Beatles new vinyl (Teenbeat special)

This weeks TeenBeat special is about my collection of Beatles records.

As some of you may be aware I've been buying new Beatles records since 1977 starting with the 'Blue' compilation (1967-1970) and adding the odd used copy over that period since been introduced to them by friends and family as a kid.

In the intervening years, I had managed to almost complete the collection which was mainly of Canadian copies although like many, my collection went through a turbulent spell in the mid 80's when their UK albums were issued on cd and as some lps sadly showed their age through wear and damage in my teens, so they got to replaced by the cds in a few cases .  Indeed for a three year period I was minus a lot of their more important albums, period on record !

However over  time I had re-established much of the collection and replaced the odd surviving copy by newer copies that sounded better as some of the discs we had back then weren't so good.

This Monday, November  12th  sees the reissuing  in both the States and also in Europe of their entire catalogue on heavy weight 180 gram vinyl following the now authorized canon of UK releases using the transfers including edits done for the cds which were reissued on September 9, 2009 but without the small amount of limiting applied to the very loudest moments of the music that was applied to the cds.

It also is increasingly recognized the amount of fine detail thought in the very early 1980’s to be acceptable for cd was inferior to that of vinyl or higher resolution digital formats like super audio cd or high resolution lossless files so these records cut from higher resolution than cd files could easily out perform the cd versions.

Because I already have an extensive lp collection I have decided not to buy a complete box set but just to get new European pressed versions of those I remain unhappy with the sound of .

Magical Mystery Tour.

Capitol /EMI SMAS2835

First off, one benefit of this pressing is everything is in true stereo being  rather than the awful duophonic fake stereo of the analogue US and UK versions on the songs Penny Lane, Baby, You're A Rich Man and All You Need Is Love that my very first copy had. Because this lp was in truth a American creation added later in the day to the World-wide catalogue, they have used a old style colourband Capitol logo for it. So cool!

The booklet is tucked in the left jacket pouch rather than stapled in the gate-fold ready to fall off and is printed in thicker paper.

Secondly Sean Magee cut this and he did an extremely good job of getting deep bass on it, the treble is very smooth, and the presence on the vocals almost fooled me into thinking this was analogue sourced, lacking the harshness you sometimes detect on cd. He left a good amount of space from the end of the final track to the edge by the label to minimize any end of side playback problems. I went from having the 1976 UK version with the last three tracks in fake stereo originally to the 1988 Capitol digitally mastered one that was a bit better.

I feel this is the best one yet I've had.It was dead quiet too!

Past Masters

Parlophone

A product of the 'core catalogue' is all you need idea, this was compiled and originally issued in 1988 to round up material that didn't make its way into the individual UK albums that for the most part I never owned then but to which were all re-issued on cd world-wide the previous year.

These weren't just obscure tracks but actually a good many of their British singles and the whole Long Tally Sally ep that for North Americans we got spliced into our unique albums.

I needless to say bought the cds as soon as they were issued but the lp issued several months later never sounded good. It was thin, lacking in deep bass and oddly enough worse sounding than the cds which weren't all they could of been either.

This new copy sounds that much fuller with the added benefits this time around of stereo versions of two German language singles plus From Me To You and Thank You Girl minus the echo on the Capitol lp ‘Second Album’.

From my point of view the main value lies the the tracks that sadly we never got on our lps in real stereo such as This Boy, I Feel Fine, She's A Woman and Yes It Is plus the regular UK mixes of Day Tripper as well as the original single version of their first UK hit, Love Me Do. An aside: It was a shock to here I Feel Fine in stereo compared to the very echo filled fake stereo when I got the UK RED album.

I am extremely impressed with how this album has turned out this  around on lp sounding so much better than the original edition and would go as far as to say it bests the current cd when it comes to detail and sound-staging.

White Album: This edition I got for Christmas 2012 has far more bass than any previous edition and has been cut with a bit of gap between the end the last track and the start of label which helps as the originals didn't making getting clean sound at the end of the record difficult and a 1975 edition I had sounded thin.

A brief list of my Beatles lps to date.

STEREO:

Early Years (Capitol Canada) - early 80's

Second Album (Capitol USA) - 2nd copy early 80's

Please Please Me (Parlophone UK) - 1981

Beatlemania! With The Beatles (Capitol Canada) - late 70's.

2 copies one the 'TLC' wide stereo, the other narrowed

A Hard Day's Night (Parlophone UK) -1981
This was the first UK studio album I bought.

Something New (Capitol USA) -early 80's

Beatles '65 (Capitol Canada) -1983 (Colourband)

Beatles For Sale (Parlophone UK) -1979 

Bought used a few years ago

Beatles VI (Capitol Canada)-1983 (Colourbar)

Help! (Parlophone UK) -1973

Bought used a few back to replace Canadian Capitol Help soundtrack from late 70's

Rubber Soul (UK Parlophone)-1980 (_5/-6 HTM cutting)

Bought used a several months back to replace a late 1970's Canadian Capitol lp.

Yesterday and Today (Capitol USA) -early 80's All true stereo copy!
Revolver (UK Parlophone)1986
This -5/-4 UK copy made just before the cds were issued and the records then altered to us same source as the cd was bought very recently to replace my Revolver (Capitol USA) 1981 edition which sounded a bit distorted in places and only had 11 tracks not 14 of the UK edition.

Sgt Pepper (UK Parlophone) -mid 70's

Bought two years ago to replace Capitol Canada 1979 edition

White Album (Capitol USA) -1988

Abbey Road (UK Apple) -1979

Bought used to replace 1979 Capitol Canada lp that I scratched

Let It Be (Capitol USA) -1979 Mastered fresh by Wally Traugott and sounds very very good

At the Hollywood Bowl -1977 (Capitol Canada) + (Parlophone UK)

Compilations:

Rock and Roll Music (Parlophone UK) -1976

Love Songs (Parlophone UK) -1977

1962-1966 aka RED (Apple UK) -1989 (Replaced 1977 UK)

1967-1970 aka BLUE (Apple UK) -1991 (Replaced 1977 UK)
Rarities (Pathe Marconi/French EMI) -1985
It's the French edition of the Capitol lp that had tracks not easily found in North America some of which ironically no longer in circulation.
Reel Music (Capitol USA) -1982 
The first US album to have Ticket To Ride in true stereo believe it or not!

Mono:

Please Please Me (Parlophone UK) -1988 

With the Beatles (Parlophone UK) -1982

Beatlemania! with the Beatles  (Capitol Canada) -1963

A Hard Day's Night (Capitol USA) -1988

Beatles For Sale (UK Parlophone) -1982

Help! (UK Parlophone) -1982

Rubber Soul (UK Parlophone) -1982

Revolver (UK Parlophone) -1967

Sgt Pepper (UK Parlophone)-1967

From Liverpool Box set

On November 3rd 1980, the mail order  division of England's EMI records, World Records issued a special 8 lp box set entitled "From Liverpool-The Beatles box" whose timing was unfortunate being but five weeks off the death of John Lennon, something I can recall all to clearly even today.

It had two posts, a couple of flexi discs and a leaflet outlining other titles they did and critically at the time as I recall well, the chance to be entered in a Prize Draw
It was heavily advertised at the time in magazines including the Radio Times and sold very well no doubt appealing to those who need to have something to remind them of the magic of the time during the period after John's tragic death in New York.
As you can from the above entry attempts had been made before to condense the magic of the Beatles for casual fans especially in an era where many singles were not on the contemporary lp releases in the UK but this set attempts to fill the gap by adding a sizable number of prime album cuts from each original album to the 45's and EP tracks making in effect a halfway house.

All 124 tracks over 8 lps were freshly mastered by Harry T Moss who did many of later full lp masters and Simon Sinclair who compiled it, used a number of rare or alternate mixes never previously issued in the UK too adding to it's collectors appeal.
The discs are set out in chronological order meaning that things from what become the Let It Be album appear before Abbey Road as they were recorded first and a number of tracks have 'clean' starts and earlier fades when they were segued on albums such as Abbey Road and the 'White Album' with the majority of tracks in stereo although two - P.s I Love You and She Loves You - remain in UK fake stereo form from the 1960's and freshly mastered tracks where no stereo versions were found were issued in mono.
Each disc has a separate glossy picture lp jacket with a history of the period on the reverse with a lined inner sleeve to protect it. It was also issued on cassette form in a box with the tapes being Dolbyized.
Some hifi types allege this album is too quiet having long sides but as generally they have 8 tracks per side (one more than usual in the UK) and only one side goes near 24 minutes it's well within the optimum range for lp cutting and more to the point sounds extremely good with fairly quiet vinyl too.
I actually wanted this back in 1980 but my folks never bought it me so to get a mint copy now is really nice transporting me back to that time.