the pure essence of an album

hum...we're getting to a pretty tight EP... but one seems a bit out of place amongst the "essential" (plus there are too many lennon trax left)...and I still have my second shot so... now you can cry...

1.
2. Dear Prudence
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Happiness Is a Warm Gun
9.
10. I'm So Tired
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16. I Will
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.

This is a baggy album with a fair amount of self-indulgent experimentalism. That makes it in essence more of a John album than a Paul album. Ipso facto, I Will goes.

1.
2. Dear Prudence
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Happiness Is a Warm Gun
9.
10. I'm So Tired
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.

ok - WE ALL KNOW WHICH ONE IS GOING TO WIN

yeah, but i almost want to post with the really essential track removed, just to see what people do. it's the same feeling i have that i might just throw my glasses off a bridge. it'd be crazy, to my detriment, and irrational. but i kinda want to.

I don't even think it's a good track, I think it's laboured and overwrought, but it does probably sum the record up. Anyway I've had my two votes.

funny i just counted there are more lennon trax than macca's on the album. always thought it was the other way round as lennon was not in a very "productive" period whereas macca was on fire.

of the ones left (and maybe in overall), i much prefer dear prudence to happiness... (just in case we can make the odds wrong !)

whatever - its a great song; it is laboured and overwrought, but it also rules in 35 different ways. and the breeders cover rules.

I've got a vote left, so let's make this clear-cut:

1.
2. Dear Prudence
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. I'm So Tired
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.

Oh yes, "Dear Prudence" is loads better.

But the enjoyable thing about this thread is that we have to wait for someone else to come along and decide.

xpost Hurrah!

Aaarg! Mother Superior has jumped the gun!

boring contrarians jumped the shark!

yay ! so dear prudence wins ! thinking about it, i wouldn't have thought tired would have made it so far... it's great but still...

Nothing contrarian about it! It's ambitious and interesting but simply not that good a song. But I'm more of a Macca fan anyway by this point.

nothing contrarian : prudence is much better than happiness... siouxsie covered it !

ah. sorry tom !

so won't anybody shoot tired down ?

I've got my second vote, and I'm going to use it.

Eliminate Dear Prudence.

I'm So Tired wins.

Everybody should know this one, so it should go fast...

Blondie: Parallel Lines

1. Hanging On The Telephone
2. One Way Or Another
3. Picture This
4. Fade Away and Radiate
5. Pretty Baby
6. I Know but I Don’t Know
7. 11:59
8. Will Anything Happen
9. Sunday Girl
10. Heart of Glass
11. I’m Gonna Love You Too
12. Just Go Away

wha-what !?
tsss... not fair...

I'm finding these threads weirdly addictive.

Now that's contrarian bullshit!

1.
2.
3. Picture This
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

Next.

ooh - good choice!

"will anything happen" bothers me a little, and feels, in general, like one of the less-essential traxxx.

1. Hanging On The Telephone
2. One Way Or Another
3. Picture This
4. Fade Away and Radiate
5. Pretty Baby
6. I Know but I Don’t Know
7. 11:59
8.
9. Sunday Girl
10. Heart of Glass
11. I’m Gonna Love You Too
12. Just Go Away

yeah, it was a great idea ygs !

i kinda like the huge power left in the hands of the random person who has to choose between the last ones... it's a huge responsibility !

It's a responsibility I didn't take lightly. It was just a shit or get off the pot situation. White album all morning, time to move on.

With that said...

1. Hanging On The Telephone
2. One Way Or Another
3. Picture This
4. Fade Away and Radiate
5. Pretty Baby
6.
7. 11:59
8.
9. Sunday Girl
10. Heart of Glass
11. I’m Gonna Love You Too
12. Just Go Away

it's difficult to even start this one. i remove track 6 just because it's my least favourite track on the record.

1. Hanging On The Telephone
2. One Way Or Another
3. Picture This
4. Fade Away and Radiate
5. Pretty Baby
6.
7. 11:59
8.
9. Sunday Girl
10. Heart of Glass
11. I’m Gonna Love You Too
12.

sorry by the time i came to post that 2 tracks had already been removed. the 2 i would have chosen. i removed 12 just because i like it least out of what was left.

Maybe I've heard "One Way Or Another" done by too many Blondie cover-bands. It sounds too much like pre-disco Blondie anyway.

1. Hanging On The Telephone
2.
3. Picture This
4. Fade Away and Radiate
5. Pretty Baby
6.
7. 11:59
8.
9. Sunday Girl
10. Heart of Glass
11. I’m Gonna Love You Too
12.

ok, one way or another, sooner or later... breaks my Heart but it's too disco queen to be the essence of the album...

1. Hanging On The Telephone
2.
3. Picture This
4. Fade Away and Radiate
5. Pretty Baby
6.
7. 11:59
8.
9. Sunday Girl
10.
11. I’m Gonna Love You Too
12.

"I'm Gonna Love You Too" is cute, but not even near the caliber of the rest of the album.

1. Hanging On The Telephone
2.
3. Picture This
4. Fade Away and Radiate
5. Pretty Baby
6.
7. 11:59
8.
9. Sunday Girl
10.
11.
12.

:( @ heart of glass.

i know... hurts... but it feels more like a single added to the album than the essential core of it...

have you heard the demo of it on the reissue? sounded more like classic Blondie takin' the piss

I don't own the album, and with Heart of Glass gone it suddenly looks less like "God, why don't I own this?" and more "Pfft, Blondie, got the best of."

"i know... hurts... but it feels more like a single added to the album than the essential core of it... "

That's why I chose I'm So Tired over Dear Prudence. Prudence is too pretty, and not nearly weird enough to be the essence of such a strange and schizophrenic record. Happiness is a Warm Gun is probably the most representative, but it got shot down early.

3rd from last is not early!

x post 1: yeah i think i've heard the demo. don't remember very well though...
x post 2: well, with heart of glass on it looks more like a best of !
x post 3 : i see what you mean but i think prudence IS creepy !

Tom the remaining songs are so awesome! I don't wanna out my preference for the #1 spot but of the five that remain any of them stand next to "Heart of Glass" as far as I'm concerned

If we're going for the essence, then we're going to have to ditch the cover version. So long, Hanging On The Telephone...

1.
2.
3. Picture This
4. Fade Away and Radiate
5. Pretty Baby
6.
7. 11:59
8.
9. Sunday Girl
10.
11.
12.

i like all the ones remaining, but i was totally jockeying for "heart of glass", too. it feels like the meat of the album, and even if none of the other tracks have that much disco in them, it all seems to me to be funneling into "heart of glass."

btw, do you think "heart of glass" is in the same league as "i feel love?" im unsure; IFL is better, im sure, but HOG is really sublime, if not as exciting.

Next step is easy :

1.
2.
3. Picture This
4. Fade Away and Radiate
5.
6.
7. 11:59
8.
9. Sunday Girl
10.
11.
12.

1.
2.
3. Picture This
4.
5.
6.
7. 11:59
8.
9. Sunday Girl
10.
11.
12.

"Fade Away and Radiate" is probably the only song on the album that gets worse with repeated listens.

Noooooo!

ok - WE ALL KNOW WHICH ONE IS GOING TO WIN

j/k!

Also finding this addictive.

I have a much stronger feeling about which one should stay than which one should go, but hell, let's just go ahead and knock out Sunday Girl.

1.
2.
3. Picture This
4.
5.
6.
7. 11:59
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

I'm unclear on the rules - does each individual just get one pass? Cause if not I'm killing "picture this" right now, no way it beats "11:59," whose final verse is for me the essence not only of "Parallel Lines" but of pop music itself

One go per album, two for a double album. (NB this 'rule' was suggested by me but seems fair, means doubles don't take forever and means people can't flood an album into submission).

ok then...I anxiously await some ballad-lover harshing my mellow my striking "11:59"

I've treated it as as "one per album" tacit rule ... went to bed at 2 a.m. and awoke to this thread on fire. Glad I wasn't the only one finding it "weirdly addictive" ... and it's not the brutality, but rather learning which of my favorites others can't stand, and vice versa.

I'm gonna let someone else cut the blonde's hair.