The White Abum as a single album

I was thinking about this problem today. If I were to cut The White Album to a single album what would be kept and what would be cast asunder? Without actually consulting the track listing I made a quick list of the songs I'd most like to listen to. Out of a possible 30, this came to a worryingly slim 9. To my surprise it was very Lennon heavy (I always thought I was a Mark Corrigan type character), and it had, perhaps less surprisingly, very little representation of the long ones, strange ones or quiet ones. Because, let's face it, they're are some truly awful tracks on The White Album, Don't Pass Me By and Piggies amongst the named and shamed.

Then there's Revolution 9. This fairly uninteresting track of questionable significance made me consider the make up of this single album altogether. In the time it takes to listen to Revolution 9, you could have listened to I'm So Tired, Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey, Why Don't We Do It In The Road? and I Will, with 30 seconds leftover. So would I want to cut down the album according to time or tracks? This led to other considerations - Would I try to represent McCartney and Lennon more or less equally with a token Harrison number ala most other Beatles albums? Would I try to show the contrasting styles and conflicting individual personalities the White Album is famed for?

Looking up other attempts on the internet I came across these from old music nerd magazine MOJO. Some of these MOJO attempts neatly organise the new cut into 'Nice side' and 'Nasty side'. This approach of neatening up a sprawling album didn't seem right. If anything my original route of simply picking the songs I liked the most seemed more appropriate. The very fact of the matter is that it's the inclusion of the self indulgent, the avant garde and the Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da that makes the White album what it is. Any new cut would have to be an unrepresentative selection. So here's my 14 track cut:

Back In The USSR

Dear Prudence

Glass Onion

The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Happiness Is a Warm Gun

Yer Blues

Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey

Sexy Sadie

Why Don't We Do It In The Road?

Revolution 1

I'm So Tired

Blackbird

Cry Baby Cry

3 observations on making this cut:

- Not only is there obvious crap on the White Album, there's a lot of 'take it or leave it' kind of stuff - I wanted to do a 15 track cut but didn't feel compelled to add any others beyond 14.

- Re-listening to aid my selection didn't really help, it's hard to re-evaluate something you've listened to hundreds of times.

- McCartney does not come out of this well.