Beatles box set coming Nov. 16

Give us a LITTLE credit, thanks.

I wonder how many 'hardcore, first generation' Beatles fans there are? Seems to me that many of those 1st gen'ers would have moved on, either musically or corporeally, and thus not be panting and sweating over this set.

 

If you insist.

I'm pretty sure I read this in Sulpy (the newest edition). Mono tapes were sent to Capitol with all of the extra reverb added. Dexter might've done *more*, but the main work had already been done.

Sulpy theorizes that this was done as something of a "well, it's inevitable that they'll do this themselves" move.

 

After reading everyone's comments I've come to this conclusion. Even though I would really like them to remaster the existing CD's in both Mono & Stereo, with bonus tracks and a SACD Hi-Res layer from the Orginal Masters, the fact is the only Complete Beatles Catalogue I have is the Capitol albums. So on November 16th or whenever it ends up being, despite hating the "Dextorized" tapes, I will be at Best Buy when they open the buy my copy.

 

Nah, it was the Dexman that added the reverb. George Martin didnt do any mixes of that stuff just for the American market.

Beatles '65 sure sounds good, tho.

 

David, folks, I did not receive any info this aft. It's looking more like Tuesday now.

 

Millions...

 

Mikey, I think you're right. I'll check the Mark Lewisohn book when I get home (good title for a song ) later this evening. IIRC, the tracks from A Hard Day's Night were some of the only ones that got special U.S. mixes.

Or, if anyone else has the book handy...

 

I'm one of those 1st generation fans

These are the LPs I grew up with. I still have them, but have no way to play them, so I am thrilled to be spending big bucks to get these and relive my teenage years. I used to go to sleep with Meet the Beatles playing on the record player and I want to hear it again, even if it won't be all scratchy like it was in the 60's!

 

Michael, I worked in record retail when that thing came out and since as well...The people who bought that were middle-aged. That set was perhaps aimed at the youth, but their heros of the time (Oasis, Blur, and various other British bands) were going potty about actual albums like Revolver. Many young people were buying the actual records.

Believe me...it was not the youth that bought this stuff in droves, but the same middle-aged people who bought the Elvis #1 discs, the Norah Jones disc, The Record (Bee Gees) disc and of course all the countless 20th Century Master Discs.

The youth don't buy Greatest Hits my man... The buy other crapola, but don't bother with greatest hit packages of the past...

Sorry to break it gently man, but I sold at least a few hundred of them and kept tabs on other shoppers. This was a trip down memory lane for the purchaser, not a new highway.

That's as I saw it from working at A&B, HMV, and owning half a used CD store.

 

"Merry Christmas, (Grand)Dad..........."

Will this sell? Just think of all of the "youngsters", stuck with what to get their parents (or, gulp!, their grandparents ) for Christmas. An easy $50 gets this, and a big checkmark is off their lists!

These will sell a ton.

 

..no TONS! My Daddy bought mine...I could still see him walking in with "Meet The Beatles", this was the second time around, he previously bought me..."Introducing The Beatles"...I was in Heaven! Ah...

 

Sorry to break it gently man...but they were buying ONE for their kids. just as their Dads did for them

 

Dishonorable mention, too, for the Dextorization of.....

I'll Get You
She Loves You
Please Mr. Postman

GM

 

First of all, 1 was marketed and packaged to sell to everybody, and the many friends I know who have a copy range from late teens to their '50s.....and if Billboard were listing their Lp's correctly, in terms of actual sales only and not fixated with 'catalog,' 1 would still be in the Top 200! (No irony that Elvis' 30#1 HITS fell off after 99 weeks, and now hit 100 in catalog...it fell off five weeks during its two-year window, thus not making it to the 3-digit milestone).

As for Dexterization...yes, it was bad, but to put it in historical context, Capitol was doing duophonic hanky-panky for years, as us vinyl hounds are well aware, as they even printed up record sleeves touting the increased fidelity and other hoo-ha about turning mono into duo and charging the extra buck while fooling the public--who could not have known better, the audiophile community was much smaller then than it is now--and, I think, themselves. After all, rechanneling was partly about charging the extra dollar for a stereo edition, and, also, to cover themselves when an artist had a mono-only tape, and they needed to do something to have both mono and stereo editions in the racks. This was a major label fixation, for the most part, but not exclusively so. Fake stereo just became the norm for so long it took the digital audio era to finally weed most of it out for good. Once consumers adjusted to it, like a freight train just kept on chugging downhill, long after there was no longer a commercial need for it.

 

Here is information that Bruce Spizer posted on Beatles-Collectors earlier this evening:


Now that the release is official, I can tell you what will be on the Capitol
box set.

Set for a street date of November 16, 2004, The Capitol Albums Vol. 1 is a
limited edition box set containing all four Beatles albums released by
Capitol in 1964, namely Meet The Beatles!, The Beatles' Second Album,
Something New and Beatles '65. Each album will appear on a separate CD,
mastered using 24 bit digital conversion from the original Capitol tapes,
containing both the stereo and mono versions of the album. The Capitol
collection marks the stereo compact disc debut for most of the 45 songs in
the box set. In all, the set contains 32 songs appearing in stereo for the
first time on CD, plus 7 unique duophonic mixes making their CD debut. The
box set is packaged with a full color booklet containing photographs and an
essay by leading Beatles expert and historian Mark Lewisohn.

I served as a consultant on the project for Capitol Records and am confident
that fans will be pleased with the box set.

Bruce "I'm glad these albums will finally be out on CD" Spizer

 

Man, I gotta say you are incorrect on this one. NO WAY George Martin or EMI added that cave sound!

 

Wow! Just what I was needed. I'm keeping an eye on the Future Shop website here in Canada. I WANT this!

 

Yeah, that old "Friday before a long weekend" thing..... Hard to get anyone to do anything! EMI Canada probably closed early!

Thanks, and keep us posted....oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Hi Gary,
I like the slight kick *** sound Dex added to Roll Over Beethoven on the Beatles Second Album in true stereo.

 

David, thank you for posting this. I'm feeling better about this boxed set. One question though...I wonder how "limited" this limited edition will be? Were the singles and E.P. boxes touted as being "limited edition"? Whatever the answer, I'll be picking this up if only to hear the music as I did when I grew up with it. Oh...and the "unique" duophonic line made me laugh. Unique....I can think of a few other adjectives that may be more appropriate.
If Bruce is happy with this set, sign me up.

 

THE most misused marketing term.......there are chocolate bars with the words "limited edition" on them!

 

David,

Thanks for your post. I am now real psyc'd to get this set. I am sure that Vol 2 will be "interesting" as well. This is something we have speculated about for a couple of years (wouldn't it be great to get the mono and stereo on the same disc, etc, etc)

Too bad these were not hybrid SACDs or DVD-A's, but at this point, that is just a pipe dream.

Anyway, I had put myself on a "Burn out early Beatles tune" hiatus for a few years now, so I will have fun hearing the tunes that I grew up with - - - even if I go

"Damn, I don't remember these sounding so AFU". But who cares, I'm getting them anyway. Many tunes that I have not heard in a L-O-N-G time.

:-jon

 

Off-hand thoughts... if this set is as described, and if it actually comes out, Apple will possibly use sales to determine the effort - and level of digital post-processing - necessary/acceptable for the UK catalogue.

- M.

 

Remember, the original Capitol tapes are still dubs..

 

I just saw that on a Payday bar. It looked exactly like every other Payday bar I ever saw. What on earth does it mean?