Rank the White Album

Revolution 1 is good

je suis pas d'accord

Still align myself with Ian MacDonald w.r.t "Revolution 9."

I love this record so much. It has to be the weirdest number one album ever.

Too great. I remember once thinking that Album 1 (sides 1 & 2) was boffo and Album 2 had all the filler (I'd just swap "Savoy Truffle" in for "Rocky Raccoon" and be happy) but I put it on the other day in consolation for not being able to source a mono box locally and ... wow! There's hardly a song I'd skip. I must have been going through an extreme popist phase or something.

I agree with above posters that it's a complete work of art - you can't really take it apart and even the sucky bits contribute to the whole. As well, the sequencing is, in the main, masterful. I find "Bungalow Bill" and "Wild Honey Pie" (among others) hard to defend on their own merits but they perform perfectly in their respective places.

I have to rep for "Don't Pass Me By" - it's a plodding, derivative (of Buck Owens, mainly) pedestrian piece of shit that somehow transcends: Ringo's everybloke vocals, Leslie speaker on everything in sight giving the whole track an underwater feeling, the queasy fiddle, and the weird, brassy quality that most of the instruments have... there's something unreconstructable about it; it has an otherworldly inevitability that the Beatles' music (and relatively speaking so little else) often musters. I give thumbs up.

Rocky Raccoon and Honey Pie still don't do it for me, even so.

i like "don't pass me by" as well.

I don't mind playing the album, but can honestly only get behind about five songs (Helter, Happiness, Everybody's, Glass Onion, Dear Prudence). And of those five, four were done better by someone else (counting Tick, Tick as a Glass Onion cover...).

ooh the other week i was wondering how i'd single-albumise this

xpost. Huh? Whose versions are better? Please don't say U2's Helter is better...please? Those 5 songs all kill as originals...oh this makes me sad.

I'm still trying to rank them, but it's just so damn mercenary. Even when I pull that cd off the shelf to hear Prudence or Helter, I have to play it through. So I guess I can't really argue til I can back myself up... harrumph.

i agree that the big sprawling messiness makes the album interesting, but as an exercise here are the songs i'd include in a short, to-the-point single album:

Back In The USSR
Dear Prudence
Martha My Dear
I'm So Tired
Birthday
I Will
Happiness Is a Warm Gun
Blackbird
Julia
Rocky Racoon
Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
Don't Pass Me By

haven't decided on mine beyond the fact that Dear Prudence and Happiness Is A Warm Gun are *definitely* in it

dear prudence is one of my very favorite beatles songs.

this record is such a mess, a wonderful mess. I don't listen to it often anymore.

same here! there is something quintessential about it. quintessentially of its time and yet timeless. that last 30 seconds is just *fuck yes*

xp

but i think 'happiness' is my favourite from the album. mostly for that syncopated bit.

amateurist!

xpost: better versions (this is also probably in another thread) are Helter Skelter (Husker Du), Happiness is a Warm Gun (Breeders), Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Feelies). And when I hear Glass Onion now, I'm always waiting for "the part that sounds like Tick, Tock."

i also prefer the boney m version of "julia" to the original.

see also the new dandy warhols (yes really, suspend your disbelief) cover of blackbird which is eerie awesomeness

no

Maybe I'm just aggravated by talk of Beatles covers since the ungodly Chris Cornell cover of 'Imagine' on Conan the other night. Seriously dude wtf. Can we put a moratorium on Cornell doing any more covers? Or on his career altogether? Fuck.

But that's off topic. My #1 is definitely Happiness is a Warm Gun. I can't get much further than that atm

xpost: better versions (this is also probably in another thread) are Helter Skelter (Husker Du), Happiness is a Warm Gun (Breeders), Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Feelies). And when I hear Glass Onion now, I'm always waiting for "the part that sounds like Tick, Tock."

― dlp9001, Monday, September 14, 2009

I give you credit for iconoclasm but u r soooo wrong

True. It's "Tick, Tick..."

Long, Long, Long
.

.

.
.
.
I'm So Tired
Julia
Dear Prudence
Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Mother Nature's Son
Happiness Is a Warm Gun
Sexy Sadie
Revolution 1
Helter Skelter
Blackbird
Glass Onion
Cry Baby Cry
I Will
Revolution 9
Martha My Dear
Savoy Truffle
Rocky Raccoon
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
Yer Blues
Birthday (ruined by being the birthday song on some early morning news show for years)
Back In The USSR
Honey Pie
Wild Honey Pie
Why Don't We Do It In The Road
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Piggies
Good Night

Don't Pass Me By

1. Cry Baby Cry
2. Sexy Sadie
3. Back in the USSR
4. Helter Skelter
5. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Cept For Me and My Monkey
6. Happiness is a Warm Gun
7. Mother Nature's Son
8. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
9. Dear Prudence
10. Martha My Dear
11. Long, Long, Long
12. Julia
13. Blackbird
14. Rocky Racoon
15. Wild Honey Pie
16. I'm So Tired
17. Glass Onion
18. Yer Blues
19. Why Don't We Do It In the Road?
20. Good Night
21. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
22. I Will
23. Revolution 1
24. Don't Pass Me By
25. Savoy Truffle
26. Honey Pie
27. Birthday
28. Revolution 9
29. Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da
30. Piggies

Rutherford has a unique vinyl collection. He only collects the Beatles first pressing of The White Album.
In this show Chang is creating a record store that stocks only White Albums. But rather than selling the albums, he buys more from anyone willing to part with an original pressing in any condition.

http://www.dustandgrooves.com/rutherford-chang-we-buy-white-albums/

Geir likes I'm so Tired more than stereotypical McCartney tracks Martha My Dear and Mother Nature's Son!

1.Martha My Dear
2.Blackbird
3.Wild Honey Pie
4.Dear Prudence
5.Mother Nature's Son
6.Birthday
7.Long, Long, Long
8.Helter Skelter
9.Back in the U.S.S.R.
10.Glass Onion
11.Sexy Sadie
12.Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
13.Savoy Truffle
14.Honey Pie
15.The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
16.Julia
17.Yer Blues
18.While My Guitar Gently Weeps
19.Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
20.I'm So Tired
21.Revolution 9
22.I Will
23.Cry Baby Cry
24.Revolution 1
25.Rocky Raccoon
26.Happiness Is a Warm Gun
27.Don't Pass Me By
28.Good Night
29.Piggies
30.Why Don't We Do It in the Road?

I was bored, so I went through all the posts that ranked all 30 tracks and assigned points to each track (30 points for first choice, 29 points for second, etc) to see which were the most popular. You're welcome.

1.Happiness Is a Warm Gun- 366
2.Julia- 353
3.Dear Prudence- 350
4.Helter Skelter- 342
5.Sexy Sadie- 339
6.Cry Baby Cry- 328
7.While My Guitar Gently Weeps- 292
8.Long, Long, Long- 291
9.(tie)Blackbird- 285
9.(tie)I'm So Tired- 285
11.Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey- 284
12.Martha My Dear- 283
13.Glass Onion- 280
14.Mother Nature's Son- 256
15.Savoy Truffle- 248
16.Back in the U.S.S.R.- 233
17.Birthday- 220
18.Revolution 1- 208
19.Yer Blues- 189
20.Good Night- 186
21.The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill- 182
22.Revolution 9- 179
23.I Will- 166
24.Rocky Raccoon- 145
25.Piggies- 132
26.Wild Honey Pie- 126
27.Honey Pie- 123
28.Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da- 120
29.Why Don't We Do It in the Road?- 103
30.Don't Pass Me By- 81

(NB Geir only ranked 29 tracks as he said he said he considered 'Wild Honey Pie' to be "an interlude rather than a stand-alone track, and as such... impossible to rank". I have taken this as his de facto number 30 and assigned it one point when adding his ranking to the total.)

Thanks for doing that! Also lol at Geir

Swap Julia and Prudence and that's pretty OTM.

Within their catalog album-wise I place it at top - Revolver's too consistent and brief, the debut lacks drugginess, Abbey Road's too respectable and the rest...whatever.

The fact that Z S responded with 'Thanks for doing that!' makes me worry that people might take my 'You're welcome' in earnest and think that I was looking for people to express gratitude that I had collated information from an ilx thread where people rank the White Album. So for the record my 'You're welcome' was meant to be a joke, the implication being that it would ridiculous to demand gratitude for doing such a thing. Sorry to Z S if his 'Thanks for doing that!' was also sarcastic.

I never realised people like 'Cry Baby Cry' so much, I always just thought of it as 'that one before Revolution 9', it always seemed like filler to me.

'Martha My Dear' is such a sad song! I think sad Paul McCartney is my favourite Paul McCartney mode. I read a discussion on the internet about whether the song is about Jane Asher or about McCartney's sheepdog, but surely the song is 'about' the breakdown of a relationship at some level, even if just subconsciously or whatever? I know some people don't like McCartney's music hall pastiche style songs but it really works here, I think the artificiality of the style captures this sense of communicating with someone you are used to speaking to intimately in a newly formal way that feels somewhat awkward and alien.
And the way the jauntiness of some of the plays against how sad and needy some of the lyrics are- it's no longer appropriate for him to be open about the depth of his feelings with this person but there is this palpable desperation for them to remain on good terms, for the memory of the relationship to not be tainted. 'Don't forget me', there's this simultaneous knowledge that the relationship is over but also desperation for some part of it to be preserved in some way?

The 'When you find yourself in the thick of it, help yourself to a bit of what is all around you, silly girl' bit I always find poignant, it gets across this sense of still caring for someone but struggling to find the appropriate register to express this sentiment? The song makes me think of an awkward last meeting between a couple who are breaking up in a film. Sorry if this is all a bit too emo-Beatles.

martha my dear is garbage

honey pie is even worse

although bends i didn't mean to dismiss your interpretation! it might even help me enjoy the song a little mroe

Abbey Road's too respectable

What does this mean?

It's my favourite, by the way.

Can someone who likes Happiness Is a Warm Gun explain why people seem to like Happiness Is a Warm Gun so much?

I like the last part, the doowop pastiche.

Honey Pie is crap, but Martha's v. good McCartney. Besides being a much better song, the simplicity of the production helps its stature (whereas the high-corn claptrap they saddled Honey Pie with kneecaps it even more). I like bends's analysis.

Happiness is notable for its incredible lyrical creepiness, unparallelled even for Lennon, and the dreamlike way it shifts between sections remains surprising for many listens. It's also an ace performance by the band (love Lennon's tuneful screaming in the final section!). I wouldn't put it tops in my list if I were to make one, and it's lost a bunch of its charm for me in the many intervening years since I first encountered it (as has most of the Beatles' output), but it's a singular performance. I'm not challposing when I say I think Revolution 9 is a catchy little number; it's one of the only tracks I think I'd feel the need to seek out & listen to again on this record, but of course that says more about my current tastes (which are leaning much more toward Tim Hecker than whatever's going on in power pop right now) than it does about the intrinsic worth of the track.

Does anyone know, did Rutherford Chang ever press that collage of hundreds of copies into a double LP like he threatened to do? I can't imagine he'd have succeeded in getting licensing for a commercial release, but I'd damn sure buy it if he did.

"Respectable" in this particular context I would say is referring to the 2nd side, how it's a suite? And there's other stuff as well but hey, AR is totally excellent imo and it's just my own twisted taste in music and misuse of the english tongue.

I normally hate music hall McCartney (as well as actual music hall) but I love 'Martha My Dear', bends otm about the sadness of it aand also the melody is just really good.

I started trying to do my own ranking and nearly all my favourites are Lennon songs, he was on fire around this time.

lol bends, my thanks were sincere. Every once in a while I do something for the internet that takes like 8 hours so I try to acknowledge the effort!

Beenlistening to this recently - it's pretty good!

http://i.imgur.com/CKxQ2rb.jpg

I LIEK IT LIEK THAT!
OOOOOOHHHHHHH HA!
I LIEK THIS KINDA HOT KINDA MUUUUUUSIC! HOT KINDA MUUUUUUSIC!
PLAY IT TO MEEEEEE! PLAY IT TO ME HOLLYWOOD BLUUUUUUES!

^ I remember hearing this part of 'Honey Pie' upon listening to this album for the first time, and, I won't lie: I cringed. I don't mind the song otherwise, it's just this particular bit that I find a touch embarrassing. 'You Gave Me The Answer' from Wings' Venus and Mars does this style much better and in a far less cringey way than 'Honey Pie' or 'When I'm Sixty-Four' ever did.

i love this album start to finish, incl honey pie. the combo of helter skelter paul and music hall paul suggests a kind of derangement that i cant resist