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

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.