It’s timeless influence is why we keep listening

“The Beatles” or as it’s more com­money known the ‘White Album”, is considered by many, including John Lennon him­self, as the album that saw the Beatles reach their peak as songwriters. I choose the “White Album” for this in depth examination because of its incredibly diversity both in its lyrical con­tent, and its musical styles. This web­site hopes to bring a better under­stand­ing why this particular album con­tin­u­ally shows up on all those “All-Time Top Albums” list, and remains to this day the Beatles best sell­ing album of all time.

The Beatles worked in the haphazard way many artist do, creating on the fly and utilize­ing whatever resources were on hand. Not unlike the artist who splashes paint on a can­vas and decides to leave it because they like the way it looks. The Beatles created in just this fashion, but in their case the paint was sound, their can­vas, a record.

The Beatles them­selves were hard pressed to explain exactly how it all happened and why. It’s as though they were conduits attract­ing this unseen yet absolutely real energy. So palpable you could feel it in the air. Their uni­verse was in constant flux, and they were at the center of it. Many books have been writ­ten try­ing to explain all this, I won’t attempt to do so here, I’ll leave that to all those serious Beatle scholars.

What I’ve endeavored to do with this web­site is to gather together every imagine­able piece of information avail­able surround­ing its creation in an effort to under­stand why this album continues to move so many people after so many years. Personally I never tire of listening to it, read­ing about it, or dis­cussing it for that matter. Over the years I’ve accumulated a rather large amount of information from var­ious sources including books, mag­azines, documentaries, and various recorded interviews. I love sharing this information with other like minded fans. Per­haps in my case it’s sim­ply nostalgia, but maybe we should all just take Paul McCartney’s advice who when questioned about its relevance has been known to have commented, “It’s a great double album, it sold, it’s the bloody Beatles White Album, shut up!”

Take Paul’s advice if you’d like, but my advice to you is this… “immerse yourself in this web­site and I’m sure you’ll come away knowing at lease one thing you hadn’t known before you arrived”. An while your read­ing through the site take a few moments to lis­ten to some of the great radio specials contained here that have been gathered together from varied sources. Remember above all else, it’s about the music itself.

No other groups existence has been as well documented or for that matter has had so many books writ­ten about their day to day existence than the Beatles. It’s highly unlikely any band will ever again receive this kind of scrutiny. Nor is it likely any other group of musicians will ever again have the influence on popular music and culture as did the Beatles. In a relatively short period of time, less than eight years actually, they created a body of work that still sounds as fresh and imaginative today as it did over 40 years ago. In retrospect the Beatles were the classic example of the old adage of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. In the end they were uniquely a product of their times, and somehow… timeless.

Joe Stewart
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