"The upcoming release of the Beatles LPs on vinyl in their original mono mixes has attracted a lot of media attention this week, including an exploration of why mono is such a big deal. The general explanation for this runs along the lines of "the Beatles helped mix their music in mono and preferred the mono mixes to stereo." And that's true. To a degree. But saying the Beatles used mono doesn't necessarily mean you can say they preferred mono." More: http://theglassonionbeatlesjournal.blogspot.com/2014/06/did-beatles-really-prefer-mono.html
I do recall hearing John Lennon express his preference for monaural recordings on one of his 1974 radio appearances. He described the 1967 - 1970 mix of Revolution as sounding like, "ice cream" and that it "lost the guts of it." I don't have the time nor patience to track it down, but I'm certain someone here on the forum will post a link to it shortly... I read the linked post. That's four minutes of my life I'll never get back (yawn).
Regardless of whether they preferred the mono mixes, the fact of the matter is that the band were present for and involved with the creation of the mono mixes, and were not for the stereo (at least from what I understand). That's the real crux of the argument.
I believe all this but it has always surprised me that they didn't pay personal attention and actually get excited with stereo from Pepper on (maybe even stating with Revolver). They are experiments in sound so it would seem panning channels and mixing in effects would expand their music for them (especially since they were experimenting with mind altering substances). I get the history of mono, but I still feel those records are a more enjoyable experience in stereo. When i was a kid I got a stereo reel to reel, I remember making tapes and mixing in effects in stereo myself . I'd record , adding in voices, sound effects and narration, things like from Ken Nordine. I was really interested in all things psychedelic in 67/68 living in San Francisco. I was only 13/14 but making those stereo sound collages was a blast. I wish I still had them.
It's probably a moot point seeing as they likely never just sat around listening to their own records for pleasure.
Assuming a real and true preference on the part of the Beatles, would it have been due to their familiarity with monaural as opposed to the new 'fad' of stereo sound?
I remember from the Anthology DVD's that George comented that they felt like like naked and a bit embarassed when listening to the stereo mixes for the first time... I think that (especially for their early recordings) they were not very confident about how they really sounded, so for them the mono was more comfortable, in order to make them sound more powerfull and to hide some imperfections.
What's "baloney" about it? Most artists don't sit around listening to their own music. Can't imagine that the Beatles were much different.
Did they protest when all the mono versions of the lps were deleted? No. Did they make sure that fans could get mono versions of the albums from Help! to White Album on cd, from 1987 to 2009? No. Do their big selling, hits compilations like the Red and Blue albums and "1" contain exclusively their preferred mono mixes? No. In other words, they talk a good game about preferring mono and all that, but it's just lip service. They may have preferred mono in 1965 but those days are long gone....
I don't really see how anything in your post rebuts what I said. It's not their preference that mattered, but their artistic involvement with the mono.
John Lennon claimed to never listen to his own music...then after his death it was revealed he had a huge Beatle bootleg collection. Most artists like to claim they never listen to their own music. I don't believe it. Artists have huge egos....
After the band broke up I don't think they really thought a lot about the Beatles. It seems like to me that the members just wanted to move on with their solo work.
You should read over my post again then. If mono was truly important to them, wouldn't they have insisted that more of their releases in the last 50 years featured mono? Why slave over the mono mix of Pepper only to see it go out of print for decades within a year or so?
A lot of those Back to Mono Buttons were around in the early to mid 70s when there was this retro thing going on about 50s and some early pre Beatles 60s rock and roll. The whole Phil Spector thing and so on. Buddy Holly, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis etc. Yes some of the Beatles wore those and we had and sold them in our record store.And they were given out when the Spector Xmas album was reissued. It was soon after the punk movement also started. A retreat to basic rock and roll. I don't believe it was anything to do with Beatles albums in Mono. Not to say that they didn't prefer them. Just a version of hipsterism. even the Beatles couldn't avoid all that.
