Is the Beatles 1962-66 (the 'red' alb) the only record of theirs that you need?

no not anti-geir: I like melody and no melodies too.

The White Album is brilliant.

well most of it. when I taped my copy off the record library I cut off six tracks.

What about Abbey Road and Revolver????

(my six-year-old bro pushed me to list my three fave beatles songs and this is what i came up with. he sadly shook his head at me and asked, "what about 'ticket to ride,' yancey?")

Seriously, all of them. A Hard Day's Night is the most consistent, but their first five are all great "album-albums." And pick up Live at the Star Club while you're at it.

(Cross-post thought: and I agree that "Come On Come On" is great too!)

that's right bro!

Haven't we had this out before, that the Beatles (and esp. 'competitive' Paul) were trying to rip off the Who rather than the Velvets on 'Helter Skelter' (which I'm afraid I love, even now, still - "I've got blisters on my fingers" works for me!

Gd thread.

1) Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
2) Within You, Without You
3) Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite
4) A Day in the Life

well after no one replying to my spontaneous music ensemble thread I thought I'd get this in instead.

I was joking abt helter skelter. I've no idea as I've hardly have heard any who (I got their live at leeds LP but I've only heard it once).

"Rubber Soul" and "Abbey Road" make great album albums.

I should stay out of this and all related threads, as I'm one of the dying breed on ILX that likes the Beatles, still.

I agree with this in the sense that I think it's completely wrong.

Oh no way, RockSci. It's a very considered opinion. I own all their albums, plus the Anthologies, etc. etc. I'm think my posts probably come off canonically rockist at times, but this is one case where I break from it. Again, 1) it's very Lennon dominated (whom I prefer - see I'm a rockist!), 2) the lyrics are very self-aware, clever ("If I were you /I'd realize that I / Love you more /Than any other guy"; "oh dear what can I do / baby's in black and I'm feeling blue"; all of "I'm a Loser").

"I'll Follow the Sun" just kills me with the "oh well the time has come / and so my love I must go" middle eight part or whatever it's called. "Eight Days A Week" might be my favorite early pop hit of theirs, plus more lyrical fun - "eight days a week". The covers are great: "Mr Moonlight"?! Where in the heck did they find that song? Two Carl Perkins tunes? See, they were totally on top of their game, becoming aware of themselves and their ability, having new experiences; and they made a half brilliant, introspective record, and half rollicking fun.

Plus "What You're Doing" invents The Byrds!

Ringo's hanging from the chandelier and he's got a little song he'd like to sing!

I like the mix of Ballad of John and Yoko, for sure. and I've come around on the Walrus mix but I don't think it's better than the Love mix or even the original mixes. I actually first heard that song on 45 with the extra measures in the middle of it and to this day every other version sounds weird to me.

one thing I'll say about this...now and then slots in perfectly well after the long and winding road on this comp, certainly sounds like work by the same band.

would be cool if they sold all the stems for folks to do their own mixes, Todd Rundgren no world order style

The de-mixing software allows them to break down all the component parts pretty impressively – Giles Martin shows how they did it with the Taxman (stereo mix) on YT. So I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.

If I had to guess, the bigger issue is the reverb that was initially put on John and Paul’s vocals. That is not something you can really “de-mix” per se.

the tech is very impressive but it's ultimately going to be more effective when more separation exists to begin with because then the software has to recreate less details. for revolver (and everything from with the beatles onward) they had the original four-track tapes to work with - usually a basic track of guitar/bass/drums, a vocal track, and then two tracks of overdubs, and so separating only guitar/bass/drums is still easier/more effective for the software than separating absolutely everything from the mono mix. if they still had the original two-track tape (with the vocals separate from the backing) for "love me do" and "she loves you" then the software would have to do less work to recreate the detail covered up by the vocal, but all that still exists is the final mono master for those tracks. even "twist and shout" from the same era sounds much better than the "love me do" and "she loves you" stereo mixes, which i'm attributing to them still having the original two-track tapes.

frankly the only great sounding versions of 'she loves you' are the mono ones, the loss of the master tape is fairly insurmountable though they tried. It's alright, but nothing packs the punch of the mono version and as time goes on, the more they try to make stereo versions of it the less impactful the song is. for a song that was synonymous with beatlemania in 64, it's not a song I ever hear in the wild anymore.

I’ve noticed a slight roll off of top end on some mixes - takes the sting out of “Nowhere Man” which needs to sizzle a bit on the guitars. On the other hand “Penny Lane” sits together a little more cohesively. With some weird slurping noises pushed up higher in the mix, but that’s possibly because I haven’t listened with close attention in a long time.

I think Ringo is too prominent in the mix for some of these, but if that’s the price of getting new mixes in 2023 then I can easily accept that.

Well this is one of the things that I like the most with these new mixes : hearing Ringo more/better !
Especially the bass drum.

Singing a song called “Boys,” Ringo!

that drum'n'bass rubber soul is stunning

"in my life" drums = understated ringo perfection

More Macca in the chorus of Norwegian Wood is a lovely thing. Reminds me of the mono version of I'm So Tired.

IATW is huge on big speakers !

Agreed. You Really Got a Hold On Me was a highlight for me.

I liked it at first but then I listened more closely and the hi-hats have been turned into a kind of aural mush. Compare them with the timing of the original mixes (in either mono or stereo), or indeed the Prof Stoned remix, and it's really disappointing. I'm listening on Spotify so I guess compression may have made it worse but they sound fine streaming from the original stereo mix.

I think Giles does his best work with the vocals.

"HwrghI wouldn't dance with another".

there seems to be a hoffman board consensus that there is a mistake in the Nowhere Man mix with the track holding the high hats; it's apparently off by about 20 milliseconds. I can just about hear this but don't feel it's that distracting.

I watched the Disney mini-doc on "Now and Then". It seems unlikely Paul and Ringo were ever in a studio together working on this. It kind of bums me out that the last time the remaining Beatles ever got to work on a Beatles song Ringo just delivered his part by Dropbox...

Maybe there was a standoff over who would fly

"In 2022, Ringo quit the Beatles for three days"

Let the mountain come to Macca.

"In 2022, Ringo quit the Beatles for three days"

hoffman board consensus

Sounds so unlikely, I am almost tempted to look in on the boards and check - but no.

Ha ha

The current punch-up is "Did Paul or Ringo do the drumming on "Old Brown Shoe" ? "

yeah I'm not sure why anyone thinks that's Paul. Even though the primary rhythm is kind of a shuffle, there are too many other sophisticated things happening with the drums in that song for it to be him. Also, doesn't Ringo sing along with George on that? It would be weird for him to have done vocals but no drums.

Paul played drums on … “The Ballad of John and Yoko” and… “Back in the USSR,” is that it?

Or Ken Scott Frankenstein tape take on the latter?

For a long time people thought Paul played drums on Dear Prudence but I think that's been debunked now

Paul also plays drums on Why Don't We Do It In The Road and Martha My Dear, I think.

there seems to be a hoffman board consensus that there is a mistake in the Nowhere Man mix with the track holding the high hats; it's apparently off by about 20 milliseconds.

Paul also did the drum solo on The End, did he not?

Nope, definitely Ringo

Believe he was pulling our leg with that one.

Best drummer in The Beatles after all.

Pete Best, drummer in the Beatles

The Best of the Beatles

if anyone debunked paul playing drums on dear prudence I don't believe it - it sounds way more like his style and if ringo is on it at all it's just for the bit of straight 4/4 at the end (but I don't think he is)

it's a much better performance than the "composite" john/paul/george drum track from USSR which they probably should have rerecorded

regardless best was clearly the worst drummer in the beatles by some distance

Paul also plays drums on Why Don't We Do It In The Road and Martha My Dear, I think.

_Paul also plays drums on Why Don't We Do It In The Road and Martha My Dear, I think._


I’m pretty WDWDIITR was recorded by Paul and Ringo alone (and it’s a poor track afaic).

He’s very fussy about his drums, you know.

They loom large in his legend.