The Beatles and Me in 1968

A FB friend and fellow former AoTMer recently posted a comment after listening to The Beatles White Album where he pondered what it must have been like to hear that album for the first time back in 1968 when it was released. I’ve thought about that recently too and decided to share my experience.

The White Album was such a radical change from the previous two Beatle albums released in 1967. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band came out in June and Magical Mystery Tour came out in November. We were constantly listening to new and astounding Beatle songs broadcasting over the airwaves all throughout the year. In early 1968 there were reports of another new Beatles album in the works and the anticipation grew throughout the year. I was a junior in high school during the early part of the year and a senior by the end. It was prime time music experience for me and I was buying lots of albums and singles. I was also going to lots of shows during this time.

In early 1968 the radio was still constantly playing the non-album singles released in 1967 such as Strawberry Fields Forever, All You Need Is Love, Hello Goodbye and I Am The Walrus. Lady Madonna was released in March so there was no lack of Beatle music. Also in 1968 we saw the beginning of the underground rock stations on the FM dial that would develop into progressive rock stations. In Philly, WMMR switched from “beautiful music” to a free form DJ format that emphasized album cuts. Listening to rock music on the radio suddenly changed drastically.

However, I was still carrying around a little transistor radio with no FM capacity and so part of the time I was still stuck listening to top 40 radio. In the summer of 1968 everyone was waiting for the expected new Beatle music and I remember an evening in August as I entered our neighborhood park the DJ announced a brand new Beatle song. I cranked up the radio as I made my way through the park to the group of benches where my friends were hanging out. It was about a three or four minute walk to the top of the hill. I arrived with the radio blaring and the Beatles song was still playing. I exclaimed to everyone that this was a new Beatles song and to our surprise it still kept going for several more minutes. It was Hey Jude and not only was it a very long single, it would go on to be the longest run at the top of the US charts at the time. I also went out and bought the record. The promotional performance video would air on The Smothers Brothers Show in October. This was more than a decade before MTV and it was very unusal to see a video of a band on TV that wasn't a live stage performance or lip synced mess.

So we waited for the new album to come out and then it was announced that it would be released on November 22^nd.  I had a part time job in 1968 working at a machine shop which gave me some money to spend on albums. I walked to the record store several blocks up the avenue and got the album the first Saturday after it was released. At first I was shocked at the plain white cover. It was such a change after having spent so much time examining the cover of Sgt. Pepper. It was amazing that they would go to the opposite extreme but of course this was The Beatles. I was excited that it was a double album with lots of music and then discovered there was a big poster inside, a lyric sheet and also individual photos of each Beatle.

My first impression was the album got off to a good rocking start with Back In The USSR and then followed with Dear Prudence which has turned out to be one of my all-time favorite Beatle songs. Then things got weird with the next few songs but the end of side one with While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Happiness Is A Warm Gun was awesome. Side two took a few listens to appreciate. This was all something so new for me and there were some songs I could have done without. I had a better first impression with side three where they rocked out again. Maybe I was really into the rock songs more than the introspective quirky acoustic stuff because after all I was a teenager then. I loved the sound of Yer Blues, Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey and of course Helter Skelter.

Side four started off with a slower version of Revolution and then went on with a few more odd ball songs before getting to a more different radical version titled Revolution No. 9 that certainly sounded nothing like the song on the flip side of Hey Jude.  You could definitely tell that Yoko Ono was in the studio. I really liked Cry Baby Cry.

Overall the White Album is not one of my favorite Beatles albums. Although it contains some of their best material it also has plenty of weird filler that is all worth a listen but I really don’t go back to it very often. I was certainly not disappointed the first time I heard it but it did make me stop to consider what I was listening to. That also occurred with Sgt. Pepper too.

Just for some fun and blasphemy here is my condensed single record version of the album:

1. Back In The USSR
2. Dear Prudence
3. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
4. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
5. I'm So Tired
6. Blackbird
7. Yer Blues
8. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey
9. Helter Skelter
10. Cry Baby Cry

Here is the original promotional video of Hey Jude that aired in October of 1968. I remember watching that Smothers Brothers show. It was an event.

I have also recently been making a series of mixes spotlighting my music experience of 1968.

• Songs 1968 Vol. 1 - I Am The God Of Hell Fire - List - Listen
• Songs 1968 Vol. 2 - Those Were The Days - List - Listen
• Songs 1968 Vol. 3 - Timothy Leary's Dead - List - Listen
• Songs 1968 Vol. 4 - Everybody's Got It - List - Listen
• Songs 1968 Vol. 5 - I Bet You're Wondering How I Knew  - List - Listen
• Songs 1968 Vol. 6 - All Come To Look For America - List - Listen