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

Man, even the Stereo box is sold out on Amazon now.

Do you think McCartney gets the money from these as an ongoing revenue stream, or does it all land in his bank account at once?

I heard that hundred dollar bills are delivered to his country manse and then fed directly into a wood chipper, and his gardeners use it for mulch.

I bet 90% of it goes to Sony/ATV, taking into account accounting practices and money won from suing downloaders. 10% of that is still tons of money tho.

Paul McCartney is still touring, so I'm putting that up as evidence.

Like most people, I was initially confused by EMI’s decision to release remastered versions of all 13 albums by the Liverpool pop group Beatles, a 1960s band so obscure that their music is not even available on iTunes. The entire proposition seems like a boondoggle. I mean, who is interested in old music? And who would want to listen to anything so inconveniently delivered on massive four-inch metal discs with sharp, dangerous edges? The answer: no one. When the box arrived in the mail, I briefly considered smashing the entire unopened collection with a ball-peen hammer and throwing it into the mouth of a lion. But then, against my better judgment, I arbitrarily decided to give this hippie shit an informal listen. And I gotta admit—I’m impressed. This band was mad prolific.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/chuck-klosterman-repeats-the-beatles,32560/

that guy

seriously

The photos of the packaging in that review are making me want to buy.

It’s akin to a combination of Badfinger, Oasis, Corner Shop, and everyother rock band that’s ever existed.

Corner Shop?? Does he mean "Brimful of Asha" Cornershop, or some other Corner Shop?

Oh wait, because of the sitar? Good grief.

I think Kloster Man has his tongue firmly in cheek here

Yeah there's something CRLS-lite about this.

wait, pitchfork's entire review section today is tom ewing on the beatles? huuuuh

Sounds good to me!

(Tom taking over the review section, that is.)

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School?

Liking these pitchfork write-ups!

So what do we think regular retail price will end up on these things? B3st Buy's special "sale" price is $12.99 for all of them besides White Album which will be $16.99. I can't justify splurging on the box right away, so I'd prefer picking these up slowly over time. But I'm afraid they'll be like $18 after a couple weeks.

i betcha they'll be wayyyy cheaper than that in a year or so. . .

I dunno, back when I used to buy things in shops I was always waiting for their regular CDs to come down to mid-price or below like every other band on the planet, but they never seemed to have any trouble maintaining full price for the things.

didn't Marcello once say on a diff thread that both the Beatles and Pink Floyd have it down that they wont ever go to mid-price ?

I pre-ordered from Amazon and was pleasantly surprised to find the single-disc CDs at $12.99 each.

in the UK, you can pick up pretty much any Floyd album for a fiver all the time. xpost.

The Beatles do have it in their contract that they will never be mid-price, yes. At least that is what I heard somewhere once long ago.

From the NY Times review: "Now EMI should consider moving the catalog to a truly high-definition format, like Blu-ray DVD, adding newly remixed Surround versions like those on “The Beatles Anthology.” With the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ first hit coming in 2012, there isn’t much time to waste."
Do you think they'll actually do this? I guess it seems likely at some point. But a little bit nuts.

The surround sound is on"Love"

How does that work? What do you play it on? Does that mean I have to wait another ten years to buy the box set?

oh yes surround mixes, the quadraphonic sound of the new century!

some day, man ... some day ...
http://home.pacbell.net/fmillera/SQS4_bw.jpg

zaireeka? i hardly knew her!

The remastered catalogue, not available online, could relieve a slide in the popularity of CDs, which has dragged US album sales down 14.5 per cent for the year to date, or 31.1 per cent below 2007 levels.

By holding out from online stores such as Apple’s iTunes, EMI will ensure that sales of full albums are not undermined by hits such as “Hey Jude” or “Let It Be” being made available individually.

Just got done listening to Please, Please Me and oh man, what a rediscovery. The guitars snap, twang, and bite. The bass kicks like a mule on Love Me Do and Ringo's back beat holds everything in place, but what impressed me the most are those superb harmonies. Like a lot of people, I'd forgotten how good this early stuff was. I guess I'm going to have to blow a shed load of money, but I want...

Holy fuck is Tom Ewing a fantastic writer.

Any word on if Charles Manson and Phil Spector are going to tag-team review the White Album and Let It Be re-issues? I think some race-war studio chatter is evident on "Piggies" now that it's been spit-shined but I'm curious about what the big man himself says.

Their shirts are now 24% cleaner to play around in.

Tom Ewing's doing a great job - those are excellent writeups for very familiar material.

Listening to Rubber Soul right now, holy fuck. Believe the hype people. These sound fantastic.

I want I want I want I want...but I will wait til tomorrow because my grandma said good things come to those who wait. Nanna, you better be right on this one.

Tom Ewing's doing a great job - those are excellent writeups for very familiar material.

Yeah, agreed. The reviews are even making me a little curious about the remasters. Until reading them, I had no interest whatsoever in ever hearing another Beatles song again. Now I have . . . a little interest in hearing maybe one or two Beatles songs at least one more time.

xpost I love all of these pitchfork reviews. I can't stop reading them.

OTM. They are very well done and an interesting read. These remasters are giving a new generation of music writers a chance to evaluate the Beatles and it's kind of exciting to see the different approaches.

within week i have gone from : 'i never want to hear another fucking beatles record again', thanks to the recent radio 2 overdose.
to : 'i really want the boxset'

"within a week" of course.

Yoko breaks up the Beatles news

http://mashable.com/2009/09/08/beatles-itunes/

The NME are doing a "Let's have 12 different front page editions for this week's issue"

i.e. each album.

The thirteenth is a limited edition (1,000) of "Magical Mystery Tour" which you can only get from the webshop.

I HAVE FOUR OF THEM

NOT NME COVERS

4 REMASTERED BEATLES ALBUMS

I'm going to have to get the box set, but I'm also going to have to wait 'til Christmas. No great hope of rapid bargains. They are £11 each in hmv, £17 for the doubles, box sets £180/£200. Box set on Amazon is £170 - annoyed because it was £135 when I checked a couple of weeks back.

Just under 10 quid each in Asda. Just bought the only two they had - Rubber Soul & Abbey Road. RS sounds amazing.

The main problem with Rubber Soul is the awful instruments-go-in-this-channel, vocals-go-in-this-channel stereo separation on some of the tracks. Did someone say that George Martin actually remixed it for the 1987 issue? Why didn't he do it properly?