Stephen Thomas Erlewine – “A Splendid Time Is Guaranteed for All: The Beatles Remasters” (2009)
Recent article (Aug. 31st), from the All Music Guide website, discussing the upcoming Beatles reissues coming out in a couple of days. Finally…
The Beatles always stood apart from their peers, a self-evident statement that sadly extended to the treatment of their catalog in the digital age. Where all their peers from the Byrds to the Who have had their catalogs remastered and reissued in deluxe editions, sometimes several times, the Beatles remained stuck in the early days of digital, their 14 albums plus Past Masters singles collection remaining untouched since 1987, despite the occasional upgrade and tweak on the 1993 Red & Blue Album reissues or the remix of the Yellow Submarine songtrack in 1999. Those 1987 releases were hardly without controversy, either: many fans were upset that the first four albums were presented in mono, not stereo, while others complained about the quality of the mono mastering; some were upset that Sgt. Pepper and The Beatles weren’t in mono, there were grumblings about George Martin’s new stereo mixes for Help! and Rubber Soul, then there were criticisms about harsh, brittle sound and shoddy packaging, where Magical Mystery Tour was stripped of its lengthy book and cover art was butchered.
Anniversaries came and went, but no remasters arrived until the release of the video game The Beatles Rockband pushed a long-overdue revamping of the band’s entire catalog into the stores on 9-9-09. This reissue campaign corrects almost all the problems of the original ’87 CDs: the sound and artwork are improved, all the original mono and stereo mixes finally see the light of day. Naturally, it’s possible to quibble about some details of the presentation, particularly the decision to split the reissue into two separate box sets, one covering the Stereo mixes and one the Mono mixes, with only the stereo mixes available as individual discs (it’s possible still to complain that the albums do not add era-specific singles or outtakes, but such expansions were never really in the cards), but what both boxes constitute is by far the best Beatles. Crucially, it’s also inarguably the best-sounding Beatles music ever released, robust and rich even on the earliest rock & roll. None of the albums have been remixed – although Help! and Rubber Soul retain Martin’s 87 mixes, the original stereo mixes are bonuses on the Mono set – so this doesn’t shock the way the Yellow Submarine songtrack did with its reimagined stereo mixes. Nevertheless, these remasters surely do surprise with their clarity and depth, with each album feeling bigger and fuller than the previous CD incarnation, but not artificially so. It’s not that these are pumped up on digital steroids, it’s that the veil has been lifted, so everything seems full and fresh. Appropriately, there’s more to savor from Help! onward, as the Beatles’ productions grew ambitious, but Please Please Me, With the Beatles and A Hard Day’s Night all have a strong punch, while Beatles for Sale is warmer than the previous disc.
As a package, the Stereo box is slightly unwieldy – it’s a large, vertical set with two stacks of discs in slick cardboard sleeves piled on top of each other. No extra book is included with the set, but each disc has its own booklet with dry, straightforward liner notes detailing the recording process instead of analyzing the music. If anything about the set could be called disappointing, it’s the mini-documentaries attached to each disc as a Quicktime file and collected on a DVD bonus for the box. “Mini-documentary” may even be stretching what these are: they’re 3-5 infomercials about the albums, not much more informative than the notes themselves. Nevertheless, these do offer annotation, something sorely lacking from the first CDs, and they do replicate the original notes – in the case of Magical Mystery Tour, including the entire storybook; in the case of Pepper, all the 20th anniversary annotation is added – finally bringing the Beatles to the same standard for reissues that every other major (and most minor bands) have had for years now. And the story, at least for the Stereo Box, is not the packaging. It’s the glorious sound that makes this such a treat.
The Stereo Set may be the official canon but what Beatlemaniacs have really craved is the Mono Box. This limited-edition box is laden with new-to-CD mixes, including the true rarities of the previously unreleased genuine mono mixes of the four new songs from Yellow Submarine and its packaging is gorgeous, filled with mini-LP replicas with stiff cardboard sleeves of every album from Please Please Me to The Beatles, complete with replicated gatefolds and packaging inserts, all protected in resealable plastic sleeves. As pure physical product, this is satisfies any collector itch, but this also is arguably the better-sounding of the two sets, providing ample evidence that the band did spend more time on mono mixes during much of their career. For generations of listeners raised on stereo mixes, there are plenty of surprises here, whether it’s a faster “She’s Leaving Home” and “Don’t Pass Me By,” or numerous little differences that pop up on Pepper, The White Album and Revolver, all adding up to dramatically different experiences. Sometimes, the density of mono just has more force – “Lady Madonna” rolls like a freight train, “I’m Down” hits to the gut – sometimes the colors just seem more vibrant; in either case, there’s enough emotional difference to make this worthwhile for the dedicated, and depending on taste, it may even be preferable. But there’s no question of one thing: of the two sets, as a package, the mono is a thing to behold. And there’s also no question that anybody waiting 22 years to hear a better version of the Beatles will not be disappointed (although they may well still wonder why it took so long for the Fabs to be treated the way they deserve to be treated).
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
David Bowie – “The Dick Cavett Show” (Interview – Part 2) (1974)
More of Bowie’s interview with Dick Cavett….Dec. 1974
The Beat Patrol 