"White" Means "Plain Vanilla"
When my friend Tom recommended that I listen to The Blues White Album I didn't think that it was a cover of the similarly named original by the Beatles but with a Blues-twist. Seeing the package didn't ring a bell either as it has been rather some time since I've held the distinctive original. And a read of the track list still left me clueless for no readily apparent reason despite the justifiable fame of the original songs.
Listening to the disc was no great revelation, either, as it is nine-tenths drivel. Sorry to blunt there, but I would have been much more direct had I harbored greater expectations. Going in with none I avoided using a more colorful term that first came to mind. Don't ask me what the clearly sycophantic reviewers at Amazon heard because it couldn't have been the same disc I heard.
The remaining one-tenth worth of it's take of bits and bytes is the sole reason the effort earns a spot in my blog. Joe Louis Walker's rendition of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is the only track to show even a hint of passion that the music deserves. High-quality fingering and soulful vocals make this piece stand out such that there are parts that I prefer to the original -- particularly the guitar element between 2:25 and 3:05. Around 5:20 the vocals form a near pitch-twin to the guitar that makes the instrument really seem to be more plaintively and sorrowfully crying than just straight playing could. Technically cleaner than Clapton, but with a tad less feeling. Overall, rather good.
To the album's credit, though, "Weeps" is the only track that could be translated into the Blues. Who really thought that "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" would work? That's an about-face that instantly falls down. "Blackbird" could have a chance, but as I've yet to hear anyone do it even nearly as well as the Beatles, it's a ghost of a chance at best. Apple iTunes lists over 70 covers of this track and each sample I heard left me with the impression that the artist was simply trying to please themselves in one fashion or another (Really, what was Bernadette Peters thinking?). At least the producers of "The Blues White Album" didn't attempt to cover all original 30 songs. Thank you!
