The Beatles - The BEATLES I

So, dig this. In 1966 they introduced a new music format called "Laser Read Music Delivery System" or LRMDS for short. The music industry in general was hesitant to try a new format but the classical and jazz industries quickly embraced the medium for its clean sound, its ability to hold longer playback times and the elimination of the need to turn the disc over halfway through. But not before renaming the format to the Extended Long Player or ELP for short. [Many years later, uninformed journalists often would misquote a certain popular Prog band claimimg this as the origin of their band's name. Silly journalists.]

The pop market was slow to catch on to the format due to its higher cost for the consumer. But as 60s consciousness expanded and pop groups became pop artists the format's appeal grew. Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde was tailor made and specifically targeted to the ELP. Frank Zappa exploited the format to its limits on a regular basis.

The first Beatles product released on the format was when Capitol decided to expand EMI's Magical Mystery Tour double EP soundtrack to fit on the ELP adding all the non-LP singles and B-sides not yet released in any long playing format.

But in 1968 The Beatles themselves decided to see how far they could push the format and released not one but two separate but simultaneously recorded ELPs. Averaging 70 minutes each the record companies were worried that the buying public would feel overwhelmed by such an abundance of music from one artist all in one go. But of course Beatles fans couldn't get enough of it.

The contents of each album was a wide cross section of the band's influences stripped of the psychedelia of the past year we got everything from soft folk songs to rousing sing-a-longs to weird abstract soundscapes and straight up rockers, most likely an after effect from their recent meditation retreat in India. Two abbreviated LPs were also released for those on a tighter budget.

Eventually debates and discussions arose over which collection was the better one or whether or not two sets were even necessary. Some fans even went so far as to compile their own single ELP versions.  Imagine that.

01 Back in the USSR
02 Dear Prudence
03 Glass Onion
04 Sour Milk Sea
05 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
06 Wild Honey Pie
07 The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
08 While My Guitar Gently Weeps
09 Happiness Is a Warm Gun
10 Los Paranoias
11 Martha My Dear
12 I'm So Tired
13 Blackbird
14 Revolution
15 Piggies
16 Hey Bulldog
17 Rocky Raccoon
18 What's The New Mary Jane
19 Circles
20 Don't Pass Me By
21 Why Don't We Do It In The Road
22 I Will
23 Julia

Reality Notes

I go into a little more detail in the post for part two below. I used the 2009 stereo remaster as my base and for the most part kept the songs in their original order and slipped the new songs where I felt they fit in. The sources for the additional material mostly comes from the 2018 deluxe package unless otherwise noted. I also followed George Martin's plan of not having more than two songs in a row by a single writer, George's songs are spread out evenly between the two discs and all of the "animal" songs are on one disc.

Songs and edits of note are as follows:

Sour Milk Sea: This outfake comes from the 22 disc bootleg series The Lost Album. This is one of the better versions of this outfake that syncs George's Esher demo with the backing track from the Jackie Lomax version that George produced and features Paul on bass and Ringo on drums as well as Eric Clapton on guitar.

Los Paranoias: This is my edit of the impromptu jam between Paul, John and Ringo recorded during the I Will session. This is a new edit and is different from the edit I did on my Paul solo album version.

Revolution is the single version (Hey Jude appears on the second disc).

Hey Bulldog: This was recorded before the trip to India along with Across The Universe during the Lady Madonna sessions so could be considered outside the timeline but the Beatles didn't like to leave things in the can and in spite of it being slated for use in the upcoming animated film they also used it here.

What's The New Mary Jane is the Anthology mix.

Circles is the Esher demo.

Don't Pass Me By: I prefaced this song with the A Beginning orchestral piece as originally intended. I transitioned from one to the next by having the piano intro of the song start to appear while the orchestra is winding down creating a nice natural join of the two parts.

Why Don't We Do It In The Road: I prefaced this song with an additional verse from the previous take to extend the song a little bit more. This is a recreation of the edit I did to the song on my solo album version.

Where ever appropriate I created transitions between the songs to match the flow between songs on the original release.

The Beatles - The BEATLES II

Released on the same day as its sister ELP, The BEATLES II was another full collection of songs covering the same range of styles as its companion album.

While containing fewer songs, this disc is actually longer than the first disc. Two tracks here are almost epic in length. Hey Jude is 7:12  and Revolution 19 clocks in at 10:32!

While initially the more popular of the two albums, most fans would eventually purchase both sets to even out the sales. Future editions would package the two discs together along with bonus discs of out takes and demos.

01 Helter Skelter
02 Yer Blues
03 Mother Nautre's Son
04 Not Guilty
05 Junk
06 Sexy Sadie
07 While My Guitar Gently Weeps II
08 Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
09 Birthday
10 Hey Jude
11 Long, Long, Long
12 Heather
13 Honey Pie
14 Child Of Nature
15 Across the Universe
16 Savoy Truffle
17 Cry Baby Cry
18 Can You Take Me Back?
19 Revolution 19
20 Good Night

Reality Notes

A big shout out and infinite thanks go to SonicLoveNoise for his amazing sync up of the full version of Revolution 1 and Revolution 9 to create his Revolution 19, without which this comp would not have come out as good. The syncing of the two songs transformed the track from an abstract soundscape to a long freak out jam. He created this mashup for his recent April 1 post of a crazy single WA disc. Please go there and check his blog out. He has some wonderful constructions and his attention to detail is impressive.

This project is my attempt to expand the White Album by including everything of note possible in as a polished and complete form as I could. As with many of my constructions I did more than just compile the tracks. I did many edits and transitions to create a flow to match the original album and dropped no tracks other than the merging of Rev 1 and Rev 9 (thanks again Sonic).

At the heart of this comp is the White Album we all know and love and debate and argue about and bond over. I kept the original tracks for the most part in their original order slipping in new songs where appropriate. I did extend a few songs but refrained from using any alternate versions such as the earlier version of Ob-La-Di which I think is just as good. The idea was to expand the album rather than change it up completely. Think of it as an extended movie director's cut with all the deleted scenes put back in.

Songs and edits of note are as follows:

Not Guilty: Take 102 from the 2018 remix bonus disc.

Junk: This is an edit I did for my Paul '68 solo album. I took the instrumental version from the McCartney album and slipped the vocal version inside it to extend the song to over three minutes. Even though this was recorded in 1970, the primitive way Paul recorded the tracks at home helps it fit in with the '68 tracks.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps II: This is the Love version of George's demo with George Martin's orchestral score. The first of two repeated titles across both albums but both alternates are so different they can coexist. This is one of the elements passed down from the Use Your Illusion timeline as those albums each contained a different version of Don't Cry.

Hey Jude: The single version. Maybe having the full version on a record they would have edited the single version down some.

Heather: From a tape of Paul and Donovan trading songs. While not from the WA sessions themselves, it is contemporary so why not include it? We have the room. I did do some cleaning and editing to polish it up a bit.

Child Of Nature: This is my enhanced Esher Demo. Normally when I do these I have all of the songs in front of me in a sequencer. The program I use is flexible enough to do some simple but creative editing but this song and Goodnight were worked on individually before being brought into the project as a whole. The editing I was doing wasn't anything complicated but became frustrating when in the context of the full project. I added more birds from Across The Universe which follows the song and flew in some crashing waves from my sound effects library for the intro. This song was later reworked by John for the Imagine album as Jealous Guy. A better song for sure but this is still an interesting listen.

Across the Universe: I used the Wildlife version from Past Masters but transitioned the song out of the previous song by having the bird sounds before they take off appear during the fade out of Child of Nature.

Can You Take Me Back?: I took a bigger chunk from the full take one to justify its own track listing.

Revolution 19: Sonic's masterpiece. This was the catalyst for this comp (the story came later). I was perfectly happy to enjoy the 2018 deluxe White Album and everybody else's constructions until I heard this. By syncing up Revolution 9 with Revolution 1, we were able to eliminate a redundancy that allowed us to include the single version on disc one and improve the overall flow of both discs. Without this we would have to make a choice on which Revolution to eliminate (most likely keeping the single version as a single only and moving Rev 1 to disc one) even if No. 9 sounds little like the song it was built upon.

Good Night: I added on the guitar version with harmonies before seguing into the finished orchestral version extending the song to over three and a half minutes.

This is now my preferred way to listen to The White Album. Even though we have more music, by separating the tracks into two groups makes for a more manageable listen to me. I liken it to having a double scoop ice cream cone taken away from me but given back two full bowls. And thanks to the 2018 remixes of the Esher demos which, while still rough, improved them enough that I felt no qualms including the ones I did. In fact I feel they fit in nicely in this format.

I modeled the covers on the original of course but now we have a white album and a black album.