Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 03:43:03 PM

Login with username, password and session length

White Album 50th anniversary editions

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

Previous topic - Next topic

Ferris

#30
I like all of them. Everyone except me is wrong, Help! is great.

...just out for breakfast at my favourite divey diner, and which record is on the speakers? Why, it's the entirety of Help!

Fantastic.

the science eel

Of course it is. I'd just put it at the bottom of the Beatles' album pile, that's all.

The fucking Beatles tho' eh? fucking hell

Nowhere Man

Not to mention their sixth best album has Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, Fool on The Hill and I Am The Walrus on it. (Although it's technically an E.P expanded to an album length by Capitol) funny how America got it so right with that one, yet butchered a lot of their catalog)

wosl

Those are all on their fifth best album, not their sixth!

non capisco

Quote from: Wet Blanket on October 01, 2018, 11:53:09 AM
and I don't care what the cool kids say, I like their lounge-cover of Mister Moonlight.

Although I can't hear it without thinking of this Tom Scharpling story now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5iynt89imI

Beatles For Sale is boss. 'No Reply', 'I'm A Loser', 'Baby's In Black'. What an opening one-two-three salvo.

Nowhere Man

Geoff Emerick, chief Beatles engineer for most of their stuff from Revolver onwards has died aged 72 :(

https://pitchfork.com/news/geoff-emerick-beatles-engineer-dead-at-72/amp/

QuoteEmerick also worked on multiple Paul McCartney albums including Band on the Run. His other credits include the Zombies' Odessey and Oracle, Elvis Costello's Imperial Bedroom, and records by Kate Bush, Tim Hardin, Cheap Trick, Chris Bell, Badfinger, Supertramp, and many others.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: Nowhere Man on October 03, 2018, 06:51:11 AM
Geoff Emerick, chief Beatles engineer for most of their stuff from Revolver onwards has died aged 72 :(


author of "here, there &.. I can't remember... fuck it, print it anyway."

Rich Uncle Skeleton

haha I've never read it but I just read a comment the other day calling it "the worst book in the world", what's wrong with it?

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: Rich Uncle Skeleton on October 10, 2018, 05:19:45 PM
haha I've never read it but I just read a comment the other day calling it "the worst book in the world", what's wrong with it?

he "remembers" things wildly differently that have been well-documented in other accounts; technical stuff that's been discussed over & over, & thoroughly dismantled & examined by some very savvy people.
but also- who was where & when & doing what, especially on the beatles' sessions. I know it's supposed to be his personal account, but then he uses his reminiscences to support some pretty opinionated stuff.

lewissohn gushes a bit for me, but there's a lot of stuff in his books, & all of it verified either with documents or reliable accounts.
I think the late ian macdonald's "revolution in the head" is probably the most reliable on the musical stuff, though he didn't have as much of the unreleased material to draw on... some of the out-takes & stems that have emerged since he died would've intrigued him & filled in some of the gaps.

others- brian kehew, for example- have covered the technical stuff by visiting abbey road & other facilities, & looking at the actual gear, & talking to the people who made it work. GE's account of some of the engineering aspects (his area, after all) is at odds with those of the likes of dave harries, ken scott & others. but it's his treatment of the two georges that's perhaps most appalling.

it's an entertaining read, but there are many factual inaccuracies & difficult opinions to take note of.

SteveDave

The Geoff Emerick book is an entertaining read but he hates George for half the book and has his tongue stuck up Paul's arse for the other half.



biggytitbo

Listening to something like Happiness is a Warm Gun it is amazing it is 50 years old. 50 years earlier it was WW1 and the trenches.

biggytitbo

Speaking of the beatles, is this one of the most mysterious cultural artifacts of all time? https://youtu.be/WrAV5EVI4tU. Can anyone adequatetly explain it?

the science eel

Quote from: biggytitbo on October 14, 2018, 12:21:23 AM
Speaking of the beatles, is this one of the most mysterious cultural artifacts of all time? https://youtu.be/WrAV5EVI4tU. Can anyone adequatetly explain it?

No. But it's as cool as fuck.

There's one where they're eating fish and chips, too.

How will the new remix improve upon the 2009 remaster, enough to justify buying the former if you already have the latter?

daf

It really doesn't need a remix - in the way Help or Rubber Soul do with their wonky hard panned stereo placements.

I imagine there's potential for a bit more clarity if they're going back to the original pre-bounced down tapes.

I expect the bass might be heavier too - as they don't need to dial that back as much these days (to avoid the needle skipping out of the groove).

Nowhere Man

Aye, I have a first pressing of With The Beatles with the wrong credits for some songs and heavier bass. It got replaced after a few days because the needles at the time weren't steady enough to cope with it. (Sounds good on modern turntables though)

daf

Keep hold of that one - might be quite collectable!

I've heard the original mono Rubber Soul also had to be withdrawn and re-cut by Harry Moss due to needle skipping problems.

It's known as the 'Loud Cut' - bit of chat about it here

Nowhere Man

Yeah, i've got that too, plus a nice 1st Mono pressing of Revolver with the original version of Tomorrow Never Knows from before it got remixed a few days later! (Now it just sounds like i'm bragging, but these were collected over a few years.)

Most of my records are at my parents house on the other side of the atlantic so there's not much chance of them being moved anytime soon!

The main collectable one I don't have is the original pressing of Please Please Me with the black/gold Parlophone label, of course that one tends to go for a few hundred at a time on ebay, which is too much out of my price range!

Ferris

I have a version of Revolver that has a slightly different drum fill on Tomorrow Never Knows that I hugely prefer and I've never been able to figure out how this has happened.

Bm tiss bm-bm duh-duh. Rack tom, snare(?), rack tom x2, double beat on the smaller rack tom. Lovely. The version elsewhere has 2 of those drum hits missing so there's an 1/8 beat with just... nothing. It sounds dead, and the rhythm is such a key piece of that song. Makes it unlistenable to me, because it sounds wrong over and over and over....

I wonder if I have an older pressing (no idea how to check) and this is something to do with the mix. The beats are present in the newer mix, but hidden more to the point of not really being there, whereas my knackered old copy still has the small rack toms where they should be. Interesting!

I had no idea there were different mixes out there and that would solve one of my longstanding mysteries. Thanks, CaB/Nowhere Man!

daf

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on October 15, 2018, 02:29:18 PM
I have a version of Revolver that has a slightly different drum fill on Tomorrow Never Knows that I hugely prefer and I've never been able to figure out how this has happened.

Couldn't find any info on this particular mix variation, but is your copy mono?

The 'scissors-ish' sound at the end of the looped drum 'riff' is a bit more buried in the mono mix compared to the stereo - with the toms booming a bit louder - could that account for the difference you hear?

(the drums seem to be identical in the early withdrawn mix, and the later mono version - so that's not the culprit)

some info on the withdrawn mix :
Quote
a) mono 6 Jun 1966.
UK: Parlophone PMC 7009 Revolver 1966, matrix XEX 606-1.

b) mono 6 Jun 1966.
UK: Parlophone PMC 7009 Revolver 1966.
US: Capitol T 2576 Revolver 1966.

c) stereo 22 Jun 1966.
UK: Parlophone PCS 7009 Revolver 1966.
US: Capitol ST 2576 Revolver 1966.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46441 2 Revolver 1987.

Mono a) is extremely rare, and is believed to have been manufactured on only the first day of UK pressing. Most copies have matrix 606-2 or 606-3 on side B, and are the standard version heard on all copies of other countries' pressings. a) is mono remix 11 while the standard version is remix 8. In the rare a), the vocal is louder and clearer over the effects, the fade is slightly longer and has more piano, and the effects are faded up quite differently (whereas b) and c) are pretty similar).

The similarity in the tape loop effects in b) and c) suggest that they were recorded into one of the 4 tracks of the master. The general trend is that in mono the transition is faster, so sound comes up to full volume almost suddenly and then goes completely out.

Mono b) starts with the loop track at full volume while stereo c) fades in on it. The guitar sound in the break sounds more processed and full in mono b). At the start of the second vocal section stereo has a feedback whistle in "love is all and love is everyone" while b) does not.

Pauline Walnuts

Check of Discogs for a mind numbing details on millions of slightly different pressings.

https://www.discogs.com/The-Beatles-Revolver/master/45284

Ferris

My copy is stereo, PCS 7009 which Discogs reckons is the first stereo pressing so maybe it was remixed when the super amazing drum fills ruined everyone's record player. It has the white Parlophone label whereas the majority I see have the yellow label. I can take a few photos if anyone is arsed in getting to the bottom of the mystery.

daf

Well that's stumped me!

Can you upload a clip of it?




Ferris

Quote from: daf on October 15, 2018, 03:24:58 PM
Well that's stumped me!

Can you upload a clip of it?

Sure! I have a few errands to run but I'll get my record player warmed up this afternoon. Watch this space...

daf


SpiderChrist

Started listening to the 6Music White Album special on catch up. Had to turn it off. It was bad enough listening to John Harris, John Simm and The Anchoress talking shite, and Martin Freeman not knowing that Ringo doesn't play drums on Dear Prudence (although one of them insisted that he played on Back In The USSR) but then Giles Martin pitched up and started spouting shite like "the White Album was essentially a live album by The Beatles, recorded at Abbey Road." Except he pronounced it Beadles. Fucking gash.

I honestly never thought anything could be worse than David Quantick talking about The White Album, but this takes the piss.

the science eel

Quote from: SpiderChrist on October 17, 2018, 04:26:35 PM
Started listening to the 6Music White Album special on catch up. Had to turn it off. It was bad enough listening to John Harris, John Simm and The Anchoress talking shite, and Martin Freeman not knowing that Ringo doesn't play drums on Dear Prudence (although one of them insisted that he played on Back In The USSR) but then Giles Martin pitched up and started spouting shite like "the White Album was essentially a live album by The Beatles, recorded at Abbey Road." Except he pronounced it Beadles. Fucking gash.

I honestly never thought anything could be worse than David Quantick talking about The White Album, but this takes the piss.

I gave it about 10 minutes myself.

Quantick posted his top 10 solo Fabs' albums today on Twitter, if you're interested. No Ram, two Ringo. Silly cunt.

daf

For the Record :

Quote from: Dave Quantick of the Dave Quantick Twitter Feed feat. Dave Quantick1. Plastic Ono Band
2. McCartney
3. Shaved Fish
4. Band On The Run
5. Imagine
6. Wings Over America
7. Ringo
8. Beaucoups Of Blues
9. Red Rose Speedway
10. Venus And Mars

Wot, no Ringo's Rotogravure?

But seriously though, (and pausing momentarily to wipe away a mirthful tear), there's some shocking quality control issues on a heap of the solo albums - weak stuff let through the net because  . . .  well, who's going to argue with a Beatle?

Red Rose Speedway is 89% filler, though the remaining 11% Little Lamb Dragonfly is probably the best thing he ever did outside The Batchie Beatles.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: daf on October 17, 2018, 08:38:10 PM
For the Record :


so now, of course, having looked at that bollocks, I'm a quanticky surveyor.

oh, come on. lennon would've laughed.

the science eel

Quote from: daf on October 17, 2018, 08:38:10 PM
For the Record :

Wot, no Ringo's Rotogravure?

But seriously though, (and pausing momentarily to wipe away a mirthful tear), there's some shocking quality control issues on a heap of the solo albums - weak stuff let through the net because  . . .  well, who's going to argue with a Beatle?

Red Rose Speedway is 89% filler, though the remaining 11% Little Lamb Dragonfly is probably the best thing he ever did outside The Batchie Beatles.

Big Barn Bed, dude!