when i get to the bottom i go back to the top of the WHITE ALBUM POLL

I think that one of my favorite things about the White Album is how it still manages to be strange, even after so much of the Beatles' more out-there material has lost its initial weirdness. The album, taken as a whole, still feels a little out-of-place, and as someone else mentioned above, it's pretty tense and creepy. Those aren't traits I normally associate with Beatles music, but I'm glad to see that they've survived in this group of songs.

I didn't vote in this poll because I can't decide. There are so many things I love about it, not least of which that Paul sang both "I Will" and "Helter Skelter."

"No, Revolution 9 is too drawn out, it needs to be shorter, faster. It would be amazing then."

kay i know it's all a game of opinions but this really is total bull.

Admit it, haters: Would you rather have had three 'fair to middling' songs instead?

Actually, I'd prefer to hear "Junk" five times.

Or, shit, "Let 'Em In" three times.

Apparently there is an unreleased tape to which they added all these odd little bits and pieces from the sessions, not sure how long it is, but I believe(?) there might be a sliver of it in the White Album part of Anthology doc, it sounds really cool, I wish they would release it

This thread = best stuff ever written about "the White Album" (that I have ever read, anyway)

Kudos, everyone!

fwiw, some more reading: the white album is my favourite album of 1968.

JNSOT, I think you would like Devin McKinney's book Magic Circles: The Beatles in Dream and History, which has some good stuff on the white album. My final statement on R9 is that the whole record, which was do be called A Doll's House originally, is like a Chinese box of little child-like gambits, putons, false leads, allegories, to avoid the world they were in (that's why it refers to the studio itself so much), both their immediate world and the world at large falling apart. R9 starts out with a bitchy fight between studio staff that you can barely pick up and progresses to an apocalypse of allout, total destruction (this was the "revolution" year, obv). Good Night as the childlike wish for order and the past after all that--movie theater as womb--is because of its context, after R9, after the whole album, perhaps the most disturbing (and yet beautiful for what it can't attain) thing on the record.

sorry, didn't check what i wrote, "to be called" in line 2

I love this album, but it's always irritated me how my two least favorite cuts, "Back in the USSR" and "Happy Birthday", open each of the two halves.

At least "Back in the USSR" is useful for the beautiful way it segues between the airplane into the guitar plucking at the beginning of "Dear Prudence", but "Happy Birthday" is a waste of time.

Rev. 9 would have worked out just fine as a 1 minute skit like "Wild Honey Pie".

It's just "Birthday," Z S, not "Happy Birthday."

I believe that the comma comes after the quotation marks since you're referring to a title and not a quoted statement.

a little surprised at some of the negative response to rev 9, esp. that it's some indier than thou thing (is musique concrete rly indie??) it's such a terrifying and unsettling song, I don't understand the desire to trim it down or out. but i pretty much love all the white album above all other beatles albums. it's got this sort of perverse sense of humor to it, like the cute songs do not grate like 'when im 64' for me, there is a kind of madness to 'piggies' or 'birthday' (this wd be a great and bizarre song to play at children's birthday parties). the white album just doesn't sit still, it's like a fussy child with an hour and a half of unsupervised time to himself. the sincere and pretty songs like 'mother natures son' or 'julia' do not make as much sense without songs that at least suggest sleaziness ('why dont we do it in the road', 'happiness is a warm gun', 'helter skelter') or the music hall bits.

It's just "Birthday," Z S, not "Happy Birthday."

Ha, you're right, of course. I think I always associate it with the part of The Today Show where they cut to the list of people who have a birthday.

The white album is surely more unsettling than the rest of The Beatles' output. Fair enough. It's just that I don't see while unsettlingness is a good thing at all.

You don't see why unsettling is a good thing? in art?

Apparently there is an unreleased tape to which they added all these odd little bits and pieces from the sessions, not sure how long it is, but I believe(?) there might be a sliver of it in the White Album part of Anthology doc, it sounds really cool, I wish they would release it

-- iago g., Saturday, 22 September 2007 02:31 (21 hours ago)

Internet is teeming with alternate mixes / demos from this period, here are the terms to search:

'30th Anniversary White Album Documentary' is worth hearing despite the annoying Radio Announcer Guy coming in right on the tail of each song, many unreleased mixes.

'Kinfauns Demos' - recorded at George's house over one week on his home 4-track, most of the White Album songs in very primitive form, including a few that didn't make the album. 'Child of Nature' (aka 'Jealous Guy'), 3 George songs: 'Sour Milk Sea', 'Not Guilty', 'Circles'. These will probably be released eventually, even though they're very raw & casual, they're pretty wonderful.

'Revolution' was originally intended to have a very long 6+ minute coda: the Beatles kept playing the outro riff with minimal pre-krautrock focus, while the tape collage slowly snakes in on top of the riff, but the collage spun into its own piece. the '30th Anniversary' special has a board mix with the long coda and you can hear the bits of John's 'All Right' > 'Rape' vocals which ended up in 'Revolution 9' as they were originally sung over 'Revolution 1'. I'm still looking for a copy of the board mix of this that doesn't have the announcer guy ruining it at the end.

There's also 'The Beatles Go Too Far', basically a tape of Yoko recording her diary while 'Revolution 1/9' is being mixed elsewhere in the room. That is for fanatics only -- I love Yoko, but if you don't, you will have a hard time tuning her out to try to hear the crazy extended pre-krautrock 'Revolution 1/9' mantra coming over the speakers behind her.

Thanks, Milton. I have alot of that stuff on the White Album sessions 4-disc bootleg...I believe this tape they compiled is all stuff as yet unheard, not songs per se, just bits and pieces of studio chat,etc. Mark Lewisohn talks about Paul taking it away at the end of the sessions and it hasn't been heard since.

"Birthday" is wonderful and, as many a band knows, difficult to replicate. This despite apparent simplicity (see lots of underrated Beatles songs). The proto-Muppets vocals, the "sound," the pronunciation of "I would like you to dance" as "I would yack you to dance," the playful interplay of the band--what's not to love? Plus, it's a birthday song, going up against the most popular melody of all time.

"Birthday" gets a thumbs up from me for the wacky EQing of the piano alone.

side a: 48 votes
side b: 45
side c: 35
side d: 24

^
That's interesting. Side D coming in last, even with the #1 vote-getter included.

I wonder how common that distribution would be for other double albums?

lennon: 84 (13 songs)
mccartney: 43 (12 songs)
harrison: 25 (4 songs)
ringo: 0 (1 song)

x-post

physical graffiti poll:
side a: 16
side b: 21
side c: 19
side d: 9

tusk poll:
side a: 29
side b: 20
side c: 12
side d: 15

not really any strong pattern i guess, except that the most popular side is on the first disc for all 3 (probably because of intentional front-loading by the band/record company, and because people often pull out the album, listen to the first disc, and don't get all the way through to the second, so they're more familiar with the first)

Lennon didn't write too many good songs after 1967. McCartney did, but the good ones he wrote in 1968 were too underproduced to work out fully in the White Album context.

Thank you, Geir.

"Birthday" is wonderful ... the playful interplay of the band

From memory, 'Revolution in the Head' has Birthday as a McCartney solo effort - done in about two hours one day before the rest of the band turned up for work

I disagree that "Martha My Dear" and "Honey Pie" are underproduced. "Lady Madonna" isn't underproduced either.

x-post: That's not the story I remember with "Birthday." The story I remember was that the whole band came up with it quickly after seeing Little Richard or something?

Was Across the Universe written before or after 1967? Has any Beatles song ever been submitted to more absolutely awful covers than this one (by "rock" singers, not Yesterday by Vic Damone or whatever)

I disagree that "Martha My Dear" and "Honey Pie" are underproduced. "Lady Madonna" isn't underproduced either.

x-post: That's not the story I remember with "Birthday." The story I remember was that the whole band came up with it quickly after seeing Little Richard or something

I think the group had all just watched "The Girl Can't Help It" and decided to write something in that spirit.

Those be some fikken afscinating r'sults right there, fkk. "Birthday" getting nil votes, yet bludy "Bungalo Bill" reaping, grimly enough, 2.

From memory, 'Revolution in the Head' has Birthday as a McCartney solo effort

You're thinking of Back in the U.S.S.R., I'm guessing...

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=164
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_(song)
http://www.dmbeatles.com/disk.php?disk=10

Didn't know Yoko sang backup on "Birthday"!

I disagree that "Martha My Dear" and "Honey Pie" are underproduced. "Lady Madonna" isn't underproduced either.

"Lady Madonna" isn't particularly good though. "Blackbird", "Mother Nature's Son" and "Rocky Racoon" are all underproduced.

"Lady Madonna" isn't particularly good though.

I'm with you there.

so i just came up with the ultimate, best, incontrovertibly GENIUS one-disc white album, based on a re-edit of a tracklist a coworker and i did like ten years ago, CHECK IT OUT

basically the idea is to treat the whole thing as their like weirdo coming down from a bad-trip late night rock album, favoring only songs that are either LOUD or ones that sound sickly, strange and oddly haunted around the ages.

SIDE ONE

I'm So Tired
Dear Prudence
Everybody's Got Something To Hide, etc.
Rocky Raccoon
Revolution, fading a couple minutes in into Revolution 9
Cry Baby Cry
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Back in the USSR

SIDE TWO

Helter Skelter
Glass Onion
Don't Pass Me By
Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
Yer Blues
What's The New Mary Jane?
Happiness is a Warm Gun

have only tested parts of this so far - transition from "Cry Baby Cry" to "WMGGW" is highlight for me right now.

No long long long?

Ahhh crap! Cut and paste error at some point in the process! Yeah that totally needs to be there.

I guess Back in the USSR is the odd man out here, so replace that with LLL and add to the pile of suitable things for their followup attempt at a pop comeback after this career suicide record.

Although wait, crap...Bungalow Bill probably fits the theme here too although I don't really like the song very much. Agggh. It's hopeless!

favoring only songs that are either LOUD

if that's one of yr criteria you can hardly leave off BitUSSR

Maybe I should in fact sequester all the loud rocking songs onto this hypothetical next album (could pair them up with Get Back, Don't Let Me Down, etc) and really just keep it as weird and spooky as possible...

SIDE ONE

I'm So Tired
Dear Prudence
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
Revolution 9
Cry Baby Cry
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Long Long Long

SIDE TWO

Don't Pass Me By
Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
Glass Onion
Yer Blues
Rocky Raccoon
What's The New Mary Jane?
Happiness is a Warm Gun

This looks suspiciously like a John Lennon solo album at this point, which is funny cause I'm generally a way bigger Paul fan...

Then do two more, a rockin' record that regains the lost rockers and adds Get Back," "Don't Let Me Down," and maybe "One After 909", and a largely acoustic record that picks up "I Will," "Mother Nature's Son," "Two of Us," "For You Blue," etc... I WILL MAKE THIS WORK SOMEHOW

ugh, i give up, i'm going back to my one-disc All Things Must Pass which I still quite like.

serious shade at any white album reduction that finds room for "rocky racoon", "bungalow bill" and "why don't we do it in the road" while excluding the likes of "julia", "back in the ussr", "blackbird". hrmf.

it was a self-proclaimed thematic edit that favored loud stuff, it's not like he said "Blackbird" isn't good enough to be on the album

yeah, but was also a comedown record focusing on "haunted around the edges", so...

I will freely concede that "Julia" should be in there (and "Sexy Sadie") - also just trying to make it work as a Beatles record which means some balance of John/Paul stuff.

I do find "Bungalow Bill" haunted if not actually that GOOD. It's a weird, mean little Lennon song at its core. Rocky Raccoon is sort of its opposite number - where John tells a half-formed yarn of nasty boastful, hollow "bullet-headed" cowboy, Paul just has...a story about a guy who gets shot up in a bar fight. And yet Rocky, along with "Don't Pass Me By," adds to this overall, I dunno, "Mouldy Old Dough" quality to this record, there's some kind of creaking saloon stench wafting through the whole place - it's the same saloon where John is slumped in a chair, contemplating a drink in "I'm So Tired." It fits together in my head anyway.

yeah, that makes sense. the "moldy old dough" music hall stuff would be the first to go on the chopping block if i were doing this, but i ain't, so do what thou wilt.

I mean, the great thing about the White Album as the sprawling mess that it is, is you really could carve two or three clearly coherent theme/vibe albums from it - - I think when I first started I wanted to make it HEAVY, that spun off separately the stuff that's actually GENTLE, and then I decided what I really ultimately like about the record is that it's WEIRD. "The Weird Album." Or, knowing that Dune was out and John liked wordplay, "The Weirding Album"...

^^^just crossed the line

hahahahah