I have had it up to here waiting for the Beatles catalogue to be remastered

interesting project, perhaps moreso because it divorces the material from the actual chronology (was Cheer Down even written in 1978, for ex?)

personally my hypothetical Beatles-in-the-70s scenario would be a good deal nastier and the material would reflect that. None of their contemporaries - the Stones, the Beach Boys, the Kinks, etc. - made it through the 70s with their lineups intact and the Beatles probably would have been no exception. There would have been outside collaborations and guest musicians galore (Clapton, Yoko, Nilsson, Badfinger etc) and the albums would have gotten really messy and unwieldy in all likelihood. Plus they probably would have resumed touring and making stupid movies... it's kind of inconceivable to me to envision the Beatles in the 70s without the attendant excesses.

that being said, there is loads of good stuff on all the members' respective solo albums

Yeah, as noted above, the chronology is all twisted with these, I mean a project that ends in 1981 shouldn't have "Got My Mind Set On You" anywhere near it, but its included.

Would've loved to have seen the Beatles cover that fit in with these:

http://www.bestweekever.tv/bwe/images/2010/08/ELP-Love-Beach.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p-E9PrNygBo/SGFVTIR4lgI/AAAAAAAAIVI/YPSPY00Li3I/s400/crosbystillsnash-csn.jpg

well John did pilot a boat through the Bermuda Triangle sometime in 1979 iirc

Yeah, really, their legacy was secured for them by the fact of their breaking up - it's easy to write off any failings in the solo material as "well, that doesn't count" - but if they had remained the Beatles you'd have a bunch of real dreck albums and the Beatles would be one of those bands you have to read up on before going to the record store, because the dollar bin is full of albums looking like pplains's images there and you Just Don't Know which ones actually have some gems, etc etc.

I reckon Lennon would have been subsumed into New Wave somehow, or even better Downtown NY art music, collabs with Glass/Meredith Monk/Talking Heads/Arthur Russell/Ginsberg/John Cale

I wonder if living in NYC during the whole CBGB/54/Summer of Sam era had any effect on him or if he was just listening to the B-52s on the beach the whole time.

Oh, he heard "Rock Lobster", I know that much. I think that informed "Walking on Thin Ice" for Yoko...

Right. Wonder what else he heard.

There's a great anecdote in the recent oral history book on the making of Double Fantasy about the day that Jack Douglas booked the members of Cheap Trick to come in and track "I'm Losing You" with John (which, if you've heard it on the Lennon box set or other outtakes, is terrific). Yoko had no idea who they were and accused them of trying to ride John's coattails to success. You know, after they'd had three platinum albums and John hadn't recorded in five years.

Anyway, George came fairly close to those ELP/CSN covers:

http://www.jpgr.co.uk/k9237341_a.jpg

This is fairly close..

http://www.bootlegzone.com/beatleg/discs/scans/pc-60.jpg

That Cheap Trick story is pretty good.

It was weird reading that Rolling Stone interview last year taken from the unreleased parts of Lennon's final interview. Him talking about Bruce Springsteen and president-elect Ronald Reagan. It'd be like hearing Elvis talk about Pat Benatar or something.,

the day that Jack Douglas booked the members of Cheap Trick to come in and track "I'm Losing You" with John

WTF?! never heard of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im3AUiCGqnk

Enjoying this far more than I thought I would. It's all silly fun, of course, but the best part is that I'm giving real attention to a load of songs of which I was only dimly aware, e.g. 'Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)'.

itunes didn't remove the gaps between tracks for some reason. Could be to do with the vbr encoding, I dunno.

Is the Dropbox option still available? If so, I would like a listen (pjmiller68atgmaildotcom). But don't go to any trouble, it's only beacuse I'm TOO LAZY for FLACS. Kthx please and thank you.

I have a Dropbox "thingy" - used it once.

seems like the vinyl reissues are never coming out :(

*cries*

let me give you all a steer.

picture if you will, April 2012: EMI release two Talk Talk albums as deluxe vinyl remasters featuring a DVD of 24bit Wav files.

The music press go nuts and everyone talks about vinyl revival and increasing market for HD download tracks.

EMI realises that this combo hits both the analog purists and the digital stereophiles and maximises the amount you can charge for something that can be picked up on CD for about £5.

EMI begin to wonder if they have any other 'classic' albums that can be reissued on vinyl with 24bit digital files included and charge £20 for the package.

somone coughs and points to the big money spitting pipe in their office labelled "The Beatles revenue".

seriously, if those Talk Talk reissues are not testing the water for something bigger, I will be severely disappointed in The Man's greed and my personal weakness in the face of deluxe reissues.

hope you're right....just seems like such a no brainer

i mean look at prices for mono original presses on discogs for revolver:

http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?q=revolver+beatles&format=Vinyl&year=1966

yeah and original White Album in mono is crazy highly priced in our neck of the woods. you're looking at £80-£100 if you even want a Very Good copy let alone a mint one.

I guess news is that Yellow Submarine will see a Blu-Ray release and remastering and the Soundtrack album will come out again and all. Which is cool, but MMT and Let it Be continue to collect dust.

and "Give my regards to Broadway" continues to collect grit and rain and (etc)

gag flubbed due to lack of street cred

Surely there aren't any Ringo haters anymore?

Why hate on him? He was a perfectly competent drummer who happened to be lucky enough to be in a band with three of the biggest musical geniuses ever. He's not up there with the three others, but few others are. And he is perfectly fine otherwise, even if his solo albums are largely irrelevant (the new one actually possibly being his best since "Ringo")

He's more than a competent drummer, Geir, but I don't expect you to understand that at all.

He's a fantastic drummer.

"Ticket to Ride" came on the radio yesterday, and all I could think about was that awesome drum beat that drives the thing.

What's great is that most people consider "Rain" to be Ringo's crowning moment of glory as a drummer, without considering that the tape on that was slowed down to change the key from A to G, and that he therefore played all those fills faster than we think he did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48OPy9CmXA4

Woahh - never heard that track before. Fabulous.

I first heard that sped up version here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f7D2_jUkqA

This guy's got the bassline nailed perfectly but it really just makes you appreciated how awesome Paul is.

He really is. I'd love to listen to their catalogue with the bass mixed way up like that - I can never hear him properly. I only ever really pick him up on tracks like A Day In The Life or Mr Kite, which are amazing but I know there are so many treasures there.

(that guy's got a lovely tone btw)

i thought the remasters really brought the bass out tremendously compared to previous masters

Agreed he did a great job on "Rain". Also "Strawberry Fields Forever". I like Ringo's drumming, but even somebody as great as Jeff Porcaro, Phil Collins, Keith Moon, Bill Bruford, Lars Ulrich or Charlie Watts would still have been overshadowed by the other Fab Three. Because they were Fab'er than most anything else.

It's hard to imagine the Beatles with other drummers like some of those guys. I've mentioned it before, but that take of "Please Please Me" with the session drummer (ostensibly a good player) on Anthology 1 is the best proof that the Beatles would have been very different without Ringo and, in fact, may very well have not ended up being successful at all.

http://blogcritics.org/music/article/would-the-real-drummer-on-please1/page-3/

This guy seems to have worked it out that it's Ringo on that version as well.

God, Paul really was like the trippiest bass player of any big 60s band! The more I'm paying attention to it, the more all his stuff from the second half of the 60s is just loopy and unpredictable as all hell. But it never really feels like he's being fussy or trying to get attention at the expense of the song, it just adds this level of complexity to the backing track that you can easily go years without noticing, except for seeing like a Beatles party cover band that seems to be lacking.... something ineffable.

This guy seems to have worked it out that it's Ringo on that version as well.

!

Does sound reasonable that it's just an early version and Ringo wasn't playing it as well yet, listening again after reading that.

The biggest revelation for me was how good Paul's bass playing was on the early 60's. Just listen to Please, Please Me or I Saw Her Standing There and hear how he drives the songs along. Another thing the re-masters have done is make me re-appreciate John's guitar playing. He really could make it "howl and move."

They definitely did not have that 'chugging away' rhythm section, Paul was noticeably great from the very beginning.

I don't know anything about playing drums, but Ringo's drum sound is so damn bright and funky around '67. "strawberry fields" and "hello goodbye" in particular.. damn

The drums on this,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNLcXj5yR68

Yeah, the drumming on Blue Jay Way is real cool. You kinda of get the sense of Ringo and George really having each other's backs on these songs that John and Paul seem to have 50-75% checked out on. Vid, unfortunately, reminds me why I've never really felt a burning, pressing need to see Magical Mystery Tour...

I don't know anything about playing drums, but Ringo's drum sound is so damn bright and funky around '67. "strawberry fields" and "hello goodbye" in particular.. damn

There's a few reasons for that, I think. He had really soured on touring -- likely more than he ever let on -- and was restricted to hacking away as simply as possible just to keep the songs together. No one could hear themselves, or each other, so it was left to Ringo to make sure things didn't fall apart. Fills were kept to a minimum, and there was no room for him to develop or explore new ideas on the spur of the moment. Once they were back in the studio, like the others, he probably felt like he was let off the leash. So something like "Rain" happens, where he's finally able to blast out these incredible ideas that had been stifled by touring for however many months prior.

Also, with the arrival of engineer Geoff Emerick, his close-miking and compression techniques on Ringo's drums coincided with Ringo dampening them with tea towels, giving that broad, flat sound.

I think my favourite Ringo drums are on Don't Let Me Down. Favourite Paul bass is pretty hard... Maybe Something?

Did ringo ever use oil filled heads? Basically 2 layer tom heads with a thin layer of oil between, I know ian paice from deep purple used them to get a deader sound

I don't think Ringo used those heads in the Beatles; afaik, they hadn't been invented yet, but I'm not positive.

Remasters on vinyl in 2012, mono set coming in 2013: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/shades-of-yesterday-new-vinyl-versions-of-beatles-albums-on-the-way/

all i need is cash!

DROOL on the mono set. Man. Hopefully by 2013 I can win on Jeopardy or something and indulge in a crazy purchase like that.