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

Well, if you're serious enough to order the Mono Box, you might wanna just wait? :)

Overall though, they took 4 years to remaster these from the original master tapes. They sound awesome and the packaging is really nice.

I just dug out all my old mono vinyl. Never really gave them much notice til all this hoopla. I'm still dying to hear mono Pepper.

Well...when I say "order"...it's in the hopes that my husband will take pity on my desperation and buy it for me for Christmas. But he thinks I'm 100% nuts.

The mono Pepper is what I'm going nuts to hear. In my mind it's been built up to be like the unicorn of recorded music. And I don't want any leaked mp3 guff...must have the real thing.

Seriously, these remasters have given me some kind of crazyperson disease.

wouldn't the real thing be vinyl?

turntable broken & I am lazy. 'real' thing = cd, in my world right now.

I'd say between Revolver and the White Album, I'd go with the latter. A few songs on Revolver sound vastly improved (Dr. Roberts, Got to Get You Into My Life), but the White Album.... oh man... I hear all kinds of stuff on every track I've never heard before.

My most listened is probably the 2nd disc of Past Masters.

Seriously, these remasters have given me some kind of crazyperson disease.

I feel ya. If Mono Sgt Pepper isn't the culmination of all music pre 1967, the internet will have lied.

that said, if you go to youtube there's pretty much everything you could need there.

It helped me realise the stereo separation is more intrusive than the lack of it.

I dont like the mono. It's presumably years of being weaned on stereo, but mono just sounds very small and flat to me. I just back-to-backed Pepper and preferred the stereo (admittedly this was on headphones and I'll try on speakers later).

Veg Grrrl, I think the remastered stereo Beatles For Sale sounds awesome and I prefer it to the mono in my trials so far. Same with Hard Day's Night. Help! I'm still on the fence about, stereo-v-mono-wise.

The only mono one I might prefer is Rubber Soul.

I just clued in on one thing:

The Yellow Sub mono: Most of the tracks are available on other albums, the "Mono Masters" has the leftover/new tracks on it.

So, I guess you could make your own.

It's all clear as mud, really, isn't it. Haha.

I think White Album will definitely be my next purchase. I was listening to the 87 cd in the car this morning and just imagining how much better it's going to sound with the remaster, given how great Abbey sounds.

Husband is oddly trying to dissuade me from buying the earlier albums in stereo, so maybe he's gonna front for that Mono box after all. Stay tuned at Christmastime! Lol.

So at this point we could call this whole board "I Love Beatles"

All Beatles All The Time

(a Mono box) is All You Need.

You Never Give Me Your (Mono Boxes)

Has Rubber Soul always been such a bitter fucking record? I love it.

That's what all the would-be Beatle imitators and power poppers miss and get totally wrong. The Beatles were always more than cheery 'Love Me Do's' and mop topped "Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs." There is a lot of paranoia, bitterness, and dark shadows to the music. I've been listening a lot to Magical Mystery Tour; especially 'I Am the Walrus'. The ending sounds like Cabaret Voltaire in acid freak-out, meltdown mode, or take 'She Said, She Said,' with its schizoid lyrics and swirling, disoriented nearly post-punk sounding guitar twists and turns. Late Beatles could be a downright scary. Maybe it was the mop topped myths of the sixties that kept people from seeing it, but when I listen to them now I'm continually struck by how dark the music and lyrics could be.

I shouldn't have said all the Beatles imitators, Big Star got it.

especially 'I Am the Walrus'. The ending sounds like Cabaret Voltaire in acid freak-out, meltdown mode, or take 'She Said, She Said,' with its schizoid lyrics and swirling, disoriented nearly post-punk sounding guitar twists and turns.

well, you know. sounds *a lot better* than shitty post-punk records tbqh.

The Beatles were always more than cheery 'Love Me Do's' and mop topped "Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs." There is a lot of paranoia, bitterness, and dark shadows to the music.

Sometimes, yes, but I would say the former is what they do better.

Plus some of their followers have managed to copy the paranoia/melancholy to a full extent too. Crowded House, for instance....

Well, I don't know if copying's the right word. Beatles didn't exactly corner the market on depression. CH had a couple of nervous breakdowns and a manic/depressive drummer in the mix, paranoia & melancholy are bound to rear their heads sooner or later. But they certainly had a lot of Beatley qualities, I'll grant you that much.

One thing that puzzles me when listening to "Beatles For Sale" is how it sounds like the reverb on the "No Reply" vocal is occasionally falling out, and then coming back again. I am pretty sure it wasn't like that on the older copies I have been familiar with. Is this a mistake in the current remasters, or just details that haven't been possible to hear on previous versions?

anyone?

Mano-a-mono, dude.

Well, I am speaking of the stereo version obv ;)

Lengthy BBC Radio piece here with George Martin and all kinds of discussion concerning the remasters and the technology behind them: http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=297

Just checked online, local library has the Lewisohn 'Beatles Recording sessions' book on the shelf. YOINK!

I may need a 12 step program if this keeps up.

Thanks for the BBC George Martin link. Really good show!

You should snag that Lewisohn book - I think it's out of print. (x-post)

Yeah, I looked it up on Amazon and they're only selling used copies atm. To the library! Huzzah!

Damn this BBC thing is derailing my work day.

Really good shew.

i'm probably not the first to notice this but hearing "drive my car" for the first time in years it sounds like PIANO HOUSE!

i mean....! when the piano comes in on the chorus it sounds like it's being just pasted in, totally a sample. the rest of the song is pretty basic dry, reverbed beatleswelt, but that piano is warm and intimate, like it was recorded a half inch away from the strings. plus the chords are just dumm, up and down. like a house vamp. the beatles even invented piano house for god's sake, all is futile!

OTM

bits of "Blue Jay Way" remind me of mid-90s trip hop

It's All Too Much is the other one that's way ahead of its time.

Two of those three are George tunes.

I listened to It's All Too Much a few times last night. Hadn't really paid much attention to it before. It's quite freaky, it could fit onto Isn't Anything quite easily.

"with your long blonde hurr... "

That fucking mad ribbitting sound in the right channel before the horns come in, WTF?

Beatles get high and all bang on random percussion while they dub their vocals.

I probably shouldn't bring this up, but I have a megaupload link with the mono box set. 676MB. If this is too improper, let me know. If anyone wants the link....

I dunno, are you a COP?

http://www.gonemovies.com/www/MyWebFilms/Drama/TaxiDriverNiroKeitel.jpg
"I'm hip"

No, not in the least. I'm somewhat of a regular here. I found the link on a forum I frequent.

er, i would like that link. not going to download anything, i'm just a link-collector. ;D

Send me a email if you're interested. I don't want to post it here. I wouldn't want any trouble.

Leonardo it!

What does that mean?

Jacob, you are a gentleman and a scholar. I don't feel too bad since I own all this stuff in multiple formats and will certainly spring for a vinyl box set if they put one out.