Capitol Beatles Box Set Vol 2 - Apr 11 Release Date? *

ohhh.. the irony!

 

I think the US cover is hideous, while the UK cover is elegant in it's understatement.

 

I agree. The UK "Help" cover is classy and timeless, whereas the US one looks like a typical 60's artifact.

 

Wow, you have cracked the code! You are absolutely right! It makes sense now!

 

It comes down to who these were being marketed to. In the UK they were marketed to adults, the only people who bought, or could afford, LPs. Therefore they got intelligent liner notes, which actually gave information as to who sang what & who played what. In the US they were marketed to pre-teens, so we got as many exclamation points they could cram onto a sleeve & notes that insulted our intelligence.

 

True, though the notes to Meet The Beatles are a rare exception to that rule.

 

Larry if I didn't know better I'd say you don't have much love for the American versions of the Beatles albums.

 

And even those were heavily edited down from the WTB notes and teenybopperized! By The Beatles'2nd Album all inforativeness was purged.

 

You might infer that!

 

Besides the soundtrack albums, I believe that "Eleanor Rigby" b/w "Yellow Submarine" was the one instance of Parlophone releasing an lp track as a single, until Allen Klein ordered "Something" b/w "Come Together" to be pulled from Abbey Road.

 

"Insulted our intelligence"? I thought you were 10 or 11 back then! It seems like harmless marketing blather to me, and I still smile when I read it.

 

Why did they put out this single anyway?

 

The UK Help! cover is fine, of course, but I don't see what's so "hideous" about the US cover. And while a "timeless" cover is always great, there's nothing wrong with a cover evoking it's era, either...

(Disclaimer: The US Help! album was the first non-Sesame Street record I ever owned, so I'm a little biased....)

 

That's my point. They were marketing to my age group here. But I sure would have liked to known who sang and played what on Beatles '65 back then. Intelligent notes sure didn't HURT UK sales of The Beatles. Even the UK EP notes, which WERE aimed at kids, were extremely well-written.

 

They needed a summer 45 and the recording gravy train was slowing down.

 

So now that Dave Dexter Jr's body isn't twitching anymore, we're going to start pounding the Capitol copywriters? Where does it end? They were pop albums, fer chrissakes. Why don't we rip EMI for not including lyrics? Sheesh.

 

What's wrong with the concept of a 60's artifact? Hell, I'm a 60's artifact!

 

prolly had nothing in the can and wanted to promote Revolver, I would think...

 

If the UK got lyrics & we didn't, I would. But they didn't. Are you HAPPY that Capitol stripped credits off the US LP's? When did Dex stop twitching, BTW?

 

There is a prevalent attitude on this forum that absolutely slams contemporary pop music for being disposable drivel, yet somehow a large percentage of those people can find no fault with Capitol for sins that were even more egregious than anything committed by contemporary pop labels. If you buy a new Britney Spears album, it might suck, but at least the twelve or fourteen songs on it are all performed by Britney, not padded out with instrumental soundtrack music. Ditto the sound quality issue: I simply cannot imagine anyone here endorsing a 2020 Blu-Ray reissue of U2's How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb that faithfully reproduces the brick-wall digital limiting of the original redbook CD, "because that's how the original generation of U2 fans first experienced it back in 2004."

 

Nothing wrong with evoking the era, and the US cover certainly isn't hideous. I just prefer the British cover, but to be honest I'm probably a bit biased too, since I grew up with the British versions.

 

How I envy you.

 

Sean - as always, your posts are a pleasure to read...in this one quoted above and the one you posted immediately before it, I agree with what you are saying 100%. I couldn't have written this as eloquently as you have, and you make many valid points.

Let's enjoy Vol 2 when it comes, and of course continue to speculate on the contents of Vol 3

 

Back in the day, pop music didn't command the kind of respect that was given to classical music or jazz. Pop wasn't even an album type of thing until the late sixties. Singles were the main event, for the most part. So I hardly think Capitol can be blamed for conforming to industry norms at that point. Among others, the Beatles helped change the way things were done. By the time of Sgt. Pepper, several artists, Beatles included, exerted more artistic control over the final form of their output. Year after year of commanding sales figures probably helped put them in a position to do so. By 1967 I think everybody realized that The Beatles and their immediate circle of associates knew best how to make the records, and that there was no commercial reason to tamper anymore (not that there ever really was).

 

And now, thanks in large part to Pepper and its progeny, pop music doesn't command the kind of respect that is given to rock. The more things change . . .