Side 4 by Joe Suihkonen White Album

NOTES ON THIS SIDE: Ok here we go, final side! I feel like this side is definitely the most overlooked, generally. It’s a long record, bunch of great songs, listener fatigue, yadda yadda. It makes sense. What frustrates me is that this side is mostly known for Revolution 9, Lennon’s foray into tape loop experiments. I have a lot to say about Lennon trying to co opt Yoko Ono’s “coolness” and won’t go on a rant here, but I don’t think this song is very good. It’s fine. Just because you’re dating someone who’s a genuinely disruptive agent of the avant-garde doesn’t magically make you Stockhausen. The last thing I’ll say here: the fact that Ono’s “legacy” (at least in the mainstream) is somehow “breaking up The Beatles” is so sexist and infuriating. She was a revolutionary performance artist; Lennon really forced that narrative upon her and it’s fucked up. I was really putting off Revolution 9 for this project, as I wasn’t sure how to approach it. At first, I was gonna do a long form improvisation. I then realized that an improvisation is antithetical to a tape collage (which is meticulously composed). So then I was gonna do a hyper accurate transcription of the whole track, and attempt to replicate all sounds with guitar and voice. But, like, nah - way too much work. This whole project is about appreciation for the songwriting on display here, so I’m not gonna do 10x the work for the track that features the least conventional songwriting. Finally, I had to give up the “Voice Memo” thing and multi track something in GarageBand - I clocked it at a cool 45 seconds. OK I’m sick of talking about this song!! Moving on. Every other song here is awesome (despite the weird “anti-leftist” messaging of Revolution 1). A lot of ground is covered in this batch, stylistically. Slow blues shuffle, Vaudeville music hall, polytonal soul (with odd meters), acoustic ballad, and sweeping orchestral stuff - they really have their range on display. Good Night is probably my favorite song to play here (and I think one of my strongest recordings of this whole project, even though the rain in the background is pretty loud). I also included Hey Jude as a bonus track - it’s not on the white album but should’ve been. It was recorded at the same time and is one of McCartney’s masterpieces (gotta download to get access to this bad boy).

Ok, so. Thanks. Thanks for listening, and thanks for supporting. Gigantic thanks to the ultimate dude Seth Engel, who mastered all of these out of the goodness of his heart. Go listen to Options. It’s safe to say that the novelty of quarantine has completely worn off (I know I’m incredibly privileged for ever experiencing it as “novel”). This sucks. I miss my friends. I miss playing music with other people more than anything.

In an effort to keep occupying my time, I will be writing and demo-ing as many songs for The Deals as I can muster. If you don’t know The Deals, go follow us on our instagram @thedealsfamilyband. Maybe we’ll put out some music one of these days.

OK bye! Stay safe.

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