If The White album was a single disc Then ?

Like many I got it when it came out, always loved it and it's one of the ones I listen to the most.

Different strokes for different folks.

 

I agree, but its like there is enough great material for 3 sides not for, so a single disc would leave too much out.

side one I would not touch, it is near perfect but what to have on side two ?

The other option to me is a resequencing, i think sides 2-4 could be resequenced and some of those songs i think needed just a little ( only a little mind ) more production, some sound too sparse like I'm so tired, it needed the Abbey Road touch.

Also i'd restore the link between Revolution one and nine, by making Rev one go off into Rev nine it makes Rev nine so much more understandable and appreciable.

So my favourite option would be a resequenced sides two to four, some numbers with a little more Abbey Road attention to detail and the link restored to Rev 1 to 9....and poss the longer sexy sadie version too..

 

i agree there is not enough good material for a double but too much for a single album....

 

I think that George Martin's position is that there were enough great songs for a one LP release, but not enough for two. The Beatles very rarely put out recordings with "B" level material. I can see Martin's argument.

So if you running EMI and managing the Beatles, if you had to get it down to one LP and throw out the rest???????

So from my perspective, the task is to determine what songs should not have ever been released.

I think there is some validity to the concept.

There are 30 songs on 2 lp's

Which ones should not have seen the light of day?

Obla Di, Obla Da (granny music)
Wild Honey Pie (more granny music)
Buffalo Bill (an excuse to get Yoko on tape)
Why Dont We Do it in the Road (weak, weak, weak anyone of me and my friends could have come up with this)
Martha my Dear (Granny Music)
Rocky Racoon (tough cut, cause it has charm, but imitating country? The Stones had it way covered)
Piggies (just a wacked out hippie commentary)
Dont Pass Me By (Ringo's given slot for songwriting $)
Yer Blues (really, the Beatles as a blues band? Sounds unique to the Beatles, but no where in the realm of Muddy or Howling Wolf)
Rev 9 (more freak out hippie crap)

So that's 11 of the 15 I have to cut for a 15 song single LP, although lets say my target is a total of 14 cause Rev 9 is so long. So I need 3 more:

Long Long Long ( a very interesting song from George but is it top notch Beatles material?)
Honey Pie (ya, lets do a reprise of a previously recorded ****ty song)
Helter Skelter ( honestly, if it really was McCartney's intent to beat and surpass the Who with this, does anyone agree that the Beatles did? Just self indulgent noise IMO. "Me and My Monkey" gets much closer IMO)

Flame away

 

They should have kept the 2 LPs.
3 sides of music, and side D they could have etched the album cover

 

How much more white could it be? The answer is none, none more white.

 

they do that with some classical box sets

 

Well what ever way you slice it.
The poster and glossy photos was neat.

 

Yes. It's stunning.

 

No flames here! I actually agree with most of your assessment with the possible exception of Long Long Long.

 

Of course some people, say they considered a triple. They had,
1 Hey Jude
2 Revolution single
3 Not Guilty
4 New Mary Jane
5 Etcetera
6 Revolution 20
7 Can You Take Me full version
8 Junk additional demos
& They had

9 Across Universe
10 Inner Light
11 Lady Madonna
12 Hey Bulldog
13 It's All Too Much
14 All Together Now
15 Only Northern Song
16 Xmas time is Here
17 You know my name

Plus whatever I forgot to list

My view, & it's all just play, hypothetical.. they should have done the 14 song single LP, strong like revolver, & then a double or 2nd & 3rd single lps. By the time white album was released, they had over 50 unreleased songs, & non LP singles in the can.

For my personal listening pleasure. I put my 14 tracks on a single, do a weaker shorter double with the remaing 16, plus I add Hey Jude+Revolution, Not Guilty New Mary Jane for 20 tracks.. & I make a 3rd LP out of the leftover 67-early 68 tracks..lady Madonna, all together now, inner light etc etc.

I get a stronger single LP, a new Yellow Sub LP & a weaker double with around 20-21 songs

 

Helter Skelter 3:39
Why Don't We Do It In The Road? 1:42
Yer Blues 4:14
Glass Onion 2:18
Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey 2:25
I'm So Tired 2:03
While My Guitar Gently Weeps 4:48


Revolution 3:25
Birthday 2:43
Savoy Truffle 2:54
Dear Prudence 3:54
Happiness Is A Warm Gun 2:44
Sexy Sadie 3:15
Long, Long, Long 3:06

 

I agree with the poster, who made the brilliant observation. My paraphrasing.

It's impossible to release the fantastic best 12-14 song, single White album disc. Because no two people agree, on exactly what that tracklist should be. Or in other words, which songs are the 12-14 best. In some cases, people aren't just worried which songs are best, but also, which songs go together, sound good together.

I never meant to imply, that if the White LP had been a single disc, the other songs should have remained unreleased.

I agree with Ringo's comments in Anthology. Where he says, there should have been 2 seperate albums, he jokingly called White & Whiter. Because, as Ringo said. It's an awful lot of information, for 1 album. In other words, it's perhaps an easier, simpler, or less draining experience , to have 2 seperate 40 minute albums. Instead of 1 monster listen with 30 songs.

It's fascinating to me that. Again we are living in an age, where 80% of the public, rejects the entire notion of " The Album " at all. Most young people just cherry pick a variety of tunes, from different artists, much like people did in the 50s & early 60s.

Ironically, The Beatles with Sgt Pepper's in 67, more than anyone else, opened the door for albums, a complete listening experience unto itself, & now 50 years later, it's back to how it was pre Peppers, Dylan, Tommy & Rubber Soul. Very little interest in physical product or full albums, it's back to 3 minutes. How terrible.

I love, embrace, have gratitude & admiration for the White album. But in my perfect world, it's an incredibly strong 13 song album with Hey Jude closing side 2. The other 17 songs plus leftovers like Not Guilty & New Mary Jane, are used a couple months later as a slightly shorter double album. Finally a slightly delayed Yellow Submarine film has a full soundtrack of unreleased songs on a 3rd new album in spring 69, with 10-11 new songs, not just the 4 Hey Bulldog-All Together Now songs. Because I add Lady Madonna, Inner Light, Across The Universe & a few more. Possibly even the Paperback Writer/Rain single.

This in effect expands The Beatles studio discography from 13 studio albums to 14 & still preserves a double release with Whiter white, & expands Yellow Submarine into a full new album with over 10 new songs. Instead of just the 4 that they used.

It's all fantasy of course, like one of those novelists that write Alternate histories, there's one guy Harry Turtledove that's written 20-30 books like that.

 

Don't forget other songs they had in the can at that time, including songs written in India, future album tracks, and solo tracks.

They had:

"Mean Mr. Mustard"
"Polythene Pam"
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
"Let It Be"
"Something"
"The Long and Winding Road"
"Everybody Had a Hard Year" (which would become part of I've Got a Feeling)
"Teddy Boy"
"Isn't It a Pity"
"The Art of Dying"
"Child of Nature" (which would become Jealous Guy)

That's 3 future Beatle number ones, as well as one future George Harrison number one. And that's just the tracks rumoured to have been written or worked on during the White Album sessions. They wrote a lot of songs in India, so who knows how good the White Album could have been if they decided to add more songs into the running.

 

One thing's for certain - if it was one LP and didn't include the more experimental stuff, we wouldn't be discussing it this much.

 

I guess George Martin must have expressed his opinion at the time, but I don't remember anybody ever suggesting that The White Album should have been pruned by half to be a single album... not until the MOJO article some years ago. It's been a popular parlor game ever since.

I've done a bit of tinkering on an iTunes playlist, deleting a few tracks and adding a few. It's an enjoyable pastime. But there's more second-rate crap on the single album Abbey Road than on the double White Album. And as every Beatles fan knows, it's the sum of its parts that makes it so great. I think a single album version would have been horribly anti-climactic in 1968.

 

I agree 100%.

 

I like it. Not enough Lennon, but it works.

 

Watch out now, take care
Beware of the thoughts that linger
Winding up inside your head...
...
Beware of whiteness.

 

If anything, the White Album needs to be longer...

 

Side 1:
1. Wild Honey Pie
2. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
3. Piggies
4. Why Don't We Do It In the Road
5. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey
6. Birthday
7. Don't Pass Me By

Side 2:
1. Honey Pie
2. Savoy Truffle
3. Revolution No 9
4. Good Night


Album tanks. They break up.

I don't dislike all of these songs---in fact i like most of them. But looking at them tells me that part of the greatness of the double-album is the sequencing. These are the "lesser" songs, imo. (a few of them are more "asides" than songs----they work in context) That still leaves us with 19---too many for a single LP. I really don't think I'd cut anything.

 

Yeah there are many that you listed. Which were written, & or demoed during the White period. But not recorded as masters, or used on the White album.

Up until now, I've been speaking only of, tunes that were recorded as masters by Nov 68.

An interesting White album tune, you didin't mention, is Cosmically Conscious from Off The Ground in 1993. McCartney says he wrote that in India in 1968. To me it sounds exactly like a lost White album song , except it's recorded on fat 2 inch tape at 30 IPS. I imagine they SMPTE 2 -24 track machines for that one.

It's almost more like a Lennon or Harrison theme-to be, Cosmically Conscious. It sounds just like a lost Paul White album song. Which it is. But in full 24 track glory..... just a snippet is used on the fade out of the song Cmon People, on Off The Ground album...but a full 4-5 minute version exists on Off The Ground Complete works. ..George Martin may have worked with Paul on the track. He did work on Cmon People & they are segued together.

For those who search for a lost reunion track to go along with Free As A Bird & Real Love, Cosmically Conscious comes really close. It's right up there with, When we was Fab & All Those Years Ago, in terms of the lost Beatle track. Tragically George & Ringo don't play on it. Just one year later, they did do Free As A Bird.

But in terms of what was recorded in 1968. The White can be pared down to a single, or 2 single albums, or expanded to a triple.

It's great as a single large work. I just dig hearing 13 brilliant songs, Hey Jude, Dear Prudence, Blackbird, While My Guitar, Sexy Sadie, Back in USSR, Revolution.

All on 1 stunning album. With the leftovers compiled into something I call A Doll's House. But as others have said. We can mostly agree on 8-10 songs, but everyone here, disagrees on the last 4-5 choices.

Can ordering your own custom White album & Sgt Pepper & Who Sings My Generation be far behind ? Your own custom tracklist in superb fidelity, with graphics, cover art, accurate title printing, booklet, all shipped & delivered.. if they can get it automated enough, to get the price down to $25 per album, they'll sell another 50 million Beatles albums.

Imagine if you could add Hey Jude, Revolution & Not Guilty. And or, if you wanted, remove wild honey pie & Revolution 9. In a hard copy, with original cover, stamped disc, all the packaging. That will probably never be technically feasable. Well maybe.

Adding Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields to Sgt Pepper, & Only A Northern song

 

This is one of those strange threads or topics where I agree with everybody. Paul's right and Ringo's right. Fans who advocate leaving it alone are correct, and fans who think it could be condensed into a single album are correct. They are all opinions and they all have SOME merit. So, as a long-time fan, I'll play along. It's something diehard fans do when a release is fifty years old and no new releases will ever come again. Just for the fun of it, here's my opinion:

The Beat;es

Side One
01 Back In The U.S.S.R.
02 Dear Prudence
03 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
04 Why Don't We Do It In The Road
05 Birthday
06 Mother Nature's Son
07 Hey Jude

Side Two
08 Revolution (Single Version or Album Version)
09 Happiness Is A Warm Gun
10 Helter Skelter
11 Cry Baby Cry
12 While My Guitar Gently Weeps
13 Blackbird
14 Good Night

 

The Be@tles

Side 1
Revolution 9
Good Night
Don't Pass Me By
Honey Pie
All Together Now
Martha My Dear

Side 2
Long, Long, Long
Piggies
What's The New Mary Jane
Savoy Truffle
Only A Northern Song
Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
Wild Honey Pie

 

If I was the band's producer at the time I would have suggested they make Hey Jude and Revolution both A sides on their own singles (as well as including them on the LPs) and release two albums of 13 tracks each in fairly close proximity, and then they'd still have some extras left for future b-sides or a rarities/outtakes album release that could have been put out closer to the band's breakup than Anthology. So, like 1971 ha.

Something like this:

LP - The Beatles CHANGE YOUR HEAD - October 1968

side a
1. Happiness is a Warm Gun
2. Helter Skelter
3. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
4. Why Don't We Do It In The Road
5. Glass Onion
6. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
7. Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da

side b
8. Revolution
9. Savoy Truffle
10. Wild Honey Pie
11. Yer Blues
12. Back in the USSR
13. Dear Prudence

Fall single - Revolution b/w Revolution 9


LP - The Beatles CHANGE THE WORLD - December 1968

side a
1. I Will
2. Julia
3. I'm So Tired
4. Blackbird
5. Cry Baby Cry
6. Don't Pass Me By
7. Long, Long, Long

side b
8. Revolution 1
9. Mother Nature's Son
10. Sexy Sadie
11. Martha My Dear
12. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
13. Hey Jude

Christmas single - Hey Jude b/w Good Night

Early 1969 single - Birthday b/w Hey Bulldog (Birthday seems like a perfect "novelty" stand-a-lone single, and I would have never put any more than 1 new original tune on the Yellow Submarine album, so I'd use the great Hey Bulldog here for a great rocking 45.)

They could have collectively become known as the "Change Albums" and what's more appropriate of a title than that for this period of the band? And then leftover you still have Honey Pie, Rocky Raccoon and Piggies, plus Not Guilty and What's the New Mary Jane. Those five songs could have been the basis for a rarities/outtakes album the Beatles released in the early 70s on Apple.