I have had it up to here waiting for the Beatles catalogue to be remastered

but yeah you're right it takes the fckng p-ss doesn't it?

latest word is that magical mystery tour is coming out on dvd with all sorts of extra stuff. as if the actual movie isn't like 1 big 'extra' already.

What isn't, really?

OK, why is it Paul's fault?

maybe it's a question of who's up to the job, george martin sure as heck isn't. god don't let them get ELO=guy in again.

meanwhile, this ere beatles 10-dvd anthology unofficial bootleg edition can be yours for $150 :

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Original-BEATLES-Anthology-Directors-Cut-Real-10-DVDs_W0QQitemZ6430061859QQcategoryZ617QQssPageNameZWD2VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

must say i'm tempted

That said, Macca, Ono, the Harrison family, and Da Ringosta can take their time settling this. I plan to finally digitize and sell off the CDs while I can get 'em for at least $4+ each back.

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70658-0.html?tw=rss.index

But it's not wrong to continue to sell them on cd?

Agree re Past Masters/Anthology but they're such cash cows that they're not going to do it.

Ah yes, the Beatles. I say buy the albums.

It would be nice if they released the red and blue anthologies so that they were in modern slimline 2CD cases rather than the FUCKING MASSIVE and HORRIBLE ones that they are in now.

Are the people not interested in paying for pricey new editions of things really the target market for remastered versions of CDs that are available in droves in used CD stores the world over?

Seriously, I don't see what's so much better (and less cash-cow-ish) about retaining Past Masters and Anthology. OK, so it's kind of cool to have all the singles in one place, but it also robs them of context AND presents a somewhat confusing picture for buyers, who can't figure out which album it is that has "I Want To Hold Your Hand" on it. The PM sets are also really oddly-balanced, anyway - not quite a greatest hits, not quite an odds-and-sods. The Anthologies are just plain obnoxious, especially the first one with all the talky-talky bits.

I guess I'm just coming from a perspective where, if they just remaster the CDs I'll take a pass because I have the LPs already. But if they sweeten the deal I just might think it over, at least for a couple, assuming they went ahead and added more outtake/live stuff. Granted, they would still be kind of weirdly-sequenced albums with one or two singles at the front followed by a bunch of obscurities.... okay, maybe keep Past Masters after all. But I REALLY think it makes more sense to get the unreleased and live material wedded on to the appropriate albums - if nothing else, it means getting MORE of it, right?

What is an example where he has ever done this?

Secondly, Paul has little need to turn himself up anyway. He took a lot of care, recording his bass lines on a single track and spent ages getting the sound right. Why not? It's his friggin songs for fuxake!

anthology 2 is the best, what with the stoned cracking-up version of and your bird can sing and the gorgeous demos of strawberry fields. 3 is good for the white album stuff, and 1 is probably the only time any americans (me included) will ever hear any morecambe and wise.

Well, they are getting slightly more plentiful. In fact, I got most of my collection used. But, then again, I've been lucky. The worst thing about used Beatle cds is that stores priced higher than average (i.e. in the US 10-12 dollars vs. 7-9). Shopping around helps, and the prices have leveled off (and no doubt will continue)

I will concur regarding the Anthologies and the BBC, but--to cite my earlier post--alot of the people who bought them probably realized that they didn't listen to them as much as the regular LPs.

Neil Aspinall is probably the one to blame.

Anyway, seems like some good news is finally coming up.

While I agree that they need remastering, I don't neccessarily agree with your version of what they sounded like. The first four, sure, but the rest, particularly from "Sgt. Pepper" onwards, used state of the art remastering technology at the time, and sounded really impressive back then.

Only this is 20 years ago and a lot has happened since then.

I think the Anthologies are a pretty good distillation of the best stuff that makes up the two major bootleg series (ultra rare trax and, uh, whatever the other one is called; they have most of the same stuff on them). I could do w/out the talking on the first cd.

xpost

i mean it does take the piss doesn't it?

lo-lo-lo-looooots of piss, sir! :(

I bought Help for £1 in a charity shop the other week. It was cheap because the cover was ripped (and taped up again) and the vinyl's a bit crackly, but it's not scratched at all. Even with the crackles it sounds great - a lot better than the CD versions, The Night Before especially gaining an awful lot of character and energy. I too am amazed there's no proper CD remaster, I guess because people are still buying the current shonky versions.

This footage
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=compleat+beatles
of 'The Compleat Beatles' (snappy 1984 cheaply-made proto-ANTHOLOGY movie, shot on film and narrated by Malcolm Mcdowell) is
making me anticipate this happening all the more.

It will happen before or since, but apparently at still takes time.

I expected they'd at least do "Sgt. Pepper" in June this year to coincide with its 40th anniversary, but they did't.

But at least, with the current trend for remasters, the ultimate edition will be better. I hope they will do like The Bee Gees and Monkees remasters, and put out 2CDs with the stereo version + bonus tracks in stereo on one and the mono version + bonus tracks in mono on the other one.

Oh, wait - these were already on the White Album box set - ignore post above.

Here's a review of all the actually new stuff from someone's who's heard it.

Despite my reservations about the original releases, I have none about the artwork and design which I thought were A+. It's understandable that they'd want to minimize the plastic and that the box set has to accommodate a new fourth disc (which content-wise is disappointing in itself) but it still feels like they watered down the original layout too much. The giant collage should be the focal point, not pushed back in favor of a decent but comparatively generic stock photo.

(I should say group photo, not stock photo, stock is probably not an accurate descriptor.)

Anthology 4 leaked, it's pretty underwhelming as expected though a few of these studio run throughs are cool. Remix of Real Love is better than the complaints online led me to believe. But in general there is not really anything big to get excited about this time.

Yeah I heard it a week or so but nothing remarkable enough to revive this thread for. The All You Need Is Love rehearsal is nice to have. The Real Love vocal is very different. Maybe I'll get used to it.

Should also say I like the take of Matchbox, where the riff is more prominent.

What’s everyone’s favourite post-Anthology newly-released archive track? So from the Pepper/Revolver/White/Abbey/etc boxes, or from the Naked/Remixed/BBC stuff?

Cheating, but its the acoustic White Album demos, which I'd had as bootlegs for years but can now stream in high-fidelity to my heart's content.

Was "Rain (Take 5, Actual Speed)" from the 2022 really 'actual speed'?

....from the 2022 Revolver re-mix - that was the most astonishing, I think.

I really like the Non-brass version of Got To Get You Into My Life

Gotta be the bluesy 12-minute version of Helter Skelter. Apparently they also recorded a 27-minute version which hasn't been officially released, and AFAIK hasn't leaked on bootlegs either.

I'm also partial to the 12-minute Helter Skelter

yeah esher demos for me. I also really like that run through of the medley that's on the Abby Road deluxe ('the long one').

From all accounts, the 27 min "Helter Skelter" is pretty much like the 12 min version, but longer

yeah that 27 minute version was legendary based on Lewisohn's book but after hearing the 12 minute version I'm not sure I need it to be more than double the length. I was hoping it was 27 minutes of hellacious rocking like the finished version but apparently it's not.

I will say my favorite of all post-Anthology things is Revolution Tk. 20 which they insanely didn't put on Anthology 4 or the White Album box, but whatever, it's out there and it's amazing. Would have been good to have a remix of it that lowered that annoying beep though.

Was "Rain (Take 5, Actual Speed)" from the 2022 really 'actual speed'?

There’s probably a 536-page Hoffman thread about it…

Honestly, for one of the most extensively documented bands out there, Apple’s slapdash approach to the reissues/bonus tracks etc is kind of appalling.

If you listen to the two Contentious Credits episodes of the Something About the Beatles podcasts, the two guests they have there really have it in for Kevin Howlett, who writes the track notes on recent Apple reissues.

Most of their recording and musical evidence they present goes over my head but they sound pretty convincing (even if they don't always agree). I think one of them has a sideswipe at the idea Rain is "actual speed" at one point.

The more know-it-all one, Marcus Phelan, does a pretty good "how to" Dear Prudence video, even if the way in appears in the corner like a little Austin Powers goblin is quite lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi5TfMj6uBY

even if the way in appears in the corner like a little Austin Powers goblin is quite lol

v accurate

If you listen to the two Contentious Credits episodes of the Something About the Beatles podcasts, the two guests they have there really have it in for Kevin Howlett, who writes the track notes on recent Apple reissues.

Most of their recording and musical evidence they present goes over my head but they sound pretty convincing (even if they don't always agree). I think one of them has a sideswipe at the idea Rain is "actual speed" at one point.

Real Love, 2025 Mix with upscaled video (presumably same technique used on the rest of Anthology...some good bits, some weird looking bits)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax7krBKzmVI

any other saddos like me watched the Anthology show on Disney+

i dunno i still love the lore & the early music. weirdly comforting? its just a nice bowl of warmed over chicken noodle soup

Just started watching, I saw it at the time, and have the DVD set kicking around, but it's nice to see and hear it all spruced up.

Feels like Apple are trying to time some sort of Beatles event with the end of each year into Xmas now, and that is definitely comforting imho, so I'm wondering what it'll be next year.

yeah idk!

i dunno i still love the lore & the early music. weirdly comforting? its just a nice bowl of warmed over chicken noodle soup

Indeed it is! I have the DVD set and binge-watching it during the pandemic felt exactly like that.

Having said that, it does feel like the Disney+ launch is really about reintroducing the series to a whole new generation who never thought to check it out. (I don't think the series has ever been hard-to-find since it first aired in the mid-'90s, but it's also been kind of dormant in a way.) Even the "new" episode consists mostly of the DVD bonus material but edited together with a few new things thrown in, so for those who have the DVD set, it's mostly recycled material, but for those who don't (which is probably most people), it looks completely new.

i dont know if i ever did watch the original DVD so its a wee bit less of a retread for me aside from knowing most of the stuff etc

Watched the first episode the other night. The revamped live stuff sounds wonderful. Paul and Ringo especially bringing it.

Just by chance I'd been reading the JR Moores Paul in the 1990s book today and his bit about the Anthology is interesting especially his opinion that this brought about a change in Ringo's reputation. Away from "not even the best drummer in The Beatles" nonsense. It does look intended. About 4 or 5 mentions of bringing in "the best drummer in Liverpool".

xps of course the DVD set was greatly expanded from the original broadcast specials too, so for casual viewers this will be a lot more than they previously saw

I've never seen Anthology. Was working nights when it aired, and I had grown out of my Beatles fandom, at least temporarily. And having read the books and seen things like the Compleat doc, no big reason to set up the VCR to tape it every night.

forgot about the whole jellybabies/jellybean thing w the first US tour. you really can see the jellybeans whizzing by during the Washington show!

But some Beatlemaniacs of a certain age (say, Gen X and older) consider “Anthology” inferior to another Beatles documentary — one that, because of “Anthology,” is nearly impossible to see legally.

That film is “The Compleat Beatles,” originally released by MGM/UA Home Video in 1982. Its origins were odd, its execution borderline accidental: It was originally envisioned as a 10-minute companion film to a two-volume 1981 coffee table book of sheet music and other Beatles ephemera. A publisher named Delilah Communications hired Patrick Montgomery, an independent filmmaker, to direct, and sent him off to conduct interviews and assemble archival footage for the promotional short.

“Somehow we ended up with a four-hour rough cut that was the complete story,” Montgomery said in a recent video call from his home in Manhattan. “When the owner of Delilah, Stephanie Bennett, saw what I had done, she said, ‘Well, I realize now this is a much bigger thing. Let me see if I can raise the money to finish this as a full-length documentary.’”

...Free of the imprimatur of the band members, Montgomery and his collaborators also didn’t feel pressured to sand down the rougher edges of the group’s story, or to minimize their personality conflicts, particularly in the later years. Their longtime producer George Martin, for example, specifically calls out McCartney’s “bossiness” — the kind of candor that is markedly lacking in his “Anthology” interviews. ...“I think if we’d actually interviewed any of the Beatles, it would have made a different film entirely,” Montgomery said. “I think maybe because they weren’t involved, some of the people felt more free to talk to us than they might have.” And those who did were able to shed light on aspects of their music that were largely unexplored at the time. ...

So why can’t you stream “The Compleat Beatles” today, or buy it on Blu-ray, or see it at your local revival house? “Well, it’s very simple: Paul McCartney bought the film,” Montgomery told me with a shrug. “The woman who owned the film, who owned Delilah, Stephanie Bennett, sold the negative to Paul. And he just took it off the market.”

McCartney “wants to have all the spotlight on the ‘Anthology,’” Montgomery added.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/movies/other-beatles-documentary.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4k8.n9Rx.qlukl2YAeCjX&smid=url-share

That doc really packed a punch when I was getting into The Beatles around age 12. The end of the group seemed so final and tragic! Never did see Anthology.

I tried the "complete" Hollywood Bowl bootleg and compared it to the official release that found a way to diminish the screaming...I got to say, the record feels less vital without the screaming being more overwhelming. Honestly, if you can try them on a stereo system cranked up, you'll hear why - it really is startling to hear the screams swell and subside like unpredictable waves of the ocean. It leaves the impression that this is probably what it was like to be at a show where you're almost at the mercy of collective euphoria.

Looks like The Compleat Beatles is on archive.org, naturally

I think it was The Compleat Beatles I saw on my local PBS station in 1990 as I discovered the Beatles. I remember a British narrator (Malcolm McDowell?). Does that sound right? Would it still have been available?

Yeah McDowell narrated and it had quite a few oddball talking heads like Lenny Kaye and British “musicologist”. Seems like it you could still catch it on cable and in video rental stores up to the early 90s.

Had some pretty cool early Beatle figures in it to though like Bill Harry, Allan Williams, Aunt Mimi and some Hamburg characters.

Dumbfounded by the quality of this after seeing only one episode. Correct aspect ratios, great sound and grainy footage. Reddit and Steve Hoffman types are up in arms about the excess of Ai but i hadn't noticed it too much. Each episode has been trimmed and spruced which i don't mind at all, as the DVD set was always just that bit too glacial. I was brought up sharp even in the first few minutes by the poignant added shots of Derek, Neil and Mal in the In My Life section, because of course they were all still alive when the series was first shown.

I'm only through episode 4; while just 4 years ago my family eagerly sat through the entirety of Get Back with me, interest now was more subdued leaving me to get through this on my own. I'm certainly familiar with the source material, having taped the episodes off TV, then purchased the VHS and DVD sets, and even now still have digital versions of the DVD set. There are differences here of course but on the whole I think this is an improvement, each episode seems tighter and now with the internet, finding full performances in all kinds of different quality is easy enough that they don't really need to include all of them every time here. The only times the AI has looked crappy is when applied to the really old Super 8 films, but I'm not sure it looks more crappy than the original footage, just crappy in a different way. You're not meant to look at a moving image frame-by-frame anyway, so pulling out a single frame showing that Ai interpolated a face in a strange way is kind of missing the point.

I saw the first 4 of these in a rented home with an great soundsystem and the whole thing sounds amazing.

I quite enjoyed the Anthology 4 CD set? Wasn't familiar with a lot of the tracks that were previously on box sets and whatnot, so I guess for me it works as a repository. The tracks themselves are enjoyable and didn't feel like barrel scraping or anything.

I found Compleat Beatles doc on youtube & watched that today — some good interviews but I wouldnt say there’s much contrary info or negative portrayals in it - it’s just a little bland without the actual Beatles themselves in it, and kinda drab? I can see why they’d prefer a more comprehensive version.

Plus a lot of similar footage so maybe they bought it to get some of that too idk

can’t believe you found the unfindable documentary!

yeah I watched it on archive and it’s good, and less hagiographic and not even even-handed, but the malcolm mcdowell narration gives it a weird sheen if you know him at all. it does get at the “come on guys, what are you doing?” bit that happened after brian epstein died, without making it personalized as a loss

magical mystery tour, what are we doing here

idk mcdowell sounded bored as hell on the narration lol

well he’s talking about the beatles in the early 80s throw him a line

lmao

can we talk as a group about how funny the Penny Lane promo video is and rank their horseriding skills