My White Album
Or How I Would Edit “The Beatles” onto One LP
-Facts about the White Album
The Beatles, otherwise known as The White Album due to its plain white sleeve, is the ninth studio album released by British rock band and pop phenomenon The Beatles. While the album is largely regarded favourably, the band themselves have debated whether they ought to have released a single instead of a double. This debate amongst music fans is, in my opinion, the birthplace of the time-honoured tradition of creating your own, single disc edit of the White Album. How you would edit the White album to fit onto one record is supposed to say something about the kind of Beatles fan you are.
Well let’s find out what kind of Beatles fan I am; here is my edit of the Beatles.
The tracklist
Here are the tracks in the order they appear on the original album.
1. Back In the U.S.S.R
2. Dear Prudence
3. Glass Onion
4. Ob-LA-DI, Ob-La-Da
5. Wild Honey Pie
6. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
8. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
9. Martha My Dear
10. I’m So Tired
11. Blackbird
12. Piggies
13. Rocky Raccoon
14. Don’t Pass Me By
15. Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?
16. I Will
17. Julia
18. Birthday
19. Yer Blues
20. Mother Nature’s Son
21. Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me and my Monkey
22. Sexy Sadie
23. Helter Skelter
24. Long, Long, Long
25. Revolution 1
26. Honey Pie
27. Savoy Truffle
28. Cry Baby Cry
29. Revolution 9
30. Good Night
My Edit
1. Revolution 9
– Experimental rock never sounded so good. While experimental music is a bit of an acquired taste, it is one I picked up from years of listening to Pink Floyd and love to see here.
2. Back to the U.S.S.R
– This is supposed to be a ‘parody’ of Back to the USA; however, I always got a bit of a Beach Boys California Girls vibe during the verses discussing the girls from various U.S.S.R cities in a manner similar to the Beach Boys discussing various styles of “American Girl” That being said it’s a fun, energetic song.
3. Dear Prudence
– a Beatles classic
4. Glass Onion
– Songs like this are why I decided to do this; to find an amazing Beatles deep cut.
5. I’m So Tired
– A pretty simple love song about restless nights missing the girl you lost. The perfect track to play while you obsessively stare at your phone waiting for a reply that probably isn’t coming.
6. Honey Pie
– A truly authentic homage to classic, 1930’s-40’s love songs, Honey Pie is a time machine to the best old Hollywood music numbers.
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
– While I do prefer covers of this song to the original, you cannot ignore the beautiful lyricism of this song; while literally vague, the emotion is potent and clear.
8. Helter Skelter
– My favourite Beatles song hands down, fast, eccentric, a wild ride from start to finish.
9. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
– The title alone tells you everything you need to know; happiness will kill you.
10. Martha My Dear
–A beautifully constructed song, Martha My Dear incorporates strings and brass into a traditional rock line up in a manner very uniquely Beatles
11. Savoy Truffle
-It isn’t a real rock album unless there is at least one song alluding to sex. While very coy, this fits that bill.
12. Cry Baby Cry
– I’m always a sucker for songs about sad girls.
13. Long, Long, Long
– I find this song very hypnotic. It’s easy to get lost in this track
14. I Will
– “Will I wait a lonely lifetime/If you want me to, I will” is a very romantic sentiment echoing the belief that if you love someone, you will let them go. If she never wants to be with you then you will leave her alone–boys could learn something from this.
15. Good Night
– a beautiful closing song with a hint of romance.
Before you say, “Where’s Revolution 1, Ob-la-di, Ob-La-Da and Blackbird! The ones people actually know!” with righteous indignation let me explain myself.
Revolution 1, while being essentially the same song as Revolution is far too relaxed, I honestly don’t know why this rendition exists; while a significant difference exists between Revolution 1/Revolution and Revolution 9, Revolution 1 and Revolution only have a change in tempo–a change that makes Revolution and breaks Revolution 1. Ob-LA-DI, Ob-La-Da, an insidious earworm, is a song I have always hated; while some might find it charming I find it obnoxious; this is an opinion that I have of many of the excluded tracks (Wild Honey Pie, Piggies, Rocky Raccoon, …). Maybe they were supposed to be cute and fun, but to me, they’re just grating and annoying.
As for Blackbird, it’s just okay.
In doing this experiment, I must say that I am strong of the opinion that The Beatles should have been a single record release. While there are some very strong tracks on here, the majority of the songs are really just okay–definitely not what one equates with the legacy behind The Beatles. Overall the original album is a chore to listen to, clocking in at 1 hour 33 minutes and 40 seconds, and while it may be sacrilegious to call a Beatles album a little bloated and unnecessary that’s how I feel.
No matter how you feel about the White Album, it has certainly kept everybody interested and talking.