The White Album — Side 4

So here we are in our ongoing series trying to build a modern critical evaluation of The Beatles.

Things that this series should determine — at the very end — is just how great they were.

This is partially due to us having a different critical opinion than most people, Illuminati Ganga just does not believe that there is such a thing as a Greatest of All Time — in terms of quality at least. In terms of quality things are split in tiers and you can sort of move people around in their appropriate tier but you cannot really establish a permanent and undeniable precedence.

And it is partially because nobody ever really seems to make any real argument about the Beatles quality, among the people who claim they are great, they just say they are great and then maybe throw some other synonyms for greatness and genius around and there you are.

Our method to try to figure things out is to go through the various Beatles albums that have a more modern feel to them, basically from Rubber Soul on

The Modern Beatles — Rubber Soul

And so, that’s why we’re here, to finish off our analysis of the 4th side of “The White Album”

As always we go through each song, lyrics, and then some quick quips before moving on.

Revolution 1

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all wanna change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all wanna change the world

But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out, in

Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We’d all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We’re all doing what we can

But if you want money for people with minds that hate
Well, all I can tell you is, brother, you have to wait

Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right

You say you’ll change the constitution
Well, you know
We’d all love to change your head
You tell me it’s the institution
Well, you know
You better free your mind instead

But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow

Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right

You never seem to hear this song anymore. Maybe carrying pictures of chairman Mao and related revolutionary acts from the time period have fallen so far out of favor that the song seems especially old fashioned, lyrically.

The song also has some of those cringe lines already mentioned — the whole free your mind instead is so hippy that it might spark annoyance.

Also the whole co-opting the establishment from the inside theory is going to look suspect to younger generations, who I want to see cover this song actually would be a young and coming punk band do a really fast run through and call the song “OK, Boomer” because, well, rock and roll really.

In the irony dept. I would point to the interview excerpted here

"Revolution" song by The Beatles. The in-depth story behind the songs of The Beatles. Recording…

Waving Chairman Mao badges or being a Marxist or a thisist or a thatist is going to get you shot, locked up. If that’s what you want, you subconsciously want to be a martyr. You see, I want to know what you are going to do after you have knocked it all down. Can’t we use some of it? If you want to change the system, change the system. Don’t go shooting people.

Honey Pie

She was a working girl North of England way
Now she’s hit the big time in the U.S.A.​
And if she could only hear me, this is what I’d say

Honey Pie, you are making me crazy
I’m in love, but I’m lazy
So, won’t you please come home?

Oh, honey pie, my position is tragic
Come and show me the magic
Of your Hollywood song

You became a legend of the silver screen
And now the thought of meeting you
Makes me weak in the knee

Oh, Honey Pie, you are driving me frantic
Sail across the Atlantic
To be where you belong
Honey pie, come back to me

Ooh, yeah
I like it like that, oh ah

I like this kind of hot kind of music
Hot kind of music
Play it to me, play it to me, Hollywood blues

Will the wind that blew her boat across the sea
Kindly send her sailing back to me?
Tee, tee, tee

Now, Honey Pie, you are making me crazy
I’m in love but I’m lazy
So, won’t you please come home?
Come, come back to me, Honey Pie

Ooh, oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Honey Pie, Honey Pie

I like this song, but not enough to listen to it. It’s hummable, it’s catchy, the lyrics have some bright spots. Its nostalgic faux-flapper tone inspires a feeling of fondness in me.

It is, again, great for a playlist as a song that leads you to the main things and I guess that’s what it does here in the album. It’s sort of weird to think about that albums, as sequential small bits of music when first heard functioned as a playlist for its listeners.

Who should do a cover of this song. There are few covers of this song, but most — like this recent one by The Bygones (who I guess formed from doing a cover of this song), play up its antiquated, nostalgic nature.

And maybe that’s good, most bands that would try to do a nostalgic pre-1960s sound would do so ironically. I certainly like irony as much as the next person, but I also appreciate when people can be non-ironic. McCartney as a general rule writes non-ironic songs. His nostalgia is truthful.

So who should cover, there’s the problem, most sincerely nostalgic bands are nostalgic for a rural past, but this is an urban past, of ballrooms and well dressed fellows mooning over some gal who has a job in the U.S in the movies.

But I want to hear a version that isn’t so nostalgic but also still true to the song, somehow. I’m real fussy like that.

So who should cover it — maybe Vampire Weekend.

Savoy Truffle

Creme tangerine and Montelimar
A ginger sling with a pineapple heart
Coffee dessert, yes, you know it’s good news
But you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

Cool cherry cream, nice apple tart
I feel your taste all the time we’re apart
Coconut fudge — really blows down those blues (woo!)
But you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

You might not feel it now
But when the pain cuts through
You’re going to know and how
The sweat is going to fill your head
When it becomes too much
You’ll shout aloud

But you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

You know that what you eat you are
But what is sweet now, turns so sour
We all know Ob-La-Di-Bla-Da
But can you show me, where you are?

Creme tangerine and Montelimar
A ginger sling with a pineapple heart
Coffee dessert, yes, you know it’s good news (woo!)
But you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

Yes, you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

My real weakness as a music critic is I have a hard time separating lyrics, theme, and the music itself. I am that outlier who actually listens and cares about what is being said

In a previous article I paraphrased another critic about the Beatles box set of all their music

The Beatles — On Their Old Sound

half of these songs sound like Oasis, the other half like every other band that has ever existed.

and musically they do, but often lyrically if you put it together with the music you’re wondering what were these guys on, and then you go, oh yeah, Acid — but probably also lots of pot and shrooms.

Anyway, this is a really badass song about a fancy box of chocolates. And also you just gotta say George Harrison may not have written as many great songs as Lennon and McCartney together — but he did write some great ones.

As ob la di ob la da was a McCartney song primarily you also have to think this was a dig by George at Paul, the context of which is that many of his songs, but especially ob la di la da with its fake accent and all that he was not showing the real him, the aesthetic beliefs of the 60s having been big on authenticity for some reason.

Who should do this song?

I don’t know. Let’s try Shannon And The Clams

Cry Baby Cry

Cry, baby, cry
Make your mother sigh
She’s old enough to know better

The king of Marigold was in the kitchen
Cooking breakfast for the queen
The queen was in the parlour
Playing piano for the children of the king

Cry, baby, cry
Make your mother sigh
She’s old enough to know better
So cry, baby, cry

The king was in the garden
Picking flowers for a friend who came to play
The queen was in the playroom
Painting pictures for the children’s holiday

Cry, baby, cry
Make your mother sigh
She’s old enough to know better
So cry, baby, cry

The duchess of Kircaldy always smiling
And arriving late for tea
The duke was having problems
With a message at the local Bird and Bee

Cry, baby, cry
Make your mother sigh
She’s old enough to know better
So cry, baby, cry

At twelve o’clock a meeting round the table
For a seance in the dark
With voices out of nowhere
Put on specially by the children for a lark

Cry, baby, cry
Make your mother sigh
She’s old enough to know better
So cry, baby, cry
Cry, cry, cry, baby
Make your mother sigh
She’s old enough to know better
So cry, baby, cry
Cry and cry and cry
Make your mother sigh
She’s old enough to know better
So cry, baby, cry

Can you take me back where I came from?
Can you take me back?
Can you take me back where I came from?
Brahma, can you take me back?
Can you take me back?
Mm, can you take me where I came from?
Can you take me back?

Lyrically part of this song is another one of Lennon’s Children’s songs, I mean really. I believe Lennon or Lennon/McCartney was one of the greatest children’s song lyricists of the last century. I suppose the King of Marigold lives on in Ben & Holly

But probably you wouldn’t write a children’s song that suggested crying and making the mother sigh, so that rather undercuts the children’s fantasy the rest of the song brings in. A very British, Andrew Lang Fairy book type of song

Do I like this song, not really actually. The cry baby cry, make your mother sigh part is catchy but not so much to my taste. But I think it is a pretty good song nonetheless, because of the tension between the fairy tale lyrics and the chorus.

Who should cover this song? Well Naked Eyes did a nice cover

but it is just very much on point. So I guess that matches the whole “The Beatles sound either like Oasis or every other band ever” theory, because it sounds like Naked Eyes.

But I think it would be nice to have someone that makes it sound sort of different, to bring out the transcendental and fairy tale aspects of the song — so obviously I would recommend..

The Polyphonic Spree

Revolution 9

[Spoken Intro: Alistair Taylor & George Martin]
…bottle of claret for you if I’d realised
I’d forgotten all about it, George, I’m sorry
Well do next time
Will you forgive me?
Mmmyes
Cheeky bitch

(Number nine) Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number (Number, number nine, number nine)

Then there’s this Welsh Rarebit wearing some brown underpants
About the shortage of grain in Hertfordshire
Everyone of them knew that as time went by
They’d get a little bit older and a little bit slower but
It’s all the same thing, in this case manufactured by someone who’s always
Umpteen time your father’s giving it diddly-i-dee
District was leaving, intended to pay for

Number nine, number nine

Who’s to know?
Who was to know?

This is totally 100% playlist filter, and so pretentious and awful. I hate this song and in the context of things that are good but not to my taste, it’s just barely good enough to have in a playlist — if it was maybe 1 minute long, not 8 minutes. 8 minutes of experimental noise is still just noise. Experiments of experimental noise will always succeed in that way.

Who should “cover” this?

Maybe DJ Shadow, he could add in rhythm!

Good Night

Now it’s time to say good night
Good night, sleep tight
Now the sun turns out his light
Good night, sleep tight

Dream sweet dreams for me (Dream sweet)
Dream sweet dreams for you (Dream sweet dreams)

Close your eyes and I’ll close mine
Good night, sleep tight
Now the moon begins to shine
Good night, sleep tight

Dream sweet dreams for me (Dream sweet)
Dream sweet dreams for you (Dream sweet dreams)

Close your eyes and I’ll close mine
Good night, sleep tight
Now the sun turns out his light
Good night, sleep tight

Dream sweet dreams for me (Dream sweet)
Dream sweet dreams for you (Dream sweet dreams)

Good night
Good night, everybody
Everybody, everywhere
Good night

Ringo Starr’s version of When you Wish Upon A Star for Stay Awake sounds better

In fact they sound sort of similar, these good night lullabies do tend to sound similar as they drowse you away into the land of Nod.

So who should cover this song — Ringo Starr with Herb Albert.

Related Articles

The Beatles (The White Album) — Side 1

The White Album Side 2

The White Album Side 3

The Beatles — On Their Old Sound

The Beatles — Sgt. Peppers — Side One

The Beatles — Sgt. Peppers — Side Two

The Modern Beatles — Rubber Soul

The Modern Beatles — Revolver