389
ASIN: B000026B01
Release Date: August 24, 1987
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Back In The U.S.S.R. | | • | Dear Prudence | | • | Glass Onion | | • | Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da | | • | Wild Honey Pie | | • | The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill | | • | While My Guitar Gently Weeps | | • | Happiness Is A Warm Gun | | • | Martha My Dear | | • | Im So Tired | | • | Blackbird | | • | Piggies | | • | Rocky Raccoon | | • | Don't Pass Me By | | • | Why Don't We Do It In The Road | | • | I Will | | • | Julia |
Disc 2
| • | Birthday | | • | Yer Blues | | • | Mother Nature's Son | | • | Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me & My Monkey | | • | Sexy Sadie | | • | Helter Skelter | | • | Long Long Long | | • | Revolution 1 | | • | Honey Pie | | • | Savoy Truffle | | • | Cry Baby Cry | | • | Revolution 9 | | • | Good Night |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
The White Album was meant to be the record that brought the Beatles back to earth after three years of studio experimentation. Instead, it took them all over the place, continuing to burst the envelope of pop music. Lennon and McCartney were still at the height of their songwriting powers, with Lennon in particular growing into one of music's towering figures. But even McCartney could still rock, and the amazement on "Helter Skelter" was that he had vocal cords at the end. From Beach Boys knock-offs to reggae and to the unknown ("Revolution #9"), this has it all. Some records have "legend" written all over them; this is one. --Chris Nickson
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| Customer Reviews: Read 77 more reviews...
 Their Tortured Masterpiece September 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It had been a tough year and a bit for The Beatles. Their manager Brian Epstein had committed suicide, their Magical Mystery Tour had seen them mauled by critics for the first time, and their attempts to practise transcendental meditation in India with the Maharishi had ended in disaster. It was during that ill-fated trip that most of these songs were written.
Inside the band itself, the situation was also far from hunky dory. Lennon would soon lose interest in the band, spending more and more time with his new partner Yoko Ono instead. Harrison was increasingly sick of being overlooked by John and Paul, who still only permitted him a few songs per album (he has four out of thirty here). Sensing this unease in the band, McCartney increasingly took charge of the group, a fatherly attitude which further annoyed the others. Meanwhile Ringo gets sole writing credit for `Don't Pass Me By', not one of the album's best but certainly pleasant enough.
It was with these tensions that The Beatles made The White Album, a self-titled song collection that derives its popular nickname from a stark white cover. Most of the songs here are pretty much solo compositions, as the band's two main songwriters had both begun to jealously guard their own work, allowing only minimal input from the other. Ironically, this is the album where George Harrison finally became their equal, writing a couple of the very best songs here.
Beginning with the sound of a plane taking off, Back In The USSR is a Beach Boys homage with a thumping piano beat and lyrics that were fairly controversial during the middle of the Cold War. This fades hauntingly into the acoustic Dear Prudence, written to encourage Mia Farrow's sister out of hut-bound seclusion during the India trip. Glass Onion mockingly references other Beatles songs, providing more fodder for those fans desperate to read hidden meanings into their work. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is a bouncy tale of inter-racial marriage with a happy ending. Wild Honey Pie is a 50-second oddity that reinforces the strange new direction The Beatles had taken. The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill sounds more like a twisted nursery rhyme than a rock song, a trait common to much of The White Album.
Next is While My Guitar Gently Weeps, possibly the album's best song. Written by Harrison and featuring guitar from his friend Eric Clapton, it tells of spiritual pain and disillusionment. Happiness Is A Warm Gun is one of the album's most oddly structured songs, featuring several disorientating changes of tone one after another. Martha My Dear is a nice piano ditty that may or may not be inspired by McCartney's dog, depending on who you believe. I'm So Tired is another pained Lennon contribution (he was clearly not having a fun time in 1968). Blackbird is a Bach-inspired piece, once again acoustic because this was the only instrument available to the band in India, and comprising some tasteful samples of the eponymous bird's song.
Piggies is perhaps the bitterest song present, comparing Capitalism to pigs eating bacon, unfortunately a key inspiration for the Manson cult's murder spree. Rocky Raccoon is a slightly unhinged story of a spurned lover setting out (and failing) to kill his rival for the woman in question's affections, featuring some honky-tonk piano. Don't Pass Me By is a bluesy country song written by Starr, the writing of which predated recording by at least four years. Why Don't We Do It In The Road? originated from Paul seeing two monkeys doing just that, and I Will is another McCartney effort, written for future spouse Linda Eastman. The first disc of the CD version (and second side of the original vinyl) ends with Julia, written for Lennon's dead mother and the only Beatles song on which he is the sole performer. This is one of the album's most beautiful compositions, imbued with a real sense of sadness and longing.
Disc Two opens with Birthday, on which McCartney sounds near-psychotic with celebration. Yer Blues expresses suicidal intent, the sort of soul-purging that would become increasingly common during Lennon's solo career. After this, the subdued Mother Nature's Son is a relief to hear - an early version of what would become Jealous Guy was dropped from the album because of perceived similarities to this McCartney tune. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey supposedly concerns Lennon and Ono, though alternative suggestions have been made such as drugs (it was around this time that Lennon acquired a taste for heroin). Sexy Sadie was originally called Maharishi, but George convinced John to alter the lyrics, though the sentiments remain the same. Helter Skelter is The Beatles' loudest and craziest song, the point where this album sounds most disturbed. Long, Long, Long is an extremely subtle Harrison piece, easy to overlook amidst more attention-grabbing Lennon and McCartney songs, but actually incredibly beautiful.
Revolution 1 was Lennon's response to a hippy movement that had grown increasingly violent, saying that he wants change but won't become brutalised to get it. Honey Pie is another of McCartney's music-hall-style recordings, which a lot of people sniff at but I think are actually quite good (this one especially). Savoy Truffle is probably Harrison's weakest contribution here, name-checking the contents of a chocolate box. Cry Baby Cry was inspired by fairy tales, ending with a brief McCartney segment that pleas `Can you take me back?', as though begging to return to a pre-Beatles childhood. The album's penultimate track is its most controversial, Lennon's chaotic sound collage called Revolution 9: personally I think it's interesting and genuinely haunting, though not one of the album's very best. Finally comes Good Night, a soaring ballad that Lennon wanted to sound deliberately cheesy.
And so that's it. The White Album is The Beatles' most endlessly fascinating album, simply because it features such a wide range of styles and moods. Overall the tone is dark and depressed, a result of the isolation and slight sadness felt by the band that had by now surpassed all its contemporaries. As though longing to regress to youth, many of the songs have a distinctly childhood feel, though it's not the happy one of Sgt Pepper a year earlier. My favourite tracks are `Dear Prudence', `Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da', `While My Guitar Gently Weeps', `Blackbird', `Rocky Raccoon', `Julia', `Mother Nature's Son', `Sexy Sadie', `Helter Skelter', `Long, Long, Long' and `Revolution 1'.
 First steps to break-up September 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Of all the major albums produced by the Beatles, this is the least coherent. The need to produce output for the purposes of the EMI contract led to some distinctly low quality rushed material from all the participants - in many ways a precursor to the substandard offerings to come later under their individual names. No longer greater than the sum of their parts, this is just four individuals showing their limitations. George Martin thought that it could have made one high quality album if the extensive dross (especially from heroin and Ono fixated Lennon) had been dispensed with, and he was right. This was probably the only occasion when the Beatles short changed their fans for selfish purposes. An example of the Beatles in decline, to be matched only by the Spectorised Let It Be.
NO filler September 3, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Really great tunes here! For a contemporary comparison I recommend Nick Worrall. His album is FREE to download as well.
Quite simply a work of GENIUS August 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is my favourite Beatles album and to all those who say it contains filler I will state that in my opinion it takes a long time to appreciate the finer details of this record - ie on the first few plays YES you are going to think there's some filler. I had the same opinion of Pet Sounds when I first heard it. Truly deep and meaningful music *does* take time to be fully absorbed and whilst initially I agreed with a lot of other folk that this should have been a single LP, I have since grown to appreciate *every* single song on this double collection. I would not drop any of them from the track list (well maybe Revolution No.9). I suppose this is The Beatles' rock record and perhaps those of a pop persuasion don't get it purely because it doesn't sound like Help or Rubber Soul. Well I'm into a lot of rock bands but I *love* Help & Rubber Soul and I also like Pet Sounds (hardly a 'rock' record in the traditional sense) so to me the fact The Beatles flit between different genres only enhances their appeal - Zeppelin and Queen did this further down the line and were all the more interesting for it. Those who dismiss the white album as having filler just haven't listened to it enough! It's like only reading a few lines from each chapter of a book and thinking you know the whole story, you need to spend a lot of quality time with this album in order to truly appreciate it. When it clicks believe me, it truly clicks! I just cannot understand a Beatles fan who doesn't consider this to be a 5-star album.
Pick this up while you still can August 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Imagine how lucky you would feel if you were invited into Abbey Road studio to hear the master tape of the White Album. Well, what this CD version is is the next best thing, a flat transfer of the Abbey Road master tape on CD... no EQ, no noise reduction, no compression or any other Modern mastering techniques that destroy the dynamic range of classic recordings. Is it quieter than a modern CD? Yes, but that's why we have volume knobs.
If the rumours are correct then the Beatles recordings will be re-mastered and re-released, whether good or bad the White album will not sound like this does. We can only hope when they are re-released that the Mono Mix finally gets it's CD debut. It's absolutley scandalous that this has not been available for over 20 years. But for the stereo version, IMO this is the definitive version and the best sounding of all the original Beatles cd's
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