John Lennon Said Mixing 1 Song From The Beatles’ ‘White Album’ Took 8 Hours
TL;DR:
- John Lennon said The Beatles’ The White Album took a long time to complete.
- John didn’t really like to listen to The Beatles’ classic albums.
- He didn’t like listening to other artists’ albums, even if they were good.
John Lennon said The Beatles‘ The White Album took a long time to finish. For example, he said he spent eight hours to mix one of the songs on the album. In addition, John revealed why he didn’t listen to his albums for pleasure.
John Lennon remembered every detail of creating The Beatles’ ‘The White Album’
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes a 1980 interview. In it, John revealed he didn’t like to listen to his albums, even the ones considered classics.
“Are you kidding?” he said. “For pleasure, I would never listen to them.”
John discussed what he thought when he listened to his old albums. “When I hear them, I just think of the session — the 48 hours Paul and I sat up putting The White Album in order until we were going crazy; the eight hours of mixing ‘Revolution 9‘ — whatever. Jesus, we were sitting hours doing the bloody guitars. I remember every detail of the work.”
John Lennon had many memories of The Beatles’ albums even if he didn’t enjoy listening to them
John was asked if he was too critical of his old tunes. “I’m not critical,” he said. “I just hear them and remember the particular day. It’s like an actor watching himself in an old movie. When I hear a song I remember Abbey Road studio, the session, who fought with whom, where I was sitting, banging the tambourine in the corner.”
Yoko jumped into the conversation. “In fact, we really don’t enjoy listening to other people’s work much,” she said. “We sort of analyze everything we hear.”
The “Imagine” singer revealed his attitude toward other artists’ albums. “Yeah, if it’s bad we don’t like it; if it’s great we’re angry that we didn’t come up with it,” he said.
How ‘Revolution 9’ and ‘The White Album’ performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom
“Revolution 9” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The White Album was far more popular. It topped the Billboard 200 for nine weeks, staying on the chart for 215 weeks in total.
“Revolution 9” was not a single in the United Kingdom either. According to The Official Charts Company, the tune did not chart there. Meanwhile, The White Album was No. 1 in the U.K. for eight weeks, remaining on the chart for 37 weeks.
“Revolution 9” is a classic avant-garde track even if it took hours to complete it.
