Dan Mooney

# About to have my head blown clean off 8:58 PM Mar 5th via txt

# Guy behind the counter: “Hi, I’ll be with you in one moment.” Customer with her headphones on: “What?” 8:11 PM Mar 4th via web

# The neighborhood where I work is chock full of cinema history and has a bagel shop. I like it: http://bit.ly/b5X725 1:22 PM Mar 4th via web

# Nerdy? Altruistic? Shut in? Check out http://www.freerice.com/index.php 9:50 PM Mar 1st via web

# Whatchamacallit? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-ZUM0Jb9pQ 2:12 PM Mar 1st via web

# 4th day without coffee. Felt good turning away iced tea to stay caffeine-free. Did not turn away free chocolate in time to realize. 2:11 PM Mar 1st via web

# Day 2 without coffee. Head: still aching. Hands: done shaking. 3:56 PM Feb 27th via web

So, Revolution in the Head reinvigorated my fondness for the Beatles, and encouraged my reexamination of the material, song by song. It’s a perfect time, then, to try to pin down what I’ve only thought about pinning down: What if the White Album were one CD? Two record sides? How would my version look?

This is with all due respect of course to the album as it is, as it was released. Nothing can change its history but I think this idea’s worth a look.

If you’ll be interested to try this out yourself, if you haven’t already, go ahead and stop reading right here, for now. Think about it, and come back and see how our lists match up.

Okay:

The White Album, which I won’t italicize, has 30 tracks, in CD form, 17 on the first and 13 on the second. 15 tracks for the average, and a round number, but I chose to shave it down to 14 tracks, because other Beatles CDs have that many and because 14 seems a hair less unwieldy.

Now, I cherry-picked my favorites, I didn’t choose songs by default, from what was left, but that’s oddly the way I’ll explain my reasoning. Like a sculptor, removing the excess. Oh, and an underlying thought for me is that all these songs would eventually have seen the light of day in some form – it’s not like I wish never to have heard certain tracks, ghastly as they may be, it’s just that they wouldn’t contribute to the ideal, condensed version.

Let’s begin:

The most satisfying deletions for me are the first and the easiest. Bye bye, “Wild Honey Pie.” So long, “Long, Long, Long.” And guess what, “Don’t Pass Me By” – you’re kinda terrible. You sound like a fiddler trudging through molasses, but millions of people have heard you, so, kudos. “Long Long Long” is pleasant enough, I guess, and I see the rationale of contrasting it so extremely with “Helter Skelter,” but it’s a little too lilting and it’s one of the first to go.

I also left out two of Harrison’s other tracks, “Piggies” and “Savoy Truffle.” The first is one of the songs that, because of the instrumentation, does increase the scope of the soundscape of the White Album, but it doesn’t stack up. I like the guitar solo on “Savoy Truffle” and incidentally did have a screen name to that effect ten years ago, but those golden facts alone won’t save the song on this list, and I forgot the password.

Neither “Revolution” made it. The sound collage is impressive but I hardly ever listen to it, which counts. It’s creepy and I do like it but I like other song-songs more. “Revolution 1″ is the pale forerunner of its distorted, wonderful, enthusiastic twin, recorded shortly thereafter. I can’t offer it praise when it’s done exponentially better elsewhere.

“Martha My Dear” is satisfying to play on the piano, “Honey Pie” the same on guitar. No dice, though. “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,” a little too third person. “Birthday,” a little too relentless. “Good Night,” too much. “Rocky Raccoon” and “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?,” too little.

The last cuts would be “Glass Onion” and “I Will.” “Glass Onion” was ousted at the last second by “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” really because there were too few McCartney tracks on there, it would seem, and because its upbeat tone would help (but probably fail) to even out the single album. “Glass Onion” has a minor bluesy feel that’s heard in other songs, too. “I Will,” is gorgeous, delicate, but at this listing a notch below two other McCartney acoustic songs. For no reason at all!

And that leaves the final fourteen, which I’d arrange in this order:

Back in the USSR
Dear Prudence
Blackbird
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Yer Blues
Sexy Sadie
Julia

Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
Happiness is a Warm Gun
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Mother Nature’s Son
I’m So Tired
Helter Skelter
Cry Baby Cry

That’s just how I’d order the songs today. Tough to spread out the Lennon songs, which strangely enough dominated the final list, strange only because I thought I usually preferred McCartney’s songs. Goes to show the preference, if one remains, isn’t universal.

And there you go. My White Album. George Martin would have preferred to put out one album, I heard, I wonder what songs he’d have chosen. Ah well, in the end, it’s nice to have them all.

# It’s alright, Ma, I can make it. 9:18 PM Feb 24th via web

# On that second note, here’s a fantastic version of it: http://bit.ly/bz4WTW Great singing. 9:38 PM Feb 23rd via web

# http://bit.ly/dcBFYY (In the Sun), http://bit.ly/bR7Bk3 (My Iron Lung) 9:35 PM Feb 23rd via web

# The intro to She & Him’s “In the Sun,” and the intro to “My Iron Lung.” 9:34 PM Feb 23rd via web

# I see a POÄNG in my future. 8:16 PM Feb 23rd via web

# I wonder if any of the Germans playing vs. Canada also played against Team USA in the Junior Goodwill Games in 1994. 8:14 PM Feb 23rd via web

# What, was naming him Phillip (Two-L) Phillips too ludicrous? 1:40 AM Feb 23rd via web

# So many Philipses http://bit.ly/dbluTN 1:39 AM Feb 23rd via web

# I have the first season of Lost in hand. Let’s start the insanity. 6:40 PM Feb 21st via web

# ATWT shout-out on Germany-Denmark women’s curling on MSNBC. Think of the ratings! 2:47 PM Feb 21st via web

# That gem from today’s USA-Sweden Curling commentary. http://www.hiyoooo.com/ 2:42 PM Feb 20th via web

# “So, the window is back open.” “The window is back open! Opened up the window and in-flu-enza! Heh-heh-heh!” “(sigh) Ohh, Don… (sigh)” 2:38 PM Feb 20th via web

I’m a bigger Beatlemaniac than most people I know, and that’s said with equal parts swagger and self-deprecation. I’ve put a lot of joyful effort into my appreciation, and I’m proud of it, but I also know that most people I know live more or less in the present and, on the whole, would reasonably prefer to listen to bands alive and touring, at least those whose most recent new album was put out less than forty years ago.

It’s no small feat that Revolution in the Head, by Ian MacDonald, is the best Beatles’ book I’ve ever read. I’ve enjoyed many others, those from which I learned so much of the Beatles’ history and discography, but none to the degree with which I embraced this one. As a capstone to the reading I’d enjoyed before it, the book was fascinating and a pleasure to read – but it was so much more than a capstone.

MacDonald was most effective in providing an instructive but not pedantic balance of text and context. The bulk of the book is a song-by-song analysis of the Beatles’ catalogue, addressing anything from the song structure, to the lyrics, to the source of inspiration. That large middle section is bookended: We’re introduced to the study by a description of some of the many factors that went into the Beatles’ rise, really how the conditions were ideal for a skilled, enthusiastic group of musicians to detonate the restrictive attitudes of the 1950s and early 1960s and through this new music to “turn on” a generation of young people a couple of years before they’d turn more to drugs for that. The epilogue then suggests that the reliance on mechanization (for rhythm and tuning) has robbed modern pop music of its soul (if it ever had a soul to begin with), praising the performing ability and ingenuity of 60s music stars for creating so many lively, expressive songs.

The analysis and commentary on every Beatles track extended to many unreleased ones. The examinations were altogether insightful and, refreshingly, not uniformly positive. Other books I’ve read have tended almost to refrain from judgment, rather putting forth, say, just the stories behind the songs rather than addressing any areas of weakness. MacDonald, before his death a music journalist, here writes about these songs objectively, even though it’s also clear he cares very much about this catalogue and this group. He openly calls out the weaker tracks (including to my horror many I rather like) but is also able to explain why he feels that way, and in doing so, also focuses and heightens his praise on the songs where the Beatles did their superlative work.

I also want to point out that beyond being informative, MacDonald writes beautifully. As it is, the book can veer towards dryness at times (and would careen right into it for people who aren’t as crazy into this kind of Beatles stuff as I am) but that’s in the nature of the undertaking. It’s encyclopedic, relentless. But throughout, MacDonald demonstrates wonderful diction in elucidating his take on this material. He makes even some of the more complicated musical points relatable, which is integral to a study of this sort, to demonstrate some of the nuts and bolts of why the Beatles music was so inventive, yet also pleasing and familiar. His style reminds me very much of Alain de Botton’s writing, not least because it’s occasionally hysterical.

The song analyses are presented in the order in which the Beatles recorded them. It’s an interesting, if obvious, way to attack the material, and I find it preferable to a study organized by album listings. Now, by knowing that “Strawberry Fields Forever” was the first track recorded for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and that it and “Penny Lane” were removed only for need of a single, I’m able to put them in their proper context. I can see how those recordings influenced the rest of Sgt. Pepper, rather than just the Magical Mystery Tour album on which I’m used to seeing them listed. (And you’re free now to point out that for such a Beatlemaniac, maybe I should have known that recording sequence already. Whatever. It’s just a question of enthusiasm, man.)

In the end, this book has lead me to a deeper appreciation of the Beatles’ music – the music itself, which is really at the heart of this project, and not to be swept away just for the sake of historical context. Frankly, it also lead to a new reverence for the Beatles themselves. I was able to see a little more into how they worked, how quickly they worked – it’s almost sickening how productive they could be. The Beatles had their own heroes, as they themselves are to many, and they played along to records just as latter-day bedroom guitarists do. By seeing the dates and some of the times when they recorded these songs humanizes them to an extent I’d never known (Mark Lewisohn’s book Beatles Recording Sessions might easily do the same). But then, just as they’re being humanized, I consider all they accomplished and how much they’ve meant to the world and I think, maybe they weren’t so much like the rest of us after all.

# Speaking of puns: http://bit.ly/9iWe9O 9:20 PM Feb 17th from web

# cooooool http://bit.ly/aFXRuk 12:10 AM Feb 17th from web

# “I’m going to drink this bottle of wine, watch TV, and go to bed. Then tomorrow I’ll get up and go to work.” 11:42 PM Feb 16th from web

# Couldn’t have been more pleased to catch 45 minutes of curling on TV today. 11:22 PM Feb 16th from web

# I wish “university” could also be used as strict opposite of “diversity.” It’s all wrong, but whatever. 3:18 PM Feb 16th from web

# At the NBC Store they still have Jay Leno Show and Conan’s Tonight Show merch. $25 a shirt, price apparently unaffected by the hooplah. 11:18 PM Feb 15th from web