Billy Joel has been in the news quite a bit lately. The 76-year-old has been struggling with health issues, and recently had an epic documentary dropped about him on HBO Max. He is a musical artist worthy of a deeper look, and he has earned his right to speak his musical opinions.
On an episode of Bill Maher's podcast, Club Random, Joel and Maher were discussing some of the best double-albums in the history of rock. They didn't get very far into the conversation, though. Maher mentioned Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road as a great one, to which Joel said it was simply "good."
Maher then mentioned the Beatles' White album (a self-titled album that people have called the "White" album because of the color of the cover), and Billy Joel did not hold back. He didn't care for the album, and he said, "I hear it as a collection of half-assed songs they didn’t finish writing because they were too stoned, or they didn’t care anymore."
Billy Joel has some harsh words about the Beatles' White album
To be fair, Joel has likely forgotten more about music than most of us will ever know, but one of the charms of the White album is that it is a mish-mash of lots of different ideas. The songs don't truly fit together, and that somehow augments the project.
The album is not perfect. We aren't discussing Revolver here, for instance. But there are so many great tracks on the double-album that it shouldn't be discredited so easily. Some of the more unsung songs in the Beatles' catalog exist on the White album. The band also showed it could edge toward harder rock with "Helter Skelter."
The double-LP is also home to "Blackbird," "While My Guitar Gently Sleeps," and "Back in the U.S.S.R." There is going to be something to like for everyone, and many people will like all of it.
What made the White album different from what the Beatles were doing or nearly anyone else was that the tracklist was not linear. It was disjointed and seemingly purposefully messy. A number of the songs were experiments, but they didn't sound as if they were thrown on the album for no reason.
But that might just be many people's opinion. Billy Joel has a different one, and he isn't wrong, just as others are not right. It's just music, and it's all opinion.