The newly reissued Apple Records CDs from the Beatles record company hit the streets today. And whether you get them separately or in the box set, one thing becomes very apparent -- the Beatles were geniuses in more ways than one.
Look at the wide range of talent on these CDs. There was, of course, Badfinger, Mary Hopkin and James Taylor, who made huge marks on the pop charts. There was the superb artistry of Billy Preston, who was a well-known musician on his own before he was asked to play with the Beatles during the "Get Back" sessions and record for Apple. There was the wonderfully talented Doris Troy, famed for "Just One Look," whose album brought out Stephen Stills. There was Jackie Lomax, whose album featured Eric Clapton, Nicky Hopkins and Klaus Voormann, among others. There were John Tavener and Modern Jazz Quartet, who were as non-Beatle as you could get.There was Radna Krshna Temple, a project dear to George's heart.
And actually, that was part of the deal with Apple is that all of these albums were dear to one Beatle or another and really were a great indication of what they really were all about musicially. Many of the albums brought them into the studio as session musicians and producers. (See Kristofer Engelhardt's superb "The Beatles Deeper Undercover.")
The scope of the Beatle involvement is best seen in "Come and Get It: The Best of Apple Records", the 21-track compilation that features many of the artists in the box, but also single tracks from the Black Dyke Mills Band ("Thingumybob" in stereo!), Brute Force (the rare and controversial "King of Fuh"), Trash, Hot Chocolate Band, Chris Hodge, the Sundown Playboys, Bill Elliot and the Elastic Oz Band and Lon & Derrek Von Eaton that's really a must.
The box also has an enticing two-disc bonus set of the tracks also available as digital downloads with a full album of rare Badfinger and additional rarities by Mary Hopkin and Jackie Lomax.
(Note: If you are considering getting the box set, you might want to get it from Amazon.co.uk as opposed to Amazon.com. The price there -- £146.39 -- comes out cheaper to $230.00 USD in current exchange rates as opposed to the $303.49 current price at Amazon.com. All the Apple reissue CDs sold here were made in the UK, Capitol Records says.)
Unlike the very beautiful Lennon Signature Box, the Apple Box is just a thin cardboard box. It would have been nice to have it in a sturdier container. On the up side, though, the booklets have some wonderful pictures.
There were several Apple albums (David Peel, Elephant's Memory, the pre-Badfinger Iveys, Lon & Derrek Von Eaton, Yoko Ono) not included here and hopefully at least some will be reissued down the road. (Yoko Ono told us in our interview with her that she's trying to work out re-release of her Apple albums.)
But whether you go for individual discs or the whole box (14 separate albums, plus compilation and two-disc bonus set), it's wonderful that the Beatles are finally paying tribute to this part of their legacy -- and, maybe not as obviously, to themselves for assembling such an eclectic and cohesive group of artists.
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Comments
Thanks for the tip about Amazon.co.uk. I canceled my US Amazon order in time to order it at the discount from the UK! BIG savings!
Regards,
Bruce
I skipped all the Lennon reissues (same old, same old, for the fourth or fifth time, but this Come and Get It compilation is one I've been looking forward to for weeks.
Here's a question you might be able to answer. A number of the Apple reissues (including all the Badfinger titles) show additional "download only" tracks. For those of us not buying the box set with bonus discs, will the individual CDs come with download codes so we get the extra tracks as part of our purchase price? Or would we need to buy the extra tracks separately?
Speaking of those download-only extra tracks - I can find them at amazon.uk (but can't download them due to "geographical restrictions"). They aren't showing up at amazon.com or iTunes (at least not yet). Have you heard any information about restricted availability in the US?
The individual CDs don't come with download codes. The downloaded tracks, which will be available starting Tuesday in the U.S. on iTunes, according to Capitol Records, will have to be purchased separately. They aren't available as a downloadable set, they said.
My independent store already has the Apple box on the shelf for $219.99 and the best of cd for $13.99 they will not be carrying any of the other discs. I'll take my chances and wait a few months and get it cheaper.
I'm sure the download bonus tracks will only be available if you purchase and download the entire cd. So the only way to get everything is to buy the box, just more greed.
As I commented above, the bonus tracks are available separately and not as a set.
Three Badfinger releases show up on I-Tunes this morning (NO DICE, STRAIGHT UP, and ASS). STRAIGHT UP sounds amazing (finally!).
But, where are these digital downloads? DO you have to buy the actual CD and follow some specific links? I thought they might be available right away, but the bonus tracks on the releases are the ones that (I believe) will be on the actual CD's.
What gives here????
According to Capitol Records, the digital downloads will be available (10/26) on iTunes, though I don't find them there yet. You do not have to buy the CDs to get them, according to what I was told.
US buyers considering the box: please note that Steve's quoted amazon.uk price (£146.39) includes VAT, which you will not be charged when ordering from the US, so the price is almost £20 cheaper once you enter your shipping address. The whole thing is approx $200 which is dramatically cheaper than the US amazon price...
Too expensive a set!
Is the box similar to the Beatles Mono Box? (The type of box, etc)
Not sure what you mean. If you're asking about the box itself, it's a thin cardboard as compared to the much thicker Mono Box.
Yes I'm talking about the box itself. No one has posted any unboxings on Youtube or anything yet so that's why I was curious. Thanks.
How's the remastered sound? (Of what you heard thus far)
I listened to the MJQ disc yesterday and it sounded good. The sampler sounds good, as well.
There's a photo of the (apparently very flimsy) box here:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=5909550&postcount=700
Not sure if you have to be a forum "member" to see it or not, though....
I'm annoyed. I went to Target and of course it didn't have the Come and Get it compilation but I thought it was worth a try. Then I went to Barnes & Noble, and it didn't have it either. The store had to special order it for me. It's depressing how many hoops you have to jump through to get CDs that aren't the top-of-the-charts garbage. They had tons of stupid Taylor Swift but not one copy of the Apple compilation.
I'm listening to "Come and Get It" now. The new remasted sound seems muffled to me. Maybe too much noise reduction. I have all the songs on CD from using vinyl records that I own or the other released CDs from the 1990sor the other released CDs from the 1990s and they sound much better IMO.
(I don't own the rare King of Fuh, but had it from a mp3 source).
Did you buy the CD from a store or did you download it from iTunes?
I bought it from Amazon.com and with AmazonPRIME I got it the day of release!
"The new remasted sound seems muffled to me. Maybe too much noise reduction."
Did you download it from iTunes or get the CDs?
Issuing these titles as a boxed-set was probably an after-thought, which might explain why the packaging is so poor. But on the other hand, if the Apple albums WERE originally designed to be sold as a box, the individual sleeves probably would have been just a basic jacket reproduction (such as with the Beatles Mono box), and all of the other notes and photographs might then have been collected into some kind of special booklet exclusive to the box. As it is, the individual CD's are reasonably well presented, and the one real advantage for people who purchase the box is having the downloadable tracks presented in CD form - which for me was a blessing.
I pre-ordered my copy from Barnes & Noble, and the price was $230 or so plus tax, which I thought was reasonable.
With the exception of Badfinger, Mary, and a few other titles, these albums are somewhat obscure items, and a boxed set would have seemed to be the most likely way to rerelease them. In the past, some of these, such as The Whale, became very hard to find domestically - and expensive - trying to find them later on the secondary market.
PS: A nice touch would have been to package the CD's in a box shaped like the Apple office building. It could have been a companion to the Motown box that's styled as the "Hitsville USA" house.
Unless, of course, Apple licensed the building plans separately to Department 56 for inclusion in their Christmas Village collection this year...
That's probably true about the box being an afterthought, since it was never formally announced. Getting the downloadable tracks on CD is a very strong reason to get the box.
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