Dave Dexter, Jr. Capitol Records BEATLES questions (and some answers)

http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col-collections/dexter

This page has the interview that has been mentioned in this thread, plus a good amount of Dexter's Capitol internal memos. The one about the album artwork is pretty interesting.

 

Didn't know that. My point was that it was good that the altering of the albums stopped when it did. Do you disagree?

 

No, of course not -- in fact, they stopped altering the albums one album too late (Revolver). But again, Capitol had eased up considerably in their handling of the Beatles albums by 1966. Look at Rubber Soul -- for the Capitol version, they allowed the cover to remain essentially unchanged for the first time (aside from some color issues), while the addition of two great songs that were nearly forgotten on side 2 of the UK Help! was borderline brilliant. They removed two of the artier tracks ("If I Needed Someone" and "Nowhere Man") and the one weak link ("What Goes On") and crafted something that to this day rivals the "true" UK version of the album in many fans' hearts.

The "gutting" of Revolver, on the other hand, was entirely accidental. Capitol asked for three tracks, not knowing (or caring, probably) what the Beatles and George Martin were working on in the spring of 1966. George Martin chose the three tracks, mixed them, and sent them over for the Yesterday & Today album. It was only when Revolver was finished that anyone would have realized what they had inadvertently done to the U.S. version of the album. Maybe that would have made them realize they should never fiddle with any more Beatles albums; but I believe that when the Beatles signed their new contract in 1967 they mandated that their albums be released untampered with in all territories.

 

And even then, it's the stereo LP that has the reverb really swimming on most of the cuts. "Roll Over Beethoven" is as dry on the mono "Second Album" as it is on "With The Beatles." Other cuts have added reverb, but not nearly to the degree the stereo LP does.

I've often wondered if the reverb was applied excessively to those stereo tracks to cover up the "hole in the middle" those early two-track "stereo" mixes had. There were no pan-pots back then as we know them today so they really couldn't do a "11 o'clock and 2 o'clock" to try and intergrate the sound "image." Reverb may have been seen as the only way to make it sound more of a "whole" back then by Dexter/Capitol.

Side note: I've broght this up elsewhere, but when talking about "I Feel Fine" and "She's A Woman" maybe we should give Dexter a slight benefit of the doubt. The Beatles Recording Sessions book by Mark Lewisohn notes that George Martin did mixes of those two songs expressly for the US market. The implication is, he mixed them "to order" for Capitol, and maybe that meant laying on the reverb? Seeing how GM's similar "US only" mixes of "Long Tall Sally" had much more reverb than the UK ones, makes me wonder if he tried to beat Dexter at his own game.

Granted, I doubt George would have plied on the reverb as much as those cuts wound up having on the 45 and Beatles' 65 LP, but until someone can check the phonoreels EMI sent of those two songs that are no doubt still in the vaults, we can't be certain that Mr. Dexter was 100% to blame for the sonic mess those two cuts suffer.

If George Martin really did up the chamber for the mixes he sent over to the US, any added reverb, even if it wasn't too much, could have caused the mess we know today. Add the reverb that the Duophonic processing also applied and there could be up to three distinct layers of reverb on those two songs! Just...incredible!

 

That would be really bizarre if in fact the echoed mixes of "I Feel Fine" and "She's A Woman"were in fact George Martin's "mix it for the USA" work. It would cast those two recordings in an entirely different light. Surely something was added in the states on those mono singles.

 

I suspect that George Martin added extra reverb for Capitol, and then Capitol added MORE reverb...

 

I believe so too, there is just WAY too much reverb on those two songs.

But the fact George Martin *made* numerous mixes just for the USA in 1964 gives me pause and makes me be not so black and white about the "Capitol" versions of Beatles' songs. If only we had access to Capitol's vaults.... LOL

 

I don't think Mr Dexter gave a balanced Beatles with the Capitol Albums, I have always thought the USA records favour McCartney more and now learning he didn't rate Lennon highly, I think Capitol were pushing Paul as the frontman IMO, it all makes sense why singles like 'Yesterday' were released and some of the odd song choices and track orders on the albums now after learning more, interesting stuff

 

One of the memos found at the link I posted earlier mentions a plan for Capitol to release an 11 song album featuring McCartney as the sole vocalist. Dexter claims that if released, "Epstein and the other three guys would scream like hell..."

 

My thoughts have been proved, wow, Capitol wanted to make a McCartney Beatles album, those memo's that have been cited here, what fasinating reading, also Mr Dexter felt that the artwork on Capitols albums was much better and that they couldn't release the USA album as the UK albums because they wouldn't be able to release them simultaneously, it all makes more sense, it is fasinating to read the memo's regarding the success of the UK Artists before 1964 and the many Capitol UK faliures etc. Good Stuff

 

You can understand why The other Beatles resented Paul more, and it was always 3 to 1 in later years, learning this could not have helped with the old Beatles Peer preasure etc !!

 

I'm wondering about the mono Something New cuts with light reverb (And I Love Her, for example....). There's reverb on that cut on the Capitol LP and the UA LP, so was the reverb present on the mix already (GM) or was it added here? And would Capitol have provided that mix to UA or vice-versa?I've asked this question before, but I don't believe there was a definitive answer.
RE: Capitol programming - well, I'll echo that Meet, Rubber Soul, and MMT were all good moves, along with some of the U.S. only singles. And I'll trade some of the worst (technical) Capitol tracks (I Feel Fine, etc.) for the unique mixes we got (mono Something New cuts, I Am The Walrus single). No Capitol bashing from me....

Oh, and by the way, that's always been my avatar. Just a coincidence.

 

The more I read about the delightful Mr Dexter the more depressed I become...
Philistine and worse comes to mind
GM must have had the patience (and taste ) of a Saint in comparison.

I would have paid big money to be in a room with DD and John W Lennon.

 

They could have just added "Rain" without having to remove anything, since the US Revolver had only 11 songs. That would have to a degree addressed the Lennon deficiency on the album. I always wondered why The Early Beatles was short-weight also. Why wasn't "There's a Place" or "Misery" included to bring it up to 12 songs? Or even "From Me to You"?

 

Fascinating reading! Especially the "EMI-Capitol Singles Resume" memo. Thanks for posting that link...

 

Based on US law at the time Capitol would have had to pay additional royalties to release an album with more than 11 songs on it. There was a fixed royalty for albums with up to 11 songs. Didn't make a lot of sense for them to reduce their profit margins by making the albums longer, which also would have reduced the number of albums with unique songs they could release.

 

I really don't agree with you. He may have favored McCartney, but we got all the songs, just in a different sequence. I would also point out that "The Beatles 2nd Album" and "Something New" are very much dominated by Lennon leads.

 

I don't think it was "law." Just industry practice. Because mechanical royalty law demanded a fixed charge per song, the industry settled on 12 songs being the U.S. standard once the LP became established. Manufacturing concerns also became an issue once stereo came as a format because it was harder to cut a stereo disc than a mono. Stereo took up more room compared to an 'all things being equal" mono cut.

After the Beatles hit and Meet The Beatles! was released, it was decided to cut all new Capitol LPs down to eleven tracks per LP, but keep the whoesale/retail price the same as it was for 12 track LP's.

The motivation was anyone's guess. Greed, rising raw materials prices, re-negotiated AFM contracts..any and all could have contributed. Capitol was the first to do it and do it consistently, especially for "British Invasion" orientated LP's.

 

I thought the royalties were sent by the Copyright Royalty Tribunal, which was a government body, making them at least "regulations."

But I'm not an expert in the way these things were done in the 60s

 

Actually, Help! and Rubber Soul have 12 tracks per LP.

 

Regulations only so far as how much per song a publisher gets from its appearence on a record or tape.

The record company set how many tracks per LP or 45 to release, balancing royalties that would have to be paid, manufacturing costs, and acceptable profit vs. what people would be willing to pay for an LP.

So since royalties were paid at a fixed rate per song, for every song added to a disc, that much more it cost the record company to put out the record. So it was either cut your profits by adding more tracks per LP, charge more for the LP to make up for lost profit margin, or go the other direction and get as much profit as possible by finding the minimum tracks per LP the market would bear for the price charged.

Capitol's 11 song policy also had the side "benefit" (if you can call it that) of letting Capitol have one more song "in the vault" for every Beatles' album released with 11 instead of 12 songs. Doing that meant they could squeeze one more album out since on average every Beatles LP tape from EMI had 14 songs, plus non-LP single and EP tracks. Talk about a profitable backlog! "Keep that gravy train movin'...."

 

Probably because Help! was a "deluxe" soundtrack album with incidental music. They charged more for the LP because of the gatefold cover and it's "special" status. That probably made up for the inclusion of the "extra" track.

Rubber Soul on the other hand...was just a nice surprise. Someone gave Americans Christmas gift with that version. LOL

 

I was misremembering that all the Capitol LPs had 12 tracks except for Early and Revolver, when now I see it was just Meet, Help, and Rubber Soul that did. I just remember that Early had a HUGE runout groove on side two, which made it seem shorter weight than the other LPs. In terms of total time, it must be the shortest Capitol LP, isn't it?

 

Those Capitol memos regarding the "Capitol of the World" series are really interesting.

That was a fascinating series of LPs. I have a number of them. It is interesting that, after several years, they made the distinction to give pop albums a standard catalog number and give the indigenous music the "Capitol of the World" designation.

I have one of the early Joao Gilberto Odeon LPs in the COW series. This title was later released with different cover art and the standard T numbering series once bossa hit it huge in the US.

 

I kinda wonder how much dinero George Martin got for his instros on UA's Hard Days Night and Capitol's Help? He had to have gotten up to half the royalties for Help alone(US version).