{"id":51936,"date":"2018-11-01T04:33:36","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T08:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utnews.utoledo.edu\/?p=51936"},"modified":"2019-02-06T09:32:49","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T13:32:49","slug":"rock-and-roll-scholar-analyzes-beatles-white-album-as-psychedelic-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/11_01_2018\/rock-and-roll-scholar-analyzes-beatles-white-album-as-psychedelic-music","title":{"rendered":"Rock-and-roll scholar analyzes Beatles’ White Album as psychedelic music"},"content":{"rendered":"

To mark the 50th anniversary of what is widely known as the White Album, an English literary and rock-and-roll scholar at The University of Toledo argues the 30-song double album released in November 1968 titled \u201cThe Beatles\u201d coherently showcases the fruits of shared psychedelic experiences between John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.<\/p>\n

Dr. Russell Reising, professor in the UT Department of English Language and Literature and original member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum\u2019s Educational Advisory Board, wrote a 22-page lyrical analysis, \u201cWhere Everything Flows,\u201d to be published next year in a collection of essays about the record.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cTense, yes. Clashing, yes. Disconcerting, yes. Incoherent and lacking any kind of unity, no. \u2018The Beatles\u2019 is that place we can go, where everything flows. And flow it does through the broadest possible range of musical styles, lyrical evocations and emotional extremes,\u201d said Reising, who has published books about The Beatles\u2019 \u201cRevolver\u201d album and Pink Floyd\u2019s \u201cDark Side of the Moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the unique, unprecedented scope of diverse subject matter and varied songs like \u201cOb-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,\u201d \u201cHelter Skelter,\u201d \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps,\u201d \u201cBack in the U.S.S.R.,\u201d \u201cHappiness is a Warm Gun,\u201d \u201cBlackbird,\u201d \u201cRocky Raccoon\u201d and \u201cRevolution 9,\u201d Reising said the album reveals the transformations of The Beatles\u2019 philosophical point of view and psychological insights after undergoing LSD experiences resulting in psychedelic music.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are an expression of the communal consciousness of The Beatles at the time when they stop taking LSD, and the influence of their experiences starts to make itself felt in songs that might not necessarily sound at all psychedelic,\u201d Reising said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe diversity of the album is like an attempt to reproduce in record form the philosophical commitment to integration, unity and incorporation \u2014 as opposed to conflict \u2014 that comes about as a result of the long, reflective, introspective final phases of an LSD experience that influence how one thinks and lives their lives. It makes them more compassionate and more open to a wider range of experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Reising<\/p><\/div>The book titled \u201cThe Beatles Through a Glass Onion: Reconsidering the White Album,\u201d which is expected to be released in March from the University of Michigan Press, will be the first scholarly volume devoted to the album\u2019s legacy in the Fab Four\u2019s career and in rock history. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe White Album is awfully, awfully good,\u201d Reising said. \u201cThis is not one of my favorite albums, but I like it more than a lot of people do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven after 50 years, the critics\u2019 view of the White Album remains contested,\u201d said Dr. Mark Osteen, professor of English and director of the Center for the Humanities at Loyola University Maryland, who edited the book. \u201cGiven the disparity in response ranging from \u2018the product of a band in disarray\u2019 to \u2018a rich tapestry of musical textures,\u2019 we believe that this landmark record \u2014 still one of the top-selling rock albums of all time \u2014 deserves reconsideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reising\u2019s essay fits into the book\u2019s first section, which outlines the personal, musical and political contexts for the album. The other chapters focus on the music, musicians, lyrics and the album\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

The songs travel time and space all over the globe. They feature animals such as McCartney\u2019s dog in \u201cMartha My Dear,\u201d as well as different kinds of people like Chairman Mao, Bungalow Bill and the dentist who will pull Eric Clapton\u2019s teeth. The songs have musical and sonic effects from Western and Eastern traditions, reverse tapes, dainty piano pieces, and religious songs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cNo two songs are the same,\u201d Reising said. \u201cYou have everything from musical simplicity to incredible complexity. It\u2019s offering the broadest possible range of ideas, attitudes, emotions and sounds that a day in the life might contain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reising evoked James Joyce\u2019s \u201cUlysses\u201d and Herman Melville\u2019s \u201cMoby Dick\u201d in his commentary on the Fab Four\u2019s songs written between meditative sessions in India in a quest to find inner peace. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is commonplace among Melville scholars to refer to the Pequod in \u2018Moby Dick\u2019 as a microcosm of the entire world,\u201d Reising said. \u201cWe can see \u2018The Beatles\u2019 in similar terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018The Beatles\u2019 might not exactly be an album whose songs encompass the interconnectedness of all things, but the range of musical styles, of vision, even of length represent something that no other album has even remotely approached, something akin to what James Joyce attempts in \u2018Ulysses\u2019 or \u2018Finnegan\u2019s Wake.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The band became open in the White Album to inviting other significant contributors to their musical efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey deploy a significant number of \u2018partners\u2019 in an unprecedented way,\u201d Reising said. \u201cEither the wife or girlfriend of each Beatle performs on at least one song: Patty Boyd on \u2018Piggies,\u2019 Maureen Starkey on \u2018The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,\u2019 Francie Schwartz on \u2018Revolution 1,\u2019 and Yoko Ono on \u2018Birthday.\u2019 Never before had wives or girlfriends been present in the recording studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other artists, including Clapton, Jackie Lomax and Nicky Hopkins, were included.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever before had any such independent or otherwise group-affiliated musicians graced Beatles\u2019 recordings,\u201d Reising said. <\/p>\n

He said the album is almost like a day in the life, from sleeplessness to insomnia to gentle easing to sleep. The first song, which starts with screaming jet engines, has a lyric, \u201cDidn\u2019t get to bed last night\u201d; the album has a middle song titled \u201cI\u2019m So Tired\u201d; and the last song is called \u201cGood Night,\u201d ending the album with Starr singing, \u201cGood night, sleep tight,\u201d and then whispering, \u201cGood night\u2026 Good night, everybody\u2026 Everybody, everywhere\u2026 Good night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 50th anniversary of \u201cThe Beatles\u201d is Nov. 22, 1968.
\n

\"\"<\/a>

These photos of, from left, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, were included in \u201cThe Beatles.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Russell Reising, UT professor of English, wrote an essay for the forthcoming \u201cThe Beatles Through a Glass Onion: Reconsidering the White Album.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":812,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,60,6,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51936"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51936"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53320,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51936\/revisions\/53320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}