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White Album 50th anniversary editions

Started by Rich Uncle Skeleton, September 24, 2018, 05:43:37 PM

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Rich Uncle Skeleton

The news absolutely NOBODY was expecting....

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/the-beatles-the-white-album-50th-anniversary-super-deluxe-edition/#more-144143

QuoteNew stereo remix • 6CD+blu-ray box set • 5.1 surround mix • Esher demos • Three CDs of unreleased sessions/outtakes • 4LP vinyl set

Firstly, whichever brainbox decided that what a monolithic deluxe edition of the white album needs is four photos on the front is a fucking imbecile.

That aside, this should be pretty great. Never got round to hearing the Esher demos before so will be good to finally check them out. Plus I'm sure there'll be some good stuff on the sessions discs.

Bit odd they're including not including new mixes of the singles, just earlier takes or instrumentals. Presumably some remixed Past Masters type album will come at some point?

Should be a good listen, not sure I'm ready to spend 140 quid on it though.

Sebastian Cobb

5.1 mix, lol. Wasn't it recorded on 4-track and the stereo version generally considered worse?

Wet Blanket

I've bought this album so many times that I can't work up any enthusiasm for it. They always fanny about with the packaging too (although that four faces boxes does echo early cassette releases. Pretty sure the Esher demos have been extensively bootlegged


SteveDave

The front cover with their faces on is a slip case that slides off.

I will be illegally downloading all the content I've not heard before, listening to it once and deleting it forever.

I illegally downloaded the Peter Sellers tape last week with a version of Sexy Sadie that had an extra 30 seconds or so of instrumental on it.

Technique

I thought that this would be the time for them to release Carnival of Light with this release. What the revolution no 9- experimental shit and all. But alas no, so I can't but think it'll never be heard.

non capisco

Carnival Of Light must be really, really shit.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: non capisco on September 24, 2018, 10:43:11 PM
Carnival Of Light must be really, really shit.

It almost certainly must be, but I can't imagine Macca, Ringo and the estates of Harrison and Lennon being that bothered about people hearing a shit piece of improvised experimental Beatle music at this stage in the game. It's not as if anyone is going to radically revise their opinion of the band based on a stoned dribble of nonsense they knocked up in an hour in 1967. It will hardly tarnish their legacy (unless it's somehow really racist).

the science eel

Aye.

McCartney was recently talking about releasing an edited Let It Be (the film), so you never know...

I might spring for this deluxe edition, actually. It's only the greatest album ever.

Nowhere Man

The Esher Tapes in their best sounding quality alone is something to get excited about alone, basically The White Album unplugged. Studio sessions should be a lot of fun as well, it'll be nice to get a studio version of 'Not Guilty' without the weird edits in the Anthology version.

On another note, a Paul album earlier this month, a box set of Imagine in October, and a White Album box set in November! All they need to have now is another one of Ringo's new album's (that 12 hardcore fans will buy) in time for Christmas and a George release for New Year's. (Ding Dong, Ding Dong studio outtakes?)

SteveDave

There's a new edition of "McGear" out next year too. I'm hoping for some Paul guide vocals.

It's clearly a reaction to the success of the Sergeant Pepper anniversary editions, but it creates a huge contradiction with the fact that we got nothing for the albums up to Revolver.

Nowhere Man

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on September 25, 2018, 11:33:35 AM
It's clearly a reaction to the success of the Sergeant Pepper anniversary editions, but it creates a huge contradiction with the fact that we got nothing for the albums up to Revolver.

I reckon they're gonna loop around and do the earlier stuff once we get into the 2020's (fuckin 'ell, less that 15 months away!)

They should have started with Rubber Soul or Revolver though, especially since Revolver is generally one of their top 3 most acclaimed albums.

Attila

I have a new Rutles CD. It's called The Wheat Album.

Replies From View

I'm looking forward to hearing this, but I'm reluctant to fork out for this album yet again.

A youtube video promoting it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve1vaEIXhV0 (Giles Martin & Sam Okell talk about what they've been doing.)


Due to my familiarity with bootlegs I doubt I'll encounter anything in this official set that I haven't heard before, but I'd be interested to hear what kind of quality they can remaster the Esher demos into. 

Replies From View

Quote from: SteveDave on September 24, 2018, 08:22:26 PM
I will be illegally downloading all the content I've not heard before, listening to it once and deleting it forever.

If you find a link, please PM it over!

Replies From View

Quote from: Nowhere Man on September 25, 2018, 12:43:19 PM
They should have started with Rubber Soul or Revolver though

Especially since the 2009 'remaster' of Rubber Soul is just the digital files from the late 80s with their volume boosted.

the science eel

Quote from: Replies From View on September 30, 2018, 08:16:35 PM
Especially since the 2009 'remaster' of Rubber Soul is just the digital files from the late 80s with their volume boosted.

Really?

Tell you what I've been digging the last few months - Beatles For Sale. I always thought it was their weakest album but no, they're on fire for the whole damned thing. And it's great 'cos there are relatively unheard (for the Beatles at least) tunes that are killers.


Replies From View


Replies From View

More info on those Help! and Rubber Soul 2009 remasters here:  http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-beatles-help-and-rubber-soul-original-1965-stereo-mixes.293799/

We must have covered it on CaB too at some point, too.

Ferris

Help! is my absolute fave Beatles record. Every song is a cracker. I must have bought 4 or 5 copies of varying quality over the years, I only have 2 left on my record shelf. Mmmm it is good.

a duncandisorderly

I've mentioned elsewhere what a tedious, pointless, but actually quite fascinating process was used to make 5.1 for SPLHCB. it irritated me at the time, & still does, that martin-fils didn't get anyone there to guide him who'd been there at the time. I get the feeling, from my own dabblings & contact with steve wilson that 5.1 is going to vanish soon, unless there's a realistic way of doing it with multichannel wav or flac; the arse has dropped out of the shiny disc version.
everyone has their own opinion on the artistic worth of such an exercise- sitting in the middle of the band while they play feels a bit odd to me, but some other sorts of music (my own band, for example) lend themselves better, perhaps, to immersion.

the esher stuff is worth hearing if you're a fan.
as for the published album, try to find a clean vinyl copy from a few decades ago. by the time of this album, the lads were at least slightly more interested in stereo, so it's not all horrible. the best copy I have of the album came from a retail quarter-inch tape bought & owned since 1969 by a high-up japanese bloke at nissan-UK, where an ex of mine worked. I digitised it for him, oh irony, but the quality was astonishing. people are getting better (again) at dealing with ancient tape, & the stuff they used at EMI was always pretty good stock, but even so, magnetism doesn't keep.

the science eel

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on October 01, 2018, 03:17:54 AM
Help! is my absolute fave Beatles record. Every song is a cracker. I must have bought 4 or 5 copies of varying quality over the years, I only have 2 left on my record shelf. Mmmm it is good.

It contains their worst-ever song ('You Like Me Too Much')

'I Need You' is terribly limp, too.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: the science eel on October 01, 2018, 06:53:00 AM
'I Need You' is terribly limp, too.

"I need you by george harrison" to give it its full title.

Nowhere Man

'If I Needed Someone' and 'Think For Yourself' are George's first decent compositions really. But I do have a soft spot for most of the early stuff he did, it's all very earnest. Apparently Isn't It A Pity dates back to the Revolver sessions! What I would give to hear a recording of it from that era..

But back on topic a bit i'm very curious about hearing the 'Let It Be' demo on the White Album Deluxe, it seems crazy to think that a recording of it dates as far back as early 1968, but then again that was only about a year before the later released version wasn't it.

It honestly fucks with my head to think of how quickly they progressed musically from 1965-1969. If only they were able to hold on a few more years, although it's a good thing we missed the inevitable, 'The Shite Album' once the late 70s hit.

biggytitbo

Ever more mind bending is it was 3 years between She Loves You and Tomorrow Never Knows.

SteveDave

Quote from: Nowhere Man on October 01, 2018, 10:42:54 AM
Although it's a good thing we missed the inevitable, 'The Shite Album' once the late 70s hit.

They would've done a reggae LP wouldn't they? "You Can Doo It Right Now Please (Mon)"

Wet Blanket

Quote from: the science eel on September 30, 2018, 08:36:36 PM
Really?

Tell you what I've been digging the last few months - Beatles For Sale. I always thought it was their weakest album but no, they're on fire for the whole damned thing. And it's great 'cos there are relatively unheard (for the Beatles at least) tunes that are killers.

This has always been one of my favourites. No Reply is one of their best songs, and I don't care what the cool kids say, I like their lounge-cover of Mister Moonlight.

the science eel

Quote from: biggytitbo on October 01, 2018, 10:55:37 AM
Ever more mind bending is it was 3 years between She Loves You and Tomorrow Never Knows.

It's ridiculous, isn't it? No other band has gone through that kind of development in that short a time.

Of course it helps that they were in the right place at the right time, had George Martin, were wealthy enough (by 1964) to be able to jet around the world, and doors were opened to them etc. etc.

Ferris

Quote from: the science eel on October 01, 2018, 06:53:00 AM
It contains their worst-ever song ('You Like Me Too Much')

'I Need You' is terribly limp, too.

Both "by the books" pop songs. Nothing flashy, what you see is what you get. I think they're both alright, and on an album with so many bangers that is over in about 30 minutes it seems churlish to pick fault.

One man's opinion, of course.

SteveDave

I think "Help!" was the only LP of theirs that I was disappointed by when I first got it. I'm not counting "Yellow Submarine" as that's more of an EP.

In the Ian MacDonald book he says the fact that there were two songs from the "Help!" sessions that were sub-par and not issued until the "Anthology" series shows that they were over-indulging in the devil drugs and getting sloppy.

The second side is a real grind not helped by ending with "Yesterday" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and:

"Just the sight of you makes night-time bright...very bright"