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

I think now (and for a long time), the expectations are much too high for something that is certainly passable at best... like a bad joke/story that you were about to tell then decided not to and people keep asking you to tell it but you know the moment has passed and the longer you wait the more it would be embarrassing to tell it !

are people 100% sure that carnival of light exists? or is it just a legend?

oh, i'm sure it's an embarrassing mess. i just think "it won't live up to the hype"/"people will be disappointed" is a completely invalid reason to not release it, given its historical significance. there's nothing they can do at this point that would tarnish their legacy.

Yeah, Mark Lewisohn heard it --

Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn, who listened to the song in 1987 while compiling his book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, says the song included "distorted, hypnotic drum and organ sounds, a distorted lead guitar, the sound of a church organ, various effects (water gargling was one) and, perhaps most intimidating of all, John Lennon and McCartney screaming dementedly and bawling aloud random phrases like 'Are you alright?' and 'Barcelona!'"

sounds incredible imo

haha yeah

As for the new extra stuffs, I'm not very excited since the tracks on Anthology 2 weren't great iirc.
I think the only great thing related was the SFF collage on "Love".
I always found it interesting how the "Pet Sounds Sessions" were like one of the best things ever, like a masterclass in pop, and the Anthologies were... meh (and I love both bands !).

Yeah, Mark Lewisohn heard it --

Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn, who listened to the song in 1987 while compiling his book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, says the song included "distorted, hypnotic drum and organ sounds, a distorted lead guitar, the sound of a church organ, various effects (water gargling was one) and, perhaps most intimidating of all, John Lennon and McCartney screaming dementedly and bawling aloud random phrases like 'Are you alright?' and 'Barcelona!'"

― tylerw, Wednesday, April 5, 2017 10:14 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

See, yeah, that sounds totally amazing. I'm not expecting IT'S LIKE "A DAY IN THE LIFE," BUT BETTER!!!! -- I'm expecting exactly what's described.

(which, who knows, could very well be better than "A Day In The Life")

Yeah, I was gonna say! There's a whole description of the thing in the recording sessions book. Sounds like the type of self-indulgent crap that would only be worth hearing once.

yeah it sounds interesting but i also really enjoy John & Yoko's noise records

xxxposts
Oh sure, I don't think it would tarnish anything for the public, their legacy, etc.
I just think maybe they (Macca, Harrison) might have been embarrassed personally by the discrepancy between the hype and what they know (or think) the real thing is (hence the joke parallel !)

i'm just amazed that not even a snippet of it has ever leaked out on a bootleg or anything ...

Paul wants it released! He's said so in the past. I think he might be apprehensive about putting it out since George vetoed its inclusion on Anthology 2.

xp

yeah. that might be the biggest pop myth left... or is there another mythical song/album that compares ?

Maybe the 250+ unreleased songs Stevie Wonder supposedly recorded during his peak era ('71-'76)?

I do like listening to their studio chatter, though. With "Pet Sounds" it was basically just Brian telling the Wrecking Crew or the other Beach Boys what to do, which is interesting and instructive, but sometimes it's fun and revealing just listening to The Beatles fart around between takes. (For a long time I wanted to make "Paul's broken a glass, broken a glass . . " my ringtone.)

xxp Prince vault

Was there ever an explanation from George for vetoing it ?

he just thought it was self-indulgent crap, iirc ... but hey that's what outtakes collections are for, right?

Oh sure, it's fun to listen to them chat/interact (and giggle!) but I meant musically : the Pet Sounds sessions are incredible for the outtakes, instrumental, vocals, etc.
Whereas the Anthologies are mainly... not interesting !

Barry Miles:

The tape has no rhythm, though a beat is sometimes established for a few bars by the percussion or a rhythmic pounding on the piano. There is no melody, though snatches of a tune sometimes threaten to break through. The Beatles make literally random sounds, although they sometimes respond to each other; for instance, a burst of organ notes answered by a rattle of percussion. The basic track was recorded slow so that some of the drums and organ were very deep and sonorous, like the bass notes of a cathedral organ. Much of it is echoed and it is often hard to tell if you are listening to a slowed-down cymbal or a tubular bell. John and Paul yell with massive amounts of reverb on their voices, there are Indian war cries, whistling, close-miked gasping, genuine coughing and fragments of studio conversation, ending with Paul asking, with echo, 'Can we hear it back now?' The tape was obviously overdubbed and has bursts of feedback guitar, schmaltzy cinema organ, snatches or jangling pub piano, some unpleasant electronic feedback and John yelling, 'Electricity'. There is a great deal of percussion throughout, again much of it overdubbed. The tape was made with full stereo separation, and is essentially an exercise in musical layers and textures. It most resembles The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet, the twelve-minute final track on Frank Zappa's Freak Out! album, except there is no rhythm and the music here is more fragmented, abstract and serious. The deep organ notes at the beginning of the piece set the tone as slow and contemplative.

George Martin:

'This is ridiculous, we've got to get our teeth into something more constructive.'

'What's the New Mary Jane?' and 'If You've Got Trouble' were one listen wonders as well. Basically, this band clearly would only release something if it came up to scratch.

yeah Maybe Prince. But like for S. Wonder, I'm not sure there's a lot of great things left considering the crazy amount of stuff they both released during their peak years (for themselves and for other artists).
and also it's not the same as one identified track or album.

Basically, this band clearly would only release something if it came up to scratch.

eh, sort of. "All You Need is Love" was obviously slap-dash, and there is a lot of sloppiness esp in the psych years. their final album "Let it Be" was cobbled together outtakes from an abandoned project. and both George and John spent the last few Beatle years releasing a lot of music, most of it experimental, much of it unmarketable as music.

as for Beatles vs Beach Boys, i love the Anthology, and there are some startling and genuinely surprising musical bits. i find the Pet Sounds sessions dull by comparison. the Beatles didn't mind fucking up from time to time, whereas Brian was obsessed with perfection. the former is more fun to listen to.

'All You Need Is Love' was still deemed worthy of release, and quite clearly they were right.

Let It Be ended up being released the way that it did because previous configurations of Get Back were deemed not up to scratch, so Lennon got Spector in to tidy it up. That McCartney hated the overdubs on 'The Long and Winding Road' is a moot point - the rest of the band deemed it worthy of release, at the time, in that form.

George's Electronic Sound and the early John & Yoko albums aren't Beatles releases, therefore should be treated as something else entirely.

I find trawling through hours of "session" material dull as fuck, to be honest. Give me the highlights, by all means, but I can think of nothing more boring than listening to session tapes from end-to-end, hearing someone do multiple takes of things over and over and hearing crap 20 minute jam sessions. The final product is ultimately what counts, and while the process is important, I really don't need to hear it in that level of detail. There's better things to do, like listen to someone else's finished product and hear it the way they intended you to hear it.

to each his own

(I'm sure those at the Steve Hoffman Retirement Home for Rapidly Aging Fans of Real Music will disagree with me on that)

I wonder if the closest analogue to Carnival of Light is actually Barrett's "Rhamadan" (which tbh turned out to be p incredible imo)

yeah those descriptions make me want to hear it even more.

Release COL as a really cheap download imo, then all the haters can be glad that they were only charged $0.99 for something substandard

(and yeah, I'm in the I WANNA HEAR EVERYTHING camp, including those sloppy fuck-around jams recorded in the immediate wake of Pepper)

Deacription sounds like st sanders doing "Beatles shreds"

"Only A Northern Song" is Sgt Pepper era.

Are they gonna do this with Magical Mystery Tour? That would be way more interesting imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMMhLNGwGdQ&feature=youtu.be&t=3m13s

i love this early backing track take of "Hello Goodbye". Ringo is doing some insane drum fills at 3:13

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

To my thinking, "All You Need Is Love" is not substandard in any way. It doesn't have a bridge, but I don't feel like it needs one. It makes up for it with the intro and the coda. I think the verses and chorus are both gorgeous.

It might also be my favorite arrangement of all Beatles songs - a work of genius, really. Have to say, it took the Yellow Submarine Songtrack version to give me a clearer picture of why that is.

I can't stress enough how beautiful that mix is.

Gilles Martin : The Beatles = Steven Wilson : King Crimson

my rep for the foreseeable future

the new outtakes will be on disc 2 & 3. they are:

I totally respect and understand anybody who looks at this and goes "ugh more sad barrel-scraping" but I am ALL ABOUT this kind of thing, somehow with this band more than most others. So it goes. I find the Anthology 2 stuff super duper interesting, and often great listening in its own right, even if at the end part of you has to say "well, yeah, they chose the right take to go out, no question."

Also, and I may have said this on this thread before, but I'm of an age where the Anthologies came out exactly as I was getting into the Beatles, so me and my one Beatle friend devoured them right alongside the studio albums, really before I'd even heard the UK versions of the first few records. So in a way things like "turn up the mic on the piano, it's quite low" and "d'you want us to do it again, George? OKAY." are as much a part of how I relate to and enjoy the Beatles as, "I got blisters on my fingers!" or w/e.

"with singing in your mouth!"

^otm me too, Anthology dropped like the year i started buying CDs.

!!! "With ciggy in mouth," I've always heard it.

That Hello Goodbye alternate take is great. Ringo was at the absolute top of his game in 66-67, the secret key to all their acid recordings IMO.

"a suitable ending, that!"

"there's a frayed edge for ya!"

Kinda thinking I might deep-listen all six discs this Sunday for purposes of compiling a poll of those bits.

sminking of gin