Beatles 1987 CDs - any reason to keep them?

bought all my 09's one at a time now they are tucked away in the box of vision

 

When the 87s were in print forever, people couldn't wait for them to get remastered and griped constantly about the lack of remasters. Now everyone thinks they are great and wonderful.

Good thing I hung on to all of mine...

 

That's why I've hung onto mine too. The idea of the whole library being replaced - and the replacements being universally better - seemed like a long shot to me in '09. My '87s aren't going anywhere.

One thing I thought the world had learned: never throw away anything with "Beatles" on it.

Harry

 

Well, apart from this one maybe....

 

Yes.

 

I prefer the 1987/8's for the 1966+ albums !! less futzed with

 

YS Songtrack works for me as fun, casual listening— but there's no question that I'd always want to have the originals available.

 

I sold 'em and could care less. Not looking back.

 

Wouldn't do you much good anyway.

 

I like the stereo mixes more than the 'real' ones. I have it on LP and I think it's a much better headphone listen than vintage stereo mixes. If they remixed the whole catalog for stereo, I'd be totally onboard.

 

The '09 stereo masters say "what"??

 

Not a huge difference, and probably not enough to care about if I wasn't putting them under a microscope, but I actually prefer the Canadian CDs. They feel a little bit more open, and they don't have some of the futzing that the ones in the mono box do, which I find a bit distracting at times. Little bits of NR, pop removal, etc. For me the "fixes" stand out more than the original "problems".

Regardless, I was fortunate enough to get them all very cheaply. I don't remember exactly what I paid, but I don't think I paid more than about $12 or $13 (if that) each for the 2 CDs initially, and then I found another few copies of Help! for less than that. I got the later copies after the mono box was released and the demand wasn't quite so high, but the first copies were probably from 2008 or so, and definitely before the '09 discs were announced.

YSS:

As others have said, it's kind of cool, but I generally don't find the mixes terribly pleasant. Pretty sterile sounding, plus I'm quite annoyed with stuff like AYNIL, where they panned around the single orchestra track to make it seem like the different parts of the orchestra were recorded on separate tracks.

 

They missed a huge opportunity with Yellow Submarine Songtrack to put the full "It's All Too Much" with the film-only verse and the long fade-out on it.

 

And I say they are (for the most part) awkward, 'no one's going to hear these anyways so why bother?' mixes, at least until the white album.

There are probably limitations to what could be done, but if they can construct a nice stereo mix of Pet Sounds, anything is possible.

 

Heh, this is exactly what I did with my '87 CDs after I got the '09 stereo and mono sets, into the Box of Vision

 

There's no question less attention was put into the stereo mixes, but your description is an oversimplification. On Revolver and Pepper in particular there are things that definitely go beyond "we just need to crank something out". And when one considers that in a few cases there were separate *mono* mixes made for the US and UK that differed substantially, it seems that the differences between the mono and stereo mixes at least partially came down to chance at times, as opposed to some grand plan in mono that wasn't replicated in stereo.

 

Hey, I didn't buy any 09 stereos.

My girlfriend bought a couple on LP (YS, LIB), I didn't think they were terrible, but I've not heard the CDs.

I have :
Mono Masters
87 CDs
30th AV White Album
US Albums box
And
MFSL needledrops

Those are my 'go-to' digital Beatles.

I have a bunch on vinyl too, but that's not what this thread is about

 

RE: The White Album.....the stereo mix is a big improvement over the mono on "Happiness Is A Warm Gun". The mono sounds like the rush job there.

 

Some tracks I prefer mono on WA, some stereo. Happiness is DEFINITELY a 'stereo track'

 

The stereo mixing of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" on The YS Songtrack is so much better than the original album. I hate hate hate the fact that the lead vocals are only in one hear on the original.

 

I dig the Love Soundtrack.

My girlfriend bought the LPs for me for my birthday, and I had never heard it before. Pretty cool, I'll put it on again.

Maybe need to check out that Songtrack at some point...

 

The first 6 are not in my collection and I have no desire to own them.
For those albums I have the 2009 stereo masters (first 4) and the Canadian Disque Americ versions of "Help!" & "Rubber Soul".

For Revolver onwards I have the 1987 versions as I prefer them to the 2009 remasters.

 

For those that don't believe the stereo mixes were important at the time, I posit (again) for your consideration this interview with George Martin from 1987: http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/kozinn.htm

 

Gave all mine away as soon as the 09 remasters came out. They were terrible.