Capitol to Release First Four US Release Beatle Albums (1 Viewer)

CNN's website is reporting that Capitol will release the first four US release Beatle albums on November 16th. Does anyone else have any additional info concerning this? The article mentions that stereo and mono mixes mastered from the original tapes will be included. The CDs will be boxed together and will include a 48 page booklet.

Sorry about not including a link, but the forum won't let me since I don't have 15 posts yet. I'm sure it is easy to find on CNN's website.

Here you go Jeff. From a BBC source though.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ic/3740098.stm

Well, I'm not buying them unless they multi-channel, Super Audio Dualdiscs with full bit-rate DTS and holographic reflections of the band playing.

I don't really see the point of releasing these (other than to make money, of course). It's been widely reported that the Beatles didn't like the way that Capitol released their albums, from the album covers to the content. As far as stereo mixes being released are concerned, I compare that to the argument that many people make to release the original theatrical soundtracks on DVDs. Since the Beatles didn't record these albums in stereo, what's the point of releasing them that way? Finally, if you have the currently released CDs, then you already have everything that this box set will provide (minus the stereo mixes, of course). The original CDs are how they were originally released in Europe, and they apparently had the preferred tracklistings on them.

OK, (mini) rant over.

Clint - The articles do state that the releases are "remastered" from "original tapes". Do you feel that this will not be an improvement over the current releases? Since there is little information discussing the "remastering", I lean toward your theory, however the original releases sounded poor and if we do get a good "remastering", this set will be a good purchase in my opinion.

The infamous "butcher cover" on the first run of Yesterday ... and Today (later recalled by Capitol) was the band's take on what EMI's U.S. subsidiary was doing to the albums. When introducing numbers on their second and third U.S. tours, John or Paul would routinely say, "Here's one from our latest LP" -- and get the name of the record wrong.

So, they were borderline furious with Capitol's mangling of their albums.

On the other hand, these records are what U.S. Beatlemaniacs grew up with. I often think of the first track on Rubber Soul as "I've Just Seen a Face." When, in truth, it's "Drive My Car."

I managed to get the Parlophone LPs via import during the late '60s. Over the years, I've become "acclimated" to the albums that The Beatles intended for us to hear.

Original mono mixes, PLUS original stereo mixes, from the master tapes?

The Beatles' Second Album, while not compiled by the Beatles themselves, nevertheless remains one of my favorite Beatles albums.

I expect these to sound significantly different than the existing CDs. In addition to differences between mono & stereo mixes, the US recordings would usually be EQ'd differently than their UK counterparts.

I understand that the UK mono mixes are the "definitive" versions, but I was always partial to the UK stereo and the US mono versions as well.

The photograper that took the shots disputes that here:

http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/publi...s/butcher.html

Though who's to say what ran thru the mind of whoever decided to send it to Capitol later on.

As for the box set, I'm going to wait for some reviews of whatever remastering that takes place. I have the American versions of most of their LPs, which I suppose I could copy to CD if I wanted to. I don't know if it would sound the same as this box set, but it remains to be seen (or heard) if the box set will sound $60 better (for 4 albums).

As for the song order, in this day and age of multi-disc programmable players and CD recorders, I don't see why that should be an issue.

Actually, Yesterday..and Today was one of my favorite Beatles LPs before I knew any better (Nowhere Man and We Can Work it Out are 2 of my favorite Beatles songs), and the fact that it contains 3 of my favorite Revolver songs made me under-rate Revolver for all those years.

Why did Capitol mess with the song order?

It wasn't really the song order - it was more the contents of the albums they messed with. Capitol put only 11 or 12 songs on an album even though the original British version generally had 14. And they put non-album single or EP tracks on the US albums so they were able to squeeze 3 or 4 albums from every 2 or 3 British ones. Since the songs were different, they had to come up with a different song order.

Capitol gets a lot of flack nowadays for that practice, but it was actually in the Beatles' best interest that Capitol did this. Because of publishing issues, Capitol was only able to pay for royalties to the group for the first 12 tracks on an album. Even though Parlophone was the sister label to Capitol, they were separate entities, and Capitol knew that if they released a 14-song album like in England, their main stars wouldn't get all their royalties, and they could leave the label once the contract ran out.

So Capitol was smart to do what they did.

One other thing: as much as I love the Beatles, it's complete crap when they say that any pre-Pepper album was designed to be a "creative concept."

Thanks.

I think using the word "original" to describe the master tapes used and the mixes is a little confusing here. They didn't use the first generation master tapes. The tapes were dubbed from the UK masters, then sent to Capitol. Capitol then did some nasty things with them. They added echo, and folded down some tracks, etc. There is a reason that vinyl lovers refer to alot of Capitol pressings as Crapitol pressings.
I am happy that these are being re-released though. Just the fact that mono mixes are being re-released gives me hope that there will one day be a legal way to get the original UK mixes on CD.
I do understand people wanting to here these like they did in the early '60s. Rubber Soul was my very first album(in the late '70s), and the UK version on the CD still sound kinda different to me.

Regards
KrisM

I heard about this and think it is great news. Like with the Stones, the catalog needed an overhaul.

In the Stones' case, they remastered the original British albums as well as the versions created by their American label. And they also issued them in SACD.

That's because it was totally re-mixed for CD with echo added to the vocals. Same thing with Help!

I'd like someone to do the original UK releases right on CD first (use proper alignment on the tape machines, use a mono machine on the mono tapes instead of a mis-adjusted stereo machine on mono tapes... oh and don't even bother with noise reduction Mr. Mew), then they can work on the US versions.

Sorry Joel, in my case I was referring to the track order on Rubber Soul, not the sound.
I here you about proper UK releases. If ever there is a catalog that needs the 'deluxe edition' treatment, this is it.

Regards
KrisM

These are the album versions that I grew up listening to, so I'm pumped for them

The 'official' word is that they are being issued to commemorate the end(!?!) of the 40th anniversary of Beatlemania in North America.

I think in truth, it's being done to curb the flood of counterfeit CD's (not CD-R's) of the Capitol albums (including the 'butcher cover' "Yesterday And Today"). They're frequently found on a certain auction site which I will not link to...

I think they have the potential to sound very good, in spite of the duophonic stereo doctoring (and excessive reverb) that Capitol did to issue songs in stereo that they did not get at the time from England. (The excess reverb was done since Capitol thought the extreme instr/vocal separation 2-track copies from England were too dry...)