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

Yer Blues

i'm voting "dear prudence" just to avoid spending an hour trying to decide. sooooo many great songs.

i vote Blackbird

number nine.

it's the one that resonates most in the memory after all these years. it doesn't fade or become irritating.

Prediction: I'll be the only one to vote for "Martha My Dear."

Voted for "Back In The USSR", but I'd have voted for the fast version of "Revolution" if it had been on the album. Second would have been "Savoy Truffle" despite it being the classic example of a list song.

"Long Long Long". I'm interested to see how popular this one is. It's one of the best Beatles songs, period.

that would have been my second choice.

I'm So Tired

Geir fave "Yer Blues" is the one.

"Dear Prudence" is one of my favorite songs, period.

i'll go with my 14 year old choice: rocky raccoon.

I have lots of sentimental reasons to go with "Piggies" but it has to be "I'm So Tired."

Long Long Long. Hopefully Cry Baby Cry and Sexy Sadie will get some votes too.

Sexy Sadie just got one.

my pov i guess would be prudence, yer blues, helter skelter, i will and mother nature's son. or long long long. or glass onion. or julia. or sexy sadie. or...

"Savoy Truffle" -- one of Harrison's few cranky songs with a sense of humor. Plus, GREAT horns and guitar solo.

i''l go with the banal "happiness is a warm gun", and who ever vote for "ob la di" (if there is such one) is not ny friend.

thread made me do this

http://www.johngilmore.com/Books/images/PIG_front_door.jpg

"Savoy Truffle" -- one of Harrison's few cranky songs with a sense of humor. Plus, GREAT horns and guitar solo.

otm!!

Prediction: I'll be the only one to vote for "Martha My Dear."

The only reason I voted for it is because its the song on this album most likely to just pop up in my head, though this album is an abundance of riches to be sure.

while my guitar...has so many great moments...i have to vote for it

"Julia" played at the right time and place is magical

This is impossible. Have mercy on us, and at least divide it into sides.

sooooo tough but I went with "why don't we do it in the road?"

"Wild Honey Pie" - I used to think it was a measure of their freedom. Now I think it songifies the ADD eclecticism and endless details that lend this album its identity and render it so suitable for obsessive listening.

Otherwise, its masterpiece is clearly "Happiness Is a Warm Gun."

Oh and shame on you, Whiney.

Oh I don't know, I don't know. Blackbird is the song I play on guitar to impress girls (it's one of the only non-strummy songs I can play), Piggies I always thought was hilarious when I was a teenager, Long Long Long is great, Cry Baby Cry, Rocky Raccoon. They're all important to me. Even Bungalow Bill I like.

The problem is, this is probably my favorite post-weed Beatles LP. And it's a double-fucking album. "Strawberry Fields" and some others are untouchable, but they're technically singles; so aside from that, I like the speed-era Beatles, I guess.

or prefer the speed-era Beatles, rather.

looking at this list, what amazes me most is how many songs i don't want to vote for. i voted for "i will."

Long Long Long.

For some reason I always thought it was a Lennon song. When I found it was George, I had Harrison-fever for weeks and listened to All Things Must Pass every night.

After going through the list and thinking about how much I love all these songs, I went with Revolution #9. It is such a tense, creepy record, and then it just goes to a whole other level of weirdness. Love it or hate it, it is a pretty singular experience. Or maybe I just like the memory of spinning it backward on my first turntable...turn me on, dead man...

Blackbird is the song I play on guitar to impress girls (it's one of the only non-strummy songs I can play)

heh i think it was the first non-strummy song i learned.
i went with long, long, long too, i love almost every minute of the album but time kinda stops when lll comes up. george was an alright dude.

I think I will be the only one voting for "Good Night". A very touching vocal, and it sounds like a soundtrack to some classic Hollywood movie. It feels like the least Beatlesy song there is, which is not why I like it so much, but it really speaks to their versatility. Also Ringo is my fav dude.

Second choice is helta skelta cos it cranks hard.

I might be the only one to vote for "Glass Onion."

"Blackbird"

Tim Ellison must be on vacation.

It is tough to decide. "Back in the USSR" was my favorite as a kid, and I still like it, especially the part with the Beach Boys satire. "Dear Prudence" is the one that sticks in my head. "Happiness is a warm gun" has a nice episodic quality, with three distinct parts. "Julia" is gorgeous. But I'm going to have to go with "While My Guitar..". It seems deeper than the rest, and I'm always compelled to listen closely whenever I hear it.

Another possible title:

c'mon, c'mon! c'mon, c'mon! Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My WHITE ALBUM POLL!!!

GOOD NIGHT.

and people who say it's "treacly" and the like? go and watch HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER or something.

"Yer Blues" is rubbish. There are so many crap songs on this album, I hardly know where to start!

where's Geir?

I voted for Sexy Sadie because among many strange, evocative songs, I feel its pull a little more than any other, today at least.

Long Long Long was also in my mind.

Then I realised I should really have voted for Revolution #9.

Ah well, I hope others will.

Well, I did.

It's strange, and you can say oh look at the contrarian..

But it still has that sense of 'theatre' about how Cry Baby Cry finishes (a good second place, possibly), and the "can you take me back" fades in, along with the "wine" chat, and suddenly into the dislocation of it all.

Destroy: Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Back in the U.S.S.R, Helter Skelter, Birthday, Why Don't We Do It in the Road?

Sublime: Glass Onion, Julia, Martha My Dear, Blackbird, Happiness Is a Warm Gun.

Think my vote will have to go to Julia.

Revolution #9's good too, but doesn't give me the chills.

Long Long Long

Crazy tough, but I'm going with "Helter Skelter."

Runner up: "Martha My Dear" (lovely, silly song)

"Revolution #9" still gives me the creeps.

Ooh -- "Glass Onion" -- huge fave as well.

It gives me the creeps, the chills, the sense of theatre, the sense of reaching for the stars. Fragments of it often run through my mind.

x-post

Everybody's Got Something To Hide... is the secret best track. Those cow-bells(?) at the start, then big screamy vocals for a bit, and then "everybody's got something TO HIIIIDE 'cept for me and my WAH-WAH-WAH-WA-AH-WAH-WAH!"

"Mother Nature's Son" for the "Find me in my field of grass" lyric.

julia. the most beautiful love song in the world.

The opening line and that circular rhythm. That's all Julia is, to me, and it's perfect.

Sexy Sadie. If it was an animal it would be a spider. Also considered: Happiness is a Warm Gun (snake), Cry Baby Cry (stray dog) or Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey (monkey).

I predict no votes for Birthday (goldfish), Piggies (slug) and Don't Pass Me By (labrador). The rest could all get some, though I can't see much reason to vote for Glass Onion (siamese cat) or While My Guitar Gently Weeps (block of granite).

"Birthday" is fine, as is "Glass Onion"

"Piggies" is shit tho. "Don't Pass Me By" worse.

i like "don't pass me by." a truly wacky recording, but it's got the bones of a good countryish rock song.

The barest of bones

"Piggies" is great!!!

I've always fucking hated "Rocky Racoon." After recording that, Paul SHOULD'VE been dead.

Ugh, that was weak.

I like "Rocky Racoon"!

Snap vote for Sexy Sadie.

"Glass Onion" - garbage.

I voted "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" which is one of maybe six songs I even like on this album

I went with "I'm So Tired". That "I wonder should I call you..." part.

This is pretty goofy, but when I was a teenager making the 90-minute trip between my two parents' houses, I'd sing the White Album to myself out of boredom. I got pretty good with the timing though "Revolution #9" was tricky.

I'll also give credit to Paul for being dominant on Revolver or even Abbey Road, but The Beatles was the one album where Lennon won hands-down. McCartney seems to have started hinting at his Wings schmaltz right around this time.

(I like the schmaltz. It just doesn't compare to "Happiness is a Warm Gun".)

There's some real rubbish from Lennon on this album though

My friends and I once issued a design challenge, in which we made journal designs to represent each song on this album. Oh, I wish I had it accessible to show you guys 'cause it was awesome! At any rate - I'm going for Rocky Raccoon, coincidentally my best design.

Haha - I bet your dad loved the gibberings from the back seat: "the wah-tusi, the twist ... el dorado"

not much of a Beatles guy so I voted "Dear Prudence" cause the Siouxsie cover of that song is just impeccable, one of the best cover versions I've personally heard. so i like the song for that reason, really.

Any hear the White Album outtakes/alternate versions on Anthology 3? I think a few of them are much better than the album versions: Helter Skelter, for one, is like this drugged-out, sparse but real SLOW and heavy jam with some great riffing and vocals; both Sexy Sadie and Cry Baby Cry are much sparser and Lennon opens up his voice a bit more; plus it's got McCartney's "Junk" which would've worked so well on the White Album (rather than the McCartney album), George's Not Guilty, and I'd even take the acoustic version of While My Guitar over the Clapton one.

Part of why I love the White Album is how stripped down it is, and some of these outtakes are even more so. I love love love the White Album and usually name it as my favorite Beatles album, but there is some crap on there as well as (what I think) are the lesser versions of some songs.

It doesn't help too that when I was getting into the Beatles (way back when I was what, 14?, man there's not much like getting into the Beatles and hearing all these songs for the first time), I had heard the Anthology 3 stuff before the album versions. Most of the album versions are obviously better, but there are a few (like the ones I mentioned) that I like a lot more.

People who don't get goofy smiles on their faces when O-bla-di comes on have hearts of ice and should stay away from children.

That said, I voted for Happiness is a Warm Gun Mama.

"Dear Prudence" is the best song on the best Beatles album. Also, I second the love for "Martha" upthread.

Lennon roolz this album.

Easy. "Dear Prudence"

Wish I could vote for two songs, one per LP. "Dear Prudence" is my actual favourite but I'm "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is close; and I'm voting for that purely to piss off the easily-offpissed.

"Revo 9" I quite like but wouldv'e liked more if it were tightened up by a minute or so. (Either that or stretched out to 12+ minutes with some Yoko-screeches for flavour.)

The most rubbish Lennon song (what, "Cry Baby Cry"?) is 5x better than the most rubbish Harrison or McCartney song on this album.

To me, this album's the object lesson in why most double albums should be pared down to singles (and my snide side says that most people who venerate the whole thing do so with the circular reasoning of liking the Beatles first, the music second).

USSR's my favorite right now (and since I knew people'd vote up Skelter and Yer Blues), so I'm voting for it despite it not being the "best."

the daffy hugeness of it creates all these little nooks for things like "savoy truffle" and "mother nature's son" to hide in. i'd hate to lose its rambly-ness.

Since no one agrees which bits are the crap ones how could it possibly make sense to trim them? I voted Revolution #9 for conceptual reasons.

I was like 11 years old when I recorded my Dad's vinyl copy of The White Album to tape (auto-reverse!) I listened to it waiting for the bus to school, in Minnesota, in winter, across the street from a crack house. (Yes, in Minnesota.) I didn't know Revolution #9 was controversial, I just knew that the Beatles were geniuses, so I listened to the tape over and over again and that was the track I couldn't get out of my head.

This is pretty goofy, but when I was a teenager making the 90-minute trip between my two parents' houses, I'd sing the White Album to myself out of boredom. I got pretty good with the timing though "Revolution #9" was tricky.

Beautiful post, PP. You have me beat - whenever I was bored in school, I'd sing the album version of Prince's "Controversy" to myself over and over again.

I went with Long Long Long, and then read the thread and am surprised at how popular it is!

I was about to make the same post as the one above me and was surprised to find it was already there!

sexy sadie

followed by happiness is a warm gun, cry baby cry, long long long, birthday, yer blues, everybody's got something to hide, etc all so good

Since no one agrees which bits are the crap ones how could it possibly make sense to trim them?

See Sandinista!

The fact that nobody's favorites and least favorites seems to lineup exactly speaks to how great the album is, too.

I have to admit I'm biased against the last side (which I barely listened to as a kid), but here's my mental ranking at the moment, based on 30 years of loving this album:

"Blackbird"
"I'm So Tired"
"Martha My Dear"
"Yer Blues"
"Helter Skelter"
"Mother Nature's Son"
"Birthday"
"Rocky Raccoon"
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
"Dear Prudence"
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
"Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey"
"Revolution 9"
"Sexy Sadie"
"Julia"
"I Will"
"Cry Baby Cry"
"Piggies"
"The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill"
"Glass Onion"
"Back in the U.S.S.R." [suffers from no Ringo]
"Long, Long, Long" [for its ending]
"Happiness Is a Warm Gun" [for its beginning]
"Wild Honey Pie"
"Honey Pie"
"Don't Pass Me By"
"Savoy Truffle"
"Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"
"Good Night"
"Revolution 1"

("Revolution 1" gets penalized because the single version is so much better.)

The whole trimming to one disc thing drives me nuts! this album's flaws are its strengths! there is no filler on the bloody white album!

"Since no one agrees which bits are the crap ones how could it possibly make sense to trim them?"

I think that folks who agree with me on which ones are crap tend not to be Beatles fans. At least, not Peppers-and-forward Beatles fans.

"The whole trimming to one disc thing drives me nuts! this album's flaws are its strengths! there is no filler on the bloody white album!"

Christ, that's slang for a shit album.

(Actually, it's not—I do like the White album on the whole, it's just that I got caught up in the hyperbole that comes from arguing with people who are really into the Beatles on the internet.)

Oh, show me 'round your snow-peaked mountains way down south...

Here's your single album, maniacs:

"Dear Prudence" – 3:56
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (George Harrison) – 4:45
"Happiness Is a Warm Gun" – 2:43
"Martha My Dear" – 2:28
"I'm So Tired" – 2:03
"Blackbird" – 2:18
"I Will" – 1:45
"Julia" – 2:54
"Yer Blues" – 4:00
"Mother Nature's Son" – 2:47
"Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" – 2:24
"Sexy Sadie" – 3:15
"Savoy Truffle" (Harrison) – 2:54
"Cry Baby Cry" – 3:02

I knew I was runnin into a buzzsaw with that last comment. I guess even though I'm not crazy about some of the songs, I wouldn't want them gone, which may just mean I am a sucker for its overall aura of "we can do everything"
PS On your single disc "If Assholes", martha my dear and cry baby cry are the weak ones, yet you leave off glass onion? nice try, bright boy

What you said except substitute other songs.

Segactly!

iago - in my opinion, "Glass Onion" is embarrassing, as cringeworthy as "Incense and Peppermints" or "White Rabbit" - Lennon at his absolute worst - the song sounds like parody!

"Martha My Dear" and "Cry Baby Cry" are great pop songs.

OK OK! I'm cringin as fast as I can...I'm a sucker for navel gazin self-referentiality...but martha my dear is tripe and cry baby cry is third-rate lewis carroll, imho

about a sheepdog! i don't do dog songs...

white album is the white whale of 'pare it to a killer single album' fetishists; as such I don't blame people for having a go, but it would help if any of the proposed discs were ever half as interesting as the whole thing.

also, martha my dear is at very least the 2nd best song on the album

i've always assumed the 'single album' people were the same people that like revolver best. is this right? just curious.

xxxpost

"Dear Prudence" – 3:56
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (George Harrison) – 4:45
"Happiness Is a Warm Gun" – 2:43
"Martha My Dear" – 2:28
"I'm So Tired" – 2:03
"Blackbird" – 2:18
"I Will" – 1:45
"Julia" – 2:54
"Yer Blues" – 4:00
"Mother Nature's Son" – 2:47
"Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" – 2:24
"Sexy Sadie" – 3:15
"Savoy Truffle" (Harrison) – 2:54
"Cry Baby Cry" – 3:02

Not that these songs are bad, but this would make for very dull listening had it been released in 1968, especially after Sgt Pepper. Cutting out all the wacky bits basically kills the spunk and energy of the album.

I love big sprawling records where the band throws in daft shit because they want to, or because they personally like the song. Sure you could boil White Album, Sandinista or Mellon Collie down to just the "proper songs", but they wouldn't be half as exciting or interesting.

The most rubbish Lennon song (what, "Cry Baby Cry"?)

can someone explain this comment on "cry baby cry" from lennon's 1980 playboy interview:

"Not me. A piece of rubbish."

his answers to all the other song titles in that interview tend to start with variations of "that was me," "that's mine," "paul," "that's paul completely," etc. so presumably "not me" is another way of saying, "i, john lennon, didn't write that one." but clearly he did write that one, right?

right??

"Glass Onion" is sour and overreliant on diminished chords, but it's also quick and dirty and creepy.

I just tried to narrow the album down to "the essential" - I was able to trim it from 30 songs to 25.

I almost think a more interesting poll would be what people consider the worst song on this album.

Prediction: I'll be the only one to vote for "Martha My Dear."

-- jaymc, Monday, September 17, 2007 8:28 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

this is exactly what I was going to say!

"there is no filler on the bloody white album!"

haha you are paul mccartney in the anthology film!

If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport--Glass Onion *is* a self parody, and a great one.

Blackbird, but Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da and While My Guitar Gently Weeps are both underrated due to their popularity.

I remember a thread here or on some other forum where the aim was to find a Beatles song that had never been covered on an official release. Someone suggested Revolution 9. But even that has been covered apparently! (Can't remember who by though.)

I Will

I had some sort of "Live at the Knitting Factory" tape where the Les Misérables Brass Band covered "Revolution #9".

I remember that website, and there is (I'm sure) a song that has no cover versions. It's not "Revolution #9" but I'll have to see what it is.

Maybe "Her Maj" or summat.

No it wasn't that. I think it was some early Harrison song.

Cover of Revolution 9:

http://www.amazon.com/Rev-9-Shazam/dp/B00004YR5B

I didn't know Revolution #9 was controversial, I just knew that the Beatles were geniuses, so I listened to the tape over and over again and that was the track I couldn't get out of my head.

That's what's great about hearing that song before the academic baggage seeps in. I first heard it when I was 3, so the idea that it might be wanky wasn't on my radar. So yeah, #9 gets my vote. Bonus points for giving Nono and Pierre Henry a run for their money.

tremenoid - to answer yuour question, as a delegate for the 'trim it down to a single album' guys, yes, Revolver just so happens to be my favorite Beatles album, with Rubber Soul a close second.

Sgt Pepper ruined music for a long, long time...

I think the Loud Family has covered "Revolution 9" as well.

I voted for R9 for the same reasons as this:

It is such a tense, creepy record, and then it just goes to a whole other level of weirdness.

That about sums it up. Even the White Album's ballads and hits are creepy, and R9 is the penultimate track. And then it's followed by "Good Night," which someone (maybe even here) suggested was a lullabye for the dying earth after R9's apocalypse.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I'm sad that "Birthday" got zero votes.

i'm sad that ob la di ob la da got 4 votes (most annoying beatles song ever prob)

Geir Hongro RIP

Winners #1 and #4 = ILM revisionism at its most representative.

The results are a disaster. The winner in particular. Also sprach The Beatles haters.

"I Will" – 1:45 2
"Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" – 1:40 1

morons

This particular album is terribly overrated anyway btw. Surely there are some good songs, "Honey Pie" and "Martha My Dear" in particular, but the album is way too patchy overall.

This particular album is terribly overrated anyway btw.

Only you think it is.

I am very pleased with these results.

I am unsure who gabbneb thinks are morons. The people who did or didn't vote for those songs?

i think the list of things that got 10 or more votes is a pretty interesting selection, revisionist or not. those are all great songs.

Ugh, you've GOT to be kidding me. "Revolution 9???"

Does the 'I' in ILX stand for "iconoclast?"

What's next, "Cambridge 1969" better than "Taxman??"

rev. 9 is ably argued for upthread. by people who don't hate the beatles, even.

i totally forgot how much I love "I Will". People sometimes favor "Here, There, and Everywhere" among sappy McCartney songs, but I like "I Will" much better.

I can't believe Rev 9 was number one. should've been Happiness.

Also no votes for Honey Pie? That's a great song.

voting rev 9 first strikes me as...insouciant but i happen to like it myself so why not? good list, they can't all be someone's favorite.
(id've saved "don't pass me by" from the goose egg)

Why in the world is a general preference of Long Long Long an example of ILM revisionism?

Well, for many years it was just another example of Harrison boringness.

"Revolution 9" – 8:13 17
"Revolution 1" – 4:15 0

there's no way 17 people made the same error, is there? this is worse proto-indie bullshit than that 1967 poll where Piper At The Gates and VU beat every populist classic rock LP.

Long, Long, Long is a fantastic song. I think the most overlooked tracks are the better ones really. (After 25+ years of listening anyway)

"Revolution 9" – 8:13 17
"Revolution 1" – 4:15 0

it ain't my number one song on this album, but between those two choices, i'd say that's 17 smart votes.

revolution >> revolution 9 >> revolution 1

I think I will be the only one voting for "Good Night". A very touching vocal, and it sounds like a soundtrack to some classic Hollywood movie. It feels like the least Beatlesy song there is, which is not why I like it so much, but it really speaks to their versatility. Also Ringo is my fav dude.

I really love "Good Night". The version on Anthology 3 (Ringo + piano --->fade-in to the orchestra backing) I would say is actually superior, and quite moving.

I missed the vote, but would probably give it to "Happiness is a Warm Gun", followed closely by "Julia" and "Mother Nature's Son".

"Dear Prudence" is an okay song, but never been really smitten with it. I respect "Blackbird" and can see why people would vote it #1, but strangely don't like it as much as I feel I should.

Have to agree with the above about "Revolution #9" taking the gold.

Oh yeah! Revolution #9 all the way! So happy with the results of this poll....

And exactly the right #2...the weird time changes, the backing and lead vocals, are just amazing

great result!

Pitchfork indier-than-thou mentality strikes again.

Worst.poll.ever.

I do like "Rev 9" and for the reasons so lucidly laid out above. Still, as with many of the P&J polls, I suspect results-skewing gremlins at work.

What's next, "Cambridge 1969" better than "Taxman??"

Well, no. But "No Bed For Beatle John" would give it a run for its tax dollars. I derive genuine pleasure from "No Bed For Beatle John" and have listened to it many times.

I am unsure who gabbneb thinks are morons. The people who did or didn't vote for those songs?

Ditto.

I so don't get the apparent distaste for "Glass Onion" and "Savoy Truffle." Must be the lyrics about which, as with most songs, I know close to nothing.

Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I quite like "No Bed For Beatle John" a lot, too. But not more than "Taxman"

The results are a disaster. The winner in particular. Also sprach The Beatles haters.

but geir, "revolution 9" is the most harmonically complex work the beatles ever made! it's pan-tonal!

yeah, i voted for it, and it's in my beatles top 10 right alongside "she loves you", "money" (no, they didn't write "money"...not like it matters anyway), and most of side two of abbey road. you can't call us beatles haters and get away with it.

and anyway, the REAL beatles-haters actually made a movie!
(which somehow manages to be more embarrassingly dated than the 40-year-old magical mystery tour)

The only typical Beatles song among the ones you mentioned is "She Loves You". The rest are all unrepresentative.

Geir, did you vote in this poll?

rev. 9 is ably argued for upthread. by people who don't hate the beatles, even.

-- tipsy mothra, Friday, 21 September 2007 00:46 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Honey Pie and that other one you said, G, are not the highpoints of the album.

"I will" is so slight, but so perfect.

Admittedly, "Rev 1" getting zero is wrong, but then...

Revolution 1 is pretty damn good. Not as good as the original version, but great all the same.

Maybe someone said this I can't be fucked reading the threwad but Glass Onion IS a fucking parody you fucking idiot

Ps fuckity fuck fuck fuck!

Yeah it's a parody, but it's also quite creepy. It works on different levels.

"it's a GOAL!"

Why in the world is a general preference of Long Long Long an example of ILM revisionism?

I was going to ask this.

Well, for many years it was just another example of Harrison boringness

Oh, was it? My attention must have been elsewhere during those years. Neither did I consider the ILX 'revisionist' agenda, whatever that is. I simply voted for it because it's absolutely fucking magical on every level, and it means a lot to me personally - the way it gently just arrives quietly; the lovely mellotron over the opening acoustic guitar; Harrison's 'how could I ever have lost you/when I loved you?' punctuated by the ascending mellotron(or organ) line and Ringo's magnificent roll down the tom-toms. More? The piano under 'so many tears I was searching/so many tears I was wasting'; the rising 'oh, oh' climax to those lines, the clashing, wailing outro.

I love how it feels like a small-hours, one-take improvisation that somehow became more than that. Magical.

Geir, did you vote in this poll?

I didn't see it on time. Probably would have voted for "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" I guess.

But I don't really like the album at lot at all. Even the good stuff is below par when compared to the work of genius they used to do from 63 to 67.

That's lovely, Dr. C. Certainly you're not wrong. I was citing just about every Beatle book published in the last 30 years in which "Long Long Long" is either patted on the back or dismissed as a trifle; and a resurrection of Harrison as some kind of major songwriter is definitely a new development (i.e. the last 10 years, although I guess the RS crowd thought he was until 1973). And, hell, I voted for "Savoy Truffle" so what do I know.

Ian McDonald rates LLL, I think - I'll have to re-read. Also wasn't George kind of instantaneously promoted to a higly rated songwriter with Something and Here Comes The Sun on Abbey Road.

Ian Mcdonald definitely rates LLL, from what I remember.

...Revolution 9 doesn't do much for me, I mean, it's certainly more listenable than lots of people would have you believe, but there are tracks on here that I can and do play ALL the time and I have a hard time thinking people do that with Revolution 9. Also, I think if it was a straight run off between Revolution 9 and any of the other tracks placing immediately below it, the former probably wouldn't get much more than 17 votes. Having said all that, I'm kind of glad Revolution 9 won the poll, it's sui generis.

ohhh "revolution 1" is 'revolution! shut out! I guess the single version renders (1) kind of superfluous but still.

I love how it feels like a small-hours, one-take improvisation that somehow became more than that.

Well put.

I would like to retract my Rocky Raccoon vote so that 'Don't Pass Me By' gets at least one!

"Revolution 9" is okay but too long. It would've been better edited down to a 2-3 min pop-song length, and in-keeping with the rest of the album.

wtf @ popularity of "Happiness is a Warm Gun".

Weird, Revolution 9 got more than twice as many votes as the rest of side 4 combined. I don't think it's just that people are drawn to the songs that stand out the most, though a slab of musique concrete on a Beatles record no doubt does just that. Maybe people are responding to what the Beatles were doing by 1968 - stretching out, experimenting - and Revolution 9 exemplifies that approach. So even if it seems like the least Beatles-y thing on the record, I think people voted for the most White Album-y. Song fragments, abrupt stylistic changes - nothing else here sums up that style as handily (though nicely enough, Happiness Is A Warm Gun comes closest and clocks in at number 2).

to all the ppl who think rev 9 was voted for out of some kind of principle, eg "beatles hatred" or "indier-than-thou mentality" , well i can only speak for myself; i voted for it because it's the most affecting and most outstanding song (yes, song) on there, and it's beome part of my head like none of the other tracks on there. It feels timeless while obv very sixties, it's without some of the most billious emotions displayed on the other tracks and works on a much deeper level, and most importantly of all, it functions like a memorable pop track.

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

(i.e. "Not Guilty", "What's the new Mary Jane" and um.. another ringo one?)

xp
and i reckon that's why many others voted for it. there may have been one or two jokers, "lol revolution 9" but who gives a shit.

Yeah agreed and if I didn't make clear: great song.

"But I don't really like the album at lot at all. Even the good stuff is below par when compared to the work of genius they used to do from 63 to 67.

-- Geir Hongro, Friday, 21 September 2007 12:50"

funnily enough i agree with the second sentence here. my favourite beatles period is '62 to '66, snd that's why i love rev 9; it has the energy and enthusiasm of those earlier tracks, rather than the lethargy and disgust scattered elsewhere on the lp.

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

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

if the white album was released today they would have been forced to stretch it out to 3 LPs

i'm just noticing that the 7-songs per side tracklisting there is way too long to fit onto 1

also cry baby cry AFTER revolution 9 is just weird to me

just wanted to say that the David Bowie cover of across the Universe should be used as scare-em-straight material to any young band that thinks messing with cocaine in a recording studio is a good thing.

http://www.dustandgrooves.com/rutherford-chang-we-buy-white-albums/

artist guy is assembling a show/"store" whose stock consists entirely of first-edition copies of the White Album. He's also playing a bunch of them back and recording them overlapped; there's a soundcloud embed in that article where you can hear Side One gradually fall out of sync and become a total cacophonous mess. Not bad.

That embed is brilliant.

yeah, that sort of thing seems to work really w/ the beatles in particular, the combination of musicality and heavy familiarity. reminds me of a kenny g show from wfmu that i can still remember dropping my jaw listening to it live over ten years ago - http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/2633

Count me as someone who thinks the winner is a rather dubious (least aggressive word I can come up with) #1.

"Long, Long, Long" and "Martha My Dear" would be my picks. My third got zero votes: "Don't Pass Me By."

The great thing about Beatles albums is how you can know every single detail of them by heart, for years, and still individual songs and moments can sneak up on you and hit the exact right note at the right time. Feel like the White Album is maybe the epitome of this just for having so much stuff floating around. Like, the ending of "I'm So Tired" just hit me like a stack of bricks. Damn.

(accidentally misposted to the "worst song" thread, reposting)

The title and cover of this is weird: it implies austerity and restraint whereas the album is both the most playful and heterogeneous albums the Beatles releases. Malevich would not approve.

not necessarily... it could imply a blank canvas, suggesting a world of possibilities lie within.

Maybe... Isnt white "all colors" and black is "no colors." that might be what they were thinking. Still, the album is full of genre experiments and is very pop art whereas blank white canvasses, in 1968, suggested an Ab-Ex sensibility, maybe.

Idk it just feels like the wrong cover for that album to me.

it's meant to look like conceptual art

it is

i don't really get yr point

none more white

The cover is part and parcel of the album's charisma, especially in how it doesn't "fit"

Results of this poll are so suspect

iirc McCartney wanted it to be the complete opposite of Sgt Pepper

Some artist dude set up the album art. I don't think it was The Beatles' idea.

But yeah, pop-art and abstract both equally fit for this record IMO.

plus idk, with all the tension in the band the absence of artwork feels like a fuck you, and the way the album is just a huge melange of song styles is kind of a fuck you too

from wikipedia

The album's sleeve was designed by Richard Hamilton, a notable pop artist who had organised a Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Tate Gallery the previous year. Hamilton's design was in stark contrast to Peter Blake's vivid cover art for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and consisted of a plain white sleeve. The band's name was discreetly embossed slightly below the middle of the album's right side, and the cover also featured a unique stamped serial number, "to create," in Hamilton's words, "the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies."[citation needed

Interesting. I forgot about the serial numbers.

Woah, never knew it was Richard Hamilton! I really only know him by the 50s collage stuff (''What Is It That Makes Today's Homes'' etc etc), so I don't know how this fits into his work but it's interesting since he would also have been known for kind of a four-color pop-culture maximalism, not dissimilar from the Pepper cover.

I think the cover works well for the reasons Treeship gives. If I had to give it another cover it'd probably be something like Revolver: four separate personalities, airy and bright from a distance but crowded and weird and bashing-into-each-other up close.

yeah Hamilton's work doesn't really hint at the austerity of the White album cover --- which kind of impresses me, that he could serve the needs of the project so perfectly by coming up with something that was not only anathema to what the band had been known for, but also kind of anathema to what he was artistically known for

it's so cool

I changed my mind. The cover's alright.

speaking of covers, just saw the cover for this thing -- kind of terrible?
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61-AXldtQDL._SL1500_.jpg

oh yuk

it looks like a SingStar box

'Revolution #9' took this? Oh, ILX.

wow that really does look terrible

it's really annoying me

it wasn't my fault, i voted for julia...

Hamilton's work doesn't really hint at the austerity of the White album cover

He did the poster also.

Only on ILM could Revolution 9 win. It's ridiculous and brilliant at the same time,

i like it but i think it's insane that anything beat long, long, long.

i'd like to note for the record that my vote, for "i will," was wrong.

i still think it's a great song, though.

it seems I did not vote? sb me

xp that's not a bad vote at all. i thought for a second this was the "worst song" thread and was momentarily scandalized.