The Beatles - single white album - Just for fun

[popshop]

Just for fun I tried to make a single LP, 45-minute version. Not trying to offend! The fun of it is that it is different for everyone.
side A:
Revolution 1 - simple call to (no) arms.
Martha, My Dear - Paul's best on this album, I think. Would be awesome to mix in 5.1!!!
Glass Onion - 3rd, same as original. I like that it addresses the past lyrics early on.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps - I have a thing that the best song should be the 4th song.
Cry Baby Cry - Fantastic. Would cut the very end Paul snippet.
Long, Long, Long - sounds unlike the rest of the album, but so good.
Blackbird - nice way to end a side

side B:
Happiness Is A Warm Gun - would be a fun way to start the second side.
Mother Nature's Son -
Sexy Sadie -
I Will -
Dear Prudence -
Piggies -
Helter Skelter - would cut after the fade out
Julia - calm after the storm

Hardest to cut: Savoy Truffle - Lyrics are sort of lame, but the arrangement is thick and punchy, and it's George!
Easiest to cut: Revolution 9.
On the floor: Savoy Truffle, USSR, ObLaDi, Wild Honey Pie, Bungalow, Tired, Rocky, Don't Pass Me By, Why don't we, Birthday, Yer Blues, Monkey, Honey Pie, Rev9, Good Night.
Fun to do, regardless. Incredible that they had this much material...though a year for them was a long time. Mystery Tour released Nov '67, white album released Nov '68.
What about you?

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Is it really a Beatles album without one Ringo sung song??

 

[popshop]

It's punishment for quitting and going to Sardinia!
No, actually you make a good point - though I didn't want a Ringo song. Shoot, if Good Night goes on what comes off?

 

[Dyanez]

I like your selection but I would take Long, long, long & Piggies out an replace them with USSR before Dear Prudence as in the album and Ringo’s Don’t Pass Me By.
That would be my single white album

 

[AshBuchanan]

I've spent way too much time on this....

side one
Back in the USSR
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Blackbird
While my Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
I Will
Julia

side two
Me and my Monkey
Mother Nature's Son
Cry Baby Cry
I'm So Tired
Long Long Long
Helter Skelter
Wild Honey Pie
Revolution 1 (the full length bootleg version)

 

[Clint Eastwood]

Is it really a Beatles album without one Ringo sung song??[/QUOTE

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I've spent way too much time on this....

side one
Back in the USSR
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Blackbird
While my Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
I Will
Julia

side two
Me and my Monkey
Mother Nature's Son
Cry Baby Cry
I'm So Tired
Long Long Long
Helter Skelter
Wild Honey Pie
Revolution 1 (the full length bootleg version)

I do like this track list. But no love for Lennon's Yer Blues from anyone but me, eh.

 

[AshBuchanan]

I do like this track list. But no love for Lennon's Yer Blues from anyone but me, eh.

I like it, but occasionally skip it for being a bit heavy. I think the rock and roll circus performance of it is better.

 

[Strilo]

1. Back In The U.S.S.R.
2. Dear Prudence
3. Glass Onion
4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
5. Martha My Dear
6. I'm So Tired
7. Blackbird
8. Don't Pass Me By
9. Birthday
10. Yer Blues
11. Mother Nature's Son
12. Sexy Sadie
13. Helter Skelter
14. Cry Baby Cry

 

[JonUrban]

The thing with this album is, first off, us old guys are saturated with it and don't play it anymore. I have purposely not played it in decades hoping for this new 5.1 release so that I can listen sorta fresh.

That being said, it's one of those albums that has tunes you can take or leave, that's for sure, but the thing is they are not always the same tunes that you want to dump, depending on your mood. Sometimes I *want* to hear "Bungalow Bill", other time it's a skip. Same with a lot of these. Even the classics, mostly because I grew up as a kid with the LP(s) when they came out, played them to death, and of course formed opinions and favors, but in retrospect I would go back to stuff I didn't originally like.

Heck, I disliked most of Side 3 as a 16 year old, but now I like those tunes.

Still, whittling it down to one LP is impossible for me. I'd rather queue the whole thing up and skip tracks on impulse.

 

[popshop]

My retrospective perspective is that The Beatles were a progressive band and that the white album is the first major instance of them not progressing. Even though they had often used retro influences while progressing, the 12 bar blues stuff happening then and a few months later at Twickenham just didn't seem to be pushing them forward anymore. I think John's two new interests trumped music and the band was never the same. Also Brian's death, ABKCO, Ono, the Eastmans, Apple, excess, etc...

 

[John Svensson]

I'd buy your copy Pops, but I'd have to have the extra EP of USSR-Savoy-Birthday-Monkey...some of the most up-tempo, frenetic and catchy.

 

[Quad Linda]

Revolution 9 seemed cool when I was 14. Excepting for it being "new again" in 5.1, I'm bored with it.

Savoy Truffle is wonderful, especially if you are a candy lover. (Candy's Room?)

I would have dropped Piggies and replaced it with Not Guilty.

I love Honey Pie, but am not fond of Wild Honey Pie.

OK, If I had to whittle this down to a single LP, here would be a 14 track album:

Side A:
1- Back in the land of Putin
2- I'm So Tired of thin guys (Uncle Bonsai likes Fat Boys)
3- Desmond stays at home
4- Savoy Truffle
5- Everybody's Got Something to Hide
6- Mother Nature's Son
7-Happiness is a Warm Guy

Side B:
1- Birthday
2-Yer Blues
3-Helter Skelter
4-Cry Baby Cry
5-Blackbird
6-While My Guitar Gently Weeps
7-Goodnight

Martha My Dear - honorable mentioned

Although Revolution 1 is a great track, I'd have put the single version on instead. If Hey Jude belongs on 1 LP, then perhaps it could replace Goodnight.

There's just too much good stuff for a single disc. IMHO, keep it two discs,. Remove: #9, Rev 1, Piggies, Don't Pass Me By, and Wild Honey Pie.
Add: Hey Jude, Revolution (45 version) and Not Guilty.
All killah, no fillah!

 

[jimfisheye]

I listened to The White album a side at a time. Kind of treating it like a collection of 4 EPs but the idea of cutting it down sounds like blasphemy.
Someone did this on the Floyd forum with the Wall too. And then went the other direction: What if it was a triple album?
So... What if the White Album was a triple album instead?

I don't know about the rest of it but side 6 would be 2 versions of Revolution #9 expanded to about 10 minutes long. And they would run in concentric grooves so you would randomly get one or the other and it would look like the whole side long.

 

[jdmack]

I used some basic rules in coming up with this list. No experimental tracks. No songs with fewer than three Beatles participating. No more than two consecutive songs sung by the same Beatle. One Harrison song per side. No exceeding the longest side of the existing "White Album" (24:27).

1. Back in the U.S.S.R.
2. Dear Prudence
3. Glass Onion
4. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
5. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
6. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
7. Happiness Is a Warm Gun"

Total length: 22:47 (side 1 basically stays intact)


1. Birthday
2. Yer Blues
3. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
4. Rocky Raccoon
5. Sexy Sadie
6. Helter Skelter
7. Savoy Truffle

Total length: 23:11

 

[Jeffrey Michael]

01) Revolution 1
02) Revolution 2
03) Revolution 3
04) Revolution 4
05) Revolution 5
06) Revolution 6
07) Revolution 7
08) Revolution 8
09) Revolution 9
10) Revolution (single)

 

[popshop]

It would've been interesting (and logical?) to release it as two albums; the first to document the end of the experimentation era and the second to document the return to roots.
'68 album:
I Will
Bungalow Bill
Rocky Raccoon
Glass Onion
Piggies
Martha My Dear

ObLaDi, OblaDa
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Blackbird
Long, Long, Long
Mother Nature's Son
Julia
Good Night

'69 album:
Dear Prudence
USSR
Revolution
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Birthday
Yer Blues
Don't Pass Me By

I'm So Tired
Savoy Truffle
Everybody's Got Something...
Why Don't We Do It...
Not Guilty
Cry Baby Cry
Helter Skelter

Rev9 could be Plastic Ono. Not Guilty replaces it. Wild Honey Pie deleted.
This way the change from progressive band to blues band would be more gradual, they could release the '69 album in January, and they never would've gone to Twickenham....
while I'm dreaming it sure would've been nice for them to have recorded "Circles" - that song should've been a Beatles song...