'White Album' symposium at Monmouth U. takes on the Beatles' imperfect masterstroke

It’s all still very much with us.

The Beatles’ landmark “White Album,” officially titled “The Beatles,” was released in the United States and United Kingdom 50 years ago on Nov. 22.

It was a work of musical and intellectual growth for the Beatles that still sounds resoundingly fresh today — and is very relevant in 2018. Paul McCartney concerts are chock-full of “White Album” songs, including “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “Back in the USSR” and “Birthday.”

Topically, the messages of album tracks like “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” which tackles gun control; “Revolution,” civil unrest; and “Blackbird,” the civil rights struggle; are still pertinent today. The echoes of “Helter Skelter” were heard when news broke of Charles Manson’s death in November of 2017.

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Manson’s murderous 1969 spree was called “Helter Skelter” by Manson and his followers. It forever shades the experience of the album. 

The album’s diverse musical styles, ranging from heavy metal to British music hall, have more in common with today’s listening trends then the often formulaic stylistic adherence of most ‘60s albums.

It’s in this setting that “The Beatles’ The White Album: An International Symposium” takes place Thursday, Nov. 8, to Sunday, Nov. 11, at  Monmouth University in West Long Branch. Attendees include “White Album” co-producer  Chris Thomas; noted Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn; Apple Records manager Ken Mansfield;  journalist Rob Sheffield; and the Weeklings, who will perform “White Album” songs with strings and a horn section at the university’s Pollak Theatre on Nov. 8.

“It’s by no means perfect, and you could make the argument that perhaps other Beatles albums are, but it is their boldest and their brashest record for sure,” said Kenneth Womack, dean of the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Monmouth University and organizer of the symposium. “In a sense that they are trying out so many genres and styles, they’re testing all of their ideas and leaving some of the less savory ones right out into public view. So it’s really an artwork in the truest sense — it’s unapologetic and an in your face  experience — kind of like New Jersey.”

Despite Jerseyans being unapologetic and in your face, we kind of get along for the most part. Contrary to lore, the Beatles did get along during the making of “The White Album” — for the most part.

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 “All the forces that were later going to break the Beatles up were just mainly business, to tell you the truth. There was a lot of arguing about business. And we didn’t like that,”  Paul McCartney told Variety last month. “But you know, the great thing was when we got in the studio, it all changed because we were just these four guys again. And it wasn’t to do with business. It was now to do with music. And so sometimes we did record separately. I would do ‘Blackbird,’ but only because it was a solo song.

 “We were at peace when we were playing music in the studio. And you know we argued like families argue. I mean, in the early days, it was always John and George arguing about who would have his amp loudest. But other than that, when we played music, it came (out) good.”

Group unity is exhibited on the Esher Demos, now available on the big new “White Album” box set, due Nov. 9. The demos were recorded at George Harrison’s estate in May of 1968 just after they returned from a spiritual retreat in India.

“There’s  a lot of mythology about 'The White Album' as through they’re all working in different  studios and they’re not working together and that’s just not the case,” said Womack, author of the just released “Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin (The Later Years, 1966-2016),” the second of two volumes on the Beatles’ famous producer. “If you listen to the songs, they’re almost all playing on them together.”

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The stakes were high for “The White Album.” There was still the after-glow of their landmark  “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album, and the “All You Need Is Love” single and worldwide broadcast further elevated their standing.

However, the  subsequent “Magical Mystery Tour” was a chink in their armor. As such, there was a degree of tension the studio, the famous Abbey Road, as detailed in Womack’s “Sound Pictures.” Engineer Geoff  Emerick, who recently passed away, quit halfway through the recording — and so did Ringo Starr.

“With Starr having left the other Beatles to their own devices, (George) Martin watched as Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison shrugged the incident off for the moment and proceeded with a basic track for ‘Back in the USSR,’ ” with McCartney on the drums, Lennon playing bass and Harrison on lead guitar,” Womack writes. 

“The next evening, additional bass and lead guitar parts were adorned on the track, along with soaring Beach Boys–styled harmonies and a rocking piano. The song’s signature jet plane introduction was supplied courtesy of the EMI tape library’s Volume 17: Jet and Piston Aeroplane.”

Starr came back soon afterward.

“You’re the best rock ‘n’ roll drummer in the world. Come on home, we love you,” read a telegram from John, Paul and George to Ringo.

The episode was symptomatic  of the pressures that would drive the Beatles apart  forever two years later in 1970. But it’s that artistic tension that would create the expansive "White Album." While the Beatles had been exploring multiple genres in their rock ‘n’ roll ways since the early ‘60s, those genres are out in bold relief on “The White Album.”

“Dear Prudence” continues the Summer of Love psychedelia of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” was written in a style that was new at the time — Jamaican ska. “Back in the USSR” is a dash of’ ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll and “Yer Blues” is – blues.  “Rocky Racoon is a country waltz and “Helter Skelter” is early heavy metal.   

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"It’s an extension of what you heard on ‘Sgt. Pepper,’ ” Womack said. “You could hear Paul play a lot of lead (guitar) on Sgt. Pepper, and there’s a lot of grunge just beneath the surface. I think ‘Helter Skelter’ is a continuation of this Jimi Hendrix influence of heavy metal, hard rock sounds that Paul is merging with pop.”

The symposium also will feature the premiere of the film “The Beatles in India” by Paul Saltzman, who was in Rishikesh, India, at the same time as the Beatles in 1968, and a bus and walking tour of historical rock ‘n’ roll sites in Asbury Park and Freehold led by Jean Mikle of the Asbury Park Press and Stan Goldstein, authors of “Rock and Roll Tour of the Jersey Shore.” Among other pursuits, attendees can participate in interactive sessions where you mix a track and take home an MP3.

There also will be a midnight listening party on Nov. 8 of the new “White Album” box set with Lewisohn and Thomas in attendance. Copies of the new release will be available  after the party.

Monmouth University, a member of the Grammy Museum’s affiliate program, is presenting the four-day symposium in association with the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music.

A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

“It’s an event for specialists, no doubt about it, but at the same time we want this to be a good time and it should be fun,” Womack said. 

Chris Jordan: cjordan@app.com; Twitter: @chrisfhjordan 

“The Beatles’ The White Album: An International Symposium,” Thursday, Nov. 8 through Sunday, Nov. 11,   Monmouth University, 400 Cedar Ave., West Long Branch. $75 per day to $300 for all four days. Individual events less. monmouth.edu/whitealbum.

The Weeklings perform songs from "The White Album," 8 p.m. Nov. 8, Pollak Theatre, Monmouth University, 400 Cedar Ave., West Long Branch. $25 to $35.  monmouth.edu/whitealbum.