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

Lol, ums.

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

hello LL and belated hello to FFM!!

Kiss kiss kiss!

And now, your host for the evening…

Hungry for more clear video footage after Get Back, I rewatched some of the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus and man oh man that Who performance is just incredible.

Fun fact: not only did the Stones not release it at the time because of how dramatically the Who upstaged them, but at one point Allen Klein tried to sell the footage to the Who to release it as their “Rock & Roll Circus.”

I don’t blame them! I started with Dirty Mac and Who clips and then once I finally flipped to some Stones ones they were so dead I skipped through them

Rock N Roll Circus is, in the ancient parlance, a total GAS. I love it so much! And yeah that Who performance is incredible

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.

― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Tuesday, December 7, 2021 9:07 PM (yesterday)

…chuck berry isn’t rock?

Three little words, Rock and Roll. One little word, Rock.

Yr Blues, ILX, Yr Blues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMSp7NqBr7E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLKO4mIey88

and then one day roll just disappeared

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa17h1n5kCw

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MyJHh451Y4

please stop now

i can't stop hearing "two of us wearing raincoats" in my head
over and over and over

John and Paul were quick to promote the safe sex trend.

lol xpost i had it in my head for a week!!

well now i'm listening to all the beatles album again :(

supplementing it with the anthologies. the demo of "no reply" on anthology 1 is one of the funniest things i've ever heard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo15yhZe_V8

Gives “How Do You Do It?” a run for its money.

xpost brad i think of that version every time i hear no reply, and i crack myself up laughing

YOUR FACE

Contend that the LIB guitar solo on the album is the superior one, the way it screams out of the chord bed instead of mellowing out in it

Late to the party, but I was converted into a With the Beatles stan when the mono box came out. Everyone talks about the mono mix of Pepper, and sure. But WTB was the revelation of that set for me.

I don’t thing ever heard the stereo mix as my introduction to most of the Beatles was the CDs and they are mono for the first four albums. In fact, how easy is it to hear the stereo versions the first four now? Are they available digitally?

Thing ever = think I ever

think the stereo versions of all their albums, even the early ones, are the ones available digitally, including on streaming

the mono versions are still only available via the boxset these days iirc

my challop for today is ram > sgt pepper

Love that No Reply demo. Early Beatles are so much fun to sing along to.

xp otm

i think richard goldstein's famous takedown of pepper actually improves it for me -- the view that there is only one beatles song on the album, and all the others are intro / prelude / here......it......COMES......

See, the "Get Back" footage could be fashioned into a remake of "Hard Days Night".

Mal = Shake
Glyn = Norm
Yoko = Grandad

In which George (not Ringo) gets a bit put out and feels underappreciated and walks out.
Where Yoko (in a mostly silent part) tells John he could be doing so much more than this...
Where the Movie Producer (as opposed to Henry Spinetti) keeps having kittens because his wonderful ideas keep getting knocked back and the show looks like it won't happen or some such
And, at the end, the band get together and play songs and everyone is happy.

think the stereo versions of all their albums, even the early ones, are the ones available digitally, including on streaming

One early one where I do like the stereo version is Beatles For Sale

lol that No Reply first take! i've never really spent much time with Anth1, I only owned 2 and 3 and was convinced 1 was mostly spoken word clips. apart from the laughs, it's really interesting to hear it with just a sort of "basic Beatles sound" run-through to get the idea across, before any real shaping of the song or finding its points of emphasis and transition.

thinking about the period of endless suffering experienced by millions waiting for the Beatles catalogue to be remastered: mannnn did they leave a lot of hard-to-count money on the table with the 1987 CDs, by going with the UK packaging/tracklists. very obviously the correct decision artistically, but surely a disaster in nostalgia-shopping terms. my parents owned zero of those CDs and would have been right in the target market for like, a 12" tall box set with all the US discs in individual CDs, the black-and-rainbow Capitol label prominently featured, a big booklet with all the art from all the 7" singles, photos of Beatle wigs and toys and all that stuff... just one big giant nostalgia package, a major holiday-shopping splurge.

what they did obviously sold very well, but i wonder how many millions of copies they *didn't* sell to people who just wanted to put on their beloved favorite "The Beatles' Second Album" and remember what it felt like being 13 and head over heels for Ringo, etc. etc.

Contend that the LIB guitar solo on the album is the superior one, the way it screams out of the chord bed instead of mellowing out in it

is this even up for debate? is there someone out there who would rep for another take?

That was in response to my post that the single version is better, including the guitar solo

Yeah, the US albums didn't get reissued on CD until 2004 (The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1), and I think the mixes/masters weren't all correct in that they didn't have the crazy fake stereo and added reverb. It wasn't until 2014 that the discs were issued individually. I only have the Second Album CD, which was very well done. But the Beatles themselves may have initially (in 1987) wanted to consign the US albums to the dustbin of history, maybe not realizing the attachment American fans had to those specific track sequences and mixes.

xp

for sure. and again - it's artistically the right call. it might only be in hindsight that it's apparent they could have easily gotten away with doing the Capitol Albums type box in 1987, while simultaneously assuring record-collector die-hard types "FYI, we'll be doing another issue of the UK sequences next year" or something. idk.

but i guess they really wanted to correct the record with the general public of Beatlemaniacs, and not actually let them retain their old version of things. oh well.

The 1987 Beatles CD rollout really was exemplary in terms of comprehensiveness - here's all the albums in their original order, and all the singles and stragglers on two bonus CDs.
Also, no-one except old LP collectors were talking about the value of mono mixes in 1987, so it was quite bold to release the first four albums in that format. The Rubber Soul and Revolver stereo remixes were arguable.

for sure. and again - it's artistically the right call. it might only be in hindsight that it's apparent they could have easily gotten away with doing the Capitol Albums type box in 1987, while simultaneously assuring record-collector die-hard types "FYI, we'll be doing another issue of the UK sequences next year" or something. idk.

― I Am Fribbulus (Xax) (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, December 8, 2021 9:29 AM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think in 1987 -- when millions were buying CDs for the first time -- releasing multiple versions of one album would've been seen as an absolutely insane cash-grab, and may have backfired somewhat. CDs cost almost double what LPs cost at the time, and someone wanting both With The Beatles and Meet The Beatles! would be pretty pissed at having to buy two $17 CDs with a lot of the same songs.

anthology 1's listenability is lower than the other two but i still kinda love it, especially the end of the first disc/beginning of the second disc when ringo enters and you can really hear them kicking into gear. bunch of amazing fun live takes of the songs. but, as evidenced by that "no reply" demo, the beatles for sale demos/outtakes toward the end of disc 2 are the big highlight (cf. "mr. moonlight" with a hella dissonant harrison(?) solo instead of george martin on organ)

the recording of "kansas city" that closes it out is arguably better than what made the record

The '87 CDs were also released with a gradual rollout over the calendar year and priority given to Sgt. Pepper landing in the most deluxe version of the set (actual session info & notes in the booklet!) on its 20th anniversary.

great point about the price of CDs at that time. but someone actually wanting both With the Beatles and Meet the Beatles is a pretty small niche, right? i'm not saying i actually want to live in this universe i'm describing, which would have just extended the Capitol albums confusion, and the necessity of FAQs, for another generation. it's just interesting to me they didn't go that route. my Mom never bought any of the CDs but i bet she might have bought Meet the Beatles and Beatles '65, etc.

lol Brad ty for pointing me to this version of "Mister Moonlight" and that solo, omg

i've always been one of the very small minority of fans who like "Mister Moonlight" but this is a lot closer to the hapless, ill-advised failure that most people find in the released version.

It's funny, because EMI made some versions of the US format albums for the US forces stationed in Europe, nice on "Parlophone" - quite collectable ....

I have one of them, "Beatles VI". I don't think it matches the US mix, but it does match the content (i.e. the song list).

but someone actually wanting both With the Beatles and Meet the Beatles is a pretty small niche, right?

Oh, no doubt. And I can't imagine too many people wanted the US soundtracks on CD, with all their instrumental filler. But there probably could've been some kind of middle ground, like maybe putting two or three of the US albums on one disc (which wouldn't have been difficult, since most of those early US albums were under 30 minutes).

Anthology 1 also has Royal Variety Performance of ". . . Til There Was You" (in front of the Queen), which leads into this cheeky bit by John (starts at :53) and a great Twist and Shout:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvBCmY7wAAU