soundguardian
Gender: Male
Age: 33
Location: alone in the superunknown
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- #17
- Posted: 05/30/2014 19:26
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I once had to reorder this for an assignment, tbh. I'll show you my result and then my methodology of combination-selection and of choosing my final permutation...
********************************* RESULT *********************************
Final order of the two-sided LP:
_____Side 1
________1. “Happiness is a Warm Gun”
________2. “Dear Prudence”
________3. “Cry Baby Cry”
________4. “Martha My Dear”
________5. “Julia”
________6. “Mother Nature’s Son”
________7. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
_____Side 2
________8. “Blackbird”
________9. “I’m So Tired”
________10. “Sexy Sadie”
________11. “Yer Blues”
________12. “Back in the U.S.S.R.
________13. “Revolution”
________14. “Helter Skelter”
********************************* METHODOLOGY *********************************
The album traverses two or three decade’s worth of genres, from traditional ones like blues and country, rockabilly, jazz, and foxtrot-able tracks to emerging genres like Beach Boys surf and hard rock. With such diversity, it’s hard not to enjoy quite a few of these tracks to make up for the ones that are not particularly involved, interesting, or effective. An elimination process seemed like the quickest means by which to determine which tracks should be represented.
ELIMINATED TRACKS
S1 T4: “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” – Too poppy with too many wasted syllables and not enough substance.
S1 T5: “Wild Honey Pie” – It's short, annoying, and no one likes it.
S1 T6: “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” – The piece is simply too reiterative, with the same line “hey, Bungalow Bill, what did you kill” repeated far too many times to grasp and maintain a listener's attention.
S1 T14: “Don't Pass Me By” – Ringo's atrocious attempt to song writing that results in hideous country chaos and the immortal line “I'm sorry that I doubted you, I was so unfair. You were in a car crash and you lost your hair”. Ummm... yeah, so there's that.
S1 T15: “Why Don't We Do It in the Road?” – The lyrics are very uninspired (with exception to monkeys copulating in an Indian road), and the song is thus limited in scope and depth.
S2 T9: “Honey Pie” – It sounds dated, while many many Beatles songs sound timeless. It's clearly a weaker song on this record. It's sometimes less sophisticated and classy (with that attempt at a smooth foxtrot sound), and more boring than anything.
S2 T12: “Revolution 9” – Far too drawn out, way too long, and fails to justify that length. It's disorganized, and clearly had far less planned structure than the musique concrete that so obviously influenced it.
S2 T13: “Good Night” – A rather weak attempt to resolve such a large album, one would expect something drastic, dramatic, or blissful. “A Day in the Life” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” were revolutionary, whereas this is just mildly pretty. The sound and feeling doesn't in particular match the moods of the other pieces that precede it, and the album isn't a concept album like Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, so it's all the less impactful. We'll choose one of the best of my selected tracks that seems appropriate to end a late-Beatles album, one that's revolutionary like those other two closers.
ORIGINALLY UNCERTAIN (later eliminated by default via the process of selection, but all decent tracks)
S1 T3: “Glass Onion”
S1 T9: “Martha My Dear”
S1 T12: “Piggies”
S1 T13: “Rocky Raccoon”
S1 T16: “I Will”
S2 T1: “Birthday”
S2 T4: “Everyone’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey” – Not exactly compulsory, and more of a trinket piece, “Everyone’s…” isn’t a terrible piece at all.
S2 T7: “Long Long Long” – It’s too slow-paced, and overall mediocre, but by no means terrible.
S2 T10: “Savory Truffle” - uhhh... it's about a box of chocolates... don't get me wrong, chocolate is delicious, but still.
SELECTED TRACKS
S1 T1: “Back in the U.S.S.R” – Fast-paced, exciting rocker with cool jet sounds in the background, and, more importantly, a hilarious satire of The Beach Boys.
S1 T2: “Dear Prudence” – A relaxed, innocent piece praising the gorgeous state of nature, and encouraging Prudence Farrow to break from her meditation and enjoy the riches that life has to offer. The most striking of the lyrics is “the sun is up, the sky is blue; it's beautiful, and so are you”.
S1 T7: “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”** – The piece is visionary and beautifully dolorous. You can feel Eric Clapton expressively wailing on his guitar throughout and equate that with a Harrison's lament for society's decadence. The worst part is that Harrison sees so much potential in mankind's capability to love, but sees this potential go to waste.
S1 T8: “Happiness is a Warm Gun”** – Lennon's song meaning is open to multiple interpretations. He devised it via composing three disparate parts, and seamlessly cascading those sections together. The result was a great in Beatles history and catalog. Outrageously, it was banned by censors for its sexual– or drug– related references.
S1 T10: “I'm So Tired” – This piece is very relate-able, as everyone has experienced feelings of weariness and distraught due to excess stress, work, or various of life's downs.
S1 T11: “Blackbird”** – There's a definite tone of serenity and peace in this track that none of the other songs on The White Album attain. It's essential to the album and can't be left out. Real bird samples inserted into the mix make it all the more perfect.
S1 T17: “Julia” – A beautiful tribute to Lennon’s mother.
S2 T2: “Yer Blues” – Straight-up heart-wrenching blues that can't be left off this line-up. With brilliant lyrics like “My father was of the sky; my mother was of the Earth / But I am of the universe, and you know what it's worth”, this piece is a satisfying update to the blues genre.
S2 T3: “Mother Nature's Son” – This acoustic number stands out as a notable contribution by the Beatles to the folk-inspired music of the 60’s.
S2 T5: “Sexy Sadie” – Originally an indictment of the Maharishi by Lennon when he was disillusioned by Maharishi's sexual advances on a woman, this has somehow turned out to be more of an admonishment of manipulative women.
S2 T6: “Helter Skelter”** – Undeniably the first of its kind, this unique gem is often considered the first “hard rock” song with wide release on an LP. McCartney really lets loose on this one, and the crashing cymbals by Starr help the lead guitar soar. It's strange that all the Beatles seem to have rotated roles, with McCartney leading guitar and vocals in an edgy song, Lennon taking on bass responsibilities, and Harrison providing rhythm guitar. After the initial fade out, it unexpectedly creeps back in, and ends with the well known “I got blisters on my fingers” line.
S2 T8: “Revolution” – It's almost obligatory, and a top-class piece (with a spectacular opening riff) concerning ideals of world change that can't necessarily come to fruition by the means of revolution or force. I suggest the faster single version as opposed to the album version, as it has more of a sense of urgency, and more of a rocking drive.
S2 T11: “Cry Baby Cry” – The folk sound at the end of the track has a lot of soul. It's just a pretty piece in general, throughout.
The tracks marked with ** will be the 4 enveloping tracks to the two sides, as they're the 4 strongest cuts. And the structure will be laid out like the following:
Side 1
1. “Happiness is a Warm Gun”
X
X
X
X
X
7. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
Side 2
8. “Blackbird”
X
X
X
X
X
14. “Helter Skelter”
The final track, “Helter Skelter”, is selected as the closing track because it is most likely the most innovative or genre-fostering and influential piece of the 30 tracks, and builds to very monu-mental moments, like in “A Day in the Life”, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, and “I Am the Walrus”. It even refuses to end at the original fadeout, fading back in and breaking the customary trend of ending at the fade out, which is completely unexpected. It only seems appropriate to end on such an epic note of powerful music, and that legendary Ringo Starr outburst: “I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!” The other three are brilliant pieces, and I’ve always considered “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Blackbird” to be the most incredible pieces on the album (bar “Helter Skelter) (but would not be ap-propriate openers). Cascading one into the next would be a perfect transition. The way this is ar-ranged is interesting in that “Blackbird” is on one end of the spectrum (one of the most chill pieces that the Beatles have ever composed) and “Helter Skelter” is on the other end of the spectrum as the heaviest piece composed and executed by the Beatles (and perhaps anyone at that point in time).
The final step is to organize the last 10 tracks into the remaining places. Exploiting the afore-mentioned fact, the first side is relatively understated, with tracks like “Martha My Dear”, “Julia”, “Dear Prudence”, and “Mother Nature’s Son”. The second side begins subdued with the nocturne “Blackbird” and increasingly becomes harder to a climactic fit that is “Helter Skelter”. This sequence provides the listener a whirlwind tour of the diversity of genres inherent to the sounds in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. It was difficult to choose between “Martha My Dear”, “I Will”, and “Rocky Raccoon”.
_________________
 <--suddenly...Bora!
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7. Julia (2.54)
