mellon collie and the infinite sadness

The Smashing Pumpkins wreaked havoc with restless resolute rage in the enchanted emptiness of sacred starlight to find meaning in the mad murmurs of this mysterious musical missive.   The band had broken through with the multi-platinum success of their second album Siamese Dream and during the exhausting thirteen month tour that followed, band leader Billy Corgan had hatched a plan for an ambitious followup:   "After Siamese Dream, I really felt that we had no future, that it was the end of the line as far as the band went, emotionally and creatively. I felt that I had completely stretched my abilities beyond the beyond. Also, I started to feel my age. And I could sense other band members starting to root down. You start to lose just that little bit of edge. I think about the attack posture that the band had in the early days, the hunger, and then you see people getting more worried about mortgages and stuff like that...The third thing was that we were reaching the end of a creative cycle. Or at least I was, where the basic format of up-and-down rock guitars, pounding drums--all these elements that are classic Smashing Pumpkins was reaching its end point It's become such a formulaic thing and not just by us. People don't even bat an eye anymore. You start to lose at your own game just from sheer imitation...So I said, 'Let's approach this like it's our last album.' Because it either will be our last album, or it will be our last album as people know the Smashing Pumpkins. And it was a very freeing decision to make. It was just a matter of pushing it as far as we could go--in harmony."


 D'Arcy Wretzky considers the pressure going in: "If you don't sell more than the last record, it means you're going downhill...We all had our own head things going on that summer.  Not so much tension within the band, but just not being able to deal with other people in general."

Jimmy Chamberlin: "After putting everybody's egos and personal shortcomings aside, you have what you love to do, which is to make music...It was the sound of four people together."

James Iha:   "It was time to make another record or disband.  Nobody wanted to go through the high dramatic b.s. anymore. It was totally necessary for everyone to do the next record...It was about going for a feel rather than editing or cutting something into shape."

The band opted out of working again with Butch Vig (who had produced Gish and Siamese Dream) and tried to change things up by bringing in Flood and Alan Moulder as co-producers.  Some tracks were started in the fall of 1994 at Corgan's home studio Sadlands as well as Bugg Studios at Iha's home; but Flood insisted that they play live together on a daily basis.  They began recording basic tracks at their Pumpkinland rehearsal space on the North Side of Chicago, which ended up forming the foundation of the album.  More work was done at the Chicago Recording Company and The Village Recorder with multiple recording booths making it easier to get more work done.  And there was a lot of work to be done, adding sythesizers, sequencers, loops, and other embellishments gave each track its own sound.   In the end, 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'  had twenty-eight songs and clocked in at over two hours long.  

'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' features  Jimmy Chamberlin on drums, vocals on "Farewell and Goodnight";   Billy Corgan on lead vocals, lead guitar, piano, mellotron, production, mixing, string arrangement on "Tonight, Tonight", art direction and design;   James Iha on rhythm guitar; backing vocals, mixing, and additional production on "Take Me Down" and "Farewell and Goodnight"; vocals on "Take Me Down";   D'arcy Wretzky on bass guitar, vocals on "Beautiful" and "Farewell and Goodnight";    with   the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing on "Tonight, Tonight";   Greg Leisz adding pedal and lap steel guitar on "Take Me Down";  and  Audrey Riley doing the string arrangement for "Tonight, Tonight".   

It was a painstaking process.  Corgan admits:   "I know it looks anal...It is a means to an end  It's not the best means to an end. It's not the shortest distance between two points. But it is a means to an end. In a weird kind of way, music has afforded me an idealism and perfectionism that I could never attain as me...It's really the end of an era.  Most people don't know us except for Siamese Dream. In their minds this is our second album. But for me, it's seven years of playing in clubs, dragging your equipment upstairs, dealing with my dad, all those doubts, people writing stuff about us, the band almost falling apart--you look at all those things, and you can't help but go, 'We fucking did it.'...We finally managed to manifest everything I always thought we could do...Somehow we managed to get a lot of blood out of the stone...We've talked about it as a band.  It's a pretty amazing war horse, a great accomplishment. Fuck, nobody can take this away...It will be totally misunderstood by plus-30-year-old rock critics.  I'm not writing it for them, even though I'm on the edge of losing my connection to youth, as is anyone entering their late 20s, and you've got a house, you get married, and the things that are important in your life begin to change. But I wanted to communicate from the edge of it, an echo back to the generation that's coming, to sum up all the things I felt as a youth but was never able to voice articulately."


'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' soared to number thirty-six in Austria;  thirty-three in Japan;  twenty-one in Germany;  eighteen in Italy;  fourteen in Finland;  eight in Scotland and Spain;  seven in Norway;  six in France and the Netherlands;  five in Portugal;  four in the UK;  two in Belgium;  and number one in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and the US.   In the US, the album made its debut at number one.  

'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'  earned The Smashing Pumpkins Grammy nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year ("1979"), Best Alternative Music Performance, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal ("1979"), Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), Best Pop Instrumental Performance ("Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"), and Best Music Video, Short Form ("Tonight, Tonight").  The band won only one:   Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings".   

'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' has sold over ten million copies in the US alone.  








http://www.smashingpumpkinsnexus.com/








"Tonight, Tonight" went to forty-six in the Netherlands, thirty-nine in Belgium, thirty-six on the US pop chart, twenty-one in Australia, thirteen in Ireland, seven in the UK, five on the US alternative chart, four on the US mainstream rock tracks chart, and number two in New Zealand. 






"1979" became the band's biggest hit, reaching number thirty-eight in France, twenty-nine in the Netherlands, twenty-one in Belgium, sixteen in Australia and the UK, twelve on the US pop chart, nine in New Zealand, six in Ireland, two in Canada, and number one on the US alternative chart and the US mainstream rock tracks chart.






"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" reached number forty-one in New Zealand, thirty-three in Australia, twenty-two on the US pop chart, twenty in the UK, eighteen in Canada and the Netherlands, seventeen in France, number four on the US mainstream rock tracks chart, and number two on the US alternative chart.  It gave the band their first top forty hit and their first Grammy.  





"Thirty-Three" hit fifty-one in Australia, thirty-nine on the US pop chart, twenty-four in Canada, twenty-one in the UK, eighteen on the US mainstream rock tracks chart, seven in New Zealand, and number two on the US alternative chart.  






"Zero"  found value at number fifteen on the US mainstream rock tracks chart,  nine on the US alternative chart, and number three in New Zealand.  

smashing pumpkins - zero by aquarius3





'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' 
full album:




All songs written by Billy Corgan, except where noted.

Disc one – Dawn to Dusk
1. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"     2:52
2. "Tonight, Tonight"     4:14
3. "Jellybelly"     3:01
4. "Zero"     2:41
5. "Here Is No Why"     3:45
6. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"     4:18
7. "To Forgive"     4:17
8. "Fuck You (An Ode to No One)"     4:51
9. "Love"     4:21
10. "Cupid de Locke"     2:50
11. "Galapogos"     4:47
12. "Muzzle"     3:44
13. "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans"     9:21
14. "Take Me Down"   Iha 2:52

Disc two – Twilight to Starlight
1. "Where Boys Fear to Tread"     4:22
2. "Bodies"     4:12
3. "Thirty-Three"     4:10
4. "In the Arms of Sleep"     4:12
5. "1979"     4:25
6. "Tales of a Scorched Earth"     3:46
7. "Thru the Eyes of Ruby"     7:38
8. "Stumbleine"     2:54
9. "X.Y.U."     7:07
10. "We Only Come Out at Night"     4:05
11. "Beautiful"     4:18
12. "Lily (My One and Only)"     3:31
13. "By Starlight"     4:48
14. "Farewell and Goodnight"   Iha 4:22

demos



01 - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness [0:00]
02 - Lily (My One and Only) [2:34]
03 - To Forgive [5:53]
04 - Bullet With Butterfly Wings [9:40]
05 - Here Is No Why [14:10]
06 - Galapogos - [17:50]
07 - Frantic Ab Groove [22:05]
08 - Autumn Nocturne [24:57]
09 - Ugly [26:27]
10 - Wishing You Were [29:14]
11 - Thirty-Three [32:21]
12 - Beautiful [36:35]





The album cover was done by illustrator John Craig, using a composite of images from classic paintings.   The face is Greuze by French painter Jean-Baptiste.

The body is from a Raphael painting of Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

Moon demo

atom heart mother

Pink Floyd bent the rules to understand the spaces between with a plutonium prototype pacemaker,  transmogrifying an amazing pudding into this psychedelic symphonic bovine breakfast.   Syd Barrett's involvement with the band had diminished after The Piper at the Gates of Dawn with minimal involvement on  A Saucerful of Secrets.   Roger Waters and David Gilmour had helped him to produce his solo album The Madcap Laughs; while the band carried on in 1969 with the half live, half studio double album Ummagumma and the soundtrack to More directed by Barbet Schroeder.   In 1970, they worked on the soundtrack to the film Zabriskie Point 
directed by Michelangelo Antonioni before heading back to England to begin work on their next album.   

Pink Floyd produced 'Atom Heart Mother' with  Norman Smith at Abbey Road Studios in London with  Roger Waters on bass guitar, tape effects, tape collages, plus acoustic guitar and vocals on "If";     David Gilmour on guitars, vocals,  plus bass and drums on "Fat Old Sun";    Rick Wright on keyboards, plus vocals on "Summer '68";    and   Nick Mason on drums, percussion, tape editing, tape collage, plus additional engineering on "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast".    The sessions included the EMI Pops Orchestra providing brass and orchestral sections,  Haflidi Hallgrimsson contributing cello,  John Alldis Choir doing vocals,  Alan Styles with voice and sound effects on "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast".    Peter Bown and Alan Parsons engineered the sessions,  and Ron Geesin did the orchestration.   

The sprawling title track takes up the entire first side of the album in six sections.  It had been performed as "The Amazing Pudding" before they brought in Ron Geesin to assist with the orchestration.  Geesin says:   "The opening section is clearly a critical statement about the nature of so-called 'progressive rock'.  I've got very mixed feeling about rock music, I find my part embodies a dilemma for and against.  The group's drone is on the tonic note of E, my brass drones pull and twist that in tension, up and down, never settling on it...It could have been called 'Argument In E Minor For Band And Orchestra'."

Mason calls the title track:  "a composition that we remain fond of, proud of, and in my case slightly bemused by...There are various sections on Atom Heart Mother that I'm very happy with. I love the choir section, both the singing and the spoken choir section...All we did after Atom Heart Mother was realizing we would never record with a big orchestra again, that's it. We wanted to go back to being a band."

Waters would wax:   " I’m not bored with doing “Atom Heart Mother” when we get the brass and choir together, because it’s so weird doing it. It always comes out as so odd because of the problems of rehearsing musicians, it’s like everybody throwing their lump of clay at the wall, and seeing what it looks like when it’s happened. It depends on so many other things as well. It depends on how it mixes, you know, and we’re working with this ludicrous situation where we don’t have anybody out mixing the sound in the audience, which we obviously ought to. I’m beginning to come to a position now where I don’t think we ought to play any more on a kind of Heath Robinson level – go and do it, play the numbers, do the stuff, get the money and go home. We should not go along and play a whole load of numbers, most of them old and some of then new, with things patently wrong, like with some people balancing from the side of the stage. I think we, and a hell of a lot of other groups, are in a position now to start raising standards a bit, but we don’t – well, we haven’t, but we’re always intending to. The reason that they haven’t is that the money’s there, and people are prepared to spend it on them doing what they’re doing now, so they go on schlapping around the country, doing it all, and maybe they get a new and wonderful buzz out of it, communicating with the audience every night, but I don’t believe it. It’s a job, a fucking well-paid job, with all the ego-boosting and stuff and everything, and I think it becomes very mechanical. I’m going on a ten-day tour tomorrow night – Frankfurt, Vienna, Montreux – but why am I going? To spread the gospel, to make people happy by playing them wonderful music? No, it’s not true. I’m going to make bread. I’m going because I’m caught up in the whole pop machinery business and so are the majority."

 The album sleeve was designed by the Hipgnosis art collective with the band wanting to get away from the psychedelic imagery of their previous releases.   Storm Thorgerson drove out into the countryside and took a picture of a cow named Lulubelle III in  Potters Bar.  The original pressings did not have the name of the band on the sleeve.  

It was their first album to be mixed in quadrophonic sound and their first album to go to the top of the British album chart.   It also went to number eighty-one in Switzerland, fifty-five in the US, thirty-nine in Canada, thirty in Australia, eleven in France, eight in Germany, and number five in the Netherlands.  






http://www.pinkfloyd.com/








"Atom Heart Mother"

Pink Floyd Atom Heart Mother - Video from achamp1121 on Vimeo.


Bath Festival 27 June 1970 







Gilmour's first solo composition for the band, "Fat Old Sun" has some similarities to the Kinks' Lazy Old Sun.  Dave considers: "Maybe I ripped it off subconsciously. Who knows? They've never sued me. One sometimes gets the feeling about something that maybe one pinched it from someone; you can't figure out where on earth it's from. The added coincidence is that there were only one or two tape libraries around: the EMI Abbey Road library and one or two others, which mostly had the same sound effects. It can make a magical difference in a track if you put some bit of real atmosphere in the background, like church bells. Usually, you'd go find the bells, and it's the only set on tape that anyone can use. You'd often recognize exactly the same bit of birdsong on different records from that period."





"Summer '68"

Wright: "My lyrics are really bad and they're not saying anything that's important. A couple of songs I haven't minded being put out in terms of lyrics, like Summer '68. Although I don't think that the lyrics were good, they did at least say something that — I felt — was a real genuine feeling and therefore that's cool."





Improvisation-French TV 1970









'Atom Heart Mother'
full album:



Side one
1. "Atom Heart Mother"
I. "Father's Shout" (00:00)
II. "Breast Milky" (02:50)
III. "Mother Fore" (05:23)
IV. "Funky Dung" (10:13)
V. "Mind Your Throats Please" (15:28)
VI. "Remergence" (17:56)"  
Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, Ron Geesin Instrumental, wordless vocals by the John Alldis Choir 23:44

Side two
2. "If"   Waters 4:31
3. "Summer '68"   Wright 5:29
4. "Fat Old Sun"   Gilmour   5:22
5. "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast"
I. "Rise and Shine"
II. "Sunny Side Up"
III. "Morning Glory"  
Waters, Mason, Gilmour, Wright Instrumental, vocalisations by Alan Styles 13:00



endless groove




'Dark Side of the Moo'  bootleg

the empire strikes back

John Williams reached the pinnacle of his illustrious career with the music for this epic imperial expansion. Born in Floral Park, New York,  John Towner Williams grew up in Los Angeles, where he attended North Hollywood High School and the University of California, Los Angeles.  After being drafted, he conducted and arranged music for The U.S. Air Force Band.  He went to New York to study at the Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music, working as a jazz pianist in clubs and a session player for studios with the nickname "Little Johnny Love" Williams.  He collaborated with Henry Mancini on Peter Gunn, Days of Wine and Roses, and  Charade; and did work for several television programs including Gilligan's Island and Lost in Space.  

His first Academy Award nomination came in 1967 for Valley of the Dolls and another two years later for Goodbye, Mr. Chips.  He would win with his adapted film score for Fiddler on the Roof in 1972.  Another nomination came a year later for Images.  His scores for a trio of successful disaster films (The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and Earthquake) led to a collaboration with Steven Spielberg for The Sugarland Express and then Jaws, which earned him his second Academy Award.  While working with Spielberg on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the director recommended Williams to George Lucas for his space adventure 'Star Wars' .  The film and its soundtrack became one of the biggest successes of all time and won Williams an Academy Award for Best Original Score.  

The sequel 'Star Wars:  The Empire Strikes Back' saw Williams revisit the leitmotifs from 'Star Wars' with the notable addition of "The Imperial March" and "Yoda's Theme".  Williams would reveal:   "The music for Star Wars provided me with my first opportunity to work with the London Symphony Orchestra. The Empire Strikes Back is the fifth soundtrack I have done in the past three years with this great orchestra. Performing film scores is not a new thing to them. They played the film scores of William Walton and Vaughan Williams and that goes back many years. They bring to a recording an ensemble precision and balance that comes from being a group of people who play together fifty-two weeks a year...Most symphony orchestras comprise 104 players and during the recording of this score the number varied depending on the type of music being played. Sometimes we would have 80 players, other days over 90, and for the most elaborate passages and the finale we had the full complement of 104...Many passages required special instrumentation. For example, the music for “Battle in the Snow” has unusual orchestration calling for five piccolos, five oboes, a battery of eight percussion, two grand pianos, two or three harps, in addition to the normal orchestra complement. This was necessary in order to achieve a bizarre mechanical, brutal sound for the sequence showing Imperial Walkers, which are frightening inventions advancing across a snowscape...We did eighteen sessions of three hours each spread over a period of two weeks. That’s quite a bit of time, but we had a lot of music. We did nearly two hours of music for the film and for the LP. In a normal symphony setting you wouldn’t need eighteen sessions to record an LP with an hour-long piece on either side. But in recording for film you have problems of synchronisation that slow down the process, especially in a score for a film so complex as The Empire Strikes Back ... I wrote 117 minutes of music for this picture. It opens with the Star Wars March and it includes the Force theme. With that as a basis I wanted to try to develop material that would wed with the original and sound like part of an organic whole: something different, something new, but an extension of what already existed. So, in the creation of new themes and the handling of the original material, the task, both in concept and instrumentation, was one of extending something that I had written three years before. I had to look back while at the same time begin again and extend."

'The Empire Strikes Back' score garnished another Academy Award nomination for Williams. It was orchestrated by Herbert W. Spencer, recorded by engineer Eric Tomlinson, and edited by Kenneth Wannberg with supervision by Lionel Newman. John Williams took over as record producer from Star Wars creator George Lucas.    The soundtrack has been released in several different versions over the years.  








http://www.johnwilliams.org/


http://www.starwars.com/

http://www.starwars.com/films/star-wars-episode-v-the-empire-strikes-back


 "The Imperial March" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNv5sPu0C1E

"Yoda's Theme"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUwesDm-0f0

'The Empire Strikes Back' 
complete score reissue:


-------------------
0:00:00 20th Century Fox Fanfare 
0:00:20 Main Title/Ice Planet Hoth
0:08:29 The Wampa's Lair/Vision of Obi-Wan/Snowspeeders Take Flight
0:17:12 The Imperial Probe/Aboard the Executor
0:21:33 The Battle of Hoth
0:36:17 The Asteroid Field
0:40:33 Arrival on Dagobah
0:45:25 Luke's Nocturnal Visitor
0:47:57 Han Solo and the Princess
0:51:22 Jedi Master Revealed/Mynock Cave
0:57:04 The Training of a Jedi knight/The Magic Tree
1:02:17 Imperial March
1:05:17 Yoda's Theme
1:08:44 Attacking a Star Destroyer
1:11:48 Yoda And The Force
1:15:50 Imperial Starfleet Deployed -City In The Coulds
1:21:54 Lando's Palace
1:25:46 Betrayal At Bespin 
1:29:30 Deal With The Dark Lord
1:32:04 Carbon Freeze/Darth Vader's Trap/Departure of Boba Fett
1:43:55 The Clash Of Lightsabers
1:48:12 Rescue from Cloud City/Hyperspace
1:57:21 The Rebel Fleet -End Title

'The Empire Strikes Back' 
original vinyl release on RSO.

Side one
"Star Wars (Main Theme)" – 5:49
"Yoda's Theme" – 3:24
"The Training of a Jedi Knight" – 3:17
"The Heroics of Luke and Han" – 6:18

Side two

"The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)" – 2:59
"Departure of Boba Fett" – 3:30
"Han Solo and the Princess" – 3:25
"Hyperspace" – 4:02
"The Battle in the Snow" – 3:48

Side three

"The Asteroid Field" – 4:10
"The City in the Clouds" – 6:29
"Rebels at Bay" – 5:23
"Yoda and the Force" – 4:01

Side four

"The Duel" – 4:07
"The Magic Tree" – 3:32
"Lando's Palace" – 3:52
"Finale" – 6:28

Total Time: 74:34

the white album

The Beatles wiped the slate clean with this sprawling and diverse collection of solo songs.  The unprecedented success of 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' had left the band uncertain about which direction they would go next.  They worked on two feature films and their soundtracks ('Magical Mystery Tour' and 'Yellow Submarine') before embarking on a trip to the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India to study Transcendental Meditation.  Ringo left after only ten days.  Paul left after a month.  George and John stuck around for another month until they heard that the Maharishi had made sexual advances toward women at the compound.  

When the band reconvened at Abbey Road Studios, they had amassed over thirty songs, most of which had been written while in India.  The sessions were produced by George Martin and Chris Thomas and were fraught with tension as each member of the band fought for control of their own songs.  Ringo quit the band for two weeks during the recording of the album; but was convinced to return.  The album features John Lennon on lead, harmony and background vocals; acoustic, lead, bass and rhythm guitars; keyboards (electric and acoustic pianos, Hammond organ, harmonium and mellotron); extra drums and assorted percussion (tambourine, maracas, cymbals, thumping on the back of an acoustic guitar, handclaps and vocal percussion); harmonica, whistling and saxophone; tapes, tape loops and sound effects (electronic and home-made);      Paul McCartney on lead, harmony and background vocals; acoustic, lead, rhythm and bass guitars; keyboards (electric and acoustic pianos and Hammond organ); assorted percussion (timpani, tambourine, cowbell, hand shake bell, handclaps, foot taps and vocal percussion); drums (on "Back in the U.S.S.R.","Dear Prudence", "Wild Honey Pie", and "Martha My Dear"); recorder and flugelhorn; sound effects;    George Harrison on lead, harmony and background vocals; acoustic, rhythm, bass and lead guitars; Hammond organ; extra drums and assorted percussion (tambourine, handclaps and vocal percussion) and sound effects;     and Ringo Starr on drums and assorted percussion (tambourine, bongos, cymbals, maracas and vocal percussion); electric piano and sleigh bell (on "Don't Pass Me By"), lead vocals (on "Don't Pass Me By" and "Good Night") and backing vocals ("The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill");    with contributions from Eric Clapton on lead guitar on "While my Guitar Gently Weeps";   Mal Evans on backing vocals and handclaps on "Dear Prudence", handclaps on "Birthday", and trumpet on "Helter Skelter";   Jack Fallon on violin on "Don't Pass Me By";   Grant Mansell on drums on "Martha My Dear";   Pattie Harrison on backing vocals on "Birthday";   Jackie Lomax on backing vocals and handclaps on "Dear Prudence";  Maureen Starkey on backing vocals on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill";   Yoko Ono on backing vocals, brief lead vocals and handclaps on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", backing vocals on "Birthday", speech, tapes and sound effects on "Revolution 9";   and including session musicians Ted Barker on trombone on "Martha My Dear";   Leon Calvert on trumpet and flugelhorn on "Martha My Dear";   Henry Datyner, Eric Bowie, Norman Lederman, and Ronald Thomas on violin on "Glass Onion";   Bernard Miller, Dennis McConnell, Lou Soufier and Les Maddox on violin on "Martha My Dear";   Reginald Kilby on cello on "Glass Onion" and "Martha My Dear";  Eldon Fox  on cello on "Glass Onion";   Frederick Alexander  on cello on "Martha My Dear";   Harry Klein on saxophone on "Savoy Truffle" and "Honey Pie";   Dennis Walton, Ronald Chamberlain, Jim Chest, and Rex Morris on saxophone on "Honey Pie";   Raymond Newman and David Smith on clarinet on "Honey Pie";   Art Ellefson, Danny Moss, and Derek Collins on tenor sax on "Savoy Truffle";   Ronnie Ross and Bernard George on baritone sax on "Savoy Truffle";   Alf Reece on tuba on "Martha My Dear";   The Mike Sammes Singers on backing vocals on "Good Night";   Stanley Reynolds and Ronnie Hughes on trumpet on "Martha My Dear";   Tony Tunstall on French horn on "Martha My Dear";   John Underwood and Keith Cummings on viola on "Glass Onion";   Leo Birnbaum and Henry Myerscough on viola on "Martha My Dear";     and the overwrought production team of  Geoff Emerick on engineering, and  speech on "Revolution 9";   George Martin on record production and mixing; string, brass, clarinet, orchestral arrangements and conducting; and piano on "Rocky Raccoon";   Ken Scott as engineer and mixer;   Barry Sheffield as engineer ( at Trident Studio);   Chris Thomas on production; Mellotron on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", harpsichord on "Piggies",piano on "Long, Long, Long", and saxophone arrangement on "Savoy Truffle".  During the sessions, the band would often separate into different recording spaces to focus on their own tracks, with the various engineers and producers scrambling to keep everything together.  George Martin left suddenly to go on holiday amid the chaos, leaving his star assistant struck Chris Thomas in charge for the first time.   

John:    "I wasn't interested in following up 'Sgt Pepper' and I don't know whether the others were or not, but I know that what I was going for was to forget about  'Sgt Pepper' . You know that was  'Sgt Pepper'  and that's alright, fine, it's over... and just get back to basic music ... The songs and most of it is just as good as anything we recorded and there was lots of group activity going down. I love the White Album ... Dylan broke his neck and we went to India. Everybody did their bit. And now we’re all just coming out, coming out of a shell, in a new way, kind of saying, remember what it was like to play...I’ve got no regrets at all, ‘cuz it was a groove and I had some great experiences meditating eight hours a day -- some amazing things, some amazing trips -- it was great. And I still meditate off and on. George is doing it regularly. And I believe implicity in the whole bit. It’s just that it’s difficult to continue it. I lost the rosy glasses. And I’m like that. I’m very idealistic.  So I can’t really manage my exercises when I’ve lost that. I mean, I don’t want to be a boxer so much. It’s just that a few things happened, or didn’t happen. I don’t know, but something happened. It was sort of like a (click) and we just left and I don’t know what went on. It’s too near -- I don’t really know what happened....There’s no point in dropping out because it’s the same there and it’s got to change. But I think it all comes down to changing your head and, sure, I know that’s a cliche... If destruction’s the only way he can do it, there’s nothing I can say that could influence him ‘cuz that’s where he’s at, really. We’ve all got that in us, too, and that’s why I did the 'Out and In' bit on a few takes and in the TV version of 'Revolution' -- 'Destruction, well, you know, you can count me out, and in,' like yin and yang. I prefer 'out.' But we’ve got the other bit in us. I don’t know what I’d be doing if I was in his position. I don’t think I’d be so meek and mild. I just don’t know."

Paul:    "Well it is another step, you know, but it's not necessarily in the way people expected. Uhh... On 'Sgt Pepper' we had more instrumentation than we'd ever had. More orchestral stuff than we'd ever used before, so it was more of a production. But we didn't really want to go overboard like that this time, and we've tried to play more like a band this time-- only using instruments when we had to, instead of just using them for the fun of it...Well, since we were in India we started writing this batch of songs. And we've written a few since. And this is mainly the Indian batch that we've sort of finished...We've always been a rock & roll group, I suppose, you know. It's just that we're not just completely rock & roll. That's what I was trying to say before about 'Obladi,' 'USSR,' they're all different kinds of things. We're not just completely one kind of group. 'Cuz like, when we played in Hamburg, we didn't just do rock all evening 'cuz we had to have these sort of fat old businessmen coming in and saying... (jokingly) or THIN old businessmen, as well, were coming in and saying 'Play a mambo. Can you do a rhumba?' And we couldn't just keep saying no, you know, so we had to get into mambos and rhumbas a bit. So this kind of thing is like a pretty sort of smootchy ballad-- 'I Will.' But we have to do that kind of stuff, you know, so we always played alot of kind of things. I don't know if it's getting off the subject, but that's why there's great variety in this LP-- 'cuz in everything we do, you know, we just haven't got one bag, The Beatles, you know. And 'cuz on one hand you'll get something like 'I Will' and then you'll get 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road,' you know. Just completely different things-- completely different feelings and... But it's me singing both of them. It's the same fella. Uhh, and I've wrote both of them, you know. So you can't explain it. I don't know why I do 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road' shouting it like that... and then do this sort of smootchy laughing American 'Girl From Ipenema.' ... Originally George [Martin] was the supreme producer but as things loosened up George gave us a bit of the control of the tools...I think it's a fine little album and the fact that it's got so much on it is one of the things that's cool about it."

George:    "It became apparent that there was more songs than would make a single album ... Obviously, we go through cycles. At the moment, it's all that bit like getting my guitar out again, and it's happened quite a bit on this next album of the Beatles...We've got 'together' for it. Like, in the early days we were pretty good because we played for so long in one place. That's why I'd like to do a resident spot. Then you've got your amps and your drums set up, and get used to the one sound...All these people come to see you, too, so you can't hide. You can't fake anything. It's like, you know, you've got your trousers down. And  there's nothing to hide...Now, we're trying to get as funky as we were in the Cavern. 'Cuz in the Cavern and Hamburg, all we really were was thump-thump-thump. But so together, you know, because we were playing all the time. And those were the days when we used to think that 'Twist and Shout' was too way-out for a single. All very 'Shadows' it was, then, and getting into suits...The next album is much simpler than 'Pepper' because it's more down to guitars, bass and drums, and maybe a piano. There's a nice one of Paul just playing with his guitar, singing by himself but with just a bit of brass on it."

Ringo:     "'Sgt Pepper' did its thing, it was the album of the decade - of the century maybe. It was very innovative. Great songs, glad I was on it. But the White Album... We ended up being more of a band again and that's what I always love, I love being in a band ... You know, there's that famous old saying, you'll always hurt the one you love. And we all love each other and we all know that. But we still sort of hurt each other, occasionally. You know... where we just misunderstand each other and we go off, and it builds up to something bigger than it ever was. Then we have to come down to it and get it over with, you know. Sort it out. And so we're still really very close people...You know, when we first started we were the nice clean mop tops and every mother's son. And everyone loved us. And then suddenly, you know, there's a few things that they don't understand, and they don't get, and they don't like. And so it turns them off us a bit, you know. But I still think we're very popular. It's just that, we're men now, you know. We're a bit older than those lads that started out. And we've got a lot of things to do, you know. And you've got to do a few of them. It doesn't matter, you know, what people say. You can't live all your life by what they want. You know, we can't go on forever as four clean little mop tops, playing She Loves You...I'm quite happy to finish an LP and go and sit back. I can enjoy myself just sitting back, you know, and playing at home with all the toys, and the kids, and the wife. (jokingly) I enjoy playing with the wife."

'The Beatles' was the first album released on the band's own Apple Records.  The eclectic mix of musical styles on the two album set was too much for many critics; but the public went crazy for it.  In the UK, it made its debut at the top of the album charts, and went to number one in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, and in the US, where it remains the tenth biggest selling album of all time due to its status as a double album.  On account of its plain white packaging, it is most commonly referred to as "the White Album".  






http://www.thebeatles.com/









"Back in the U.S.S.R." 

Back In the U.S.S.R. from JHu on Vimeo.


"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"

OB LA DI OB LA DA from vinod on Vimeo.



"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

The Beatles-While My Guitar Gently Weeps by numberonereturn1







"Birthday"

Happy Birthday-Beatles from Ehtesham-Al-Huq Sagar on Vimeo.





Also recorded during the sessions was 'Hey Jude', which was released as a single three months before 'The Beatles'.  It became the biggest single of their career.  

The b-side was a sped up version of 'Revolution'. 


'Revolution' and 'Revolution 9' were originally part of the same track; but were eventually separated.  

unplugged







'The Beatles' 
full album:
(as best as the internets will allow)


All songs written and composed by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted. Lead vocalist listed.


Side one
1. "Back in the U.S.S.R."   McCartney 2:43
2. "Dear Prudence"   Lennon 3:56
3. "Glass Onion"   Lennon 2:17
4. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"   McCartney 3:08
5. "Wild Honey Pie"   McCartney 0:52
6. "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill"   Lennon 3:14
7. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (George Harrison) Harrison 4:45
8. "Happiness Is a Warm Gun"   Lennon 2:43
Side two
1. "Martha My Dear"   McCartney 2:28
2. "I'm So Tired"   Lennon 2:03
3. "Blackbird"   McCartney 2:18
4. "Piggies" (Harrison) Harrison 2:04
5. "Rocky Raccoon"   McCartney 3:33
6. "Don't Pass Me By" (Richard Starkey) Starr 3:51
7. "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"   McCartney 1:41
8. "I Will"   McCartney 1:46
9. "Julia"   Lennon 2:54
Side three
1. "Birthday"   McCartney and Lennon 2:42
2. "Yer Blues"   Lennon 4:01
3. "Mother Nature's Son"   McCartney 2:48
4. "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey"   Lennon 2:24
5. "Sexy Sadie"   Lennon 3:15
6. "Helter Skelter"   McCartney 4:29
7. "Long, Long, Long" (Harrison) Harrison 3:04
Side four
1. "Revolution 1"   Lennon 4:15
2. "Honey Pie"   McCartney 2:41
3. "Savoy Truffle" (Harrison) Harrison 2:54
4. "Cry Baby Cry"   Lennon, with McCartney 3:02
5. "Revolution 9"   Speaking from Lennon, Harrison, George Martin and Yoko Ono 8:22
6. "Good Night"   Starr 3:13