Side 1 by Joe Suihkonen White Album

PURPOSE: that these recordings were made while social distancing is purely circumstantial; this project is not intended to comment on COVID-19 or the nature of isolation. I leave that to the many differently abled and chronically ill artists who make compelling and crucial art about health anxiety and isolation every day, global pandemic or no. additionally, the last thing I want to do, as a relatively healthy 26 year old, is frame social distancing as some sort of “novel” experience. instead these recordings are intended to bring joy and help supplement some of the personal income being lost as a byproduct of our current health crisis. on that last note, so many artists and freelancers are in the same boat so this is Pay What You Can for a reason: if you can’t pay anything (because you are also suffering from lost work OR because you’ve already spent so much on your other artist friends) please still enjoy it! there are no songs more joy-inducing than these, in my opinion.

PROCESS: this is the first of four weekly releases, wherein I will record solo acoustic arrangements of the entirety of “The Beatles (The White Album)”; these first 8 songs make up “side 1” on the vinyl release. all recording was done on the voice memo app of my iPhone 7. These were then mastered by Seth Engel. I limited myself to three takes per song. I am playing a Harmony Sovereign “Black Buck”.

NOTES ON THIS SIDE: side 1 of this record is far from my favorite side (which is either 2 or 3), and was therefor a hard place to start with this project. i came into it with a “get these over with” attitude which stifled my progress for the first day or so. what’s interesting is that when i started learning the songs on it, I realized that some of the ones I thought I loved (Dear Prudence, While My Guitar Gently Weeps) are actually incredibly boring to play. I also discovered a newfound appreciation for songs that I’ve long maligned in this batch (Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, Bungalow Bill). I would say McCartney and Lennon are tied on this side, each contributing one of the two highlights (Back In The USSR and Happiness Is A Warm Gun). I look forward to diving into side 2 this upcoming week (which I think of as the “Paul McCartney show”) and side 3 the following week (which I consider to be some of Lennon’s best writing). hopefully I am able to learn even more about a record that is so important to me, and so many others.

OK! Here’s Side 1! Enjoy! Stay safe out there! Love you all!

Joe Suihkonen plays solo acoustic arrangements of "The Beatles (The White Album)" - released as a weekly serial for four weeks