Posted by Christopher Stevenson
The Beatles' White Album was released Nov. 25, 1968. To celebrate the 39th anniversary of the album, WMMM, a Madison, Wis., radio station, challenged listeners to choose the tracks they would eliminate from the record to cut it back from a double to a single album. If you're familiar with the record, you can probably guess the first track cut. Revolution 9. 
OK, it makes sense. Revolution 9 was the reason I never listened to side 4 when I had the White Album on vinyl. It's an 8 minute, 13 second sound collage. It's avant garde, long and boring, and even producer George Martin wanted to keep it off the record. Even still, there's no way I'd cut it. It's one of the reasons the album is so memorable. Sure, no one wants to sit through it. Sure, it doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the Beatles' catalog or the White Album itself. But everyone who has ever listened to the White Album remembers Revolution 9. It's part of the mystique of the album and a word of mouth generator even today.
I guess what it boils down to is that a little controversy ain't so bad. People hate Revolution 9, but it generated terrific dialog. Amazon.com's Kindle is spawning some amazing debate, but I bet the discussion is driving traffic to Amazon. As Tim McAlpine suggested in a comment on an earlier post, the sign of a successful product or brand is "lovers and haters." He followed up with his opinion that "credit unions are too worried about the haters."
Let's not be afraid to stir the pot a bit. Successful organizations know who they serve and aren't afraid of raised eyebrows from those they don't serve.
