The infamous Beatles white Album on a single cd thread

See Sir Paul's quote below...

 

Why not splice a minute or two out of every long or meandering song and cut it down that way?

 

Helter Skelter was Charlie's song.

 

They already cut some songs to fit in thirty. There's nearly a minute missing from "Sexy Sadie" and at least five minutes taken out of "Revolution #1". I've heard that "Happiness..." had a bit more. Then there's "Helter Skelter". Maybe if this album comes out on DVDA we will get the "restored" version.

 

It has always really bothered me that Side 3 opens with Birthday, when Yer Blues just screams (literally) to be the natural opening song to "Act II" of the White Album.

My fantasy does not involve cutting the White Album down to one disc, but rather cutting the absolute worst Lennon/McCartney excess (Why Don't We Do It in the Road, Revolution No.9) and Don't Pass Me By (sorry, Ringo) and replacing those tracks with Junk, Sour Milk Sea, and the slow version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps (of course, I'd keep the electric version of WMGGW as well - if John could put Revolution No. 1 on the album, George could have put the vastly superior acoustic WMGGW on there as well.) This doesn't even include George songs of the period such as Dhera Dun that didn't make it past the Lennon/McCartney/Martin condescension threshold. George got screwed . . .

 

If you're not particularly picky about the sound quality, you could download SoundTouch (comes with foobar2000), speed up the tempo by about 15%, then write the wavs back out to disk.

Hey, somebody had to say it.

 

That's right. I guess it was those three that he got messages from (or whatever he did). Haven't seen the doc in a long time.

I'm not gonna debate this guy sorry I brought him up!

 

You youngsters are all going about this in the wrong way entirely. There's NOTHING to cut. But you can always flesh-out the two discs with some savory extra goodies...

Hey Jude
Revolution
Not Guilty
What's The New Mary Jane?
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (acoustic)

Of course, you can also add-in any number of acoustic demos - Child of Nature is especially wonderful. And Across The Universe could have easily been included on The White Album even though it dates from early 1968 before the sessions commenced; it certainly fits-in better than on Let It Be (fully-clothed or naked).

 

Note he's not asking how would you cut the White Album down to a single album, just how would you fit it on an 80-minute CD. Not exactly the same question.

I made a 1-disc version of the mono White Album and experimented with flipping side 3 and the part of side 4 that I kept. So the CD goes:
Side 1
Side 2
Revolution 1
Honey Pie
Cry Baby Cry (minus "Can You Take Me Back" sadly)
Savoy Truffle (reversed the order of these 2 to better lead into
Side 3

I like it.

 

Beatles on DVD-A?

 

nah i am not fan of commerical radio stations!

 

I think the wrong question was asked here, sure a 1 CD collection, but how about making it harder by saying, if you could only put 1/2 of the 30 tracks on the white album (hence, 15 tracks).

Personally, I think all the tracks are essential, including R9. So I just made a 320 bit MP3 CD and have all tracks one CD, including out-takes and singles.

 

Yes, but that's been done many times on here.

 

i am doing this because i am going overseas and i am trying to limit down how many beatles cds i take !

 

If you cut Bungalow Bill and Don't Pass Me By it might come in at the required length. This would a be a Sophies Choice for me, cause y'know it's the bloody Beatles White Album. But after thirty-odd years those two have ceased to do anything for me.

I could never cut R9! Pure audio experimentation, Lennon-style, and a feast for the ears, especially in a car!

 

There's more to the white album than a mere collection of songs. Taking them out would destroy the intricate meaning behind the selections and order of the tracks.

The artists put music out how they believed it should be heard! Don't ruin art!

 

Impossible, IMO!

 

Get an iPod!

 

Would clock in at about 86:17

 

You can find Beatles CDs in a lot of places.

 

what? i already have every cd issued so i am not gonna buy them again!

 

Do you have a cd burner?

 

I understand what you are doing as far as traveling goes. If you are going to fit "Quadrophenia" on a single disc what will you take off? The only song I'm not crazy about on that one is "Dirty Jobs". (I like the remix, but it doesn't sound right through headphones - especially disc 2)

 

This may be true of some albums, but I don't think that it's true of the White Album. It's my understanding that the recording sessions ran so close to EMI's deadline for releasing the album in time for the 1968 Christmas shopping season that John, Paul, and George Martin literally stayed up overnight sequencing the album in one 24-hour marathon. The song order of the White Album may be etched in our brains, but that doesn't necessarily mean that a whole lot of thought was put into it. The drastic differences between the mono and stereo mixes certainly reflect the rush job nature of the mixing sessions, and the fact that no one involved imagined that anyone 20+ years down the road would be dissecting the differences between the two mixes.

Imho, Revolver is the best-sequenced Beatles album, as it never repeats a lead vocalist on back-to-back tracks, thereby taking best advantage of the diversity of the Beatles' three songwriters. The White Album would really benefit from a similar approach - I've never understood why, say, Dear Prudence and Glass Onion are sequenced back-to-back on Side One, but Lennon's two tracks on Side Two are at the begining and end of the side, which is otherwise very Paul-heavy.