The Beatles "White Album" Super Deluxe Speculative Box / Remix*

The recent news about Sgt Pepper has opened up the possibility of other large scale explorations of various Beatles albums. What material could/should a White Album CD box include?

 

Vinyl.

 

White.

 

CD1: Stereo remix of LP1
CD2: Stereo remix of LP2
CD3: Esher demos
CD4: Sessions 1 (including outtakes and singles)
CD5: Sessions 2 (as above)
CD6: Vintage/alternate mono mixes (Peter Sellers tape, etc)

I would forgo the actual full album in mono this time (as the set would be big enough anyway), but still include a selection of mono mixes,

 

A remix of the whole double album probably. And two or four session discs full of the songs' processes plus 'Hey Jude' and the single version of 'Revolution'. I also would put in 'Lady Madonna' and 'Hey Bulldog'.
Also, an original mono/stereo mix of 'Not Guilty' and 'What's The New Mary Jane'. And other (unreleased) tracks/versions that were intended for the album.
(By the way, I'm not allowed anymore to write replies on the Sgt Pepper anniversary thread. And I have no idea what I did wrong there.)

 

As I mentioned in the SP thread, I think this would be an inherently huge set.

Discs 1&2: Stereo (Remixed)
Discs 3&4: Vintage Mono
Disc 5: Esher Demos
Discs 6 & 7: Session Outtakes
Disc 8: Blu-ray Video
Disc 9 DVD (assuming they still feel it's necessary to include the format)

I feel that's on the conservative side.

 

Carnival of light FF'S!

I'll take it on any album at this point

 

This would be great. As for packaging, it would be cool if each box had an individual number like the original LP. Initial pre-orders would go through the roof!

 

This would be great---although not sure what they could do with a DVD of TWA.

 

Well, Giles Martin did say he wanted a shot at mixing the White Album into 5.1:

"If I was doing a 5.1 of the White Album, though? Let me at it!"

The Beatles in 3D: Giles Martin on remixing the Fab Four - BBC News

 

Good. This thread takes some weight of the Pepper thread.

No doubt they'll be anticipatory MMT &Abbey Road threads to follow.

 

I believe it would be very similar to the Sgt. Pepper box:

Disc 1 and 2 just like the album
Disc 3: the Esher demos
Disc 4: Sessions with singles(Hey Jude, Revolution, maybe Lady Madonna and the Inner Light?)
Disc 5: Sessions
Disc 6: Other mixes

Just like Slane's hahaha, oops. No Hey Bulldog though, and no songs that didn't appear on the album or the singles released around it..

 

I doubt I'll ever take the DVD from the SP set out of the package.

 

See..for me it's the opposite. The Blu-ray has no purpose.

 

A White Album Super Deluxe edition would be my ultimate Apple release. Heck, it can mimic the Pepper SD set and it would be great. Apple might include "Hey Jude" and "Revolution" but if the concern is the number of discs (higher production cost and higher list price) then they may not.

I would definitely want remixed stereo, 5.1 and hi-res audio. The complete Esher demos would be a full CD and there may be 3 CDs worth of outtakes and alternate mixes. I'm not sure we need a mono mix, do we? The mono remasters were good, unless we're talking about a mono remix?

So for me, 2 CDs remixed stereo, 1 CD Esher demos, 3 CDs outtakes and alternate mixes, a DVD (with surround DTS) and a BD (with hi-res audio). 8-disc set.

I'm totally in for this!

 

This is why Apple is doing both. They are targeting the largest possible market.

 

Idk..the mono mix is radically different. Maybe even more so that Pepper.

 

The Complete,Unissued "A Doll's House" as it was meant to have been issued,with Alternate Mixes in addition to the 1968 2-Lp set,Outtakes,the 45 of "Hey Jude/Revolution" the works,in other words,no stone left unturned!

 

yeah, good point. Guess we need to make it a 10-disc super-duper deluxe version?

 

It's an interesting case. I might be wrong, but I think The White Album is the one example in which the weight of opinion among Beatles fans doesn't clearly suggest the mono is the superior listening experience. Seems a much more evenly divided debate (I don't pretend to have statistics to back this up, it's just my personal impression). On that basis, there might be less need to include it.

That said, I don't think the precise amount of discs is what drives the price of these sets in recent years. A 9-disc set would probably cost the same for fans as a 6-disc one (particularly if they just cloned the existing mono versions).

 

The George Martin release....14 tracks only. The biggest mistake he didn't make perhaps.

 

Is there a track-listing for that? I'm starting to wonder if I ever read it before?

 

"Not Guilty" and "What's The New Mary Jane."

 

Not that I know off. He was pushing for a single LP with the strongest material. Glad it turned out like it did.

 

If ever there was an album made for an immersion set, it's the White Album. The full Esher demos tape alone is a "holy grail" item for fans. There's even more potential for sessions material because (a) there's more songs, and (b) unlike Pepper, where they banged out a backing track and then overdubbed everything else, there was a lot more full-band recording in 1968, with many songs getting re-done a few times. With the Pepper box a reality, my wish list seems less like a fantasy and more like a possibility:

Disc 1 & 2 -- Stereo remix (Giles Martin)
Disc 3 -- Esher demos (complete, in stereo)
Disc 4 & 5 -- Sessions outtakes
Disc 5 & 6 -- Mono remaster, with mono bonus tracks (Peter Sellers tape??) & singles
DVD/Bluray -- Videos / documentary on India & WA sessions