Almost

Since time immemorial Beatles fans and scholars alike have been debating (often heatedly) whether or not the White Album coulda/shoulda been released as a single album; trim the fat, ditch Revolution No.9 (the Emperor's new clothes, without doubt) and generally rid it of anything devoid of FABness. Pah! I hear you say. Even four sides isn't enough - we want six sides, eight even.

Blue Vinyl (1/1) - signed by Macca (rare as fuck)

Well, as you're probably aware, this month saw the majestic release of a whiter than white White Album with alternative takes, demo recordings made at George's house in Esher - complete with Harrison asking Macca how many sugars he wants in his tea - and is, essentially, the kitchen sink in vinyl format. Indeed, fetching it home from your local record shop would necessitate mechanical lifting machinery and, possibly, road closures.

Not for me, however. I fell in love with this album just the way it was intended way back when; and I've got all the Esher demos on bootlegs anyway.

But to go back to the double album/single album hot potato for a second - if you ever wondered what the perfect pared down track listing would have looked like (5 tracks on Side 1, five on Side 2) - then jazzer Ramsey Lewis has beaten you to it. By 50 years. That's right, Lewis went into the studio and recorded his White Album (he actually called it Mother Nature's Son) in December 1968 and released it later the same month: only a handful of weeks after the Beatles released theirs in the November. He didn't mess about did he? The world was still coming to terms with how utterly brilliant Lennon's Cry Baby Cry was, and here was Ramsey Lewis straight out of the traps giving us his sublime instrumental take. And, I have to say, almost edging it for me. Almost.

Ramsey Lewis - Cry Baby Cry (1968)

White Supremacy

This post could just as easily have been called I'm Dreaming of a White Album or The Future is White. In the world of Venn Diagrams I'm not sure what the crossover between Beatles fans and right wing fanatics is, but if any of the latter have found this site by mistake I hope they move along - there's nothing to see here.

We all have a favourite album. That piece of plastic you pull out to get you through the bad times; as well as the good. An album, in all likelihood, you own more than one copy of - the original, the remastered limited edition anthology version including demos by the band when they were still in short trousers and even shorter on ideas. New York artist Rutherford Chang is, as you can see in this short film, rather partial to The White Album by The Beatles. Part of me admires him. And part of me thinks he's barking.