Sgt. Pepper's 50th Anniversary editions to be released May 26, 2017* Anticipation Thread.

I'm guessing that the 2015 mix of Penny Lane wasn't suitable and better work could have been done so they made a new mix for this release. I haven't heard the 2015 mix, so I can't really comment about any unwatnted aspects of it.

 

As a reference, Ken Scott's writings on Geoff's book:
There are so many errors in this book, some small, others not, so I
offer the following examples only as an insider's starting point,

1) The book claims, on Page 108, that Geoff was the first engineer
to be given the job before the age of 40.

Amongst our teachers/mentors were Peter Bown, Stuart Eltham, Malcolm
Addey and Peter Vince. These 4 pop engineers were ALL promoted before
they were 40.

2) It claims he was the first engineer to record a sitar at Abbey
Road on Page 137. However, it was not Geoff who recorded "Norwegian
Wood" - done the year before he first recorded the Beatles.

3) On Page 257 it states how early on John wanted a rawer sound for
the "White Album" and yet on Page 264 it says they came up with that
idea as an excuse for the roughness much later.

4) The story is told how they recorded "Blackbird" OUTSIDE the EMI
studio at night, with birds chirping in the background. When mixing
this song the only bird sounds present were from an EMI sound effects
tape (which Paul and I put there) and interestingly there were no
traffic noises, no plane sounds nor any other sound one would expect
recording outside on Page 240's "soft summer eve" .

5) Paul's middle section on "A Day In Life" was there from Take 1.
It was not edited in later as is claimed on Page 149.

6) On 31st July, 1968 "Hey Jude" was recorded at Trident Studios.
At that time the only studio in London to have an 8 track machine and
the very reason the Beatles chose to go to a virtually unknown and
untested studio rather than one of the more well known studios. Every
major studio certainly did not have an 8 track in 1967 as is claimed
on Page 199.

7) Page 11 states that John showed he accepted Geoff by asking if
he had heard the new Tiny Tim record -- this is highly unlikely as at
this time the record had not been recorded and it would be at least a
year before it was released.

8) Supposedly, according to Page 300, George recorded the
"Something" solo at the same time and on the same tracks as the
strings. Then why is it that on the track lineup it shows orchestra on
tracks 3 & 4 and main guitar solo on track 1 ? Also, if isolated, the
solo on the 5.1 version has no sign of an orchestra.

9) And last but not least, page 218. Many times over the years I
have told the story of how Keith Moon was leaving the studio car park,
after playing tympani on "Old Man River" on the first Jeff Beck Group
album Truth, and when confronted by an elderly St Johns Wood resident
walking her dog he used his car's built in p.a. system to tell her to
"F*#! off" and the ensuing complaints to the studio. This is the first
I have heard that such a surprisingly similar incident occurred with
John.

Again, these are but a few of the MANY problems. Since copies of his
book leaked out, there has been a movement from fans and EMI employees
past and present; all are shocked at what Geoff is purported to say in
this book, as SO much of it is untrue. There are long lists of factual
errors being compiled around the world to be released when this book
is published. (The last list I saw was well over 100 errors, and
climbing as more people read the book).

In his defense, I must say it is likely Geoff did not write much of
this book at all - it is a creation of co-author Howard Massey. Much
of it is misleading 'creative' writing ***(such as his word-for-word
recreations of something said casually over 40 years ago?) and
elaborations on Mark Lewisohn's "Sessions" book; all done to "fill in"
the memory of Geoff Emerick.

I cannot bring this missive to an end without mentioning the book's
relentless tirade against George Harrison. As a second engineer I was
on more Beatles sessions than Geoff and saw none of the problems
talked about constantly, and as an engineer, the same. Sadly, George
is not in a position to defend himself today. I think I know what his
reaction would have been anyway... Mine is utter disgust.

This book is NOT accurate, it is not "the truth" and does not deserve
to be supported. It is very damaging to the good reputations of such
people as George Harrison, George Martin, John Lennon, Chris Thomas,
Ringo Starr, Phil McDonald and the list goes on. The only one who is
rarely mentioned negatively is Paul McCartney, the only one to have
employed Geoff after the Beatles.

Good luck and keep up the good work.

Cheers,

Ken Scott
*******
Those were Ken Scott's words.

 

I'm really hoping all this hype isn't just that. Listening to what Gilles did with 1967's "Penny Lane", "All You Need Is Love" or "Hello Goodbye" from Beatles 1 wasn't exactly earth shattering.

CD2 will hopefully be nice to hear with all the outtakes from Pepper.

 

I agree. There could be another double CD of worthy outtakes in the vault, but I don't see Apple reviving the Anthology series to put it out. (Unless they reissue the set and include bonus tracks. Certainly a number of tracks could use a remix.)

 

That is the only way I could see it happening, if they were to expand the original 3 sets, to include more stuff and remix what is there where needed.

 

Actually I believe he detailed the night Paul cut the With A Little Help From My Friends bassline. In the control room, lead down the stairs to the studio floor.

So yeah, he recalled.

 

lol had forgotten about the ta ta ta ta bit. Those nutty Beatles. Also think the main voice could be Paul's sped up

 

An imaginary band performing an imaginary concert to substitute for the fabs performing in person - which was over at this point. Inspired by Elvis sending out his caddy on tour

 

I thought it was because he was dead. There something about the OPP badge too. The Paul is dead rumor was that he was replaced by a guy from Peterborough Ontario thus the Ontario Provincial Police badge. I would think most people likely didn't know what the badge represented. We were always proud to see the Canadian element to St Pepper.

 

I absolutely loved the book as well. It's been a long time since I read it, but I recall that it was really fresh, as in not the same old stories again, and I seem to remember him praising George when he gets to the solo on "Something". I don't recall a hit job on Harrison, I recall the story of a journey from junior status in the group, to class A professional solo superstar.

 

Oddly enough, the established engineers tended to avoid Beatles sessions:

Ken Scott (Q TV interview) »

 

Except it's done quite often for example the 1990 Civil War TV doc series was completely remastered into HD for HD sets. I think Anthology would be a prime candidate for this treatment especially with some bonus clips and extended scenes. IMHO.

 

The three sets were remastered and released to iTunes and other vendors. Even in their compressed state, the mastering sounds loads better than the original 90's releases. Plus, 16/44.1 FLACs of the remastered albums "escaped" the vaults of Apple. If you have those, there is no need to remix any of it for sound quality purposes. If you are talking about remixing to undo some of the revisionist work of the Anthology mixing team, that is another story altogether.

 

I've read Ken Scott's book, yet, this is the first time I've seen him interviewed. He has a calm & grounded demeanor as far as I can tell. Love that he believes in the album as a sonic journey art form.

On the other hand, Geoff Emerick seems more of a technician.

 

Instead of a re-do of outtakes, I'd rather see a new set that includes tracks that have never been released digitally (SFF 1966 mix) or have never been released period.

 

Re. a possible Anthology 4. A good idea would be to have only unreleased songs (including those already on 1-3) such as That Means A Lot , Not Guilty , Carnival Of Light etc. And released songs with fully realized alternate versions such as Mach 1 , It's All Too Much (long version) etc. Probably won't happen but it make for an excellent comp and gather all the odds and ends together in one package

 

On the other hand, that 'technician' had a hell of a first day on the job as Beatles engineer.

 

I think they could call such a package A Collection of Beatles Oldies (But Goldies!)...!!!

 

Agreed, apparently so did Ken Scott.

 

I'm not hearing how he broke new ground and established techniques that are emulated to this day on his first session. He did however talk about Emerick recording "Revolution".

Anyway, you're really short-changing the guy who engineered Revolver and Sgt Pepper if you're implying that he didn't see "the album as a sonic journey art form".

 

Ken Scott said that after the Beatles the only Beatle who gave Geoff Emerick a job was Paul McCartney. In fact, the only Beatle who gave George Martin a job was Paul McCartney and George Martin was associated to Geoff.

 

Geoff seems more of a 'music first' kind of engineer - not sure where I first picked up that impression but he touches on it here:

Geoff Emerick At GRAMMY Pro Studio Summit »

 

2!
Complete with original cover

 

Sorry, I'm implying no such thing, which is why I used the word "seems" based on one video interview with each man so I was going by first impressions.

I have nothing to defend here, no engineering horse in this race.

 

Quite often we recognize how John, Paul, George, & Ringo each contributed to the music in their own way.

To give others their due, I'd like to hear more how the studio engineers played a part, similarities, differences, etc.

Far as I can tell, they were Smith, Emerick, Lush, & Scott. Am I missing others?