Bonus Video: Condensing The Beatles' White Album into a single disc
Added 2025-04-30 02:28:40 +0000 UTCHey folks!
We return to Beatles territory with this month's bonus video which I really enjoyed making! This felt like an inevitable Patreon video for me so I'm glad it won the poll.
Let me know what you think of my single-disc White Album and also tell me what yours would look like.
Thanks for another month of support!
E.
Comments
In the end for my track listing I tried for something that worked as tonal experience… it meant leaving off a few things I really really like, the most egregious example of this being the scandalous non inclusion of Julia, but as much as I love it, it’s so touching and meaningful, it feels as if in another universe it would’ve been the perfect closer to the plastic Ono band album, after God instead of my mummy’s dead, imagine Julia coming in, opening with the screaming blue murder of mother then the serenity of Julia, and hey on the double white album is works, but once you make it a single, I could not find a place to put it where it pops, it’s too significant to place track 4 side 2 or whatever, it has to close a side and I had my mind made up on those, so without further chew, here we go… Side one Glass onion Martha my dear Savoy truffle Sexy Sadie Blackbird Cry baby cry Helter skelter Side two Dear prudence While my guitar gently weeps Birthday Happiness is a warm gun Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and my monkey I will Long long long The ‘fuck ringo’ mix call it… and George had 3 on revolver so why not here! Glass onion is a perfect intro, setting the scene, helter skelter ends side one which is like yours and I think really pops, but long long long is an exquisite ending, perfect with that amazing death rattle ending, then almost the redux of the hard days night chord at the end, slamming the album shut.
steven anderson
2025-11-30 16:48:36 +0000 UTCThe thing is, if you do trim the white album down, I think you just destroy its ramshackle charm, the bizarre but iconic transitions (Lennons exaggerated northern ‘ay up’ going into the opening of gently weeps, that spooky untitled McCartney track that leads into the nightmare of revolution 9, long long long coming out of the heavy metal cacophony of helter skelter)… you can call it unfocused but it’s kind of the point… it is sprawling and unhinged but that’s why I love it, every Beatles album including and after rubber soul is a totally different sonic and textural experience, and the white album is so messy and dirty, but that’s why I love it, the filthy guitar sounds, the palpable tension resulting from and exemplified by the dizzying array of styles from hard rock, to music hall, to country, full on Chicago blues, folk, Musique concrète… it’s all here, and listen, I’ve done a 14 track WA loads over the years for fun, and I know it just doesn’t work, and in the words of an unusually exasperated macca on the Beatles anthology, it’s the bloody Beatles white album, shut up! Great video though, like all your content, loads of fun, and great viewing.
steven anderson
2025-11-30 15:51:41 +0000 UTCNow watched. Loved seeing your workings out. Mine is purely personal favourites placed in a good sequencing order but ended up a good split between all members and most of the "essential" tracks are on it. I do have a bias to Lennon but the single LP ended up a fair split. Where I differ from nearly all Beatles fans is "Blackbird." I've been listening to the White Album since my double cassette in 1990 and Blackbird has always been one of my least favourites. It didn't make it to my single CD version (along with Why Don't, Martha (Sorry) & Rev 9) and I've watched with interest how Blackbird has grown in stature over the years to become a standard (sure it wasn't back in the 90s) so much so that it was a given on the revamped Blue album. To me, I still hear it as I heard it at the time, a twee throwaway, and I know I am in the huge minority here but my single LP White Album will always be different to most because of this.
Richard Allsop
2025-11-03 16:57:11 +0000 UTCNot watched this yet (literally just joined your patreon after enjoying your youtubes for years) but I can tell you straightaway what my single LP White album is 1.1 Back in the USSR, 1.2 Dear Prudence, 1.3 Ob-La-Di, 1.4 I'm So Tired, 1.5 Don't Pass Me By, 1.6 While My Guitar, 1.7 Happiness Is A Warm Gun, 2.1 Revolution 1, 2.2 Honey Pie, 2.3 I Will, 2.4 Everybody's Got Something To Hide, 2.5 Sexy Sadie, 2.6 Helter Skelter, 2.7 Long Long Long
Richard Allsop
2025-11-03 16:07:51 +0000 UTCPiggies over Long, Long, Long!? You’re a dangerous man, Elliot.
Bronẽlso
2025-10-30 03:50:02 +0000 UTCI totally agree with all of your initial cuts even though they’re not bad songs by any means. Of your maybes I’d personally pick dear prudence, Don’t Pass Me By (my fav ringo sung song of the band), and Long Long Long, and mother nature’s son. I agree with all your automatic yesses too. It just shows how great the material on this double album are even though it’s so stylistically varied and doesn’t really have one theme or concept like a lot of double albums do. This was a cool experiment in music and album assemblage.
Tyler Piper
2025-10-23 22:53:50 +0000 UTCI’ve always never understood this idea of editing the album down to just one album. To me it would make more sense separate the songs into two more cohesive albums, one more whimsical the other a rock album. Something like this: First One (Whimsical One): Side One: 1. A Beginning 2. Glass Onion 3. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Anthology Version) 4. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill 5. Rocky Racoon 6. Piggies 7. Blackbird 8. Honey Pie Side Two: 1. Dear Prudence 2. I Will 3. Julia 4. Mother Nature’s Son 5. Long, Long, Long 6. Cry Baby Cry 7. Martha My Dear 8. Good Night The Rock Album (The White Album): Side One: 1. Back In The USSR 2. Hey Bulldog 3. Not Guilty (Anthology Version) 4. I’m So Tired 5. Why Don’t We Do It In The Road 6. Happiness Is A Warm Gun 7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps Side Two: 1. Birthday 2. Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me & My Monkey 3. Don’t Pass Me By 4. Sexy Sadie 5. Savoy Truffle 6. Yer Blues 7. Helter Skelter Then a Zapple EP: A-Side: Revolution 9 B-Side: Wild Honey Pie B-Side: What’s The New Mary Jane (Anthology Version) Also would mean we get more George songs and that’s always the best outcome.
Luke Hall
2025-08-12 17:42:54 +0000 UTCI won't list my version of this album, but my favorite most essential track would be "Glass Onion" because I think it's just so funny that John was actually making fun of his fans for looking into hidden meanings into their songs. The Beatles might have *indirectly* invented conspiracy theories as we know them today!
Scorpio 2
2025-07-16 23:35:53 +0000 UTCThat was some serious mental acrobatics you put on display there! I once heard a music critic say that Rubber Soul is their "best collection of songs," Sgt Pepper is their "most important album," Abbey Road is their "best album," and The White Album is "everybody's favorite Beatles album." True, it's a generalization, but it sort of works for me.
Scorpio 2
2025-07-16 21:47:16 +0000 UTCI honestly think that Helter Skelter should've been kept as it was at First Version/Take 2 on the 2018 remaster and been the B-side to Revolution. It has that great lumbering feel that makes "She's So Heavy" that incredible end to Side A on Abbey Road. I also think that if John didn't die, the Beatles would've reunited to play Live Aid, Paul already played it and George was a big fan of charity concerts.
Drew Engel
2025-06-24 06:05:54 +0000 UTCI know I'm super late to this but this was the best I could come up with: Side 1: 1. Back in the U.S.S.R 2. Dear Prudence 3. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da 4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps 5. Happiness is a Warm Gun 6. Martha My Dear 7. Blackbird Side 2: 1. I Will 2. Julia 3. Birthday 4. Yer Blues 5. Mother Nature's Son 6. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey 7. Helter Skelter Super difficult and probably not as balanced as it should be, great video though!
Eli Hess
2025-06-09 01:28:46 +0000 UTCRevolution 9 would’ve worked better if it had been broken up into parts and dispersed throughout the entire album instead of feeling like a giant tumor that the listener is forced to sit through all at once right before the finish line.
Brendan J. Smith
2025-05-17 16:11:13 +0000 UTCBack in 1980 when I first got into The Beatles and was young and have almost no information about them I remember being very disapointed in them that they didn’t write one of the songs, who was that Richard Starkey anyway !!!???
HappyRon Hill
2025-05-11 21:41:16 +0000 UTCI went through this process back in my custom CD-making days, but of course I had 80 minutes to work with. I never challenged myself to cut it back some more, and so, yeah, no one is going to agree to a single LP. Thanks, though, for tackling this topic.
JCS
2025-05-11 17:04:23 +0000 UTC
![gal ha had[The Sir]](https://nokimo.com/istorage/53465.jpg)
