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

« Not guilty » take... 102 ?!!
What happened there ??

I take back what I said. Some of these remixes are fucking awful: Dear Prudence, Yer Blues, Happiness, I'm So Tired, Julia. Of course all of Paul's songs sound better. Genuine revelations are remixes of Sexy Sadie, Piggies, Martha My Dear, Don't Pass Me By, Revolution 1. Will echo what was said upthread that the bass and drums and vocals are too loud. I mean Dear Prudence is just a joke. Mumbling at the end of I'm So Tired is quieter. Revolution 9 I have to admit they got right for the most part. but w/e, this is a cool option to have.

Revolution 9 I have to admit they got right for the most part.

yeah, my thoughts exactly. all of the songs that suffer the most are John's. doubt that Yoko was involved beyond giving the obligatory go-head or whatever.

I will say I initially hated the Revolution 9 remix, but that was thru headphones - it sounds fine on speakers. Not better, but fine. I also listened to Sexy Sadie on headphones and had that 3D experience.

I like the mixes of Dear Prudence, Yer Blues, Happiness, etc. As I said before, they sound like stereo mixes based on the mono mix, not some other creation like the previous stereo mixes. It's apples and oranges - the stereo mixes everyone knows are good and highlight different things in the music; the new ones hew closer to the mono mixes the Beatles and Giles' dad worked on first. I like both, but since I love the mono mix I'll probably end up turning to this stereo mix when I'm in the mood just like I have with last year's Sgt. Pepper.

whoa, has this Cry Baby Cry by way of Led Zeppelin I ever been bootlegged before?

The « let it be » rehearsal is also pretty cool. It sounds like a soul track.

It works for the most part and it makes me like some songs better but this might just be one of the most overvalued albums of all time. This has ar most five or six absolute gems, five or six decent album tracks and rather a lot of nursery rhymes, nonsense verse and self-mythologizing bullshit.

Yeah I agree with G. Martin on that one : it would have made a terrific simple album... but Macca is also right : whatever the imperfections, it’s the Beatles’ White album !

if there was a great single album in there we'd know what it was by now

It’s not that there aren’t some great Paul and George songs on there, but if you just listen to the John songs it’s pretty spectacular.

"Sour Milk Sea" is a really disgusting title for a song

very George

Yeah it’s mostly about John. Actually I would be fine with almost only John’s songs in the Beatles’ catalogue in general...

I made a spotify playlist of the white album with only John’s songs a while ago and it’s cool !

I had to remove « Bungalow Bill » though...

Ok « Revolution 1 » does sound gloriously rich and warm in the remix. Love it !

― AlXTC from Paris, Saturday, November 10, 2018 12:13 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this one really hit me while i was listening walking home last night. always thought the album version of this song sounded thin but here it super doesn’t!!!

if we’re gonna get into another argument about whether the white album is actually good 🙄

The entire charm of the white album for me is accepting its status as a build-your-own-Beatles kit that forces you to edit the album. Every ILX white album thread typically leads to debates over which tracks are the most useless. I'm sure these debates will go on for another 50 years.

I hope so.

« Not guilty » take... 102 ?!!
What happened there ??

― AlXTC from Paris, Saturday, November 10, 2018 7:38 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They (re)started the take count on a high value as a joke.

"Sour Milk Sea" is a really disgusting title for a song

very George

One thing I noticed when comparing the original (stereo) mix of “Glass Onion” with the remix was that the original sounds almost claustrophobic and cluttered by comparison. And it’s largely down to the EQ — there’s some low-end on the vocal taking up sonic real estate.

It dawned on me that the EQ options on their mixing desk in 1969 were likely limited to low, mid, and high...whereas now, you can get super crazy granular with EQ frequencies, options which enable the remix to breathe more. If that makes any sense.

And whatever the differences, it’s never not fun to hear a record I first heard when I was three years old with fresh ears.

(I was so frightened by Ringo’s scream on “Helter Skelter” that I couldn’t/didn’t listen to side 3 again until I was 14. And I thought “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” was about not being allowed to cross the street unsupervised.)

That is now my preferred reading.

"« Not guilty » take... 102 ?!!
What happened there ??"

didn't they do a million attempts at that song and none of them turned out right? This one is ok though honestly I think at this point the Anthology version is the definitive one to me.

One thing I noticed when comparing the original (stereo) mix of “Glass Onion” with the remix was that the original sounds almost claustrophobic and cluttered by comparison.

this is what makes the original mix so powerful though. but a song like Sexy Sadie really pops and benefits from that space.

Relistening to this whole thing reminds me how much the Gray Album left its mark on me. Beginning of "Mother Nature's Son," I still half expected to hear "Shawn was a very shy child growing up..."

this is what makes the original mix so powerful though. but a song like Sexy Sadie really pops and benefits from that space.

― flappy bird, Monday, November 12, 2018 2:29 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I do like the original mix, but I never noticed anything "wrong" with it until I heard the remix.

I like this new mix much more than the new Pepper mix.

Wow, even on Spotify, "Blackbird" is sounding surprisingly crisp. And then "Piggies" sounds huge right after.

I think Tarfumes is right that it mostly sounds like EQing out muddy frequencies.

I'm going to listen with an open mind

it struck as sort of weird at first, like it sounded so modern but all the praise itt makes me think i'm being a stick in the mud

My mix praise is mixed praise.

Turns out "Revolution 9" wasn't remixed, which makes sense, as it was mixed live to stereo at the time. To remix it would essentially be to re-create the piece itself.

it sounds great to me on this set but I dunno, first time I think I've been like fuck yeah Revolution 9

Highlights for me:

Good Night Take 10
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da Take 3
Hey Jude Take 1
St Louis Blues
Let it Be
Blue Moon
Los Paranoias
Bungalow Bill Take 2
Julia Rehearsals
Dear Prudence - Esher Demo

The Esher "Glass Onion" has this great contrast between the hard-edged verses and the kind of dreamy, swoony lines sung over the 7th chords ("But here's another clue for you all... " etc). That difference is gone in the final album version.

I was always confused by the Glass Onion demo, it doesn't sound like it was recorded at the same Esher session. there a couple others from the bootleg I have that sound completely different. maybe the medley segments? will double check. main difference is lack of double tracking

it sounds great to me on this set but I dunno, first time I think I've been like fuck yeah Revolution 9

― L'assie (Euler), Tuesday, November 13, 2018 12:43 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh yeah, it totally sounds incredible here. Because of that, I assumed it was remixed, even if I couldn't pick out anything new/different about it. So I guess they did a helluva job with the remastering, because the only non-remixed track sits perfectly among the other remixed tracks.

Funny looking back at the start of this thread, it's like a different world, when the only versions of Beatles albums you could get were those 1987 CDs, some bootlegs off soulseek (yay Purple Chick!) and the best sounding versions were agreed to be the original mono vinyls which went for a small fortune.

Surprised they've not yet done such a grand reissue/remaster/outtakes trawl for Revolver - hope that's next.

Since they're apparently doing these as "anniversary" editions, I assume Abbey Road is next, but it's complicated, since they demoed a lot of Abbey Road stuff during the Get Back project. So maybe they'll combine them into one huge set. It could be a decidedly mixed bag, though, with the extended Yoko/feedback freakout after George left (that's good!), outtakes of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" (that's bad!), the complete rooftop concert (that's good!), and endless interminable half-assed slogs through material no one's interested in playing (that's bad!).

Went down a wormhole last night with "Can You Take Me Back" in my head. OF COURSE, there have only been about 929,238,429 blogs written about it.

One of them was Dead 2 Rights, which brought up this number which has a similar little melody:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nes83_DkrCI

Donovan took the bones of that one and came up with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BiuwZ67Sq0

Which the Animals covered:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olVuV3E-APA

I mean, pretty standard stuff. But you could see where one influences the other, which influences another, etc.

I was hoping to find a rockin' cover of the Beatles cut, but all I could find were tributes like from this guy.

https://i.imgur.com/wPqAQNT.png

I wanna hear the take of McCartney singing I Want You.

You've heard his take of "I'm So Tired" ?

I freakin love this from the 1+ DVD/Blu Ray a few years back. Seems they won the legal battle last year against Sid Bernstein and co, so they can now actually put the whole Shea film out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kle2xHhRHg4

Oh yeah, it totally sounds incredible here. Because of that, I assumed it was remixed, even if I couldn't pick out anything new/different about it. So I guess they did a helluva job with the remastering, because the only non-remixed track sits perfectly among the other remixed tracks.

According to me, it's always been the best-sounding track on here.

yes 👏 👏

We just A/B'ed "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" again and, I have to say, I'm a little puzzled by it. The bass sounds nice, yes, but I didn't hear much improvement in the vocals - in fact, McCartney seems deeper in the mix. I don't hear the organ as well. Bit of a trade-off, I have to say, and I'm not sure why we're trading things for other things. And why is there more hard panning in the new version?

The only change I’d make to the original tracklisting would be to add the Jackie Lomax version. Dunno where I’d put it, though...maybe between “Birthday” and “Yer Blues.”
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat)

i love the outfake version of the jackie lomax version with george's vox flown in from the esher demo, it's my go-to