Chords for Ten Interesting Facts About The Beatles' White Album

The Beatles self-titled album, commonly known as the White Album, is one of their most controversial
releases of their career.
A double LP with a massive amount of fan favorite songs like Dear
Prudence, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Blackbird, Julia, and Helter Skelter.
The White Album is a
powerhouse collection of [C#] songs.
So today we're going to show you 10 very interesting facts about
the Beatles White Album.
Let's begin.
The White Album's original working title was A Doll's [G#m] House,
named that after Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's 1879 play.
But the Beatles had to change
it because the British prog group Family released their debut [E] album, Music in a Doll's House, in
July 1968.
So through some deliberation the band decided to title their album The Beatles,
their first self-titled album.
Going back to February 1968, when the Beatles were visiting
Rishikesh to learn Transcendental Meditation for a few weeks, they found the atmosphere incredibly
inspiring in terms of songwriting, writing mainly on acoustic guitars and picking up a few
finger-picking methods from Donovan.
India proved to be the birthplace of many of the White Album's
songs, including but not limited to the continuing story [D#] of Bungalow Bill, Why Don't We Do It in the
Road, I'm So Tired, Mother Nature's Son, I Will, and Sexy Sadie.
The latter being a cheeky commentary
from John on the Maharishi and some of his unseemly behavior.
After returning to England
from their extended stay in India, the group went over to George Harrison's Esher Bungalow [E] in May
1968 to record demo versions of their new song.
These are called the Esher demos.
They recorded
approximately 27 songs on George's Ampex reel-to-reel tape recorder.
19 of these songs would later
appear on the White Album and it's unclear how many songs were actually recorded first at George's
house, seeing that it's possible the lads could have recorded separately and brought them in for
overdubbing and further review.
But the Esher demos are a [G] great resource for any Beatles [E] fans
wanting to hear Beatles songs in their infancy, how they started and how they ended up.
By the
summer of 1968, the Beatles were working separately more and more and George Martin wasn't always
impressed with what they were composing in this regard.
Something had changed.
George Martin says
they came in with a whole welter of songs.
I think there were over 30 actually and I was a bit
overwhelmed by them and yet underwhelmed at the same time because some of them weren't great.
I
thought we should have probably have made a very very good single album rather than a double but
they insisted.
I think it could have been made fantastically good if it had been compressed a bit
and condensed.
A lot of people I know still think it's the best album they made.
_ By the time to
record the White Album, John had begun divorcing Cynthia and was fully in love with Yoko Ono and
began using heroin.
The Beatles rarely invited outsiders through the recording and this caused
quite a bit of strain on the already fragmented Beatles.
Paul recalls this shift saying it was
fairly off-putting having her sitting on one of the amps.
You wanted to say, excuse me love, can I
turn the volume up?
We were always wondering how to say could you get off my amp without interfering
with the relationship.
It was a very difficult time.
I felt that when John finally left the group
he did it to clear the decks for his relationship.
Anything prior to that meant the decks weren't
clear.
He had all his Beatles baggage, all his having to relate to us.
He just wanted to go off
into the corner and look into Yoko's eyes for hours saying to each other it's going to be all
right.
It was pretty freaky.
Looking at it now you can be amused by it.
It was quite a laugh really
but at the time this [D#] was us and it was our careers.
We were the Beatles after all and here was this
The [G#m] Beatles White album was a very tense one to make.
A few months into recording the band was
splitting up more and more.
Paul had recorded Wild Honey Pie, Mother Nature's Son and Blackbird all
without the other Beatles and if they would record together it would be almost like having a Beatles
member as a sessions player, [C#] not the usual contributor.
[G#m]
Engineer Ken Scott recalls what
happened when John and Ringo walked into one [E] of Paul's session times saying suddenly halfway
through John and Ringo walked in and you could cut the atmosphere with a knife.
An instant change.
It was like that for 10 minutes and then as soon as they left it felt great again.
It was very
bizarre.
But John wanted to play with Paul but it seems with all the tension, drug busts, drug use
and new relationships it was all too much.
John says he wanted to be on the song Why Don't We Do
It On The Road but couldn't for some reason.
John says [N] that's Paul.
He even recorded it by himself
in another room.
That's how it was getting in those days.
We came in and he'd made the whole
record.
Him drumming, him playing the piano, [E] him singing.
But he couldn't.
He couldn't.
Maybe he
couldn't make the break from the Beatles.
I don't know what it was.
You know I enjoyed the track.
Still I can't speak for George but I was always hurt when Paul would knock something off without
involving us.
But that's just the way it was then.
Jeff Emmerich who had been working with the Beatles
since Revolver decided it was time to abandon ship because he couldn't work under their toxic
conditions.
And George Martin who was with the Beatles for the majority of the professional career
felt the pressure compounding to the point where he abruptly left on holiday leaving the band to
be produced by his assistant Chris Thomas.
Martin says, for the first time I had to split myself
three ways because at any one time we were recording in different [Em] studios.
It became very
fragmented.
Poor Ringo felt like he was being pulled in every which way and was fed up with
his band dissolving in front of his eyes.
So he quit.
Ringo says, I left because I felt two things.
I felt I wasn't playing great and I also felt that the other three were [E] really happy and I was an
outsider.
I went to see John who had been living in my apartment in Montague Square with Yoko.
I said I'm leaving the group because I'm not playing well and I feel unloved and out of it
and you three are really close.
And John said I thought it was you three.
While Ringo took his
vacation the rest of the band felt guilty for their behavior and extended an olive branch.
Ringo
continues, I got a telegram saying you're the best rock and roll drummer in the world.
Come on home
we love you.
And so I came back.
We all needed that little shake up.
When I got back to the studio I
found George had had it decked out with flowers.
There were flowers everywhere.
I felt good about
myself again.
We got through that little crisis and it was great.
Although the recording process
was mired with issue after issue Ringo actually holds the White Album in great esteem even over
Sgt Pepper's saying Sgt Pepper's did its thing.
It was the album of the decade of the century maybe.
It was very innovative with great songs.
It was a real pleasure and I'm glad I was on it but the
White Album ended up being a better album for me.
Released on November 22nd 1968 in the UK five
years to the day of their second album with the Beatles the White Album has become the Beatles'
best-selling album hitting platinum 19 times and it is the 10th best-selling album of all time in
the United States.
It's remarkable that even though this was [D#m] the crucial chapter of the Beatles' breakup
they were still able to create [B] such a beloved [F#] album.
_ Well that's all for today everyone.
I hope
you enjoyed the video and big thanks [C#] to contributing author Leah Robbins.
Check out my album [F#] on Spotify
and Apple [C#] Music.
Support the channel on Patreon [D#] and honestly just have an awesome day.
See you next time.
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