Perhaps you’ve heard about the recent Beatles CD, Love. It’s a wild remix — a mash-up, if you will — of later Beatles recordings. The song “Help!” is in there, as is some of the Revolver album, but mostly it was taken from “Sgt. Pepper” to “Abbey Road.”
My buddy Dennis gave me a copy of Love for Christmas and, much to my surprise, I really like it! Except for the art, which is total rubbish as the British would say. If nothing else the sound is stunning, and highlights how badly the Beatles’ catalog needs to be remastered.
NPR has given “Love” lots of coverage, including a frank interview with Sir George Martin that’s at this link. Although I can’t stand NPR’s Bob Boilen imitating Scott Simon’s annoying laugh, I agree 100% with his comments about the release. Boilen’s 30-minute interview with George Martin’s son Giles Martin can be heard here. I’ve extracted three minutes of the interview and put them on the audio player. Martin discusses “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite.”
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JAN07/BeatlesLove.mp3]
As familiar as the stereo mix of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band is, the fact is the Beatles had nothing to do with it! Their input went exclusively into the monaural mix. EMI recording engineer John Lush, who assisted Geoff Emerick on the stereo mix, says “The only real version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band is the mono version. George Martin, Geoff and I did the stereo in a few days, just the three of us, without a Beatle in sight.” (Source: The Beatles Recording Sessions, by Mark Lewisohn)
Here’s “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” from the original 1967 mono LP release of Sgt. Pepper, purchased by my sister Leslie the week, if not the day, of its release. Don’t expect sonic excellence — American Beatles records had notoriously poor sound quality — but do expect the song to not be just the stereo version made mono.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JAN07/Kite.mp3]Edit: That old record sounds so bad I equalized it to give it some life.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JAN07/KiteEqualized.mp3]
Me again! The NPR interview was great (yes, the laugh was irritating). It was fascinating hearing how George Martin felt that his son Giles was far more adept at the great advances in the technology of music recording that had taken place since the Beatles first recorded their music. BOTH father and son were worried sick about being accused of nepotism on the project, but didn’t need to be. Only Niles could have done the job! What really blows my mind is that UP UNTIL 2006, NONE OF THE ORIGINAL BEATLES MASTERS HAVE BEEN REMASTERED TO DIGITAL! Unbelievable! Thank God they were all in such good shape!
Another side note: while I was being prepped for my C-section 11 years ago, a nurse squealed that “you’re gonig to have your baby on Mel Gibson’s 40 birthday!” I was heavily sedated, and said sarcastically, “Wow, I’m SOOO happy.” Later, I found out that GEORGE MARTIN was also born on January 3 (1926). Now THAT is cool!
OK, OK, I just ordered “Love” on Amazon.com. Who could resist? While I was at it, I got “The Capitol Recordings, Vols 1 & 2. The complete boxed EMI set was way too expensive!
Yeek! “Sgt. Pepper” turns 40 this year! How old and tired Leslie’s record sounds, like us boomers! Just kidding. Really though, I think I’m finally beginning to develop an appreciation for good audio quality, Dougie! Before, I didn’t care, as long as there was no static or skips! Say, while we’re hear [is that an intentional pun? 😉 DogRat], what do you think about Paul’s odd new instrumental/choral work, “Ecce cor Meum?” The mere fact that there are already 58 “new and used” for sale on Amazon says a lot right there! I DID enjoy his last solo album, though.