The songs appearing on the "White Album" included "Back In The USSR", McCartney's parody of songs by The Beach Boys and Chuck Berry. (Mike Love of the Beach Boys attended the Maharishi's course in India, at the same time as the Beatles.) McCartney normally played bass guitar, and Lennon rhythm guitar, on Beatles recordings, but this time McCartney played drums, with Lennon switching to bass guitar for the song.
"Dear Prudence" was about Mia Farrow's sister Prudence, who was also at the ashram in India. She spent long stretches of time meditating, and almost never came outside. Lennon wrote the song hoping to bring her out, to spend time with everyone. The guitar style he used on the song (and many songs afterwards) was the "clawhammer", a fingerpicking technique he learned from Donovan, another musician who went to India with them.
"Glass Onion" referenced recent songs and events in the Beatles's lives, and gave a false clue: "The Walrus was Paul". Lennon said later he'd given the line as a joke, and as a way to "say hi to Paul" McCartney. "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" was about another of the Maharishi's students, who left the ashram to hunt tigers, then returned to meditate. "Julia" was about Lennon's mother, who had died ten years earlier, with images of Yoko Ono, whose name means "Ocean Child" in English.
"Sexy Sadie" was about Lennon's disappointment with the Maharishi: "You made a fool of everyone." He changed "Maharishi" to "Sexy Sadie", in case the Maharishi really could use some kind of spiritual power (or start a lawsuit) against him, but later confessed to "Rolling Stone" magazine who the song was about.
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" was a retro song by McCartney. His songs on the album varied from old-fashioned to hard rock, such as "Helter Skelter", which was about a fairground ride. He also used fingerpicking styles on acoustic guitar, and his songs "Blackbird" and "Mother Nature's Son" included nature themes.
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" showed Harrison's growth as a songwriter, and featured a guitar solo by Eric Clapton. It was the first time a guitar solo was played by a non-Beatle on a Beatles record. "Long Long Long" was about Harrison's rediscovery of God and spirituality as he became older. "Savoy Truffle" was about a box of Good News chocolate candies, which Clapton loved, but were harming his teeth.
Ringo Starr had tinkered with writing songs, but most were just variations on songs written by other people. "Don't Pass Me By" was one of his first efforts, from years earlier, and one of his first to sound original. He went on to write many other songs, in the years after the Beatles. Most were written with a partner, Vini Poncia.
The strangest recording included on the album was "Revolution 9", an avant-garde "picture of a revolution as it happens", as Lennon described later. George Harrison helped with ideas and narration. McCartney and George Martin did not want the track included on the album, but Lennon insisted it be used.
When the recordings were ready to be mastered, Lennon and McCartney spent forty-eight hours at Abbey Road Studios, working out the running order for the songs on the album. They took stimulant drugs to help them get through the marathon session. The band had done photo sessions during the year, but could not agree on any photos to use for the cover. They decided to go with a plain white cover, which had never been done before. They and their helpers made a collage of different photos, which was included as a poster with the album. Portrait photos of each member were also taken. Black-and-white prints appeared next to the song titles on the inner jacket, and colour prints were included with the poster. They did not appear together in the pictures, and this was taken later as a sign that the band was growing apart.
The album was completed, and scheduled to be released during November 1968. Coming out at nearly the same time were two "solo albums" by Lennon and Harrison, and this caused some problems. Harrison's was "Wonderwall Music", a soundtrack album to the movie "Wonderwall" by director Joe Massot. Harrison had recorded parts of the album in India, and parts in England. The only other Beatle involved with the album was Ringo Starr, who played drums on a few songs, and attended the movie's premiere with Harrison.
Lennon's album with Ono was "Two Virgins", edited down from the recording he made with Yoko Ono the first night they were together. The cover was a pair of nude photos of the couple, and it caused a lot of controversy. EMI was willing to master and press the album, but refused to print the cover or distribute any copies. Apple Records arranged for Track Records, a label owned by The Who, to issue "Two Virgins". The album was sold in a "plain brown wrapper" like pornography, and was not a hit. Only a few copies were pressed in Britain, and more copies were impounded in America than were sold. Many people thought Lennon was trying to destroy his own public image, releasing such an album. In a way they were right. He felt that the album was an honest statement of who he "really was", appearing naked with the woman he loved.
Problems aside, "The Beatles" sold well, and was another hit for the band. The Beatles held a release party, and gave early copies of the album to people who attended. (Peter Shotton, an old friend of Lennon's who worked for Apple, was given the eighth copy pressed, as he remembered later in his memoir.) Older people liked McCartney's traditional-sounding songs. Younger listeners liked the rock and acoustic songs on the album. Many people noticed Harrison and Starr's growth as songwriters, and that Harrison's voice sounded freer, smoother, and more confident than on earlier records.
Charles Manson, an American would-be musician with a small group of followers, heard the album in California, and thought the songs "Blackbird" and "Helter Skelter" were calls for a racial war, between African-American (black) and Caucasian (white) people. His beliefs resulted in a series of murders in Los Angeles during 1969, as he ordered members of his "Manson Family" to try to spark such a war, by committing hate crimes. Later during his trial, his lawyers tried to get John Lennon (staying in California at the time) or George Harrison to testify, but this never happened. Manson and four Family members were convicted of multiple murder. They were sentenced to be executed, but when the US Supreme Court overturned the death penalty, their sentences were changed to life imprisonment. None have ever been paroled.
During 1969, Allen Klein began to work for the Beatles, and for Apple Corps. He re-read the Beatles's recording contract, and pointed out that even after the band turned in their seventy new recordings to EMI, they were still under contract with them until 1976, and could not go to any other record company until then. The fact that they were so close to meeting the requirement, though, made it possible for him to re-negotiate their contract, and get them higher royalty payments.
The personal problems that had begun to show while the Beatles were making the "White Album" continued over the next year, as did problems with Apple Corps. McCartney stopped using cocaine, while Lennon and Ono tried to stop using heroin, but this did not help mend feelings between the Beatles. They finished two more albums, "Let It Be" and "Abbey Road", but the band broke apart soon afterwards, with Paul McCartney announcing in 1970 that he was starting a solo career.
In time, budget cutbacks resulted in the album's cover no longer being die-stamped (the title was printed instead) or numbered, but when it was re-issued on compact disc, early copies were again given serial numbers.
Albert Fert