Concord Music Group gets Paul McCartney Back Catalogue

I think I read somewhere that there were a couple other Beatle-remakes he did that did not make the soundtrack/album - those would be interesting to hear.

And what about the never heard remake of "I Saw Her Standing There" from the Choba sessions?

We can only hope some cool stuff manages to creep out of the vaults...

 

Wow. Where did that come from? You haven't even heard them yet.

 

Thanks for the contact info. I sent them a detailed email about an hour ago. Hopefully, if they get enough input they'll actually pay attention.

 

To be fair to the naysayers, there's a more than fare-to-middling chance that remasters won't be brilliant (I call to the stand MAF and Driving Rain). Equally though, there's hope that things won't be so bad (here I call Electric Arguments).

I'll wait till I've heard them before I pass judgement - of course, I'll also need to check the waveforms and consult this forum before I make my mind up but listening is, at least, a start

 

I think that the writing would be a nice thing. But without showing off we're already hating it!

 

Something I'll also add: I'm surprised that MAF is being included in the catalogue revamp. It was, of course, not issued by EMI and therefore not part of the catalogue that was taken from them. I can only assume that it's inclusion in this programme is down to the critical reception it's sound quality received. Hope so, anyway.

 

I'm hoping that was dry humour?

 

Do we even know if the woes with the SQ even reached the ears of Macca or Mr. Kahne? Did any higher up ever comment on it?

 

Yeah, but MAF was originally released by Concord/Hear Music, so like the NY Live album, I assume they have had rights to this all along. I don't expect them to remaster this title. It will probably just have its packaging standardized to match the rest of the reissues.

 

You mean it'll have its original artwork squashed to the size of a matchbox and the rest of the cover washed over in white? Nice.

 

All we can do is speculate. I prefer to think that since Concord is a "boutique" label these will sound very good. Glass half full and all that.

Evan

 

Ooh.. Please share!

 

I was forgetting that Concord worked with McCartney/HearMusic on MAF. My mistake. But I really hope they do take the opportunity to standardise the mastering and not do as bad a job of it as they did on MAF (although I recall someone commenting that it was MIXED like that not mastered so maybe we're stuck with that one).

 

How many parts one can wonder this thread will have been by the time of the first re-release is out?

 

More than Ringo Starr's last album but not as many as the Beatles remasters...

 

this is a safe bet, Paul!

 

Maybe we should start a poll?

 

Ah, what the heck. This is the email I wrote. If anyone disagrees with me, please don't beat me up; instead, write your own email to Concord Music Group.


Hello,

I’m hoping this letter will find it’s way to those in charge of such things, since this isn’t really a ‘customer service’ issue per se. I hope it doesn’t simply fall victim to the ‘delete’ key.

I read with much enthusiasm about upcoming Paul McCartney Remastered CD’s. It’s been implied that there may be deluxe versions of the albums released which would be fantastic! I hope that’s true and as a fan it’s my sincere hope that these releases truly represent Paul McCartney and his music as well as it’s deserved.

This is one letter from one fan, but I’m sure I speak for tens of thousands of other fans like me who would like to see these done right, not like the 1993 remasters by EMI, which were a major disappointment. So I hope you will continue reading and just maybe this fan’s suggestions will be taken to heart by someone else to cares about music.

One of the reasons for the success of the Beatles Remasters project, in my opinion, was that a team of engineers spent so much time making the Beatles recordings sound as good as possible before rereleasing them. Yeah, it’s the Beatles and product would have sold anyway but it wouldn’t necessarily have garnered all of the positive reviews that have helped propel sales. Any major release like this should focus on the music as its first priority. People can and do hear the differences when time and care has been put forth and if you want people to repurchase 40 year old music, the reason should be because it’s been noticeably improved. I would recommend Steve Hoffman or someone of his caliber for a project like this.

Once the music has been addressed the things that make this a deluxe package should be considered. Please don’t give us an interview disk and call it a deluxe package. Fans want included: singles and b-sides, unreleased songs, demo or alternate takes, and then live material. In THAT order! The more the better and we don’t mind paying extra for this type of stuff. The packaging is important too of course – no one wants to spend $40 for a CD that comes in flimsy cardboard and falls apart in a few months (heavy-duty cardboard is okay though).

Did I mention surround yet? The surround version of the songs on The McCartney Years DVD sounds excellent and would translate well to SACD or DVD-Audio (or even DTS). I’m sure this is a pipe dream but it would make a lot of fans very happy. The DTS surround version of Venus and Mars is one of my favorite disks ever.

Well, thank you for reading and hopefully listening. I truly hope the McCartney Remastered CD’s are a win-win for the fans as well as for Concord Music Group.

Regards,

 

Not a bad idea. Everybody's gonna hate it tonight, everybody's not gonna feel allright...

Anyway, I'm sure that the final product will kill all the antecipated pessimism those threads spread well after the release date.

 

I'm most looking forward to the postal delivery status updates once they drop!

 

Concord Music Group?
the same as Creedence 40th anniversary releases?

I'm excited!

I'd like to have the albums properly remastered (that's WITHOUT NO-NOISE AND NOT BRICKWALLED) with the singles & B-sides of the time.

 

Great, great letter!

it represents me completely, specially the lines in bold

 

How many discs did it take to get from Another Day (1970) to Spies Like Us (1985)?

 

Now THAT is FUNNY

 

I think the best we can expect is 2CD editions of all the albums, possibly with additional DVD where warranted, hopefully with nice gatefold digipack packaging (like the REM reissues).

DVD-A is extremely unlikely. I do think remixing all the albums into 5.1 would be excellent and a real incentive to buy, but again, not that likely and if they did do it would be unlikely to be Hi-Res.

2CDs should be enough to mop up all b-sides/rarities especially if they chose to use the extra space after the album proper has finished (I know some people don't like to spoil the actual album).

A nice touch to kick off the re-releases would be to release a 3CD career-spanning box set, a bit like the original Bowie 'Sound and Vision' box with appropriate unreleased gems mixed in with classics, but doesn't seem likely to happen and probably not economical to do.

Why can't they just licence the Steve Hoffman/DCC remasters somehow and use them on the new CDs? Seems such a waste given they exist somewhere, but only a minority have heard them!?