Abbey Road 50th contents, outtakes and sound quality thread .. only

The ones where Paul is drumming:
Ballad of John & Yoko
Come And Get It
Old Brown Shoe (highly debatable as to the accuracy of musicians on this particular outtake)

 

Just played the 'original real mix' of Abbey Road and it does not get better than that IMO

 

I'm going to receive mine in a few minutes and am hyped! Not so much for the album CD, but for the outtakes and the Blu Ray. I am not expecting magic from the album CD.

 

Yeah. Last night I pulled out three different UK 70s copies and they all sound basically the same to each other. A pretty perfect listen and then I played a few tracks of the remix and it just didn't seem right. The album is not as cohesive as the original mix.

 

Here are my general impressions after listening to the box set CDs and to the blu-ray PCM audio through stereo analog outputs (not a great deal of difference between the two in my view, just one a bit louder than the other).

This is not the bag of riches that the 50th anniversary WHITE ALBUM set is, but still.

To start with there are plenty of interesting/great outtakes.
My favourites are:

I WANT YOU
BATHROOM WINDOW
HERE COMES THE SUN
THE END
THE LONG ONE

Sonically, the remix blows away any other version of the album (how can people prefer the brittle and immensely hissy “black triangle” version, for example, is beyond me) for the reasons highlighted by many, but the tracks included in LOVE for me still sound superior: tidier, sharper.

I am happy with most of the songs and the mixing choices made.
Just not completely satisfied with YNGMYM but I still can’t figure out exactly why. Overall it’s possibly mastered a bit too low compared to the other tracks and the arrangement in the “magic feeling” section doesn’t come through as clearly as in the original.

The snare drums in I WANT YOU remix, so muffled up! I was briefly suicidal for this, but all the other elements of the track (someone even complained about John’s voice which for me is greatly improved) are spot on.

A bit of a shame that the better sounding version of GOODBYE was not used (but I will live) and that SOMETHING take 36 (with John’s piano and the powerful jam at the end) is sadly missing.
Don’t care muc about the absence of HCTS with the guitar solo.

Some observations about book which is nice but for me not as outstanding as many claim.

The slipcase (front and back) is identical to the book inside when instead they could have put an alternative photo inside.
Also I would have preferred a sheet with the titles rather than them printed on the back cover. More elegant.

No need to write “anniversary edition” on the spine either, in line with the previous sets. But I don’t mind the difference in sizes.

Some photos have low resolution, some are pointless or both (like the Twickenham view from the top which we have seen countless times), many nice ones missing (the whole session for the cover and more Tittenhurst Park shots would have been nice).

The previous two books were superior in my view.

Overall I am very happy with this Superdeluxe edition and I am so looking forward to the next chapters!

 

Em? That's a pretty awkward fingering if that's what it is. like one of Lennon's banjo chords. They did that a lot.

 

Couldn’t agree more. Especially since the (very nice) book mentions a couple of outtakes that seem to be quite interesting:

- A Trident version of I Want You with overdubs of 2 piano parts, tambourine, more guitars and a backwards cymbal
- A faster version of I Want You recorded at Abbey Road.
- A version of Something sans Ringo with Paul on drums and George Martin on piano (Recorded on the same day as Old Brown Shoe)

Could it be that they are still holding back stuff for potential future releases?

 

The Outtakes CDs are 40 minutes long. What a rip off.

 

Still much longer than The Early Beatles...

 

Started a poll on the two stereo Abbey Road mixes: The Beatles - Abbey Road - which stereo mix do you prefer?

 

What's wrong with the green vinyl UK export? I think it sounds very good and I have LOTS of different copies.

 

Although this remix is a very fun listen and I am very glad it exists

 

I’ve only ever heard the one I owned years ago, it was dull and... very un-UK sounding. Not worn, so I’m really not sure what happened there, I expected so much better from a HTM cut. The white vinyl Let It Be and White Album are both incredible and remain my go-tos for those albums.

Maybe I just need to try another! The green vinyl certainly looked nice…

 

“Part of the pre-publicity for this tour had centred around Lewisohn’s acquisition of a tape, recorded by John Lennon, of him, Paul and George discussing post-Abbey Road plans. This tape exists because Ringo was in hospital and John wanted him to be aware of what was discussed in his absence. The Guardian ran a big piece on it, with Lewisohn claiming the audio “rewrites everything we knew about The Beatles” because the tape makes clear that they didn’t necessarily think that Abbey Road was ‘the end’. All very intriguing, but sadly Lewisohn would not play the whole tape, as planned, because if he did, he said “someone told me bad things might happen to me.””

 

Oh for god's sake. Bad things? Puh-lease. It's a band. Not the JFK assassination.

 

And it is probably a joke.

 

I listened to the Blu-ray Stereo mix last night and I thought it sounded amazing, currently listening to the CD which I still think sounds good just not quite as good as the Blu-ray sounded or at least how I remember the Blu-ray sounding.

 

It's a different fingering for an E7. The same fingering he used for the acoustic versions of "Helter Skelter" and the first chord you hear in "Every Night".

 

For the price point, it is.

Of course, there were MANY more outtakes they could've included another disc or two.

I don't understand how this is priced the same as the the other two deluxe sets, when there just so much more value included in those.

And the 3 lp is priced higher than the White Album 4 lp.

 

Is he suffering a bout of OCD?

 

Is it? I checked my records and I payed around $10 more for the 4LP White Album than this 3LP Abbey Road.

 

Abbey Road 3 lp...$7 more than the WA 4 lp on Amazon currently.

 

Well, then that settles it. There is no harpsichord on the released version.

 

The price has dropped by about $8 since I bought it, The price of Abbey Road is also about $10 higher than what I spent on it. It is newer, and demand will be higher as well so it doesn't surprise me.

 

Is it YO?