The White Album/Trivia

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• Creative Differences: Although the band kept it together throughout the recording for the album (its initial sessions were remarkably harmonious and cooperative) and managed to complete two more following it, this album is where the rot began to set in, with band members drifting apart, egos beginning to get out of control and outside influences beginning to take their toll; the observation has frequently been made that this is reflected in the overall tone of the album, which feels more like a compilation of solo efforts (many of the songs were in fact recorded by one of the band working individually with perhaps a minimal amount of involvement from one of the others at most, others featured contributions but not the entire band lineup, and the final result was assembled through overdubbing) rather than a collaborative effort. George Martin's waning authority and the use of multiple rooms left a lot of the album recorded by the band members alone with Abbey Road engineers.
  • Engineer Ken Scott once recounted an incident on 20 August 1968 while Paul was working on the brass overdubs for "Mother Nature's Son" that illustrates how bad things were getting only two years before their breakup:

"Paul was downstairs going through the arrangement with George [Martin] and the brass players. Everything was great, everyone was in great spirits. Suddenly, half way through, John and Ringo walked in and you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. An instant change. It was like that for ten minutes and then as soon as they left it felt great again. It was very bizarre".

• Fan Nickname: The title "The White Album".
• Hitless Hit Album: No songs were released as singles.
• Missing Episode: The 27 minute version of "Helter Skelter".
• Troubled Production: Complete with Ringo leaving the band for a while (Paul McCartney took over on drums for "Back in the USSR" and "Dear Prudence", and John and George also recorded drum tracks for "Back in the USSR").
• What Could Have Been:
  • What if The Beatles had listened to George Martin and agreed to cut down the album?
  • There were still quite a few omissions and outtakes from the album. One of them was "What's the New Mary Jane?", another highly experimental track featuring John, George, and Yoko. It appears in a much edited form (in order to make it sound more like a song) on Anthology 3.