History Music / TheWhiteAlbum

** Sexy Sadie was directed towards the Maharishi, who was accused of molesting one woman, infuriating John.

* AndStarring: Music/EricClapton plays lead guitar on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

* EverythingsBetterWithChocolate: "Savoy Truffle"

* MissingEpisode: The 27 minute version of "Helter Skelter".

* AndStarring: Music/EricClapton plays guitar on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: "Rocky Raccoon", "Bungalow Bill", "Sexy Sadie"

** Several songs like "Cry Baby Cry", "Julia", "Piggies",... are quite haunting compared to their previous songs.

* DeadBabyComedy: The little piggies in "Piggies" are whacked down and then eaten by other pigs.

** Double subverted in "Revolution 1", where Lennon realised that he didn't actually know if he was for or against the protesters.

** "Savoy Truffle" lists a lot of actual flavours of chocolate, and is also a joke about Music/EricClapton's weakness for chocolate.

''The White Album'' was the Beatles' first double album. The songs feature a lot of variation in style and mood. Overall the record sounds almost like a compilation record featuring the band members as solo artists instead of a unity. Though not as popular as other Beatle records like ''Sgt. Pepper'' or ''Abbey Road'', ''The White Album'' is still a huge inspiration for numerous rock bands. When something gets compared to ''The White Album'', it's almost invariably a shorthand way of saying "long album with huge NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly variety of styles, inevitably will attract complaints about filler".

''The White Album'' is the unofficial title for Music/TheBeatles' album ''The Beatles'' (1968). The record owns its nickname due to the completely white album cover.

** "Wild Honey Pie" ("HONEY PIE! HONEY PIE!") and "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?", widely considered to be [[IncrediblyLamePun White]] AlbumFiller.

* FauxSymbolism: Again "Glass Onion".

* FauxSymbolism: Again "Glass Onion"

* PrecisionFStrike: "Piggies". "What they need's a ''damn'' good whacking."
* ProtestSong:
** Subverted with "Revolution", a protest about protesters (and specifically those supportive of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, in John's "Chairman Mao" reference".
** This may specifically refer to then-recent May '68 general strike and protests in France, where many student protesters marched holding up pictures of Chairman Mao.

** The ending of "Long Long Long" is way scarier. A case of ThrowItIn helps, as a wine bottle on the Hammond organ shook as the last chord played. George added the wailing voice. It sounds like a coffin is closing at a funeral while the widow weeps.

* TroubledProduction: Complete with Ringo leaving the band for a while (Music/PaulMcCartney took over on drums for "Back in the USSR").

** "Helter Skelter" is a different sort of LastNoteNightmare, as it finishes with Ringo throwing his drumsticks across the room and ''screaming'' "'''I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!!'''" The version that wound up on the "White Album" was the 18th take of the day. That explains the blisters.

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** [[NightmareFuel "Number nine...number nine...]][[MindScrew number nine..."]]

** "Revolution 9" is experimental musique concrète HighOctaneNightmareFuel.

* AndStarring: EricClapton plays guitar on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

** "Julia"--while it's about John's late mother, guess what the Japanese for [[YokoOno "ocean child"]] is?

** "Savoy Truffle" lists a lot of actual flavours of chocolate, and is also a joke about EricClapton's weakness for chocolate.

* OneSceneWonder: EricClapton came to the studio at his friend George's request to play on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". He delivered probably the best guitar solo to ever appear on a Beatles record.

* TheParody[=/=]AffectionateParody: The song "Back in the USSR" is both a parody of ChuckBerry's "Back in the USA" and a decent imitation of TheBeachBoys' distinctive "Surfing Sound".

* TroubledProduction: Complete with Ringo leaving the band for a while (PaulMcCartney took over on drums for "Back in the USSR").

* TroubledProduction: Complete with Ringo leaving the band for a while (it's not him who drums in "Back in the USSR").

** "Helter Skelter" is incredibly heavy, and has been called one of the first HeavyMetal songs on occasion.

* GriefSong: "Julia", about John's mother.
* HiddenTrack: "Can You Take Me Back", the song fragment on Side 4 of the White Album (included at the end of "Cry Baby Cry" on modern CD tracks), which to this day doesn't even have an official title.
* InTheStyleOf:

* SubliminalSeduction: Unfortunately it happened to Charles Manson.

* BrokenRecord: "Wild Honey Pie" ("HONEY PIE! HONEY PIE!") and "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?", widely considered to be [[IncrediblyLamePun White]] AlbumFiller.

* ContinuityNod: "Glass Onion" seems to be built ''entirely'' on this.

* CreativeDifferences: Although the band kept it together throughout the recording for the album and managed to complete two more following it, this album is where the rot began to set in, with band members drifting apart, egos beginning to get out of control and outside influences beginning to take their toll; the observation has frequently been made that this is reflected in the overall tone of the album, which feels more like a compilation of solo efforts (many of the songs were in fact recorded by one of the band working individually with perhaps a minimal amount of involvement from one of the others at most) rather than a collaborative effort.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Several songs like "Cry Baby Cry", "Julia", "Piggies",... are quite haunting compared to their previous songs.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: "Back in the USSR" -- "take me to your daddy's farm". Individually owned farms did not exist in the USSR at the time.
** It could just mean the collective farm he lived on.
* DistinctDoubleAlbum
* EpicRocking: Hardcore Beatles fans are dying to get a hold of [[MissingEpisode the legendary 27 minute long version of "Helter Skelter"]].

* FanNickname: The title "The White Album".

* GenreRoulette

* HitlessHitAlbum: No songs were released as singles.

* LastNoteNightmare: Particularly "Long, Long, Long".

* MetalScream: "Revolution", "Helter Skelter"

* MindScrew: "Revolution 9". While "Revolution 1" is a nice, slow, relatively tame rock song (especially compared to the harsher single), "Revolution 9" is eight minutes of pure, untapped, minimalist cacophony. A LastNoteNightmare, that really is a nightmare, regardless if it's a whole song...

* NewSoundAlbum
* NonAppearingTitle

* ProtestSong: Subverted with "Revolution", a protest about protesters (and specifically those supportive of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, in John's "Chairman Mao" reference".

* ScareChord: Ends "Piggies".

* UnpluggedVersion: "Revolution 1", in contrast to the single version.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** What if TheBeatles had listened to George Martin and agreed to cut down the album?
** There were still quite a few omissions and outtakes from the album. One of them was "What's the New Mary Jane?", another highly experimental track featuring John, George, and Yoko. It appears in a much edited form (in order to make it sound more like a song) on ''Anthology 3''.
* WordSaladLyrics

* ProtestSong: Subverted with "Revolution", a protest about protesters (and specifically the Cultural Revolution with John's "Chairman Mao" reference".

* HitlessHitAlbum: ''The Beatles'' ("The White Album") did not feature any songs released as singles. Later, after the band broke up, several album tracks were released as singles.

* PunnyName:
** "Bungalow Bill" instead of "BuffaloBill"

* BrokenRecord: "Wild Honey Pie" ("HONEY PIE! HONEY PIE!") and "[[IfYouKnowWhatIMean Why Don't We Do It In The Road?]]", widely considered to be [[IncrediblyLamePun White]] AlbumFiller.