The Beatles U.S. Albums box set - your impressions...

With one of THE worst songs, the Fab Four Film Medley...

 

THE worst. Not one of the worst.

 

If there were a poll, I'd choose the "Rock 'n' Roll Music" cover as the worst, since it didn't really match the music inside. But I'd put "Reel Music" as the next worse.

 

I have not followed all of this thread so please forgive me for my questions. If there are links to a summary or page with the answer please PM me. I have the original 2 Capitol Album sets and just purchased the new Yesterday and Today mainly for the art work. I debated on A Hard Days Night, Revolver and Hey Jude. Are all of the Vocal tracks on AHDN unique US mixes or just the Mono? Does Hey Jude have any unique mixes (The ISHKB Harmonica break)? What about Revolver, are any of these unique to the US Album? What tracks on Revolver were originally not true Stereo? How can you ID a matrix for the corrected version? My US Revolver was purchased in 1968 IIRC and is a number 16 Cover with I AM in matrix with matrix number followed by R 4 #2/A1.

 

You don't need Revolver or Hey Jude, all true stereo and same as on the 2009 remasters,. A Hard days Night, still some debate.

 

I got AHDN and it was a no brainer, getting the Martin instrumentals and the song order I grew up with.

 

Thanks. I will probably pick up AHDN and maybe Hey Jude for the artwork (I have a pretty good needle drop of my Japanese Hey Jude LP).
I do want to find out about the replaced songs on Revolver (I know about Y&T).

 

Probably someone has already noted that if the right people get in charge of the Beatles' music, the next product could be "The UK Albums".

Comprised totally of all of the Capitol album mixes and Capitol sound mastering, complete with reverb, up front sound, and duophonic wonder.

"There are many good reasons for doing this. But we have maintained, for nostalgia purposes and to honor those who remember the songs in a certain order, the UK album covers and sequence of songs."

 

As far as I know, the US Revolver has always used the same mixes as the UK Revolver, all true mono and stereo. The US just dropped the three tracks that were already on Yesterday And Today.

 

That is what I thought. The Y&T tracks from Revolver were changed. I misunderstood this quote.

lukpac said: ↑
The stereo Revolver tracks were used from day 1 for tape issues, and LPs with them were likely in production by late 1968 at Winchester.

Still not clear on ISHKB on Hey Jude CD having the harmonica break like the LP.

 

What isn't clear?

John stopped playing for a bar.
The mono mix repeats a bar to mask this.
The stereo mix doesn't.
For Reel Music, and edit was made to mimic the mono, but the wrong bar was used.

Hey Jude has the stereo mix.

 

Wait a second. John had not "stopped playing for a bar". I would not call that half-second pause "a bar".
That was just an impovised version of the harmonica part, which was decided to put on the stereo, that's all.

 

Sounds like half a bar which I guess is better than no bar!

 

I have a small case of "buyer's remorse." Yes, it sure is pretty, I like the artwork and the booklet and the mini album covers and the inner sleeves and all, but having listened to Yesterday And Today, The Beatles' Second Album and part of Meet The Beatles in stereo so far, for the most part I'm not sitting here itching to hear the rest. I've heard it all before, in the context of the real Beatles albums, or in the previous Capitol sets.

I am glad to have an official CD version of Hey Jude. I had forgotten how much I missed that album.

 

Well, to be exact, that was just one (1/16) note left out.

 

I kind of like that cover. The drawing/painting or whatever on the front cover is an iconic image of the early Beatles, and I like the effect of how it's supposed to be a sealed album from the point of view of someone holding it in their hands looking at it in a record store (or wherever the person is). As for the rest of it though, they're gettin' all American Graffiti on it...maybe the point (if lost in translation) was to represent the era of some of the American music the Beatles grew up on and played early on?

 

Thanks. From earlier in the thread I got the impression that it was fixed on the stereo version on the Hey Jude CD.

It's All Too Much!!!

 

Hello Beatles Fans..this is my first post and I am privilaged to be aboard...A friend of mine has this new box set and we set out to A-B them with the 2009 remasters. One thing for sure, and I haven't read this anywhere (correct me if i'm wrong) but the new box is a REMASTER of the remasters..duller sounding. Anyone having a problem with the 2009's may loath this edition. Much of Ringo's energy driven HiHat is gone, and I should know being a drummer and bassist for 50 years while listening to these great artists. Universal has been doing nice restoration work on their films, but I think they should entrust the music side of things to folks who may be as close to this music as we all are... (just my opinion, and I'm sorry I had to start off my membership complaining)

 

Way OT. Hard to find the RNR album without ring wear. Very much like the white album cover. RNR does have many unique mixes.

 

Not to change subjects, cap threads, complain, be a wise guy, or any other forum max-demeanors, but "You Go To My Head" from Sinatra's Nice and Easy album just came on through my headphones...now THIS deserves the "Capitol Full-Dimensional Stereo" hype on the cover ...................and I say this as a lover of Beatles Stereo (even though I love it for the wrong reasons)

 

Picked up 6 titles today for $10.80 USD each. Will likely get the others soon.

Listened to AHDN, the first Beatles album I ever heard. My mom had a large early 60s coffee table size stereo phonograph/radio. Wooden with legs, with the turntable under a sliding lid and the speakers built into the cabinet on either side.

I was born in 1963 and apparently cut my teeth on the edges. They brought it back upstairs when I was in high school and you could see the teeth marks. Anyway AHDN was one of the records still in it, and I listened to it quite a few times back then.

So today I put the speakers of our living room home theatre system about 4 feet apart and sat on the couch in front to listen, like they would have back in the day. The only way to listen to those early stereo mixes IMHO. Really enjoyed it.

I like the instrumentals. I think they're very nice arrangements in and of themselves. Kinda funny in a way, but as I listened to the lead guitar playing the vocal melody on a couple of those, it occurred to me that this guy maybe got more 'soloing' time on this lp than George.

Mark

 

Trivia for you :

Vic Flick played guitar on Ringo's Theme (This Boy ) on the United Artists soundtrack album. He had previously played guitar on the James Bond Dr. No theme, and George Martin wanted that sort of sound. Talk about an iconic guitar part.

This is cut and pasted from Vic's webite:

In 1963/1964, Ringo's Theme was written by Lennon-McCartney and credited to the George Martin Orchestra as additional music for "A Hard Days Night". The song, vocally, is "This Boy" and is both in the movie and on the soundtrack.
Sir George Martin wanted a guitar sound close to the "James Bond Theme" and booked Vic for the gig.
Instead of the Clifford Essex, Vic used a '62 Fender Stratocaster with a '62 Fender Vibrolux amplifier and got the exact sound George was happy with.

 

Here is a complete 1962-1966 playlist of official releases, using the US Albums, in nearly chronological UK release order, with no duplicates. Missing songs are filled in from the 2009 CDs.

1. The Early Beatles, US album. One could replace "Love Me Do" here with the original single from 2009 Mono/Past Masters.
2. "Misery", from 2009 Please Please Me.
3. "There's A Place", from 2009 Please Please Me.
4. "From Me To You", from 2009 Mono/Past Masters.
5. Meet The Beatles!, US album.
6. The Beatles' Second Album, US album.
7. A Hard Day's Night, US album.
8. Something New, US album. Tracks 1,7,8,9,10 are duplicates of A Hard Day's Night tracks, so these are removed.
9. "Sie Liebt Dich", from 2009 Mono/Past Masters. This comes after Something New track 11 "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand", and sequencing here creates some distance from the English versions.
10. Beatles '65, US album.
11. Beatles VI, US album.
12. "I'm Down", from 2009 Mono/Past Masters.
13. Help!, US album.
14. Rubber Soul, US album.
15. Yesterday And Today, US album.
16. "Paperback Writer", from US album Hey Jude.
17. "Rain", from US album Hey Jude.
18. Revolver, US album.

This list includes the first 4 (anachronistic) tracks of Hey Jude, so one can skip to track 5 of that album and start with 1968's Lady Madonna.

 

I finally got to actually open and start listening to the box yesterday. I'm sure that this will open me up to all sorts of flaming arrows, but I really enjoyed listening to the abbreviated Revolver. That's probably due to the fact that the Capitol Revolver was the second Beatles LP I ever bought (after the US A Hard Day's Night). It was 1987 and I was in 9th grade. I didn't even have a clue until several years later that 3 songs were missing from it, but I totally loved the album in that configuration. Well, it turns out that I still do.

 

Having a high McCartney ratio will do that for a listener.