User:JG66/sandbox White Album reception

On release, The Beatles gained highly favourable reviews from the majority of music critics.{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=111}}{{sfn|Woffinden|1981|p=7}} Others bemoaned its length or found that the music lacked the adventurous quality that had distinguished Sgt. Pepper.{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=111}} According to the author Ian Inglis: "Whether positive or negative, all assessments of The Beatles drew attention to its fragmentary style. However, while some complained about the lack of a coherent style, others recognized this as the album's raison d'être."{{sfn|Inglis|2009|p=120}}

In The Observer, Tony Palmer wrote that "if there is still any doubt that Lennon and McCartney are the greatest songwriters since Schubert", the album "should surely see the last vestiges of cultural snobbery and bourgeois prejudice swept away in a deluge of joyful music making".{{sfn|Norman|1996|p=346}} Richard Goldstein of The New York Times considered the double album to be "a major success" and "far more imaginative" than Sgt. Pepper or Magical Mystery Tour,{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=111}} due to the band's improved songwriting and their relying less on the studio tricks of those earlier works.{{cite news |last=Goldstein |first=Richard |newspaper=The New York Times |title=The Beatles |date=8 December 1968|pages=33, 37}} In The Sunday Times, Derek Jewell hailed it as "the best thing in pop since Sgt. Pepper" and concluded: "Musically, there is beauty, horror, surprise, chaos, order. And that is the world; and that is what The Beatles are on about. Created by, creating for, their age."{{cite book|first=Ian|last=MacDonald|chapter=White Riot|title=Mojo: The Beatles' Final Years Special Edition|year=2003|location=London|publisher=Emap|page=56}} Although he dismissed "Revolution 9" as a "pretentious" example of "idiot immaturity", the NME{{'}}s Alan Smith declared "God Bless You, Beatles!" to the majority of the album.{{cite news |work=NME|title=The Brilliant, the Bad, and the Ugly |location=UK |date=9 November 1968 |last=Smith |first=Alan}} Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone called it "the history and synthesis of Western music",{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=113}} and the group's best album yet. Wenner contended that they were allowed to appropriate other styles and traditions into rock music because their ability and identity were "so strong that they make it uniquely theirs, and uniquely the Beatles. They are so good that they not only expand the idiom, but they are also able to penetrate it and take it further."{{cite journal|author=Wenner, Jann|date=21 December 1968|title=The Beatles|journal=Rolling Stone|location=New York|page=10}}

Among the less favourable critiques, Time magazine's reviewer wrote that The Beatles showcased the "best abilities and worst tendencies" of the Beatles, as it is skilfully performed and sophisticated, but lacks a "sense of taste and purpose".{{cite journal|journal=Time|location=New York|title=The Mannerist Phase|page=53|date=6 December 1968}} William Mann of The Times opined that, in their over-reliance on pastiche and "private jokes", Lennon and McCartney had ceased to progress as songwriters, yet he deemed the release to be "The most important musical event of the year" and acknowledged: "these 30 tracks contain plenty to be studied, enjoyed and gradually appreciated more fully in the coming months." In his review for The New York Times, Nik Cohn considered the album "boring beyond belief" and said that over half of its songs were "profound mediocrities".{{cite news |last=Cohn |first=Nik |authorlink=Nik Cohn |title=A Briton Blasts The Beatles |work=The New York Times |date=15 December 1968}} In a 1971 column, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice described the album as both "their most consistent and probably their worst", and referred to its songs as a "pastiche of musical exercises".{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|authorlink=Robert Christgau|date=September 1971|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/beatles.php|title=Living Without the Beatles|newspaper=The Village Voice|location=New York|accessdate=1 February 2013}} Nonetheless, he ranked it as the tenth best album of 1968 in his ballot for Jazz & Pop magazine's annual critics poll.{{cite journal|journal=Jazz & Pop|last=Christgau|first=Robert|year=1969|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/jpballot-69.php|title=Robert Christgau's 1969 Jazz & Pop Ballot|accessdate=17 April 2014}}

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{rating|5|5}}

| rev2 = The A.V. Club

| rev2Score = A+{{cite news|last=Klosterman|first=Chuck|authorlink=Chuck Klosterman|date=8 September 2009|url=http://www.avclub.com/articles/chuck-klosterman-repeats-the-beatles,32560/|title=Chuck Klosterman Repeats The Beatles|newspaper=The A.V. Club|location=Chicago|accessdate=23 November 2015|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6GuiHAk0V|archivedate=26 May 2013|url-status=live}}

| rev3 = The Daily Telegraph

| rev3Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web|last=McCormick |first=Neil |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/the-beatles/6138859/The-Beatles-The-Beatles-review.html |title=The Beatles – The Beatles, review |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=8 September 2009 |accessdate=7 November 2011}}

| rev4 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev4Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{sfn|Larkin|2006|p=489}}

| rev5 = MusicHound

| rev5Score = 4/5{{sfn|Graff|Durchholz|1999|p=88}}

| rev6 = Pitchfork Media

| rev6Score = 10/10{{cite web |url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13432-the-beatles/ |title=Album Review: The Beatles: The Beatles |author=Richardson, Mark |date=10 September 2009 |work=Pitchfork Media|accessdate=19 May 2010}}

| rev7 = PopMatters

| rev7Score = {{Rating|9|10}}{{cite web |url=http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/beatles-whitealbum |title=The Beatles: White Album |author=Zupko, Sarah |work=PopMatters|accessdate=19 May 2010}}

| rev8 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev8Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{sfn|Sheffield|2004|p=51}}

| rev9 = Slant Magazine

| rev9Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite web|last=Henderson |first=Eric |url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/the-beatles-the-beatles-the-white-album/467 |title=The Beatles: The Beatles (The White Album) |work=Slant Magazine |date=2 August 2004 |accessdate=7 November 2011}}

}}

In a 2003 appraisal of the album, for Mojo magazine, Ian MacDonald wrote that The Beatles regularly appears among the top ten in critics' "best albums of all time" lists, yet it was a work that he deemed "eccentric, highly diverse, and very variable [in] quality".{{cite book|first=Ian|last=MacDonald|chapter=White Riot|title=Mojo: The Beatles' Final Years Special Edition|year=2003|location=London|publisher=Emap|page=55}} Rob Sheffield, writing in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), commented that its songs ranged from the Beatles' "sturdiest tunes since Revolver" to "self-indulgent filler", and while he derided tracks such as "Revolution 9" and "Helter Skelter", he acknowledged that picking personal highlights was "part of the fun" for listeners.{{sfn|Sheffield|2004|p=54}} Writing for MusicHound in 1999, Guitar World editor Christopher Scapelliti described the album as "self-indulgent and at times unlistenable" but identified "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and "Helter Skelter" as "fascinating standouts" that made it a worthwhile purchase.{{sfn|Graff|Durchholz|1999|p=88}}

According to Slant Magazine{{'}}s Eric Henderson, The Beatles is a rarity among the band's recorded works, in that it "resists reflexive canonisation, which, along with society's continued fragmentation, keeps the album fresh and surprising". In his review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that because of its wide variety of musical styles, the album can be "a frustratingly scattershot record or a singularly gripping musical experience, depending on your view". He concludes: "None of it sounds like it was meant to share album space together, but somehow The Beatles creates its own style and sound through its mess."{{cite web |publisher=AllMusic |accessdate=22 November 2015 |url={{Allmusic|class=album|id=r1523/review|pure_url=yes}} |title=Review of The Beatles [White Album] |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |authorlink=Stephen Thomas Erlewine}}

Among reviews of the 2009 remastered album, Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph found that even its worst songs work within the context of such an eclectic and unconventional collection, which he rated "one of the greatest albums ever made". Writing for Paste, Mark Kemp refuted the White Album's reputation as "three solo works in one (plus a Ringo song)"; instead, he said, it "benefits from each member's wildly different ideas" and demonstrates Lennon and McCartney's considerable versatility as composers, in addition to offering "two of Harrison's finest moments".{{cite web |url=http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/09/the-beatles-the-long-and-winding-repertoire.html |title=The Beatles: The Long and Winding Repertoire |last=Kemp|first=Mark |date=8 September 2009 |work=Paste|accessdate=22 November 2015}} In his review for The A.V. Club, Chuck Klosterman wrote that the album found the band at their best and rated it "almost beyond an A+".

In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked The Beatles at number 10 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.{{cite journal|url=http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531/the-beatles-the-white-album-20120524 |title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time: The Beatles, 'The White Album' |journal=Rolling Stone |accessdate=17 January 2013}} On the 40th anniversary of the album's release, Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano wrote that it "remains a type of magical musical anthology: 30 songs you can go through and listen to at will, certain of finding some pearls that even today remain unparalleled".{{cite news |work=Vatican newspaper |title=Beatles' music better than today's pop songs |publisher=Catholic News Service |date=24 November 2008}} In 2011, Kerrang! placed the album at number 49 on a list of "The 50 Heaviest Albums Of All Time". The magazine praised the guitar work in "Helter Skelter".{{cite journal|url=http://www.kerrang.com/21081/50-heaviest-albums-ever/|title=The 50 Heaviest Albums Ever|journal=Kerrang|date=7 August 2014|accessdate=8 August 2014}}

According to MacDonald, the counterculture of the 1960s analysed The Beatles above and beyond all of the band's previous releases.{{sfn|MacDonald|1997|p=273}} The album's lyrics progressed from being vague to open-ended and prone to misinterpretation, such as "Glass Onion" (e.g., "the walrus was Paul"){{sfn|MacDonald|1997|p=275}} and "Piggies" ("what they need's a damn good whacking").{{sfn|MacDonald|1997|p=278}} The release also coincided with public condemnation of Lennon's treatment of Cynthia, and of his and Ono's joint projects, particularly Two Virgins.{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|pp=106–07}}{{sfn|Doggett|2011|pp=52, 55}} The British authorities similarly displayed a less tolerant attitude towards the Beatles,{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=107}} when London Drug Squad officers arrested Lennon and Ono in October 1968 for marijuana possession, a charge that he claimed was false.{{sfn|Doggett|2011|p=55}} In the case of "Back in the U.S.S.R.", the words were interpreted by Christian evangelist David Noebel as further proof of the Beatles' compliance in a Communist plot to brainwash American youth.{{sfn|Schaffner|pp=53, 113}}

Lennon's lyrics on "Revolution 1" were misinterpreted with messages he did not intend. In the album version, he advises those who "talk about destruction" to "count me out". Lennon then follows the sung word "out" with the spoken word "in". At the time of the album's release – which followed, chronologically, the up-tempo single version of the song, "Revolution" – that single word "in" was taken by the radical political left as Lennon's endorsement of politically motivated violence, which followed the May 1968 Paris riots.{{sfn|MacDonald|1997|pp=248–49}} However, the album version was recorded first.{{efn|Recording on "Revolution 1" began on 30 May,{{sfn|MacDonald|1997|p=245}} "Revolution" on 9 July.{{sfn|MacDonald|1997|p=259}}}}

Further to the betrayal they had felt at Lennon's non-activist stance in "Revolution", New Left commentators condemned The Beatles for its failure to offer a political agenda.{{sfn|Roessner|2006|p=149}} The Beatles themselves were accused of using eclecticism and pastiche as a means of avoiding important issues in the turbulent political and social climate.{{sfn|Roessner|2006|p=149}} Jon Landau, writing for the Liberation News Service, argued that, particularly in "Piggies" and "Rocky Racoon", the band had adopted parody because they were "afraid of confronting reality" and "the urgencies of the moment".{{sfn|Wiener|1991|p=65}} Like Landau, many writers among the New Left considered the album outdated and irrelevant; instead, they heralded the Rolling Stones' concurrent release, Beggars Banquet, as what Lennon biographer Jon Wiener terms "the 'strong solution,' a musical turning outward, toward the political and social battles of the day".{{sfn|Wiener|1991|pp=65–66}}

Charles Manson first heard the album not long after it was released. He had already claimed to find hidden meanings in songs from earlier Beatles albums,{{sfn|Nielsen|2005|p=90}} but in The Beatles he interpreted prophetic significance in several of the songs, including "Blackbird", "Piggies" (particularly the line "what they need's a damn good whacking"), "Helter Skelter", "Revolution 1" and "Revolution 9",{{sfn|Guinn|2013|p=194}} and interpreted the lyrics as a sign of imminent violence or war.{{sfn|Sheffield|2004|p=54}} He played the album repeatedly to his followers, the Manson family, and convinced them that it was an apocalyptic message predicting an uprising of oppressed races,{{sfn|Guinn|2013|p=196}} drawing parallels with chapter 9 of the Book of Revelation.{{sfn|Nielsen|2005|p=92}}

Sociologists Michael Katovich and Wesley Longhofer write that the album's release "engendered a collective appreciation of it as a 'state-of-the-art' rendition of the current pop, rock, and folk-rock sounds".{{sfn|Katovich|Longhofer|2009|p = 401}} According to Inglis, the White Album was "popular music's first postmodern album" and a work in which the Beatles incorporated bricolage, fragmentation, pastiche, parody, reflexivity, plurality, irony, exaggeration, anti-representation and "meta-art".{{sfn|Inglis|2009|pp=120–21}} While acknowledging that these devices were not necessarily unprecedented in the group's work, Inglis adds: "The Beatles employed all these elements … to fashion a contemporary text whose music(s) described the present, recalled the past, and anticipated the future."{{sfn|Inglis|2009|p=121}} Scapelliti cites it as the source of "the freeform nihilism echoed … in the punk and alternative music genres".{{sfn|Graff|Durchholz|1999|p=88}}

In early 2013, the Recess Gallery in New York City's SoHo neighbourhood presented We Buy White Albums, an installation by artist Rutherford Chang. The piece was in the form of a record store in which nothing but original pressings of the LP was on display.{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/arts/design/artists-obsession-with-beatles-white-album-on-display.html|title=A Plain White Square, and Yet So Fascinating|first=Allan|last=Kozinn|work=The New York Times|date=22 February 2013|accessdate=14 July 2014}} Chang created a recording in which the sounds of one hundred copies of side one of the LP were overlaid.{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/11/21/white_album_x_100_listen_to_beatles_project_we_buy_white_albums_by_rutherford.html|title=What It Sounds Like If You Play 100 Vinyl Copies of 'The White Album' at Once|work=Slate|date=21 November 2013|accessdate=14 July 2014}}

{{notelist}}

;Citations

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

;Sources

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book|last=Badman|first=Keith|title=The Beatles: After The Breakup|year=1999|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=0-7119-7520-5}}
• {{cite book|last=Badman|first=Keith|title=The Beatles: Off the Record|year=2009|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=978-0-85712-045-8}}
• {{cite book|last=Beatles|first=The |authorlink=The Beatles |title=The Beatles Anthology |year=2000 |publisher=Chronicle Books |location=San Francisco |isbn=0-8118-2684-8}}
• {{cite book|last1=Castleman|first1=Harry|last2=Podrazik|first2=Walter J.|title=All Together Now: The First Complete Beatles Discography 1961–1975|publisher=Ballantine Books|location=New York, NY|year=1976|isbn=0-345-25680-8}}
• {{cite book|first=Alan|last=Clayson|title=Ringo Starr|publisher=Sanctuary|location=London|year=2003|isbn=1-86074-488-5}}
• {{cite book|title=The Art And Music Of John Lennon|first=Peter|last=Doggett|publisher=Omnibus Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-85712-126-4}}
• {{cite book|last=Doggett|first=Peter|title=You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup|publisher=It Books|location=New York, NY|year=2011|isbn=978-0-06-177418-8}}
• {{cite book|last1=Emerick|first1=Geoff|last2=Massey|first2=Howard|date=15 February 2007|title=Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles|publisher=Gotham Books|isbn=978-1-59240-269-4}}
• {{cite book|title= The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology|last=Everett|first= Walter|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=0-19-509553-7|page=207}}
• {{cite book|last1=Graff|first1=Gary|last2=Durchholz|first2=Daniel (eds)|title=MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide|edition=2nd|publisher=Visible Ink Press|location=Farmington Hills, MI|year=1999|isbn=1-57859-061-2}}
• {{cite book|title=Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson|first=Jeff|last=Guinn|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=2013|isbn=978-1-4516-4516-3}}
• {{cite book |first=Bill |last=Harry |authorlink=Bill Harry |title=The Beatles Encyclopaedia: Revised and Updated |year=2000 |publisher=Virgin Publishing |location=London |isbn=0-7535-0481-2}}
• {{cite book |first=Bill |last=Harry |title=The Paul McCartney Encyclopedia |publisher=Virgin Books |year=2002 |isbn=0-7535-0716-1}}
• {{cite book|last=Hertsgaard|first=Mark|title=A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles|publisher= Pan Books|location=London|year=1996|isbn=0-330-33891-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Inglis |first=Ian |chapter=Revolution|editor-last=Womack |editor-first=Kenneth (ed.) |year=2009 |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles|location=Cambridge, UK|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-68976-2}}
• {{cite book|author1=Katovich, Michael A.|author2=Longhofer, Wesley|editor-last=Denzin|editor-first=Norman K. (ed.)|year= 2009|chapter=Mystification of Rock|title=Studies in Symbolic Interaction|location=Bingley, UK|publisher=Emerald Group Publishing|isbn=978-1-84855-784-0}}
• {{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|authorlink=Colin Larkin (writer)|year=2006|publisher=Muze|title=Encyclopedia of Popular Music|volume=1|isbn=0-19-531373-9}}
• {{cite book |first=Simon|last=Leng|year=2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NRoFPFvI1joC&pg=PA47|title=While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison|publisher=Hal Leonard|isbn=1-4234-0609-5}}
• {{cite book |last=Lewisohn |first=Mark |authorlink=Mark Lewisohn |title=The Beatles Recording Sessions |year=1988 |publisher=Harmony Books |location=New York |isbn=0-517-57066-1}}
• {{cite book |last=MacDonald |first=Ian |authorlink=Ian MacDonald |title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties |year=1997 |edition=First Revised|publisher=Pimlico/Random House|isbn=978-0-7126-6697-8}}
• {{cite book |last=MacDonald |first=Ian |title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties |year=2005 |edition=Second Revised |publisher=Pimlico (Rand) |location=London |isbn=1-84413-828-3}}
• {{cite book |title=The Beatles and McLuhan: Understanding the Electric Age|first=Thomas|last=MacFarlane|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2013|isbn=978-0-8108-8432-8}}
• {{cite book |last=Miles |first=Barry|authorlink=Barry Miles|title=Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now|year=1997|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-436-28022-1}}
• {{cite book |last=Miles |first=Barry|title=The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years|publisher=Omnibus Press|year=2001| isbn=0-7119-8308-9 }}
• {{cite book|title=The Greatest Album Covers of All Time|first1=Barry|last1=Miles|first2=Grant|last2=Scott|first3=Johnny|last3=Morgan|publisher=Anova|year=2008|isbn=978-1-84340-481-1}}
• {{cite book |title=Horrible Workers: Max Stirner, Arthur Rimbaud, Robert Johnson, and the Charles Manson Circle: Studies in Moral Experience and Cultural Expression|first=Donald|last=Nielsen|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2005|isbn=978-0-7391-1200-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Norman|first=Philip|title=Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation|publisher=Fireside|location=New York, NY|year=1996|origyear=1981|isbn=0-684-83067-1}}
• {{cite book |last=Penman |first=Ross |title=The Beatles in New Zealand ... a discography |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-473-15155-3}}
• {{cite book|last=Roessner|first=Jeffrey|editor1-first=Ken|editor1-last=Womack|editor2-first=Todd (eds)|editor2-last=Davis|title=Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism, and the Fab Four|location=Albany, NY|publisher=SUNY Press|year=2006|isbn=0-7914-8196-4|chapter=We All Want to Change the World: Postmodern Politics and the Beatles' White Album}}
• {{cite book|last=Schaffner|first=Nicholas|title=The Beatles Forever|publisher=McGraw-Hill|location=New York, NY|year=1978|isbn=0-07-055087-5}}
• {{cite book|last=Sheffield|first=Rob|authorlink=Rob Sheffield|editor1-first=Nathan|editor1-last=Brackett|editor2-first=Christian|editor2-last=Hoard|title=The Rolling Stone Album Guide|publisher=Simon & Schuster|edition=4th|year=2004|isbn=0-7432-0169-8|chapter=The Beatles}}
• {{cite book |last=Spitz |first=Bob |title=The Beatles: The Biography |publisher=Little Brown and Company |year=2005 |isbn=0-316-01331-5}}
• {{cite book |last=Spizer|first=Bruce|title=The Beatles swan song: "She Loves You" & other records|publisher=498 Productions|year=2007|isbn=978-0-9662649-7-5}}
• {{cite book|last=Wiener|first=Jon|title=Come Together: John Lennon in His Time |year=1991|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana, IL|isbn=9780252061318}}
• {{cite book|last=Winn|first=John|title=That Magic Feeling: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Volume Two, 1966–1970|publisher=Random House|year=2009|isbn=978-0-307-45240-5}}
• {{cite book|last=Woffinden|first=Bob|title=The Beatles Apart|publisher=Proteus|location=London|year=1981|isbn=0-906071-89-5}}
• {{cite book|editor1-last=Womack|editor1-first=Kenneth|year=2009|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles|series=Cambridge Companions to Music|editor1-link=Kenneth Womack|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-82806-2}}
• {{cite book|last1=Womack|first1=Kenneth|last2=Davis|first2=Todd|title=Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism, and the Fab Four|date=February 2012|publisher=2012|isbn=978-0-791-48196-7}}

{{refend}}