Many people think The White Album would be better as a single album with just the best songs. However, those people differ wildly about which are the “best songs” that should be included (as this thread provides evidence). That, I think, proves that it really shouldn’t have been trimmed down. If everybody agreed about which songs should have been left off, it’d be a different story.
Still, there’s certainly nothing wrong with a thread like this one where we see how different people would pare it down in different ways.
Back In the USSR
Dear Prudence
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Martha My Dear
I’m So Tired
Blackbird
Rocky Raccoon
Why Don’t We Do It In The Road
Julia
Birthday
Yer Blues
Long Long Long
Honey Pie
Cry Baby Cry
I’ve thought about it. This is the only way it works as one disc. I cannot imagine the White Album without Martha My Dear.
For those of you that would cut “Sexy Sadie,” reflect on how it influenced Radiohead’s “Karma Police,” and works great as part of the marvelous Wu-Tang Clan — Beatles mash-up (around 1:02:00).
Side One
Long, Long, Long
Helter Skelter
Dear Prudence
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Mother Nature’s Son
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Blackbird
Side Two
Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?
Cry Baby Cry
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
Rocky Raccoon
Revolution 1
Happiness Is a Warm Gun
I Will
This is the Lennon songs only, and not Birthday. I think this is a great lost lennon album. In any case it is very LPable in a way Pauls might not be. Revolution 9 in a different context might be cool.
“Dear Prudence” Lennon 3:56
“Glass Onion” Lennon 2:18
“The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” Lennon 3:14
“Happiness Is a Warm Gun” Lennon 2:43
“I’m So Tired” Lennon 2:03
“Julia” Lennon 2:54
“Yer Blues” Lennon 4:01
“Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey” Lennon 2:24
Because of this, I’ve hardly ever heard “Good Night” – I would pick up the needle before Revolution 9 and not put it down again.
My list (and adhering to my self-imposed time limits):
Side 1
“Back in the U.S.S.R.” McCartney 2:43
“Dear Prudence” Lennon 3:56
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” Harrison 4:45
“Happiness Is a Warm Gun” Lennon 2:43
“I’m So Tired” Lennon 2:03
“Blackbird” McCartney 2:18
“Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” McCartney 1:41
“Julia” Lennon 2:54
Side 2
“Birthday” McCartney/Lennon 2:42
“Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey” Lennon 2:24
“Sexy Sadie” Lennon 3:15
“Long, Long, Long” Harrison 3:04
“Revolution 1” Lennon 4:15
“Savoy Truffle” Harrison 2:54
“Cry Baby Cry” Lennon 3:02
Heavily weighted towards Lennon, as it turns out. I like Martha My Dear better than Happiness…but I went with social relevance over a love song to a dog.
“Back in the U.S.S.R.” McCartney 2:43
“Dear Prudence” Lennon 3:56
“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” McCartney 3:08
“Happiness Is a Warm Gun” Lennon 2:43
“I’m So Tired” Lennon 2:03
“Blackbird” McCartney 2:18
“Rocky Raccoon” McCartney 3:33
“Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” McCartney 1:41
“Julia” Lennon 2:54
“Birthday” McCartney/Lennon 2:42
“Sexy Sadie” Lennon 3:15
“Helter Skelter” McCartney 4:29
“Cry Baby Cry” Lennon 3:02
“Good Night” Lennon 3:13
While John is, IMO, basically the most overrated songwriter ever, and cutting Revolution 9 is a no-brainer, keeping Revolution 1 is also a no-brainer*, and the rest of his tracks on the album have a similar quality range to Paul and George’s.
I actually prefer the harder single version, but the album version is a keeper, even so.
After several increasingly hard rounds of cuts, and reorganizing to get ~24 minutes per side (about what a 33⅓ LP could get without screwing up the sound) and trying to get a reasonable flow (though to be fair, the original album has a slightly odd flow, too), and also sticking with the band’s ‘Ringo always gets a song’ rule (but I’d have kept Don’t Pass Me By, anyway), I end up with:
Side 1:
1 “Revolution 1” Lennon 4:15
2 “Mother Nature’s Son” McCartney 2:48
3 “Cry Baby Cry” Lennon 3:02
4 “Don’t Pass Me By” Starr 3:51
5 “Helter Skelter” McCartney 4:29
6 “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” Harrison 4:45
Side 2
1 “Back in the U.S.S.R.” McCartney 2:43
2 “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” McCartney 3:08
3 “Dear Prudence” Lennon 3:56
4 “Piggies” Harrison 2:04
5 “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” Lennon 3:14
6 “Rocky Raccoon” McCartney 3:33
7 “I’m So Tired” Lennon 2:03
8 “Blackbird” McCartney 2:18
9 “I Will” McCartney 1:46
The only song I could cut would Revolution 9. It is an unmitigated piece of shit, and everything else on the album fits musically into what they were and what they had become. They should have done a 3-sided album, like Johnny Winter’s Second Winter.
I think John is underrated. He wrote Please, Please Me which launched the Beatles ship. In A Hard Day’s Night album he wrote 10/13 songs. He also wrote the other movie title song Help. McCartney pitched in with some very fine songs, but it wasn’t until Revolver that he started to take over a bit. The White album was a return to Lennon dominance (but not Let It Be or Abbey Road… he was in Yoko land by then)
The only thing I don’t really care for is his lyrics. Starting at Revolver they were either intentionally obscure or entirely personal.
The last time I saw this here, the OP caught a lot of crap from purists. I’ll give this another shot.
“Back in the U.S.S.R.” McCartney 2:43
“Dear Prudence” Lennon 3:56
“Glass Onion” Lennon 2:18
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” Harrison 4:45
“Happiness Is a Warm Gun” Lennon 2:43
“Martha My Dear” McCartney 2:28
“I’m So Tired” Lennon 2:03
“Blackbird” McCartney 2:18
“Piggies” Harrison 2:04
“Julia” Lennon 2:54
“Birthday” McCartney/Lennon 2:42
“Yer Blues” Lennon 4:01
“Sexy Sadie” Lennon 3:15
I don’t know what order you’d want them in. I read that George Martin wanted to make it a single album but he got out voted. They did Let It Be next. When they asked George to produce their last album, George told them only if we can do it the OLD way. Obviously, they agreed so George agreed to do it.
Back in my youth, it was traditional to announce to the world you got a new stereo by sticking your speakers out the window and blasting “Why Don’t We Do I In The Road.” In my case, it was a Philips GA-212 turntable, Dynaco PAT-5 pre-amp, Dynaco FM-5 tuner, Dynaco 120 power amp, Advent large utility speakers. I was on a budget, but I had great sound.
