Worst Beatles song on the White Album

yeah i voted for honey pie too. not really a fan of any of paul's music hall b.s. on here but martha my dear and ob-la-di have some redeeming factors

"Long Long Long" is one of the most amazing Beatles songs ever, right up there with "A Day in the Life", but nobody knows it. Over the years it has edged "Happiness" from my White Album top spot.

"while my guitar" & "yer blues" & "rev #9" are the ones i skip. "ob la di" is dumb as all hell, but something about the way it's engineered sounds really good to me.

This is far and away my favorite Beatles album, maybe my favorite album ever. But, given the constraints of the poll, I pick "Wild Honey Pie," which is so slight it's almost not there.

NO! Listen to the remaster loud!

This is tough... face off between Honey Pie and Ob-la-di. Unlike n/a the latter has no redeeming factors. I just cannot hear the song anymore.

(Voting for 'Dear Prudence' will automatically get you a life long site ban right? Because it should)

I don't agree with SB but that is kind of OTM (ditto Happiness Is A Warm Gun)

You said it

I'm kinda being rubbish at these polls, coming on and talking about my favourite tracks! I have work to be doing anyway...

Ob La Di. I love all the other kiddie songs, especially Piggies.

Man, if only Paul did die and we wouldn't have to put up with Abbey Road, Let It Be and Wings. (A theory that only works if Ob La Di was the last song he recorded for this album.) Or just went all Syd Barrett.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. Easy. Worst Beatles song on the best Beatles record.

btw I am not Geir.

clearly!

I always felt like "Don't Pass Me By" was the even more annoying version of "Ob-La-Di" (sorry Ringo). Those are the only two tracks I ever end up skipping on this great album.

The whole album steams merrily along until I get to two acoustic tracks - I Will and Julia. I always found those a bit meh - yeah I know Julia's about John's muvver, but it doesn't make me like it much more. Still, Julia's a lot better than I Will, which is a still just a bit slight and unintrusive

Your opinion is so wrong. These are the two most affecting songs on the album.

"Your Opinion is Wrong" would be such a great name for a Christian rock band.

White Album is so funny, cos I think picking the worst song would be easy and I go to something like "Savoy Truffle" or "Don't Pass Me By" but when I listen they sound like the Beatles had so much fun taping them it's so difficult to hate on. Even "Obladi" has those silly voices and fun piano intro. Even the lousy songs are indispensable.

Damn you fun-loving Beatles!

Rocky Raccoon - shite song about a LuSoR.

So when people tell us to hear the remasters for this album, do y'all mean mono or stereo?

Ob La Di

Continuing with a food-related theme "Savoy Truffle" is just a plain odd attempt to equate hot'n'steamy sex with ummm... desserts. Yeah w/e.

Maybe it's odd because he isn't equating anything with desserts, he's just listing them.

And some of the phrases "The watusi... the twist", "take this brother, may it serve you well" are now imprinted on my brain like a hot pie or a pasty.

awesome fuckin metaphor, kid.

They're not desserts either; it's a list of the selection from from Eric Clapton's favourite box of (cheap) chocolates - George is taking the piss out of Eric.

who the fuck is this history minge guy?

I think we should poll the box of chocolates.

So when people tell us to hear the remasters for this album, do y'all mean mono or stereo?

I've only heard the mono, which sounds amazing.

I've only heard the stereo, which sounds amazing.

i don't love everything on here, but this is another one where i can't really vote. i like everything for one reason or another.

glass onion

El Dorado.

"Cool cherry creme, nice apple tart, a ginger sling with a pineapple heart . . ."

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/blogs/outsidetheframe/Forrest-Gump-p11.jpg

I voted for cool cherry creme over the ginger sling.

Who could hate Sexy Sadie? Besides the Maharishi I suppose...

i say this on every white album thread but the anthology versions of a lot of these songs are fucking awesome and imo sometimes preferable to the album versions. there's an awesome, slower version of 'helter skelter' that contains some of my favorite of paul's singing. also sparse, gorgeous acoustic versions of 'WMGGW', 'cry baby cry,' & 'sexy sadie'

I'm withholding my vote til I pick up the remaster next week. I need some time to recover from the trauma of the Sgt Pepper poll...

That slower version of 'Helter Skelter' is an edit of a 27-minute monster (going from memory of the sleevenotes here - I may be exaggerating). There must be a link somewhere, and if there is I would like to know about it.

Yeah, that's true but it's never shown up on bootleg. The Beatles' "Sister Ray"?

(the 27-minute version, that is)

we should have "Rolling Beatles Fantasy Songs" and have

"John singing Oh Darling"
"27 minute version of Helter Skelter"

"Carnival of Light"
"Ich Bin Der Walrus"
everything off "Let It Be", but done properly

I don't understand the huge ILM love for "Dear Prudence" either. Sure, it's OK, probably among the better John tracks here, but still a bit to spare to really be among my fave tracks on the album. I actually prefer Siouxie & The Banshees' cover version to the original, because it's fuller and more "produced".

pffft

During the 18 July 1968 sessions, a version of the song lasting 27 minutes and 11 seconds was recorded, although this version is rather slow and hypnotic, differing greatly from the volume and rawness of the album version.[10] Another recording from the same day was edited down to 4:37 for Anthology 3, which was originally twelve minutes long. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helter_Skelter_%28song%29

i want the 27 minute version!

Jeez Geir, you couldn't leave it alone could you?

I have to confess that I don't own this and am basing this on the a tape a mate made for me 15 years ago. For some reason (presumably because he thought they were shit) he left off Piggies, Don't Pass Me By, and Good Night. So I can't say if one of those is the worst song on the album: I know everything else and it's patchy enough to make me not bothered to seek out the tracks that he didn't even consider worth taping for me.

It's not that anything is really shit, but you could easily turn the White Album into a two separate albums, one of which would be great (definitely including Dear Prudence and Helter Skelter), and the other would be pretty boring. Revolution 9 is unlistenable really, but is kind of supposed to be like that, so doesn't count as the worst for me. The ones that bug me the most are I'm So Tired and Sexy Sadie - there's just nothing going on there.

"Sexy Sadie" is definitely among the better John ones here. A lot of great interesting chord changes on that one. Great vocal harmonies too.

Bores me to death.

It's karma police.

listening to the mono remasters really draws attention to how close some of this material still is to the "Magical Mystery Tour" sound. "cry baby cry" in particular could've been on the previous album if the drums had a bit more of that heavy compression on 'em. also the same with "dear prudence". it could easily be on "MMT". i've known that song for so long that it took the remasters to make me really pay attention to what's going on. that song is arranged perfectly. it fades in from nothing, slowly adding more and more parts (backing vox are amazing, it's always seemed to me they were singing with purposeful spookiness), until it climaxes at the end with everything sounding triumphantly, hits that final THUMP before the "won't you come out to play?", and everything drops off and fades away to the guitar which soon fades out into silence. mccartney often gets a lot of flack for his drumming, but i think it's undeserved and on this song his playing is wonderfully inventive (and syncs perfectly with one of his very best basslines), especially when he starts going crazy to trigger the final buildup.

"sexy sadie" is one of the very best beatles songs.

When we did the poll four years ago, I had "Martha My Dear" at #2 (looked it up). Didn't get a single vote otherwise. Haven't changed my mind.

Check that (same mistake I made at the time); I wasn't the only vote, but it missed the Top 60.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ApYUxlw6I

so many animals on this album - raccoons, pigs, dogs, birds - what's up with that

― Οὖτις, Friday, April 17, 2015 6:02 PM (28 minutes ago)

Allegory, dude

Wow, that's amazing (xpost). Dave Hill looks like the Big Bang Theory guy.

The White Album is Noah's Flood but instead of an ark it's a psychedelic attic.

Did that harpsichord demo of "Something" ever come out? I remember reading George taped some stuff when they were SI'ing onto "Piggies".

I love that even later Slade also covered Moby Grape's "Omaha" and Fairport Conventions "It's alright ma it's only witchcraft" (up on youtube from the BBC collections)...and plenty more, they had pretty eclectic tastes