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50th Anniversary Release of “Sgt. Pepper” Will Include Unreleased Album “Liverpool Stories”


mjzee

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More details have emerged about Apple’s 50th anniversary release of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As expected, the album will come in several formats, including a deluxe box set with a new 5.1 mix of the album by producer Giles Martin, the son of the album’s original producer George Martin, as well as an unreleased early version of the album entitled Liverpool Stories. Liverpool Stories contains early versions of songs that would end up on Pepper, as well as several songs that have never before been released in any format. In fact, the existence of these tracks had escaped the notice of even the most ardent Beatles bootleggers.  

More here: http://www.culturesonar.com/beatles-liverpool-stories-album/

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Pepper is probably my *least* favorite 'mature' Beatles album.

The sum of all its parts is not insignificant -- I'll certainly acknowledge that -- but I have to confess to not being all that excited about very many of the parts, individually.  My favorite Beatle, by far, was George - and Pepper has about the least amount of "George"-factor going for it.

I never got a copy on CD, so perhaps I might spring for the double-disc version. And I'll confess that although I might love to hear the full 6-disc set a time or two -- that I'm sure I wouldn't spin the whole thing more than once a year (if that), once I got past the first month with the thing.

About once a decade I'll go on a big Beatles kick, but it never lasts all that long.

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58 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Pepper is probably my *least* favorite 'mature' Beatles album.

The sum of all its parts is not insignificant -- I'll certainly acknowledge that -- but I have to confess to not being all that excited about very many of the parts, individually.  My favorite Beatle, by far, was George - and Pepper has about the least amount of "George"-factor going for it.

I never got a copy on CD, so perhaps I might spring for the double-disc version. And I'll confess that although I might love to hear the full 6-disc set a time or two -- that I'm sure I wouldn't spin the whole thing more than once a year (if that), once I got past the first month with the thing.

About once a decade I'll go on a big Beatles kick, but it never lasts all that long.

I grew up listening to The Beatles. They were my first musical "love".

Not too long ago I would have agreed with your opinion of Sgt. Pepper. But I actually sat down with it, through my headphones, some time last year and it struck a chord in me that it never had before. I always "liked" it, but now it has reached the level of masterpiece. 

 

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1 hour ago, Scott Dolan said:

But I actually sat down with it, through my headphones, some time last year and it struck a chord in me that it never had before.

Funny, it was the mono mix in the mono box that made me re-listen!

I started with the American stereo (1970-ish?), the got the UK stereo in the late-70s just for the runoff on Side 2. I had gotten kind of jaded about it until being forced to confront it without the stereo-isms.

Same thing with the white album, only I never really got jaded with that one. But the mono has shit that's just not there otherwise (I think), shit that you notice right off, if you know what I mean.

People who want to do the head[phone-thing, check out Buffalo Springfield Again.

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I grew up with a mono copy that my Dad brought me back from the States to Swaziland, so it's the stereo that gets my "WTF" attention. This and the White Album are my favorite Beatles and I could do without the rest if I had this. I'll probably pick up the two cd release.

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I agree with your choices, Lon.  The reason Sgt. Pepper tops my list is my individual history.  Being a huge fan from 63 on, I vividly recall racing home from the store on my bike with the record on the first day it arrived in the wilds of Eastern Washington State.  I remember placing the vinyl on the tiny record player AND hearing something totally fucking new; something that changed my life forever.  I pre-ordered the 6-disc set.

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Pepper is one of my least-favorite Beatles albums.  Bought it when it came out, and couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.  Some good songs, but never really heard the connective thread that everyone raved about.  Sure, there were no gaps between the songs, but Zappa, on Absolutely Free, did that much better.  Pepper, to my mind, was more about a break with their past - they no longer wanted to be considered a rock and roll band.  Which was a shame, because as a rock and roll band, they brought together an entire generation.  I remember talking with an African-American cashier; she said she loved the Beatles until Pepper, at which point she lost interest - she just "didn't get it."  

This opinion has stayed with me throughout the last 40 years.  I much prefer Magical Mystery Tour for its quirkiness, and The Beatles Again/Hey Jude for its poppiness.  Abbey Road's another one I can take or leave.

To tell you the truth, I really would have loved to hear "Liverpool Stories."  It sounds like it would've been everything Pepper isn't.  Too bad it's fictional.

YMMV, of course.

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1 hour ago, stephenrr said:

I agree with your choices, Lon.  The reason Sgt. Pepper tops my list is my individual history.  Being a huge fan from 63 on, I vividly recall racing home from the store on my bike with the record on the first day it arrived in the wilds of Eastern Washington State.  I remember placing the vinyl on the tiny record player AND hearing something totally fucking new; something that changed my life forever.  I pre-ordered the 6-disc set.

Totally understand this and can relate to that experience with Abbey Road. I was in a British-modeled boarding school in M'Babane at the time (Waterford-Kamhlaba School--probably the happiest years of my life and still one of the best schools on the planet) and we knew that Abbey Road was coming out and was going to be broadcast in its entirety over the radio either from BBC or Radio Lorenzo Marques, I can't remember which clearly. Of course this would have been after lights out in our dorm/barracks but we were brave and we had the radio on in the dark as it played and hoped for the best, that we would not be caught. Midway through our fears came alive as one of the Prefect older students came in and busted us red-eared. To our relief he just pulled a chair from another room and sat down and listened, never said a word, and left when the broadcast ended and we switched the radio off.

Still, though Abbey Road is a great album. . . Sgt. Pepper's and The White Album have the musical goods for me. I can enjoy Beatles . . . any of the albums. . . but I'm not a huge fan (mainly I dislike Paul!) But I do need those two, and the recent stereo and mono reissues are very well done.

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9 hours ago, JSngry said:

I'm thinking that Purple Chick has covered all the session materials?

That's exactly what I said to a friend in email yesterday - the new super-duper 6-disc set has 2 discs of session material, but the Purple Chick version had 4 discs of sessions/outtakes/different mixes/multitracks.

Between that and the fact that I'm not too excited about a new remix (even if it is by Giles Martin), I'm lukewarm about this set, especially at the asking price. But I'll reserve judgment until it's out there and people have had some time to digest it.

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12 hours ago, Dave Garrett said:

I'm lukewarm about this set, especially at the asking price. 

I'm thinking the price will drop before the release date.  The Dylan 1966 tour box started at $149, but was around $117 at the release date.

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On 4/2/2017 at 8:55 PM, mjzee said:

More details have emerged about Apple’s 50th anniversary release of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As expected, the album will come in several formats, including a deluxe box set with a new 5.1 mix of the album by producer Giles Martin, the son of the album’s original producer George Martin, as well as an unreleased early version of the album entitled Liverpool Stories. Liverpool Stories contains early versions of songs that would end up on Pepper, as well as several songs that have never before been released in any format. In fact, the existence of these tracks had escaped the notice of even the most ardent Beatles bootleggers.  

More here: http://www.culturesonar.com/beatles-liverpool-stories-album/

April fool's???

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1 hour ago, Dmitry said:

April fool's???

Yeah.  Unfortunately, this thread has now conflated two different topics.  There's the April Fools joke you noticed, and then there's the legit reissue of Sgt. Pepper with the additional studio material.  Fortunately, Paul is still dead.

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On 4/7/2017 at 10:15 AM, mjzee said:

I'm thinking the price will drop before the release date.  The Dylan 1966 tour box started at $149, but was around $117 at the release date.

Apparently Amazon Canada briefly had it listed for around $55-60 at several points during the week. More than a few people over at the Hoffman forum managed to place orders at that price, and were half expecting the orders to be cancelled as a pricing mistake, but as of yesterday I don't think that had happened to anyone yet. 

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  • 1 month later...

 Can't see springing for this box set, at that price, although it might be a good Xmas present.  At any rate I'm happy with the mono box version.  Not my favorite Beatles album anyway.  Much prefer Revolver and Rubber Soul. 

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