The Beatles: Sex and The Single Album
The Beatles statue in Liverpool, England. Photo by Niamfrifruli, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Beatles AKA the White Album, was the Beatles’ ninth, released in 1968. It’s a double album, 30 tracks 1 and 90 minutes of music 2, and it mixes great songs with half-baked ideas and complete throwaways. Since about a week after it came out, people have been saying that a single-album version would be a masterpiece, though rarely explaining what to leave in and what to leave out. Today, we’ll do just that. The goal is to have a single album of 14 songs3 or possibly a bit more. We’ll favor songs that feature the group, as opposed to one of them alone or accompanied only by session musicians.
Let’s start by cutting the tracks that are obviously present just because there was space to fill, the ones we always skip:
- Wild Honey Pie
- Revolution 9
- Good Night
We’ll also omit the ones that might have been funny or pointed once, but have long since gotten stale:
- Glass Onion
- Bungalow Bill
- Piggies
- Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?
There are three songs that feature McCartney and no other Beatles:
- Martha My Dear
- Blackbird
- Mother Nature’s Son
We’ll allow one, a la Yesterday or Eleanor Rigby, and keep Blackbird, the most iconic of the three. We’ll also allow Julia, which is 100% Lennon. 4
On to the remaining non-Lennon/McCartney song. Don’t Pass Me By is pretty bad, with an annoying backing track and another joke that’s well past its sell-by date5. Long, Long, Long is dreary even by Harrison standards.6
More cutting: Revolution 1 is just a different version of Revolution; it belongs on the extended edition box set. Honey Pie is McCartney going to the vaudeville well once too often, like When I’m 64 but minus all of its charm. Excising them puts us at 17 now. There’s no fat left, so we’ll stop here, supersized but still single.
The new lineup has 5 songs each from the original sides 1, 2, and 3, and 2 from side 4. 7 It also has 8 Lennon songs, 7 McCartney, and 2 Harrison, more or les the original ratio, other than both Ringo songs being gone, All that’s left is to sequence it:
Side One
- Back in the U.S.S.R.
- Dear Prudence
- Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
- I’m So Tired
- Blackbird
- Rocky Raccoon
- I Will
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps
- Happiness Is a Warm Gun
Side Two
- Birthday
- Yer Blues
- Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
- Sexy Sadie
- Helter Skelter
- Savoy Truffle
- Cry Baby Cry (including Can You Take Me Back)
- Julia
You know, that is a masterpiece.
Update: I made this into a playlist, so you can check it out at Single White Album.
That would be a good album, but I have a soft spot for “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road.”Report
Back in the U.S.S.R. could easily be swapped out for Why Don’t We Do It in the Road. It’s not a *BAD* song, it’s just been overcome by events. I appreciate that they’re poking gently at the Beach Boys and that’s all well and good but that particular part of the joke has faded as well. Why Don’t We Do It in the Road has a message that remains timeless.
And I’ve never enjoyed the Savoy Truffle. We could remove that one and few would remember it.Report
I would keep “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, even if Berry and the Beach Boys aren’t as relevant, and the U.S.S.R. doesn’t exist. I think the song is fun, and the writing and recording of it is so late-Beatles — much of what it became was from conversation and just playing around while on a meditation retreat in India; the recording was so contentious that it caused Ringo to briefly leave the band; the final product is a result of the remaining 3 Beatles contributing bits and pieces of just about every instrument (with the exception of the Piano, which was just McCartney) — that cutting it out would be like removing a priceless cultural artifact. Add to that its place in actual cultural history, both in its voicing of the strong anti-American sentiment among younger Europeans at the time, as well as the fact that it lightheartedly spoofs one of the Beatles greatest influences (and someone whose musical styles they could genuinely be accused of appropriating, in their earlier work), I think it is in some ways one of the Beatles most interesting songs.
It’s also very funny that the Beach Boys spoof was possibly suggested to McCartney by a Beach Boy.Report
I agree that it’s an exceptionally *INTERESTING* song. I just don’t think that it does anything “fun” that isn’t “funner” in Why Don’t We Do It in the Road.Report
My contribution to controversy would be to axe “Birthday,” as a far too topical song for an album. Cut these and the White Album fits on a single compact disc:
Wild Honey Pie (filler)
I Will (Paul’s worst fluff instincts)
Birthday (but it’s not my birthday)
Honey Pie (“going to the vaudeville well once to often”)
Revolution 9 (make it stop)
Good Night (at an efficient 74 minutes, who needs sleepy time?)Report
I put this together several years ago after the band I was in had a discussion about how The Beatles could be pared down to a single great album. 13 songs, 41 minutes, the perfect length for an LP.
The songs tend to the rockier side, but for me getting away from the psychedelic stuff was a welcome return to form for the guys who cut their teeth playing in a Hamburg nightclub. They were at heart rockers who didn’t mind playing fast and loud.
Presented in order:
Back in the U.S.S.R. – possible the moptops’ best opening track. I’ll echo Chris on this one.
Dear Prudence – can’t leave out the following track. Lennon getting lyrical.
Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da – McCartney fluff, but it’s super catchy so it stays
Martha My Dear – McCartney could toss these 2:30 pop tunes off in his sleep
I’m So Tired – quintessential Lennon
Blackbird – no way this one gets cut
Don’t Pass Me By – Ringo gets a turn
Birthday – I learned the bass part for this song and got about 70% of the notes. One for the ages.
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey – John rocking out
Sexy Sadie – too bad legal reasons compelled a change from Maharishi
Savoy Truffle – Harrison having some rare fun
While My Guitar Gently Weeps – Nearly 5 minutes long and not a note wasted. My only gripe is the fadeout at the end. They should have figured out a coda.
Helter Skelter – The Beatles get heavy. Ringo shouting makes the perfect ending.Report