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

It's interesting to me the way they describe the remastering process. They weren't remixing per se, but taking elements from the master tapes and selectively mastering individual instruments on combined tracks is definitely pseudo-remixing. It certainly explains how they were able to separate the vocals and bring out the drums and bass though.

I think with all the bouncing they did, it's criminal not to properly remix this stuff.

That'll be the next thing they release in 20 years.

I love how Emerick starts "Here There And Everywhere" with recording "Tomorrow Never Knows". His first day on the job as engineer and only 19 years old! Lucky little bastard. Dude has some weird mancrush on McCartney though.

That'll be the next thing they release in 20 years.

I doubt they will bother releasing anything in 20 years, considering the copyrights run out from 2012 until 2020.

I hope they open-source the original tracks someday. That would be too plethora.

Also, apologies for writing those two pseudo-Newspeak sentences above. Something's wrong with my brain today.

There's just no way those copyrights are going to run out without a fight...my money's on 2066 or somewhere around then.

Seriously. This is going to be the new Disney as far as copyright goes- the day Mickey Mouse or Sgt. Pepper are public domain, our great-great-great-great-grandchildren will be too busy fighting cannibal mutants for gasoline to care.

There's just no way those copyrights are going to run out without a fight...

That is an interesting thread on its own, I guess. But that could not possibly happen for The Beatles alone. Either the EU changes the copyright rule for recorded music to 95 years in Europe in general (which would also mean that Edith Piaf, Vera Lynn and Marlene Dietrich would be no more public domain for a few more decades) or The Beatles, Stones i.e. will have to put up with the same rules as other European acts.

Reiterating comments upthread, that BBC George Martin interview is excellent. O_o at the version of 'Love Me Do' with Pete Best. Great stuff. Thanks for the link, Pancakes!!

These remasters have made me reconsider the likes of Coldplay, who I think I'd been mellowing on. There really is no reason for them to exist at all.

I've forgotten all about them.

they exist but to annoy us music snobs.

All you need is hubris...

No joke: One of my cats just ran to the right speaker for a close inspection, when the cuckoo at the start of 'Good Morning Good Morning' came along! That has never happened before!

Oh shi... forgot about the cat and dogs at the end of the song :-D

Also: how fucking GREAT does Paperback Writer sound on this? Gaaaahhh... so IN YOUR FACE, unable to fight off, sucking you in, BREATHING THE SONG, DREAMING THE DREAM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIA_NVFnXZ8

is it weird that I want Anthology 2 to be remastered? or is the sound quality about in the same realm as these ones? i can't tell....

Well the Anthologies are proper remixes but I'd agree that they didn't go as over the top with the mastering and eq as they have on this latest round. I don't see them going back to remaster the Anthologies though so you'll have to enjoy them as they are (which is quite nice anyway).

I never did pick the Anthologies up...after all the discussion here I think I would like to seek them out.

Can we retitle this thread 'HOW TO SPEND YOUR MONEY ON BEATLE$'?

Anthologies are pretty essential imo. And they do sound great -- don't really think they need a remastering ...

Listening to the BBC George Martin def. solidifies that I need the Anthologies. I really want to hear the different takes, etc.

On that BBC thing: the story George tells about John & Strawberry fields is great. You hear in his voice how fond he is of all of them. He has this wonderful mentor quality with 'the boys' that I just love. Like the way cool art teacher who will never say 'No', or 'It can't be done'...but will say, 'That's a great idea. Let's figure out how we can make that happen.'

You really need the Anthologies. All the alternate takes make it feel really fresh to hear songs you memorized as a child. It's a great feeling.

careful though, anthologies = slippery slope into beatles bootleg nerd-dom.

But but but--they're not bootlegs. They're OFFICIAL McCartney/Starkey/Harrison/Ono-approved!

And anyway, I think anyone who's drooling for a mono-box is already a lost cause.

These remasters have made me reconsider the likes of Coldplay, who I think I'd been mellowing on. There really is no reason for them to exist at all.

The Beatles >>> Coldplay obv. but Coldplay are still great, and it's nice for some people to come up with some new songs in the classic style and not just the same ones that were written 40 years ago. Which is something Coldplay do better than most contemporary bands these days. :)

Can we retitle this thread 'HOW TO SPEND YOUR MONEY ON BEATLE$'?

I guess "How to buy" is (c) Mojo Magazine ;)

Haha. Good point!

Also xxpost re: anthologies being slippery slope into bootleg nerd-dom. I'm so OCD about them atm that that whole concept appealing to me. "Bootlegs? Yay!" And this is exactly why I'm sticking to limiting myself to one remaster a month. Nate's right...I'm already a lost cause.

Anthology sounds WONDERFUL. Particularly the second disc of Anthology 2.

Listen to "Good Morning Good Morning" it is 1000x cooler than the album version. That track (and the awesome alternate title track) made me realize how much of a near-Revolver rock record Pepper actually was, underneath all the string overdubs.

when you find yourself geeking out over the Sgt. Pepper multitracks, you'll know you have a problem

Those Sgt Pepper multitracks are fucking AMAZING. I could listen to John and Paul singing She's Leaving Home unaccompanied forever.

they played some of those on the BBC George Martin thingy...def. amazing. MUST HEAR MORE OF THESE.

That part where George Martin in the BBC6 doc where he talks about playing the backwards vocals for John and then saying, "and then I had to put up with backwards guitars for the rest of my life" is just fantastic...
Where on earth can we get those multitracks they play throughout the doc...they are incredible!

RE: The indispensable Lewisohn book; its on torrents as a 60MB pdf if you're into that sort of thing..

http://nevergetoutoftheboat.blogspot.com/2009/04/beatles.html
dunno if the links still work ... but, at long last, you can listen to the isolated audience noise from "Sgt. Pepper"!

tylerw, thanks for that. I got the files, listened to a few tracks, then realized . . . I can pull these tracks into GarageBand and remix the fucking Beatles.

No matter what instrument he's playing, or who wrote the song he's playing it on, McCartney's got to try and show off his chops hasn't he? Taxman, Dear Prudence, Good Morning Good Morning, every bassline after 1964. He's a fucking enormous show-off. If he wasn't, The Beatles would have been shite.

can pull these tracks into GarageBand and remix the fucking Beatles.
haha, yeah, I sorta tried doing some of that and came up with horrible crap. But someone with more skillz could probably do some cool stuff.

^^^
I tried this, too. Turns out they mixed it just right to begin with, I guess.

I need this for all the Beatles albums. "Love" was a tease, more mashup require-o!

Gosh that Lewisohn book, easily the best Beatles book

Did they turn up the volume of the bass on these remasters? Sometimes it seems too loud.

Yeah the bass may be a small tad loud, but it was really loud the first time I heard it on my laptop and once I switched off 'sound enhancer' or whatever it fixed the problem. Try that!

A friend of my mom's recently let me pick out any of her records I wanted. It was mostly classic rock that you find it most record stores, but she was an avid beatles fan. Mostly I took the beatles and solo beatles records. I found all of John and Yoko's records, and an George Harrison album I've never seen before. It's Called Wonderwall Music. It's mostly "eastern influenced. I can't tell yet if I like it or not. I never see any mention of it any where either. I'm not even sure if the beatles were broken up when he recorded it. Also she had Paul McCartney's first two solo albums, which I'm really loving. The second one has odd electronics on it, really unexpected electronics. Maybe with this current thread in reissuing beatles music, these will be reissued as well. I found a lot of mono beatles records too. Do these still fetch outlandish prices on ebay?

Jacob, it really depends on the condition of the records. Have a look here: http://www.musicpriceguide.com/index.php?ft=1&artist=beatles+mono&ordby=datacheck&ordby=price&ordad=DESC

Jacob, that Wonderwall music album has a lot of Moog on it. Pretty weird and primitive.

Did you end up with a copy of Fly or Feeling the Space by Plastic Ono Band? I'll buy those off you.

Separate question for the ultra-nerds: I've got a copy of Yesterday that needs to be peeled. How do I do it?

Don't - assuming you are talking about the butcher cover, it's worth more unpeeled (as long as you can verify the butcher cover is underneath).

If you are adamant you want to peel it have a look here:

http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/others/butcher.html