Today is the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles’ - The Beatles album, affectionately known as The White Album, and there is no better other way to regenerate the jukebox than by starting with this album. The trouble is where do you start with this album? It is a feast of musical masterpieces, which starts with Back in the USSR and ends with Number Nine, and shows off the extraordinary talents of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison & Starr. If anything, this for me, this is their sad album because it is the individual talent that shines throughout the tracks and signals that this supergroup is outgrowing each other.
There is no way I can do this album justice in one blog post so, over the next four weeks, I am going to cover some of the songs on this remarkable album. If I had to pick one song and discard all the others, the one song I would keep is Blackbird. I know it’s the obvious choice, but it is one of the most beautiful songs I think that has ever been written. For years, I’ve listened to this song, without fully appreciating its true meaning. For those, who may not know, Blackbird is not only a reference to the bird but also to the race relations and the plight of African-American Women at that time. 1968 was a poignant year for America as only months earlier Martin Luther King had been assassinated.
Recorded as a solo performance on the album with McCartney playing a Martin D 28 acoustic guitar, the lyrics brings goosebumps whenever I listen to it. It is a standard out song that captures a moment of history. The tune itself was based on Bach’s Bourée in E Minor, a tune Paul & George tried to teach themselves at school.
But anyone who listened to the album will know that Blackbird isn’t the only creature to appear on the album, with Rocky Racoon and Piggies both appearing on the album and there’s the reference to the walrus in Glass Onion. I remember the first few times I heard these songs and how visual the lyrics were in describing these characters. As I writer and lover of music, I love musicians who can tell a character’s story as strongly as the Beatles.
Listen and enjoy the first four tracks and look out for more over the coming weeks
Tracks from The Beatles
Written by: Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Starr
Released: 22nd November 1968
