ewe2
19-05-2006, 06:30 PM
I'm so tired, I'm feeling so upset
Although I'm so tired, I'll have another cigarette
And curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git
-- I'm So Tired
The very concept of the juxaposition of songs creating its own thread of associations was invented by the Beatles and nowhere is it more evident than on this sprawling double album, seemingly so disjointed yet with a flow that is meaningful. The old second LP side of the first disc is a good example: each song begins and ends as a counterpoint to its predecessor, from the bright Martha My Dear, offset by the irony of I'm So Tired, which is then undercut by the sublime Blackbird, contrasted by the world-weary Piggies, which is yet again undercut by the goofy country of Rocky Racoon...you get the idea.
The coverart and eponymous title reflects the desire of the band to cast off the candy-gloss pretences of the Pepper era, and present a more pure, deliberately stream-of-consciousness approach to whatever Beatles music stood for at the time. A great deal of the album had been written from the groups Maharishi time, but also much was written from studio expermentation.
It's difficult to give a better overview of the album other than to see it as a diverse collection of the competing musical interests of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. The slow descent of the group from a unit towards individuals during the recording is well-documented: both Harrison and Starr staged walk-outs from the tension, feeling they were becoming more of a backing band for the primary songwriters.
There is little psychedelica here, the experimentation is still strong but less overt. Wild Honey Pie used deliberate tape flutter, and tape loops are everywhere, particularly on the completely avant garde Revolution 9, and note how that was undercut by Ringo singing a very conventional Good Night. The incredible Helter Skelter is an exercise in extremely dirty guitar feedback, and for I Will, the bass is actually Paul's own voice.
Many of the songs are deliberately ironic, with double entendres. Sexy Sadie was a last-minute change for "Maharishi", but the intention still works. Yer Blues is a comment on blues purists, Back In The USSR is both anti-US AND anti-USSR, Rocky Racoon pokes fun at narrative country music (a sort of backhanded complement to Dylan), and Revolution 1 is rather ambivalent about its message. The album is rife with parody, something the Beatles were masters at, from Honey Pie's dalliance with 1920's standards, several country parodies like Mother Nature's Son and Don't Pass Me By, to perhaps the ultimate parody of Glass Onion.
Why do I rate this album so highly? Several reasons: there have been many albums since that have tried to mimic the range and intensity of the White Album but in my biased opinion they haven't succeeded. I think the collection works even though not all the songs can be taken out of context. Then again, there have been way too many covers of Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, and everyone recognises what a classic While My Guitar Gently Weeps is (and how many people write songs about their partners falling in love with their best mate, and get HIM to play lead on it?). There's also the subtlety I mentioned previously: not everything is straight rocknroll like Birthday or RNB like Savoy Truffle. There's the delicate Julia and Dear Prudence, for instance.
These days, if you want to write a double album, you want to at least approach the consistency of a White Album (or dare I say it, All Things Must Pass, but that's another argument), with real depth and diversity. Something I wish RHCP had thought about with their latest.
Although I'm so tired, I'll have another cigarette
And curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git
-- I'm So Tired
The very concept of the juxaposition of songs creating its own thread of associations was invented by the Beatles and nowhere is it more evident than on this sprawling double album, seemingly so disjointed yet with a flow that is meaningful. The old second LP side of the first disc is a good example: each song begins and ends as a counterpoint to its predecessor, from the bright Martha My Dear, offset by the irony of I'm So Tired, which is then undercut by the sublime Blackbird, contrasted by the world-weary Piggies, which is yet again undercut by the goofy country of Rocky Racoon...you get the idea.
The coverart and eponymous title reflects the desire of the band to cast off the candy-gloss pretences of the Pepper era, and present a more pure, deliberately stream-of-consciousness approach to whatever Beatles music stood for at the time. A great deal of the album had been written from the groups Maharishi time, but also much was written from studio expermentation.
It's difficult to give a better overview of the album other than to see it as a diverse collection of the competing musical interests of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. The slow descent of the group from a unit towards individuals during the recording is well-documented: both Harrison and Starr staged walk-outs from the tension, feeling they were becoming more of a backing band for the primary songwriters.
There is little psychedelica here, the experimentation is still strong but less overt. Wild Honey Pie used deliberate tape flutter, and tape loops are everywhere, particularly on the completely avant garde Revolution 9, and note how that was undercut by Ringo singing a very conventional Good Night. The incredible Helter Skelter is an exercise in extremely dirty guitar feedback, and for I Will, the bass is actually Paul's own voice.
Many of the songs are deliberately ironic, with double entendres. Sexy Sadie was a last-minute change for "Maharishi", but the intention still works. Yer Blues is a comment on blues purists, Back In The USSR is both anti-US AND anti-USSR, Rocky Racoon pokes fun at narrative country music (a sort of backhanded complement to Dylan), and Revolution 1 is rather ambivalent about its message. The album is rife with parody, something the Beatles were masters at, from Honey Pie's dalliance with 1920's standards, several country parodies like Mother Nature's Son and Don't Pass Me By, to perhaps the ultimate parody of Glass Onion.
Why do I rate this album so highly? Several reasons: there have been many albums since that have tried to mimic the range and intensity of the White Album but in my biased opinion they haven't succeeded. I think the collection works even though not all the songs can be taken out of context. Then again, there have been way too many covers of Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, and everyone recognises what a classic While My Guitar Gently Weeps is (and how many people write songs about their partners falling in love with their best mate, and get HIM to play lead on it?). There's also the subtlety I mentioned previously: not everything is straight rocknroll like Birthday or RNB like Savoy Truffle. There's the delicate Julia and Dear Prudence, for instance.
These days, if you want to write a double album, you want to at least approach the consistency of a White Album (or dare I say it, All Things Must Pass, but that's another argument), with real depth and diversity. Something I wish RHCP had thought about with their latest.