Beatles Anthologies ....Largely Forgotten?

I agree a remix is in order for most of that material, but I'm very wary that Giles is the one for the job. He has had a lot more misses than hits in his Beatles work lately as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather have it done by someone who will actually do right by the material, not being able to be bested by fans working at home with less resources at their fingertips.

 

Yes, I'd rather have the 2009 team work on any re-working of the Anthologies.

 

Promise me no Jeff Lynne!

 

People have mentioned the "remastered" Anthologies.

As downloads?

Not on CD?

 

That's probably from a stage one tape.
It's either one of the John Barrett discs or a Yellow Dog CD in a dry mix with no reverb, and it's quite chewed up.
If I could find it to upload to Youtube so you could hear it, I would.

 

Yes, download only. Available on iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere. Also recently available for streaming.

 

You understand Bobcat, that there are actually new mixes of Free As A Bird & Real Love on the 2015 dvd of Beatles 1+. Everything else from Anthology is remastered but not remixed for download only.

 

I really like the Real Love remix, John's vocal sounds cleaner to me as well as the music. FAAB remix isn't that great to me, but kind of interesting.

 

I think Lennon's vocals are slightly clearer on both. But both new mixes on FAAB & Real Love were quite similar to the original mixes.

Why not really remix them, not just copy 90% of what you did before ? It's almost like Lynne just wanted to correct a couple little things, but leave them mostly the same. With the cleaner versions of Lennon's original demos that turned up 5-6 years ago, you could remix fro. Scratch & get better clarity & fidelity.

In regards to OPs thread question, if you wanna bring more public attention to Anthology, just release it again with the 3rd reunion song, Carnival of light, Sour Milk Sea, an outfake of the band version of ATMP & some of that live jamming they never let us see, & voila, lots of attention ! Lots & lots & lots of attention !!!!

 

I think it was FAAB that had a different George vocal & guitar. On Real Love I think they pulled back John's piano when he wasn't singing, Paul was pretty much doubling him anyways. Maybe I'm just used to it now, but John's voice didn't sound as sped up on Real Love to me.

 

They are largely forgotten in my collection. I don't even have the first set. I paid big money at the time they came out, and listened to them only a little. I did love the feeling of being a "fly on the wall" in the studio as these songs were in gestation -- although I know the Anthologies were not quite that in all instances -- but I much prefer the official canon '64-'70. It seems to me the market for re-doing them would be rather small, but I'm not an accountant.

 

I don't doubt some of the tapes appeared with many dropouts, but it's not on the master tape. I can assure you of that. Ron

 

The main place to find the 2011 Anthology remasters is on iTunes. I know that sometime recently (last year or two) I've seen them as (legal) high-res downloads somewhere -- but I can't remember what site.

They don't APPEAR to have been released on CD -- although, I noticed on Discogs yesterday that there is a 2015 French digipak reissue of the Anthologies that claims to be "remastered." Can anyone confirm that?

 

Not me, but I'll look into it Ron

 

Wow. No wonder that song is not a favorite. Even the backing tracks are a dirge!

 

Yea, the fast version recorded later is a train wreck too. Just not a great song overall. Ron

 

I'd rather have Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby than You Know What To Do, which is sort of a weak composition.

 

Looking at it from a cost/benefits perspective, it doesn't seem to make sense for Apple and Universal to spend money on something that probably won't move many copies (physical & downloads) outside of we diehards.

 

But here's what I don't understand.
There are lots of compilation and archive releases of lots of other bands, with artwork, unreleased tracks, etc that are issued all the time. Those bands cannot have the name recognition and fan following that The Beatles have, and yet they somehow must make money because they keep being issued.

Why does a potential Beatles release have to be a huge seller in order to be considered?
Or is it because there are some huge egos in that band and they just couldn't bear it if their latest release doesn't sell huge?

 

Unfortunately, most suits don't consider the diehard fan when making these types of choices.

 

Here's the thing though, as a set of songs, the Beatles Anthology's are largely forgotten. Truly. Released 20+ years ago now. An entire generation of teenagers has passed and missed it. And it's not a release like Dylan's bootleg series. It's a definitive and more precious record of the Beatles outtakes and not a continuing series of endless releases....

There are some real gems on those albums (among some dross as well), but the great songs on the Anthologies deserve to be marketed and packaged to a new generation of Beatles fans and general music lovers, and if you're going to re-issue it and want to also dangle a few carrots for older listeners, you do go through the "trouble" of fixing some things that need fixing and adding a few bonus tracks. That's well worth it because those are the little splashy bits that actually boost sales. "10 never before released tracks!" etc. I mean, that's what the Anthology project was built on, so it's a premise that would have to work in the case of adding bonus material. Particularly that long take of Revolution that widely circulated as a bootleg several years ago. Apple should be making some money off of that now that it's gotten out. And clearly Apple is not opposed to meddling with FAAB and RL, because they already did that. Why not fix the 10 or so "sessions" mixes, tidy up one or two other tracks and throw in a few bonus songs for each volume? Paying Giles to do that is one of the smallest expense items of a re-release TBH. So many other logistics and design factors go into it. Adjusting audio mixes and selecting bonus tracks is not the most expensive thing they'd be doing.

 

I totally agree. The economics are there (especially for a Let It Be reissue). Plenty of other bands have released crap "full album" works.

I get that the Beatles are protecting a brand/band, but....Shea? Let's do it.

 

IMO "You Know What To Do" is barely a composition at all, it certainly doesn't seem like a finished song as presented on Anthology. Definitely down there with "You Like Me Too Much" as Harrison's worst Beatles song (even if it was unreleased until thirty years later).

 

Yup:

Here's a thread talking about this very issue: Beatles collection to be published by French daily Le Monde »

Here's the presser: The Beatles, une collection inédite »

Wogblog says the anthologies are not remastered: WogBlog: French Anthologies not remastered »

 

This is something that never gets mentioned in a Beatles discussion, but is very relevant to what gets reissued. The Beatles' royalty at EMI was around 32% of the dealer price. Pretty much the whole of what a record company figures it will make on a record. When the Beatles are selling millions of records, the margins are good enough for it to be worthwhile (As is holding onto all that cash for the six to 9 months it takes for royalties to become due), but for less successful releases not so much.

I don't know if this has changed now that the Calderstone thing has been set up (have the Beatles been given a share of their master ownership for instance),and that digital distribution (which has no manufacturing costs) is more important, but I think that high royalty rate, has stopped a lot of marginal projects from happening.