A Letter To Macca - BEATLES FANS PLEASE READ!

Anyone and everyone who cares about the Beatles catalogue and the HUGE injustice it does to themselves - and to us fans - should get writing to Macca. NOW! Writing to the so-called big wigs at EMI or sending them petitions will get us nowhere.

Here's the address for anyone else who wants to write. I know I'm going to. Perhaps a couple of thousand letters will do the trick.


Sir Paul McCartney
MPL Communications Ltd
1 Soho Square
London W1V 6BQ
ENGLAND


This was my response to the thread re a high-quality Silverdisc boot of The Beatles Mono White CD that JJ33810 has just acquired:


Shame the surviving Beatles (and the estates of Lennon & Harrison) are losing out BIG TIME to the bootleggers with this stuff. They must be losing millions and millions of dollars with all these unauthorised releases kicking around - your comment about the high quality of the boot says it all, really. I don't buy boots of any artist, it's really a principle thing for me. But I do understand why so many people do buy them.

If bootleggers can get this stuff out there - to a very high standard in this case - then why the hell can't the surviving Beatles (along with Yoko and Olivia) themselves get these kind of products out? After all, THEY have complete control over what gets put out, EMI doesn't. People complain that EMI do not give Beatles fans what we want but as it stands today it's not EMI that's at fault that we have the greatest audio travesty in the history of music - those wretched 80s CD's.

I get the impression that the Beatles Empire is bogged down in bureacracy and red tape. Don't know why. After all, they do own the stuff, you'd think it would be a relatively straightforward process to agree that the 1987/88 CD's are a steaming pile of ****e and badly need upgrading. NOW.

It's nice to hear Macca is working on a restored Let It Be film and non-Spectorised album release but surely the absolute priority is to get those CD's properly remastered and given the justice they deserve.

Apart from anything else, it's what their fans want. Woudn't it be great to be able to buy an official EMI decently remastered MONO White Album on CD? In fact, it would be nice to have decently remastered CD's of the greatest back catalogue in the world? SH would be a great choice for that job, let's face it - I'd LOVE to hear what he would do with the Beatles stuff. Imagine it: 24Kt Gold CD's remastered by SH with Stereo AND Mono mixes of all the Beatles albums. None of this "1" Mew rubbish. Beautifully packaged 180g audiophile tube-cut vinyl LP's with incredible sound....yeah yeah I know it's a friggin' pipe dream.

I'm sorry I've kinda veered off track here from your post but I felt your comments about the high quality of some of the bootleg product out there highlights once again that the Beatles are missing out on millions of dollars of lost income whilst us fans are missing out on the product we so desparately want and (are you listening Macca?) will BUY - by the absolute truckload. I would walk naked through a field of cow **** for first place in the queue to get my hands on this stuff....IF ONLY THEY WOULD PUT IT OUT!!!

Simple equation:

Beatles catalogue PROPERLY remastered & reissued = LOADS of sales = LOADS OF MONEY FOR BEATLES & EMI AND NOT FOR BOOTLEGGERS - AND at the same time give the fans what we want. Hello, anyone at home Macca & co?

To hell with it I'm off to write a letter Macca himself....(watch out, could be the subject of another thread). IF SH you are reading this, surely there MUST be something you could do??????????

 

Amen.

 

Gee, last I heard Ringo Starr IS still alive. Doesn't he count, even after all these years? And what about Yoko and Olivia? Letters (actually, copies of the same letter) should be sent to all! And to Neil Aspinall at Apple.

Great idea, but you cannot SLIGHT the other surviving member and late members' representatives.

 

I agree that you cannot slight Ringo or those representing John and George. I have the utmost respect for the Beatles and eveything they did and I accept that the wishes of Yoko and Olivia must be taken into consideration in EQUAL measure to Paul and Ringo. My letter would be sent to Macca - BUT addressed to all - simply because I know where to send it. I would send copies sent to all parties concerned if I knew how to, alternatively I would enclose copies (addressed to all) and ask that these be forwarded on.

 

Maybe the next project should be finding mailing addresses to the representatives of Yoko, Olivia and Ringo (direct mail to home addresses, even if available, would be viewed as an intrusion).

I suspect that the Beatles' business interests MAY monitor the success (or failure) of the Stones' SACDs. At least I am hoping that they do. Maybe this will provide a kind of "push" to at least raise the issue of remasters.

In the short term, however, I am adding to my collection of Beatles Parlophone vinyl. That is as close to the "source" as we may be able to get for some time to come.

 

Good luck with your petitions, but I don't think Big Macca will be swayed by them. Given the sales of One and Wingspan, I don't think that sound quality is a big priority for him. I believe that the optimum way to motivate Apple to get off the dime and finally properly remaster and reissue the Beatles catalog is for the Stones SACDs to fly off the shelves come August. If enough people actually part with dough for both the US and UK versions of, say, Out of Our Heads, multiple SACD multilayer versions (stereo and mono) of Help, Pepper and the others will surely follow. On the other hand, if the Great ABKCO Experiment fails....