
The original follow up to Sgt Pepper came in a plain white double cover. It had a glossy finish, numbered with the title embossed on the front.
Inside was a track listing and four separate mini pictures of the boys.
The two discs, in black paper sleeves, were reachable from the top slots. There were also the four semi-glossy pictures, this time in colour, and a poster, a scrap book kind of thing, with all the lyrics in tiny writing on the back. But who reads those?
It was a classy affair, and minimalist. It was also the first Beatles’ album to be on the Apple label, though it still had a regulation Parlophone number, PMC 7067 and 7068.
On the face of it, it seemed quite a difference from the complexities and artiness of Sgt Pepper. But the band had been to India, and had a wealth of material and were looking for a less complicated way of getting it out.
Many people have said it should have just been a single album. You can certainly go through and create a list of tracks to be removed: Wild Honey Pie, Julia, I Will, Long Long Long, Revolution 9, Don’t Pass Me By, Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?… and so on.
It’s also very easy to pick on individual tracks from the 93ish minutes and say they are weak or just plain bad, but this misses the point of the whole set.
Like Sgt Pepper, the gaps between the tracks were unclear. Some tracks do run together. This was never an album to be cherry picking tracks. It had to be heard as a whole. Without the ‘poorer’ tracks it would not be the same (well ok, obviously) but it’s the shear wealth and variety of material that makes this special.
There’s a symmetry between sides one and three that end with a thump sound.
Harrison gets one track per side, and we love Piggies, which many people really hate. The brass on Savoy Truffle is as crisp as you like, but While My Guitar Gently Weeps is Harrison at his very best. If you see a tribute band performing it live, it really takes off, especially if an orchestra is brought in.
As a whole, it’s such a disjointed set of original ideas. It keeps you entertained throughout. You don’t want to skip tracks, or you shouldn’t.
If you watch The Analogues performing the album live, it really works, especially Revolution 9 followed by Goodnight (1 hour 26 minutes in).