# How would you pare down the White Album into a single LP? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 12, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-pare-down-the-white-album-into-a-single-lp/485606 "2009-02-12T23:06:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-pare-down-the-white-album-into-a-single-lp/485606/41 "2009-02-13T14:16:38Z")
> [@Eutychus](#): > > I’m going to go out on a limb (and I know it’s an umpopular position) and give major props to The Beatles for including “Revolution #9” on The White Album. > > To wit; if you look at the album as a piece of pop culture, yeah it doesn’t fit. But you have to look at it in a wider context of what was happening in music as a whole at the time. Classical music was being invaded, for better or worse, by John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, and many others who were trying to expand both the meanings, functions, and even the methods of creation of music. Lennon, to his credit, didn’t want to be seen as just another songwriter, but was trying to stretch himself. Whether it succeeds as well as, say, Stockhausen’s “Gesang die Junglinge” or “Hymnen” is another matter altogether. But they get my vote and admiration for trying to stretch their abilities into realms that would test their talents rather than rest on them, even if it meant giving their fans music that they might not appreciate or understand. Absolutely! Look at it, too, in the context of John’s evolution. It fits in an arc from the sound collage of the mechanical instruments in “For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” as well as the orchestral moments from “A Day in the Life”. It fits with John’s arch sense of humour and love of enigma which dates all the way back to early interviews and written pieces like “A Spaniard in the Works”. It shows an affinity and awareness of the classical avant-garde, and is part and parcel with progressive rock’s quest for ‘legitimacy’ by forging links to the classical world. Without Revolution 9, would there have been ‘Several Species…’, ‘Uncle Meat’, ‘Whatever Happened to All the Fun in the World?’, all the sex interludes in Led Zeppelin, all the Elephant in Robert Fripp, could there have been a Brian Eno? To me, the answer to all is “Probably, but John Lennon lit the way for all of them.” Viva la Revolution 9!!! Curious side-track: is there the same level of hate for ‘Several Species of Small Furry Animal…’ from Ummagumma? ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-pare-down-the-white-album-into-a-single-lp/485606/42 "2009-02-13T16:39:06Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > Without Revolution 9, would there have been ‘Several Species…’, ‘Uncle Meat’, ‘Whatever Happened to All the Fun in the World?’, all the sex interludes in Led Zeppelin, all the Elephant in Robert Fripp, could there have been a Brian Eno? To me, the answer to all is “Probably, but John Lennon lit the way for all of them.” Viva la Revolution 9!!! Dazed and Confused was released before the white album. What is “all the elephant”? ---
**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:** [February 13, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-pare-down-the-white-album-into-a-single-lp/485606/43 "2009-02-13T17:07:40Z")
> [@mr.jp](#): > > Dazed and Confused was released before the white album. What is “all the elephant”? Not that I really see the connection, but the first Zeppelin album was released in early 1969, two months after the White Album. And it’s Adrian Belew, not Robert Fripp, who is mainly responsible for the elephantism in King Crimson. And “Revolution 9” is a brilliant piece of work, to my mind one of the finest examples of _musique concrète_ ever composed. I’d place it right up there with the tape works of Stockhausen and Henry. It’s a drag that the piece gets no respect because the regular pop fans aren’t equipped to deal with anything that far outside their idea of what music is, while the avant-garde crowd look down their noses at it because it’s by that silly pop group from Liverpool. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-pare-down-the-white-album-into-a-single-lp/485606/44 "2009-02-13T17:43:20Z")
> [@mr.jp](#): > > Dazed and Confused was released before the white album. What is “all the elephant”? It’s my editing error, is what that is. I meant to say ‘all the elephant talk’, a nickname based on the King Crimson song from the album ‘Discipline’. It refers to various places where Fripp constructs compositions based around ‘found’ sounds. Prime examples include the piece on Exposure where the vocals are actually a recording of somebody’s neighbours arguing, several pieces on ‘The League of Gentlemen’ which consist of out-takes of various conversations interspersed with quotations from J.G. Bennett, sirens, applause, a recording of someone having sex, etc. I’m sorry that I can’t give you specific cites as those albums are in storage right now. You could well argue that Brian Eno’s influence on Fripp is a more direct antecedent that John Lennon’s work on Revolution 9 - I’m more interested in establishing that Revolution 9 came from influences on John (Stockhausen in particular, but also earlier works of Musique Concrete), John’s own work (in collaboration with George Martin and other studio technicians) and had influences on other bands. It is a vital composition in its own right as well as holding a vital place in the history of electronic music. Name 5 other pieces of Musique Concrete - a real challenge, and yet people know Revolution 9 when they hear it. Almost no one is neutral about the piece - people seem to either defend it vigorously or they hate it. To me, that’s an indicator of its strength as a work. ---
**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:** [February 13, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-pare-down-the-white-album-into-a-single-lp/485606/45 "2009-02-13T21:11:59Z")
> [@K364](#): > > the White Album is John’s comeback album after being overshadowed by Paul in the previous 4 (Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper Which would explain why Rubber Soul and Sgt Pepper were so much better than the White Album. John is, IMO, obscenely over-rated. He’s an OK writer of rock songs, but not that great. Paul is much better technically, and not as devoid of emotion as John’s apologists like to claim. If you want experimentation with the form, George is the man to go to, not John. He syncretized his many influences without devolving into self-indulgent crap like Rev.9. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-pare-down-the-white-album-into-a-single-lp/485606/46 "2009-02-13T21:36:10Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Not that I really see the connection, but the first Zeppelin album was released in early 1969, two months after the White Album. But that specific song was recorded before White album was released. So the white album couldn’t have been an influence on it. ---
**Author:** ![claregirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@claregirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/claregirl)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-pare-down-the-white-album-into-a-single-lp/485606/47 "2009-02-14T16:06:25Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > If it were all possible in a parallel universe, I’d like to find room for Harrison’s “Not Guilty” somewhere on the album. > > The Beatles truly were amazing. As a musician, I sometimes find myself paraphrasing that line from _The Princess Bride_ when listening to the Fab Four: “I wonder if they were using the same notes _we_ are using?” Or, years ago when John McEnroe was describing Bjorn Borg’s tennis game: “We’re all playing tennis. He’s playing something else.” ---
**Author:** ![claregirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@claregirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/claregirl)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-pare-down-the-white-album-into-a-single-lp/485606/48 "2009-02-14T16:09:44Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > [Mod Hat On] > > This is an artistic dispute, so don’t take it to a personal level. > [/Mod Hat Off] > > Part of what makes the White Album legendary, in my opinion, is the fact that it sprawls and it’s kind of a mess. You could definitely clean it up but then it becomes just another album. I’ll dig through my files to look for my best effort - I think I cut it down to about an hour but I don’t think I ever got near 49 minutes. It was a joke. Sorry if it fell flat. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-pare-down-the-white-album-into-a-single-lp/485606.md?page=2)