So... you say your kid's been listneing to that awful hip-hop and grunge noise again, and you just don't know what to do? Here's a thought, moms and dads. Buy 'em The Beatles - better known as The White Album. Why? Well... for one, The Fabs don't sing about gangstas or rape or murder or poppin' caps. They sing about peace and love - not in an overtly hippie Donovan sort of manner, but honestly, with a sound that is strangely contemporary for a set of recordings that will turn 38 years old this year. (The only other album from 1968 to even come close to standing the test of time is The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet.) Besides, DJ Modest Mouse produced the incredibly popular (and notoriously letigious) The Gray Album a couple of years back - a mash up of Jay-Z's The Black Album and The White Album , proving The Beatles still contains plenty of hip.
So much of what passes for popular music today is just corporate sameness, track one sounding like tracks two, three, four, etc... etc... This is not a trend started by The Beatles. Indeed, all of their later albums have a great variety of sound - none moreso than The White Album. From the opening jet take-off of "Back in the U.S.S.R." to the closing strings of "Good Night", The Beatles serves up over ninety-minutes of variety - recordings so varied that it is hard to believe only four guys created this double-disc masterpiece.
If your kid likes rock and roll, The Beatles delivers the goods: The Beach Boys parodied fun of the aforementioned "Back in the U.S.S.R."; Paul's nonsensical "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"; the rollicking "Birthday"; George's ode to a box of chocolates, "Savoy Truffle"; or the funky nonsense of "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey" - a song my nephews loved when they were much younger.
Is your son looking for the perfect love song to woo that young lady he wants to ask to the dance? "I Will" is architypal McCartney ballad, and a lovely song. George's "Long, Long, Long" is hauntingly beautiful, and proof that a pop recording need not be perfect to be wonderful (the rattling wine bottle at the end of the song being accidental).
If your young one is socially conscious, well... look no further than Paul's "Blackbird". Or John's "Revolution 1" (the "slow", smooth version of the much faster "Revolution"). Or George's humorous "Piggies", with it's combination of real swine and faux-Beatle grunts and squeals.
How about country music? Have them try "Rocky Raccoon" or Ringo's charming "Don't Pass Me By." (Note: the fiddler on "Don't Pass Me By", very sadly, passed away just a few days ago. He had once claimed to be embarrassed by the end of this recording, as he was just busking about, not knowing the tape was running while he - pardon the pun - fiddled around).
Heavy Metal? "Helter Skelter".
Acoustic? Try "unplugged" tracks like the gorgeous "Mother Nature's Son", "Julia" (quite possibly the most beautiful thing John Lennon ever recorded), "Blackbird" or "I Will".
Blues? Ah... John Lennon created a fine slice of white-man blues with "Yer Blues". And, in what is perhaps the high moment of The White Album, uncredited guest star and blues guitar virtuso Eric Clapton let's the strings cry on George's classic and beautiful signature tune, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." (Trivia: Clapton's guitar track was heavily flanged by the engineers' wobbling the speed control knob on the tape machine, because Clapton felt his playing wasn't Beatley enough.)
On The Beatles, John Lennon finally comes into his own, developing a trend toward personal self-expression he had begun three years earlier with "Help!", and would culminate two years later on his solo John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band. Songs like "I'm So Tired", "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and "Julia" show Lennon growing as a songwriter. John also shares memories of the recent trip The Beatles made to the Maharishi's ahram in India with "Dear Prudence" (written for Mia Farrow's reclusive sister), the humorous fiction of "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", and the barely veiled bitterness / sarcasm of "Sexy Sadie" (originally entitled "Maharishi").
Lennon also gives us a brief recent history of the Beatles: "Glass Onion", which also answers all those absurd diggers looking for clues to great mysteries alledgedly hidden in Beatles recordings and album sleeves. And "Cry Baby Cry", a quasi-nursery rhyme little tune.
John also provides The White Album's least popular (although aurally interesting) eight-and-a-half minutes. "Revolution 9" is not a song, but rather an audio collage created by John and bride-to-be Yoko Ono, along with help from George Harrison. Heard in the track are a discussion betwen producer George Martin and Apple assistant Alistair Taylor; football crowd chants (panned from left to right and back again across the stereo field); John and George speaking out names of dances and other absurdities; and backwards, sped up and altered outtakes from "Back In The U.S.S.R.", "Revolution 1" and the orchestral overdub from Sgt. Pepper's "A Day in the Life".
Paul also provides a moment of strangeness with "Wild Honey Pie". However, he also provides The Beatles' sweeter moments: "Martha My Dear", the sticky nostalgia of "Honey Pie", and the classically saccharine "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da".
From the sugary pop of Paul McCartney to the brutal honesty of John Lennon to the developing creativity of George Harrison to the charm of charming Ringo Starr, The White Album is the epitome of what an album should be: masterful, warm, varied and entertaining. This is a fun album, overflowing with originality and top-notch performances.
If you really want to give your kids the full White Album experience, find them a great condition vinyl copy of the album - with the poster and 8x10's of each Beatle. Maybe spend the extra dough for an original, individually numbered copy. Although, CDs will transfer much better to an iPod.
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