If The White Album Were One Record

Discuss official releases and re-issues. The only links allowed here are to the Beatles YouTube channel or other band-sanctioned platforms.
datters
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Re: If The White Album Were One Record

Post by datters »

LR, Another project in your perspective of a what if release?
Nairb1956
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Re: If The White Album Were One Record

Post by Nairb1956 »

I was on another thread from discussing this. (I also wondered if there were any takes of Ringo on drums on Back in the USSR before he walked out)


This was my lineup:

1. Back in the USSR
2. Dear Prudence
3. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
4. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
5. Birthday
6. Revolution (single version)
7. Martha My Dear (without the brass)
8. Sexy Sadie
9. Blackbird
10. Glass Onion
11. Not Guilty
12. Hey Jude
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Lord Reith
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Re: If The White Album Were One Record

Post by Lord Reith »

datters wrote: Tue Sep 06, 2022 11:23 am LR, Another project in your perspective of a what if release?
Well, I did start a white alum project but it got delayed and then stalled completely. Just too much else to do. Winter is coming. ;)

Actually I wouldn't lose any of the songs on the WA. To me when I first heard it as a teenager (with headphones) it reminded of a late night FM broadcast, where the programme planners had gone home and the deejay would just play and say what he likes. Very elcectic and unpredictable, with weird and silly noises everywhere. I didn't really think it sounded anything like a Beatles record (and still don't) but I liked it for what it was. It's just not something I ever play though. I gave the remix a spin, and the outtakes one listen. The early Beatles are more my bag.

Actually, I think the best record in the entire sessions is one of the ones that didn't make it onto the record: Not Guilty. A masterpiece of rhythmic invention with a hypnotic, driving guitar riff, great lyrics and sounding utterly unlike anything else from that time.
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Ziggy C
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Re: If The White Album Were One Record

Post by Ziggy C »

Nairb1956 wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 5:34 am This was my lineup:

1. Back in the USSR
2. Dear Prudence
3. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
4. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
5. Birthday
6. Revolution (single version)
7. Martha My Dear (without the brass)
8. Sexy Sadie
9. Blackbird
10. Glass Onion
11. Not Guilty
12. Hey Jude
Interesting choices. I might lose Hey Jude and Revolution (single) and put in Across The Universe and Hey Bulldog. Although the notion of the album ending on a sing-along is kinda cool.

The White Album has always stood out to me as a collection of individual/solo tunes featuring the rest of The Beatles as a backing band. I've gotten so used to the songs as they appear that its difficult for me to separate them in my mind. It's like I'm expecting to hear Wild Honey Pie and Bungalow Bill together....I Will and Julia together...Helter Skelter and Long Long Long together, and so forth. But it's not very collaborative.

I don't think there are any takes of USSR with Ringo... Unless you count the time he sat in with The Beach Boys and played it at one of their concerts. I heard that on the Sirius/XM Beatles channel recently.
WoodLennon
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Re: If The White Album Were One Record

Post by WoodLennon »

I'd remove Back In The U.S.S.R, Dear Prudence, Glass Onion, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Wild Honey Pie, The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, Martha My Dear, I'm So Tired, Blackbird, Piggies, Rocky Raccon, Don't Pass Me By, Why Don't We Do It In The Road?, I Will, Julia, Birthday, Yer Blues, Mother Nature's Son, Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey, Sexy Sadie, Helter Skelter, Long, Long Long, Revolution 1, Honey Pie, Savoy Truffle, Cry Baby Cry, Revolution 9 and Good Night
Gringo557
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Re: If The White Album Were One Record

Post by Gringo557 »

WoodLennon wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 7:02 pm I'd remove Back In The U.S.S.R, Dear Prudence, Glass Onion, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Wild Honey Pie, The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, Martha My Dear, I'm So Tired, Blackbird, Piggies, Rocky Raccon, Don't Pass Me By, Why Don't We Do It In The Road?, I Will, Julia, Birthday, Yer Blues, Mother Nature's Son, Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey, Sexy Sadie, Helter Skelter, Long, Long Long, Revolution 1, Honey Pie, Savoy Truffle, Cry Baby Cry, Revolution 9 and Good Night
That's been done. Refer to John & Yoko's "Two Minutes Silence" on Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions.
wardo
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Re: If The White Album Were One Record

Post by wardo »

Wardo's 45-minute White Album:

SIDE ONE
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Martha My Dear
I’m So Tired
Blackbird
Piggies
Don’t Pass Me By

SIDE TWO
Yer Blues
Mother Nature’s Son
Sexy Sadie
Helter Skelter
Honey Pie
Cry Baby Cry
I Will

and for the concurrent single: “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” b/w “Long, Long, Long”

https://everybodysdummy.blogspot.com/20 ... atles.html
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Ziggy C
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Re: If The White Album Were One Record

Post by Ziggy C »

wardo wrote: Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:36 pm Wardo's 45-minute White Album:

...and for the concurrent single: “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” b/w “Long, Long, Long”

https://everybodysdummy.blogspot.com/20 ... atles.html
Thanks! I've read the blog post. Nice take on the White album era Beatles. I also like the placement of Long Long Long as a B-side. Like The Inner Light. But Inner Light is a better song IMO.

I'd drop Martha My Dear for Savoy Truffle, Piggies for Happiness Is A Warm Gun, Blackbird for Hey Bulldog. I'd also do seemingly endless tweaking of the order.

As you said in your blog, they had not just a bunch of songs that they'd written, but a bunch of good songs.It's hard to trim this one down. And, rightly, we shouldn't. But it's all in fun anyway.
skynet
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Re: If The White Album Were One Record

Post by skynet »

For me it will be:

SIDE ONE
  • Back in the U.S.S.R.
  • Dear Prudence
  • Glass Onion
  • While My Guitar Gently Weeps
  • I’m So Tired
  • Piggies
  • Happiness Is a Warm Gun
  • Long Long Long
SIDE TWO
  • Yer Blues
  • Mother Nature’s Son
  • Blackbird
  • Sexy Sadie
  • Helter Skelter
  • Savoy Truffle
  • Cry Baby Cry
  • Good Night
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20YearsAgo
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Re: If The White Album Were One Record

Post by 20YearsAgo »

A few years ago, this exact topic came up on another forum. At the time, I posted this:
The White Album is such a weird album, stylistically pulling in so many different directions that we forget how great of a Rock and Roll band the Beatles really were in 1968. A single LP culled from the nastier 1968 guitar numbers (Monkey, Helter Skelter, Birthday, Yer Blues, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Revolution, a longer version of Revolution #1 heard on HMC's TAKE YOUR KNICKERS OFF, Savoy Truffle, Glass Onion, and maybe Why Don't We Do It In the Road) would have been so killer. People wouldn't have dared say the Stones were "the greatest rock and roll band in the world" after hearing this concentrated dose of the Beatles rockin' out.
Since then though, another train of thought has come to me: If the White Album were reduced to a single LP-- or even split apart to create two (or more) separate albums-- it wouldn't be as beloved as it it today. We love it in large part because it is such a "messy" album pulling us in so many different stylistic and lyrically directions. It's as if the Beatles were out to prove that they could do EVERYTHING hands-down better than any other band. We love the White Album for its bouts of freaky weirdness AND for its utter pleading sincerity. The whole truly is greater than the sum of its parts.
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