FROM THE PAST
On November 22, 1968, the Beatles' White Album was released. Let's see some curiosities related to this record
The masterpiece of the Beatles has always remained the greatest mystery in their history.
This double album contains the strangest, most experimental and most brilliant music of their career. The White Album is also the prelude to what will be four independent roads that the members of the Liverpool group will soon have to travel.
The quarrels and discussions faced during the gestation of that record have remained legendary, even if from the record you can perceive a playful and relaxed atmosphere.
The masterpiece of the Beatles has always remained the greatest mystery in their history.
This double album contains the strangest, most experimental and most brilliant music of their career. It is also the prelude to what will be four independent paths that the members of the Liverpool group will soon have to travel. The quarrels and discussions faced during the gestation of that project have remained legendary, even if from the record you can perceive a playful and relaxed atmosphere.
The Indian period was a great inspiration for most of the songs that make up the ninth album of Beatles.
Although the meditative story ended as we all know well, the sounds and experiments that characterize it are affected by what was the meditative experience, and above all by the lack of electrical instruments during his stay at Maharashi Mahesh Yogi. To this must be added a good dose of finger picking taught to them by Donovan, also in India at the same time.
A first version, all acoustic, of the album The Beatles, passed into history as The White Album, is found in the so-called Esher demos.
The bootleg was recorded in Esher, in the home of George Harrison, and contains nineteen of the twenty-seven tracks from the future album. The dialogues (few) recorded between one piece and another, report a pleasant atmosphere during the sessions. Exactly the opposite of what happened in the studio during the recording of the album. It is said that on that occasion the Beatles were friends for the last time, before the situation began to crack definitively.
Perhaps it is an exaggeration to speak of a climate of hatred, during the recordings (which lasted four months).
But surely the climate was tense and tested the patience of many. The first to give in was Geoff Emerick (studio technician) who one day went out the door never to return. Even the patience of George Martin, the so-called "fifth beatles", was severely tested: substantially opposed to an album of that kind, he repeatedly left the work to his deputy, to stay away as much as possible from the torrid climate of Abbey Road. Even Ringo Starr, notoriously the least quarrelsome of the group, at one point decided to leave, and only the intervention of George Harrison convinced him to return.
Getty / Mark and Colleen Hayward
The anarchy that reigned in the studio, however, gave vent to individual individuals.
Exalting and giving free rein to the creativity of Beatles, albeit in individual mode. However, this also proved to be counterproductive. Just to mention one case, Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, which is said to be the worst song ever of the Beatles, took 47 takes to come to a conclusion, putting a strain on the patience of Lennon, who literally hated this nursery rhyme and who ended up leaving the studio after railing against McCartney. Returning after a very short time, overwhelmed (on the other hand he had just started with heroin), he put himself in automaton style on what he called "Paul's granny shit". This occasion led to the end of the Lennon-McCartney partnership and to the competition between the two, not always a harbinger of good success.
Naturally, George and Ringo felt this tense climate, feeling relegated to outside viewers.
But in the midst of all this they managed to take home some satisfaction. Ringo manages to get a whole piece credited by the group (after four years of insistence), while George managed to bring into the studio a certain Eric Clapton, who with his presence was able to make the work environment more serious.
The minimal aesthetic of this album is born in contrast to the chaotic and colorful one of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearths Club Band.
It was a way to provoke all conspirators who found hidden meanings behind everything related to Beatles. Lennon himself spreads a series of clues and bogus phrases to the crowd of PID conspiracy theorists (Paul Is Dead). A disturbing note is that linked to Charles Manson, whose sick mind determined that the Beatles were the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and that in the songs there were messages addressed to him. This led to the sad epilogue in which he and his sect killed using forks and knives as in the finale of Piggies, and smeared the walls writing with blood "pig" and especially "Helter Skelter".
Pictured is a 1969 release of the album, signed by Lennon and Yoko Ono passed by Christie's in 2005.
In the United States, the double disc proved to be a success even before it was released. Capitol Records had to print 3.2 million copies to satisfy fans. In three weeks, the album went from eleventh to number one on the charts in Billboard, and stayed there for nine weeks.