Beatles box set coming Nov. 16

Sigh ... I know ... I mean, if they were going to go "ugly" they could have at least tried to conjure up some mid-Sixties cheese. I threw together an alternate cover in an hour, using the venerable "Beatles Second Album" template. Granted, it's been parodied before, and they probably wouldn't want to parody one of the albums included in the set ... perhaps an even better parody would be the "Beatles Story" LP, since they aren't reissuing it and it's also iconic in it's own way. Plus, it would help Official Consultant Bruce Spizer sell some more books!

My point is -- If I can do this in an hour, how long did it take them to come up with the REAL cover?? Ten minutes? But hey, as long as the actual album covers are done well, who cares about the box? The REAL question is: why the hell did I spend an hour making a fake cover that I'll never use? I'm sick, I tells ya...

Sean Murdock

 

Damn Sean, that's great!

I always liked the cover of the "Second" album. You did a great job on that one, maybe "someone" will notice it!

 

Also -- what's with the 6x12 box?? This should be in a CD-sized slipcase. Another reason to throw out the box (unless the alleged 70 page booklet is really good).

Sean Murdock

 

Of course it is! Haven't you seen '1' ? That cd is the template for all current Beatle releases.

 

...who cares about the box?!...Just give me the Compact Disc's, Yea ,Yea, Yea...Hopefully, they will be TRUE to the ORIGINAL ARTWORK!...embrace the inevitable..

 

Thanks, Jon -- "Second Album" is probably my favorite U.S. album cover. It's so quirky and un-Beatle-like, and it doesn't even try to be classy! Yet I grew up staring at it and it screams "BEATLES!" to me -- as I said much earlier in the thread, it brings me back to when the Beatles were just cotton candy: not alternate mixes and bootlegs and lawsuits and solo careers and tragic deaths ... just pure fun. It's my favorite album cover to parody, because it's so easy to do (as long as you have "that" font) and so identifiable. Long ago I did a 4-cassette (!) solo "box set" called "Carry That Weight" and I did a "Second Album" cover parody with all solo-era photos. It was really cool and I'd like to revisit that set on CD someday...

As for "someone" noticing -- well, that's the fantasy, right? Someone at the Tower shouting "Stop the presses! I just saw a cover on the Internet that kicks our ***! We MUST find the talented son-of-a-gun who is making a fool of us!!" <ahem> ... my expectations are a bit lower ... I was pretty happy that a Gort like it!

Sean Murdock

 

Wow! Sean, that is great. Are you some Master Graphic Artist or something? I also always liked the cover of the Second Album. It looks exciting. It looks like Beatlemania, unlike say, Beatles '65.

 

That looks fantastic Sean! I think the artwork they have planned is OK, with the rainbow motif and all. But the Beatles pictures look a little odd. Regardless, yours is 10x better!

And I agree, it should DEFINITELY be in a normal CD-sized box/slipcase. The long box is dumb.

 

From over at the AbbeyRd website:

"# Update (10/10/04) Despite the fact that project has been, for all intents and purposes, "outed" (it even has a catalog number -- C24X-66878), we hear it's still unapproved but Capitol is going ahead with it anyway as if it is. At left, by the way, is the artwork for the set. "

 

Another vote here for Sean's 90-minute labor of love. The Capitol rainbow label motif on the 'official' artwork hints at a psychedelia more appropriate for Vol. 2 (if, in fact, there is going to be one).

Jim W.

 

Ut-O, I feel a letdown! Be prepared...Hopefully, I'm wrong.

 

At my site, it's the most-searched item over the past week ... and it's only been available at Amazon for three days during that week. It's phenomenal. It's going to be huge, no matter what the naysayers say.

 

I do, especially for the premium price of the boxed set. Most of us already have every song (in several formats) that's in the set. If Apple/Capitol wants to repackage the same material, at least make the package appeal to consumers.

Of course if the box sounds great I'll be the first to forgive such a generic package. I hope that it's just a promotional image and not the final artwork.

I loved the design concept for the various "Anthology" projects. The "1" and "Let it be naked" albums were poor covers (IMHO).

 

Well, either thousands of people cancelled their orders or amazon.ca had the incorrect info because now it shows as: Amazon.ca Sales Rank 994

Also it shows the name as:
Capitol Album, Vol. 1 - it's hard to find on the site with the incorrect name!

 

...it's going to bring all the Beatlemaniacs out of the woodwork again!...Number 1! I'm hoping this doesn't get pushed back to oblivion...

 

...the box is a vessel for the contents...usually put it on the shelf or in the closet and be done with it...well at least that's the way I feel about it...I want the MUSIC!

 

Sean's cover is definitely better. Might of been wise for Capitol to put the actually album covers on the front of the box if they wanted to maximize sales. I'm sure a lot of 1st gen fans would do a double take if they saw the album covers. Some might not even know what the Capitol Albums are by the title.

 

Those albums were available in North America until 1987 guys. You don't have to be 1'st gen to remember how they sounded or looked.

 

Sean, excellent job on the 6x12 artwork! I'd purchased your box just for the artwork.


We should start a thread to come up w/ alternate 6x12 covers for the box set.

 

Great cover, Sean! I don't know what they were thinking...

 

I don't think this one's going to be pushed back at all ... not with the holidays just around the corner. Capitol wants to cash in. I'm sure they'll even be doing TV commercials for this one, just like they did with "1" (back in late 2000 .... can you believe it's been four years since that best-of?!)

 

Oh yea.....just wait till November...there will be ads GALORE for this. The perfect gift for a 40 year old guy who digs Rock and Roll, the AMERICAN Beatles Lps, just like you remember them.

EMI is going to make a TON of money from this, wait and see.

 

So......what would volume 2 hold? Help? BeatlesVI? Yesterday and Today?.....then what? Do they stop or keep going up to and including Revolver? Cuz after that point the US and UK's are the same.

Did I miss anything?

 

Not sure if this has been posted already, but here's the tracklisting. No surprises, but stereo/mono is a good start.

http://www.capitolmusic.de/xml/1/2/8753482.html

 

Thanks for the link, Andy. I wonder why the Capitol USA web site doesn't have this information yet?