5 Trivial Tidbits About The Beatles' White Album
Brimming with an overflow of material, The Beatles uncorked The White Album in 1968. Technically titled The Beatles, it was the first and only double album that they’d release in their career.
The White Album offers just about every type of music imaginable over the course of its four sides. It also offers some fantastic factoids and trivial information about its making, including these five juicy tidbits.
The Beatles started writing many of the songs for The White Album while on retreat in India in 1968, learning meditation at the foot of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. As such, several songs were thinly veiled depictions of actual events from the camp and the people involved in them. “Dear Prudence” referenced Prudence Farrow (sister of actress Mia) and her refusal to come out of her tent. “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” was a jibe at a gung-ho hunter within the entourage. And “Sexy Sadie” was originally titled “Maharishi”. The song reflected how John Lennon ultimately felt let down by the “Giggling Guru”.
Many, including certain Beatles themselves, have pointed to the White Album sessions as the beginning of the end for the band. No longer as tight as they once were, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison often worked in separate studios on the tracks they’d written. Meanwhile, Ringo Starr began the sessions feeling like he no longer had any connection with the other three. To that end, he briefly left for a boating holiday. In his absence, the band carried on and recorded both “Back In The U.S.S.R.” and “Dear Prudence” with Paul McCartney handling the drums. Plenty for “Paul Is Dead” Believers
Paul McCartney is very much alive and well and still thrilling us with his albums and concerts. But the rumor of his untimely demise in an auto accident, which gained international steam in 1969, was already circulating circa the making of the White Album. For those inclined to believe such a thing, the double album provided clues galore. The gibberish at the end of “I’m So Tired” and sections in “Revolution 9” were supposed to refer to McCartney’s fate when played backward. “Don’t Pass Me By” mentions a car crash. Most notable was John Lennon’s assertion that “the walrus was Paul” on “Glass Onion”. John was just having fun with all that nonsense, not making some oblique reference to death as some believed.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
