“I hear it as a collection of half-assed songs they didn’t finish writing because they were too stoned”: Billy Joel snubs The Beatles’ White Album
While The Beatles’ White Album is often regarded as a pivotal rock record, Piano Man Billy Joel thinks its merely the “half-assed” work of a group of “stoned” lads.
In a recent appearance on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, Maher and Joel were picking out classic double albums. When the host namedropped The Beatles’ 1968 self-titled record, Joel was quick to criticise it. “I’m not a big fan of the White Album, but some people love it,” he says.
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Despite many deeming the record to be a key point in rock history, with the band shifting gear to focus on uber-cool country and blues, a sharp change from the technicolour psychedelia of 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. However, Joel doesn’t seem to think the tonal shift was intentional.
“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”, he explains. “I think they had fragments and they put them on the album.”
He goes so far as to admit that he thinks “John [Lennon] was disassociating at that point,” with “Paul [McCartney] carrying the weight”.
That being said, Joel doesn’t believe that the White Album detracts from The Beatles’ legacy. While they “had their ups and downs” in quality, that happens with all bands. “Sometimes they were more prolific and sometimes they weren’t,” he notes. “I hear that in some of those [songs]”.
Joel’s opinion is sure to shock some people. Notably, in 2023 Kiss’ Gene Simmons told Goldmine magazine that the White Album is one of the 10 records that changed his life. “It’s one of my favourites because you’re seeing turmoil within perhaps the greatest band that ever existed that recorded its own music, where each member was a star,” he explained.
While Joel considers the record to be an assortment of “half-assed” and incomplete “fragments”, Simmons appreciates the “disjointed” nature of the record.
“You could hear and feel the disjointed sense of that album, although clearly the songs shined and the playing and the production was terrific,” he said. “It’s interesting that Abbey Road perhaps was the greatest Beatles album, and they were breaking up at that point, but somehow that had a more unified thing. But just for crazy out there music, it’s gotta be the White Album.”
Elsewhere in Joel’s interview with Club Random, he also gives an update on his health. The singer cancelled his entire tour after being diagnosed with a brain disorder, normal pressure hydrocephalus, back in May.
While Joel admits that the diagnosis sounds “a lot worse than what [he’s] feeling”, he does note that it is impacting his balance. “It’s like being on a boat…” he explains.
While he says that the disorder hasn’t quite been “fixed” and is “still being worked on”, he also explains that there’s no clear answer as to how he got it. “They don’t know,” he says. “I thought it must be from drinking… I don’t anymore, but I used to like a fish!”
Earlier this week, Joel released the first half of a two-part documentary, Billy Joel: And So It Goes, which is described as exploring “the love, loss, and struggles that fuel [Joel’s] songwriting”.
The first part of Billy Joel: And So It Goes can be streamed now on HBO Max.
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