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I’m on kind of a Beatles kick after seeing Love in Las Vegas, so I think I’ll plow through all the Beatles albums and post some thoughts. Since the songs are so familiar to me, I’ll rate each from one to five stars, and generate an amusing “Best Beatles Songs” list.

My ratings may seem a bit harsh - but they’re relative to other Beatles songs - two or three star ratings appear often because the four and five star songs are so incredible.

At this point in the Beatles career, they were constantly on the verge of breaking up. Each Beatle had a distinctive songwriting style and diverging interests (George India, and John Yoko), so the White Album is frustratingly difficult to evaluate. It’s almost like three or four albums smashed together. There’s undeniably some tripe and trash, but sometimes the contrast between the good and bad is what makes for interesting listening. On this disc in particular, if you can stand listening to the cacophony and nightmarish imagery of Revolution Number 9, you’re treated to the contrastingly innocent Good Night.

Birthday

= 3 stars

Was Paul hoping to write some songs that he could earn royalties from? I detect the same forced feeling as Back in the USSR. I don’t dislike this straight-ahead rocker; it’s just not one I seek out.
Yer Blues

= 4 stars

I love this song where John spits bile and bitches. There’s an interesting tempo change where everything just about goes to heck (during both a repetitive guitar solo and another where the guitar sounds like a mosquito through tissue paper). But since it’s not much more than a blues number, I hold back on the extra star.

Mother Nature’s Son

= 2 stars

Sounds like I’ll Follow the Sun. Fairly useless, especially with Blackbird on the other disc.

Everybody’s Got Something To Hide

= 3 stars

This is a decent rocker but kind of an average throwback to Revolver. Is the monkey Yoko? Was the Walrus Paul?

Sexy Sadie

= 5 stars

There are many things that I love about this John song. There’s a slightly wrong chord progression, a detuned piano, some crystalline backup vocals, and a nice counter melody in the guitar. But I think the vocal performance where John starts improvising on high notes near the end take my heart to another plane.

Helter Skelter

= 4 stars

Paul screams out this near heavy-metal song, with dive bombing guitars, spooky bass playing, and brain-bashing drums. The fade out - fade back in thing is classic, but it just goes on a bit too long for me. I’ll give it 4 stars though, because it’s McCartney at his most extreme rock on the White Album.

Long, Long, Long

= 3 stars

This song confused me to no end as a kid. It’s recorded very softly and has a beautiful melody, but the outro breaks down into something that sounds like a door creaking open and ghosts coming out. What the heck was George on?

Revolution 1

= 4 stars

Not as cool as the cutting, slash and burn single version, but interesting nonetheless if only to get some insight into how the Beatles had the freedom to experiment with different interpretations of the same tune.

Honey Pie

= 3 stars

Not so awful that I wish the rumors that Paul is dead to be true. I think it’s because there’s a polish on this one (similar to Martha My Dear) that I can tolerate listening to it. But I don’t need any more examples of Paul writing Broadway show tunes.
Savoy Truffle

= 3 stars

A tightly wound, eclectic-electric guitar song with horns from George. I just wish he were singing about something more consequential than chocolate candies and tooth decay. Cute reference to Ob La Di, Ob La Da.
Cry Baby Cry

= 4 stars

This song always reminded me of Alice and Wonderland (I think because of the kings and queens) and tarot cards. It’s a gorgeous John song - on par with Julia but without a certain something that pushes it over the edge into 5 star territory for me.

Revolution 9

= 1 stars

I would give this mish-mash of sonic masturbation more stars for audacity, but I can’t for the simple reason that I find it unbearable. I have listened to this song more than Wild Honey Pie trying to make some sense of it all, as if it would contain some clues as to why the Beatles broke up. But now, listening to it again, I find it frustratingly self-indulgent.

Good Night

= 3 stars

John supposedly wrote this and gave it to Ringo to sing. It’s pretty good. I guess its purpose is to put the kiddies to sleep, and to blunt the brutal edge of Revolution 9. But it puts me to sleep, too. I’m a bit torn between 4 or 3 stars, but since the strings are a bit over the top I’m erring on the side of caution.

Wikipedia: The White Album

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