The White Album contains jaunty fun songs, such as Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill and Martha My Dear. Contemplative songs such as Whilte My Guitar Gently Weeps, Dear Prudence and Blackbird and thunderous booming songs like Birthday and Helter Skelter.
Amongst this interesting and lively gem of a album stands one song that is often over looked by casual listeners and music critics alike. It's a song of plain, simple beauty that it could fade away compared to the livelier tracks.
Long, Long, Long is one of George Harrison's finest compositions. As his confidence grew over the proceeding Beatles albums you could see, and hear, how his song writing was flourishing. He was allowed more than one song on this album. And as much as I love While My Guitar Gently Weeps, how much I bop along to Savoy Truffle, or sing along to Piggies, it is Long, Long, Long that touches my heart, my soul and my spirit - and what I know of George, that is what his main aim was when constructing a song.
The song was composed after The Beatles made their much publicised visit to Rishikesh in India during the early months of 1968 with recording starting much later in that year. George sang on lead vocals, Paul playing the Hammond organ and Ringo providing a strong, pulsing drum beat that was in of itself, directly different to the rest of the song. Yet, these three separate elements come together to make a wonderfully simple and elegant song.
Putting aside the technicalities of this song, I want to talk about the emotion that George put into Long, Long, Long. His laid back vocals are so quiet that they can, amongst Ringo's drumming, almost be missed. There are times, when you're not listening on headphones, that you strain to hear what George is singing. A quiet song that is also one of the most emotional that he has ever written.
His understated singing belies the emotion of the song which almost borders on passion. The quietness from the quiet Beatle manages somehow to put across all that he is feeling in his heart and soul in such a understated way. And yet it can make me weep with either sadness or joy.
Long, Long, Long is a love song. But it is not a love song for Pattie Boyd or some long distant lover. It is a love song to God. George wrote many songs about God and religion. Love You Too, The Inner Light and Within You, Without You to name but a few. But Long, Long, Long is different somehow. It seems exhaustive, it seems as though that search, for him, was over. He had found what he had wanted to find, and that now it was a plea to that God to accept him, to forgive him for the years when he ignored him and to love him as much as he loved God. It's is a song of stillness yet bubbles with intense emotion underneath.
With this song, George is on his knees. Begging for that love he so desperately wanted. I once saw a photograph of a letter that George had written to a friend during the break up of his marriage to Pattie Boyd. At the bottom the ink was smudged where George's tears had splattered the letter. This song is almost the same. It feels sometimes as though he was on the verge of crying with relief. What was once missing for George had been found and he was relieved.
Long, Long, Long is a song that would also sit comfortably on his first two solo albums, All Things Must Pass and Living In The Material World.
It's presence on The White Album though brings a softer edge to what could possibly be quite a hard album. John Lennon's tetchy, sarcastic 'I'm So Tired' for example needed something to counteract it. I love 'I'm So Tired' by the way, but it's nice to even out a slightly negative song with a positive one.
The White Album is fantastic in itself because it shows very different sides to George Harrison and where he was in 1968. I love the sarcastic Piggies and it's clever word play. The overstated but fun Savoy Truffle is fabulous. And While My Guitar Gently Weeps is just plain awesome.
For me, this is the stand out track on The White Album. And that holds the song in very high esteem as the quality of the album is beyond superb. It's a fun album with serious elements. It's avant garde in places and poppy in others. It is probably one of their most messed up albums. Unorganised and dishevelled, all over the place - but that is what makes it fun.
I first heard The White Album when I was thirteen and it has remained a favourite ever since. And Long, Long, Long will always hold a piece of my heart. For it is beauty in a simplistic, understated form. And it doesn't matter how many times I've heard it, it always touches a nerve. Whether that's a raw nerve (as it quite often is) or whether it addresses happier moments in my life. For those of us who love God know what it's like to love him and how that makes you feel. On that basis, I can relate to Long, Long, Long more than any other song.
This will never stand out amongst the most recognisable Beatles songs. It may not even stand out as one of the most recognisable George Harrison Beatle songs. But it is a gem that I know will touch listeners on first hearing. If you are not moved at least once by this song then I'd be very surprised.
Of course, as a listener, if you wish to relate this song as a love letter to a woman rather than God then that would work to as on the surface it could mean anything. But I like the fact that this is less preachy then some of George's similar songs. And that makes the song more enjoyable for everyone as I know many people who skip his religious based songs. As much as I love them, they are not for everyone.
I am blessed to have heard Long, Long, Long. I once read a quote by George saying it was insignificant and that he had forgotten it. But I will never forget this song and how it makes me feel every time I hear it.
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