While they’re often celebrated for their incredible achievements in songwriting, The Beatles were widely known for incorporating plenty of unusual production techniques in the latter stages of their time together as a band, with the help of esteemed producer George Martin. Revolver has sections where recordings are played in reverse to create a haunting effect; Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band uses the studio as an instrument, and Abbey Road sees the band try and piece together a suite of songs in a spellbinding fashion.
The White Album, however, is the sort that saw them throw virtually everything at the wall in an attempt to see what sticks, and therefore is the most adventurous yet scattered album that they released as a group. You might look at songs like ‘Revolution 9’ as being more of an audio art piece rather than a song, but it only goes to show just how adventurous the band were becoming during this stage of their career,.
Each member has their own moments to shine with songs that they penned themselves, and while many people will look at ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ as George Harrison’s finest moment on the record, a true connoisseur will doff their cap to the majesty of ‘Piggies’. And one that often gets overlooked is ‘Long, Long, Long’, a track that sits towards the tail end of the record and demonstrates Harrison’s brilliance just as well as these other numbers.
No, it’s not his masterpiece, but it is an indicator of where he was going with his songwriting and is perhaps The Beatles song that bears the most resemblance to his solo work that he would release only a few years after the White Album in 1968. However, at the end of the track, there’s a peculiar rattling sound that has perplexed many listeners due to how out of place and accidental it seems, and has left many wondering exactly what it is that is creating this racket.
What is making the noise at the end of ‘Long, Long, Long’?
The Beatles may have utilised a wide variety of unusual instruments over the course of the White Album, from the flugelhorn on ‘Martha My Dear’ to the stumpf fiddle on ‘The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill’, but the rattling sound heard at the end of ‘Long, Long, Long’ isn’t an instrument or percussive element at all, but the sound of a bottle of Blue Nun white wine vibrating on top of the amplifier that it had been left perched on top of.
It has to be said that while Blue Nun is a terrible choice of beverage at the best of times, the band were all experiencing significant substance abuse issues during the recording sessions, with many songs having been recorded under the influence of alcohol. Supposedly, Paul McCartney’s over-the-top vocal take for ‘Why Don’t We Do It in the Road’ was recorded after he’d polished off a bottle of whiskey, owing to it the raw and unfiltered nature of his delivery.
It’s not just the racket of the bottle vibrating that we can hear in the closing section of the song, though, and the cacophonous wall of noise that can be heard in addition is also subject to rumours that it was written to simulate the sound of McCartney’s alleged death in 1966. It was a conspiracy theory that the band latched onto with several Easter eggs in their songs that allude to the tragic passing of their bandmate.
While the band are reported to have recorded 67 takes of the song before settling on the final version, they chose to leave the rattling bottle of wine audible. It might sound like the sort of thing that happens by complete accident, but the vibration feels remarkably apt for the apocalyptic sound we’re presented with at the end of the track, and perfectly marks the end of side three of the record in chaotic style.
