Beatles – Page 55 – Prattling before the Pratfall

Hit and Miss Masters?

This is a promo video for the remastered Beatles CD’s that I grabbed from Amazon.com.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/SEP/BeatlesAmazon.flv 480 360]

These CD’s are sort of a stand against the grain of lossy, compressed MP3 digital audio, but they’re still limited to 16-bit/44.1 KHz CD sound. I wish there were a standard, higher quality lossless digital format for consumers.

Some fannish things that matter to me:

These are remasters of the original mixes (yay!), with two exceptions.
The stereo “HELP!” and “Rubber Soul” are George Martin’s 80’s remixes (boo!).
I hope the splices in “She Loves You” are smoothed over.
I hope the quick channel fade-out in “Day Tripper” is fixed.
I can almost live with the splices in “This Boy”

The first four titles were available on CD only in mono until now, because the stereo versions are said to not be true mix-downs. But that’s precisely why I want the stereo versions — they make it possible to hear exactly, in detail, how Norman Smith engineered the sessions.

I’m not happy that “HELP!” and “Rubber Soul” aren’t the original 60’s mixes. This greatly undermines the spirit of the set.

Some first impressions of individual tracks on the new Beatles CD’s are available from picky listeners who were congregated in a high-end audio showroom in the city of my birth, Evanston, Illinois.

One on, not after, 909

Wednesday is the day for the big glut of Beatles stuff. Despite the recession, Amazon is sold out of both the remastered stereo and limited edition mono CD sets.

You might think I ordered both sets before they were gone, but I didn’t. Best Buy has a good price for the stereo set, and the ad says not all stores will have the mono set.

My birthday is one after 909, but if I have to settle for the new slippers I asked for, that’s fine too.

Unsigned, unsealed, and undelivered

Photo by Albert Marrion, 17 Dec 1961

I sort of assume that everybody with more than a passing interest in the Beatles has heard the complete recording session held at Decca on New Year’s Day, 1962, but maybe you haven’t. It’s a day that lives in infamy, of course, because they didn’t get signed to a record contract. But the fact is, at that point they still sounded — and looked — like amateurs. Brian Epstein got them into suits in March, but they still needed the ear of somebody who could hear their potential. Listen and decide for yourself. Would you have heard the greatness that was missed by Decca?

Stones cold case

Mick Jagger sitting at the feet of Paul McCartney — where he belonged. 😉

The 40-year-old case of Brian Jones’ death is being pried open.

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2009/08/31/uk_police_to_review_rolling_stones_guitarist_death/

I’m somebody who thinks there’s nothing more to it than, “a coroner said Jones drowned while under the influence of alcohol and drugs,” but this gives me an excuse to say something about the Rolling Stones.

At some point in 1970, in my anguished early-mid adolescence, I realized I’d stopped caring, at a visceral level, about the Rolling Stones. It happened when I developed a deep, personal relationship with The Who. Later, I came to realize my waning interest in the Stones had also coincided with the disappearance of Brian Jones from the lineup.

Much of what I respond to in the Rolling Stones are the sounds and flourishes contributed by Brian Jones. Go back to my post at this link to hear an early example of what I’m talking about.

Some critics fault the Stones’ psychedelic period as being insincere and full of “us too” efforts, but these are some of my favorite recordings, thanks to Brian Jones. The delightful “Dandelion” wasn’t released until the Summer of Love in ’67, but it had been recorded in late ’66.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/SEP/Dandelion.mp3]

A favorite Stones psychedelic single is “She’s a Rainbow,” b/w “2000 Light Years From Home.” I’ve got to believe that Jones is all through both of these tracks.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/SEP/Rainbow.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/SEP/2000LightYears.mp3]

I’m not an expert on Rolling Stones studio recordings, but the last notable release that sounds like it bears the distinctive Brian Jones brand is “Child of the Moon.”

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/SEP/ChildMoon.mp3]

Jones was undoubtedly played out and had nothing further to contribute, but once he was gone the Stones did only one more standout — “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” — and then, for me, it was downhill from there. What they were lacking without Brian was a feeling of creativity and musical expression. Oh, I thought “Sticky Fingers” was a great record — especially with the original zipper sleeve gimmick — but it didn’t take me over like “Who’s Next” would. And I enjoy “Exile on Mainstreet,” but I’ve never played it as more than background music.

Ted Kennedy Dead

I met him only once, with a 20-minute one-on-one interview eight years after Chappaquiddick, three years before he lost the Democratic nomination to Jimmy Carter. No matter what you may have thought of him as a man, I have to stay that Ted Kennedy was very impressive in person. As a senator he knew his stuff.

P.S. Ted didn’t lose the nomination, of course, in 1980. He dropped out of the running.

See comments for why I added this post to the Beatles category.

Dylan the tourist

Back in May, it was reported that Bob Dylan joined a Beatles tour in England, and went essentially unnoticed, to see John Lennon’s boyhood home.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/8046278.stm

But that wasn’t the first time Bob Dylan visited the hometown of the Beatles. Here he is in Liverpool in 1966, only a couple of months before his motorcycle crash.