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The White Album (Music)
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The Beatles is the self-titled tenth studio album by The Beatles, released in 1968 through the band's newly established vanity label Apple Records. It was given the unofficial monkier of "The White Album", owed to its completely white album cover. Nowadays, most people — including the band themselves — refer to this nickname rather than the official title, both because of the iconic nature of the cover and to distinguish it in discussions not only from the band themselves, but also the two self-titled compilation albums released in 1973 (which themselves are respectively known as "the Red Album" and "the Blue album").The album had its roots in the group's extended visit to Rishikesh, India in early 1968, where they took part in a retreat at the ashram of Transcendental Meditation founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (along with Donovan, Mike Love and Mia Farrow). While the retreat ended in disappointment, all four Beatles had found the isolated environment to be musically stimulating, and they arrived back from India with dozens of new songs. After putting together a set of demos of the songs at George's house in Esher, recording formally commenced at the end of May with John's "Revolution 1". Four-and-a-half months later, another Lennon song, "Julia", was the 30th and final song recorded for an album that had experienced a dramatically Troubled Production.The White Album became the Beatles' first and onlynote not counting their compilation albums double album. The songs feature a lot of variation in style and mood. Overall, the record sounds almost like a compilation record featuring the band members as solo artists instead of a unified work. The atmosphere at the sessions got so bad that the famously chill Ringo Starr grew frustrated and briefly quit the band (Paul McCartney took over on drums for "Back in the USSR" and "Dear Prudence", and John Lennon and George Harrison also contributed to the "USSR" drum track). From this album on, Yoko Ono made herself present next to John in the studio, and this certainly caused even more tensions, seeing that the band had always recorded with them four alone.Though not as popular as other Beatle records like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Abbey Road, this album is widely considered an important and influential record, not least because of it being a huge inspiration for numerous rock bands. When something gets compared to the White Album, it's almost invariably a shorthand way of saying "long album with huge variety of styles, inevitably will attract complaints about Album Filler". It generated hits such as "Back in the USSR", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", and "Revolution" (though the single version is a totally different arrangement). "Dear Prudence", "Helter Skelter", "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", "Don't Pass Me By", "Sexy Sadie", and "Blackbird" have become fan favourites, while "Revolution #9" is perhaps the most notorious and audacious track — exciting for Avant-Garde Music fans and filler to most other people.The album also got some notoriety because Charles Manson misinterpreted some lyrics from the songs "Piggies", "Revolution 9" and "Helter Skelter" to order his followers to go on a murdering spree.This was the last Beatles album to have a separate stereo and mono mix as more popular music listeners were upgrading to stereo equipment. The mono version was only released in the U.K. and would be the last mono release by the band.2018 saw the album's 50th anniversary celebrated with several "deluxe" sets, which included the complete Esher demos and numerous outtakes given their first official releases (after being featured on countless low quality bootleg albums), and, as with the anniversary release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a new stereo mix by Giles Martin.The song "Glass Onion" is the Trope Namer for The Walrus Was Paul. | |
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| The White Album (Music) / int_10f35f3a | type |
Creator Breakdown | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_10f35f3a | comment |
Lennon later admitted that the lyrics were inspired by his own Creator Breakdown, as the song was written while he was "trying to reach God and feeling suicidal" but he deliberately made them as over-the-top as possible so that if anyone worried and asked, he could pass the song off as just a parody. The parody aspect also comes from Lennon's own wish to write a Blues song but not being sure if he was capable of imitating the blues musicians he listened to in school, making him opt instead to parody the British blues-rock boom at the time. | |
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Subliminal Seduction | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_11d206ef | comment |
The Paul is Dead myth centers on a number of alleged clues from this album, often based on playing songs backwards. Most famously, John's mumbling at the end of "I'm So Tired" is supposed to reverse to "Paul is dead, man. Miss him, miss him, miss him!" and on "Revolution 9", "number nine" reverses to "turn me on, dead man". | |
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Urban Legends | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_12e0bb9 | comment |
Urban Legends: The Paul is Dead myth centers on a number of alleged clues from this album, often based on playing songs backwards. Most famously, John's mumbling at the end of "I'm So Tired" is supposed to reverse to "Paul is dead, man. Miss him, miss him, miss him!" and on "Revolution 9", "number nine" reverses to "turn me on, dead man". The Minimalistic Cover Art, the slightly-censored nude pic of Paul on the album's poster, and the nude photos of John and Yoko on the jacket of Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, released around the same time, all got conflated into a false story that the cover was originally going to have nude Beatles, but was censored and painted white. | |
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Madness Mantra | |
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Madness Mantra: Number nine... Number nine... Number nine... Number nine... Number nine... Number nine... | |
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Darker and Edgier | |
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Darker and Edgier: Several songs like "Cry Baby Cry", "Julia", "Piggies"... are quite haunting compared to their previous songs. "Revolution 9" is perhaps their edgiest track ever officially released. | |
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Protest Song | |
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Protest Song: Subverted with "Revolution", a protest about protesters (and specifically those supportive of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, in John's "Chairman Mao" reference" - this may specifically refer to then-recent May '68 general strike and protests in France, where many student protesters marched holding up pictures of Chairman Mao). Double Subverted in "Revolution 1", where Lennon realized that he didn't actually know if he was for or against the protesters. | |
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The Wild West | |
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The Wild West: "Rocky Racoon" is a Wild West tale of failed revenge. | |
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Scare Chord | |
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Scare Chord: Ends "Piggies". The ending of "Long, Long, Long" is way scarier. A wine bottle that was placed on the Hammond organ's Leslie speaker began to shake when Paul hit a certain note. Deciding to leave it in the recording, George added the wailing voice and Ringo threw in the ominous snare roll. It sounds like a coffin is closing at a funeral while the widow weeps. | |
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all lowercase letters | |
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all lowercase letters: Well, not quite. But on the lyric sheet that accompanied the record, two of the songs are actually titled "I'm so tired" and "Why don't we do it in the road?". | |
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Revenge Ballad | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_1d6befa7 | comment |
Revenge Ballad: "Rocky Raccoon" chronicles the failed revenge plot of a man called Rocky against the man who stole his girl. | |
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Alice Allusion | |
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Alice Allusion: Lennon said "Cry Baby Cry" was inspired by the scene in Alice in Wonderland where Alice meets the Duchess and her crying baby. | |
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Breaking the Fourth Wall | |
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Breaking the Fourth Wall: Ringo is getting nearer to the microphone during "Good Night" when he says: "Good night, everybody. Everybody, everywhere", as if directly talking to us, the audience. | |
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Ambiguous Situation | |
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Ambiguous Situation: Does Rocky die at the end of "Rocky Raccoon"? That's the most common interpretation although it isn't clear from the lyrics. | |
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Black Comedy | |
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Black Comedy: The little piglets in "Piggies" are whacked down and then eaten by other pigs. | |
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Chekhov's Gun | |
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Chekhov's Gun: At the start of "Rocky Raccoon", Rocky checks into a hotel room and finds a Gideons' Bible. Other stuff happens, and then at the end he picks up the Bible again, apparently undergoing a religious conversion. (Another interpretation would be that Rocky is dying, but either way the Gideon Bible helps him find Jesus.) | |
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Aborted Arc | |
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Aborted Arc: Despite being called "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" the song just ends and isn't referred to anywhere else on the album. The song starts In Medias Res, has No Ending, and seems to be an Affectionate Parody of old radio serials and other pop culture artefacts (there's also a reference to Captain Marvel, though which incarnation is unclear). | |
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There's No Place Like Home | |
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There's No Place Like Home: "Back In The USSR", where the protagonist is glad to be back home after a long and terrible flight. | |
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Age-Progression Song | |
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Age-Progression Song: "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" where the singer Desmond meets a girl named Molly, marries her in the second verse and they raise a family afterwards. | |
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Special Guest | |
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Special Guest: Eric Clapton plays lead guitar on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (because Harrison thought the presence of a respected outsider would get everyone to stop arguing for a while; reportedly, it worked); famed session musician Nicky Hopkins plays piano on "Revolution" and a few other tracks; engineer/producer Chris Thomas plays the harpsichord on "Piggies"; and jazz musician Jack Fallon provides the fiddle on "Don't Pass Me By". A lot of the Beatles' friends and significant others were roped in to contribute. Mal Evans does backing vocals and hand-claps on "Dear Prudence", hand-claps on "Birthday", and he and John made a bunch of harsh trumpet noises on "Helter Skelter". "Birthday" also included backing vocals from Pattie Boyd and Yoko Ono, and Ringo Starr's wife Maureen Starkey sang backing vocals on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" alongside Yoko, who also contributed Spoken Word in Music and tapes and sound effects to "Revolution 9". And that''s not even counting all the session musicians. This album actually has the only fleeting moment where a non-Beatle performs lead vocals: the second verse of "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", where Yoko Ono sings "Not when he looked so fierce" (with John adding "His mummy butted in"), and singing "If looks could kill it would've been us instead of him" alongside John. | |
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Bilingual Bonus | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_294ed981 | comment |
Bilingual Bonus: A very subtle one in "Julia". Guess what the Japanese for "ocean child" is. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" was a Catchphrase of Jimmy Scott, a Nigeria-born percussionist who was an acquaintance of Paul. It allegedly means "life goes on" in the Yoruba language, but it's surprisingly hard to find any confirmation of this. | |
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Minimalistic Cover Art | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_2e22f7d4 | comment |
The Minimalistic Cover Art, the slightly-censored nude pic of Paul on the album's poster, and the nude photos of John and Yoko on the jacket of Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, released around the same time, all got conflated into a false story that the cover was originally going to have nude Beatles, but was censored and painted white. | |
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Miniscule Rocking | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_2e70a1db | comment |
Miniscule Rocking: "Wild Honey Pie" clocks in at 0:54. "Why Don't We Do it in the Road?" and "I Will" are also under two minutes, and there's the brief fragment of "Can You Take Me Back?" at the start of "Revolution 9". | |
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Food Songs Are Funny | |
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Food Songs Are Funny: "Savoy Truffle", which is, among other things, George Harrison's humourous ode to Eric Clapton's chocolate addiction. | |
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Pooping Where You Shouldn't | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_34f7b8ee | comment |
Pooping Where You Shouldn't: "Happiness is a Warm Gun" features the phrase "A soap impression of his wife, which he ate and donated to the National Trust". According to the band's publicist, Derek Taylor (who helped John write the first part of the song), "ate and donated to the National Trust" is a term for people in Liverpool who would defecate in public spaces, such as behind bushes or in old air-raid shelters. | |
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Loosely Based On A True Story | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3585fcb2 | comment |
Loosely Based On A True Story: "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" was inspired by Nancy Cooke, an American socialite who was also at the Rishikesh compound. During the retreat her son Rik visited, and they went on a tiger-hunting expedition. | |
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Murder the Hypotenuse | |
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Murder the Hypotenuse: Essentially the theme of "Rocky Raccoon". | |
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Uncommon Time | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_38da8916 | comment |
Uncommon Time: "Julia" uses patterns of nine measures in the verses, while the choruses use patterns of thirteen and the bridge is ten measures long. Several of the verses of "Helter Skelter" are fourteen measures long | |
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| The White Album (Music) / int_397569de | type |
Time Marches On | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_397569de | comment |
Time Marches On: "Back In The USSR": Since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 this song sounds rather surreal... and 12 years later Paul was playing in Russia, warranting many a jokey headline\article using the song. "Revolution 1": "But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao/ you ain't gonna make it with anyone, anyhow". In the late 1960's and early 1970's Maoism was a bit more widespread than it is nowadays. | |
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| The White Album (Music) / int_3a03b27c | type |
Looped Lyrics | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3a03b27c | comment |
"Helter Skelter" also started out as a slow piece, sounding like a ragged cousin of "Yer Blues", with Looped Lyrics and extended jamming (most infamously running 27 minutes in one of its takes), before it got tightened up into a faster proto-Heavy Metal number. | |
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Out-of-Clothes Experience | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3c5734b2 | comment |
Out-of-Clothes Experience: Alluded to in "Revolution 9." | |
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| The White Album (Music) / int_3e419d47 | type |
Creator Couple | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3e419d47 | comment |
A lot of the Beatles' friends and significant others were roped in to contribute. Mal Evans does backing vocals and hand-claps on "Dear Prudence", hand-claps on "Birthday", and he and John made a bunch of harsh trumpet noises on "Helter Skelter". "Birthday" also included backing vocals from Pattie Boyd and Yoko Ono, and Ringo Starr's wife Maureen Starkey sang backing vocals on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" alongside Yoko, who also contributed Spoken Word in Music and tapes and sound effects to "Revolution 9". And that''s not even counting all the session musicians. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3e419d47 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3e419d47 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_3e419d47 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3ea462d7 | type |
Take That, Audience! | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3ea462d7 | comment |
Take That, Audience!: "Glass Onion" is a sarcastic attack on their obsessive fans, in particular people overanalyzing their lyrics. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3ea462d7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3ea462d7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_3ea462d7 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3eb0f889 | type |
Pun-Based Title | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3eb0f889 | comment |
Pun-Based Title: "Back in the USSR" plays on the "I'm Backing Britain" campaign that spanned the first half of 1968. "Bungalow Bill" instead of "Buffalo Bill". "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is a pun on "Happiness Is a Warm Puppy" from Peanuts, although it was unintentional. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3eb0f889 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3eb0f889 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_3eb0f889 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3f7b645d | type |
The Insomniac | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3f7b645d | comment |
The Insomniac: John narrates his real life trouble with this on "I'm So Tired", which could be seen as a bitter sequel to "I'm Only Sleeping" from Revolver. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3f7b645d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_3f7b645d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_3f7b645d | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_415b3315 | type |
Stylistic Suck | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_415b3315 | comment |
Stylistic Suck: "Yer Blues" is deliberately written as an amateur Blues Rock song, parodying British musicians who tried making blues songs of their own despite not being familiar enough with Blues culture. Therefore, instead of authentic blues metaphors and idioms, it has both overly straightforward lyrics about being depressed and blues-like metaphors and idioms that try to sound authentic but mean nothing. And then there is the solo... or rather, the two solos played simultaneously. Lennon later admitted that the lyrics were inspired by his own Creator Breakdown, as the song was written while he was "trying to reach God and feeling suicidal" but he deliberately made them as over-the-top as possible so that if anyone worried and asked, he could pass the song off as just a parody. The parody aspect also comes from Lennon's own wish to write a Blues song but not being sure if he was capable of imitating the blues musicians he listened to in school, making him opt instead to parody the British blues-rock boom at the time. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_415b3315 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_415b3315 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_415b3315 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4179d411 | type |
Spooky Séance | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4179d411 | comment |
Spooky Séance: In the final verse of "Cry Baby Cry". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4179d411 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4179d411 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_4179d411 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_44cf7d2c | type |
Incredibly Long Note | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_44cf7d2c | comment |
Incredibly Long Note: The last minute and 12 seconds of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" consists of George Harrison singing Still my guitar gently weeeeeeeee-eeeeeeee-EEEEEEEE accompanied by Eric Clapton's powerful guitar and his haunting Aaah... Aaah... and Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! which can be heard in the background. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_44cf7d2c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_44cf7d2c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_44cf7d2c | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_47b97b31 | type |
Album Closure | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_47b97b31 | comment |
Album Closure: The album ends with "Good Night," a lullaby from Ringo Starr to the listeners, wrapping up the ride the double album has taken them upon. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_47b97b31 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_47b97b31 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_47b97b31 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_48081842 | type |
The Stinger | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_48081842 | comment |
The Stinger: The stereo mix of "Helter Skelter" seems to fade out... only to come back with Ringo screaming "I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!" | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_48081842 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_48081842 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_48081842 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_48dfb7e4 | type |
Stock Sound Effects | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_48dfb7e4 | comment |
Stock Sound Effects: A landing plane during "Back in the U.S.S.R". "Blackbird" has sounds of an actual blackbird mixed in. "Piggies" has oinking pigs. "Revolution 9" is almost nothing but stock sound effects and snippets from dialogues, sometimes heavily distorted and/or played backwards. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_48dfb7e4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_48dfb7e4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_48dfb7e4 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4b1ca7d2 | type |
Genre Roulette | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4b1ca7d2 | comment |
Genre Roulette/In the Style of: Many of the album's more acoustic-based songs seem to draw from folk rock. "Rocky Raccoon" is more or less an explicit semi-Affectionate Parody of cowboy ballads and country music. "Honey Pie" is a direct homage to the British music hall style and has a 1920s/1930s feel to it. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is ska. "Helter Skelter" is incredibly heavy, to the point that it has been (rather inaccurately) called one of the first Heavy Metal songs. "Long, Long, Long" is very Bob Dylan; George admitted it was heavily inspired by "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" from Blonde on Blonde. "Birthday" is a slightly traditionalist rock 'n' roll song, inspired after the band saw a broadcast of The Girl Can't Help It on the BBC earlier that night. "Yer Blues" is moaned and played as a traditional blues song. "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" is more or less a Little Richard tribute. The band was inspired to go back to their collective love for Rock & Roll after they watched a broadcast of The Girl Can't Help It on TV earlier that night. "Good Night" sounds like a crooner song. John Lennon purposefully told George Martin to write a cheesy Nelson Riddle-type string arrangement. "Revolution 9" is a very brutal avant-garde musique concrète "composition", complete with tape loops, Stock Sound Effects, music played backwards and distorted sounds. "Piggies" puts George Harrison's social commentary over a dissonantly upbeat Baroque Pop backing. Country fan Ringo brought in some Nashville-style fiddling for "Don't Pass Me By", his first solo song-writing credit. "Back in the U.S.S.R." was written in the style of The Beach Boys. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4b1ca7d2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4b1ca7d2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_4b1ca7d2 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4e635eab | type |
God-Is-Love Songs | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4e635eab | comment |
God-Is-Love Songs: George said that "Long Long Long" was addressed to God. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4e635eab | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4e635eab | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_4e635eab | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4e91b042 | type |
Making Love in All the Wrong Places | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4e91b042 | comment |
Making Love in All the Wrong Places: "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" is about asking your love to have sex in public while no one is watching, which Paul wrote after seeing two monkeys doing it on the road while he was in India. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4e91b042 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_4e91b042 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_4e91b042 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_512b00e0 | type |
BSoD Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_512b00e0 | comment |
BSoD Song: "I'm So Tired" | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_512b00e0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_512b00e0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_512b00e0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_515eeccc | type |
Sampling | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_515eeccc | comment |
Sampling: "Revolution 9". The "number nine, number nine, number nine" is from old examination tapes from the Royal Academy of Music which were stored at Abbey Road. There are also snippets of classical music and an Elektra Records sound effects album (the source of the "block that kick" chant at the end, recorded at a Collegiate American Football game). | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_515eeccc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_515eeccc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_515eeccc | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_51f90774 | type |
Step Up to the Microphone | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_51f90774 | comment |
Step Up to the Microphone: Yoko Ono and George Martin can be heard briefly in "Revolution 9". Yoko is briefly heard again during "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill". Ringo gets two lead vocals, including the first Beatles song ever written by him, "Don't Pass Me By". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_51f90774 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_51f90774 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_51f90774 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5313c266 | type |
Bookends | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5313c266 | comment |
Book Ends: "Rocky Raccoon" and the Gideons' Bible he finds. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5313c266 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5313c266 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_5313c266 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_55aa6875 | type |
Sincerest Form of Flattery | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_55aa6875 | comment |
Sincerest Form of Flattery: George Harrison admitted to pilfering the chord changes for "Long, Long, Long" from Bob Dylan's "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands". Once you hear the similarity, you can't unhear it. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_55aa6875 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_55aa6875 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_55aa6875 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_56515a39 | type |
Artistic License – History | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_56515a39 | comment |
Artistic License – History: Somewhere in the black mountain hills of Dakota there lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon—except that the Gideons didn't start distributing Bibles until 1908, over 20 years after Dakota Territory became the states of North and South Dakota. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_56515a39 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_56515a39 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_56515a39 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5834239a | type |
The Diss Track | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5834239a | comment |
The Diss Track: "Sexy Sadie" was aimed at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru whom John felt had been a let down to them. The original lyrics specifically targeted him, but became more vague at George's request. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5834239a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5834239a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_5834239a | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_58510e2b | type |
Sexy Packaging | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_58510e2b | comment |
Sexy Packaging: It's in the fold-out lyric sheet/photo collage, but amid all the photos of the bandmembers is a small black-and-white one of McCartney naked, standing behind a pole which covers his essentials. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_58510e2b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_58510e2b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_58510e2b | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5ade32d1 | type |
Metal Scream | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5ade32d1 | comment |
Metal Scream: Paul shows off his skills in "Helter Skelter". While "Revolution 1" averts this, the far more famous single version has one by John. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5ade32d1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5ade32d1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_5ade32d1 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5b2e1e5e | type |
Fake-Out Fade-Out | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5b2e1e5e | comment |
Fake-Out Fade-Out: "Helter Skelter",note On the stereo version only, the mono version ends on the first fadeout without Starr's outburst and too many times to count on "Revolution 9". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5b2e1e5e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5b2e1e5e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_5b2e1e5e | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5cb3f622 | type |
Doo-Wop Progression | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5cb3f622 | comment |
Doo-Wop Progression: "Happiness is a Warm Gun". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5cb3f622 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5cb3f622 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_5cb3f622 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5df06b20 | type |
Religion Rant Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5df06b20 | comment |
Religion Rant Song: "Sexy Sadie" is a Take That! from John to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5df06b20 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5df06b20 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_5df06b20 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5e835a41 | type |
Gratuitous Panning | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5e835a41 | comment |
Gratuitous Panning: "Back in the U.S.S.R." starts with this, simulating a jetliner flying overhead. note So not necessarily gratuitous, as flying would be one way to be back in the U.S.S.R. It is definitely panning though and supercool on good headphones. The "number nine, number nine" Madness Mantra in "Revolution 9" bounces back and forth between left and right channels each time it's heard. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5e835a41 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_5e835a41 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_5e835a41 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6053dc28 | type |
Record Producer | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6053dc28 | comment |
Record Producer: George Martin, as usual, though as the sessions dragged on he took some time off for a vacation, essentially leaving the band on their own. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6053dc28 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6053dc28 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_6053dc28 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6112fb53 | type |
Obsession Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6112fb53 | comment |
Obsession Song: "Julia", written about John longing for his long deceased mother, who died in a car accident when he was young. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6112fb53 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6112fb53 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_6112fb53 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_634d7074 | type |
Work Info Title | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_634d7074 | comment |
Work Info Title: The unofficial nickname for this album (The White Album) lets you know it's an album. The official title is simply The Beatles. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_634d7074 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_634d7074 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_634d7074 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6732af17 | type |
Pep-Talk Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6732af17 | comment |
Pep-Talk Song: "Dear Prudence" ("the sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful and so are you."), "Martha My Dear" ("hold your head up, you silly girl"). Even "Revolution" tells us "don't you know it's gonna be alright?" | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6732af17 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6732af17 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_6732af17 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_67784113 | type |
Non-Appearing Title | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_67784113 | comment |
Non-Appearing Title: Played with in "Wild Honey Pie" and "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", as parts, but not all of the titles appear in the songs. Played straight with "Yer Blues" and "Revolution 9" | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_67784113 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_67784113 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_67784113 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6a696742 | type |
The Power of Love | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6a696742 | comment |
The Power of Love: "Back in the USSR", "Wild Honey Pie", "I Will", "Julia", "Long, Long, Long", "Honey Pie". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6a696742 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6a696742 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_6a696742 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6eef5fc6 | type |
Temporary Substitute | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6eef5fc6 | comment |
Temporary Substitute: "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence" had Paul playing drums after Ringo temporarily quit the band. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6eef5fc6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_6eef5fc6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_6eef5fc6 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_705148cf | type |
Location Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_705148cf | comment |
Location Song: "Back in the USSR", about a man being happy being back in the country after a long plane trip. Paul McCartney still performs it frequently - specially when he tours in Russia. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_705148cf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_705148cf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_705148cf | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_73ef9ef3 | type |
Almighty Janitor | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_73ef9ef3 | comment |
Almighty Janitor: Chris Thomas, who took over as engineer after Geoff Emerick quit, then became de facto producer when George Martin went on vacation, played prominent keyboard parts on several songs (Mellotron on "Bungalow Bill", harpsichord on "Piggies", piano on "Long, Long, Long", electric piano on "Savoy Truffle"). | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_73ef9ef3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_73ef9ef3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_73ef9ef3 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_73fa8db | type |
Singer Namedrop | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_73fa8db | comment |
Singer Name Drop: "Glass Onion" | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_73fa8db | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_73fa8db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_73fa8db | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_74149c93 | type |
Epic Rocking | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_74149c93 | comment |
Epic Rocking: Hardcore Beatles fans are dying to get a hold of the legendary 27 minute long version of "Helter Skelter", take 3 of the original downtempo blues jam version of the song. The 50th anniversary edition satiated some fans by including take 2, which runs a more manageable 13 minutes. While not epic in length, the faster, louder album version was recorded 18 times in one day, the last of which made it to the album. Ringo had blisters on his fingers for a GOOD reason. On the subject of the 50th anniversary edition, take 18 of "Revolution 1" runs 10 and a half minutes, including John's anguished "All right!" screams and Yoko's "If you become naked" nattering that ended up in "Revolution 9". Speaking of "Revolution 9", the album version proper runs for 8:22, making it the album's only song (if an avant-garde musique concrete piece can be called a song) exceeding six minutes. Subverted with songs like "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", which has the structure of a much longer song, but runs for fewer than three minutes - though to some extent, Unbuilt Trope also applies, as Progressive Rock, one of the main drivers of this trope, was in its infancy at this point. Meanwhile, the longest proper song on the album, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (4:45), has a fairly standard verse-chorus-bridge structure. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_74149c93 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_74149c93 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_74149c93 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_786bf97f | type |
Real Life Writes the Plot | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_786bf97f | comment |
Real Life Writes the Plot: "Dear Prudence" was inspired by Prudence Farrow, Mia's sister, who kept inside meditating while the group was in India. Lennon wrote the song to urge Prudence to come outside. "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" was a tiger-hunting man they met in Rishikesh. Lennon felt so disgusted by him that he wrote this mocking musical rendition about him. "Julia" was about John's mother, who was struck by a car when he was a teenager. "Sexy Sadie" was directed towards the Maharishi, the guru with whom the band spent some time in 1967 and 1968 and who was later accused of molesting one woman, infuriating John. Originally, the song was to have been an even more blatant attack (John had become generally disillusioned with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during their time in India), but it was toned down to avoid offending George, who was still an admirer. All he really did was replace every instance of "Maharishi" with "Sexy Sadie". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_786bf97f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_786bf97f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_786bf97f | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7acca961 | type |
Song of Song Titles | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7acca961 | comment |
Song of Song Titles: "Glass Onion" name-checks "Strawberry Fields Forever", "I Am the Walrus", "Fixing a Hole", "Lady Madonna", and "The Fool on the Hill". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7acca961 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7acca961 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_7acca961 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7aea8bae | type |
Murder Ballad | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7aea8bae | comment |
Murder Ballad: "Rocky Raccoon" is a subverted Murder Ballad. Rocky intends to murder his rival Dan, but is actually shot himself. The ending is ambiguous; he might have died of his wound, or he might have recovered and found God. "Piggies" is more straightforward, where a bunch of pigs are whacked down and eaten by bigger pigs. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7aea8bae | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7aea8bae | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_7aea8bae | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7d276626 | type |
Siamese Twin Songs | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7d276626 | comment |
"The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" → "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is either a case of this or Siamese Twin Songs, depending upon one's interpretation of the tropes. The 1987 CD adds "Wild Honey Pie" into the mix via a sequencing error: "Bungalow Bill"'s guitar intermezzo tacked onto the closing seconds of "Wild Honey Pie" instead. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7d276626 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7d276626 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_7d276626 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7d89315b | type |
"The Reason You Suck" Speech | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7d89315b | comment |
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Sexy Sadie" and "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" are sarcastic breakdowns of the protagonists. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7d89315b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_7d89315b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_7d89315b | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_82accf22 | type |
Gainax Ending | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_82accf22 | comment |
Gainax Ending: "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is about a market vendor named Desmond and a singer named Molly. They fall in love, get married, and have kids. The second-to-last stanza describes Desmond and his children working in the marketplace while Molly still enjoys her singing career. But the final stanza switches their roles, putting Molly in the marketplace and Desmond (who is now apparently a woman) in the band. This was an accidental case. The band members weren't paying proper attention during the recording, and as a result Paul got distracted by John and George yelling "Arm!" and "Foot!" in the break after the first "lets the children lend a hand" and got their roles backwards on the last chorus. They decided to keep it as-is because they thought it was neat (and they were sick of working on the song). "Glass Onion" also has quite an unusual ending. After making multiple references to earlier material of theirs, the song ends rather abruptly on a discordant, depressing string section that doesn't so much "end" as it just dies out... | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_82accf22 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_82accf22 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_82accf22 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_83445b04 | type |
Pun | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_83445b04 | comment |
"Happiness Is a Warm Gun" was inspired by a title in a rifle magazine. Unbeknownst to Lennon the title itself was a pun on the phrase "Happiness Is a Warm Puppy" from the Peanuts franchise. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_83445b04 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_83445b04 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_83445b04 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_83446504 | type |
Ska | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_83446504 | comment |
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is ska. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_83446504 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_83446504 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_83446504 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8657c5 | type |
Rhyming Title | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8657c5 | comment |
Rhyming Title: "Helter Skelter". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8657c5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8657c5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_8657c5 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8a24c94e | type |
Studio Chatter | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8a24c94e | comment |
Studio Chatter: The end of "Piggies", the beginning of "Revolution 1", John and George periodically muttering throughout "Revolution 9", and most famously Ringo's "I'VE GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!!!" at the end of (the stereo mix of) "Helter Skelter". (And if you listen closely to a high-quality recording, right before Ringo screams, you can hear Lennon say "How's that?") Worth noting is the snippet between "Can You Take Me Back?" and the formal start of "Revolution 9", which doesn't actually feature any Beatles. It's a tongue-in-cheek exchange between George Martin and Alistair Taylor (Apple Corps general manager and former assistant to Brian Epstein). | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8a24c94e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8a24c94e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_8a24c94e | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8ad0bc24 | type |
Something Blues | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8ad0bc24 | comment |
Something Blues: "Yer Blues". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8ad0bc24 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8ad0bc24 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_8ad0bc24 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8c00118f | type |
Spoken Word in Music | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8c00118f | comment |
Spoken Word in Music: "Revolution 9". "Number nine, number nine, number nine..." | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8c00118f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8c00118f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_8c00118f | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8e5c0199 | type |
Egomaniac Hunter | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8e5c0199 | comment |
Egomaniac Hunter: Bill from "The Continuing Adventures of Bungalow Bill", an egomaniac who gets off on killing tigers but always brings his mom in case there's trouble. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8e5c0199 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8e5c0199 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_8e5c0199 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8f7f2c6a | type |
National Stereotypes | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8f7f2c6a | comment |
National Stereotypes: "Back in the USSR" uses typical Russian clichés like farms, balalaikas and comrades and mentions Moscow, Ukraine and Georgia. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8f7f2c6a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_8f7f2c6a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_8f7f2c6a | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_91d3ab1e | type |
Ominous Pipe Organ | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_91d3ab1e | comment |
Ominous Pipe Organ: The Hammond organ on "Long, Long, Long" (played by Paul) invokes this style, especially during the Last Note Nightmare. The demo for the Cut Song "Circles" features George accompanied only by a spooky organ. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_91d3ab1e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_91d3ab1e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_91d3ab1e | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_94a22cf2 | type |
Cut Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_94a22cf2 | comment |
The demo for the Cut Song "Circles" features George accompanied only by a spooky organ. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_94a22cf2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_94a22cf2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_94a22cf2 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_97ee273 | type |
Momma's Boy | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_97ee273 | comment |
Momma's Boy: The title character of "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" is "the all-American bullet-headed Saxon mother's son." And behind that tough exterior, he really does rely on his mom's defence when people start to question him - hence why he always brings her along on hunting trips "in case of accidents." | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_97ee273 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_97ee273 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_97ee273 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_99699561 | type |
Questioning Title? | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_99699561 | comment |
Questioning Title?: "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_99699561 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_99699561 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_99699561 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9b0ecf33 | type |
Title by Number | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9b0ecf33 | comment |
Title by Number: "Revolution 9". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9b0ecf33 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9b0ecf33 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_9b0ecf33 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9c5e78d0 | type |
Kill the Cutie | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9c5e78d0 | comment |
Kill the Cutie: The little piggies in "Piggies" are whacked down and eaten by the bigger piggies. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9c5e78d0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9c5e78d0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_9c5e78d0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9da3227a | type |
Careful with That Axe | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9da3227a | comment |
Careful with That Axe: While absent from the mono version of the album, "Helter Skelter" famously returns after seeming to fade out with Ringo screaming in anger "I'VE GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!" (given they recorded 18 takes of the song, no one can blame him). | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9da3227a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9da3227a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_9da3227a | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9dab0a6e | type |
Continuity Nod | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9dab0a6e | comment |
Continuity Nod: "Glass Onion" seems to be built entirely on this. "Savoy Truffle" - "We all know 'Ob-La-Di-Blah-Da'..." "Wild Honey Pie" and "Honey Pie" share the title, but are lyrically and melodically totally different. "Revolution 9" has a few samples from "Revolution 1", especially John's "All right!" | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9dab0a6e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9dab0a6e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_9dab0a6e | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9e9c53ee | type |
One-Man Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9e9c53ee | comment |
One-Man Song: "Rocky Raccoon" and, depending upon one's interpretation of the trope, "Sexy Sadie", as explained immediately below. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9e9c53ee | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9e9c53ee | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_9e9c53ee | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9eca61c8 | type |
Production Foreshadowing | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9eca61c8 | comment |
Production Foreshadowing: The mini-suite style of "Happiness is a Warm Gun" anticipated side two of Abbey Road. "Revolution 9" was a preview of the avant-garde work that Lennon would do with Yoko Ono throughout 1969. "Don't Pass Me By" is a forerunner to Ringo's 1970 Country Music album Beaucoups of Blues. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9eca61c8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_9eca61c8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_9eca61c8 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a0412c52 | type |
Gun Nut | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a0412c52 | comment |
Gun Nut: Mocked in "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", complete with noticeably sexualised descriptions of shooting. And some possible parallels to drug addiction ("I need a fix, 'cause I'm goin' down"), whether intentional or not. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a0412c52 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a0412c52 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_a0412c52 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a484ef6c | type |
Sensory Abuse | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a484ef6c | comment |
Sensory Abuse: "Revolution 9". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a484ef6c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a484ef6c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_a484ef6c | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a4c37cbe | type |
Mood Whiplash | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a4c37cbe | comment |
Mood Whiplash: The tracks themselves are juxtaposed in such a way that they change moods all the time, but some songs even have sudden mood changes in themselves. "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" starts off with a Spanish sounding guitar solo, then out of nowhere skips to a Cold Open where the refrain "Hey Bungalow Bill" is sung. Near the end applause can be heard, until John suddenly shouts: "Ey-up". "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" has three different mood changes, mostly because Lennon actually took three different songs he had and stringed them together into one. "Revolution #9" is quite surprising seeing that all other tracks on the record were actual songs. This brutally experimental series of sounds is then followed by the sweet easy listening lullaby "Good Night". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a4c37cbe | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a4c37cbe | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_a4c37cbe | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a6ed3cd6 | type |
Scatting | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a6ed3cd6 | comment |
"I Will" is an odd double example from Paul. Not only does he back his own lead vocal, the song's "bass" part is actually him Scatting in a deep voice. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a6ed3cd6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a6ed3cd6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_a6ed3cd6 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a7850fbf | type |
Only Known by Their Nickname | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a7850fbf | comment |
Only Known by Their Nickname: Although the official title of this album is simply The Beatles, pretty much everyone calls it "The White Album". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a7850fbf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_a7850fbf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_a7850fbf | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ab5d5d86 | type |
Evolving Music | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ab5d5d86 | comment |
Evolving Music: "Revolution" and "Revolution 1", two very different takes on the same song. Lennon brought the "slow" version of the song to the rest of the band, thinking it would be the next single. The other Beatles rejected it, thinking it was too slow. Lennon responded by re-arranging it to be one of the hardest-rocking songs of his career. The original, more mellow version appeared on this album as "Revolution 1". The harder version appeared on the B-side of the "Hey Jude" single as "Revolution". The take that was used for "Revolution 1" (20) actually lasted 10 minutes. The first 4 minutes are the same as "Revolution 1" (minus the horns and electric guitar), but the song keeps going for 5 more minutes, gradually descending into chaos, and eventually morphing into the ending of "Revolution 9" for the last minute. Eventually, "Revolution 1" and "Revolution 9" were separated into their respective tracks. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" started out as a much slower piece, but nobody was satisfied with the early attempts. Lennon especially hated it. One night Lennon, massively altered from drugs, stormed into the session and banged out the intro of the song on the piano at nearly twice the speed of the earlier takes. It became the final version. "Helter Skelter" also started out as a slow piece, sounding like a ragged cousin of "Yer Blues", with Looped Lyrics and extended jamming (most infamously running 27 minutes in one of its takes), before it got tightened up into a faster proto-Heavy Metal number. "Good Night" was originally tried with the full band, including a take with John, Paul and George singing harmony with Ringo, before John (the song's composer) opted to make it an orchestral ballad. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ab5d5d86 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ab5d5d86 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_ab5d5d86 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b24ce4b2 | type |
Rearrange the Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b24ce4b2 | comment |
Rearrange the Song: The album version of "Revolution 1" sounds radically different in musical terms compared to the music single version. While the album version is slow and soothing, the single version has a loud, heavy sound. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b24ce4b2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b24ce4b2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_b24ce4b2 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b5049d76 | type |
Added Alliterative Appeal | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b5049d76 | comment |
Added Alliterative Appeal: "Rocky Raccoon", "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", "Sexy Sadie". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b5049d76 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b5049d76 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_b5049d76 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b53077b3 | type |
Take That! | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b53077b3 | comment |
Take That!: "Revolution 1" | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b53077b3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b53077b3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_b53077b3 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b5785433 | type |
ColdOpen | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b5785433 | comment |
"The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" starts off with a Spanish sounding guitar solo, then out of nowhere skips to a Cold Open where the refrain "Hey Bungalow Bill" is sung. Near the end applause can be heard, until John suddenly shouts: "Ey-up". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b5785433 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_b5785433 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_b5785433 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bab8a625 | type |
Heavy Metal | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bab8a625 | comment |
"Helter Skelter" is incredibly heavy, to the point that it has been (rather inaccurately) called one of the first Heavy Metal songs. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bab8a625 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bab8a625 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_bab8a625 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bac9f95d | type |
Sweet Tooth | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bac9f95d | comment |
Sweet Tooth: "You'll have to have them all pulled out after the 'Savoy Truffle'!" (allegedly inspired by Eric Clapton's fondness for chocolate.) | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bac9f95d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bac9f95d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_bac9f95d | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bc00493f | type |
Precision F-Strike | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bc00493f | comment |
Precision F-Strike: "Piggies". "What they need's a damn good whacking." George's mother actually suggested the line. An actual F-strike in "Revolution 9", "join the fucking navy and went to sea...". Of course, most listeners will be too busy freaking out to notice. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bc00493f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bc00493f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_bc00493f | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bcb34a0e | type |
Rock Trio | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bcb34a0e | comment |
Rock Trio: The first two songs on the album were recorded in this formation as Ringo had temporarily left in struggles (Paul drummed for both tracks, and parts of "Back in the USSR" have percussion by the other two). | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bcb34a0e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bcb34a0e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_bcb34a0e | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bda474d2 | type |
Last Note Nightmare | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bda474d2 | comment |
The Hammond organ on "Long, Long, Long" (played by Paul) invokes this style, especially during the Last Note Nightmare. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bda474d2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bda474d2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_bda474d2 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_be009bbc | type |
Alliterative Name | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_be009bbc | comment |
Alliterative Name and Alliterative Title: "Sexy Sadie", "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", "Rocky Raccoon", "Long, Long, Long". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_be009bbc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_be009bbc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_be009bbc | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bef696dd | type |
Mind Screw | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bef696dd | comment |
Mind Screw: "Revolution 9". While "Revolution 1" is a nice, slow, relatively tame rock song (especially compared to the harsher single), "Revolution 9" is eight minutes of pure, untapped, minimalist cacophony. This was explained later via a bootlegged version of Revolution 1, known as "Revolution 1 Take 20". This recording shows that "9" was formed out of the original coda of the song, where the outro vamp just kept going and going until the tape loops and dialogue samples take over the music itself. Lennon's intent was to make it sound like an actual revolution was taking place because of the song. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bef696dd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_bef696dd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_bef696dd | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c145f69b | type |
Subverted Trope | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c145f69b | comment |
"Rocky Raccoon" is a subverted Murder Ballad. Rocky intends to murder his rival Dan, but is actually shot himself. The ending is ambiguous; he might have died of his wound, or he might have recovered and found God. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c145f69b | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c145f69b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_c145f69b | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c237b6b8 | type |
Folk Music | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c237b6b8 | comment |
Many of the album's more acoustic-based songs seem to draw from folk rock. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c237b6b8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c237b6b8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_c237b6b8 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c2d07094 | type |
Blues | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c2d07094 | comment |
"Yer Blues" is moaned and played as a traditional blues song. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c2d07094 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c2d07094 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_c2d07094 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c4b74656 | type |
One-Woman Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c4b74656 | comment |
One-Woman Song: "Dear Prudence", "Julia", and "Martha, My Dear". "Sexy Sadie" is a subversion, as even though it sounds like it's addressed to a woman named Sadie, the Reality Subtext of the song was actually directed at a man - the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whose sexual advances on Mia Farrow resulted in a Broken Pedestal for John Lennon. "Martha My Dear" may also qualify as a subversion, as the Martha it's addressed to is actually a dog. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c4b74656 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c4b74656 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_c4b74656 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c5da23b | type |
The Revolution Will Not Be Bureaucratized | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c5da23b | comment |
The Revolution Will Not Be Bureaucratized, The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized and The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: Because as far as our four friends are concerned they're not joining in anyway, because everything "is going to be all right". Only John might if "destruction" is involved, though he doesn't on the musical single. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c5da23b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c5da23b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_c5da23b | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c75df49a | type |
Shout-Out | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c75df49a | comment |
Shout-Out: The title of "Back in the USSR" is a nod to the "I'm Backing Britain" campaign from the first half of 1968. Additionally, the line "and Georgia is always on my mind" is a reference to "Georgia on My Mind", a song from the 1930's, popularized by Ray Charles. Of course, the Georgia being referred to here is an Eastern European country rather than a state in the Deep South of America, so this also doubles as a pun. John "has another cigarette" in "I'm So Tired", then curses Sir Walter Raleigh for "he was such a stupid git." Raleigh was the first Englishman to bring tobacco to Europe. "Julia" — while it's about John's late mother, guess what the Japanese for "ocean child" is? The lyrics also feature two slightly reworded Khalil Gibran quotes. "Martha My Dear" is about Paul McCartney's dog. "Piggies" is based on George Orwell's Animal Farm. "Savoy Truffle" lists a lot of actual flavours of chocolate, and is also a joke about Eric Clapton's weakness for chocolate. In "Yer Blues" Lennon claims to be "suicidal, just like Dylan's Mr. Jones". This is a reference to "Ballad of a Thin Man" from Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited.note Interestingly, the Esher demo version's lyric has the word "insecure" instead of "suicidal", which makes a more logical Shout-Out, since "Ballad of a Thin Man" paints Mr. Jones as insecure and confused, not suicidal "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" was inspired by a title in a rifle magazine. Unbeknownst to Lennon the title itself was a pun on the phrase "Happiness Is a Warm Puppy" from the Peanuts franchise. "Revolution 9" has musical quotes from Jean Sibelius' "Seventh Symphony" (the finale), Robert Schumann's "Symphonic Studies" (the finale, played backwards), Ludwig van Beethoven's "Choral Fantasy", the musical standard "The Streets of Cairo", violins from "A Day in the Life" (from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) and the Arabic song "Awal Hamsa" by Farid al-Atrash and unused shouts of "right" and "alright" taken from a long jam from an unused take of "Revolution 1". The tape loop experiments are similar to Steve Reich's works such as "It's Gonna Rain" and "Come Out". "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" has the line "So Captain Marvel zapped him right between the eyes." It's most likely that it's a reference to the DC Comics character, especially since Lennon said to have had contemporary comic strip Jungle Jim in mind while writing the song, and the Marvel Comics character was very recent at the time the song was made (Mar-Vell debuted in 1967, just less than a year before the album was recorded). | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c75df49a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c75df49a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_c75df49a | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c8ba12ee | type |
Interplay of Sex and Violence | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c8ba12ee | comment |
Interplay of Sex and Violence: "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" has Lennon singing about holding a gun in a tongue-in-cheek erotic manner: | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c8ba12ee | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_c8ba12ee | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_c8ba12ee | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ca834552 | type |
Self-Titled Album | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ca834552 | comment |
Self-Titled Album: The Beatles, although pretty much everyone knows it better as "The White Album". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ca834552 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ca834552 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_ca834552 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_cb1d1694 | type |
Country Music | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_cb1d1694 | comment |
"Don't Pass Me By" is a forerunner to Ringo's 1970 Country Music album Beaucoups of Blues. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_cb1d1694 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_cb1d1694 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_cb1d1694 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_cd8ca67a | type |
DoubleSubverted | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_cd8ca67a | comment |
Double Subverted in "Revolution 1", where Lennon realized that he didn't actually know if he was for or against the protesters. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_cd8ca67a | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_cd8ca67a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_cd8ca67a | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ce6555f0 | type |
Lighter and Softer | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ce6555f0 | comment |
Lighter and Softer: "Revolution 1", compared to the single version. Musicologist Alan Pollack even writes in his commentary that, even though the single version was recorded afterwards, "Revolution 1" sounds to him like a parody of the single version. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ce6555f0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ce6555f0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_ce6555f0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_cf4d770 | type |
Nightmare Fuel | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_cf4d770 | comment |
An actual F-strike in "Revolution 9", "join the fucking navy and went to sea...". Of course, most listeners will be too busy freaking out to notice. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_cf4d770 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_cf4d770 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_cf4d770 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d0f0a80d | type |
One-Word Title | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d0f0a80d | comment |
One-Word Title: "Blackbird", "Piggies" and "Birthday". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d0f0a80d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d0f0a80d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_d0f0a80d | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d148b019 | type |
Mundane Made Awesome | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d148b019 | comment |
Mundane Made Awesome: The "Martha" in "Martha My Dear" was actually Paul's dog. "Glass Onion" is just a bunch of Beatles references. "Savoy Truffle" is about eating too much candy. "Helter Skelter" a heavy rock song about a slide in an amusement park. "I'm So Tired" is about, well, being tired. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d148b019 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d148b019 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_d148b019 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d40b9465 | type |
Title-Only Chorus | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d40b9465 | comment |
Title-Only Chorus: "Helter Skelter". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d40b9465 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d40b9465 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_d40b9465 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d5d976dd | type |
I Have Many Names | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d5d976dd | comment |
I Have Many Names: A small example from "Rocky Raccoon": | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d5d976dd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d5d976dd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_d5d976dd | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d68c925d | type |
Creator Provincialism | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d68c925d | comment |
Creator Provincialism: Why exactly would the subject of "Back in the USSR", a Soviet patriot, fly from Miami Beach on BOAC, a British airline? note It was confirmed by George Martin that it was based on Guy Burgess wanting to visit the USA (if he was allowed to, of course) and hopefully fly back to the USSR on a British flag carrier. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d68c925d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d68c925d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_d68c925d | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d6de6609 | type |
In Harmony with Nature | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d6de6609 | comment |
In Harmony with Nature: "Mother Nature's Son", where a "poor young country boy" is completely in harmony with the tranquility of nature. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d6de6609 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d6de6609 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_d6de6609 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d7a92919 | type |
Indecisive Parody | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d7a92919 | comment |
Indecisive Parody: "Yer Blues". Lennon wrote it as a parody of the British Blues Rock scene, but the song rocks so hard that it succeeds on its own terms. Beatles scholar Ian MacDonald characterized "Yer Blues" as "half-satirical, half-earnest". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d7a92919 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_d7a92919 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_d7a92919 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_db1ab4b1 | type |
Just a Stupid Accent | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_db1ab4b1 | comment |
Just a Stupid Accent: Paul sings "Rocky Raccoon" in an incredibly off-key fake southern accent. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_db1ab4b1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_db1ab4b1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_db1ab4b1 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_db26451e | type |
Limited Lyrics Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_db26451e | comment |
Limited Lyrics Song: "Why Don't We Do It In the Road": "Wild Honey Pie" repeats the line "honey pie" over and over, with the line "I love you" at the end. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_db26451e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_db26451e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_db26451e | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dbfd6b8 | type |
Lyrical Dissonance | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dbfd6b8 | comment |
Lyrical Dissonance: "Piggies" seems to imply that the smaller piggies get slaughtered and eaten by the bigger piggies. This is made creepier by Charles Manson's misinterpretation. The song is a Shout-Out to George Orwell's Animal Farm where the pigs, after leading the animals in a revolution against their human master, take control the farm and begin acting like the human beings who previously oppressed them. "Helter Skelter". Who'd guess that what may be the first proper heavy metal song would be about a CARNIVAL SLIDE? | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dbfd6b8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dbfd6b8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_dbfd6b8 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dc579c91 | type |
Contrived Coincidence | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dc579c91 | comment |
Contrived Coincidence: "Birthday": | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dc579c91 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dc579c91 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_dc579c91 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dd4042f9 | type |
Avant-Garde Music | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dd4042f9 | comment |
"Revolution 9" is a very brutal avant-garde musique concrète "composition", complete with tape loops, Stock Sound Effects, music played backwards and distorted sounds. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dd4042f9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dd4042f9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_dd4042f9 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dda99fa8 | type |
Despair Event Horizon | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dda99fa8 | comment |
Despair Event Horizon: "Yer Blues". Lennon made it deliberately over-the-top so that no one would take it seriously, but later confessed that he meant it at least halfway in earnest anyway. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dda99fa8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_dda99fa8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_dda99fa8 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ddf8c5ba | type |
Album Filler | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ddf8c5ba | comment |
"Wild Honey Pie" ("HONEY PIE! HONEY PIE!") and "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?", widely considered to be Album Filler. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ddf8c5ba | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ddf8c5ba | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_ddf8c5ba | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e01e757e | type |
Unplugged Version | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e01e757e | comment |
Unplugged Version: "Revolution 1", in contrast to the single version (though "Revolution 1" was recorded first). With the Beatles accompanying themselves on acoustic guitars, along with tambourines and some occasional handclaps, the "Esher demos" amount to The White Album Unplugged, though several songs weren't included, and some of the included songs were still just incomplete fragments. George Harrison's demo of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" had gained a strong reputation before it finally got released on The Beatles Anthology. Lennon's demo of "Revolution", which featured elements of both the album and single versions, also had been a fan favorite (even gaining the nickname "Revolution 0") before its official release. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e01e757e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e01e757e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_e01e757e | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e085feeb | type |
Broken Record | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e085feeb | comment |
Broken Record: "Wild Honey Pie" ("HONEY PIE! HONEY PIE!") and "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?", widely considered to be Album Filler. On a more disturbing note, "Number nine, number nine, number nine..." "Mother Superior jumped the gun, Mother Superior jumped the gun, Mother Superior jumped the gun..." | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e085feeb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e085feeb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_e085feeb | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e663d3ef | type |
Only a Flesh Wound | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e663d3ef | comment |
Only a Flesh Wound: Rocky in "Rocky Raccoon" is shot down. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e663d3ef | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e663d3ef | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_e663d3ef | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e680af6f | type |
Grief Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e680af6f | comment |
Grief Song: "Julia", about John's mother, "Yer Blues", where the singer feels suicidal. and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", where George's guitar weeps about the state of the world. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e680af6f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e680af6f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_e680af6f | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e6b5d22f | type |
Catchphrase | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e6b5d22f | comment |
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" was a Catchphrase of Jimmy Scott, a Nigeria-born percussionist who was an acquaintance of Paul. It allegedly means "life goes on" in the Yoruba language, but it's surprisingly hard to find any confirmation of this. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e6b5d22f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e6b5d22f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_e6b5d22f | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e6dea5bf | type |
Self-Backing Vocalist | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e6dea5bf | comment |
Self-Backing Vocalist: Paul does this quite a bit on the album, doing all the voices on "Wild Honey Pie", harmonizing with himself on the chorus of "Blackbird" and singing along in the second verse of "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" "I Will" is an odd double example from Paul. Not only does he back his own lead vocal, the song's "bass" part is actually him Scatting in a deep voice. John, who usually didn't do this, has a duet with himself (interpolating lines) on "Julia". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e6dea5bf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e6dea5bf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_e6dea5bf | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e96728aa | type |
Recycled Lyrics | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e96728aa | comment |
Recycled Lyrics: "Glass Onion" is filled with shout outs to other songs of theirs: | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e96728aa | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_e96728aa | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_e96728aa | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ea2e9f2d | type |
No Ending | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ea2e9f2d | comment |
"Long, Long, Long", which is played at a lethargic pace for the most part, then ends with George wailing while Ringo's drums try to follow him, plus some discordant organ notes which cause a wine bottle on the amplifier to rattle. Then it all ends suddenly with a drum thud. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ea2e9f2d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ea2e9f2d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_ea2e9f2d | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ef3b4c2f | type |
Glorious Mother Russia | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ef3b4c2f | comment |
Glorious Mother Russia: "Back in the U.S.S.R." describes a stereotypical version of Russia where Russian folk music plays constantly, snow falls and people refer to one another as comrades. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ef3b4c2f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_ef3b4c2f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_ef3b4c2f | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f0e85546 | type |
Unbuilt Trope | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f0e85546 | comment |
Subverted with songs like "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", which has the structure of a much longer song, but runs for fewer than three minutes - though to some extent, Unbuilt Trope also applies, as Progressive Rock, one of the main drivers of this trope, was in its infancy at this point. Meanwhile, the longest proper song on the album, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (4:45), has a fairly standard verse-chorus-bridge structure. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f0e85546 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f0e85546 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_f0e85546 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f1dcdabc | type |
Hidden Track | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f1dcdabc | comment |
Hidden Track: "Can You Take Me Back?", the song fragment included at the end of "Cry Baby Cry", edited from a jam done during the session for "I Will". The whole song was finally released on the 50th anniversary box set. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f1dcdabc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f1dcdabc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_f1dcdabc | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f3cf057b | type |
Fading into the Next Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f3cf057b | comment |
Fading into the Next Song: "Back In the U.S.S.R." → "Dear Prudence". "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" → "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is either a case of this or Siamese Twin Songs, depending upon one's interpretation of the tropes. The 1987 CD adds "Wild Honey Pie" into the mix via a sequencing error: "Bungalow Bill"'s guitar intermezzo tacked onto the closing seconds of "Wild Honey Pie" instead. The album was one of the first popular music albums to have the songs segue into each other instead of just leaving a gap of a few seconds between each song. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f3cf057b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f3cf057b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_f3cf057b | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f64a9cf7 | type |
Earn Your Happy Ending | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f64a9cf7 | comment |
Earn Your Happy Ending: Taken to levels all but unheard of on a record. It's an INTENSE roller-coaster lasting over 90 minutes long...climaxing in "Revolution 9"...before finally ending with "Good Night". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f64a9cf7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f64a9cf7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_f64a9cf7 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f6e05922 | type |
Sarcastic Clapping | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f6e05922 | comment |
Sarcastic Clapping: The applause near the end of "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" for the pathetic hunter Bungalow Bill is definitely not meant to be taken seriously. | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f6e05922 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f6e05922 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_f6e05922 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f8cbda13 | type |
Textless Album Cover | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f8cbda13 | comment |
Textless Album Cover: Some pressings almost qualify, because the only text is embossed and is coloured the same as the rest of the cover. (Some more recent copies have the name in grey letters rather than embossed letters, and the earliest copies had serial numbers on the cover.) | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f8cbda13 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_f8cbda13 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_f8cbda13 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_fb1a7602 | type |
Fourth Wall Greeting | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_fb1a7602 | comment |
Fourth Wall Greeting: "Good Night". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_fb1a7602 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_fb1a7602 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_fb1a7602 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_fb6e2ef7 | type |
Single Stanza Song | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_fb6e2ef7 | comment |
Single Stanza Song: "Wild Honey Pie" and "Why Don't We Do It in the Road", also counting as Broken Record and Miniscule Rocking. Also, "Can You Take Me Back", the Hidden Track right before "Revolution 9". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_fb6e2ef7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_fb6e2ef7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_fb6e2ef7 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_fc151e9d | type |
Department of Redundancy Department | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_fc151e9d | comment |
Department of Redundancy Department: In "I Will", Paul promises to "love you forever and forever". | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_fc151e9d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_fc151e9d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_fc151e9d | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_name | type |
ItemName | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_name | comment |
||
| The White Album (Music) / int_name | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_name | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The White Album (Music) | hasFeature |
The White Album (Music) / int_name | |
| The White Album (Music) / int_name | itemName |
The White Album (Music) |
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