The Beatles Capitol Albums Vol. April 11th (1 Viewer)

[Keith Paynter]

This isn't even on the official Beatles site, and I only got the news this morning in the form of a bulk e-mail from Amazon:



As it was with the first volume, the second set of 4 albums will feature both the Mono and Stereo Capitol mixes of "The Early Beatles", "Beatles VI", "Help!" and "Rubber Soul".

 

[GuruAskew]

Billboard.com reported yesterday that the first pressing is messed up and the wrong mixes were included. Capitol is doing an exchange program to get the corrected discs but I think I'm gonna hold off until I can just be sure I'm buying the right set.

 

[Tommyc]

Why can't Capitol just recall the sets as they're not on sale yet? Not everyone will get the news that the wrong mixes were used and will buy them anyway. Seems like a no-brainer unless Capitol is just out to confuse everyone and make some more money off the Beatles catalog.

 

[GuruAskew]

Here is the link to the Billboard article.

 

[BridgetJZ]

Awesome, great news. Thanks for the heads up!!

 

[Keith Paynter]

According to Bruce Spizer, author of several definitive books on the Beatles US discography, the problem has been rectified.

Here are his comments on the Amazon messageboard:

"There is a compilation error on the Beatles VI and Rubber Soul discs contained in the initial manufacturing run of The Capitol Albums Volume 2 box set. In particular, the third party mastering facility incorrectly sent stereo-to-mono mixdowns of Beatles VI and Rubber Soul to the manufacturing plants. Capitol Records had ordered and approved mono masters made from the original 1965 mono tapes, which were delivered to the mastering facility directly from the Capitol vault. As soon as Capitol learned of the error, the correct mono masters were sent to the manufacturing plants for another production run. Although there is no discernable difference in the sound quality of the initial run, Capitol made the adjustment for historical accuracy. There are subtle differences between the stereo and mono versions of a few of the songs on the two affected albums. The most noticeable is "I'm Looking Through You" on Rubber Soul. The song has a false start guitar intro unique to the Capitol stereo album (track 9 on the CD). The improperly compiled CD of Rubber Soul contains a stereo-to-mono mixdown of the song. Thus, the mono version of the song (track 21 on the CD) also has a false start intro. The mono version of the song on the corrected CD does not contain the false start intro. Capitol will be issuing information for consumers who purchase box sets with the improperly compiled discs and wish to obtain replacement copies."


"Due to consumer complaints about the packaging of Volume 1, the packaging for Volume 2 was improved. The cardboard box is of a thicker stock. The tray opens in the middle instead of the ends, so the CDs don't fall out. The jackets are clearer and have the album titles on the spines. The labels on the CDs mimic the Scranton rainbow labels. The booklet is also an upgrade, with extra pages, a long essay rather than introductory remarks and previously unpublished photos. Due to time constraints, the Help! jacket is not a gatefold. But don't let that bring you down. Fans and collectors should be pleased with the overall package."