Abbey Road 50th Anniversary Discussion. What Can We Expect?

Pardon me for saying so BUT, imo an outtake & alternate take imply 2 completely different things. Sgt Pepper 50th, had several discs of Alternate takes BUT zero outtakes. Carnival of light or arguably Only A Northern Song would've been outtakes. Arguably Strawberry Fields & Penny Lane could be considered outtakes, as they weren't on the Sgt Pepper album.

If Abbey Road 50th has Who Slapped John, Aint She Sweet, Ballad Of J & Yoko, Old Brown Shoe, Come & Get It, etc. Those are outtakes.

However imho, alternate performances & mixes of Here Comes The Sun, Come Together, are just that alternate takes of famous songs. I admit there seems to be a market for altetnate takes, but calling them outtakes imo is misleading. Here's hoping that unlike Sgt Pepper 50th, That an Abbey Road 50th will follow more in the tradition of the White Album 50th which was full of outtakes & alternates.

 

The Analogues: Exclusive live recording session

I posted about it here:

Sgt Pepper Live - The Analogues

 

Yes.

See post #4877 (ie, post above!)

 

"Here's hoping that unlike Sgt Pepper 50th, that an Abbey Road 50th will follow more in the tradition of the White Album 50th"....and be mastered more sympathetically!

 

I do respect that, and in my early years I was thinking the same as you: alternates? outtakes?, well boy, in now's world they've call them OUTTAKES no matter what, you can take a dive into youtube, search for the PEPPER 50TH and WA50TH ads and you will see "X discs of OUTTAKES" or "Includes three discs of OUTTAKES" etc, so, ABBEY ROAD will have as well OUTTAKES not "alternates" because it's what the info says "OUTTAKES", but I do see your point and respect it.

check the links at these particular spots:



The Beatles (White Album) - Anniversary Releases

 

Arguably, we did get two alternates versions of almost all tracks on WA50 if you count the Esher demos. Let’s see what’s in store for AR50, hopefully the overlap with Anthology 3 is minimal. I do expect some repetition of tracks such as the Something & Old Brown Shoe demos, the Come & Get It demo, etc. but newly remixed by Giles.

 

Apple could give a a single tracked vocal on Come And Get it, which would be “different that anthology “ but not very interesting.

 

If I may... Cold Turkey was never rehearsed or recorded by the Beatles. It probably was never brought up by John in any serious manner either. Yea, he may have mentioned he'd written a new song song called Cold Turkey at an Apple business meeting and Paul and George may have said something like "John, we just finished an album. We aren't recording a new single now." And I say John may have said this. The others have never commented on Cold Turkey then, or now. Not even Ringo who's on the record. And for someone who just did a show with the Plastic Ono Band it seems awfully strange that he'd run to Paul and George about his exciting new tune which was already performed by John's "other" band. Ron

PS The Beatles never attempted All Things Must Pass after numerous rehearsals at Twickenham and Apple in January 1969.

 

Yeah Mike I realize labels choose to advertise that way, & ya know, your just doing it the way they want, terms change over time.

I'm in my 50s & to me all that stuff on Anthology 1-2-3 was largely outtakes, with some alternates as well. They ( Apple-Universal ) don't have 50 more previously unreleased studio songs like Leave My Kitten Alone-Not Guilty-How Do You Do It.. The bulk of those were issued on Anthology 1-2-3, With some sadly notable exceptions.

Maybe there's only, hypothetically 20 left, Peggy Sue Got Married, Who Slapped John, Now & Then, Carnival Of Light, Sour Milk Sea, etc. BUT theoretically they've got at LEAST 20-30 more from the Get Back/Let It Be-Twickenhan Jan 69 & related sessions. BUT most of those Get Back/Let It Be outtakes, rehearsals, are gonna need digitsl editing, tweaking, use of pieces of multiple takes, eq, studio hanky panky, to make them coherent, hi fidelity, stereo & so forth...

Mike I know you're personally a deep fan much like me, & you simply share & say what's allowed under the plan or timetable.. giving as much as you can, ( which is gratefully accepted ).

I'm just sayin Sgt Pepper 50th no Carnival Of Light or Only A Northern. On White 50th no hybrid-new band version of Sour Milk Sea, long Helter Skelter etc. A LOT OF US, want to hear Who Slapped John a remix edit of Aint She Sweet 69, what they're doing imho, is deliberately ? accidentally ? Putting a ton of alternate takes, calling them outtakes, & neglecting altogether to issue bonafide & highly coveted 'actual' outtakes like Carnival on Sgt Pepper, Sour Milk Sea w/band on White 50th, & I'm praying they don't skip Who Slapped John on Abbey Road 50... White 50 had some actual unknown outtakes, but they were 40 second jam pieces, nice, but the actual complete pieces are witheld...so unless there's gonna be Anthology 4 or Anthology expanded redux, we missed the window fot Sour Milk Sea, Carnival of Light..

I bought Sgt Pepper 50th for $200 whatever it was, & regretted it later. I want to buy AR 50th, but I can buy just the new mix for $20-$25, for the $150-$250 range we'd like the other stuff too, or I would. You probably want it too. I hope any Let It Be Movie-album reissue doesn't ignore a bonus disc of those 30-40-50 extra songs in releaseable condition.

 

Oh I guessed that, just throwing ideas out. It’s a real shame John, George and Paul didn’t revive All Things Must Pass at any point during the sessions.It could of been the last proper song of the bands career with The End serving as the epilogue.

 

You may be right Ron I certainly wouldn't know either way. I do know Ringo as you said is on the single playing drums. George also played the song live with John & others in concert, in England in 1969 ? also. Was it a gig at Lyceum ? Not sure the location, I 'think' Harrison plays on the live version issued on the Some Time In New York City bonus disc.

So John, Ringo & George were all playing & recording it, in various combos in 1969. Though not all 3 ever at once, that I know of.. I also remember a later quote in the press where Lennon or the journalist says "Lennon offered Cold Turkey to yhe Beatles-But they all turned thumbs down on it....said the article...but i can't remember if its playboy, Rolling Stone w Jan Wenner or somewhere else. Or whether it quotes Lennon directly.

Anyway like the earlier poster I had secret hopes of at least a Threetle John-Ringo-George rehearsal or outtake from 69. You say definitely it never happened, You're probably right if you say it. But it's tantalizing Knowing, both Ringo & George played it with him, in 1969. Clearly its Clapton on the single.

EDIT... Peter Brown says in his book, The Love You Make, that Lennon presented the song Cold Turkey to McCartney near the end of Abbey Road sessions, & McCartney said no, for whatever reason. Is Brown's book generally considered credible ? There are other sources, but they may all stem from the book Idk.

 

On a somewhat related note, not an actual clue but still related, Bruce Spizer announced today July 1 2019 that his new hardcover book " The Beatles Get Back To Abbey Road" will have a street date release of Thursday Sept 26 2019. Preorders for this book include a nice PDF of the first few pages.

 

As long as I can afford it and play it I agree.
Yes, all that you said!

 

Now! Now! We will have none of that....
LOL LOL LOL Good one!

 

How dare you say such a thing! ....mmmm...Oh wait....Oh you were talking about Yoko?....Sorry, my bad, please continue.

 

What was the deal with all the premature fades on ...Naked? It seems like a perverse move 180 degrees removed from the spirit of the project.

 

Just wondering when the expected release would be ?
Would it align with the actual release date 50 years ago, or would it be more likely a Christmas release ?

pardon me if this question was buried in the past 196 pages or so.

 

Perhaps we should start a pool as to the exact date and time, kind of like a baby pool ...

That being said, isn't it time to start a Get Back / Let It Be anticipation thread, or have I just missed it ?

 

These are all valid points...but you have to imagine all of this unheard material was at least listened to and considered by Giles and Paul/Ringo/Yoko..and ultimately deemed unworthy of release. (and if you count anthology, deemed unworthy for the second time). Maybe it's just bad?

 

(Big sigh!) So true. And it's depressing. Some old mixes do sound extremely congested like Out Of The Blue. But the situation there is different. It jammed back with goodies. And all the unnecessary stuff is totally necessary. Without all those parts Out Of The Blue would just be... well.....Blue....

- Double tracked drums. Only on 6 tracks. But the mike set up is bizzare: the first kit is
One microphone on kick
One microphone on snare
One microphone on the toms
Two overhead mikes (left and right)
But the second kit is miked in a big closet with just one microphone. Wierd eh?
- Bass
- triple tracked acoustic rhythm guitars
- double or triple tracked lead guitar parts
- double tracked lead vocals. Or more
- three mono keyboards parts. Some are stereo
- 40 piece choir
- 40 piece orchestra
- sound effects (Jungle has an entire 100 piece tap dancing group stereo miked.)damn if that whole song doesn't have the whole kitchen sink on it! Love it. Pro Tools was made for Projects like this not for some Dance song.

Jeff needs 24 tracks if not more. I wouldn't be surprised if two 24 track machines were synchronized up for this record. Listen to just one really dense song. 8 tracks already are taken up by the drums, bass and just one vocal. If you start adding up all the parts in a song like Jungle you run out of the 24 tracks real soon. But they are short cuts. Like Jeff, Kelly and Richard triple tracking the acoustic guitar part on one track.

Forget internal bouncing. I know amateurs who have semi-pro machines and cassette 4/8 track machines and do internal bouncing all the time with no trouble. But with most professional multi-tracks internal bouncing is just in a word....Impossible. If you were to take your fresh shiny new Ampex MM-1000 (First two inch 16 track every made for the market) back in 1967 and took
Tracks:
1 - kick
2 - snare
3 - high hat
4 - high tom
5 - medium tom / medium tom
6 - low tom / bass tom
7 - over head left
8 - over head right
and mixed those 8 down to stereo on tracks 14/15 you would get feedback and distortion. And recording them on adjacent tracks 9/10 would make it worse. Long story but most analog multi-tracks just most aren't capable of internal bouncing without feedback and distortion. And for the machines that can do IB it is a limited function. in other words you could bounce Tracks: 2-7 to 23/24. But you could not under any circumstances bounce adjacent tracks. For example Bouncing Tracks: 2-7 to 13/14.
It depends on the model and make.

Back to the issue....

When I write and record my own pathetic songs on 24 tracks it goes insane.
One of my songs lyrics were very visual so I had 8 tracks of sound effects. One line in the song talks about the crowd yelling for "more". So i thought that there should be a crowd of people yelling MORE! So I opened a new project. I did a rough stereo mix of the song to the new project so my "MORE" shouts would be in synchronization when I dropped it back into the song..hopefully. I set up a microphone, stood ten feet from it and as the song came around to the appropriate part I shouted as loud as I could, "MORE!!" into it. I did this 11 more times. Them I mixed those 12 tracks down to stereo. Deleted the original 12. Did another round 12 but this time in high pitched woman's voice. Mixed those 12 ladies down to stereo. Took the two stereo tracks of 12 part shouting and mixed them both down to stereo. Added some muti-band compression to make the crowd sound angry, opened up the original 24 track DP-24 project and dropped the "MORE" mix into tracks 21/22. I also added stereo delay with a panning effect. When I ran the whole mix through for the first time it was unspeakable: In 8 part harmony I am singing, "And the crown yells more." Right on the word more is the scary noise of 24 people yelling MORE all at once with all this echo (delay) going left and right and left and back again ad infinitum until you know....It pans to nothing. And I have the fader up high. Instant heart attack guaranteed! The total track count was 56 tracks on the 24 track Tascsm DP-24.
There is way too much in the song. And then putting in the effect sends only make it worse.
I have all this percussion. One track has what sounds like a frog. One line in the chorus talks about a cat, so on one track has a cat's meow every time the chorus is sung:

....Hey diddle diddle
the cat (meow) and the fiddle
and the cow jumped over the moon
I make no sense cause I'm on defense
non-existence....

It's buried in the mix but you can hear a faint echo of MEOW after "cat" is sung.
I wouldn't have done that with an 8 track!
There is just too much garbage. And often when you have 48 or 64 or 100 tracks the only way of having them all heard is through compression.

So in my opinion when remixing these old goodies it is so important to use the whole stereo soundstage. If you have two tracks of 3 part harmony, don't pan them at 10 and 2 o'clock. Pan them at 9 and 3. Much more space and air to move in between them. And it sound less congested.

Just my Canadian nickel....

 

Agreed. So true.

 

Now I know why John wrote "toe-jam football"

 

And where Paul got the inspiration for "I could smell your feet a mile away. "
Does that mean Yoko can now claim a songwriting co-credit on Paul's Smile Away song?

 

No, Peter Brown's book is far from credible.

 

So 09-09-19 may only be dressed to the nines, and zero is just another even number.