pondering the white album

i have set myself up. i really have. i recently listened to the white
album and recalled some comments made by beatles producer george martin about
cutting some tracks off the double album and creating one good album with 15 songs.


so as i listened to "glass onion" and "while my guitar gently weeps" the other
day, i thought of what martin said and i got to thinking about it. then it
stuck in my head and now i'm on a mission to choose 15 (maybe 17) songs from the 29 (i know already i'm excluding revolution 9). so i decided to pose the question to
jim h. he thought it would be a difficult thing to do, but wanted to
see what my list was. i've yet to create that list.

i know i can do it. but there are several problems in my trimming of the song list.
do i include my faves on the "new" album or do i choose songs by musical merit
and originality the way martin would have chosen them? my thinking is martin's way is
better for this purpose.

the white album is not my favorite beatles album (that distinction falls to
either abbey road or sgt. pepper's). but, till, the album does present
some really awesome stuff, great guitar riffs by harrison, gret lyrics and
styles coming together, since the band rehearsed and recorded separately
ifor many songs. their different styles really came out.

there's the from-the-throat "helter skelter" that really rocks, the simplicity of
mccartney's "black bird," lennon's "happiness is a warm gun" and "i'm so tired" both of which have nice time changes as the songs progress. the allusionary tracks of "glass onion" and "savoy truffle?" or the smooth "dear prudence," the rockin'
"revolution 1" or harrison's "while my guitar gently weeps?" do i
want to include a yoko backing vocal (as in "the continuing story of bungalow bill)?

do we even have an album without the ringo track "don't pass me by?"

i dunno. i will have my list by the end of the weekend and we'll see how it
goes.

i think john got off with the better songs on thw white album. it's only my humble
opinion, but it seems like it.