Billy Joel has branded The White Album by The Beatles a “collection of half-assed songs”.
The Piano Man was clearly not a fan of the legendary rock band’s 1968 self-titled double album – which featured classics Back In The USSR, Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, Dear Prudence, Helter Skelter and While My Guitar Gently Weeps – and suggested they were “too stoned” or “didn’t care anymore” when they recorded the 30-track epic.
The songs were penned during a Transcendental Meditation retreat with the band’s late guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Speaking on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, Billy 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.
“I think they had fragments and they put them on the album.”
He suggested: “I think John [Lennon] was disassociating at that point.
“I think Paul [McCartney] was carrying the weight.
“Sometimes they were more prolific and sometimes they weren’t, and I hear that in some of those things.”
It marked the first time the wives and partners of the band – which also included Sir Ringo Starr and the late George Harrison – were allowed in the studio, with late frontman Lennon famously quipping that “the break-up of The Beatles can be heard on that album.”
Sir Paul McCartney has previously addressed critics of the album, telling Radio Luxembourg: “I’m not a great one for that whole, ‘Y’know maybe it was too many of that’. What do you mean? It was great, it sold. It’s the bloody Beatles White Album, shut up!”
Drummer Ringo previously insisted he’s always loved The White Album – despite quitting the group for two weeks around then.
Speaking as he celebrated his 81st birthday in 2021, he told TMZ: “I’ve loved the White Album all of my life because we were back to being a band.”
Producer George Martin also disappeared during the process for an unexpected holiday, and engineer Geoff Emerick quit.
Tensions within the group escalated after the chart-topping album’s release and they eventually announced their split in 1970.
Despite all the drama, The White Album is considered one of the greatest albums of all time.
The full interview with Billy Joel on Club Random is available now on YouTube, Apple, Spotify and other platforms.