Beatles day (9/9/9)

[fluffy]

So today is when a whole bunch of Beatles stuff comes out. Chuck Klosterman did a hilarious review of the remastered boxed set. Rock Band Beatles might get me to finally buy Rock Band. They are still not on iTunes. Anything else I missed?

qotd: What is your relationship with the Beatles? I already own every album on CD (the ones which were just mastered from the UK vinyl releases' master recordings) as well as some of the fancy ones (Love, which sucks, and all three Anthologies). I don't have Let It Be...Naked (yet) or any of the stupid/redundant compilations (red/blue albums, One, etc.). I may or may not pick up the Abbey Road remaster. I have no desire to pay $260 for the full remaster box set.

I still think they were the best damn band ever but I don't think it's quite necessary for their old back catalog to continue to take center stage amidst all the very good NEW music that comes out on a daily basis.

[roymond]

I don't think there's even been a band quite like the Beatles. Period. But that's just my opinion. I get into their sappy and silly songs almost as much as the "cutting edge" ones. What is most apparent upon close inspection is how effortless their music sounds. It was always frustrating to have to explain to guitar students that it's really not easy to play, so let's start with some Bowie first...

I think center stage is large enough to share old and new alike, so they deserve another day in the spotlight. Also, one person's center stage is a mere distraction to the next. I don't understand why many bands get center stage treatment but since I don't listen to radio I don't really care what other peoples' tastes are anymore, and I don't have much emotional attachment to the Grammys, etc..

I don't think I agree with the pricing on the new remixes, even though I drool about owning them all. I do thirst to hear any new detail that emerges and I have been sick of the bland processing the original transfers received since the day they came out.

[Caravan Ray]

I like the Beatles very much and have all of their works on CD - and quite a few on vinyl in a box in the shed somewhere. I doubt I will buy the re-masters - the existing CDs all sound fine to me. The game may very well tempt me to finally enter the world of video games.

There has never been a band quite like the Beatles, nor probably will there be again. Personally for me though - it is still the Rolling Stones whose records really fill me with awe every time I hear them. The Beatles probably run a respectable second.

[king_arthur]

When I was twelve, President Kennedy was killed in Dallas and the whole world turned grey. Four months later I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan (their second appearance, for some reason we missed the first one) and... there was something to smile about again. It wasn't just music that changed, it was... everything.

Between my brothers and I, I think we owned all the Beatles albums when they came out, but I only have the Hard Day's Night soundtrack, Rubber Soul and Abbey Road on CD. I s'pose I should have more than that.

I totally prefer the early stuff to the later stuff... for me, Hard Day's Night is just about the perfect album...

Charles

[Billy's Little Trip]

I wasn't a Beetles fan growing up. They were before my time and I guess kind of idle through my high school years. But they still had enough play that I knew their music. I just thought of them as "that old stuff" and never gave them much attention. It wasn't until I was in my 30s that my bass player suggested I listen to the Beetles more to get back to the roots of rock. He gave me the white album (on cd) and told me to really get into it. I did and it inspired me quite a bit! When I find myself needing to get back to the roots, I listen to the white album and it inspires me in different ways every time. I think I'm more of a John Lennon fan than a Beetles fan.

[ujnhunter]

I view today not as Beatles day, but a Happy 10th Anniversary to my little Swirl Friend. The Sega Dreamcast.

QotD: I don't really have a relationship with the Beatles, sure my parents listened to their music and I know most of it... I also appreciate things they have done for music in general, but I don't have them in my music collection... I once had Revolver on CD... I have McCartney's RAM on vinyl... but that's not the Beatles. However I went into Starbucks for a coffee last night and was almost tempted to buy one of those fancy new remastered CDs. Sgt. Pepper almost had my money... almost.

[JonPorobil]

My mother is a huge Beatles fan, so when I was growing up, The Beatles were such a constant that I never even really paid any attention to them. It wasn't until I was in high school, one Chanukah, she got me Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on CD. I'd heard all the songs before, but I'd never really listened, and I was quite pretentious then, so the complexity and weirdness of many of the songs impressed me. I've been listening to the whole Beatles catalog ever since then, but as I've tried to hone my own craft, it's the early work that really amazes me. The melodies are so catchy, so pervasive, the harmonies so intricate, the structures so complex, and it all sounds completely effortless - even though it surely wasn't. And these days, I think: these guys wrote at least two dozen of the catchiest songs ever, and they were younger than I am now.

I've been looking forward to Beatles Rock Band, but it looks like I'll probably have to wait for my birthday. I'm not hanging on to nearly enough out of my paychecks. But that's another story for another day...

[fluffy]

I view today not as Beatles day, but a Happy 10th Anniversary to my little Swirl Friend. The Sega Dreamcast. :)

Yeah, I still have my Dreamcast and even play it now and then (mostly Mr. Driller). It's a bit gratifying how many tech sites have done in-depth "10th anniversary" pieces on it. Those who know where I work will probably find it funny to know that there are several Dreamcast fans in the office (including myself).

[roymond]

So I got a coffee from a little Seattle company that burns their beans, and since the Sgt Peppers disc I have was severely scratched by one of my kids when he made it his business to knock CDs on the floor and dance on them, and it was $13 I thought I'd go for it.

The packaging is awesome, and while it can hardly replace a 12" format, it does a nice job. Studio credits and session notes (not detailed like the book but geeky nonetheless), lyrics, notes on the cover by Peter Blake, and historical notes. Also, a little mini-documentary video that's pretty cool, especially the video of George Harrison playing with Ravi Shankar. Essentially, this is how a CD should be packaged. You could spend some time with it.

It's certainly well mastered. I have to try some side-by-side comparisons tonight, and use real headphones, but so far I like it. The clarity in "fixing a hole" is awesome.

[Ross]

I am a total Beatles nerd, I guess the proper term is Beatle Freak. Circumstances being what they are, I was able to be at a local store at opening time and got my hands on the Mono Box Set. So far I have mainly perused Sgt. Pepper and Revolver, although I think that Rubber Soul may actually be the most different of the bunch. The remastering and availability of mono mixes is amazing. I also grabbed the stereo remixes of Abbey Road and Let it Be - they sound amazing and I truly am hearing things I have never heard.

you can blame Steve - I can remember the first time I ever heard the Beatles and it involved him.

I disagree with Fluffy's assessment of Love - but view it as a true soundtrack which is meant to be appreciated in the context of the Cirque show. I have seen the show and deliberately blacked myself out on the music until I saw the show. I wonder what most of us would make of the Star Wars soundtrack if we had not seen it with the film.

So much to say about what I have heard this week - guessing you don't care...

[fluffy]

"Yellow Submarine" was a film soundtrack and I loved the hell out of it (including, and in fact especially, the classical/symphonic parts) even having not seen the movie.

Not to mention Help! and A Hard Day's Night.

They are Beatles songs, which are meant to be heard as music. The fact they happen to be used in a soundtrack doesn't justify an album only being appreciated in teh context of the show.

(Also Magical Mystery Tour was a film soundtrack and it was way the hell better BEFORE I saw the movie.)

[Ross]

I understand your point on this, but I do think Love is different than the other soundtracks you mention. By design - the reworking of that music was intended to accompany a sequence of images - the other Beatle Soundtracks are, I would say, largely a collection of songs that appear in a film (excepting the George Martin Side of Yellow Submarine).

Anyway, I was just trying to express a reason I might like Love even though you don't - I feel I do appreciate it much more thatn I would because I have the images and narrative of the show attached to the reworked music. I wonder what you think "sucks" about it. I think that "Strawberry Fields" and "While My guitar Gently Weeps" are worth the price of admission right there.

[fluffy]

It basically felt like they were giving the Phil Spector treatment to songs which were already very good, and everything they added felt very gimmicky and showy rather than actually supporting the songs. It didn't put the songs in a new light so much as it drowned them in lard and whipped cream, what with all the ambient sound effects that didn't seem to do anything other than add texture that only detracts from the music.

I hadn't really listened to it since I got it a couple years ago, though, so I'm relistening to it now, and so far I'm feeling the same way about it.

[edit] I'd also forgotten how bad some of the edits in Glass Onion were, and how it seems to just plow through as much material as possible. It's like amateur sound collage hour.

[roymond]

I am a total Beatles nerd, I guess the proper term is Beatle Freak. Circumstances being what they are, I was able to be at a local store at opening time and got my hands on the Mono Box Set. So far I have mainly perused Sgt. Pepper and Revolver, although I think that Rubber Soul may actually be the most different of the bunch. The remastering and availability of mono mixes is amazing. I also grabbed the stereo remixes of Abbey Road and Let it Be - they sound amazing and I truly am hearing things I have never heard.

That's good to hear. I am anxious about getting the monos because that what I've heard about them. The stereo Sgt Pepper doesn't offer much other than being louder than the '87 release. There is some greater clarity in various timbres but it really isn't that different.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Well, I have all the albums on vinyl and like two on CD. So I ordered the box set in stereo, which are the mixes I grew up with. This'll be my lifetime collection, I suppose. The comments have all been favorable so far so I feel like I'm doing the right thing spending that amount of cake on it.

In somewhat related activity, they've been re-mastering prime era Stones as well, and those albums sound great. A Stones box came out as well, minus any fanfare, but they left out Exile On Main Street as it's getting its own treatment for release next year. (Talking to Caravan Ray especially) Just thought I'd toss that out there, and now leave the room.

[Caravan Ray]

In somewhat related activity, they've been re-mastering prime era Stones as well, and those albums sound great. A Stones box came out as well, minus any fanfare, but they left out Exile On Main Street as it's getting its own treatment for release next year. (Talking to Caravan Ray especially) Just thought I'd toss that out there, and now leave the room.

That's interesting.

I was just thinking about hitting iTunes to get all of the pre-Beggars Banquet albums for my iPod

[JonPorobil]

I thought they just did a major remaster of all the Rolling Stones' albums... like five years ago. Or was that just a re-release of the same old recordings?

[Paco Del Stinko]

I thought they just did a major remaster of all the Rolling Stones' albums... like five years ago

They probably did, and still are. Early this year the Sticky Fingers era stuff came out, and a couple of months ago it was up to Tatoo You (approx. 1980) Lot of albums, those geezers have.