The album The Beatles, or as it is known among fans, White Album, is eschewed by many critics for being too chaotic, much less a band and much more four separate individual artists trying to find their own way in the musical world after the heights the band reached on Rubber Soul, Revolver, and St. Pepper. Being a double album doesn't help the tonal differences that highlight the album. You could pick and choose songs and come up with either a really good children's-rhymes-turned-songs (Oobla Di, Blackbird, Piggies) or a revolutionary rock band taking charge of the medium (Happiness is a Warm Gun, Helter Skelter, While My Guitar Gently Weeps).
To emphasize this, I'd like to look at two songs that come one after another on the White Album which showcase just how different this album can be from track to track- Honey Pie, written by Paul McCartney, and Savoy Truffle, written by George Harrison. So journey on, readers, because a magical mystery tour this ain't.
Honey Pie is supposed to be an homage to the dance hall era songs Paul was brought up in. A corny little ditty, Paul talks about his old Hollywood gal and, well, already from that description you get an idea of just how saccharine this song is. John Lennon hated this song to the point where he really didn't want it in the White Album at all. While I personally enjoy it, I can certainly see why John would think Paul's crooning cramped the White Album style. All the Beatles played in the song, though, which for White Album was a feat, so there's that.
Savoy Truffle is a bit more interesting. Eric Clapton apparently had a tendency to eat a whole box of truffles, so George wrote this essentially to tease him- the majority of the lyrics are basically just listing the types of truffles there were in the Good News box Clapton tended to eat in. Originally, I thought this was a John song, because much of it was essentially nonsense, and that's kind of John's thing. I'm going to assume drugs were involved, because the sensuality that George sings the lyrics with makes the song far more. er, suggestive than was probably the intention. However, this song's bizarre use of saxophone coupled with guitar really sets it apart from the rest of not just White Album, but the entire Beatles repertoire. If this song were the only song the Beatles ever did, we probably would have heard far less of them. And that's a damn shame, because it's one of my favorites on the whole White Album. It's certainly underrated, but what can I say, Savoy Truffle got lost in the savoy shuffle.
George Martin originally wanted just one disk for White Album, collating all the best songs. If that had happened, we may have gotten the greatest Beatles album. But as it stands, White Album is a bit of a mess. Okay, a lot of a mess. But that might be a good thing too, because if Martin had kept only the hits and not the strange oddities, I think the world would have really missed out on some secret gems. Perfection isn't everything- the thing that made The Beatles so incredible wasn't just the Let it Bes and the Hey Judes- it was also the Doctor Roberts and the Things We Said Todays and, yes, even the Honey Pies. Whether saccharine honey or succulent truffle, the White Album was weird, wild, and (at the very, very least) unique.
