THE BEATLES [AKA: THE WHITE ALBUM]

The year 1968 was a very problematic year, not only for The Beatles. There were students riots around the world, including one of them in my country which was heavily repressed, ten days before the Olympic Games were celebrated in my city. I have vague memories of the riots and of the Olympic Games, being myself three years old at the time, but, believe or not, I still have some memories about them.

This album also was recorded during a tense period of three or four months in 1968, on which The Beatles had a hard time. Due to the tension, even George Martin and long time Recording Engineer Geoff Emerick went to their respective holidays during the recording of this album, leaving to then new Recording Engineer Chris Thomas the task of working with The Beatles for several days. Even Ringo Starr left the band for several days. Despite the tension, it is amazing that this album is still very good, even giving the impression of being recorded during "happy and funny times".

In this album, The Beatles left Psychedelia behind them. Some of the songs were recorded in different combinations of the members of the band, or even alone. For example, "Wild Honey Pie" was recorded by Paul alone, "Why Don`t We Do It in the Road?" was recorded by Paul and Ringo, "Julia" by John alone, etc. During Ringo`s absence, Paul recorded drums in "Back in the U.S.S.R." (with George and John also adding some drums parts in this song) and in "Dear Prudence". George Martin also did several very good orchestral arrangements for some songs. But the general impression was, IMO, that this album marked a "change" for the band in many ways.

My favourite songs from this album are: "Dear Prudence", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Martha My Dear", "I`m So Tired", "Piggies", "Julia", "Yer Blues", "Helter Skelter", "Long, Long, Long", "Honey Pie", "Cry Baby Cry" and "Good Night". There is also a very experimental piece of music called "Revolution 9" created and recorded by John, with some collaborations by Yoko Ono and George Harrison.