David Ames' Genre 10 - Rock Albums: #5 The Beatles

David Ames digs through his music collection to count down his top ten favourite albums in a specific music genre. This time, he salutes those about to rock and at #5 it's The Beatles White Album...



From a young age, I have had a close association with the rock genre. My father would listen to classic rock almost constantly when I was younger and so from basically my infancy I have been listening to Led Zeppelin, Kansas, The Who, The Beatles, Bad Company, Journey, Foreigner, and many others. My father was also the first to introduce me to bands like Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Bush, three of the bands that have influenced me more than any others. Rock will always hold a special place in my heart because of its incredibly impactful presence in my life. I know all of you wonderful readers will recognize at least 80 percent of this list and here’s hoping that it triggers some pleasant memories of days gone by.

Find the other albums in David's Genre 10 Rock Albums

#5: The Beatles – The Beatles (The White Album)



If we are going to mention rock albums, there is no way that The Beatles couldn’t show up. Obviously they were far before my time but luckily my uncle, the one who also fostered my guitar playing, was a massive fan and so I was assimilated into the fandom accordingly. I always get crap for talking about the White Album as my favorite because it was at the height of their infighting—the band would show up separately a lot of the time to record their parts and honestly, this album has some ridiculous nonsense (that I absolutely love) like “Honey Pie,” “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road,” and “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.” Despite some of the silliness on this album, there is some real heart here. The tracks I’ve listed are just some of the brilliant songs from this album. For my money, there is not a better Beatles album because I can hear every aspect of the band here: John’s songwriting and vocal genius, Paul’s brilliant songwriting and harmony, some of the best George songs to date, and Ringo finally showing that he has a ton to offer the Fab Four. Also, this album has “Rocky Raccoon” which is by far my favorite Beatles song (I’m not sure why and I am not questioning it). Pick this album up again and enjoy these classic tracks as well as the fun and nonsense that go into crafting easily one of the greatest albums in the history of music.



*There were actually no singles from this album so I will just list four of my favorite tracks for this section*



“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”









“Blackbird”









“Back in the U.S.S.R.”









“Happiness Is a Warm Gun” [Editor's note - there's not an original copy of the song anywhere on YouTube that we can watch in the UK so here's a cover from the film Across the Universe]









Special Mention:



“Rocky Raccoon” [another note from the Editor - I have no idea what this animation is but it's the only place I could find the original audio]

Image - Amazon