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

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.