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

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.

I expect we’ll get a Giles Martin remix soon enough.

.. and some of the mono CDs had the "original" stereo mixes added !

Yeah, Help! and Rubber Soul in the mono box have both the mono mix and the 1965 stereo mix.

I have not bothered sorting out the differences. Should I bother at this point?

lmao the beatles catalog: one of the most confusing catalogs of all time

when the mono box came out, i ripped all the mono mixes from please please me -> sgt. pepper's and have never looked back. giles' stereo remix of sgt. pepper's was fun tho

I love the mini Emitex sleeves in the mono CD box. That whole set is like Beatles origami.

The only album that I like having in stereo and mono is the White Album. Otherwise, I'm good with mono (and stereo if that's there is no mono, e.g. Abbey Road, Get Back/Let It Be, etc.)

*I'm good with mono (except for the obvious cases where only stereo exists, eg. Abbey Road, Get Back/Let It Be, etc.)

i used to have white album in both but the stereo is way more canonical to me

I definitely prefer the stereo white album, and I have to wonder if more care was taken with that stereo mix, rather than it being the afterthought that it was on previous records. After all, "Revolution 9" was mixed in stereo, and the mono is just a fold-down.

So the albums on Spotify are stereo except for the songs in the Mono Masters box?

So the albums on Spotify are stereo except for the songs in the Mono Masters box?

Probably. When everything was remastered for 2009, they streamlined it so that stereo was the priority for the standalone releases. Mono was treated like it was for collectors and reserved only for the box set.

What's confusing is that in 1987, George Martin remixed Help! and Rubber Soul because he thought the original stereo mixes sounded lacking. Those 1987 digital remixes for those two albums were retained for the 2009 remasters, but for completeness sake, they also included the original stereo mixes in the mono box set. Because those albums were so short, they were able to just append the original stereo mixes to the original mono mixes on the same disc, so the number of CD's in the mono box set didn't change. (It's just weird to have these stereo mixes pop up on a box set that was marketed as mono only, but it's still consumer friendly.)

I definitely prefer the stereo white album, and I have to wonder if more care was taken with that stereo mix, rather than it being the afterthought that it was on previous records. After all, "Revolution 9" was mixed in stereo, and the mono is just a fold-down.

I posted this way, way upthread somewhere, but Ken Scott claimed the White Album was the only time they put some real thought into both the mono AND stereo mixes of an album. The reason: Paul got so many fan letters about how the mono and stereo mixes were different (probably without his knowledge because he didn't care about stereo) that he told Ken that they need to play up the differences between both mixes, the idea being more people will buy both mixes for that reason. Ah Paul...

*probably done without his knowledge because he didn't care about stereo

Ah, that makes sense, and the white album feels like it has the most, and most significant, differences between stereo and mono.

Engineer Ken Scott on mono vs stereo with the White Album:

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/abbey-road-engineer-ken-scott-says-beatles-white-album-sessions-were-blast

Q: Did you do the mono mixes for Magical Mystery Tour and the White Album? And why are the mono and stereo mixes so different?

A: Absolutely. Normally we went to mono first. Up until the White Album, they had never been interested in stereo. But they became interested around that time. Paul told me they wanted to make the stereo mixes different from the mono mixes because they’d started to get fan mail about how people were buying both the mono and stereo mixes.

Fans were sending The Beatles letters, telling them how the mixes were different. So they realized this was a good way of selling double the amount of albums. So we had to actually make stereo mixes that were different.

Up until the White Album, the stereo mixes were throwaways. England just wasn’t interested in stereo mixes. So they were done a little later, and we didn’t take massive amounts of notes. So if something was sped up, no one actually kept a note on how much it was sped up. It was just, “Oh, just speed it up a bit.” They were just thrown together, really.

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https://thestrangebrew.co.uk/ken-scott-on-the-beatles-white-album/

Q: The White Album was the first album specifically mixed for stereo as well as mono. How did the mixing process vary? The mono and stereo versions are very different at times like on ‘Helter Skelter’ and ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’.

A: As people in England were still not into stereo up to this point, more expensive equipment needed to play it AND record companies charged more for stereo, the Beatles had only been in the studio for the mono mixes. They are the only ones they approved and stereo mixes were left until a short time after the completion of all recording and too often things that the Beatles had wanted and were done for the mono mixes were forgotten when it came to the stereo mixes. “She’s Leaving Home” is a great example of this. But for the White album the stereo mixes were often done immediately after the mono version with differences requested by the band members. I was told by Paul that the reason for this was that they had been receiving fan mail telling them how much the fans liked the differences and so they thought they might sell even more records by purposely changing things between mixes.

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https://www.premierguitar.com/diy/interview-ken-scott-part-2-musicians-questions-about-recording-with-the-beatles

Q: Do you prefer the mono mixes on the White Album to the stereo ones?

A: Probably. I’m still awaiting the mono re-masters from EMI, and I have yet to hear them. [This was in 2009 when the remasters were being rolled out - Ken had heard the stereo remasters but not the mono ones yet.] From what I remember, yes, because that’s what we spent all the time on. On the White Album they became interested in stereo mixes, because fans would buy both versions and write and tell them of all the differences, so they began making mono and stereo mixes with planned differences.

So the albums on Spotify are stereo except for the songs in the Mono Masters box?

Mono Masters isn't on Spotify, is it? I think the only mono album on Spotify may actually be Sgt Pepper, as disc 4 of the super deluxe edition (though it's not marked as mono on Spotify)

Giles Martin on the challenges of remixing Rubber Soul and Revolver:

"The software is getting a lot better," Martin notes. "I’m constantly looking at how we would approach it if I ever get to remix Revolver or Rubber Soul, early albums, which a lot of people want me to do. That’s a good example of, 'How do we do that?' How do I make sure that John or Paul’s vocal isn’t just in the right-hand speaker, but also make sure that his guitar doesn’t follow him if I put it in the centre? On Taxman, the guitar, the bass, and drums are all on one track! That’s why the record is basically on the left-hand side, and then there’s a shaker on the right-hand side of the centre.

https://www.musicradar.com/news/beatles-revolver-rubber-soul

That explains a lot. After hearing the mono mixes, I lost interest in the stereo mixes fast. The spread was just too awkward, very lop-sided and with gaping holes all over the place.

On headphones, the early stereo mixes are a pain. It's less noticeable through speakers.

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

― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, December 8, 2021

I thought you said they were "correct," which I can understand. I can even understand an idiosyncratic personal fondness for the version first imprinted. "better" tho... just can't get my head around it.

I took a little one-speaker jam box to camp with me one summer and all the Beatles records taped off on to cassette.

It wasn't until I got there that I realized that for some reason, the album wouldn't all play through the one speaker, like an artificial mono (imagine someone playing you a stereo record over the phone.) Instead, I only got one of the two channels.

It was a long two weeks.

oooooooff

Ouch

Any takers on this thread for the theory that they sing the word “nonpareil” on “Kansas City”?

I really dig the mono version of Help! - It's faster and has a different, rougher lead vocal. Was redone due to some sort of syncing with the film issues. The fidelity of the link below sucks, but it's the best thing available online:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvE1oHVZaQ

I thought my headphones were unplugged and it was playing from the speakers when I clicked that!

(They weren't. Just sounded that way.)

I know, right!?

Also, if you all missed the POB reissue that came out earlier this year, there's a bunch of great stuff that makes for a good addendum to Get Back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aBmaFkyDk0

Crazy in retrospect how 1970 produced FIVE albums of all-new material from the Beatles. Granted Ringo's was covers/standards and a lot of Paul's feels tossed off, but still it's a ridiculous bounty for Beatle fans, and John and George's albums are still the two best solo albums.

Plus, George's counts as double

Triple, if you like jammin

even better, it's SIX albums - Ringo had two! (and both pretty good ones.)

American fans also got the Hey Jude album, not "all new" of course, but a "first time on LP" affair that would have helped complete some collections.

And I do..xpost

Srsly, I played "Out of the blue" a couple days ago, it sure sounds a lot like Spiritualized. Kept expecting Jason to fade in,singing like..

KISS just about did the same thing in a 12-month period when... hey, where did this yellow flag come from?

CCR dropping 3 classics in 1969 is the bar

...and Fairport too!

1. all things must pass
2. ram
3. jl/pob (which imo isn't as good as yo/pob)

this opinion is admittedly v in character

one of the best classic albums episodes tho

speaking of Yoko: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/08/arts/music/yoko-ono-beatles-get-back.html

Don't worry
Don't worry
Don't worry

it feels like a generation of time passed between shea stadium and twickenham

Candlestick was over a year after Shea. Crazy to think only 2 years and just under 4 months passed between that show and the rooftop.

just under 5 months... my bad. Either way it's one of the things that blows me away with that era of music - artists were insanely prolific, especially the Beatles. Really helped to stopped touring I guess.

What's also strange to consider is that, when they're talking about their Hamburg days in Get Back, they're not talking ancient history - they had last played a residency there only six years earlier.

When I was 29, shit I did when I was 22 or 23 was pretty ancient history

1. all things must pass
2. ram
3. jl/pob (which imo isn't as good as yo/pob)

OTM on all counts

God, Billy Preston showing up just brings everything together.

Let it Be obv not a top tier Beatles album, but the sound once they get to Apple is so awesome - splits the difference between the White Album and Abbey Road.

yeah definitely