Beatles Remasters coming! 09/09/09

[WorldB3]

Argh! Passed by an independent shop that was selling them for $11 so I grabbed Beatles For Sale & Abbey Road. Would have gotten the White Album too had they had it as my copies of that one could be improved upon. Unlike some I've never had a severe reaction to stereo versions after hearing mono, nor do I consider the Dexterized songs to be abominations. I'm glad to have variations of it all considering I've heard the songs 10,000 times or whatever. Darn the luck Beatles For Sale does sound very nice, very very nice - the drums and acoustic guitar especially. Dammit, all the compliments about the clarity is correct, at least with the initial impression. This album remained fresher for me than any of them as it was probably the least played when I was young. I love the Lennon lead vocal original songs, liked the covers and always found "Baby's In Black" to be such an odd choice to add to their short live sets. And "Mr. Moonlight" is so bad that I love it. It's a fun album to sing along to when doing dishes.

Hell, I could see getting it all...again. Still, as I live in a college town I think I can pick off the stereos at my leisure as they'll show up used left & right, especially before winter break and then again after as the kiddies need money and cash in presents from parents. But I may fold and have to get the mono box after all. Aye...

Report back after you crank up Abbey Road.

[J.A.W.]

If you order the Mono box from amazon and take the free shipping option, that costs you 230. If you divide that by 13, each cd costs you 17.70. For excellent quality lp facimile Japanese cds, that's not a bad price.

Facsimile Japanese CDs usually cost 2500 yen, which at the moment = about $27.50.

[Quincy]

Report back after you crank up Abbey Road.

Bass! There's a bassist on this album! Who knew?

This was tops on my list as my MSFL vinyl is too...uh, mannered. (Something about it didn't move me to become a MSFL vinyl junkie back then.) Plus this was the 1st rock album I listened to on the folks' Magnavox console while I played with my Matchbox & Hot Wheels cars (just last week! ) so there are highly sentimental reasons for getting it. I might still play the UK needle drop or the vinyls I own for old time's sake as some of the pops have become part of the song for me but boy howdy...great work.

What a strange time we live in where lately rock reissues (Elvis P., Rod the Mod) are being released with mighty fine masterings, meanwhile the companies doing it are in deep dodo financially for a multitude of reasons, everything from too much leverage to the piracy problems. I have hope that they've discovered that they can resell it all to old (40+) folks who don't want overly compressed music & who for some reason still want something to touch. Whatever happens, I'm over my knee jerk reaction that rock reissues will likely be shrill or compressed, or other "Hoffman" terms for bad masterings.

[Quincy]

If you order the Mono box from amazon and take the free shipping option, that costs you 230. If you divide that by 13, each cd costs you 17.70. For excellent quality lp facimile Japanese cds, that's not a bad price.

Oh I know, and the price isn't bad but I try my best to not get excited about wee facsimile part since I have the LPs. I don't need glasses for the latter. The better mastering part of the equation is another matter. Now to step away from this thread and go look for ones on Bear Family. Though it is getting more & more likely that I'll be doing both as that mono box does look to be one sweet package.

[Brad]

May I ask which biography you read? Last week I checked out Bob Spitz's The Beatles: A Biography, Peter Brown's The Love You Make from the library but have not begun either; I also placed reserves for A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles by Mark Hertsgaard and Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording with the Beatles by Geoff Emerick (the latter two are currently checked out by other library patrons).

I'm not going to have time to make it through all of these but if you or anyone else can recommend one or two, that would be great.

The Bob Spitz. A friend loaned it to me a couple years ago. At around thousand pages and having thought I knew everything or wanted to know about the Beatles I never got around to it till a couple weeks ago. Once you get to when Beatlemania starts to pick up it's a great page tuner which really takes you right there with what was going on. The early part while not as fun does give you insight into their personality traits/issues.

The book’s intent is not to mythologize or slander anybody but I will say after finishing it probably the only Beatle I would have wanted to “have a beer with” would have been Ringo.

More on the Abbey Road re-master. She’s So Heavy just rocks the house down now, on Here Comes The Sun when Paul’s bass comes in it is now a wow moment. I had forgot that song even had bass on it. On You Never Give Me Your Money the reverb on the little guitar solo is so luscious. The three guitar solos on The End you can really pick up on who is playing which solo now. Listening to the suite that closes Abbey Road I found myself chuckling in disbelief at how good it is and the flood of happy memories it brought back.

Ok, time for the Grant Green to get the same remaster box and Rock Band treatment. ☺

Have any of you read the Jonathan Gould book, "Can't Buy Me Love." I picked it up tonight and find it hard to put down.

[WorldB3]

Have any of you read the Jonathan Gould book, "Can't Buy Me Love." I picked it up tonight and find it hard to put down.

I have not as of yet.

As a kid I had the Hunter Davies book The Beatles which was written before they broke up. I now have:

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road by Mark Lewisohn

A Hard Day's Write : The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song by Steve Turner

Anthology (which should be called Mythology but makes a nice coffee table book)

The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz

I think the Spitz and Lewisohn are two that offer good insight without a lot of personal interpretation by the authors.

Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey looks like a good read that I want to check out.

Edited September 16, 2009 by WorldB3

[Alexander]

Have any of you read the Jonathan Gould book, "Can't Buy Me Love." I picked it up tonight and find it hard to put down.

I have not as of yet.

As a kid I had the Hunter Davies book The Beatles which was written before they broke up. I now have:

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road by Mark Lewisohn

A Hard Day's Write : The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song by Steve Turner

Anthology (which should be called Mythology but makes a nice coffee table book)

The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz

I think the Spitz and Lewisohn are two that offer good insight without a lot of personal interpretation by the authors.

Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey looks like a good read that I want to check out.

I don't know if it's still in print, but I always loved this book:

[Cliff Englewood]

Argh! Passed by an independent shop that was selling them for $11 so I grabbed Beatles For Sale & Abbey Road. Would have gotten the White Album too had they had it as my copies of that one could be improved upon. Unlike some I've never had a severe reaction to stereo versions after hearing mono, nor do I consider the Dexterized songs to be abominations. I'm glad to have variations of it all considering I've heard the songs 10,000 times or whatever. Darn the luck Beatles For Sale does sound very nice, very very nice - the drums and acoustic guitar especially. Dammit, all the compliments about the clarity is correct, at least with the initial impression. This album remained fresher for me than any of them as it was probably the least played when I was young. I love the Lennon lead vocal original songs, liked the covers and always found "Baby's In Black" to be such an odd choice to add to their short live sets. And "Mr. Moonlight" is so bad that I love it. It's a fun album to sing along to when doing dishes.

Hell, I could see getting it all...again. Still, as I live in a college town I think I can pick off the stereos at my leisure as they'll show up used left & right, especially before winter break and then again after as the kiddies need money and cash in presents from parents. But I may fold and have to get the mono box after all. Aye...

I had a funny feeling you'd fold. :rhappy:

Have any of you read the Jonathan Gould book, "Can't Buy Me Love." I picked it up tonight and find it hard to put down.

I have not as of yet.

As a kid I had the Hunter Davies book The Beatles which was written before they broke up. I now have:

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road by Mark Lewisohn

A Hard Day's Write : The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song by Steve Turner

Anthology (which should be called Mythology but makes a nice coffee table book)

The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz

I think the Spitz and Lewisohn are two that offer good insight without a lot of personal interpretation by the authors.

Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey looks like a good read that I want to check out.

I don't know if it's still in print, but I always loved this book:

Nobody recommending "Revelution In The Head"????? :unsure:

I think it's amazing.

[vajerzy]

I'm wondering whether there will be more Mono box sets available for sale and if so- whether they'll be the same as the first one- I'm getting rather confused.

[AllenLowe]

I'm wary of Emerick's book (though I read it) because after it came out, another engineer who was at a lot of the same sessions wrote a very detailed attack on the book and challenged many of Emerick's recollections - and in Emerick's response, he denied NONE of the corrections that were made, only very lamely said something like, "oh well, sometimes my memory is off." Not a good thing,

Also, for all his remarks about sound, he himself destroyed a lot of the anthology with terrible digital de-noising (I think he used No Noise). He also, I think, tries in the book to take too much credit away from George Martin.

The most useful thing he offers is the observation that so many of the nice guitar parts we hear were done not by George but by Paul, which does not surprise me.

Edited September 16, 2009 by AllenLowe

[jazzbo]

Yes, there are going to be more Mono boxes. Amazon is taking orders and they'll be shipped in two or three weeks apparently. That will likely mean around that time frame there will be more in the shops, etc. They're repressings of the same box set.

Edited September 16, 2009 by jazzbo

[Brad]

Argh! Passed by an independent shop that was selling them for $11 so I grabbed Beatles For Sale & Abbey Road. Would have gotten the White Album too had they had it as my copies of that one could be improved upon. Unlike some I've never had a severe reaction to stereo versions after hearing mono, nor do I consider the Dexterized songs to be abominations. I'm glad to have variations of it all considering I've heard the songs 10,000 times or whatever. Darn the luck Beatles For Sale does sound very nice, very very nice - the drums and acoustic guitar especially. Dammit, all the compliments about the clarity is correct, at least with the initial impression. This album remained fresher for me than any of them as it was probably the least played when I was young. I love the Lennon lead vocal original songs, liked the covers and always found "Baby's In Black" to be such an odd choice to add to their short live sets. And "Mr. Moonlight" is so bad that I love it. It's a fun album to sing along to when doing dishes.

Hell, I could see getting it all...again. Still, as I live in a college town I think I can pick off the stereos at my leisure as they'll show up used left & right, especially before winter break and then again after as the kiddies need money and cash in presents from parents. But I may fold and have to get the mono box after all. Aye...

I had a funny feeling you'd fold. :rhappy:

Have any of you read the Jonathan Gould book, "Can't Buy Me Love." I picked it up tonight and find it hard to put down.

I have not as of yet.

As a kid I had the Hunter Davies book The Beatles which was written before they broke up. I now have:

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road by Mark Lewisohn

A Hard Day's Write : The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song by Steve Turner

Anthology (which should be called Mythology but makes a nice coffee table book)

The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz

I think the Spitz and Lewisohn are two that offer good insight without a lot of personal interpretation by the authors.

Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey looks like a good read that I want to check out.

I don't know if it's still in print, but I always loved this book:

Nobody recommending "Revelution In The Head"????? :unsure:

I think it's amazing.

As I hadn't read anything in print about them, I wanted a more general history and the Gould book has some glowing reviews. I saw the Revolution in the Head book yesterday and took a brief glance at it but it seemed more like a song by song analysis or is that too cursory a conclusion on my part?

Yes, there are going to be more Mono boxes. Amazon is taking orders and they'll be shipped in two or three weeks apparently. That will likely mean around that time frame there will be more in the shops, etc. They're repressings of the same box set.

I ordered one last week from Amazon and it's supposed to arrive between October 8 and 20.

Edited September 16, 2009 by Brad

[JETman]

If you order the Mono box from amazon and take the free shipping option, that costs you 230. If you divide that by 12 each cd costs you 19.09. For excellent quality lp facimile Japanese cds, that's not a bad price.

The mathematician in me just has to correct you as there are 13 discs in the set. 230/13 = 17.69 per disc

[J.A.W.]

If you order the Mono box from amazon and take the free shipping option, that costs you 230. If you divide that by 12 each cd costs you 19.09. For excellent quality lp facimile Japanese cds, that's not a bad price.

The mathematician in me just has to correct you as there are 13 discs in the set. 230/13 = 17.69 per disc

And the classicist in me just has to say that it's "facsimile", from the Latin phrase "fac simile" or "make like"

Edited September 16, 2009 by J.A.W.

[JETman]

If you order the Mono box from amazon and take the free shipping option, that costs you 230. If you divide that by 12 each cd costs you 19.09. For excellent quality lp facimile Japanese cds, that's not a bad price.

The mathematician in me just has to correct you as there are 13 discs in the set. 230/13 = 17.69 per disc

And the classicist in me just has to say that it's "facsimile", from the Latin phrase "fac simile" or "make like"

What's becoming apparent is that Lon can neither spell nor divide

[J.A.W.]

If you order the Mono box from amazon and take the free shipping option, that costs you 230. If you divide that by 12 each cd costs you 19.09. For excellent quality lp facimile Japanese cds, that's not a bad price.

The mathematician in me just has to correct you as there are 13 discs in the set. 230/13 = 17.69 per disc

And the classicist in me just has to say that it's "facsimile", from the Latin phrase "fac simile" or "make like"

What's becoming apparent is that Lon can neither spell nor divide

Well, I wouldn't say that, it's probably a malfunction of his keyboard

[jazzbo]

I can do both.

John, yeah, I had that originally (I think you should round it up to 17.70) going from memory of 13 discs, then I saw on a post somewhere 12 discs, so changed it.

Hans, thanks, I tend to mistype that word though I know how to spell it. Had three years of Latin in boarding school.

[jazzbo]

I can do both.

John, yeah, I had that originally (I think you should round it up to 17.70) going from memory of 13 discs, then I saw on a post somewhere 12 discs, so changed it.

Hans, thanks, I tend to mistype that word though I know how to spell it. Had three years of Latin in boarding school.

[JETman]

I can do both.

John, yeah, I had that originally (I think you should round it up to 17.70) going from memory of 13 discs, then I saw on a post somewhere 12 discs, so changed it.

Hans, thanks, I tend to mistype that word though I know how to spell it. Had three years of Latin in boarding school.

I know, I was just having a little fun!

FWIW, on my calculator here at work, 230/13 = 17.6923076923, which rounds DOWN to 17.69.

[jazzbo]

I can do both.

John, yeah, I had that originally (I think you should round it up to 17.70) going from memory of 13 discs, then I saw on a post somewhere 12 discs, so changed it.

Hans, thanks, I tend to mistype that word though I know how to spell it. Had three years of Latin in boarding school.

I know, I was just having a little fun!

FWIW, on my calculator here at work, 230/13 = 17.6923076923, which rounds DOWN to 17.69.

Okay, but what retailer is going to round down a price? Get REAL!

[jazzbo]

From the Los Angeles Times:

The new and improved Beatles CDs sold 235,000 copies during their first two days in stores, and total first-week sales of the individual CDs and two box sets of the group's recordings were projected to be 500,000 to 600,000 copies, possibly higher.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/...0,5270664.story

[ghost of miles]

Nobody recommending "Revelution In The Head"????? :unsure:

I think it's amazing.

Definitely discussion of this book way upstream the thread. I agree--I've probably read it (in toto) about three times now.

[WorldB3]

Nobody recommending "Revelution In The Head"????? :unsure:

I think it's amazing.

Definitely discussion of this book way upstream the thread. I agree--I've probably read it (in toto) about three times now.

If I come across a copy I will give it a go. Thanks everyone.

[AllenLowe]

it's a good book -

[Brad]

From the Los Angeles Times:

The new and improved Beatles CDs sold 235,000 copies during their first two days in stores, and total first-week sales of the individual CDs and two box sets of the group's recordings were projected to be 500,000 to 600,000 copies, possibly higher.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/...0,5270664.story

Interesting article. Thanks. One of the linked articles referred to a Box of Vision. Does anyone know anything about this?