The White Album 50 Project

November 22, 2018, a Thursday (and also Thanksgiving in the United States), marks the fiftieth anniversary of the the release of the Beatles' eponymously titled double album, colloquially known as the White Album for its plain, white cover. 

I already wrote a review of the White Album back in May 2015 (available here), but I am going to revisit this monumental record like I revisited Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for its fiftieth anniversary last year.  I'm going to be a little (a lot, really) more adventurous with the White Album, though.  I took closer looks at only a few songs from Sgt. Pepper in 2017, but over the next thirty Thursdays before Thanksgiving - starting this Thursday, April 26 - I am going to look at every track on the White Album, one track a week.  In between I hope to recall a couple of anecdotes about the making of the White Album and how it broke new ground . . . and almost broke the Beatles.  (They came close to breaking up a year and a half sooner than they did because of this record.)

Why am I doing all this?  Because first of all, as Paul McCartney once said, it's the bloody White Album, so shut up. :-) Second of all, it's going to be great fun revisiting every song (and "Revolution 9").  And thirdly, I'm sick and tired of commenting on American politics, and I would prefer to talk a whole lot less about the subject; this project gives me an excuse to do just that.

Besides, with Net neutrality officially being canceled right about now, I need to write about something that won't get me blocked by Internet service providers.  I could theoretically get blocked for knocking Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and maybe even blocked for promoting Martin O'Malley (though Internet service providers are more likely to laugh at me than block me for that), but come on, who's going to block celebratory blog entries about the Beatles?

And I also have a soft spot for the White Album, as it's the first double album I ever bought that wasn't a movie soundtrack or a greatest-hits compilation.

While all this is going on, expect me to also comment later this year on the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine animated movie and on the fiftieth anniversary of the debut album from Family, the title of which - Music In a Doll's House - prevented the Beatles from naming the White Album after Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House when Family's album came out in July 1968.  I'll be back on Thursday with my first White Album commentary, on the opening song, and there are no prizes for guessing the title. :-)    

Below are the classic portraits of the Beatles, photographed by John Kelly, that came with the original vinyl release. :-)