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

Secondly, Paul has little need to turn himself up anyway. He took a lot of care, recording his bass lines on a single track and spent ages getting the sound right. Why not? It's his friggin songs for fuxake!

anthology 2 is the best, what with the stoned cracking-up version of and your bird can sing and the gorgeous demos of strawberry fields. 3 is good for the white album stuff, and 1 is probably the only time any americans (me included) will ever hear any morecambe and wise.

Well, they are getting slightly more plentiful. In fact, I got most of my collection used. But, then again, I've been lucky. The worst thing about used Beatle cds is that stores priced higher than average (i.e. in the US 10-12 dollars vs. 7-9). Shopping around helps, and the prices have leveled off (and no doubt will continue)

I will concur regarding the Anthologies and the BBC, but--to cite my earlier post--alot of the people who bought them probably realized that they didn't listen to them as much as the regular LPs.

Neil Aspinall is probably the one to blame.

Anyway, seems like some good news is finally coming up.

While I agree that they need remastering, I don't neccessarily agree with your version of what they sounded like. The first four, sure, but the rest, particularly from "Sgt. Pepper" onwards, used state of the art remastering technology at the time, and sounded really impressive back then.

Only this is 20 years ago and a lot has happened since then.

I think the Anthologies are a pretty good distillation of the best stuff that makes up the two major bootleg series (ultra rare trax and, uh, whatever the other one is called; they have most of the same stuff on them). I could do w/out the talking on the first cd.

xpost

i mean it does take the piss doesn't it?

lo-lo-lo-looooots of piss, sir! :(

I bought Help for £1 in a charity shop the other week. It was cheap because the cover was ripped (and taped up again) and the vinyl's a bit crackly, but it's not scratched at all. Even with the crackles it sounds great - a lot better than the CD versions, The Night Before especially gaining an awful lot of character and energy. I too am amazed there's no proper CD remaster, I guess because people are still buying the current shonky versions.

This footage
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=compleat+beatles
of 'The Compleat Beatles' (snappy 1984 cheaply-made proto-ANTHOLOGY movie, shot on film and narrated by Malcolm Mcdowell) is
making me anticipate this happening all the more.

It will happen before or since, but apparently at still takes time.

I expected they'd at least do "Sgt. Pepper" in June this year to coincide with its 40th anniversary, but they did't.

But at least, with the current trend for remasters, the ultimate edition will be better. I hope they will do like The Bee Gees and Monkees remasters, and put out 2CDs with the stereo version + bonus tracks in stereo on one and the mono version + bonus tracks in mono on the other one.

they never do anything right with the beatles catalogue, they're sure to disappoint someone. i say live with the ebbett's bootlegs for now.

Maybe something with the Apple/iPod stuff later today.

that's been the rumour, but it was the rumour a few months ago also. anyway, it's been confirmed that the albums have been remastered (by bruce spizer, in some interview last month), but not packaged or manufactured yet, and no confirmation on whether they'll have a mono/stereo split or what, or when they're ever going to come out.

macca and ringo 'secret gig' rumoured
volume one of lewisohn triple-volume biog coming at xmas

its hotting up again on the fabs front. a bit.

macca and ringo 'secret gig' rumoured

At long last their tribute show to the White Stripes.

At long last their tribute show to the White Stripes godheadSilo.

Beatles Remasters

I posted that link before realizing that it is kind of a goldmine.

Damn, wish I had a bigger hard drive...

(no penis jokes plz)

if pressed for time, go for white album disc 5 - kinfauns demos

then rubber soul through magical mystery tour, mono versions

Are the demos the same as the ones that show up on the Anthology, or are these different? And how do they compare in quality?

makes me wish i had decent external speakers for my laptop. my beatles records are not very "nice" copies. all US pressings, mostly stereo. they do sound great in mono though.

mono mixes = the mixes, up until the white album

xpost same ones, but complete & good quality. it's them camped at home with a 4 track, learning the songs as they track them but having fun, sounding much more like a band than the album

http://www.bootlegzone.com/album.php?name=vigo_183§ion=1

i really wish that circus mashup album didn't suck so bad.

has anyone ever noticed that the ebbetts bootlegs sound like crap on headphones?. especially yellow submarine and magical mystery tour.

the stereo of those albums (some of them) is very wide so that's why; ebbetts did cd versions of almost everything though, including weird shit like canadian stereo versions, etc, which differ slightly. I think the regular cd stereo versionns of MMT and Pepper are alright (and really don't have any serious problems with white album or abbey road either; I think abbey road is a pretty glorious sounding cd). the early records are a mixed bag; these days I prefer the capitol box versions (anyway I grew up with the US versions of the albums, so it's kind of nice to return to the admittedly fucked up tracklistings...though I do think 'the second album' is pretty awesome).
anyway yeah the purple chick stuff is pretty exciting, it seems to have just popped up in the past few months? or at least that's where I heard about it. and being distributed completely free so no evil bootleggers making money. it makes official remasters kind of irrelevant.
today i listened to all the 'sessions' mixes of tracks off the anthology,critically and without the 'oh wow new beatles songs' luster...these really do sound like shit, emerick should be embarrassed.

but also yeah, i'm pretty much ready to sell all my parlophone beatles cds once I can get ahold of all the purple chick stuff; i usually only listen to digital files anyway, and I have a blue box vinyl set, so there's no need to keep the crappy pressings with bad artwork.

also, while I agree that the mono pepper is interesting, i really disagree that it's the better of the mixes. I think the novelty of it is kind of cool but there are bits and pieces that just sound sloppy. I know it's allegedly the mix they approved and they apparently didn't have much to do with the stereo version, but maybe that just shows the beatles were the best people to mix their material

the purple chick version of the white album is really really amazing. i'm working on just downloading the albums (no bonus tracks) and converting them to mp3, for my ipod. the only problem is that some of the tracks are switched around. like...penny lane is on the purple chick version of sgt pepper's. it's kinda confusing when dealing with torrents.

The Purple Chick stuff is impressive though really it's just collating already available stuff in one place. It does that very very well though and as well as the main albums they've also done releases of Hollywood Bowl, The Songs The Beatles Gave Away, the fan club records, the Star Club tapes, the BBC sessions and the 92CD complete Get Back rehearsals (also check out their 10CD complete Buddy Holly and S&G's alternate Bookends)

The mono and stereo versions of the albums on the Purple Chick sets are just the UK Ebbetts versions. There is a version of the white album released by Darthdisc (? - i think) which is from a 'direct metal master' that may even be better.

The mono Pepper is sloppy in places but certainly Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds sounds better (more phasing).

Has anyone else heard the multitracks of A Day In The Life, With A Little Help From My Friends, Sgt Pepper and She's Leaving Home that were released as an addendum to the PC Sgt Pepper? Incredible to hear.

itll sound shit remastered. cant you just enjoy the originals?

you mean the 1st pressing UK vinyl? sure, we can all enjoy those.

well, I can, anyroad.

any other saddos like me watched the Anthology show on Disney+

i dunno i still love the lore & the early music. weirdly comforting? its just a nice bowl of warmed over chicken noodle soup

Just started watching, I saw it at the time, and have the DVD set kicking around, but it's nice to see and hear it all spruced up.

Feels like Apple are trying to time some sort of Beatles event with the end of each year into Xmas now, and that is definitely comforting imho, so I'm wondering what it'll be next year.

yeah idk!

i dunno i still love the lore & the early music. weirdly comforting? its just a nice bowl of warmed over chicken noodle soup

Indeed it is! I have the DVD set and binge-watching it during the pandemic felt exactly like that.

Having said that, it does feel like the Disney+ launch is really about reintroducing the series to a whole new generation who never thought to check it out. (I don't think the series has ever been hard-to-find since it first aired in the mid-'90s, but it's also been kind of dormant in a way.) Even the "new" episode consists mostly of the DVD bonus material but edited together with a few new things thrown in, so for those who have the DVD set, it's mostly recycled material, but for those who don't (which is probably most people), it looks completely new.

i dont know if i ever did watch the original DVD so its a wee bit less of a retread for me aside from knowing most of the stuff etc

Watched the first episode the other night. The revamped live stuff sounds wonderful. Paul and Ringo especially bringing it.

Just by chance I'd been reading the JR Moores Paul in the 1990s book today and his bit about the Anthology is interesting especially his opinion that this brought about a change in Ringo's reputation. Away from "not even the best drummer in The Beatles" nonsense. It does look intended. About 4 or 5 mentions of bringing in "the best drummer in Liverpool".

xps of course the DVD set was greatly expanded from the original broadcast specials too, so for casual viewers this will be a lot more than they previously saw

I've never seen Anthology. Was working nights when it aired, and I had grown out of my Beatles fandom, at least temporarily. And having read the books and seen things like the Compleat doc, no big reason to set up the VCR to tape it every night.

forgot about the whole jellybabies/jellybean thing w the first US tour. you really can see the jellybeans whizzing by during the Washington show!

But some Beatlemaniacs of a certain age (say, Gen X and older) consider “Anthology” inferior to another Beatles documentary — one that, because of “Anthology,” is nearly impossible to see legally.

That film is “The Compleat Beatles,” originally released by MGM/UA Home Video in 1982. Its origins were odd, its execution borderline accidental: It was originally envisioned as a 10-minute companion film to a two-volume 1981 coffee table book of sheet music and other Beatles ephemera. A publisher named Delilah Communications hired Patrick Montgomery, an independent filmmaker, to direct, and sent him off to conduct interviews and assemble archival footage for the promotional short.

“Somehow we ended up with a four-hour rough cut that was the complete story,” Montgomery said in a recent video call from his home in Manhattan. “When the owner of Delilah, Stephanie Bennett, saw what I had done, she said, ‘Well, I realize now this is a much bigger thing. Let me see if I can raise the money to finish this as a full-length documentary.’”

...Free of the imprimatur of the band members, Montgomery and his collaborators also didn’t feel pressured to sand down the rougher edges of the group’s story, or to minimize their personality conflicts, particularly in the later years. Their longtime producer George Martin, for example, specifically calls out McCartney’s “bossiness” — the kind of candor that is markedly lacking in his “Anthology” interviews. ...“I think if we’d actually interviewed any of the Beatles, it would have made a different film entirely,” Montgomery said. “I think maybe because they weren’t involved, some of the people felt more free to talk to us than they might have.” And those who did were able to shed light on aspects of their music that were largely unexplored at the time. ...

So why can’t you stream “The Compleat Beatles” today, or buy it on Blu-ray, or see it at your local revival house? “Well, it’s very simple: Paul McCartney bought the film,” Montgomery told me with a shrug. “The woman who owned the film, who owned Delilah, Stephanie Bennett, sold the negative to Paul. And he just took it off the market.”

McCartney “wants to have all the spotlight on the ‘Anthology,’” Montgomery added.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/movies/other-beatles-documentary.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4k8.n9Rx.qlukl2YAeCjX&smid=url-share

That doc really packed a punch when I was getting into The Beatles around age 12. The end of the group seemed so final and tragic! Never did see Anthology.

I tried the "complete" Hollywood Bowl bootleg and compared it to the official release that found a way to diminish the screaming...I got to say, the record feels less vital without the screaming being more overwhelming. Honestly, if you can try them on a stereo system cranked up, you'll hear why - it really is startling to hear the screams swell and subside like unpredictable waves of the ocean. It leaves the impression that this is probably what it was like to be at a show where you're almost at the mercy of collective euphoria.

Looks like The Compleat Beatles is on archive.org, naturally

I think it was The Compleat Beatles I saw on my local PBS station in 1990 as I discovered the Beatles. I remember a British narrator (Malcolm McDowell?). Does that sound right? Would it still have been available?

Yeah McDowell narrated and it had quite a few oddball talking heads like Lenny Kaye and British “musicologist”. Seems like it you could still catch it on cable and in video rental stores up to the early 90s.

Had some pretty cool early Beatle figures in it to though like Bill Harry, Allan Williams, Aunt Mimi and some Hamburg characters.

Dumbfounded by the quality of this after seeing only one episode. Correct aspect ratios, great sound and grainy footage. Reddit and Steve Hoffman types are up in arms about the excess of Ai but i hadn't noticed it too much. Each episode has been trimmed and spruced which i don't mind at all, as the DVD set was always just that bit too glacial. I was brought up sharp even in the first few minutes by the poignant added shots of Derek, Neil and Mal in the In My Life section, because of course they were all still alive when the series was first shown.

I'm only through episode 4; while just 4 years ago my family eagerly sat through the entirety of Get Back with me, interest now was more subdued leaving me to get through this on my own. I'm certainly familiar with the source material, having taped the episodes off TV, then purchased the VHS and DVD sets, and even now still have digital versions of the DVD set. There are differences here of course but on the whole I think this is an improvement, each episode seems tighter and now with the internet, finding full performances in all kinds of different quality is easy enough that they don't really need to include all of them every time here. The only times the AI has looked crappy is when applied to the really old Super 8 films, but I'm not sure it looks more crappy than the original footage, just crappy in a different way. You're not meant to look at a moving image frame-by-frame anyway, so pulling out a single frame showing that Ai interpolated a face in a strange way is kind of missing the point.

I saw the first 4 of these in a rented home with an great soundsystem and the whole thing sounds amazing.

I quite enjoyed the Anthology 4 CD set? Wasn't familiar with a lot of the tracks that were previously on box sets and whatnot, so I guess for me it works as a repository. The tracks themselves are enjoyable and didn't feel like barrel scraping or anything.

I found Compleat Beatles doc on youtube & watched that today — some good interviews but I wouldnt say there’s much contrary info or negative portrayals in it - it’s just a little bland without the actual Beatles themselves in it, and kinda drab? I can see why they’d prefer a more comprehensive version.

Plus a lot of similar footage so maybe they bought it to get some of that too idk

can’t believe you found the unfindable documentary!

yeah I watched it on archive and it’s good, and less hagiographic and not even even-handed, but the malcolm mcdowell narration gives it a weird sheen if you know him at all. it does get at the “come on guys, what are you doing?” bit that happened after brian epstein died, without making it personalized as a loss

magical mystery tour, what are we doing here

idk mcdowell sounded bored as hell on the narration lol

well he’s talking about the beatles in the early 80s throw him a line

lmao

can we talk as a group about how funny the Penny Lane promo video is and rank their horseriding skills