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

Well the Anthologies are proper remixes but I'd agree that they didn't go as over the top with the mastering and eq as they have on this latest round. I don't see them going back to remaster the Anthologies though so you'll have to enjoy them as they are (which is quite nice anyway).

I never did pick the Anthologies up...after all the discussion here I think I would like to seek them out.

Can we retitle this thread 'HOW TO SPEND YOUR MONEY ON BEATLE$'?

Anthologies are pretty essential imo. And they do sound great -- don't really think they need a remastering ...

Listening to the BBC George Martin def. solidifies that I need the Anthologies. I really want to hear the different takes, etc.

On that BBC thing: the story George tells about John & Strawberry fields is great. You hear in his voice how fond he is of all of them. He has this wonderful mentor quality with 'the boys' that I just love. Like the way cool art teacher who will never say 'No', or 'It can't be done'...but will say, 'That's a great idea. Let's figure out how we can make that happen.'

You really need the Anthologies. All the alternate takes make it feel really fresh to hear songs you memorized as a child. It's a great feeling.

careful though, anthologies = slippery slope into beatles bootleg nerd-dom.

But but but--they're not bootlegs. They're OFFICIAL McCartney/Starkey/Harrison/Ono-approved!

And anyway, I think anyone who's drooling for a mono-box is already a lost cause.

These remasters have made me reconsider the likes of Coldplay, who I think I'd been mellowing on. There really is no reason for them to exist at all.

The Beatles >>> Coldplay obv. but Coldplay are still great, and it's nice for some people to come up with some new songs in the classic style and not just the same ones that were written 40 years ago. Which is something Coldplay do better than most contemporary bands these days. :)

Can we retitle this thread 'HOW TO SPEND YOUR MONEY ON BEATLE$'?

I guess "How to buy" is (c) Mojo Magazine ;)

Haha. Good point!

Also xxpost re: anthologies being slippery slope into bootleg nerd-dom. I'm so OCD about them atm that that whole concept appealing to me. "Bootlegs? Yay!" And this is exactly why I'm sticking to limiting myself to one remaster a month. Nate's right...I'm already a lost cause.

Anthology sounds WONDERFUL. Particularly the second disc of Anthology 2.

Listen to "Good Morning Good Morning" it is 1000x cooler than the album version. That track (and the awesome alternate title track) made me realize how much of a near-Revolver rock record Pepper actually was, underneath all the string overdubs.

when you find yourself geeking out over the Sgt. Pepper multitracks, you'll know you have a problem

Those Sgt Pepper multitracks are fucking AMAZING. I could listen to John and Paul singing She's Leaving Home unaccompanied forever.

they played some of those on the BBC George Martin thingy...def. amazing. MUST HEAR MORE OF THESE.

That part where George Martin in the BBC6 doc where he talks about playing the backwards vocals for John and then saying, "and then I had to put up with backwards guitars for the rest of my life" is just fantastic...
Where on earth can we get those multitracks they play throughout the doc...they are incredible!

RE: The indispensable Lewisohn book; its on torrents as a 60MB pdf if you're into that sort of thing..

http://nevergetoutoftheboat.blogspot.com/2009/04/beatles.html
dunno if the links still work ... but, at long last, you can listen to the isolated audience noise from "Sgt. Pepper"!

tylerw, thanks for that. I got the files, listened to a few tracks, then realized . . . I can pull these tracks into GarageBand and remix the fucking Beatles.

No matter what instrument he's playing, or who wrote the song he's playing it on, McCartney's got to try and show off his chops hasn't he? Taxman, Dear Prudence, Good Morning Good Morning, every bassline after 1964. He's a fucking enormous show-off. If he wasn't, The Beatles would have been shite.

can pull these tracks into GarageBand and remix the fucking Beatles.
haha, yeah, I sorta tried doing some of that and came up with horrible crap. But someone with more skillz could probably do some cool stuff.

^^^
I tried this, too. Turns out they mixed it just right to begin with, I guess.

I need this for all the Beatles albums. "Love" was a tease, more mashup require-o!

Gosh that Lewisohn book, easily the best Beatles book

Did they turn up the volume of the bass on these remasters? Sometimes it seems too loud.

Yeah the bass may be a small tad loud, but it was really loud the first time I heard it on my laptop and once I switched off 'sound enhancer' or whatever it fixed the problem. Try that!

A friend of my mom's recently let me pick out any of her records I wanted. It was mostly classic rock that you find it most record stores, but she was an avid beatles fan. Mostly I took the beatles and solo beatles records. I found all of John and Yoko's records, and an George Harrison album I've never seen before. It's Called Wonderwall Music. It's mostly "eastern influenced. I can't tell yet if I like it or not. I never see any mention of it any where either. I'm not even sure if the beatles were broken up when he recorded it. Also she had Paul McCartney's first two solo albums, which I'm really loving. The second one has odd electronics on it, really unexpected electronics. Maybe with this current thread in reissuing beatles music, these will be reissued as well. I found a lot of mono beatles records too. Do these still fetch outlandish prices on ebay?

Jacob, it really depends on the condition of the records. Have a look here: http://www.musicpriceguide.com/index.php?ft=1&artist=beatles+mono&ordby=datacheck&ordby=price&ordad=DESC

Jacob, that Wonderwall music album has a lot of Moog on it. Pretty weird and primitive.

Did you end up with a copy of Fly or Feeling the Space by Plastic Ono Band? I'll buy those off you.

Separate question for the ultra-nerds: I've got a copy of Yesterday that needs to be peeled. How do I do it?

Don't - assuming you are talking about the butcher cover, it's worth more unpeeled (as long as you can verify the butcher cover is underneath).

If you are adamant you want to peel it have a look here:

http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/others/butcher.html

Jacob, that Wonderwall music album has a lot of Moog on it. Pretty weird and primitive.

hey nate i think you are thinking of Electronic Sound by harrison.

http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Sound-George-Harrison/dp/B0000070RC

wonderwall might have a little synth on it but it's mostly split between traditional indian music and sort of quirky, odd instrumental sketches that sound sort of like movie soundtrack stuff, a little in the same vibe of mark mothersbaugh's stuff in rushmore or something like that

wonderwall is a great record though

Holy crap, that 'peeling a butcher cover' link is pretty O_o

saliva?

Maybe I am not yet ready for the world of uber nerd-dom.

SALIVA?

lol yeah. jesus christ. i think that guy forgot the final step: "Cry Self To Sleep."

Between the saliva instructions, the intermittent SHOUTING, and signing off 'with love from me to you'...I think I have a pretty clear picture of this dude. And I would like to immediately erase it with a strong solvent.

I'm going to stay in the remaster kiddie pool. I don't think I'm ready for THAT.

The "Wonderwall" soundtrack is WONDERFUL. I absolutely love it. Recorded by George after MMT, I believe it was the first ever solo Beatles release.

Even better is "In the First Place", a track recorded for it by Liverpool friends The Remo Four and produced by George Harrison (and sung?) but unreleased until 2005 or whenever they issued the movie on DVD. Check out this song, it sounds just like Circulatory System:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyRIG-ZXt2U

Apologies if I have already posted this video on this thread (I may have). I just really really like this song.

Just listening to a New York Times podcast about the White Album remaster with Nik Cohn and Ben Ratliff, the latter who claims that there is a "consensus" that the White Album remaster is the "one to get" because it yields the most new sounds to hear, etc...is this how you all feel? i was actually the most "meh" about the white album (stereo) remaster, thought it didn't sound so different. anyone think the same, or agree?

i meant or agree that it is the most revelatory of the remasters, etc...(thks)

Am picking up the White Album remaster tomorrow (new month, new remaster, yay)...we shall see. Been listening a lot to the 87 cd, so I'm hoping for some wow moments.

anthologies are great but yeah, you will eventually wind up downloading the unsurpassed masters or comparable boots. when I finally got ahold of all of those, I sat up all night listening to them, it was like a whole universe had been opened up. it's still pretty weird that those are out there.

the best thing though is that revolution mix that leaked this year.

I think a lot of people have been the least thrilled with the white album remaster, from my experience. unless they mean the mono version.

No matter what instrument he's playing, or who wrote the song he's playing it on, McCartney's got to try and show off his chops hasn't he? Taxman, Dear Prudence, Good Morning Good Morning, every bassline after 1964. He's a fucking enormous show-off. If he wasn't, The Beatles would have been shite.

I really liked him a hel of a lot more after reading the authorised biog "Many Years from Now', which is practically 90% Paul speaking verbatim. It brings out how he approached songs as an interesting challenge/experiment to make it more interesting for himself. I think he'd be much more liked if more people read that book.

Is there going to be a poll on which is the best remaster? (Or have I missed it?)

I think the stereo white album is awesome.

I think because of the 'facsimile' version from a few years ago, people are probably "white out".

(Was that a remaster?)

I'll have to give that one a listen...

Yeah, stereo White Album
is up there with Abbey Road as one of the best.

I think the biggest improvement for me is MMT.

yeah, "white album" and "abbey road" sound great. I also got "revolver", which is also quite improved, and "rubber soul". Somehow, for that one, I end up liking it less than I remembered. Nothing to do with the sound, which doesn't blast me as much as the others still, but I just realized I like less songs than I thought.

Now I'm hesitating between "pepper", "MMT" and "past masters" : is "pepper" improved much ? I have listened to the mono remaster version and frankly, I don't see the point compared to the stereo, soundwise...

oups, ok, I might get "MMT", then !

and I mean, I don't see the point in mono remaster versions comparend to stereo version, in general, not just on "pepper" which stereo remaster I haven't heard yet... I'm confused this morning !