Song 194 - The White Album - The Beatles

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

Blackbird

Piggies

Rocky Racoon

Glass Onion

Tracks from The Beatles

Written by: Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Starr

Released: 22nd November 1968

Song 163 - Birthday by the Beatles

It might be an obvious song for me today but this song is relevant to somebody every day of the year, and if you have ever created a birthday mega mix for a friend, this was a great opening track.
Written, of course, by John Lennon and Paul McCartney it was the first song on the third side of their double album, The Beatles, which is more commonly known as the White Album. The White Album was recorded on the 18 September 1968 during a recording session and sees a return to traditional rock and roll style of the early Beatles' music. An interesting fact about this track was credited equally between John and Paul, at a time when, individually, they were all moving in their own musical direction. There has been some debate on whether this is true.

Birthday was never released as a single for the band; but would eventually be released by Paul McCartney as a live track in 1990 and it reached number 29 in the UK chart. Birthday is probably one of the more minor tracks of the Album, which includes tracks like Back in the USSR, Glass Onion, Julia, Blackbird, Honey Pie, and I will.  The list is endless. The White Album was the 9th studio album released by the Beatles in 1968, which followed Sgt. Pepper's Loney Hearts Club Band. The album shows the development of all four member of the band as individual musicians who were beginning to break away from each other. When you look at the album's credits names like Eric Clapton, Pattie Harrison, Mal Evans, Yoko Uno and Maureen Starky, you can see why sometimes the studio seemed very full when they were they were recording between May and November 1968. Most of the songs were written in India and you can hear its influence especially in George Harrison's music.

I remember, for a very long time, I didn't have this album on CD due to the expense and then I was given it for my birthday by my sister and brother-in-law as I had been apparently dropping hints about owning it, but I wasn't aware that I had been doing this.  Then friends of mine gave me a book all about the the album, which is just a perfect companion to the album. I think I now have three copies of the albums, both in Mono and Stereo. If you have the chance to listen to this album do as this it is a remarkable piece of art; but I will bet that you'll know songs from the album without even listening to it.

Listen to the Birthday track here

Cheers to everyone who has a birthday today.