A lot has been written about ‘The Beatles’ or ‘The White Album’ as it is more commonly known. The only double album released during the band’s lifetime, it has become notorious in some circles for having the worst Beatles track ever released on it (‘Revolution #9’), some filler that should have remained firmly in the archives (‘Wild Honey Pie’), and ‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’. This is most probably the most Marmite song in the bands catalogue, as it was not a favourite of the other Beatles, but it was a number 1 hit in the UK for the band Marmalade.
In the past, I had a go at making this a single LP but there was plenty of songs left over that were of high quality that it would have been a shame to lose them. However, there was, in my opinion, only enough quality material for three sides of really good music. A few weeks back, I was on Youtube and the algorithm threw up an intreating mash up of Jackie Lomax’s ‘Sour Milk Sea’ backing track with George Harrison’s vocals from the demo played on top. With three of the four Beatles on this (only Lennon was not involved), could this now be included?
Well, I thought so, so I looked to rejig the tracks to include this as well as another Harrison song, ‘Not Guilty’. This song took 102 takes to get right, and was a strong contender for inclusion but with its thinly vailed barbs at Lennon and McCartney, it was felt that airing their dirty washing in public was not the done thing. I have also included the ‘Let It Be….Naked’ version of ‘Across The Universe. Though it was not recorded for the “:White Album’, it was in the can and does not sound out of place, especially with this sparce arrangement. The introduction to Ringo’s song’ Don’t Pass Me By’ has been reinstated, having been first revealed to the world as the opening song on the ‘Anthology 3’ LP.
Overall, this is still not a perfect album but I would say that these additions make it much better one.
Side 1
- Back In The U.S.S.R.
- Dear Prudence
- Glass Onion
- Sour Milk Sea
- The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps
- Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Side B
- Martha My Dear
- I’m So Tired
- Blackbird
- Piggies
- Rocky Racoon
- Don’t Pass Me By
- Why Don’t We Do It In The Road
- I Will
- Julia
Side C
- Birthday
- Yer Blues
- Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me & Monkey
- Sexy Sadie
- Helter Skelter
- Long, Long, Long
- Across The Universe
Side D
- Revolution 1
- Mother Nature’s Son
- Not Guilty
- Honey Pie
- Savoy Truffle
- Cry Baby Cry
- Good Night
The cover was adapted from an image taken and adapted from https://beatlesandrutles.blogspot.com/2020/09/beatles-fantasy-albums.html. I added a picture of The Beatles to the centre which means that they would now have an image on the band on all of the LPs they released during their lifetime. The original cover of ‘The Beatles’ was the only one not to have any image of the band on it all.