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In this episode, Robert and Richard analyze the new CD/DVD package: the good – the bad – the phoned in. They are joined by their friend and yours, Mark Lewisohn, as well as video archivist Erik Taros, who worked on the new promos set. (He also contributes to the upcoming Ron Howard live documentary project.)
Songs include: “Real Love” and “Eight Days A Week.”
Christmas is coming and the Something About The Beatles 2016 calendar is here
Great show which gave me many reasons to think ‘Maybe I won’t buy the 1+ package’!
As well as the high quality of film from 35mm source prints, it’s also great that a lot of the Beatles’ master tapes were 1″ 4 track which is amazing quality.
Hearing the A/B/C comparison mixes of the intro to Paperback Writer I was surprised that I also went with the ‘punch’of the Original Mono. As John C Winn has observed – for most of their career the Beatles worked and thought in terms of Mono. Geoff Emerick has written about how he needed to get John and George’s guitar tones distinguishable coming out of one speaker.All the sounds would have been recorded to tape with a Mono master in mind – so for me I think the original mono mixes are definitive – even though what I usually listen to are the 2009 Stereo remasters!
Great interview with Erick, and a show on Let it be would be welcome – I’d love to know about all the ‘issues’ there are that contribute to the preparation of a refreshed release. The Let it be film is about 90 minutes long, and after listening to all those hours of ‘Day by Day’ series of rehearsals and dialogue from January ’69, it seems really short… just flew by when I last watched it.
I enjoyed your discussion of 1+. I too spent the 70’s buying Beatle albums for the first time; the stereo Capital versions other than an original Abbey Road my parents bought in 1969. I bought my first mono albums when the 2009 remasters came out.
Since I can remember I’ve always wanted the music to be remixed. The hard stereo panning bothered me, even on the later stereo albums. It only got worse when listening on headphones/earbuds. That’s why the “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” blew me away. When I bought it I didn’t know it was remixed so when I heard harmonies I’ve never heard before on “All You Need is Love” and the intro was on both speakers I was shocked and so pleased. I agree with Paul who says the music should continuously be upgraded and improved and not left alone like some dusty vase in a museum somewhere. So for me, I was more excited for the new mixes than the videos.
On the new 1 “Hello Goodbye” is lightyears ahead of any other mix, stereo or mono. Now, it’s a sonically rich experience with so many things going on: instruments, George and John singing background, the piano coming in and out. It’s so fun with headphones. What about the piano in Penny Lane? Wonderful. In no other version does it hit you like that. “I Feel Fine” is great and yes, while “Eight Days a Week” was never one of my favorites it now has more pop giving me a new opportunity to fully appreciate it. I’m disappointed by the start of “Lady Madonna.” Come on, why is Paul’s piano pushed over to the left and not in the middle at least? Overall, a big improvement and I can’t wait until all the albums get this treatment. If only they could/would really separate early songs like “A Hard Day’s Night” and fully remix it.
While the videos were secondary to me behind the remixes I enjoyed them a lot more than anticipated. “Eight Days a Week” and “Word of Love” stand out. Some of the videos truly look spectacular. Who doesn’t love seeing them working in the studio on “Hey Bulldog?” And yes, wait for it, one of my favorites is “Come Together” (wait for groaning to stop). I never saw that before so maybe it’s the newness but they look happy, playing and dancing together as The Beatles in time with the music. What’s not to love? How is that not more fun than a compilation video with them walking in the Abbey Road front door? Maybe they should have done both and bumped the commentary (smile).
By the way, “Ramagine” was great…as is Ram (sorry Richard).
I do not like the “new” Real Love. I feel like the piano John is playing in the demo is off beat, whereas I never heard it — it was blended very well — in the original Anthology 2 version.
Just discovered these fascinating podcasts
Re 1 I was slightly surprised though that no attention was paid to the video standards being used on the Blu-ray.
The perceived need by Apple to ensure only one pressing is needed internationally means that just as the DVD is NTSC (rather than PAL for the UK and Europe), the BD uses 60i rather than 50i (which would be better) for some of its upscaled video-tape originated content. A professional colourist and telecine engineer on another forum had the following to say
“I’ve only sampled the videos up until We Can work it Out and so far it’s a mixture of 60i and 24p encoded material. It’s a somewhat bizarre mix too with the Love Me Do film re-edit being 60i (with a slight video feel), whereas I Feel Fine from video is 24p. Ticket To Ride and Help! is also 24p, but Day Tripper is 60i, then back to 24p for We Can Work it Out. All the video sourced material has been de-interlaced, even the 60i flagged USA TV appearance for Yesterday which would be in its native video standard is filmised. Obviously the 24p Shea Stadium film footage looked very good but unfortunately everything else is somewhat compromised.”
Its the de-interlacing of VT based material that is most offensive. Sure, the overall set still looks great, but there is little apparent logic to some of the decisions made in terms of how the video has been presented. Interlaced VT has a much more natural flow to it than film, and if something was made and broadcast on VT then that’s how I would prefer it to look – there’s no reason why upscaled SD VT cannot look like this.
Why bother to do such a thorough clean up job (although look how dreadfully “hot” the hunting pink jackets are in Penny Lane) and then master in odd illogical ways?
Great show guys. Erik’s info was valuable. It just shows that as much as Jeff Jones is the “reissue guru”, that Apple is sorely in need of a “fan” to consult on a regular basis on what the fans have been dying to have released. The video compilation was long overdue and was discussed as early as the 80’s. Way too long of a wait. Amazing pristine videos except the “Get Back/Let It Be” footage which you could tell was maybe from the “Anthology” or “2003 remaster” as it seems “cloudy, grainy and the imperfections on the film. Clearly no digital work was done in 2015 for those clips!