White Album 50th anniversary editions

[SpiderChrist]

I gave it about 10 minutes myself.

Quantick posted his top 10 solo Fabs' albums today on Twitter, if you're interested. No Ram, two Ringo. Silly cunt.

No Ram? Get tae Falkirk.

[SteveDave]

He balked at my list because I had "Some Time In New York City" (the first record only) and "Approximate Infinite Universe" in there.

[Satchmo Distel]

I can't listen all the way through any solo Beatle album for the simple reason that a voice within me will always be screaming "This would be much better with the other three on it." How could you not?

But the odd track is great: Instant Karma, #9 Dream, Here Today. Just make a mixtape and then you can chuck the rest out.

[Golden E. Pump]

The White Album is probably my least favourite classic Beatles album. It just sounds like a random meshing of songs by four people that didn't get on very well.

[Johnny Textface]

The White Album is probably my least favourite classic Beatles album. It just sounds like a random meshing of songs by four people that didn't get on very well.

I like it. Although I don't hear the sound of people not getting on? It's got so many good individual songs but doesn't really flow well as an album, which was probably the point after the failure or Sgt. Pepper.

[Golden E. Pump]

I like it. Although I don't hear the sound of people not getting on? It's got so many good individual songs but doesn't really flow well as an album, which was probably the point after the failure or Sgt. Pepper.

I think this is why. The album feels like four very disparate people making a collection of songs.

[the science eel]

Oh get away. It's the best album ever made. You just need to listen to it all the way through.

Sync-listen?

[wosl]

It's got so many good individual songs but doesn't really flow well as an album, which was probably the point after the failure or Sgt. Pepper.

Do you think that they were trying for the same sort of discontinuity on 'Pepper, then, or pre-Pepper?  (is "the failure" an allusion to a second album?).  They definitely failed if so, since 'Pepper features perhaps the most balanced and best-paced track sequence they put together.

[New Jack]

The White Album has great sequencing.

[Johnny Textface]

Pepper was supposed to be a concept album wasn't it? They sacked it off during recording. Maybe a failure isn't quite the right term, but it certainly didn't come out how they intended going in. With "The Beatles" I don't think they even tried to go there.

[Nowhere Man]

The White album is perfect because it's such a sprawling dirge of an album, it's like in some alternative universe it keeps on playing forever. It's just tune after tune, and even if you didn't like the next one there's a chance you'll love the next one. It's not clear or concise and it rambles like a fucker on some tracks, but that's why it's so much fun. After the polish and pomp of Sgt Pepper it's the perfect comedown record.

[SpiderChrist]

The White Album is beautifully sequenced, which is why I always balk at the idea of looking at tracks individually e.g. Wild Honey Pie is not exactly a world-beater, but it shines like a star in between Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.

As a 16 year old, I would fall asleep every night listening to this album, it's in my DNA and I love every second of it.

[New Jack]

Can you take me back where I came from?

Yeah, it's a bus ride away.

Cheers Beatles!

[wosl]

As a 16 year old, I would fall asleep every night listening to this album

Christ, how did you manage to drift off to an album that makes such a show of ping-ponging between serene and raucous?  The reflective lull of Julia or Mother Nature's Son, followed by the rollicking attack of Birthday or Everyone's Got Something To Hide, and with things like the demented Helter Skelter or the schizo pall of Revolution 9 lurking in the corners - how were you not regularly roused from the early stages of sleep in a sweat?!  To be able to 'use' the White Album in such a way I'd have to rearrange it, to top-load the rockers and shockers.  But then, the White Album lends itself well to reshuffling and editing (as long as you're okay with the idea that as-issued sequencing isn't something sacred), after all, its 'palette' of songs presciently came out as the world began to properly gear itself up for the adjunct of compact cassette recording and DIY compilation listening.

[New Jack]

Fuckin hell, sleeping during Rev 9. Brave

Or Don't Pass Me By

[grassbath]

He balked at my list because I had "Some Time In New York City" (the first record only)

Balk!

[SpiderChrist]

Fuckin hell, sleeping during Rev 9. Brave

Or Don't Pass Me By

I was a weird kid.

[New Jack]

I was a weird kid.

Not knocking it

Not even narrowing it down to childhood tbh :/

[a duncandisorderly]

I think this is why. The album feels like four very disparate people making a collection of songs.

I think it's odd that this is the impression most people have of it, & I hope the inclusion of some of the demo material will address this; they may have been peeling away from each other as song-writers, & developing their own styles, but the three principal writing forces certainly weren't above working on each other's songs, & the fact that some of the results sound like solo efforts is an unintentional result of the success of this. even "not guilty", which didn't make the cut first time round, ran to over eighty takes before they were happy with it. & this was one of george's songs. this afternoon, I heard a demo of "WMGGW", another harrison effort, with the writer on acoustic guitar & mccartney (probably harrison's biggest critic) gamely pumping away on a harmonium.

I think there certainly were disputes... creative differences.... ringo bore the brunt of this, & left the sessions for a while... but these tiffs need to be considered separately from what was going on away from the music.

as they gained control over their arrangements & the technology of the studio, it was inevitable that they would compete creatively with each other; these things are normal in any band, but should be expected in a group with three strong songwriters.

this was all new in 1968 london- previously, groups had been told what to do & when to do it, & weren't allowed to go into the control room, let alone have it re-wired on a whim. variously, EMI staffers dealt with this enthusiastically or opted out (& by 1968, even george martin had had enough).
ultimately, this is what led them (disastrously) to think about having their own studio built.

there are songs on 'the beatles' which are clearly solo efforts, but this wasn't anything new, nor was it indicative of a band falling apart.

"eleanor rigby" is paul & a string section, with some BVs from george & john, "yesterday" is paul on his own, & both of them long before 'white'.  conversely, the harmonies on lennon's "because".. does that sound like blokes who can't stand each other?

the bit I'm going to have a problem with is this remixing lark. I don't like that martin-fils did what he did to SPLHCB without anyone being there that was there at the time. I don't think 5.1 necessarily enhances the listening, except perhaps for the forensically curious who've not played with the various bootleg stems to hear the individual parts. I'd sooner the original tapes were just cleaned up & published as-is.

[Nowhere Man]

the bit I'm going to have a problem with is this remixing lark. I don't like that martin-fils did what he did to SPLHCB without anyone being there that was there at the time. I don't think 5.1 necessarily enhances the listening, except perhaps for the forensically curious who've not played with the various bootleg stems to hear the individual parts. I'd sooner the original tapes were just cleaned up & published as-is.

Regarding possible supervisors It's quite unfortunate that chief Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick passed away last week, especially considering they've yet to do Revolver for some fucking reason, which was the first major project he worked on. Macca's really the only one left that could rightfully have an input on the new remixes (Ringo as well, at least regarding the drums mixing, I suppose) although if the mixed reception to the Let It Be Naked.. project from about 15 odd years ago is any indication, Paul's damned if he does or doesn't get involved really.

[massive bereavement]

Are they putting John's uncensored rendition of "Sexy Sadie" on it?....

"Maharishi, you stupid git, who the fuck do you think you are?
Who the fuck do you think you arrrrreeee?
Oh you cunt!"

It's my favourite album because it has "Revolution #9" on it. I was always looking for something which would reflect my own mental illness and that track was it. The full length #1 is just as great in its' own way and I'm pissed off that I didn't get to hear that until I was aged 38 or something. I would have wanted to have made those noises in the classroom in a proper full on freak out.
RIGHT RIIGHT RIGHHT,
RIIIIIIGGGHHHhhhhiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTT.
It even tops "Cold Turkey".

I've read Emerick's book and concluded that he was probably the most uncool person ever to orbit The Beatles inner circle, including Cilla Black.

[wosl]

the bit I'm going to have a problem with is this remixing lark. I don't like that martin-fils did what he did to SPLHCB without anyone being there that was there at the time.

You'd have thought that of the remaining Beatles, McCartney at least would've been keeping tabs on what was being done, as would the likes of Ken Scott and Chris Thomas, but maybe not.  Can't vouch for the surround mix of Sgt. Pepper, but I think the new stereo mix was done with due care and respect, without it ending up an exercise in arid conservation.  The Beatles have given enough indications over the years that they consider(ed) rock music to be a bastard, functional art form, something modern and plastic and malleable ("But when you talk about destruction/Don't you know that you can count me out...IN!"), and it's hard to imagine that if Lennon and Harrison were alive, they'd want the original mono and stereo mixes to be regarded as fragments of the True Cross. 

[Dr Rock]

I like the White Album partly because the general public only know a couple of tracks off it and they aren't the usual ones. What ones do they know, Back In The USSR, probably Dear Prudence mainly through the cover version, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps?

[wosl]

The ones that made it on to the 1966-70 'Blue Album' will be best known (USSR, While My Guitar, Ob-La-Di), plus Birthday and Helter Skelter (which were included on the Rock 'n' Roll Music compilation).

[Dr Rock]

Yeah that's basically it, forgot Ob-La Di, also more in the public consciousness because of a cover. The Leningrad Cowboys do a good Back In The USSR. Helter Skelter and Everybody's Got Something To Hide are prob my favourites. Plus Dear Prudence.

[wosl]

Correction: the 'Blue Album' is 67-70, isn't it.  I'm firmly in George Martin's camp re. The White Album: it would've made for a killer single album, but as is, it's a ragbag that tries the patience.  I don't buy all this 'what makes it so good is that it's packed with diversions and tidbits' - things like Rocky Raccoon and Honey Pie will forever be mannered, facile tedium that you skip to get to the good stuff.  Which means I'm over a barrel about which version of this upcoming release to get, if any.  I'll probably get the 3-Disc version.  The White Album is down the pecking order behind Pepper and Revolver and MMT and Abbey Road, and at this stage I can't see myself being able to give the kitchen-sink version the listening it deserves - I've never sought out any of the Esher demos, outside of what made it onto official releases, after all. 

[the science eel]

Anyone going to shell out for the seven discs, then?

[massive bereavement]

Anyone going to shell out for the seven discs, then?

I would if I had any money, I've got to save all my loose change for Lewisohn's next book. I've probably got most of it in bootleg form anyway.

[Replies From View]

"WMGGW"

SPLHCB

I'm fairly sure that the amount of my time spent trying to work these out is greater than the time you've saved using just the initials.

What are they?

[a duncandisorderly]

I'm fairly sure that the amount of my time spent trying to work these out is greater than the time you've saved using just the initials.

What are they?

FFS, really? both mentioned numerous times elsewhere in the thread. one's an album & one's a song, with eric clapton guesting on it.