If The White album was a single disc Then ?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by johnny moondog 909, Jul 10, 2016.

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  1. milco

    milco Forum Resident

    The three attempts to assemble a single album, posted above, rather prove my point. No one can ever agree on the 14 song selection that would make up the single 'killer' album. In any case, the songs recorded for the White Album are a hotchpotch of styles and moods and they perfectly suit a long, sprawling, diverse double album. Even if people could agree on the best songs, the material doesn't lend itself to a coherent, focused single album. Pointless exercise.
     
  2. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    They just should have had Capitol Records release shorter albums and they would have been out of their contract years ago......:D

    White Album would have been 11 songs tops.........:yikes: Oh, and Capitol might have called it "Whiter Shade Of Pale” or something like that....


    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2016
  3. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

  4. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    I'm fine with these 13 songs:

    Back in the U.S.S.R.
    Dear Prudence
    Glass Onion
    Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
    While My Guitar Gently Weeps
    Happiness Is a Warm Gun
    I'm So Tired
    Blackbird
    I Will
    Julia
    Birthday
    Helter Skelter
    Revolution (single)

    And if we're going to 14 cuts, "Yer Blues," "Sexy Sadie" or any of a number of other songs will do. I'm really not crazy about the album beyond the above 13 songs (really 12, since I threw in the "Revolution" single). Heck, I'm not all that crazy about "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" either. :D
     
  5. Vinyl Addict

    Vinyl Addict Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    If the White album were a single disc...then....there would be 15 threads on SHtv asking why it wasn't a double release.
     
  6. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    Only if word got out that The Beatles wanted it to be a double, right? I mean, if it were a single album and there had never been any plans for a double, folks wouldn't be speculating about that, would they? (He asked naively. :D)
     
    Mr. Grieves likes this.
  7. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    If it were a single disc, and the 'right' tracks were chosen, people would probably be calling it 'hands down the Beatles' best album'... but there are already people calling it that as a double, correct?

    However, for me, the range of many of the tracks only works within the sprawling context of the double album landscape. It's almost as if the collective consciousness of the songs themselves had them self-slated to be 1/30th of something rather than merely half that. There is a fractional consciousness going on about the whole tenor of the album. I also like that they threw the kitchen sink and several small galaxies into the mix; 93:35 worth of Beatles is, theoretically, at least, better than 44 minutes, right? If your song didn't make the White album, you had some soul-searching to do.

    Also, it serves as a travelogue of the Beatles' trip to India, among other things. And there are a lot of daytime/nighttime contrast of songs on this; in fact, I feel the album moving from morning (Side One) into afternoon (Side Two), into evening (Side Three), into night (Side Four). The album is like A Lifetime In The Life over the course of a full day - a scope which goes missing when you try to distill it down to a single-disc rock album that some stoner can 'just casually' listen to along with his Cream albums. Instead, the double album concept makes the guy feel like a loser if he doesn't hear at least three sides - at least he tried before he passed out.

    I also see the White Album as a distant cousin to the Beach Boy's aborted Smile! album - Smile! meets the movie Seconds meets the Mahesh Yogi amidst a future Disney World of the mind. (I wonder what Brian Wilson thought of it.)
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2016
  8. Musician95616

    Musician95616 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Woodland, Ca
    "I think it's a fine album [...] I mean, it's great, it sold, it's the bloody Beatles White Album! So Shut Up!" -- Paul
     
  9. ssmith3046

    ssmith3046 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona desert
    Good one! I'm just happy that it is a double album and have been so since 1968.
     
  10. 3rd Uncle Bob

    3rd Uncle Bob Forum Resident

    LP:

    Side One 23:03
    A1|Back in the U.S.S.R.|2:45
    A2|Dear Prudence|4:00
    A3|Blackbird|2:20
    A4|Sexy Sadie|3:15
    A5|Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da|3:10
    A6|While My Guitar Gently Weeps|4:46
    A7|Happiness Is a Warm Gun|2:47

    Side Two 22:52
    B1|Martha My Dear|2:28
    B2|I'm So Tired|2:01
    B3|Mother Nature's Son|2:46
    B4|Cry Baby Cry|3:11
    B5|Piggies|2:04
    B6|Julia|2:57
    B7|I Will|1:46
    B8|Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey|2:25
    B9|Good Night|3:14

    Singles:

    A|Hey Jude|7:11
    B1|Glass Onion|2:10
    B2|Long, Long, Long|3:08

    A|Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da|3:10
    B|Savoy Truffle|2:55

    A|While My Guitar Gently Weeps|4:46
    B|Yer Blues|4:01

    A|Revolution|3:22
    B|Helter Skelter|3:39
     
  11. rubbersounds

    rubbersounds Forum Resident

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    I'm pretty sure GM stated or implied somewhere that he wanted to work on some of the songs some more. Many or most of John's tracks don't have middle 8's for example. So if they'd gone for a single album some of the songs probably would not have ended up in the same form. So just picking your favorite 14 tracks as is or guessing their favorite 14 it never would have ended up that way. I like to split it by 4-track album & 8-track album.
     
  12. jedstar

    jedstar Well-Known Member

    Location:
    woodstock
    ridiculous premise.

    you might also try and make BLONDE ON BLONDE a single album!!

    good luck
     
  13. Vinyl Addict

    Vinyl Addict Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    What if the mono box set were a single disc
    Then?
     
  14. misterdecibel

    misterdecibel Bulbous Also Tapered

    "What's The New Mary Jane" for the next single. It was always the next single.
     
  15. jwoverho

    jwoverho Licensed Drug Dealer

    Location:
    Mobile, AL USA
    Not necessarily rediculous. Both George Martin and Ringo expressed their feelings that it might have been better as a single disc. I'll defer to their producer and one of their own.
     
  16. EProphet

    EProphet Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leutonia
    Revolution #9 and some filler
     
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  17. joefont

    joefont Senior Member

    I've always been a little disappointed (even at the time) with the so-called White Album. I thought even then it would have been a stronger album had it been released as a single. To my mind and ears, it is the most ungroup-like album in their catalog. It sounds like four solo artists using the other three as supporting musicians. But maybe that's just me! It's the Beatles album I listen to the least.
     
  18. Crossfire#3

    Crossfire#3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Burlington Vermont
    It occurs to me we might well have had a much different Abbey Road, perhaps a double album!?!?!
     
  19. Crossfire#3

    Crossfire#3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Burlington Vermont
    You have summed up my revisionist perception (which includes a dynamite single album tracklist including "Hey Jude" and the electric "Revolution") most accurately!
     
  20. jedstar

    jedstar Well-Known Member

    Location:
    woodstock
    ok
    I agree that NUMBER 9 can "go"
    I mean.....one listen for fun but no repeat listens...right?

    after that.....
    Well......it's all good!
     
  21. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Did George Martin mention what white album set list as a single album he would have chosen in his
    "All You Need Is Ears " book( one of the few Beatles books I don't have ) ?
     
  22. bubba-ho-tep

    bubba-ho-tep Resident Ne'er-Do-Well

    Location:
    San Tan Valley, AZ
    Hmm. Maybe I'll start a thread about the hypothetical 1971 Beatles album. That's one that's never been done before, right? :shh:
     
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  23. Joey Self

    Joey Self Red Forman's Sensitivity Guru

    Or could have appeared on Side 2 of YELLOW SUBMARINE, as the UK AHDN and HELP! had non-movie songs on the second side.

    JcS
     
  24. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    Looking back at my "best of" collection of tracks confirms my opinion that "the white album" was a very weak album after the ones of the glory years that preceeded it.
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2016
  25. spencer1

    spencer1 Great Western Forum Resident

    If the White Album was a single disc then ... it would be a looooong one.
     
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