If The White album was a single disc Then ?

I thought about this last night as I was being amazed at McCartney who was performing five minutes from my house. Mine goes like this:

Side One:
Revolution 1
Mother Natures Son
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Cry Baby Cry
Don't Pass Me By
Helter Skelter

Side Two:
USSR
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Savoy Truffle
Yer Blues
Everybody's Got Something to Hide
Blackbird

 

Then not all of the songs would have fit, and that would be a low down dirty shame.

 

Listen to what the man said.

 

Speculation is always fun, but I love the white album just the way it is. The Beatles were fragmenting, but for that reason the album has more stylistic variety than any other album I can think of, yet somehow it hangs together really well. It's a sprawling mess, but what a glorious one!

 

what if Dexter had produced the white album for America ?

 

It can never stop. The Beatles were and still are a phenomenon, and the biggest thing to hit popular music. People are still fascinated with them both group and solo, and that's why they have the most discussions even in the year 2016. It can only taper off when and if others talk about other artists enough to keep Beatles-related topics lower down on the page.

 

Good point, and Yellow Submarine is another weakling in the official canon.

 

In a parallel universe, The Beatles "White Album", paradoxically just titled "The Beatles" actually IS just a single disc.

In that doppelgänger world, members on the Steve Hoffman forum are clamoring to have the unreleased tracks to be put out officially:

"Although The Beatles "White Album" is full of great songs, most die-hard fans are aware that many discarded tracks that were cut at the last minute. Along with some reservations from their record label, the band just simply decided to release the "cream of the crop" on one LP. Supposedly the LP budget was pushed to the edge, also including 4 colour photos of the members, with a large poster.
So, a second disc was ruled out.

Several intriguing tracks were left on the cutting room floor, especially long rumored song collage "Revolution At Nine" and a supposedly raunchy trifle titled "Why Didn't We Do It In the Road". Another track is supposedly an ode to a friend, "Martha". One discarded song was written about a roller coaster, "Helter Skelter", of all things.

These sketchy ideas for songs, left in the closet, are possible proof positive of skeptic's rumours that the band had just lost direction and run out of steam."

When asked about why those tracks have not been released, along with many others, Paul McCartney has just shrugged his shoulders and said "Oh those? They were just little studio experiments, you know, just us playing around in the studio, on the instruments. Just having our fun, nothing more. There's really not much there..."

 

Even though it has been discussed to death, it is still a fascinating topic. I mean, I love the album, although I am not one of those who claim it is their best or even a masterpiece. I think it is spotty.

However, as McCartney points out, it sold. But at that point in time, just about anything they would have put out would have probably sold in huge numbers.

So to all the critics (myself included), how much better did it need to be to satisfy everyone and to earn greater sales?

In my opinion, which means virtually nothing in the bigger picture, it should have not only been a single album. But George Martin should have played a bigger role than he apparently was able to. But that is like saying the Beatles shouldn't have had egos as big as they were at the time and they should have gotten their act together and played nice together. It couldn't and didn't happen, and I believe everything else that you can say negatively about the White album stems from that bit of reality. They weren't in a good place (except that they had amassed a lot of material after going to India) and this is the result. It's probably a miracle or testament to how good they really were that it was as good an album as it is, and maybe it's the imperfections that give it the human quality that people connect with.

As for what would/should have happened with the leftovers? I don't think they should have all come out in the next release. The best material would have gone on the single release, the remaining best material would have gone on a follow up release with new material, and the rest maybe could have been B sides or ended up on their solo releases after the breakup. So, no Revolution 9, Wild Honey Pie, Bungalow Bill, Do It In The Road, etc, on any Beatles album. Revolution 9 would have been perfect for one of John & Yoko's weirdo albums. Wild Honey Pie could have fit on Wings Wild Life, etc.

 

Great post my friend !

No, I subscribe to the alternate Universe, where the Ringo theorem was used..which is

It all came out, all the songs, but on 2 different albums, white & whiter... & also, shortly afterwards, when the Yellow Sub album came out in conjunction with the Yellow Submarine film... the soundtrack had 10-12 new songs.. making a 3rd new Beatles album.... how you ask ?

Because in addition to Hey Bulldog, Only A Northern Song, All Together Now & It's All Too Much, the 4 new songs.

In this alternate realm, The Beatles also added Inner Light, Lady Madonna, Across The Universe, Christmas time is here again, Shirley's wild according, Rain & Paperback Writer, & the Anthology single version of Yellow Submarine, with spoken intro....

Which in effect created a 12 song new album. Everything was unreleased or a non album single, except Yellow Submarine,

By the way, in my alternate Uuniverse Helter Skelter is one of the 14 keeper songs .

Lastly, backtracking for a second. The 2nd album 'whiter' is a double album, adding in Not Guilty, New Mary Jane, the longer Can You Take me back, a Beatles version of Sour Milk Sea, + 2 more songs, because I'm using Hey Jude Revolution single as part of ' White', which is the 1st album of this trilogy 11 songs + Hey Jude Revolution single... leaving 19 songs + Not Guilty etc etc- making Whiter a shorter, but still double LP of about 24 songs, & then new 12 song NEW Yellow Sub album, which itself was a double, as Geo Martin film music was relegated to disc two, along with a couple Beatles hits, All You Need is Love & voila


For those of you who got past your headaches, & understand what I said.... 3 new Beatles studio albums, including a double, 2 doubles actually...

 

John Lennon's white album songs would make a wonderful solo album.
Title :
Looking Through A Glass Onion.

 

McCartney would fair less. Unless he stuck Hey Jude on his debut album (and other songs white album source).

 

I wonder if a single album could've diverted the Cielo thing to have never happened.


I like it as a double album. Don't recall which person in the Beatles camp stated, "You want to put down your songs so you can do away with them and come up with new songs". Possibly Harrison.

Moving the White Album "feel" to later albums by using White Album session tracks...might've worked on Let It Be, but sure as hell wouldn't work on Abbey Road. Unless Pam/Mustard and those songs are White Album session originated, but those sound like fragments - not complete tunes.

 

And didn't all four of 'em play on every Lennon track except Julia, Good Night, Rev 9 and Dear Prudence which only lacked Ringo?

Adding a couple of Lennon tracks from '68 and a single, here is a killer Lennon/Beatles LP:

Revolution
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Bungalow Bill
Yer Blues
I'm So Tired
Happiness is a Warm Gun

Hey Bulldog
Across the Universe
Sexy Sadie
Everybody/Monkey
Revolution 1
Cry Baby Cry
Julia

 

Then my version in the '80s would have been a single and not a double cassette.

 

No question Lennon could have had an incredible solo album debut, with his 68 material. He had a lot of tunes in 68, mostly great.

I still visualize the incredible 13-14 song single disc white album though. With as Ringo suggested, the rest of the material coming out on a 2nd studio album.

The most important thing though, is that eventually, us fans got access to nearly all the material from their entire discography. Except for the few songs, that still sit under lock & key to this day.

Revolver might have the most consistently great material, but the best 13 songs ( including Hey Jude B/w Revolution) would beat it... think of it, every song as good as While My Guitar, Blackbird, Dear Prudence, Sexy Sadie, Back USSR, Happiness Warm Gun, it would have been the best, & then a few months later you get another one !

 

......Then Years later it would be reissued in various deluxe edition configurations.None of wich would be satisfying in mixes,masterings,& content, and of course we would complain forever and ever.

 

as i have said before the problem imho with the WA is that half of it is underproduced almost glyn Johns Let it Be like, the other problem is that there is enough material for three great sides so more than a single album but less than a double. Aside from side one i think the sequencing could be improved also.

 

Interesting thought, never tried making solo albums from the White Album material. Obviously, you'd have to included all recordings from the era, like Hey Jude, Across The Universe, Hey Bulldog, Lady Madonna, etc.. I think I would enjoy Paul's album more, but Lennon's would also be terrific. George would have a pretty good EP....actually a terrific one.

 

i've never really looked at the times of the songs on the white album, but if you remove 'revolution #9" does the rest of the album even add up to 80 minutes? if not, it would all fit on one CD.

 

It'll probably end up as a 36 disc set. The question then is, are there enough material left for a bonus disc with outtakes?

 

Here is my John Lennon solo 1968 album. Rockers on Side 1, and an acoustic set on Side 2:

Title: Revolution

Side A

1. Revolution
2. Yer Blues
3. Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
4. Glass Onion
5. Hey Bulldog
6. Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Side B

1. Dear Prudence
2. I’m So Tired
3. Sexy Sadie
4. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
5. Cry Baby Cry
6. Julia
7. Across The Universe

 

I don't have the exact figures handy, but my recollection from the 80s was that this album was too long to fit on a 90-minute cassette, so at least one of the LPs was > 45 minutes long. So... I think you'd have to remove more than just "Revolution #9" to make it fit on one CD.

 

If the White Album was a single disc, then the poster would have had less lyrics on the back of it...

 

I will claim it is a masterpiece, and I further believe it is the greatest album ever made. I think no greater collection of songs has ever been released on a single album.

Of course that is because they put them all on one album. So there are a couple other years that if they had released a double album would be close to it.