The Beatles: Ring out the old and ring in the new (CDs)

April 7, 10:12 PMBeatles ExaminerSteve Marinucci

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The Beatles in 1962 B.C. (before CDs). (Copyright Apple Corps Ltd., 2009.)

We can't remember a time when more Beatle news was jammed into the last seven days, what with the David Lynch swinging soiree (as Murray the K would say) to the nice Christmas present the Beatles gave EMI on Tuesday.

So time for a little reflection. We've made our comments already, so we asked a few Beatle experts what their thoughts were about Tuesday's remasters news.

First, Beatlefan editor Bill King:

The remasters are way overdue, of course. I think the plan generally sounds pretty good. It would have been nice to have the mono versions included on the regular discs as a bonus, but given that we're dealing with Apple Corps and EMI, I never really thought that was likely. The CD rollout actually jibes well with the 'Rock Band' release. The younger folks will probably buy the latter and ignore the CDs, while the older audience buys the CDs and/or box sets and ignores the video game. Bottom line: We won't know how successful an exercise this is until we actually HEAR the discs.

Chris Carter, host of "Breakfast With the Beatles" on Sirius/XM and KLOS-FM:

Well it truly is ABOUT TIME...

It's been hard to IMAGINE why the most successful recording act of all time still had half their catalog on the shelf that was mastered in the MID EIGHTIES! That’s right, we’ve been listening to Sgt. Pepper on CD that was mastered over 20 years ago!!!! Yuk!  Think about it…. The Stones, David Bowie, and even Elvis Costello are on their 3rd rounds of mastered catalog upgrades!  It will be nice to finally have the Beatles ENTIRE catalog remastered.

The BIG bonus of course will be the MONO versions of 'Revolver,' and gems like 'Sgt. Pepper' and 'The Beatles (White LP)' available for sale on disc. Hopefully this will bring to the attention of Beatles fans just how important those MONO mixes are. The Mono mixes of those LP’s is the way the Beatles themselves intended you hear those albums. The stereo mixes we’re usually done as an after thought by second engineers without any Beatles present! We always try and play the MONO mixes of almost all the Beatles recordings on Breakfast w/ the Beatles! (8AM -11AM KLOS)

But thinking ahead to September….what will become of the Capitol Box sets??? Since the re-mastered discs coming in September will be the UK titles…won’t this be really confusing to the consumer??? Gee which 'Rubber Soul' should I buy? Which 'HELP' is better? Why is 'I Saw Her Standing There' on BOTH the 'Please Please Me' AND 'Meet The Beatles' …!!!! And speaking of those Capitol Box sets…we do already have upgraded mastered versions of almost everything up to 'Revolver', along w/ 'Let it Be…Naked'  & the 'Yellow Submarine Songtrack'…so all we really needed was upgraded 'Revolver,' 'Pepper,' 'MMT,' 'White LP' and 'Abbey Road.'

I could go on…..but either way it’s a GREAT thing to know that clean crisp an ‘official” versions will soon be available….but what took em so long???

Now maybe we can get a darn DVD release of 'Let It Be'???? Hey guys???

Dennis Mitchell, host of "Dennis' Mitchell's 'Breakfast With the Beatles'":

As much as maybe we could have guessed they'd do this (because of the very nature of the 'Rock Band' thing), it still came as a big surprise.  I'm as anxious as the next fan to hear the "new" recordings, and I probably have as many questions as the next fan as to why they bothered with that 'Capitol Albums' set, and whether that series will continue.  That provided the thrill of hearing the mono mix of the U.S. "Rubber Soul" on CD for the first time, along with the song configurations that most Americans grew up with.  It makes one wonder if Capitol and EMI are on the same page with regard to re-releases, but in the end I suppose we're all richer for it.

Andre Gardner, host of "Andre Gardner's 'Breakfast With the Beatles'":

It's wonderful to see that The Beatles' musical catalog is finally getting the treatment it deserves.  By all accounts, it was a painstaking labor of love by the Abbey Road staff to reproduce the sounds The Beatles and George Martin heard in the studio in the best possible form.  I applaud Apple/EMI for taking this gigantic leap forward in preserving the legacy of the greatest band in the history of music.  I can't wait to get the sets in my hands!!

From Rip Rense:

If they are merely remastered, and there has been no remixing, then I hope the sound is dramatically improved. If it isn’t, I see little point in buying the entire set of albums all over again. According to one account I read in MOJO, some of the remastered “white album” tracks sound as if the band is in the room with you. That would be obviously be terrific. I’m disappointed that there apparently has been no remixing, though.

The 'Yellow Submarine Songtrack' contained the first songs to have been remixed by someone other than George Martin (who did remix 'Help!' and 'Rubber Soul' for CD, if I remember correctly), and the results were immensely satisfying---often revealing aspects of the songs that had previously eluded. I understand and agree with the integrity of keeping Martin’s original mixes. After all, they are almost as integral to the songs as Paul’s bass or Ringo’s drums. But 'Yellow Submarine Songtrack' was a convincing argument for entirely new mixes that might exist side-by-side with the “classic” Martin mixes.

The forthcoming all-mono set is a good thing, long overdue (damn near anything from Apple is long overdue), with the obvious star of the set being the 'White Album.'

In sum, if the new remastered versions of the albums are much less than spectacular improvements of the original CD’s, I see little reason to be very excited, and hope I live long enough to hear some intelligent remixing one day. And by the way, I recall reading that each album was to come with something special assembled by Giles Martin. I had hoped this might be some sort of new mash-up, or even a bonus track or two, but there is nothing about any such material in the Apple press release, which is disappointing.

Beatlefan's Al Sussman:

Obviously, the remasters are long overdue and it appears that the new packaging of the CDs (no jewel boxes, please!) has been in place for some time. Sonically, if they're in the neighborhood of the 'Yellow Submarine Songtrack,' 'LOVE', or even the Capitol boxes, I'll be very happy. Obviously, some people are going to be unhappy that, unlike the Capitol boxes, these albums won't have side-by-side mono/stereo versions but, then, there would have had to be a separate mono 'White Album.' Marketing-wise, this is the preferable way to do it. If a deal for the digital downloads is hammered out soon and it's decided to roll those out the same day, 9/09/09 is going to be the biggest Beatles media event since the debut of the 'Anthology' and it may already be that way, anyhow.

And from Mr. Purple Chick:

It's tough to be Apple. Whatever they do, someone will be unhappy. I'm sure the people who care what I think are but a small fraction of the reissues' target audience. Most importantly, I'm happy the remasters are coming out.

I understand why they went a relatively safe route, but if it were up to me, I'd have broken up 'Past Masters' and included those tracks with the appropriate albums. The Velvet Underground box set 'Peel Slowly and See' is a great example of how to do that while maintaining the original albums' integrity. Yes, it's a compromise, but I think it's a better solution than an artificial collection of leftovers.

Allan Kozinn wrote an interesting examination of the story in the New York Times.

The discoveries we made in our previous column about the separate remastered CD pre-orders on Amazon.co.uk made us wonder whether the new CDs would be available separately as well as in the boxed set (they will), whether they'll be limited editions (they won't) and whether the originals CDs will remain in the catalog (for a while, but they will go away eventually).

And, by the way, we've been told the Rolling Stones' announcement of their remasters had no impact on the Beatles' announcement of their reissues on Tuesday.

• If you're in the San Diego area, watch for the new Chase Bank TV ad. It uses the "we all shine on ..." chorus from John Lennon's "Instant Karma."

Our other columns on the Beatles remasters:

• Beatles remasters: the clues were there; is there more to come? 
  
• Number 9, number 9, number 9: Beatles fans will empty their wallets on 9/9/09 
  
• BREAKING NEWS!!: EMI announces Beatles remasters to be released in September