The Beatles Remasters: Yellow Submarine

Me three.

The question was asked on the main thread and the by way it was kinda mocked at, I figured that they are the same.

 

It's on the Mono Masters CD: http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beat...k-list-for-The-Beatles-Mono-Masters-2disc-set

 

Martin's Score

I listened to Martin's score from the new Yellow Submarine and it sounds stunning, what a great conversion IMO!

Incidently on the fold out digipack you have a picture of the sub, do any of you have just the black outline of that Yellow Submarine picture broken up??

 

OK, this is crystal clear.
So the question is: which is the difference between "Only A Northern Song" on YS stereo and the version on Mono Masters? It seems like they used the original mono mixdown in both cases but they sound sure different to my ears. So is the version of YS EQ'd and the version of MM more "flat"?

 

I didn't want to start a new thread about this: Are there any web sites with info on the recording dates of the George Martin pieces? It seems every site out there only talks about the Beatles songs on YS (unsurprisingly).

 

You mean, the black outline isn't a CONTINUOUS line all the way around the submarine?

Yes, that's the case with my digipack too. Rather annoying, now that you've pointed it out.

 

I just found the dates "22-23 October 1968" on Wikipedia. That's the most info I can find.

 

Tis a bit weird that both the stereo and mono mixes of Hey Bulldog have the backing track fading and then coming back up to full volume near the end. At first I thought they might've used a fold-down by accident but the mix is definitely different so it must be a coincidence.

 

It's only a northern song has the pepper brass sound all over it. I understand why it wasn't included on pepper though. :

 

I'm currently working my way through buying the stereo titles one week at a time (tbh, I just downloaded the mono box). Is this necessary? I'm not interested in the orchestral tracks, and all the other songs are available elsewhere, right?

 

Well, not really. "Only A Northern Song", "Hey Bulldog", "All Together Now", & "It's All Too Much" were only on this album. If you have the mono box set, then you have the newly released MONO versions of these songs, but if you want them in stereo, then the stereo CD is the only place to get them.

 

Is that so? Right, then.. looks like I'm picking it up. Thanks!

 

to be correct it is not so... if you want to have really good versions of this four tracks buy the yellow submarine-songtrack-album... these stereo remixes are better (although not really authentic) and you will get some other decent remixes too...

 

Yeah, I'm aware of that, but the YSS is quite hard to find in Australia. And I may as well pick up all of the remasters and not just 13 of 14. Gotta finish what I start!

 

IMHO, the team that put the remasters together should have used the stereo remixes made for the Yellow Submarine Songtrack on the YS remaster, and included the three original stereo mixes of "Hey Bulldog", "All Together Now", and "It's All Too Much" as bonus tracks. The precedent for replacing 1960s stereo mixes on these remasters was set the minute they decided to use the 1980s remixes for Help! and Rubber Soul. If they felt okay using 1980s remixes for two whole albums, what's the difference with using 1990s remixes for four songs, ESPECIALLY with the whole "Northern Song" fake stereo/mono substitution they used on this remastered CD. I consider the original stereo mix of "It's All Too Much" to be practically unlistenable, but the 1999 stereo remix is excellent. The 1960s mono mixes of the YS songs are all great.

As much as I love the YS movie, the songs, and George Martin's score, the continued presence of the YS album as a fixture in The Beatles catalog seems odd to me. If this album had been compiled in 1971, it would not be considered "canon" and it would be long gone. I'm surprised that at some point in the last 40 years they didn't delete this album and just treat the four unique YS songs like they treat the four songs from the Long Tall Sally EP and make sure they showed up on a Past Masters compilation. (Exactly as they handled these songs on the Mono Masters CD.) After all, George Martin's score for AHDN has been OOP for years. Were it not for the Capitol CD boxes, the Help! score would still be OOP. If they wanted to make sure George Martin's scores were still available, they could make a Movie Masters CD with the "Movie Medely" single and the previously released scores for AHDN, Help! and YS, AND they could throw in the unreleased score from MMT while they're at it. But, hey -- they didn't ask me!

I have to say, if YS hadn't been included in the stereo box set I wouldn't have bothered with this remaster. The YSS disc is a better buy, even if you'd need to order from Amazon in the US or UK in order to get a copy. They nicest thing about the YS stereo remaster is the lovely artwork on the booklet and CD sleeve. The packaging is gorgeous, as it is with all the rest of the remasters. As for SQ, I actually thought the tracks from George Martin's score on the 1987 YS CD sounded just fine.

 

Yellow Submarine as much as people hate it, is a UK official Beatles album and will always remain in print, it is not a compilation compiled after The Beatles split, like MMT! You must remember that Martin's score is also an original composition and there fore if this album was deleted he and his family would no longer earn royalties, this alone will always prevent the album from being deleted IMO! BTW I love it, but would welcome an expanded version, so it has all the songs of soungtrack as well as the score!!

 

I do believe I said "if" YS was compiled in the 1970s it would have been deleted by now. The liner notes on the remaster go out of their way to point out that YS was "never intended to be a major album" in the Beatles' catalog. MMT was not compiled after the band split, it was compiled in the 1960s in America and released in November 1967 as an 11-song album and has long since been standardized into the catalog. I agree that Martin's score is lovely and pointed out in my post that much of the movie music he wrote for the Beatles is long-OOP and also suggested that it's a shame and that his scores for ALL of the Beatles movies probably deserve their own compilation CD.

 

And, my bad -- the Help! score is written by Ken Thorne, not George Martin. And Martin only arranged the score in AHDN, so you're probably right about George Martin's writing of the YS score as being the reason YS is still around as a CD.

 

It’s not the same precedent at all. George Martin had nothing to do with the YSS remix.

 

Yeah Sorry I didn't explain myself very well, although YS is kinda of a comp, I meant it was release as a 'New' Official Beatles album when the band were together, so that will insure it will always remain in print! Unlike for example 'Hey Jude' which was a compilation done without Beatles involvment (ie they had not asked to record songs for it etc)

 

I've never understood the love for YS Songtrack, sure some of the mixes are better-ish (and nice to have a proper stereo mix of "Northern Song" for the first time...[the Anth. mix is of the song as it stood when it was a Pepper outtake, and lacking the later work done on the song for YS]) but I don't like the sound, it sounds dead to me, sterile I think someone here said in another thread. All my opinion of course.
I'd like to hear this one remastered in a similar way to the new remasters, and with Eleanor Rigby fixed, ain't gonna happen though.

 

Yes, you are quite right.

FWIW, I've never had issue with any of the songs or performances on YS -- I love the music -- I just look at the album as a product as being a bit of a mess. The song side of the LP was compromised by weak or non-existent stereo mixes and by the exclusion of "Baby You're A Rich Man," the score side is fine. It's hard not to wonder what the band thought about the YS album considering that the original UK liner notes are a long promo for the White Album. At least in the US they had film-specific liner notes.

 

I found the mono mixes of a couple of these songs on the Mono Masters disc to be somewhat lacking.