White Album: As Is? Or Should It Have Been Shorter?

Fine as is
With Ups and Downs
As life itself

 

Geez, I sure hope I don't have a "Revolution 9" day today!

One disc.

 

I woke up with that today
But i prefer late at night...with "Goodnight" after
A kiss by a mother after a scary nightmare

 

à la mode . Preferably vanilla ice cream.

 

Bang on.

Each to their own, of course and there will always be tracks that I prefer over others (and some that don't move me as much as they did - to be replaced by a preference for others on there...) But it is what it is and I think it was a much-needed comedown after Pepper & MMT, which isn't to say that it's inferior in any way - I like the early, mid and late Beatles output roughly equal.

Maybe they could have put it out as a single disc 'highlights' thing, for those that couldn't afford the double (as they split other albums into volumes, around this time) now that EPs had all but vanished from sale and that might have been interesting. But they didn't and I'm not going to quote Macca, as on Anthology here! No need to, methinks.

 

I'm lucky. I'm not a Beatles sycophant so I can freely say what I think is c**p and should have been dumped from White Album, namely:

Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
Revolution No. 9
Birthday
Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey

 

What if one or more of those are a person's favourite(s) though? EDIT: Oops - my apologies, I read that wrong but I did feel that following on from my post, that was referring to what I put and I can't be a Beatles sycophant as there are things that people love by them (Long And Winding Road and most of the Abbey Road medley segments, that I've little love for... at all.)

I'll go away quietly now.

 

I agree with you... mostly.

I've posted this before, but when listening to this track a few years ago, I thought

"If they had edited it down to about four minutes and thirty seconds (the first four minutes are interesting, IMO, and certainly experimental) while somehow seamlessly segueing the ending, I think it'd be a really cool track.

My only criticism of it is that it goes on too long.

.

 

I love the White Album. The first three sides are perfection. It's goes a bit off the rails on the 4th side. Remove Revolution 1 and 9 and Good Night and replace with Revolution, Not Guilty (in a perfect world they would kept Sour Milk Sea for themselves) with Hey Jude ending the album.

God how I miss those days.

Just ain't the same.

 

Keep it as is. The album's massive sprawling nature is part of its charm. Silly throwaway tracks like Wild Honey Pie work in the context of the full album. It's definitely my favorite Beatles album - only Abbey Road comes close (I'm not quite as much of a Beatles fan as most of this forum though, so take that as you will).

The only exception is Rev 9. But even that fits well with Good Night, Good Night as a soothing contrasting followup - a comforting easy-listening type song to wash those bad feelings away. It should be at least cut in half though, if not more. Maybe have a 3-4 minute Revolution 9 and add a shorter version of Hey Jude right before it.

 

Even more great material than was released...should have been Rock's first great triple album!!!!

 

No, don't do that! "Goodnight" is my favourite song on the whole album! Quite apart from its soothing and musical goodbye to its listeners after the noise and chaos of Revolution No. 9, I always think it's quite sad, as to me anyway, it's Ringo saying goodbye to everyone and that includes The Beatles as a cultural phenomenum. There would only be one more album made as a group and we all know they were hardly talking to each other from this point onwards.

 

The only change I would have made is to replace ob-la-di with Lady Madonna.

 

The big sprawl and eclectic feel of this album are part of its allure. Rev 9 is probably the most controversial, but it's good they put it on there. Made the Beatles seem more cutting edge/experimental - was perfect for the time. There is something hypnotic about the "#9" repetition.

Every other tune is fantastic, though I do not like Goodnight.

 

The thing is most people can get the album down to a single album, but the problem is that nearly everyone has very different ideas about what songs to keep and what to cut.

 

Just to drive collectors crazy,
they should re-re-re-re-re-re-release this as a completely resequenced 15-vinyl EP set at 78 rpm.

 

I haven't read all the other posts yet, but I'll just say I think they could've included all the stuff they left off of it (Sour Milk Sea, What's the New..., etc.) and made it the funkiest triple album ever. Look at how much people (myself included) love All Things Must Pass. Not everyone likes the Apple Jam stuff, but a lot of us do. I don't really care for Rev. 9, but a lot of people do and it belongs on the album. That is a crazy album during a crazy year. As Paul said, it's very varied. I wish it was a triple.

 

As a 14 song single it still wouldn't have been the equal of Revolver...imo. Just sayin'.

 

A triple? Seriously? I love The White Album as it is and don't subscribe to the "it shoulda been a single" theory, but that's really going overboard. "Mary Jane" is a self indulgent wank. "Not Guilty" is passable but hardly stellar. There were a few other bits and bobs that they were working on that later got developed into full songs (i.e. "Child of Nature" which was much stronger as "Jealous Guy"). Apart from the extended "Revolution", exactly what were they going to use to fill this hypothetical third disc out? Given the increasingly fragmented relations within the band at this point, I'm glad that they left well enough alone.

 

Side A
1)Back In The U.S.S.R.
2)Yer Blues
3)Dear Prudence
4)While My Guitar Gently Weeps
5)Blackbird
6)Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
7)Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey
8)Sexy Sadie

Side B
1)Birthday
2)I Will
3)I'm So Tired
4)Revolution (Electric Single Version)
5)Martha My Dear
6)Julia
7)Helter Skelter
8)Long Long Long

The best album they never made IMO.

 

I read your track list three times and I still don't see Mother Nature's Son.

 

I listen, read or view art, whether it be commercial or not, for the sole purpose of appreciating/understanding the work as is. I don't go in for any sort of revisionism.

I can certainly appreciate criticism and revisionism. I don't shy away from reading such, but I base such reading on the work as presented and, in the end, pretty much discount such. That's not meant to be negative-sounding, there can be value in criticism.

Having said that, I certainly have burned my own CDs to reflect a personal mood. In thinking about this, I can't see myself ever burning a 're-working' of a Beatles album other than adding relevant singles or creating my own compilation of favorites. Goes for all, not just The Beatles.

 

And no "Happiness is a Warm Gun" or "Sexy Sadie". Sorry, but every time I see someone offer up their ideal single album, I'm thankful they made it a double.

 

You've reminded me of a cassette compilation I made from the album back in high school of what I considered to be the darker/heavier tunes. I called it "White Album Blues". I'd forgotten all about that. I must have been a joy to be around.