White Album: As Is? Or Should It Have Been Shorter?

Hmm... not after a job at Apple, are you?

 

I voted "as is". Everyone has their own ideas about what should be on a single disc.
Here's what I'd have:
SIDE 1:
1. Back To USSR
2. Dear Prudence
3. Martha My Dear
4. The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
5. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
6. I'm So Tired
7. Blackbird
8. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
SIDE 2:
1. Birthday
2. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
3. I Will
4. Julia
5. Piggies
6. Mother Nature's Son
7. Cry Baby Cry
8. Helter Skelter

Now if George Martin and the Beatles selected these 16 songs I'd say the single album would be better (though I would miss Glass Onion and Ob La Di Ob La Da) but my guess is it wouldn't have been these 16. Everyone has their own favorites. The double disc was the right idea.

 

Agreed on both points, but for a contrasting view, here's my single LP:

Side 1
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion (alternate from Anthology with the broken glass and BBC tape archive to mimic the approach to Revolution 9, which I do actually like, but ultimately dropped)
Not Guilty (Anthology)
Blackbird
Julia
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Long, Long, Long

Side 2
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (alternate ska version from Anthology)
Yer Blues
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
Helter Skelter
Sexy Sadie
Cry Baby Cry
Can You Take Me Back?
While My Guitar Gently Weeps

 

Which emphasizes my point (which you did agree with) that the single disc idea wouldn't have been good. Your disc doesn't have enough McCartney ("I Will" and "Martha My Dear" would be two of my absolute essentials not to cut: George's "Piggies" too) and contains three of the first songs I'd dump (Sexy Sadie, Long Long Long, and Yer Blues).
I do like all of the ANTHOLOGY tracks/versions you mention!

 

Perfect the way it is.

 

Subjectivity is a biatch! I will say that, as a bass player, I love McCartney's lines, but if I were to pick my top 25 Beatles tunes, some 19-20 would be Lennon compositions, with perhaps three by McCartney (For No One, Penny Lane, and I've Just Seen a Face) and two by George (Think For Yourself and Something). But that's not what this thread is about.

 

As is !

 

Then again I could ask this question:
Where is the choice that it wasn't 'long enough" and should have been a triple album!
Side 5:
1. Lady Madonna
2. The Inner Light
3. All Together Now
4. Hey Bulldog
5. It's All Too Much
6. What's The New Mary Jane
Side 6:
1. Revolution (single version)
2. It's Only A Northern Song
3. Step Inside Love/Los Paranoias
4. Not Guilty
5. You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
6. Hey Jude

 

Let it be...it's just fine as it is.

 

It is fine as it is, mostly for two reasons. 1 being that it is now a musical historical document of a bands place in its' career. 2nd is that the songs I don't care for, others do, so there is enough there for everyone to like even if they don't like everything on it.
I personally made my own CD comp of it , sans a few of the songs, and for me 3 sides is enough for what I like.
But as I say, I wouldn't want to be the guy to go back in time and take away the stuff other guys like.

 

But that idea does relate to this thread as it does highlight the point that most all of us would have different songs on a "single disc" WHITE ALBUM.

 

Seriously though, I wouldn't change a thing.

 

The only track I found hard to get into as a youth was revolution #9 but I wouldn't change a thing.

 

It also highlights why any supposition regarding Beatles album content is merely that. I'm glad they did it the way they did, but we could waste countless hours discussing the minutiae and never get anywhere.

This was exactly my position for some 15 years. Since then, I've come to understand that art is art, whether one see it as art or not. An acquired taste, and after some 50 listenings, a good piece of art, but not a great one. However, it is of great historical importance in the evolution of John Lennon and why the Beatles became not the Beatles.

 

It"s the White album , it sold > shut up.

 

I probably would have voted to move John's Revolution #9 to one of his side projects and replaced it with two or three more compositions from George! He had some wonderful stuff pretty much ready to go.

 

nearly 10 years after the start of this thread I've decided I would have like this to be a 3 album deal!

 

For me, the "creeps" factor is what makes it great. Brilliantly constructed piece of musique concrete.

 

Sir Paul said it best: "I think it's a fine album. It was great, it sold, it's the bloody Beatles White Album. Shut up!"

 

Turn me on dead man.

 

As is, of course.
Isn't this discussion age old by now?

 

A hot mess. Perfect.

 

The only 2 tracks I could do without are O-bla-di and Birthday. The rest may be a little inconsistent but these are the only 2 I find irritating.

 

I don't get these topics, where some people complain about getting too much music, instead they want less songs.....

 

Strictly as a playlist, I think it'd be better if it were culled down to a single disc. There's quite a bit of inferior material on it, and the album's relative lack of thematic focus gives it a sprawling feel that makes it seem overlong. You would have to cut some worthwhile material from the record, although you could save a couple more tracks if you added on an extra double-A side single (maybe "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"/"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da").

But, if you cut it down to a single disc, you'd lose the idea of the white album. At 14 tracks, it becomes just another Beatles album. In its current state, it's more interesting. You have to prepare yourself a little bit to approach it given its length--90 minutes is a lot to set aside for any pop group, including the Beatles--and the blank packaging doesn't give you much of a hint about what's inside. And then you listen to it, and lots of the tracks are good, but others are just plain weird. The sprawl becomes kind of a theme--where's the point of this thing? The last side has two songs named for pastries, a song that ends with a fragment of another song, a sound collage, and a smarmy movie-soundtrack closer with violins--is this some kind of joke? It's not nearly the best Beatles album, and it still wouldn't be if you cut it down to one disc. But at two discs it's a little baffling in a fun way, and definitely unique.

So I think you keep the two discs. On a related note, I can't help but notice earlier in this thread that people who really like the white album want to keep both discs, and are much more passionate about it then people who want to pare it down. Also, the sprawl made for some really good samples for Dangermouse to mash up with Jay-Z's "The Black Album" to create "The Grey Album", which is a blast.