SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Do yourself a favor and listen to ‘The White Album’
Nov 9, 2018, 2:09 PM | Updated: 2:20 pm
In this Oct. 26, 1965 file photo The Beatles, from left: Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison smile as they display the Member of The Order of The British Empire medals presented to them by Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony in Buckingham Palace in London, England. The Beatles' psychedelic masterwork "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" has been named the most popular British album in history. (AP Photo, File)
(AP Photo, File)
I want you to play a little mind game with me. Imagine you’re you, but 50 years ago. You’re a teenager or maybe in your 20s. This is 1968, so there’s no internet, cell phones, personal computers and the like. The Vietnam War is in full swing, and you’re doing your thing.
You’re talking to your friends at school or work and you learn that you really need to go to the record store ASAP. Something important is happening. You hop in your friend’s 1965 Ford Galaxie and head on down to the mom and pop music store. You plunk down your hard-earned $11.98 for what seems like a blank piece of vinyl. There’s no artwork at all.
You have to wait until you get all the way home because the in-dash cassette deck has not been invented yet. It will be decades before CD players or Bluetooth sound systems.
You rush home, turn on the hi-fi, and put the needle down not knowing what to expect.
It was 50 years ago this month that The Beatles released their double album masterpiece, The White Album. This was how everyone had to listen to it. Sure, you might catch a tune on the radio, but if you wanted to hear it, you had to gather around the stereo in someone’s house and just sit there and listen.
If you haven’t done it lately, dial up these songs and just let it play. It’s a tour de force of musical talent.
After Back in the U.S.S.R. was Dear Prudence, then Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, before Eric Clapton joined the four lads from Liverpool for this classic.
Follow that with Happiness is a Warm Gun, Blackbird, Rocky Raccoon, Don’t Pass Me By and you’re almost done with the first album. If they stopped right there, it would be considered one of the greatest albums in rock history.
You take a breath, then get up and put album 1 back into the sleeve and pull out album 2.
What’s on sides 3&4? How about Birthday, Helter Skelter, and this song that is just as relevant today as it was half a century ago.
I could go on, but all these songs were on the same release. It’s mind boggling by today’s music standards. If you get two hits on a record today, it’s a smash. And those songs will mostly be forgotten in a few months. You have arguably a dozen all-time great pop songs just on this record.
Oh and they did it on an 8 track recorder.
Do yourself a favor this weekend and go into a mental time machine, hop in your car, drive around and listen to the White Album.
It’s that good.
“What Are We Talking About Here” can be heard every weekday at 4:50 p.m. and 6:50 p.m. on the Ron & Don Show on KIRO Radio 97.3 FM.
