It's interesting to note, also, that when you strip this mystery down to the basic facts, it's basically the EXACT SAME screw-up as the Capitol Albums vol. 2 screw-up -- somebody along the line used the WRONG masters for the Canadian-pressed "Rubber Soul," and as a result of that ERROR, thousands (maybe tens of thousands) were pressed and sent out into the public. No recall. No announcement. No apologies ... and, on THIS end, no outcry, no calls for firings, no hysterical finger-pointing, no "same old Crapitol" talk. Funny how when it's a mistake we LIKE we can be so forgiving and understanding of human error and the rational economic decisions of a gigantic corporation.
This is the West German CDs notice the extra 2 at the end and the missing CDP-7 on the Help disc spine. (Compared to your picture of the Canuck spine of Help!) Does the original Canuck Rubber Soul CD include the 2 at the end of the spine number?
Now I would be the last person to suggest a conspiracy, but has anyone investigated the possibility that someone in Canada DELIBERATELY used the UK stereo mixes from 1965 to make these Canadian CDs that ONLY NOW are coming to light (which doesn't say much for the "expertise" of the "experts" who claim to know everything about everything connected to the Beatles discography), and that this SAME PERSON, in 2006, decided to atone for his earlier malfeasance by DELIBERATELY substituting the 2006 FOLD-DOWNS for the original 1965 MONOS? This is worth considering, isn't it? Tit for tat, so to speak, no? So many books by "experts," so many lists and catalogues of "the canon," will now have to be re-done to accomodate the mysterious Canadian "Disque Americ" CDs. Or is this another case of "funny things happen in life?" Someone goofed when making the Canadian CDs: "Oh happy day!" Someone goofed when making Vol 2 in 2006: "Hang 'em all. High." What other marvels remain to be unearthed?
Are you kidding? The US version will be several generations of tape further down, compressed, with boosted bass. If you did not hear the samples while they were up, they were "the holy grail", pretty much exactly how youwant them to sound.
I bought my copy of Help! in Montreal in May 1998, and it has exactly the same back cover as munson66's scan a few pages back. Mine is the re-mixed version, with MASTERED BY EMI MFG. IFPI L043 CA 1-1-4 on the disc. So you must look on the disk itself to identify the pressing with the original mix.
I think these CD's with "Disque Americ" were probably in wide circulation here - I bought both "Help" & "Rubber Soul" in used stores in Toronto about 10 years ago and they both have the funky C2 label number & "Disque Americ" on the inner ring. I listened to "Run For Your Life" and it has a "pop" at 1:07 (does that mean it's the non-GM version?). I'm not a Beatles expert and these are the only versions I've heard of either album in any format.
C2- Someone transfered from the plant cassette tape master of a few years earlier??? maybe. I'm caught in the middle of an April fool's joke. Wow (new to me) I can't believe this is the first report of this??? Quebec
That would make sense. It's a better explanation than "they used the GM-rejected original transfers."
How can it be that something this important has NEVER been discussed or even noticed before? I seriously doubt this pressing was widespread...if so, some of these copies would have filtered down to the States...in used cd stores and the like. And we have plenty of Canadian members and no one has mentioned this before. BTW, the differences between the Martin's remixes and the original 1965 mixes are rather obvious and too numerous to list (i.e., In My Life the vocals are now split between both channels and John's opening breath just before singing has been excised from the remixed CD)....almost each song on the CD has such mixing changes. I find absolutely NO reference for this "original mix" existing in ANY Beatle or music forum. If it IS legit, it's an absolutely amazing find. Is it possible as Robert suggests, that some employee purposely used the LP master? For a lark? His own amusement? It couldn't have been an innocent mistake because there was no digital master of the original mix to process compact discs. Someone had to prepare a digital master of it. And how could this be done without EMI's knowledge. It certainly wasn't sanctioned by them. Or was this an individual at the manufacturing plant having a bit of fun and pressing a limited run of these for personal enjoyment, family and friends? I recall a Capitol exec back in 1964 making some colored vinyl 45's of Can't Buy Me Love....these are mega-rare, very few pressed, even fewer having passed into the hands of collector's. But technically, they are not even legal, eventhough he used the single mono master to press them. Is it possible these Canadian CDs are technically boots too? Considering EMI didn't sanction them, and I know for a fact all EMI subsideriaries were under direct orders to use ONLY the EMI digital masters for all CD's.....lots of questions
But the plant was in North Carolina... maybe EMI Canada just ordered discs be made, and to avoid border hassles they just had the tapes sent over from the storage place in the US. Then somebody pulled the cassette master tape instead of the CD master.
Here is something I posted on the Jensen Fixes "Kansas City" thread: I'm wondering if the act of searching is having an effect on what we are finding. As Heraclitus said, "You can't step into the same river twice." There seems to be a bit of that going as we try to go back in time and replicate the catalogue AS IT WAS in 1963, or 1964, or whenever. No matter what we seem to do, we can't seem to get it right, even though it seems apparent what needs to be done. Just when we think it's done (maybe), we learn that maybe Ted Jensen corrected, for our 2006 version, a flaw in "Kansas City." Why did he do that???? Even more than Heraclitus, however, is the possibility -- the DISTURBING possibility -- that the Heisenberg Principle is at work -- that the very act of observing a phenomenon somehow changes it. Thus, just when we think everything about the Beatles is settled, we take another peak, and in taking that peak, we create some cosmic disturbance that leads to ANOTHER VERSION showing up, even though we thought all possible versions had been accounted for. If this is so, then all my earlier predictions about the QUEST NEVER ENDING are even more true, and, in a Heisenbergian sense, HAVE TO BE TRUE, for we will never stop seeking, and therefore, finding, will we?
It seems these Beatles threads have finally taken their first victim. My thoughts go out to Robert Kaneda and his family at this difficult time.......
The only thing I can think of is that the Martin-remixed CDs of these albums were so universally reviled that Beatles collectors completely stopped paying any attention to them. The disturbing aspect to all this (for obsessives, that is ... any of those around here? ) is that the mantra all this time has been "All the official CDs are exactly the same everywhere." Now, with this discovery, the question raised is, "What else is floating around out there that may be different?"
I believe you have this wrong. George Martin rejected the STEREO transfers of Please Please Me and With The Beatles in 1986. He was appalled by the "twin-track- sound and suggested strongly they (EMI and Mike Jarratt) use the original mono mixes. He was asked more out of courtesy, he was NOT part of the project at this time. EMI, then messed that up by also substituting the stereo mixes of A Hard Day's Night and Beatles For Sale, much to Martin's surprise. Sir George NEVER made reference CD's from the original 1965 mixes of Rubber Soul and Help...Once he was named project producer he decided from the onset to remix because HE never like his own original stereo mixes. Ron
Here's an odd fact to confuse things further. Capitol in Canada released three Canada only albums - Beatlemania, Twist & Shout and Long Tall Sally between late 1963 and mid 1964. These were issued in their T6000 series which was used by Capitol to issue EMI product from the UK that Capitol US wouldn't issue. These included material that VeeJay, Swan and United Artists had the then US rights to. It just so happens that Capitol issued these albums for the first time in stereo on vinyl and cassette in 1987, not long before the worldwide release of the CDs of Help and Rubber Soul. Could the masters have got mixed up here.
True...but all the more reason that one of us obsessive types would have noticed this before. It's simply amazing this has never been mentioned before. Ron
A buddhist might respond that the practice you describe is a search for satisfaction from without, which is akin to an unquenchable thirst. Finding satisfaction within oneself, understanding that "everything is as it should be," would be an alternative that would yield greater peace. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Beatles thread. Jason
I don't pretend to be a Beatles expert, so yeah, I'm probably wrong on that. I think a few other people mentioned it, or perhaps I just made the leap in my mind that there were reference discs made. Out of curiousity, where is that documented?
