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The Beatles (The White Album)
 
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The Beatles (The White Album) [Enhanced]

The Beatles Audio CD
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (755 customer reviews)

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The Beatles The Beatles 4.4 out of 5 stars (755)
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Product Details


Disc: 1
1. Back in the U.S.S.R.
2. Dear Prudence
3. Glass Onion
4. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
5. Wild Honey Pie
6. Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
8. Happiness Is a Warm Gun
9. Martha My Dear
10. I'm So Tired
See all 17 tracks on this disc
Disc: 2
1. Birthday
2. Yer Blues
3. Mother Nature's Son
4. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
5. Sexy Sadie
6. Helter Skelter
7. Long, Long, Long
8. Revolution 1
9. Honey Pie
10. Savoy Truffle
See all 13 tracks on this disc

Product Description

Amazon.com essential recording

Better known as the "White Album," this was meant to be the record that brought them back to earth after three years of studio experimentation. Instead, it took them all over the place, continuing to burst the envelope of pop music. Lennon and McCartney were still at the height of their powers, with Lennon in particular growing into one of rock's towering figures. But even McCartney could still rock, and the amazement on "Helter Skelter" was that he had vocal cords at the end. From Beach Boys knock-offs to reggae and to the unknown ("Revolution #9"), this has it all. Some records have legend written all over them; this is one. --Chris Nickson

Album Description

Re-mastering the Beatles catalogue

The re-mastering process commenced with an extensive period conducting tests before finally copying the analogue master tapes into the digital medium. When this was completed, the transfer was achieved using a Pro Tools workstation operating at 24 bit 192 kHz resolution via a Prism A-D converter. Transferring was a lengthy procedure done a track at a time. Although EMI tape does not suffer the oxide loss associated with some later analogue tapes, there was nevertheless a slight build up of dust, which was removed from the tape machine heads between each title.

From the onset, considerable thought was given to what audio restorative processes were going to be allowed. It was agreed that electrical clicks, microphone vocal pops, excessive sibilance and bad edits should be improved where possible, so long as it didn't impact on the original integrity of the songs.

In addition, de-noising technology, which is often associated with re-mastering, was to be used, but subtly and sparingly. Eventually, less than five of the 525 minutes of Beatles music was subjected to this process. Finally, as is common with today's music, overall limiting - to increase the volume level of the CD - has been used, but on the stereo versions only. However, it was unanimously agreed that because of the importance of The Beatles' music, limiting would be used moderately, so as to retain the original dynamics of the recordings.

When all of the albums had been transferred, each song was then listened to several times to locate any of the agreed imperfections. These were then addressed by Guy Massey, working with Audio Restoration engineer Simon Gibson.

Mastering could now take place, once the earliest vinyl pressings, along with the existing CDs, were loaded into Pro Tools, thus allowing comparisons to be made with the original master tapes during the equalization process. When an album had been completed, it was auditioned the next day in studio three - a room familiar to the engineers, as all of the recent Beatles mixing projects had taken place in there - and any further alteration of EQ could be addressed back in the mastering room. Following the initial satisfaction of Guy and Steve, Allan Rouse and Mike Heatley then checked each new re-master in yet another location and offered any further suggestions. This continued until all 13 albums were completed to the team's satisfaction.


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Customer Reviews

755 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (755 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Erratic, uneven, sloppy...yet somehow brilliant, Dec 25 2005
By 
Allan Tong (Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Beatles (The White Album) (Audio CD)
Ironically The Beatles entitled their Sgt. Pepper follow-up "The Beatles" when it was really a solo effort by four musicians. There are few harmonies on this album, and minmial songwriting collaboration. Also, a good third of the songs are disposable (by Beatle standards) such as Honey Pie and Piggies.

Yet despite the dips in quality, The White Album is an album I play regularly from start to finish. I suppose that a lot of the White Album's charm comes from the sequencing of songs that juxtapose rock with country with folk with experimental; that four composers are at work; Paul excels with Back in the USSR and Blackbird; that George's songwriting takes a big step forward (White My Guitar Gently Weeps just may be the best cut); that John returns to the forefront of the band with outstanding work (Dear Prudence, Julia and Yer Blues; and the album creates its own universe by sheer size and variety.

Though not my favourite Beatles album, and not a masterpiece along the lines of Revolver and Pepper, The White Album is a great album.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Summary of the 60's music expression, Jun 7 2001
By 
Edy Gibert (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Beatles (The White Album) (Audio CD)
1968 was a very significant year in pop & rock's music growth and development. The psychedelic mood that started in 1967 together with the experimentation concepts were evolving into a heavier and more aggressive sound that eventually lead into progressive and hard rock during the 70's. The Beatles contributed to the process of change with this album that consists of a combination of solo and group efforts, and a large variety of different music styles.

Regardless of the different music preferences and the like or dislike for the Beatles' music, the "double white" adds value based on the following concepts. First, it offered a summary of almost every style played during the 60's. (1) Rock'n Roll ("Back To the USSR", "Every Body's Got Something To Hide"...), (2) Heavy Rock ("Helter Skelter", "Birthday"), (3) Electric Blues ("Yer Blues"), (4) Jazz ("Honey Pie"), (5) Folk-Rock (the album's version of "Revolution"), (6) Folk ("Blackbird", "I Will" "Julia", "Rocky Raccoon"), (7) Experimental ("Revolution No 9"), (8) Baroque ("Piggies"), (9) Raw expressions ("Wild Honey Pie", "Why Don't We Do It..."), (10) Heavy Ballads ("Happiness is a Warm Gun", "Dear Prudence", "Sexy Sadie") and, (11) Typical 60's pop (from "Ob-la-di-Ob-la-da", "While My Guitar..." through "Don't Pass Me By"). Second, the sound of the instruments evolved significantly as bass was given a protagonic role ("Dear Prudence" or "Birthday") as opposed to being kept in the back of the tracks. Guitars were used to create a forceful atmosphere ("Helter Skelter", "Every body's Got.."... "Yer Blues"). Third, the Beatles' grew as individual musicians and as a result the instrument switching during the recordings increased, thus George gets to play bass and to invite Clapton into one of his sessions, while Paul plays drums and guitars on more than one track. Many of the tracks reflect the work of a "soloist" or of a soloist with a backing group, and the White Album included more of these solo efforts than any of the Beatles previous material. However, I don't find that these characteristics diminish the quality of the album. "Blackbird" and "I Will" relate more to McCartney's solo music than to the Beatles, but so did "Yesterday", "For No One", and "Fool On the Hill". In addition, "Julia", "Cry Baby Cry" and "Sexy Sadie" were totally Lennon and distant from the Beatles music, but also were tunes like "You've Got To Hide Your...", and "Tomorrow Never Knows". The same cold be said for Harrison's compositions, were "Within You and Without You", "The Inner Light", or "Love You To", reflected more George's mood than the Beatles 60's music.

If you have doubts on the value of the "double white" and its subtleties, let me humbly recommend that you "only" compare this material with the sound of the albums issued during 1967 and 1968. Please abstain from comparing the "Double White Album" with 70's rock groups, contemporary artists, or any other group that emerged and developed after this material was released. I've received comments of listeners who argue that many of the tracks sounded raw, unfinished and disconnected from each other. As a result, some seem to think the "White Album" should have been a one record album instead of a double. Analysing the material I find that there are at least 21 songs that have the same quality standard as the material considered as the group's best. Only 9 tunes out of 30 contained in the album could be questionable. Probably the album should have been a "shorter double album".

My final comment is that the "Double White" was an innovative concept at the time it was released and I remind music lovers that most of the Beatles' music was "perfectly simple", which made it "simply perfect".

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars mixed bag..., Mar 17 2001
By 
couchgrouch "couchgrouch" (cochise, az United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Beatles (The White Album) (Audio CD)
the White Album, The White Album. a legend to be sure. with a strange atmosphere and mood. It contains much of the Beatles' best work. bu-ut song for song...minus the myth...it also contains much of their worst. I agree [...] that the album should have been trimmed to a single disc. as it is, it has about 10, maybe 12 great songs. John and Paul's strengths AND flaws come to the fore here. John had begun throwing random images together ala Dylan and calling them lyrics. When it worked(Dear Prudence, Julia) it worked well, when it didn't, the songwas [bad]. Glass Onion stinks. if ANY band now put that on their cd, you'd skip it. Happiness Is a Warm Gun is just [bad], plain and simple. 3 unfinished songs thrown together. that's not "genius" as many describe John, it's just undisciplined writing. Like most Beatle songs mired in psychedelia, the song is stuck in the mud rhythmically. it's a pretentious drag. Yer Blues is one of the Beatles' best songs, period. a classic. Monkey, Sexy Sadie, I'm So Tired are all 2nd rate duds. Paul's ballads like Blackbird and Mother Nature's Son are beautiful. However...I Will and Honey Pie are just more saccharine pop from Paul. same with John's Good Night. He accused Paul of writing sap but he sure wrote his share. For George, While My Guitar is great though perhaps more moving in the acoustic [...] version before the band's bugaboo of overproduction took hold. his Long, Long, Long is haunting and should have concluded the album. and last but not least...Revolution #9 is just a big load of [stuff]. born of an ego run amuck. After Revolution #1, side 4 collapses.

there, I said it. whittled down to 10 killer tracks it could have rocked like Beggar's Banquet. but with dreck and corn like Ob-la-di and Bungalow Bill competing with classics like Don't Pass Me By and Helter Skelter, it's wildly uneven and spotty. too bad.

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