Double Fantasy, Fab Four Style

A year after releasing their mind-blowing masterpiece, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band," the Beatles were about to turn the rock 'n roll world on its ear again. Only this time, psychedelic storytelling and lavish orchestration would be stripped away in favor of folsky, raw rock and lyrically and melodically simple songwriting.

It was 1ate 1968, and before the Fab Four were to completely disintegrate, they would leave behind perhaps their strongest musical mark, the double album simply called "The Beatles" (a ka "The White Album").

Clad in a plain, white jacket, TWA served both as a testament to the separate superlative talents of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and as a more subtle document of the band's splintering unity following the death of manager Brian Epstein, the creation of the doomed Apple Corps, Ltd., and the unsettling introduction of Yoko Ono into the group's inner circle. Sessions were tense as band members often bickered and stormed out of the studio, resulting in many cuts recorded independently.

But despite the disharmony, "The White Album" yielded 30 unforgettable tracks-including a smattering of hits like "Birthday" and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," and a wealth of best-kept Beatles secrets such as "Happiness is a Warm Gun," "Blackbird," and "Cry Baby Cry."

Within the songs, many influences are cited (from Blind Lemon Jefferson and Elvis Presley to Little Richard and Donovan), muses invoked (Bob Dylan on "Yer Blues;" the Beach Boys on "Back in the USSR;"), colorful characters concocted ("Bungalow Bill" and "Rocky Raccoon"), and real-life personalities addressed (the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in "Sexy Sadie;" Lennon's dead mother in "Julia;" and Mia Farrow's sister in "Dear Prudence").

TWA also featured two Beatles firsts: Starr's solo composition album debut ("Don't Pass Me By") and a guest guitarist (Eric Clapton on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps.")

TWA also kept alive the "Paul is dead" fad. Supposedly, the words "turn me on, dead man," and "Paul is dead man, miss him, miss him," can be heard on "Revolution 9," and "I'm So Tired" when played backwards.