[quote="Bruno" post=696518]



Probably not so much that hewasn'tinvolved, as not every Beatle is on every track, but more the fact that Yoko was.

Abbey Road is my favourite, then Revolver, Sgt Pepper and the White Album. White Album was too bloated for me, they should have listened to George Martin and scaled it back.

I think the streams of consciousness bullshit lyrics came from the Beat Generation legacy of Kerouac and so on. It was already in the pot-filled air before 1963. You could say that The Beatles were far more popular than the Beat Poets so commercialized (but did not invent) junk lyrics.

dryroasted wrote:


Fair enough, but the average Beatles LP contained 13-14 tracks, TWA had 30.

Which 16 songs would you leave on the cutting room floor?

It would invovle removing some good but not great tracks, but I'd cut it down by getting rid of

Glass Onion
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
Wild Honey Pie
Martha My Dear
Piggies
Rocky Raccoon
Don't Pass Me By
I'm So Tired
Birthday
I Will
Everybody's Got Something to Hide...
Honey Pie
Savoy Truffle
Goodnight
Revolution 9
Cry Baby Cry

Others will probably disagree.

There are songs on that list that are better than stuff that made it onto their previous 8 studio albums.

Thats a fascinating property of the white album. While many people would concur with the notion that it could be editird down into a superb single album, they'll disagree about the contents of that single album.

For example, Helter Skelter would be first on my list of discards. I think it's the worst track they ever recorded - it falls so weedily short of its ambition by such a long way.

Here was me stating how the White Album has lost its appeal to me over the last few years, and suddenly remember that I insisted on having I Will played at the end of my wedding ceremony.

If I could narrow the album down a one-disc of 14 tracks, I'd go with:

Side One:
Back In The USSR
Dear Prudence
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Martha My Dear
Blackbird
I Will

Side Two:
Julia
Mother Nature's Son
Sexy Sadie
Helter Skelter
Long Long Long
Revolution 1
Cry Baby Cry

I'm sure this was discussed when the box sets came out, but since this conversation seems to have legs: what's the consensus among the fans here about the Mono box set. Is this worth the money? The reviews on Amazon seem to suggest that in an ideal world the best route would be to cobble together some of the mono CDs with some of the stereo reissue CDs but since the mono CDs are currently available in the box set only....

Depends how big of a Beatles fan you are, I suppose. I think they're great. Your suggestion is what I've done. It's a bit strange not hearing "I've got blisters on my fingers!" on "Helter Skelter," and some of the other songs with noticeably different mixes.

I think Taylor had an epic post about them when they were released.

Can't find a clip, but in Lemmy, there is a cool early scene where Lemmy heads to a record store to get The Beatles boxed set in mono. He must have enough hearing left to tell the difference.

Incandenza wrote:


Yeah, someone (not sure if it was Taylor) put together a list of the albums that we're never really meant to be in Stereo and sounded better in mono. I checked them out and they were so right.

Yeah, Taylors post on that thread was what made me want to get the box-set in the first place. I'd noticed a lot of the early fabs stuff sounded weedy on CD, but wasn't really sure why. Taylor completely clarified why. And he was dead right, the stereo versions of everything from 'Please Please Me' to 'Sergeant Pepper' sound muddy, the mono versions are coiled and sharp as a razor, fucking lethal. They take the top of your head off. They're brilliant.

The mono versus stereo 'White Album' is a bit of an odd one though. I couldn't call it between them, you're best off getting both, honestly.

Have to confess to a soft spot for the much maligned Good Night. I know it's soppy and silly, but it is a lullaby, and Ringo just sounds so...... nice. I'm sure it would work on a little child.

The only shame is I understand John wrote it for Julian, but wouldn't sing it himself. But then of course, Ringo wouldn't have...

Serge wrote:


Great thread. Pity I have no time to contribute to it in a meaningful way right now. But I must point out the folly of choosing one "best" Beatles album. How do you compare the pop perfection of Help with the experimentalism of the White Album? You might as well compare Dylan with Sinatra.

Anyway, at inca's urging I've re-upped the alternative history Beatles albums at the links above.

I've never thought Sergeant Pepper was twee you know.

Music Hall for sure, but I like music hall.

'Lovely Rita' for instance is a really fucking odd song. Inspired by McCartney getting a parking ticket apparently. I've always found the coda of it sort of blissed-out to the point of becoming a bit eerie to be honest.

'Pepper' isn't twee, but I've always thought it's a bit overrated; it wouldn't get in my top five Beatles LPs. I'd go for Revolver at #1, followed by Hard Day's Night, Help!, Rubber Soul and Abbey Road, though not necessarily in that order- I find these things vary according to my mood. And I love the White Album, but there are a few tracks that surely very few would miss: for me,'Wild Honey Pie' would top the list to be excluded, followed by 'Good Night' and (sorry everyone) 'Revolution 9'. But then I'd have put 'Not Guilty' on... And McCartney gets a lot of stick for his supposedly straight image and opposition to including 'Revolution 9', but he'd already recorded an (apparently) similar avant-garde piece called 'Carnival Of Light' which is the Holy Grail of Beatles completists, having never been released or bootlegged. Apparently Paul nixed it for the Anthology releases. Maybe in retrospect he decided it was rubbish.

Going back to Revolver, I always thought it was underrepresented on the Red Album, with only two tracks while Rubber Soul, for example, got six. I'd have left off 'Drive My Car' and (especially) 'Michelle', and gone with two tracks from Revolver, maybe 'Taxman' and 'For No One'. Or 'She Said She Said'. Or... or... or... But then 'With The Beatles' and 'Beatles For Sale' only got one track each... Tricky, isn't it?

Maybe I'll start a thread inviting OTF-ers to (re)compile the Red and Blue albums?

Erics Inner Monologue wrote:


Well said.

Wyatt Earp wrote:


I thought about doing it, but it just seemed too obvious.

I've never actually sat down and listened to any Beatles album the whole way through. Is that a bit weird?
I mean, they're quite good and that, particularly the older stuff, but...
I remember my parents had a copy of A Hard Day's Night at home when I was a kid but again, never bothered with it.

Meant to add that I don't really understand the forensic examination of everything they ever did or said and that it bewilders me.