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

re: with the beatles, "hold me tight" is one of my favorite songs they ever did

apparently neither the band nor critics liked that song at all but they're all wrong

and "It Won't Be Long" is euphoria in a can.

yeah
YEAH
yeah
YEAH

the early catalog is kind of annoying with all those cheapo american releases, UK vs US tracklistings, semi-packaging of albums under different names and slightly different tracklistings, even revolver the u.s. version omits the perhaps best song on the album (and your bird can sing)

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, December 7, 2021 11:21 AM (forty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

The US Revolver, um, butchering is incredibly annoying. To this day, I'm still caught slightly off-guard when "And Your Bird Can Sing" comes on after "Good Day Sunshine." But the US The Beatles' Second Album is one of my favorite records ever. It shares a few songs with With The Beatles, but the sequencing is so much more effective. And "Money" is one of the greatest things they ever did; however great the post-'66 stuff was, they never recorded anything with that degree of intensity again.

The US version of Revolver is so weird, John has fewer songs than George!

yeah -- the version I owned for years

i don't have any insightful observations and i do not cultivate challops -- i am just a lifelong Beatles enthusiast and I am LOVING Get Back. I wish it were 60 hours of footage.

tipsy mothra otm upthread about identifying with Ringo & the harmonies -- those are the things i noticed as well. i avoided reading the avalanche of takes about this before seeing it myself bc i didn't want to ruin something so precious. good move on my part!!

"hold me tight" is one of my favorite songs they ever did

Wouldn't go that far but I love the key change into the bridge. "Little Child" is the underrated gem of that album for me, so high-spirited.

"little child" is so good

That one I'm a little cool on, mainly b/c the rest doesn't measure up to that crashing harmonica-piano intro.

For sure UK >> than US versions.

Still, Yesterday and Today is kind of a great record on its own merits. Super guitar forward.

And having a version of Rubber Soul that starts with "I've Just Seen a Face" totally makes sense, especially if that album is heard as their "folk rock" record.

hmm
mm
mm
mm
mm

If anyone's really interested in the history of the Capitol versions of the records, Dave Marsh's book The Beatles' Second Album goes into detail about the guy who sequenced and mastered them, and apparently hated the group.

And having a version of Rubber Soul that starts with "I've Just Seen a Face" totally makes sense, especially if that album is heard as their "folk rock" record.

The US Rubber Soul, considered the best Beatles album by Greil Marcus.

That's a tremendous book. Dave Dexter was the guy at Capitol who passed on their singles through 1963. He didn't seem to have many (any?) friends in the industry.

xp

Yeah Dave Dexter's a complete sack of shit. (Among other things, after Lennon was killed, he wrote an editorial basically spitting on his grave and for whatever reason the trade paper that employed him agreed to publish it.)

The U.S. albums are nostalgia relics for me. The few times I've tried listening, I couldn't stand the shitty way they sounded (the echo, crap EQ, etc.) The UK set has everything in better form - iIf the U.S. counterparts ever fall out-of-print again, I won't miss them.

Rubber Soul is the only one where I keep both versions - I really really got to know the US one for years and years before ever hearing the other sequence, and the "folk" version works so well for me. playing the UK one feels like playing a fascinating import edition with a variant sequence incorporating never-before-released bonus tracks.

Found this from a podcast blurb:

“Capitol Records exec Dave Dexter was the man who initially declined parent company EMI’s requests to issue The Beatles’ records in America. Then, after being ordered to do so, he not only oversaw remixes that slathered much of their music with reverb and fake stereo; he actually ensured he was credited on the records for what rock critic Dave Marsh would later refer to as 'genuine stupidity.'

“Back in the 1960s, courtesy of Capitol Records executive Dave Dexter, Jr., American Beatles fans bought different records and often heard very different mixes to those enjoyed by their British counterparts: ones bathed in reverb and converted into fake stereo 'with the assistance' of Mr. Dexter.”

I love the crappy stereo separation and added reverb on The Beatles' Second Album. I haven't heard Meet The Beatles! more than a few times, and am curious if its reverb is similarly ladled-on.

Only thing I hate about Second is that it wasn't their second album in the US. Vee-Jay beat Capitol to the punch with Introducing The Beatles (which is Please Please Me minus one or two songs), so Meet was their actual second album.

xp Rubber Soul still works well in the U.S. form - as pointed out, not only does Greil love it, Brian Wilson was only aware of the U.S. version when he heard it, and he's stated that's the album that motivated him to do something that was conceptually strong from the start-to-finish, i.e. Pet Sounds. But I still prefer the U.K. version: "Drive My Car," "Nowhere Man" and "If I Needed Someone" are much better than the two cuts that were added. I feel like the U.K. version has a welcome touch of soul that's filtered out in the US version too (there's a reason why Paul titled the album as such).

I absolutely hate fake stereo - I never understood the alleged appeal it would have over mono.

lol yeah, Let it Be is totally one of those records where every copy is shabby from edge-wear and ring-wear.

Not every: I have my Dad's sealed 1970 Let it Be. The story is that he bought it and immediately met my Mom, who also had a copy, and he never opened his because they were immediately steady (lol) and got married three months later. Somehow my Mom's copy never made it so I'm not sure it all adds up.

I was just hearing my brother's copy of Let it Be, one that had the red apple label on the disc. I was surprised by how great it sounded, though I agree with everyone for whom it's their least favorite Beatles.

i love seeing folks popping in ITT to say how much they enjoy the documentary

hello LL and belated hello to FFM!!

thats the thing tho innit? even tho LIB is the worst Beatles shit, it's still fuckin rippin and they play the fuck outta those songs!

i listened to the US version of rubber soul recently and thought it was pretty great. "i've just seen a face" goes so well with "norwegian wood," and i actually liked "it's only love" more in this context. the only thing i really miss is "nowhere man" coming right after "you won't see me." (ian macdonald complains about how stupid it is that they put two songs with the "ooh-la-la-la" thing right next to each other, but i always liked it.)

There is probably no Beatles song whose appearance causes me to skip or shout 'shut up' than Nowhere Man. I can't stand that opening. If it started in a different way I might not mind it.

The US run of Rubber Soul —> Yesterday and Today —> Revolver is still my favorite versions of those albums. Mostly just what I grew up with, but I do think they feel more coherent.

Yesterday and Today was my favorite of their LPs as a late '70s kid. It has an amazing druggy, drowsy feel to it. They even look stoned on the cover.

aw I love Nowhere Man intro an all

I wasn't sure I was going to watch this new documentary, but I finally turned it on, and of course was riveted to the screen. I wouldn't consider myself a Beatles obsessive, but they were a formative influence on my listening. There was one year of high school when I was living abroad in Asia and some of the only English-language rock albums I could easily find were the Beatles' albums (on cassette for about $3 each, so there were some advantages). I listened rather obsessively to the albums starting from "Sgt Peppers" through to "Abbey Road", including "Let it Be". "Let it Be" always struck me as the weakest of that bunch, but it has its moments. It feels somewhat magical to see the Beatles just sitting around and doing their thing.

Yeah, "Nowhere Man" is great - the harmonies are some of the best they've ever done.

i absolutely love nowhere man, what a weird little tune. i love how it's basically just a psychedelic doo wop song, and it tickles me how the guitar solo comes in before the verse

my brain can barely take the suggestion that the beatles only became a rock band with revolver, that's a new one

Seeing as rock music itself didn't exist before 1966, I would have thought this was self-evident. Arguably, Revolver is the first rock (as opposed to pop) album.

• Paul is Dead: No one ever mentions that he's the one inside the case (coffin) on the Yesterday & Today cover.

• I've praised Beatles VI on here many times, so what's one more.

• As much as I can hype Beatles VI and Something New, I'm glad that I didn't have to live in an America where to get the Help! songs, I would've also had to buy a side of George Martin orchestra music.

xp are you saying Revolver is the moment rock 'n roll became just "rock?"

yes, exactly.

Revolver is when they became president

ill rock u in the head with that 1966 stuff

xp are you saying Revolver is the moment rock 'n roll became just "rock?"

― J. Sam, Tuesday, December 7, 2021 4:36 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes, exactly.

― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Tuesday, December 7, 2021 4:36 PM (twenty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ah, I remember the day so well. One day me and me chums were had cigarette packs rolled up in the sleeves of our t-shirts and were dancing the hop, the next day I was tripping on Carnaby St. Thanks, Revolver!

were

lol I don't think I accept the proposition but I'm trying to entertain it. I need a minute...

Yeah I'm like, in the "moptop era" that was what bands like them were supposed to be doing.

Things changed remarkably fast - even the idea that they didn't need to wear matching suits was pretty new. Then all of a sudden came the fur coats and weird beards and sitars and everything

Were The Who a rock band? They also wore matching nehru jackets iirc

what about VU

What about the voice of Geddy Lee?

I wonder if he hits an anvil like an ordinary guy?

Were The Who a rock band? They also wore matching nehru jackets iirc

At no point in their career did the Who wear matching outfits. And Keith Moon only wore a Nehru jacket once, at the Monterey festival.

Lol, ums.

i love seeing folks popping in ITT to say how much they enjoy the documentary

hello LL and belated hello to FFM!!