You asked what people thought would have been worthwhile enough to include on Anthology. I shared my picks. I consider those choices to be top shelf outtakes. The White Album set has an incredible selection of outtakes. The bar is already low for Abbey Road as far as outtakes. The ones on Anthology 3 are just ok and there are a few more on the deluxe set that are as good. And then there's the deluxe Pepper. Anthology 2 did a good job with the A Day In Life remix/edit but it's far better hearing all the separate bits and pieces. On the other hand, the Anthology 2 version of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds is my least favorite remix/edit. All the other tracks created for Anthology have a purpose: showing off various stages or elements within one. The raw takes 1 and 5 are far more valuable to me.
I was wondering if that might not be the case. The guitar version is a trip. It sounds complete as is with the Satisfaction-like guitar but the horns make it even better.
It was good finding out that Rocky Raccoon didn't die, I don't think that was covered on the White Album Super Deluxe Edition thread.
Quality control must have been out to lunch when the stereo mix of "Needles and Pins" was made. It sounds like they just put a different version of the mono mix in each channel. I was very glad to pick up the original US 45 with the mono mix a few weeks ago.
I would have chosen the laughing take of And Your Bird Can Sing for Anthology - but without the laughing. The most interesting alternate take, being as it's a totally different arrangement to what finally appeared (albeit then rendered unlistenable as a song in it's own right by the laughing)!
I quite like the wide vocals on Taxman Take 11. It'd probably be possible to mangle it into something approximating the final version given we have some of the individual tracks from the Rockband game (e.g. the cowbell). The main issue would be the "anybody got a bit o' money" parts, those are probably too difficult to remove. You could probably remove the centre channel to just extract the wide vocals and shove that on top of the Rockband stems, but the sound quality wouldn't be great.
I agree. But (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care, on the WA50th boxset, should have been on A3. I guess they didn't wade through all the tapes back then, maybe just checked on some tape notes...
Or conversely, headstones & epitaph aside, we could entrust the Beatles box set compilers, with I don't know, say let's imbue them, with a type of Stalinist type of committee power, and whenever anyone, me or Turkey Dave whoever, should a complaint about the contents arise, simply hurl thinly veiled age cracks , from pups not yet born when the Beatles ruled. Treat with suspicion & derision, anyone who dares complain, about anything on a Beatles box set. To me it's obvious, as the Beatles boxes continue to decline in popularity, don't get better people to compile the boxes, blame older fans instead, good solution.
It doesn't sound like that on The Searchers : The Collection SACD mastered by our host..."All tracks true stereo from the original Pye Records master tapes", the instrumentation is on the right, vocals on the left...lead vocal panned slightly towards the middle.
Just curious, where is your info coming from that they’re declining in popularity? I’m not saying they are or they aren’t but from what I’ve been seeing in following Billboard over the last few years, they all seem to follow the same pattern; first full week of release they fly into the top five and then drop significantly in their second week. Not much change for the better or worse.
Nevertheless, the Anthology discs did contain a few vintage mixes, like take 7 of "Strawberry Fields Forever," John's effects-laden mix of "Glass Onion," and Paul's section from the middle of "A Day in the Life." So those mixes weren't entirely disregarded. Still, Anthology was intended as an overview rather than a comprehensive trawl through the vaults, so it made sense to include the version of "Got to Get You..." that was least similar to the familiar recording. (Martin and especially Emerick appeared to be a little perplexed at public interest in outtakes - perhaps because, as session participants, they were a little too close to the process to see an outsider's fascination with the floor sweepings.) I'm glad the new Revolver set includes two mixes of that take of "...Bird...", one with the giggling and one without, because they're rather different listening experiences. Given the more concise nature of the Anthology project, it made sense to consolidate both vocal takes onto the same mix. Now we've got all three versions so everyone can pick their favorite and disregard the ones they don't like.
I think it's good that the outtakes are presented in chronological order since it gives you a feel for the way the album took shape. In this contaxt it is of course a great shame that we have nothing for Good Day Sunshine which means it's a little harder to hear where that fit in to things.
All this bickering and arguing - honestly, you lot... I hope we can agree that the following is the best version ever of Eleanor Rigby: Kenny Everett on Eleanor Rigby and Radio 4
Actually I’ve had the effect multiple times with each of the boxes (least with Let It Be no question). I’m still the kid in the late 1970s wondering what might be stored away on tapes somewhere and would I ever hear it. Overall, it’s the cumulative effect of having all this material presented together.
Just about any alternate/rehearsal take of anything by any of my favorite artists fully catches my attention but no one much as those of The Beatles. Like yourself though, the least excitement for me was with Let It Be. The reason for this is that my familiarity with these sessions goes back to the early seventies when I bought my first of many bootlegs from them. Back then, they were *very* exciting. The next time I heard any true, actual outtakes (not including BBC)was in the early eighties on the Abbey Road show double LP boot. Following that, coincidentally or not, tons of outtake material started to surface. But they were still “precious and rare”. I think the deluxe sets have made us start to take them a little for granted.
Definitely agree with that. I love listening in chronological order, so that I can hear the ‘story’ of the album coming together. The outtakes have been presented in chronological order and not in album order for all the deluxe sets since Pepper though, but I think Bink might be talking about the 2CD/LP editions, as I seem to recall those did have a second disc presented as an ‘alternate’ version of the album?
Yes, I was referring to the 2cd versions. They replicated the running order for the outtakes on Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road but then abandoned it for Let It Be and Revolver. It's not a big deal for me, but just an observation. I suppose if there is no outtake of Good Day Sunshine then it is pointless trying to re-create the running order.
Maybe they should have included something for Good Day Sunshine as an exclusive for the 2 disc edition? We know there are some outtakes they could have used, or could have just used the basic track like they did for a couple of others? Would have got the forum riled up, but would have enabled them to maintain the format!
