White Album, when's your last listen?


Okay, I have a vinyl copy purchased in 68 or 69 which of course was worn out long ago. Now I'm on my second cd copy after one of my daughters "borrowed" my first copy, and my grandson is listening to it now.
Well the other night I popped in the first cd and sat down to listen. When it finished I hit play again. The music truly is timeless. The next night I did the same with cd #2.
Absolutely wonderful stuff. The biggest surprise was on the song "I Will." My "BeatleSong" book says this was recorded by Paul and Ringo with Ringo on drums and backing vocal and Paul playing the rest. While listening I noticed Paul mimicking the bass line with "doo doo doo" in the right speaker. Impossible to guess how many times I've listened to this through speakers or headphones but never noticed this before, wow.
Think I'll try Sgt. Pepper next.
timrhu

Showing 4 responses by mapman

One of the many factors that make the Beatles great is the diversity and exploratory nature of their music. No two albums sound the same, particularly in the second more artistic half of their career. The White Album is the most in interesting from an artistic perspective, but it is not possible for me to say that any one album is "the best". White album is one of my favs for sure though for all the unique things that only it brings to the table.
I've listened to a lot of music over the years + have many favorites. I always find I come back to the Beatles body of work as my reference standard... the all time best + timeless.

"I Will" is an all time classic love song...one of the many great lesser known Beatles tunes. It is in my mind a perfect piece of art/pop. It is hard to beat for what it is, yet, due to the volume of great music they produced, "I Will" seldom makes any top Beatles song countdown lists...amazing!

If you have small kids, I recommend singing them this one regularly before bedtime.....

If you can make out the "doo doo doo" bass line clearly, that's a good indicator that your system is doing some things pretty well.
The Beatles, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Mozart. I might toss Tchiakovsky in as well, I suppose.

Towards the less competitive, heavy metal/hard rock/grunge edge, I'd toss in Metallica, AC/DC Led Zep, and Nirvana, I suppose, but I would not put these in the same class as the others.

I'd say these are the artistic reference standards in various popular musical genres over the years that I am familiar with.
Just gave it a fresh listen on CD!

This was the first listen since I completed my recent tweaks to my system.

The results: I'm very happy camper! Everything was there and everything sounded "right". Even picked up a few new details I've never heard or noticed before.

BTW, The White Album makes a great reference recording for me because there is so much to hear and I've heard it on so many systems over the years, starting with my first system and those of many others I know.

I have a decent vinyl copy still as well. It's in my queue....