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''The Beatles'', also known as the White Album, is the ninth studio album by English rock group the Beatles, released on 22 November 1968. A double album, its plain white sleeve has no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed, and was intended as a direct contrast to the vivid cover artwork of the band's earlier ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. Although no singles were issued from ''The Beatles'' in Britain and the United States, the songs "Hey Jude" and "Revolution" originated from the same recording sessions and were issued on a single in August 1968. The album's songs range in style from British blues and ska to tracks influenced by the Beach Boys and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Most of the songs on the album were written during March and April 1968 at a Transcendental Meditation course in Rishikesh, India. The group returned to EMI Studios in May with recording lasting through to October. During these sessions, arguments broke out among the Beatles, and witnesses in the studio saw band members quarrel over creative differences. The feuds intensified when Lennon's new partner, Yoko Ono, started attending the sessions. After a series of problems, including producer George Martin taking a sudden leave of absence and engineer Geoff Emerick quitting, Ringo Starr left the band briefly in August. The same tensions continued throughout the following year, leading to the eventual break-up of the Beatles in April 1970. On release, ''The Beatles'' received mixed reviews from music journalists. Most critics found its satirical songs unimportant and apolitical amid a turbulent political and social climate, although some praised Lennon and McCartney's writing. The band and Martin have since debated whether the group should have released a single album instead. Nonetheless, ''The Beatles'' reached number one on the charts in both the United Kingdom and the United States and has since been viewed by some critics as one of the greatest albums of all time. ==Background== By 1968, the Beatles had commercial and critical success. The group's previous album, ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'', was number one in the UK the previous year and charted for 27 weeks, selling 250,000 copies in the first week after release. ''Time'' magazine had written in 1967 that ''Sgt. Pepper's'' constituted a "historic departure in the progress of music – any music" while the American writer Timothy Leary thought that the band were prototypes of "evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with mysterious powers to create a new human species". The band received a negative critical response for the film ''Magical Mystery Tour'', but fan response was nevertheless positive. Most of the songs for ''The Beatles'' were written during a Transcendental Meditation course with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, between February and April 1968. The retreat involved long periods of meditation, conceived by the band as a spiritual respite from all worldly endeavours – a chance, in John Lennon's words, to "get away from everything". Both Lennon and Paul McCartney quickly re-engaged themselves in songwriting, often meeting "clandestinely in the afternoons in each other's rooms" to review their new work. "Regardless of what I was supposed to be doing," Lennon would later recall, "I did write some of my best songs there." Beatles author Ian MacDonald said ''Sgt Pepper'' was "shaped by LSD", but the Beatles took no drugs with them to India aside from marijuana, and their clear minds helped the group with their songwriting. The stay in Rishikesh proved especially fruitful for George Harrison as a songwriter, coinciding with his re-engagement with the guitar after two years studying the sitar. The musicologist Walter Everett likens Harrison's development as a composer in 1968 to that of Lennon and McCartney five years before, although he notes that Harrison became "privately prolific", given his customary junior status in the group. The Beatles left Rishikesh before the end of the course. Ringo Starr was the first to leave, as he could not stomach the food; McCartney departed in mid-March, while Harrison and Lennon were more interested in Indian religion and remained until April. According to the author Geoffrey Giuliano, Lennon left Rishikesh because he felt personally betrayed after hearing rumours that the Maharishi had behaved inappropriately towards women who accompanied the Beatles to India, though McCartney and Harrison later discovered this to be untrue and Lennon's wife Cynthia reported there was "not a shred of evidence or justification". Collectively, the group wrote around 40 new compositions in Rishikesh, 26 of which would be recorded in very rough form at Kinfauns, Harrison's home in Esher, in May 1968. Lennon wrote the bulk of the new material, contributing 14 songs. Lennon and McCartney brought home-recorded demos to the session, and worked on them together. Some home demos and group sessions at Kinfauns were later released on the 1996 compilation ''Anthology 3''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Beatles (album)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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