The White Album in gray

I was given a challenge: Whittle down The Beatles (The White Album) from a double album of 30 songs to a single album of 15. No easy task and almost sacrilege. What makes the album great is the variety and experimentation. And who am I to second-guess the most creative band in history? But. ...

Easy cuts include "Revolution 9," an experiment that failed; "Wild Honey Pie" and "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" because they are incomplete and add little; and the "useless" songs like "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill," "Happiness is a Warm Gun," "Don't Pass Me By," "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey" and "Cry Baby Cry." These are good songs, don't get me wrong. I count "Cry Baby Cry" among my favorites (John Lennon called it a throw away song).

I left off some of the insider Beatle tunes, such as "Glass Onion," "Sexy Sadie" and "Savoy Truffle," again, all favorites with me.

I also left off "I'm So Tired" because it adds nothing to "I'm Only Sleeping." "Yer Blues" is good heavy guitar, but really out of place -- it doesn't have the power of a "Helter Skelter" or beauty of a "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." "Revolution 1" is a nice alternative to "Revolution," but could be shelved on a rarities album with no loss to the musical world. "Long, Long, Long" could have appeared on a solo George Harrison work.

So, here's the album as I see it. Songs are in no particular order (though "Back in the U.S.S.R" as a start is great and "Good Night" as an end works well), just the way I remember them:

1: Back in the U.S.S.R.
2: Dear Prudence
3: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
4: While My Guitar Gently Weeps
5: Helter Skelter
6: Julia
7: I Will
8: Blackbird
9: Piggies
10: Honey Pie
11: Mother Nature's Son
12: Martha My Dear
13: Rocky Raccoon
14: Birthday
15: Good Night

Thought: Here's another place you can go, where everything froze.