Line #15 YMMV/TheWhiteAlbum


1	[[WMG:[[center:[-Music/TheBeatles '''[[YMMV/TheBeatles Main YMMV Page]]'''\
2	''YMMV/PleasePleaseMe'' \| ''YMMV/WithTheBeatles'' \| ''YMMV/AHardDaysNight'' \| ''YMMV/BeatlesForSale'' \| ''YMMV/{{Help}}'' \| ''YMMV/RubberSoul'' \| ''YMMV/{{Revolver\|BeatlesAlbum}}''\
3	''YMMV/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' \| ''YMMV/MagicalMysteryTour'' \| '''''The White Album''''' \| ''YMMV/YellowSubmarine'' \| ''YMMV/AbbeyRoad'' \| ''YMMV/LetItBe''\
4	''YMMV/PastMasters'' \| ''YMMV/TheBeatlesAnthology'' \| ''YMMV/TheBeatlesGetBack''-]]]]]
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6	* BrokenBase:
7	** "Wild Honey Pie" is either a hilarious SoBadItsGood track, or just a plain bad, unlistenable, and completely pointless addition.
8	** "Revolution 9". For some, it's brilliant and revolutionary; for others, it's a horrific, unlistenable, pretentious mess, not helped by the fact that it's the longest song the Beatles ever put out (clocking in at [[EpicRocking eight and a half minutes]]). Others split the difference, recognizing that it's brilliant and revolutionary but not actually liking it.
9	** As with most long double albums, there's the constant debate over if it would've been better as a single album, and if so, which songs are filler and should be cut. It doesn't help that this is probably the album where the differences between John and Paul's writing stand out the most.
10	* CriticalBacklash: "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" routinely finds its way onto "worst songs of all time" lists, which confuses fans who both find it to be a silly, but fun, little toe-tapper, and wonder why it gets singled out for such a bad reputation of all the songs on the album, given that "Wild Honey Pie" and especially "Revolution 9" are more likely to draw criticism from fans.
11	* FanNickname: The title "The White Album". Also began the informal convention of nicknaming a band's SelfTitledAlbum after the defining feature of its cover art, usually its color (e.g. the Music/{{Weezer}} self-titled albums, named after the background colors), but also, like Music/PeterGabriel's first three albums, the image in the cover photo.
12	* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: Poor Rocky Raccoon and his [[EpicFail "showdown"]] with Dan.
13	** Also, the line about the ex-girlfriend's name ("Her name was Magill, and she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy"), which might imply that she was a prostitute... making his reaction to the breakup even more stupid.
14	* GeniusBonus: "Helter Skelter" takes its name from a type of slide used at carnivals, but it was originally an older English expression meaning "in confused, disorderly haste" -- a pretty good description of the song itself.
15	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: "Don't Pass Me By" became a #1 hit in Denmark.
16	* HarsherInHindsight:
17	** "Yer Blues" has the line, "[[Music/JohnLennon If I ain't dead already]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_John_Lennon girl you know the reason why]]."
18	** "Julia" is a tribute song written by a musician who met with a tragic, untimely death to his mother, who met with a tragic, untimely death.
19	** "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is probably not something John Lennon would have agreed with.
20	** "Glass Onion" is a TakeThat to people looking for hidden meanings in their songs. And looking for non-existent hidden meanings elsewhere on the album is exactly what UsefulNotes/CharlesManson did.
21	** "Savoy Truffle", a song inspired by Music/EricClapton's sweet tooth, is light enough in itself, but compulsive candy eating is also a symptom of opioid abuse, and Clapton did have a heroin problem.
22	* HilariousInHindsight:
23	** From "Rocky Raccoon", "Her name was Magill, and she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy". In 2011, Paul married Nancy Shevell.
24	** Also from "Rocky Raccoon", Rocky's line "It's only a scratch" became more amusing after both Music/GeorgeHarrison and Music/RingoStarr befriended the cast of Creator/MontyPython, whose film ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' featured a more memorable instance of the phrase.
25	* MemeticMutation:
26	** "I GOT BLISTERS ON MAH FINGERS!"[[labelnote:Explanation]]An ad-lib that Ringo belts out at the end of "Helter Skelter". The phrase has since become popular to quote among Beatles fans in reference to the track and Ringo.[[/labelnote]]
27	** "Number nine... number nine... number nine..."[[labelnote:Explanation]]A prominently-repeated phrase in "Revolution 9", which, combined with the song's polarizing reception, resulted in it becoming a popular subject of parody.[[/labelnote]]
28	* MisaimedFandom:
29	** "Glass Onion" was intended as a sarcastic attack on all those Beatle fans who sought for hidden messages and meanings in their songs.
30	** Sadly, American cult leader UsefulNotes/CharlesManson still managed to interpret the lyrics of the songs "Piggies", "Revolution 1", "Revolution 9", "I Will", "Honey Pie", "Blackbird", and "Helter Skelter" as convoluted prophecy of an apocalyptic race war, which he then attempted to instigate by forming a cult of serial killers, who then proceeded to commit one of the most notorious series of murders in American history at Manson's direction. For a more elaborate description of his {{Cloudcuckoolander}} interpretations, see [[http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/manson/mansonbeatles.html this link]]. The mere fact that "Honey Pie", possibly the most innocuous song in the history of English-language popular music, was taken by Manson as a secret message to him and his followers (the key line was "your Hollywood song", which Manson took as a ShoutOut to him in Los Angeles), gives you an idea of how deranged he was.
31	* NarmCharm: Whilst the lyrics to "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" are completely ridiculous, nonsensical, and intentionally childish, the actual performance of the song's composition by the band is so driven and passionate that it makes it hard to hate the song.
32	* NightmareFuel: The album in general has an overall harsher, unsettling quality to it. Instruments and vocals have weird textures, songs are played roughly (sometimes with proto-heavy metal distortion) and end in minor keys, songs end (or begin) in disjointed ways, [[LastNoteNightmare Last Note Nightmares]] abound. Many of the songs lyrically deal with death, violence and mortality in a way Beatles records hadn't before. Even the more lighthearted songs don't help matters. The RealitySubtext of the band falling apart is audible. It's the band's darkest album. There's also the fact that insane cult leader UsefulNotes/CharlesManson would twist the meanings of the songs into a megalomaniacal scheme to cause a race war through mass murder.
33	* OnceOriginalNowCommon: "Helter Skelter" was one of the heaviest rock songs in The60s, but this quality is less unique nowadays, given the many, many heavy-metal bands out there. Ironically, [=McCartney=] created "Helter Skelter" to outdo Music/TheWho's "I Can See For Miles", which The Who claimed was their loudest, harshest song yet.
34	* OneSceneWonder:
35	** Music/EricClapton came to the studio at his friend George's request to play on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". He delivered probably the best and certainly the most skillful guitar solo to ever appear on a Beatles record.
36	** The prominent fiddle on "Don't Pass Me By" was played by session musician Jack Fallon.
37	* SoBadItsGood:
38	** "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"
39	** "Wild Honey Pie"
40	** "Yer Blues", and deliberately so. Just check out the lyrics and the guitar solo.
41	* SuspiciouslySimilarSong:
42	** The 50th anniversary box set has Paul breaking into a jam on "Blue Moon" in between takes of "I Will", which demonstrates the similarities in the two songs (especially their bridges).
43	** "Sexy Sadie" clearly drew some inspiration from [[Creator/{{Motown}} "I've Been Good to You" by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles]], which opens with the lines "Look what you've done, you made a fool out of someone."
44	* SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel: "Good Night".
45	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
46	** "Revolution" has the line "If you go carrying pictures of chairman [[UsefulNotes/MaoZedong Mao]] you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow". Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Maoism was more popular and widespread among leftist youth than it is now (to the point where pictures of Mao were in fact known to be carried around in several protests of '68), largely because the human rights abuses committed during Mao's tenure as chairman weren't widely known in the west until after his death in 1976.
47	** "Back in the U.S.S.R." has "1960s period piece" written all over it. In addition to the obvious fact that the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn U.S.S.R.]] was disbanded in 1991, the song is written as a parody of Music/TheBeachBoys' 1965 hit "California Girls," has a title that's both a ShoutOut to Music/ChuckBerry (specifically 1959's "Back in the U.S.A.") and a pun on the "I'm Backing Britain" campaign (which is little more than a historical curiosity today), and contains a reference to "Georgia on My Mind" (originally written in 1930 and popularized by Music/RayCharles in 1960). BOAC was also merged into British Airways in 1974.
48	* VindicatedByHistory: The album received mixed reviews on release, in large part because of its eclectic approach and lack of political commentary during an extremely turbulent year, but is now regarded by many fans as one of the Beatles' best albums. For instance, its GenreRoulette style was dismissed as being incoherent in its original release, but now is hailed as an engaging variety of songs of the band displaying its terrific versatility. That said, it's still rather divisive among hardcore Beatles fans.

Context YMMV / TheWhiteAlbum