FEATURE:
The Beatles at Fifty-Five
IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles during the ‘Mad Day Out’ shoot on 28th July, 1968/PHOTO CREDIT: Stephen Goldblatt
Revolutions, Re-evaluation and Reduction: Why a Single Album Would Not Have Worked
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AT thirty tracks…
and a running time of about ninety minutes, you definitely get your money’s worth from The Beatles. The 1968 eponymous album from the Fab Four, there was a lot of division and disagreement within the once-tight ranks. Not as close and connected as they once were, often songs were recorded in different studios by different members of the band. In spite of that, there was this incredible creativity and prolificacy! If George Harrison did not quite hit the strides he did on Abbey Road, he did produce two of The Beatles’ best tracks: Long, Long, Long and While My Guitar Gently Weeps. John Lennon produced more than his fair share of gems – among them, Happiness Is a Warm Gun. Paul McCartney’s Blackbird is among his very best works. Ringo Starr wrote Don’t Pass Me By. Whilst many of us have out favourite tracks, I don’t think that there is a lot of agreement regarding the best ten or so songs! You might get some similarities, yet most of us favour different cuts. There are double albums that are quite bloated and have more than their share of filler. There are classics like Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti (1975) that, whilst not constantly brilliant and up to their peak, is regarded highly because everything works together. You embrace the tracks that are not quite as strong as the others because everything fits. You would not separate the songs and try and slim things down to a single album! That would take something away and ruin the flow. Also, even if you do not like some songs on a double album, the fact that you get all of these songs and the group/artist goes to so much trouble is to be commended. A double album can be a very risky thing! Not that many are as celebrated as a more focused single album.
Maybe people were expecting something different to The Beatles in 1968. The band produced the epochal Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. Quite a bit had changed since then. Cracks were starting to form – at least more visibly than there were previously. They could have released a single album and be done with it. It is clear their trip to Rishikesh was instrumental. In terms of strains forming and intensifying between the group. Also, in terms of providing a creative backdrop and outlet. It was a pivotal trip that would start the process of one of their best albums. The Beatles is always placed alongside the very best of the band’s work. Even if some people discount various songs and think there is filler, the history and backdrop of the album create an impact. The legacy and importance of it. Even the less-strong songs work when you hear them in context. You get a fuller flavour and feel of The Beatles and where they were in 1968. A broader and deeper feeling of what the album is trying to say. The Beatles turns fifty-five soon. Released on 22nd November, 1968, a debate has been raging since that date. People always ask whether The Beatles would work better as a single album. Maybe cutting a thirty-track album down to, say, fifteen. You could definitely have a leaner experience. One where you could include fifteen of the stronger songs and make them work. If you do that, there are going to be a fair few classics lefty aside. You might not get Back in the U.S.S.R. or Long, Long, Long. The charm of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da or the beautiful Honey Pie. Objectively, at least two-thirds of the album is either very strong or superb. That would be longer than a single album. Perhaps thirty tracks is a lot…though I don’t think it is possible to realistically cut it to a singe and say that everything left out is not worthy.
It is the sprawling nature of The Beatles that makes it is a genius piece of work. All four members contributing so much. The objective nature of music means that every conceivable single album – fifteen tracks – would mean many would be angered. You would never lose the fifteen ‘worse’ tracks, as there are going to be wonderful songs not in the mix that should be. Look at this poll from 2018:
“Though I've presented on The White Album several times, I had never done so collaboratively before yesterday. With its 30 stylistically diverse tracks, it is particularly well-suited to multiple interpretations and perspectives. And last night at the Arthur J. Miller library in Warren, MI, I paired up with Beatles expert Bob Koski to discuss and debate the merits of all 30 songs, before letting the audience decide by vote which half to keep and which half to discard.
When it was all said and done, here are the 15 tracks the audience voted to keep:
Back in the USSR
Dear Prudence
Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
I'm So Tired
Blackbird
Rocky Raccoon
I Will
Julia
Yer Blues
Mother Nature's Son
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey
Helter Skelter
Revolution 1
Cry Baby Cry
That means they threw out these 15:
Glass Onion
Wild Honey Pie
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Martha My Dear
Piggies
Don't Pass Me By
Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
Birthday
Sexy Sadie
Long, Long, Long
Honey Pie
Savoy Truffle
Revolution 9
Good Night”.
Look there. Three of the album’s best tracks are left on the cutting room floor: Long, Long, Long, Happiness Is a Warm Gun, and Revolution 9. Maybe Wild Honey Pie, Piggies and The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill could go. Though I do like the latter, as it was the song I first hard as a child. The one that introduced me to The Beatles. Also, a few tracks that would be in many people’s top ten of The Beatles are in the rejected pile. The wonderful Sexy Sadie, Martha My Dear and Glass Onion. You see the issues we come up against! I would also say you could swap Yer Blues and even While My Guitar Gently Weeps out and take a couple of the discarded songs and make a stronger single album. Think about where those ‘dud’ tracks fit on the original album and how they work. A bridge between other songs. I think those songs left out of the single album are worthy because they add to the story. They make tracks around them stronger – not in an insulting way! -, in addition to adding gorgeous and rich texture. I think you would get a colder and more rigid single album. One that seemed like a greatest hits collection and not a fully-fledged story.
In 2008, MOJO had their say on what would be an ideal single-disc The Beatles. They left out both Revolution 1 and Revolution 9! No Why Don’t We Do It in the Road (to me, one of the most underrated songs on The Beatles). Again, a different opinion and some inexcusable omissions:
“Sequence a single-disc version of the album, in keeping with producer George Martin’s famous complaint that it should not have been stretched to two records. Mojo offers several such suggested versions.
Of course, Paul McCartney’s equally famous defense of the double album, as heard in The Beatles Anthology, was “It’s the bloody Beatles White Album. Shut up!” Certainly one of the charms of the White Album is how sprawling it is, though there are certain songs I never again need to hear.
Still, whittling the White Album down to 15 tracks, as instructed, is pretty tough.
Here’s my best stab at the single-album version of the White Album, with Side 1 and Side 2 designated because this was a classic record long before CDs came along:
Side 1
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Birthday
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Mother Nature’s Son
Happiness Is a Warm Gun
Side 2
Blackbird
Piggies
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide (Except for Me and My Monkey)
Sexy Sadie
I Will
Julia
Helter Skelter
Long Long Long
Toughest deletions: “Cry Baby Cry,” “Yer Blues,” “Savoy Truffle,” “I’m So Tired”
Next tier: “Martha My Dear,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,” “Revolution 1,” “Wild Honey Pie,” “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road”
Easiest deletions: “Honey Pie,” “Rocky Raccoon,” “Revolution 9,” “Good Night,” “Don’t Pass Me By” (sorry, Ringo)
This exercise confirms that my two favorite sides of the original album are Side 1 (which I always liked) and Side 3 (which grew on me as an adult). Paul’s cutesy material doesn’t hold up nearly as well as John’s harder-edged songs, though the toughest rocker remains Paul’s (“Helter Skelter”).
I’m tempted to substitute “Yer Blues” for “Birthday” or to put “Sexy Sadie” in that spot on Side 1 and add “Cry Baby Cry” or “I’m So Tired” to Side 2 but the “Birthday” riff and drumming just can’t be denied, even if the song is slight.
I also almost dropped “I Will” but just couldn’t; it’s an especially sweet song to sing to your kids. Then again, so are “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” and “Good Night,” and those didn’t make my cut.
Paul was right: A single album just loses too much essential material.
Here’s the real solution: The Beatles should have added “Hey Jude” and the harder-rocking single version of “Revolution”—both of which were recorded during the White Album sessions but released separately as a single—and removed “Honey Pie,” “Rocky Raccoon” and the pokier “Revolution 1.” You’d still have the divisive 8-minute sound collage that is “Revolution 9,” but, hey, it’s the bloody Beatles White Album. Shut up!”.
To prove the inconsistency and futility of deciding on a single album for The Beatles that would trim any fat, Far Out Magazine gave their take in 2021. They kept lesser tracks like Piggies and Not Guilty (which is a track that was not included on the original album):
“For full disclosure, I already disagree with the premise I’ve set for myself. I’m one of the people that defends the album, through thick and thin, as a piece of art that should be kept whole. Every piece of filler, every ridiculous song, every moment of the album creates a very specific feeling, and listening to the record in its entirety is a completely unique experience that is felt differently by anyone who takes the time. There are plenty of reasons why ‘Wild Honey Pie’ should not have been included on this LP, but taking it off ruins the spirit of the recording, which is that of a warts-and-all expression of artistic discontent. The Beatles were so dysfunctional during this period that Ringo Starr quit during recordings and was replaced by Paul McCartney’s drumming on the first two songs. The Beatles starts off with only 3/4ths of The Beatles!
Much has been said regarding the band dynamic at this time: Paul McCartney, unwilling to yield his artistic vision, would create whole songs in solitude, playing all the instruments himself. John Lennon, largely uninterested in his own recordings, much less anybody else’s, threw out half baked ideas along with genuinely good songs as if to mess with the group. George Harrison, struggling to show his prominence as an equal contributor to the band, was only allotted a few songs to express his own growth as a musician and songwriter. Ringo Starr, constantly feeling underused and underappreciated, mainly waited around the studio while the others tried to pull their pieces together. Often, the band members would be working in separate studios.
The atmosphere was tense and territorial, something that would worsen to the point of eroding the band’s working relationship on later projects. George Martin, once the master organiser and instrumental contributor to ideas and compositions, would now try to organise four disparate artists. Personnel would sometimes simply not show up for sessions or spontaneously go on holiday. The strain of recording under frayed relationships led longtime recording engineer Geoff Emerick to cease his partnership with the group. The once tight-knit working unit was infiltrated with wives – most prominently Yoko Ono – whose from then-on constant presence in the studio only further strained relationships (although it did not cause the breakup of the group, as is commonly misconstrued). Morale was at a low, but that led to a creative hotbed of ideas, some of which received extensive polishing, and some of which were left raw and uncut.
The results speak for themselves: a bizarre, brazen, unconventional collection of rock, pop, music hall, blues, hard rock, exe will never be another White Album, and there’s always something new to take away when you listen to it. Its legacy is set, so now all we can do is ponder what maybe could have been, for better or for worse.
The Beatles (Single Album)
‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’
‘Dear Prudence’
‘Savoy Truffle’*
‘Martha My Dear’
‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’*
‘Yer Blues’
‘Blackbird’
‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun’
‘Birthday’
‘Julia’
‘Not Guilty’*
‘Glass Onion’
‘Helter Skelter’
‘Long, Long, Long’*
‘I’m So Tired’
‘Good Night’
All songs written by Lennon-McCartney, except * written by Harrison.
So there it is! Not bad, huh? OK, chances are very good that you disagree with at least one, if not some or most, of my decisions. Yes, I did include ‘Good Night’. No, I didn’t include any ‘Revolutions’, or any ‘Honey Pies’. Yes, I did include ‘Not Guilty’, a song that wasn’t even on the original double album. Yes, most of the ridiculous songs that I previously said made the album what it is are gone, but give me the chance to explain.
First, some statistics: the length of this single album is 49:52, reducing the original 93-minute cut by about 44 minutes. Lennon has six songs with ‘Dear Prudence’, ‘Yer Blues’, ‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun’, ‘Julia’, ‘Glass Onion’, and ‘I’m So Tired’ all making the cut, giving him a 37.5% stake.
McCartney, meanwhile, has five songs with ‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’, ‘Martha My Dear’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘Birthday’, and ‘Helter Skelter’ all included, giving him a 31.25% stake. Harrison has four songs with his creations of ‘Savoy Truffle’, ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, ‘Not Guilty’, and ‘Long, Long, Long’, allowing him a 25% stake. Starr has one song (‘Good Night’), giving him a 6.25% stake in the album.
While ‘Good Night’ was written by Lennon and arranged by Martin, Starr sings lead and is therefore given credit as his song. Even though songs written by either Lennon or McCartney are given the Lennon-McCartney tag, the lead singer is the one who wrote most or all of the song, so they’re given credit appropriately”.
The fact that everyone has their own order and opinion when it comes to that theoretical single-disc The Beatles just goes to show that it would be a crazy thing! I can see why some find thirty tracks too much. Maybe not favouring some of the tracks. Feeling they are filler and not really crucial. There are songs on The Beatles that I am not keen on. As I say, I feel they all have their place. Wild Honey Pie and The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill form this odd filing between Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and While My Guitar Gentle Weeps. They give the first side a bit of eccentricity and playfulness. Levity and different colours that are required. I think Blackbird and Piggies as a one-two work well. It is crucial the second side has Ringo Starr’s Don't Pass Me By. He definitely could not be left off the album as a songwriter! I think the third side is the strongest. Even if it opens with Birthday and Yer Blues, these songs offer different sides to the band. Sonic variety that compliments the rest. Placing the heavy and brutal Helter Skelter right before the gorgeous and serene Long, Long, Long showed that The Beatles were very much leaning into an unorthodox way of sequencing! Cresting different moods and shifts. Reduce the thirty songs to fifteen and you get something lacking and far emptier. The fourth and final side finishes with the odd-yet-perfect one-two of Revolution 9 and Good Night. For argument’s sake – and to offer my view… -, I have included my single album. Fifteen songs from The Beatles that I feel are very strong. Maybe not my favourite fifteen, mind. They are the ones I think would hang together best in a single album. As I have said, it is wrong to cut this incredible double album down to one. It is what people have been debating for decades. Ever since 1968 I guess! On 22nd November, The Beatles is fifty-five. The fact that no two people can agree on an ideal single album goes to show…
WHAT a masterpiece it truly is.