When the double-album “The Beatles” was released (or the White Album as soon was called from its cover), the press and the fans took it as a new masterpiece. Writing on The Observer, Tony Palmer suggested the Beatles to be the greatest songwriters ever since Schubert. That article soon became well-known for this phrase, but actually it was moved by a great appreciement for the musical variety of the record: “do you want some rock n’ roll? The Beatles have done it and better… do you want some blues? The Beatles have done it and better…”

The press and the fans didn’t know, anyway, that the record was what came out of several mounths of discussions between the Beatles themselves and between them and their technicians, of drug intake and nights over nights spent doing nothing but losing time. What seemed to be just the new masterpiece was actually the first step on the way to the break-out.

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