The infamous Beatles white Album on a single cd thread

I remember reading an interview with Chris Thomas, where he stated that he helped to finish the running order, because George Martin was off to home long before the work was finished.
Perhaps that's another reason why George Martin wasn't that fond off the double album concept.

For once I'm glad he wasn't there to make the final decision!

 

Just for fun...

Everybody's got their own white album (except for me and my monkey)!


Side one 17 mins

"Eh up!" 0.01 [edit]

Revolution 3.25 [mono single]

A raucous mono guitar blast to start off the album. Full of questions about the revolutionary feelings around in 1968.

Distortion fades into ... Bam! Bam!

Glass Onion 2.18 [mono +fade out]

Two massive drum hits introduce a song referencing previous Beatles songs and about people obsessively analysing their meanings... A Glass Onion - you just keep peeling it and searching for hidden layers as much as you want but actually, it was all completely transparent to begin with. Maybe the record you're about to hear is a Glass Onion?

Weary strings fade down and an abrupt piano intro starts up ...

Sexy Sadie 3.18 [mono]

A story from their recent visit to India. John sees through the Maharishi's aura/image and expresses his disappointment.

Crossfade into the pretty picked guitar figure that begins...

Dear Prudence 3.52 [mono +fade in]

Continuing with a happier, positive song from the same India trip. It name-checks Prudence Farrow, (Mia's sister), who was staying alone in her room. Maybe John wrote this song to try and cheer her up. It's really just about getting out into the world and living your life.

There's a lot of Lennon in the four above. Here comes Paul's first, which starts almost shockingly, with a one chord riff of thrashing distorting electric guitar...

Helter Skelter 3.39 [mono]

"...blisters on my fingers!" 0.15 [stereo]

Paul shows what he can do with a heavy guitar freak-out. This proto-metal, high energy track is the surprise closer to a Lennon dominated side one.


side two 14 mins

Happiness is a Warm Gun 2.42 [mono]

A great Lennon track starts side two. Surreal imagery, with links to his recent heroin usage.

Savoy Truffle 2.54 [mono]

The first Harrison song on the album. It's fun and it may be about sweets rotting your teeth but, knowing George, he's poking fun at some other stuff too - like, maybe McCartney's musical confections?

Back In The USSR 2.44 [mono +fade out]

An enjoyable, affectionate, parody by Paul - taking off the Beach Boys and digging Russian instead of American girls.

Blackbird 2.24 [mono]

Slows things down nicely. A beautiful acoustic song which can be read as a tribute to the civil rights movement. "You were only waiting for this moment, to be free"

While My Guitar Gently Weeps 4.48 [mono]

A gentle, poetic song of George's which could be interpreted as an observation that we can all be extraordinary, great human beings, but still haven't reached our full potential because the love is sleeping within us, because of all of the bad habits, distractions and controls that we allow society to force upon us; we have lost touch with our soul, and our purer 'better' spirit gets submerged, unused.


side three 13 mins

Birthday 2.43 [mono]

The mono mix rocks. An upbeat, light-hearted opener to side three.

I'm So Tired 2.03 [mono]

John song - written in India again. He can't sleep and is missing Yoko.

Mother Nature's Son 2.49 [mono]

Another peaceful acoustic song by Paul, written in India after a Maharishi lecture about the unity of man and nature.

Everybody's Got Something to Hide... 2.27 [mono]

That rocking 'cowbell' song about how John felt that everyone was so tense, except for him and Yoko because they were so in love. Some drug references too, e.g. the "monkey" and "...the deeper you go the higher you fly, the higher you fly the deeper you go"

Long Long Long 3.05 [mono]

A very quiet, slow and beautiful love song by George, with spiritual ambiguities. A gentle low-key side closer.


side four 20 mins

I Will 1.45 [mono]

A short and happy opener - a more typical and pretty McCartney love song. Sounds simple, but it took 67 takes to nail it.

Cry Baby Cry 2.34 [mono]

An interesting enigmatic Lennon song with some nursery rhyme, Alice in Wonderland style, imagery.

Can You Take Me Back... 0.28 [mono]

Paul's brief interlude. Which is followed by the hard blues of...

Yer Blues 4.00 [stereo]

A half-satirical, half-earnest song with a raw vocal performance. Inspired by the pain of feeling suicidal but still able to poke subtle fun at the 60s blues boom bands.

Revolution No.9 8.24 [stereo]

No matter if you like listening to this experimental sound collage or not, it's an important structural element of 'The White Album' mythology - it just has to be included.

Julia 2.54 [mono]

A last minute addition to the album from John and the only time that Lennon played and sang unaccompanied on a Beatle track. It's a sad lament for Julia Lennon that seems to introduce Yoko to his late mother. An emotional close to the album.

"honk honk" 0.03 [mono, from Piggies]


21 tracks; 11 John, 7 Paul, 3 George, so more biased to Lennon than some would go for but it's my own taste. Not saying it's in any way better than 'The White Album' but today I just fancied joining in the age old game of doing one's own, single CD, alternative version.

 

78:20 CD-R for listening to in your car.

1. Back in the U.S.S.R.
2. Dear Prudence
3. Mother Nature's Son
4. Glass Onion
5. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
6. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
7. Happiness Is a Warm Gun
8. Martha My Dear
9. I'm So Tired
10. Blackbird
11. Piggies
12. Hey Bulldog*
13. I Will
14. Julia
15. Yer Blues
16. Hey Jude*
17. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me & My Monkey
18. Sexy Sadie
19. Helter Skelter
20. Long, Long, Long
21. Revolution*
22. Honey Pie
23. Savoy Truffle
24. Cry Baby Cry
25. Good Night

 

OK, I've changed this around. And these use the mono versions:

1. Back in the U.S.S.R.
2. Dear Prudence
3. Glass Onion
4. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
5. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
6. Happiness Is a Warm Gun
7. Martha My Dear
8. I'm So Tired
9. Blackbird
10. Piggies
11. Hey Bulldog*
12. I Will
13. Julia
14. Revolution*
15. Mother Nature's Son
16. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me & My Monkey
17. Sexy Sadie
18. Hey Jude*
19. Long, Long, Long
20. Revolution 1
21. Honey Pie
22. Savoy Truffle
23. Cry Baby Cry
24. Helter Skelter
25. Good Night

And just a little irony that "Long, Long, Long" follows "Hey Jude". I couldn't do without both song versions of "Revolution" but I could do without "Yer Blues". Before I have stated that "Helter Skelter" sounds too rough and "amateurish" but the mono version rocks plus it fills the niche occupied before by "Revolution 9" and segues better between the coda of "Can You Take Me Back" and "Good Night". And I was trying to get LP like sides 6/7/6/6 although side two with the most tracks is only 16:47 minutes long. I guess you could switch "I Will" & "Hey Jude" thus adding 4 minutes to side two and bringing side three down from 22:16 to 18:16. But "Hey, Hey" that might be a bit too much.

 

This thread seems fairly sacrilegious and I've always liked "Revolution 9" though I find Zappa's 60s experiments to be a more meaningful use of the musique concrete form. Personally, I've always found "Wild Honey Pie" significantly less enjoyable, but that won't buy you much time on a CDR.

Not sure why, but this thread has reminded me of a personal anecdote:

When I met and started dating my now-wife, she only had Beatles 1 and The Blue Album. I let her borrow my 87 CDs and she ripped them to her laptop and burned CDRs for a zipper pouch in her car. She decided that she did not want the George Martin instrumentals from Yellow Submarine so she cut them off and tacked the Side One Beatles tracks onto the end of the CD before. The biggest problem? She had burned and organized them alphabetically instead of chronologically...

With the Beatles + Side One of Yellow Submarine is the strangest comp I have ever listened to...

 

If I take out Wild Honey Pie, Revolution 9, and Goodnight does it fit? If not, take out Piggies too (and add back in as much of Wild Honey Pie or Goodnight as will fit).

 

How far over the 80-minute limit IS the White Album? If it's only a couple minutes, you could use the original combined Revolution 1/9 that John created and save a little bit.

 

Probably my fave Fabs album, forever dueling w. Magical Mystery Tour ...

My "off-white album" is dead simple: all the tracks, in order, excising "Rocky Raccoon", "Don't Pass Me By" and "Revolution 9" (only to fit on CD-R). Easy peasy. Currently I favour using the Beatles In Mono tracks, for maximum punch.

Having said that, I really like SCOTT1234's reimagining.

 

I don't have exact timings, but I'll put it this way: Two decades ago when I made cassette copies of everything so I wouldn't be playing the originals, I could just, JUST get the mono LP version onto both sides of a 90 minute cassette. Like, split-seconds counted. I couldn't even fit the stereo CD.

 

I would start by getting rid of these tracks
Goodnight (dreadful arrangement )
Don't Pass Me By
Why Don't we do it in the road (save for McCartney solo lp)
Yer Blues
Birthday (same as above)

songs I would add
Hey Jude
Across The Universe
Hey Bulldog

 

So about two minutes less in mono, taking the fast DPMB and edited Helter Skelter into consideration.

 

I would have done a hack job on the tracks that I would want to keep.
For example, I would keep Cry Baby Cry on my single disc version of the White Album, but I would hack off the Can You Take Me Back coda.
I would also keep Helter Skelter but hack off the ending when the song fades in and someone (I think Ringo) declares "I've got blisters on my fingers".
I would also add the longer version of Revolution 1 as the ending track and get rid of Revolution 9.

 

Hey Jude

 

Problem solved.

 

Easy. Take out Revolution 9 (which John shoved in anyway, even though most of them hated it), take out Wild Honey Pie (which was a throwaway that Paul included at the last minute because Patti Boyd, of all people, loved it), and Honey Pie, which just plain sucks. Is that enough?

 

And Michaelangelo could have painted the essential characters on half the size of the Sistine ceiling, "War and Peace" was way too long, etc, etc. After 40+ years I can hear every note before it is played. It is the perfect double album.

 

That seems pretty much correct, yeah.

 

Hardly the Sistine chapel ,with crap like Good Night

 

Tee hee!

 

It's a shame the CD spec was not designed with a mono option that could hold twice as much music.

 

Excuse my mistake on the time durations, I actually was using "Hey Bulldog"s 3:08 instead of "I Will"s 1:45.