cereswunderkind ([info]cereswunderkind) wrote,
@ 2008-09-16 09:31:00
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The Shorter White Album
A day or two ago, in response to [info]skywaterblue, I said that the Beatles' White Album was full of pastiches, comedy songs and fragments. So let's see what left when you take them out and, while we're at it, delete the ones that are shite:

01. Back in the U.S.S.R.                                   Pastiche
02. Dear Prudence
03. Glass Onion                                                 Almost shite. Leave it in for now.
04. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da                                  Pastiche
05. Wild Honey Pie                                            Fragment
06. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill           Shite
07. While My Guitar Gently Weeps                     Shite
08. Happiness Is a Warm Gun
09. Martha My Dear
10. I'm So Tired
11. Blackbird
12. Piggies                                                            Shite
13. Rocky Raccoon                                               Pastiche
14. Don't Pass Me By                                            Comedy
15. Why Don't We Do It in the Road?                    Comedy
16. I Will                                                                Nearly, but not quite, shite. Put it on the reserve list
17. Julia      
18. Birthday                                                            Comedy
19. Yer Blues                                                          Pastiche
20. Mother Nature's Son      
21. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey       Shite
22. Sexy Sadie                                     
23. Helter Skelter                                                     Shite
24. Long, Long, Long      
25. Revolution 1      
26. Honey Pie                                                           Pastiche
27. Savoy Truffle      
28. Cry Baby Cry      
29. Revolution 9      
30. Good Night                                                          Pastiche, but maybe we need a Ringosong and it's a nice release after Rev 9
                                                                             
 
Can we (this is an old game) make a good single album out of what's left? How would we sequence it? Were there ever any consistently good double albums? Even Blonde On Blonde?

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[info]skywaterblue
2008-09-16 03:11 pm UTC (link)
I agree with almost every deletion except that I like Helter Skelter and Ob-La-Di is a super popular church song here so it has some sort of cultural value, I guess. (My Guitar Gently Weeps is similar.)

Also, IDK, there's nothing inherently wrong with songs that are supposed to be comedy for comedy's sake.

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[info]cereswunderkind
2008-09-16 03:25 pm UTC (link)
I might leave in Birthday, cos it's cracked :)

Approaching it from the other direction, here are the ones that are, IMO, essential:

02. Dear Prudence (despite Paul's drumming)
08. Happiness Is a Warm Gun (complex and involving)
10. I'm So Tired (John pulls himself out from the abyss)
11. Blackbird (simply beautiful, and it has such resonances)
17. Julia (John bares his soul)
24. Long, Long, Long (George bares his soul)
25. Revolution 1 (Just because)
28. Cry Baby Cry (It's hard to say why - it simply belongs)
29. Revolution 9 / 30. Good Night (They balance one another so well)

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[info]skywaterblue
2008-09-16 03:31 pm UTC (link)
Yeah. If you throw back in Back in the USSR, Glass Onion, Martha My Dear, Helter Skelter and While My Guitar Gently Weeps, you'd have a really good standard 14 song release.

If they haven't already, someone should do a punk cover of Piggies, because that's a song that secretly wanted to belong to the Sex Pistols or the Ramones.

Edit to add: I actually don't like Back in the USSR or My Guitar, I just keep including them because other people seem to like them. (Bleh.)

Edited at 2008-09-16 03:32 pm UTC

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