If you were to trim double/triple albums down to single LPs...

There are very few doubles I can actually sit through, and I often think "this would be great if the best tracks were condensed into just one LP". Here are some condensed examples and my tracklists for them.

The Clash - Sandinista!
Side A
1. The Magnificent Seven - 5:33
2. Hitsville UK - 4:23
3. Something About England - 3:44
4. Rebel Waltz - 3:28
5. Somebody Got Murdered - 3:36

Side B
6. One More Time - 3:34
7. Up in Heaven - 4:34
8. Police On My Back - 3:19
9. The Equaliser - 5:49
10. Washington Bullets - 3:53

Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Side A
1. And the Gods Made Love - 1:23
2. Have You Ever Been - 2:10
3. Crosstown Traffic - 2:26
4. Gypsy Eyes - 3:43
5. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp - 3:39
6. 1983... Part 1 - 6:13

Side B
7. 1983... Part 2 - 7:26
8. Moon, Turn the Tides - 1:01
9. All Along the Watchtower - 4:00
10. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - 5:13

Derek & the Dominos - Layla
Side A
1. I Looked Away - 3:04
2. Bell-Bottom Blues - 5:01
3. Keep On Growing - 6:20
4. I Am Yours - 3:35

Side B
5. Anyday - 6:35
6. Tell the Truth - 6:38
7. Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad? - 4:42
8. Layla - 2:48
9. Thorn Tree in the Garden - 2:50

Eminem - Marshall Mathers LP
Side A
1. Public Service Announcement 2000 - 0:25
2. Kill You - 4:24
3. Stan - 6:44
4. Paul - 0:10
5. Who Knew - 3:47
6. Steve Berman - 0:53
7. The Way I Am - 4:50
8. The Real Slim Shady - 4:46

Side B
9. I'm Back - 5:10
10. Marshall Mathers - 5:20
11. Drug Ballad - 5:00
12. B*tch Please II - 4:48
13. The Kids - 5:03
14. Criminal - 5:14


Would anyone else trim down a double into something more manageable, and if so what would the one-LP versions look like?

 

There is a single disc version of Sandinista The Clash - Sandinista Now!

 

... they will come out much worse - leave them be.

 

No thanks. More doubles please. What you are talking about is iTunes.

 

Why mess around with (near) perfection, presented in all it’s flawed glory?

 

Hard Pass

 

Sorry, this topic has been done to death.

 

The Real Slim Shady would be the first one cut.

 

I think it has to be Sandinista! by The Clash. There's a really solid double/single album in there but there's just an inordinate amount of filler there. What do you think?

 

Goodbye Yellowbrick Road - There's a fair amount of second-raters, which have some unpalatable lyrics by Taupin. Ditch those, and hey presto, a brilliant single album.

All Things Must Pass - Would have made a decent EP.

 

I always liked the way it is. Great album. Lots of tunes

 

Does this ever end?

 

Which tracks would you exclude from Sandinista!?

Which tracks would you exclude from Goodbye Yellowbrick Road?

I think without listing discards, I won't really follow this type of discussion.

 

I’ve long thought that most of the really great stuff on GYBR is on the first and fourth sides. Make one or two changes on side 4 (making sure to include the title track) and you’ve got a perfect single album.

 

Any double/triple album could be condensed to a single album but would that make it better ?
I enjoy the double/triple format as it allows the artist (s) to stretch out and experiment.
For example , ' Blonde on Blonde ' could have been a single disc by removing ' Sad Eyed Lady Of the Lowlands ' and just two other tracks to accommodate a single album's playing time. But 'Blonde on Blonde ' without ' Sad Eyed Lady ..' ain't no ' Blonde on Blonde ' album.

 

Tommy. Obviously, it had to be that length to essentially be a musical, but there wasn't enough great music for that. There's a brilliant 1-lp album in that material although I don't have time to parse it right now and get rid of things.

 

You barely said why and you didn’t say how.

Besides...
If you were to trim double/triple albums down to single LPs...
Double Albums condensed to single albums

 

Unless it's live or a compilation, I do not count a great many double albums among my favorites, let alone triple albums. Even worse when they are concept albums. The problem is that some of the better double albums could perhaps be brought back to one LP only with difficulty, but would have made for stellar 3-side albums. Or just by limiting the amount of music on each side to 15 minutes or so. Double albums such as The Wall and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway fall into that category for me. I could live without the entire side four of the Wall as I think that Comfortably Numb is the perfect album closer (but the story hasn't finishes yet, yadi yadi yadi..), and side four of the Lamb is also my least favorite by far. Then there are artists that I can only take in limited doses. For example, I the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but Stadium Arcadium with more than two hours of songs is just too much of a good thing. As a result, I never listen to it anymore.

 

Absolutely none, dude.

 

The River

 

I prefer to turn some 74 minutes cds in 40 minutes/9 songs albums

 

'Self Portrait ' could have possibly maybe been boiled down to a very weak album , a sort of ' Nashville Skyline '- lite. Very light.

 

Maybe a new 36” vinyl format?!

 

Funny perhaps to some, but I wouldn't cut one second off Tales From Topographic Oceans....

 

None of them.