“A bit heavy”: The only part of the ‘White Album’ George Harrison listened to
It is difficult to think of another band that managed to develop its sound to such an extreme extent as The Beatles. If you look at their early tracks, like ‘Love Me Do’ or ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, they are on different planets to records like Revolver or even Let It Be. Much of this change came from the songwriting development of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but the other members, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, were often a little apprehensive about the songwriters’ more out-there compositions.
Everybody has their own personal take on which Beatles album is their greatest work; we are not going to delve into that age-old argument in this article. However, across their discography, the White Album is undoubtedly a triumph. Awash with innovative production techniques, groundbreaking songwriting and near-flawless performances from everybody involved in the production, the 1968 double album is a fantastic example of just how much The Beatles had changed over the course of a few years.
The other side of that argument, however, is that the self-titled album alienated many of the band’s earlier fans, who were not convinced by the strange and experimental work included in the expansive album. In fact, not every member of the band itself was overly convinced by the project. George Harrison, for instance, was always fairly open about his views on Beatles albums, and he was less than complimentary about the White Album on multiple occasions.
Seemingly, Harrison’s issues with the 1968 record lie in the John Lennon-penned track ‘Revolution 9’. An extension of his earlier track, ‘Revolution’, the White Album song leaned heavily into elements of avant-garde, drawing inspiration from the blossoming world of musique concrète composition. Using overdubs, tape loops, stereo panning, and a whole host of other production techniques that had not yet arrived in the musical mainstream, the band constructed this eight-minute epic, but it seemed to divide opinions.
Some fans wrote the song off as unlistenable, and it is certainly easy to see why when contrasting the song to some of the band’s previous work. Harrison, though he had a hand in its composition, was not completely taken with the final product, once sharing, “‘Revolution 9’ was alright, but it wasn’t particularly like The Beatles.”
Nevertheless, Harrison could also recognise the genius at the heart of the divisive song. “Then again, it has good points because ‘Revolution 9’ worked very well in the context of all of those different songs,” he once declared. “I mean, that was the great thing about it, that if people spent enough time listening to it then there was all different types of music and types of songs, and there was nothing really shocking about it. I don’t think there was anything particularly poor about it.”
Despite his defence of the song, Harrison also admitted that he rarely listened to the song after its release. “It was a bit heavy,” he said, “I find it heavy to listen to myself; in fact, I don’t listen to it myself. I listen mainly to side one, which I like very much, with ‘Glass Onion’.” That is one of the many reasons why the White Album is so enduring; you do not have to listen to all of it. The record contains so many different themes and styles that make it easy to dip in and out of the double album.
At the same time, listening to the record in full is an essential experience for any music fan, and one which certainly sticks with the listener. While Harrison might have missed out on that listening experience, the extensive and tireless studio sessions which produced the album likely meant he was pretty sick of the record before it ever hit the shelves. Either way, ‘Glass Onion’ remains a highlight of the album, both in the mind of George Harrison and in the hearts of Beatles fans everywhere.
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