Beatles White Album Songs To Skip On A Relisten

"Blasphemy! There are no skips on any Beatles album!" We beat you to it — yes there actually are. While the Beatles' discography might seem inerrant, not everything they have touched is infallible. The Beatles' self-titled project known as "the White Album" stands above the rest as a whopping 90-minute double-album with some of the bands' most memorable material, but also some of the most skippable. For every "Blackbird" or "Helter Skelter," there are three or four forgettable studio experiments that are probably somebody's favorites, but they don't really stand the scrutiny of someone who isn't a super-fan.

We chose these five songs because they represent the Beatles at their most indulgent, pretentious, or pedantic. Every song on "The White Album" is attempting to represent a single, specific genre which results in some tracks sounding superficial, or even a little pastiche. These recordings bring nothing new to the genres they are emulating, nor do they succeed at being satirical or subversive. We apologize in advance because we know that every Beatles song is somebody's favorite, but some of these should have stayed in the vault and saved for the bonus tracks on "The White Album (Taylor's Version)."

If this song was released in the 21st century, it would have been immediately licensed for a car commercial. The repeated lyrics of "Come on / Come on!" paired with the stuttering guitar riff have just the right rhythm and intensity to entice someone into making a 20% down payment with 2% APR on a Ford F-150. It doesn't help that the clanging chocalho in the verses and outro are now evocative of the unmistakable clanging and hammering of the Home Depot jingle.

Like many of the songs on this album, it was written in 1968 when the Beatles went to study meditation from the Maharishi, with the line, "Come on is such a joy," being one of the guru's favorite sayings. Lennon later stated that the song's monkey references were an allusion to drug use, although he once remarked that the lyrics were about his lack of shame in the face of the band's distaste toward his relationship with Ono.

This is more of an interlude than a proper song, but it contributes to this album's bloat all the same. The second track related to monkeys on this list, the lyrics to this tune were written by McCartney after watching two monkeys copulating in public. He recorded this one primarily alone while George and John were in a separate booth working on the mix for "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill." In a separate session, McCartney had Ringo Starr add a drum track.

While McCartney's explanation of the song might shed some light on the lyrics and provide them with some sort of philosophical depth, on its face the song isn't doing much. Two lines of lyrics, a common chord progression, and a couple of shouts does make a song, but not necessarily a very good one. McCartney's faux-enlightenment doesn't explore this idea with any thoroughness like that presented in Dominique Laporte's 1978 book, "Histoire de la merde." If you need to fill up space on a double-album, this does the trick, but that's all it does: take up space.

This ornamental pop song with dance hall airs is primarily characterized by its baroque instrumentation and on-the-nose political lyrics about big piggies pushing around little piggies, evoking George Orwell's "Animal Farm," but with very little ingenuity or development of that concept. The harpsichord passages unique to this song are well-played, but the instrument's inclusion on this kind of pop song sounds dated and a little tacky.

This track also has historical significance; "Piggies" and several other songs from "the White album" inspired the delusions of cult-leader Charles Manson, who terrorized Los Angeles in 1969. In 2000 Harrison was asked about how he felt about that connection and he said, "It was upsetting to be associated with something so sleazy as Charles Manson." McCartney had a similar response: "It was frightening, because you don't write songs for those reasons." 

"The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" is an example of the Beatles getting preachy. This didactic song criticizing American consumerism and violence towards animals has its heart in the right place, but the themes and lyrics are underdeveloped and their attitude towards the antagonistic 'Bungalow Bill' amounts to little more than a disapproving glance. The lyrics tell the story of a fictional American tiger hunter in India, inspired by a real tiger hunter the Beatles met during their stay with the Maharishi.

The music on the track is nothing to write home about either. The chorus has a jolly, march-like quality which transitions to a sluggish, half-time, nursery rhyme rhythm on the verses. This mismatch of styles is characteristic of the British Mod style of the era, much like David Bowie's flopped debut album. Additionally, the eerie supporting vocals from Yoko Ono are a little too spectral for this sort of song, and would have been better suited for something spooky like an audio book recording of "The Haunting of Hill House."

While generally inoffensive and light-hearted, the song wears out its welcome and quickly becomes annoying. It might have worked if it were relegated to being an interlude, but instead it goes on for two minutes longer than it should. The bass line and piano parts are pleasant in the same way the music you hear walking into Disneyland is pleasant, but once the early excitement wears off, the sweet smell of candy quickly turns sardonic and saccharine.

The song was written in 1968 along with the others written on the Beatles' trip to India. McCartney learned the phrase from Jimmy Scott, a Nigerian Congo player he met at a night club, and made it into the chorus (via YouTube). Scott later claimed that McCartney had stolen the phrase from him, which McCartney denied and defended its use, saying it was "merely an expression." Scott eventually dropped his claim in exchange for McCartney paying off unrelated legal fees for him. Between its problematic history and a sarcastic air, it's better to skip this one before it turns into a tummy ache.