# Best of the Beatles: The Beatles (aka The White Album) - Part Two **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 20, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133 "2014-03-20T02:46:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/21 "2014-03-21T10:30:08Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I wonder how this thread would be skewed if Charles Manson had been inspired by “Honey Pie.” Music history might have taken a completely different course. '80s hair bands doing soft-shoe vaudeville tunes! ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/22 "2014-03-22T19:23:58Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > … > Both parts of this album will repeatedly have you look at the track list and go :dubious: “really? THIS?” but there’s always something worthy just a couple of tracks over, even if only for musical or production technique… I think of this story a lot: In some documentary I saw the interviewer chats with Paul as he pilots his private yacht somewhere, and asks him something like “Don’t you really think there wasn’t enough good material on the White Album for a double album?” Paul must get asked that a lot by ballsy reporters, and certainly knows it’s A Burning Question out there for millions. He looks at him and says: “Hey, it’s the fucking White Album.” Meaning: you want to put something out better, be my guest. Also to Number 9 guy: you must have been some weird high school kid, if you said that then. I picked Mother Nature, cause that’s where I’m at now. Younger I would have picked Helter Skelter. Younger still I would have picked Yer Birthday, because my parents bought it for me, and I first played it, on my eighth (ninth?) birthday. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/23 "2014-03-22T19:37:52Z")
Another _Savoy Truffle._ I have a fondness for the lost Beatle, George. And it suits my somewhat Puritan bent that you inevitably pay for your fun. It is said that he got many of the lyrics off a box of Macintosh’s Chocolates. By the way, Montelimar is the word’s capital of nougat. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/24 "2014-03-24T00:26:00Z")
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide. I like that livelier style of rock better than the heavy plodding Helter Skelter. Musicals props also to Savoy Truffle and Birthday, and if Sexy Sadie is really about the Haharishi, good on ya John Lennon. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/25 "2014-03-25T04:26:52Z")
I liked “Cry Baby Cry,” as well as its cool coda, “Take Me Back,” the coolest non-song ever. I’d love to hear Paul do a “full” version someday. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/26 "2014-03-25T17:41:03Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > …and if Sexy Sadie is really about the Haharishi, good on ya John Lennon. “I read somewhere” that the song’s working lyric was “Maharishi, what have you done?” (and so forth), later sanitized by Lennon to “Sexy Sadie.” To render it non-libelous? ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/27 "2014-03-25T17:43:30Z")
> [@syncrolecyne](#): > > I liked “Cry Baby Cry,” as well as its cool coda, “Take Me Back,” the coolest non-song ever. I’d love to hear Paul do a “full” version someday. Nah. I think being a fragment is part of its strange creepy beauty. Like a half-remembered dream or something. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/28 "2014-03-25T18:36:27Z")
Frankly, this rather brings home the fact that nearly all the best stuff on the White album is on the first two sides. I voted for “Helter Skelter”, and it was not a hard choice, although it is hardly The Beatles at their very best. "Revolution 1, which I think I actually prefer to the rockier version behind “Hey Jude”, wold be my second choice. Frankly, though, I regerd some of the stuff her as being somewhere between awful and unlistenable: “Birthday”, “Yer Blues”, “Goodnight”, and, obviously, “Revolution 9”. The rest of the tracks vary between weak and fun but slight. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/29 "2014-03-25T23:14:34Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > “I read somewhere” that the song’s working lyric was “Maharishi, what have you done?” (and so forth), later sanitized by Lennon to “Sexy Sadie.” To render it non-libelous? IIRC he said that in the extended Playboy Interview. The change would have been so to make it more general rather than person-specific, he indicated he had a tendency for unpleasant breakups with people. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/30 "2014-03-25T23:31:57Z")
Number nine number nine number nine ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/31 "2014-03-25T23:47:33Z")
> [@syncrolecyne](#): > > “Take Me Back,” the coolest non-song ever. I’d love to hear Paul do a “full” version someday. [Meh, there’s a very good reason they only used as much as they did on the album.](http://youtu.be/1rjC5kXGNzw) (In addition to TreacherousCretin’s point.) ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/32 "2014-03-26T03:42:28Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > “I read somewhere” that the song’s working lyric was “Maharishi, what have you done?” (and so forth), later sanitized by Lennon to “Sexy Sadie.” To render it non-libelous? We must have read the same “somewhere”, but I don’t remember the reason for changing the object of his disaffection. I assumed it was for legal reasons but JRDelirious seems to have answered it. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/33 "2014-03-26T21:25:54Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > IIRC he said that in the extended Playboy Interview. The change would have been so to make it more general rather than person-specific, he indicated he had a tendency for unpleasant breakups with people. I didn’t know this story, but I now think it would have been a much better song if he had left it. I have always found it hard to imagine just what sort of person Sadie is meant to be, but put “Maharishi” and the whole song finally makes sense. Maybe he changed it to avoid upsetting George. (Not that John was the considerate type, but it could have threatened the group’s cohesion at a time when John still cared.) ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/34 "2014-03-26T22:49:18Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > [Meh, there’s a very good reason they only used as much as they did on the album.](http://youtu.be/1rjC5kXGNzw) Thanks for the link. You just blew my little mind. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/35 "2014-03-27T16:32:18Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I suspect this will not be a popular choice, but I’m going with “Savoy Truffle”. I just love the oddness of it. > > Runner-up: “Helter Skelter”, mainly for being, like, the heaviest Beatles song ever, the fade out-fade in ending, and Ringo’s immortal “I’VE GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!” That was Ringo? All these years I thought it was John. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/36 "2014-03-28T00:20:22Z")
I think side 2 of the White Album represents a fundamental aspect of human nature: The desire to loosen up, let go, try things. I find it very welcoming and interesting. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/37 "2014-03-28T00:57:11Z")
> [@K364](#): > > I think side 2 of the White Album represents a fundamental aspect of human nature: The desire to loosen up, let go, try things. > > I find it very welcoming and interesting. Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/38 "2014-03-28T02:53:28Z")
I love Long Long Long-- I’m just a foolish romantic who loves George’s voice in 3/4 time. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/39 "2014-03-28T03:18:32Z")
_ **Cry Baby Cry** _ to help the crew of Serenity get out of another tight spot. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133/40 "2014-03-28T10:35:18Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > That was Ringo? All these years I thought it was John. You did? What, from holding the pick too strongly while strumming that rhythm guitar? :). Actually, your mistake is cool – it makes the statement surreal (perhaps lysergically induced) rather than literal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-the-beatles-aka-the-white-album-part-two/684133.md?page=3)