If The White album was a single disc Then ?

It's a beauty

 

People forget that with The White Album there are quite a few songs which are clearly solo material (i.e. tbey only feature one member in general and there is no role for the others to give it a group sound / contribution). The Beatles were at their best when they played together and provided communally to the final sound of a song. It isn't to say that these solo-oriented numbers are bad (quite often far from it) but that they should have been held back until the individual members released their first solo LPs. The notion of all four of them working towards a stronger final result for any given song started to break down in 1968 (and The Beatles were more than the sum of the individual parts). So included in the songs I would not even consider for The White Album include Julia, Blackbird, I Will, Mother Nature's Son. Others are no more than unfinished fragments (e.g. Why Don't We Do It In The Road, Wild Honey Pie, Can You Take Me Back).

George Martin - if he had been allowed to do his job properly as previously - would have rightly insisted on it being a single album and worked hard on arranging / scoring the selected songs to a more finished level than they are as is. If there were unused tracks, they should have stayed that way - at least until Anthology utilised them as unreleased artifacts. The Beatles at their best (up to the end of '67) had very strong quality control and The White Album needs tightening up to comply to this ethic. So...what songs to include and how to sequence them? There's a question!

 

I've said the same thing on every "White Album single album" thread. That the problem is that everybody has a different idea about what 14 songs would constitute a 14 song WHITE ALBUM.
So a while back (on another forum) I asked members to rate each of the songs (0-5 with 5 as best) and these are the 14 songs that came out on top (in order):
Back In The USSR
Dear Prudence
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Blackbird
Julia
I Will
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
I'm So Tired
Martha My Dear
Helter Skelter
Birthday
Mother Natures Son
Yer Blues
Ob-La-Di Ob-L-Da

PS-this was almost the same as my list, but I had Piggies and Everybodys Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey in place of Yer Blues and Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da.

 

Oh no! I'm sure a thread similar to this has been started here at least 1/2 dozen times over the years. But it becomes hard to locate them with a search. Also as time goes on, many new people come aboard the forum & it's a new subject to them. Also threads get derailed & morph into another topic, or sometimes are closed by the moderators because people get too heated in arguments.

This idea what if the White album had been a single lp, is one of the grand daddy's of Beatles discussion, along with why did the Beatles break up, or is Ringo really a drummer & a few other choice favorites.

Some years ago George Martin was widely quoted as saying he had tried to urge the Beatles to release a more focused 14 song masterpiece, that he thought would be similar to the Revolver album.

Phil Spector's additions to the Let It Be album is another big one. Unreleased Beatles tracks is another. Some of the old threads are probably too long to ever read & catch up.

 

I'm thinking that if the Beatles released all the songs from 1968 over three different albums at various times that
1.) Nixon would not have been elected president; 2.) the Manson murders would't have happened and 3.) Neil Young would have had Danko, Helm and Crosby
back him up on 'Life' instead of 'Revolution Blues'.
Therefore it caused two bad things to happen and one good thing to happen.
This case is closed.

 

I only change the cover, i prefer red or black

 

In terms of pure listening experience, front to back (and not necessarily just picking the best songs), here's my 14-track White Album:

Side A
1. Happiness is a Warm Gun
2. Mother Nature's Son
3. Julia
4. Savoy Truffle
5. Martha My Dear
6. Cry Baby Cry
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Side B
8. Revolution 1
9. Long, Long, Long
10. Yer Blues
11. Blackbird
12. Sexy Sadie
13. Helter Skelter
14. Dear Prudence

 

Nice job everyone, but I just can't touch it. It's perfect to me. I wouldn't lose a track. Yes, not even the one you are thinking about.

 

I'm sorry "Blackbird" has to go!!!

 

I've posted this before, but here's my perfect white album, with the back artwork I created for it. Meets the typical rules, ie sides under 25 minutes, obligatory Ringo, two George etc...



It's a very tight album - no banding. I removed the fade-in from the end of the stereo "Helter Skelter" (so it's like the mono), which tightens up the track somewhat.

I originally had "Cry Baby Cry" as the last song, but I replaced it with "Glass Onion" because I preferred the orchestration. Plus, given the "message" of the track, I think it fits nicely at the end. It's also about the same tempo as "Savoy Truffle" so I edited the two to flow as a medley, without missing a beat, with the unlisted "Can You Take Me Back" ending the album.

My CD label...

 

Nice job, the Hollies might sue though....

 

ultimateclassicrock's 45 minute Album police : got a single disc variation track order (15 trks) first one it opens with Back in the UssR closes with Good Night ( ye gotta have a Ringo sung tune, i guess).but as is, very strong single album.

 

So let's pretend the single White album was the official release. Now imagine the news leaks that it was originally going to be a double album. A Beatles double album? Mind blown at that thought. If only...

 

I like that. We are obsessed with this whole 'imagine it had been a single album / would it have been better as a single album' rubbish. But yeah imagine it had been a single in the first place and suddenly the 'long rumoured' double album version was announced, this forum would go into meltdown.

 

Side 1

Back In The USSR
Dear Prudence
I Will
Glass Onion
Why Don't We Do It In The Road
Don't Pass Me By
While My Guitar Gently Weeps

19 minutes

Side 2

Revolution
Blackbird
Helter Skelter
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Hey Jude

20 Minutes

This would be my tracklist for a single disc white album. With the time constraints presented by vinyl, I wanted to make sure that neither side exceeded 20 minutes. As a result, some personal favorites were cut from the running order.

 

I was teached that Electric Ladyland should stay as a double disc album, and the people were absolutely right. The content of that album is amazing.
Same counts for the White Album. I wouldn't cut short that bloody double album!

 

"If the White Album were a single disc then . . . " it wouldn't be as good. Don't touch a hair on its head. It's perfect as it is.

 

George Martin deemed it too much, unfocused ...excessive. Would have preferred a single album 14/15 songs.

 

That's a nice list. It would have made a great single LP White Album

 

There's at least one solid side of filler there. If "Revolution 9," "Rocky Raccoon," "Wild Honey Pie," "Honey Pie," "Don't Pass Me By" and "Bungalow Bill" were relegated to Anthology 3, I doubt a majority of listeners would have missed them. The great stuff is great, but the older I get, the more obvious it is that it became a double LP for political and contractual reasons, more than musical.

 

i would have preferred a triple album with the missing yellow submarine tracks and some outtakes ("while my guitar gently weeps (acoustic reprise)", "not guilty", "sour milk sea".... don't know if george had already some other songs finished

edit: but please do not include "what's the new mary jane" ...

 

A triple album would have been way to thin unless you included both the '68 singles and all the Yellow Submarine songs. I have never heard any worthy outtakes, and I feel the real White album already contains a lot of filler. To each their own of course.

 

I just made one that just includes what I consider the "rockers." No wimpy acoustic songs. Unfortunately, this means that half of my favorite Beatles songs don't make the cut.

Side One
1. Back in the USSR
2. Glass Onion
3. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
4. Wild Honey Pie
5. Piggies
6. Don't Pass Me By
7. Sexy Sadie

Side Two
1. Birthday
2. Everybody's Got Something To Hide
3. Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
4. Yer Blues
5. Helter Skelter
6. Savoy Truffle
7. Revolution 1

I've always hated this whole idea of cutting the White Album down to one album. "Good Night" is the only song on the whole thing that's not great. Everything else is essential. And even unlistenable old "Good Night" has its place.

 

I've always been more than happy with The Beatles as is, but this is about as nice a single version of that album as I've seen in all these various threads. It does eliminate some some songs I really like, but at the same time, it looks immensely playable.

 

Here's mine.

Side One
1: Back In The USSR
2: Dear Prudence
3: Glass Onion
4: While My Guitar Gently Weeps
5: I'm So Tired
6: I Will
7: Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Side Two
8: Martha My Dear
9: Mother Nature's Son
10: Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey
11: Helter Skelter
12: Savoy Truffle
13: Cry Baby Cry
14: Good Night

Total running time: 41:30

I know that nobody here seems to like Good Night, but I've always loved it. I think it's a perfect album closer. Originally I wanted to put Hey Jude at the end, but I decided not to so that A) there would be a Ringo song and B) it would be consistent with the other albums in that it didn't include the singles.