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.

Agree to disagree

That’s lovely though!

Some detail on Little Girl

https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/the-real-story-behing-lost-beatles-song-little-girl-revealed

I must’ve shared this already in here but this version *smokes* the album mix.

wow! totally agree. there's so much going on melodically that the sparse arrangement really serves the tune

additionally, i've always felt that the instrumental performance seems ... hesitant? a bit faltering? as if they had just gotten acclimated to the twisting arrangement just before putting it to tape. somehow this one strikes me as more confident

oof, that version of H, T & E is wonderful.

first heard that song on my dad's cassette copy of the Give My Regards soundtrack, a mainstay in the family car growing up.

i too hear the hesitation in the final version but i always liked that aspect of it, it sounds like they're trying to play as soft as possible or something to avoid waking someone up. proto-matrix velvets lol!

fully agree, I like that take above just fine but IMO the final version on the album is exceptional, the soft hesitation is an essential part of it

I'm due to speak to g martin next week about the reissue - do the apple scruffs of the IHHIUTHWTBCTBR thread have any questions for him?

Are they going to do an MMT/yellow sub deluxe edition and can we just have carnival of light with that so everyone will shut up about it?

At this stage it would be sheer perversity to listen to it - a track so bad it resisted thirty years of reissue projects, while everything else was eventually chosen.

For no reason, this morning I listened to the 2025 mixes of "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love" over breakfast. A room away from the speakers, the newer "Real Love" seemed to have a more present Lennon vocal (better isolation techniques perhaps) but more surprisingly felt "locked in" and livelier, like it had a pulse. I have a lot of affection for the 95 version but this seems more cohesive. "Now and Then" still as dull as ditchwater tho.

Ask him how his ne'er-do-well half-brother is doing. No, j/k don't ask him that.

What an unexpected treat this working tape of Day Tripper is. Pre-riff, with a samba-like rhythm. And lots of giggles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03xe6aIKziw

And how did the Giles interview go, Maggy Scraggle? I meant to suggest some questions but missed the deadline.

"oh we were class" at the end, that's lovely lol

Giles was a sweetheart - interview will be in the issue of Uncut out in a couple of weeks.

"oh we were class" at the end, that's lovely lol

I thought it was "oh we were plastered".

I used to see his half-brother Gregory in SoHo sometimes. Once he told me that when he was a kid had a piece of paper with the Beatles's signatures on it but then he sold it to a friend to buy some candy to give to a girl he liked. Later he told Paul McCartney this story and Sir Paul replied "I always knew you were a good businessman."

I think it’s “oh we were blastin’” - ie causing John’s home tape set up to go into the red?

Norwegian Wood as precursor to Tomorrow Never Knows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI4KMHVQYEQ

Rubber Soul box set out today and streaming. I went straight to the Little Girl demo. Just John working out some chords with placeholder lyrics it sounds like. A bit eerie to hear a new "Beatles song" and it doesn't strike me as something that ended up being used in anything though I'm not very good at noticing these things. A bit of lyrical overlap with George's If I Needed Someone is of note though.

An extract from my chat with Giles is up here now:

https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/lost-songs-forgotten-tapes-and-studio-secrets-the-inside-story-of-the-beatles-rubber-soul-156549/

And my review is in the print mag (spoiler, I like it).

A great read!

great interview, stephen!

I know this isn't the most revelatory deluxe (none of the pre-revolver ones will be, if they even do the rest) however, this is absolutely the best the stereo mix of the album has ever sounded.

I went for the zoetrope version of the lp, it arrived today.

I see the superdeluxe is on Spotif, so....

Blimey that "Little Girl" song is very poor, John would definitely be displeased with its inclusion.

Still though, i never knew "Sweet F.A." was a saying back in 1965...

Excellent, thanks Stephen!

Too bad they couldn't issue disc 1 & 2 as-is for the not-super deluxe version (they toss a bunch of stuff from the super deluxe disc 2 rather than replicating it), but those two discs taken together make an awesome reissue. Having a stereo mix can actually enjoy is pretty great.

Yeah, I'm not shelling out for the deluxe or super deluxe version but I would have loved all of disc 2 as part of the 2CD package.

Oh I listened to it only once so far but I didn’t think « little girl » was bad (for a demo). It’s better than some songs that made it on the final album imo !

On another topic, kind of weird seeing people complain about missing "lip smacks" on some of the Beatle remasters. It's not like I play a record and say, "Hey! Where's the lip smack??? Those fuckers, that was the best part!!"

I can no longer deal with hardcore Beatles fans. I was trying yesterday to get a sense of what the general reaction is to the new mix, and there's lot of posts/threads on 'first listen' assessments, with comments like: "Another detail that infuriates me is the removal of the faint cough at the 0:02 mark of "You Won't See Me".

It’s irritating. I tend to avoid Hoffman forums unless I’m searching for specific information about whatever. There, the Beatles are like a damn virus, popping up all over the place. If there was a GG Allin thread I bet half the posts would be about the Beatles.

When I said there was lyrical overlap between Little Girl and If I Needed Someone I was referring to the lines "If you'd asked me yesterday / Then I'd have told you sweet FA" and "Had you come some other day / Then it might not have been like this" but I've subsequently realised there's a third song from 1965 with a line like this: "Had it been another day / I might have looked the other way" from McCartney's I've Just Seen a Face!

The mixes sound nice, but I would say the one thing I don’t like is that percussion like a tambourine or maracas does not need to be a focal point. The parts are not that spectacular and I think they were intended to be texture.

As ever the new mixes sound clearer and prettier but they lack something ineffable I might describe as “oomph”. This isn’t the remaster’s fault - I think my mind subconsciously puzzles out all the microscopic changes and gets distracted. If you were hearing them for the first time, and not the thousandth, they’d probably sound amazing.

The only one that really blew me away was “Taxman”

I'm not completely sure about the subconscious mind theory for the lack of 'oomph' in this remix. Being distracted by microscopic changes wasn't a problem for me with the Sgt Pepper and Revolver remixes, which had oomph in spades for me.

My initial experience of the new Rubber Soul mix is that the more energetic tracks like Drive My Car sound great, refreshed, and full of character, but the more acoustic-based tracks sound clearer but a bit too thin. In fact, I think the remix completely blows its stack on Drive My Car.

I prefer the unofficial Prof Stoned mix. Call it oomph, call it sounding like a 60s album, I dunno, but it sounds better to me.

man, "Think For Yourself" sounds great -- the fuzz bass is serrated

Though to be fair, I'm listening on Spotify so there's that.

Listening to the remix now - it's been an age since I listened to this album so I'm kind of knocked out by killer song after killer song. It sounds very clean and all, but lacks the ecstatic rush of the mono mix (wait am I on the Steve Hoffman forums?). As I typed this, the solo on "Nowhere Man" politely showed up in the right channel, clear and delicate, not the acid rush I remember.
It's probably psychological, but I wonder if the (incredible) de-mixing technology uses correlation to identify which bits of the mix belong to which instrument, so you get a beautifully clean stem, but some of the noise/sizzle/grime gets left behind. The remixes have a "preserved under glass" feeling which is fascinating for being able to hear every element (vocals on "The Word" are otherworldly, actually the whole mix is almost hallucinatory) but lacks the "wok hei" of the contemporary mixes.
I think that's enough pretension for one post.

also is there a better Beatles rhythm section track than "Drive My Car"? unbelievable.

George's to go Otis Redding.

*George's decision

Matttkkkk otm.

Reminded now that I recently had a run-in with a Ringo truther who really should have known better than to take Purdie's statements at face value.

Anyway, the bass playing and drumming are insanely good on this, from beginning to end.

The Gimme Some Truth podcast just put up an episode that delves into the Bernard Purdie claims. I won't spoil their conclusions.

Interesting. I am assuming it will be what I already know

Link if you care to listen: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2I8B08gUoqRGKD5D3lEOnt

Or just listen to Rubber Soul instead.

It's probably psychological, but I wonder if the (incredible) de-mixing technology uses correlation to identify which bits of the mix belong to which instrument, so you get a beautifully clean stem, but some of the noise/sizzle/grime gets left behind. The remixes have a "preserved under glass" feeling which is fascinating for being able to hear every element (vocals on "The Word" are otherworldly, actually the whole mix is almost hallucinatory) but lacks the "wok hei" of the contemporary mixes.

I have this issue with a lot of surround sound mixes for rock albums, or at least, the "subtle/tasteful" ones. The separation seems to "tame" guitars so they sound thin and less raucous, particularly on solos.