The White Album: Difference between revisions

[[File:600px-TheBeatles68LP_7544.jpg|frame|No, that's not whitespace, that's the album cover.]]

''The White Album'' was the Beatles' first 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 unity. Though not as popular as other Beatles records like ''Sgt. Pepper'' or ''Abbey Road'', ''The White Album'' is still 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 [[Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly]] variety of styles, inevitably will attract complaints about filler".

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* [[Affectionate Parody]]: Several songs on this album imitate a certain musical style and whether these songs are a homage or a parody (or both) are left to the individual listener's opinion.

* [[Age Progression Song]]: "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da".

* [[Call Back]]: The lyrics of "Glass Onion" consist almost entirely of references to the band's previous songs, including "I Am the Walrus", "She Loves You", "The Fool on the Hill", "Fixing a Hole", and "Strawberry Fields Forever". In the case of "The Fool on the Hill", the song even includes a little snatch of flute as a musical echo of the original's introduction.

* [[Continuity Nod]]:

** "Savoy Truffle" - "We all know 'Ob-La-Di-Blah-Da'..."

* [[Darker and Edgier]]:

* [[Everything's Better with Chocolate]]: "Savoy Truffle"

* [[Evolving Music]]: "Revolution" and "Revolution 1", two very different takes on the same song.

* [[Genre Roulette]] / [[In the Style Of]]:

** Many of the album's more acoustic-based songs seem to draw from [[Folk Rock]].

* [[Momma's Boy]]: The titular 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 defense when people start to question him - hence why he always brings her along on hunting trips "in case of accidents."

* [[Murder Ballad]]: "Rocky Raccoon", "Piggies"

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: [[Eric Clapton]] came to the studio at his friend George's request to play on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". He delivered probably the best guitar solo to ever appear on a Beatles record.

* [[One-Woman Song]]: "Julia", "Sexy Sadie"

* [[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).

* [[Punny Name]]: "Bungalow Bill" instead of "[[Buffalo Bill]]"

** "Dear Prudence" was inspired by Prudence Farrow who kept inside meditating while the group was in India.

** Bungalow Bill was a tiger-hunting man they met in Rishikesh.

* [[Record Producer]]: George Martin.

* [[Scare Chord]]:

** Ends "Piggies".

* [[Self-Backing Vocalist]]: Paul on "I Will" and "Wild Honey Pie". John, who usually didn't do this, had a duet with himself (interpolating lines) on "Julia".

* [[Self-Titled Album]]: ''The Beatles'', although pretty much everyone knows it better as "The White Album".

** "Julia"--while it's about John's late mother, guess what the Japanese for [[Yoko Ono|"ocean child"]] is?

** "Savoy Truffle" lists a lot of actual flavors of chocolate, and is also a joke about [[Eric Clapton]]'s weakness for chocolate.

* [[Single-Stanza Song]]: "Wild Honey Pie" and "Why Don't We Do It In The Road" . Also, "Can You Take Me Back", the [[Hidden Track]] right before "Revolution 9".

* [[Song of Song Titles]]: "Glass Onion" on the White Album name-checks "Strawberry Fields Forever", "I Am The Walrus", "Fixing a Hole", "Lady Madonna" and "The Fool On The Hill".

* [[Spoken Word in Music]]: "Revolution 9"

* [[Subliminal Seduction]]: Unfortunately it happened to [[Charles Manson]].

* [[Take That]]: "Sexy Sadie" was aimed at the Maharishi.