Side Two of the White Album: Part One

[@ivanconnolly7332]

The range of the White album is unsurpassed.

[@chriscampanozzi6516]

Fantastic information as always. Thank you gentlemen. The monkees 🆚 the velvet underground, a good way to describe the music world of the sixties.

[@ThePhudD]

Martha my dear always reminds me of Gilbert O’Sullivan

[@andrews527]

Where's the other 3 sides?

[@bertrach]

Bert Jansch!!! Pink Floyd's Animals is just The Beatles' Piggy's with more guitar solos! Hahaha.

[@thesheeteels8252]

The Band are strange. They made such a splash with their ‘stripped down’ sound of a six piece band with two keyboard players and a drummer who could play mandolin, who all sang (sometimes all at once). They had no acoustic tracks and sometimes had full horn sections. There’s just no phasing or tape delay on that first album so it’s thought of as rootsy, when it’s a fully arranged and realised sound. There’s no very simple tracks, certainly no acoustic ones. Much more so than John Wesley Harding. And so much more vocally mannered: Rick Danko’s singing can be hard work.

[@drummer78]

Excellent point..for those who only know The Band from what they have read or from hearing just “The Weight”, it’s easy to think of them as just homespun back to basics roots. In fact, they had rich vocal lines with three voices singing in unison, there were funky offbeat horn arrangements, strange organ sounds, old timey flourishes from accordions and tubas, highly crafted songs and arrangements, etc. In a way, they were more like a Beatles than Dylan in the degree of meticulous thought put in the arrangements/instrumentation. A song like “In A Station” isn’t Americana it’s something more akin to dreamy psychedelic soul music Certainly The Band did tend to gravitate and reside in a haunted rural type of American music but it was by no means simply “back to basics”.

[@tomasfagerberg6323]

I've always thought it was a metronome on Blackbird, but now hearing your discussion, I had to listen carefully. And it must be his shoes. Why? Because it's not exactly the same sound on the two shoes and it also differs in volume. And it's not 100% rock steady. It is very good but it is not perfect. I remember the film, Paul is tappin with both feat.

[@michaelharrington75]

In the complete beatles Abbey Road recording sessions book, Lewisohn says a metronome was being used in the background. That doesn't necessarily mean the metronome has a microphone on it, but was ticking along as he played. I think I've heard both tapping of feet and a metronome at times on the recording? But, I don't know for sure either way. Lewisohn did have access to the recordings and logs, so there probably was a metronome keeping time?

[@Redhotshawntexas]

@@michaelharrington75there’s footage of Paul recording Blackbird and you see him wearing his Pepper shoes, tapping both feet as he records takes of Blackbird seated beside Frannie Schwartz

[@ivanconnolly7332]

A moisturizing gnome.

[@evertvdb000]

It's not strange to think Happiness opened side 2. The song has the vibe of side 2 and 3.

[@Redhotshawntexas]

I’ve always thought that the end drum lick on Happiness makes it a good spot to end Side One

[@deadbeatdynamo]

Insulin & the Wooden Legs don't get the credit they deserve.