Anyone buy this yet? The set boasts 2 DVDs of "videos". Hard to tell what these are. Anything live in concert? TV performances? Lip-synched? Stuff from the Beatle movies? Random film collages made in 2015 to sell to fans who need everything?
Anyone buy this yet? The set boasts 2 DVDs of "videos". Hard to tell what these are. Anything live in concert? TV performances? Lip-synched? Stuff from the Beatle movies? Random film collages made in 2015 to sell to fans who need everything?
I'm pretty sure it's the promo videos, most of which were lip-synched. There are a couple, like "Revolution" & "Hey Jude," which had live vocals, but recorded music.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
I haven't bought it yet, but I will be...
CD is...well the cd that came out about 15 years ago. Not sure if it's had anything done to it
DVD/Blu-ray 1 is a promo for each of the tracks on the CD. Usually one that was done at the time, although I think they've done a few specifically for this release where none existed previously
DVD/Blu-ray 2 is alternate promos for some of the songs but not all.
The selling points for me are as follows: comes with a nice looking 100+ page book; 5.1 surround audio on the blu-ray/dvds (done by George Martin's son Giles, who I think also worked on the Love project, which I, ahem, love; 4k remastering on the video content (blu-ray only presumably)
If you're not interested in all the bells and whistles there are lots of different packages available. CD only, DVD/Blu-ray only, vinyl. I think only the deluxe package (1+) gets you DVD/blu-ray 2 though.
Thanks Guys... I just checked Youtube. Most of these promos are up there. I never even knew they existed. Where were they shown? Who watched them? This was 15-20 years before MTV after all.
They look like they would be fun to watch once or twice; not sure if they would be of lasting interest. Now if they could get around to painstakingly remastering those full color concerts from Japan or at least Live at Shea. Those I would buy in a heartbeat.
^^ If you're interested in that sort of thing you should pick up the Anthology DVD set. Lot's of live stuff in there among the anectodes and talking heads...plus I would imagine most of the promo films featured in 1+ are the same as those in Anthology.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Best value is the CD/DVD package. The quality difference between DVD and BluRay will be very little due to the fact that these weren't top quality videos to begin with. The 5.1 mixes will be the same. Only major difference is if you want the deluxe package with the book as an investment.
Well, depends. The stuff shot on film could look pretty spectacular (seen the remastered original Star Trek on BluRay??) Although it was mostly 16mm afaik so, maybe not. But like I said I'd buy the Anthology instead anyway
I bought the two DVD plus one CD version. The DVDs have the promo films plus a sprinkling of live performances. I've seen most of them over the years, but it's good to have them collected for posterity on one release like this. The CD is the third iteration of 1 (2000 original release, 2011 version using the 2009 masters) on CD and has newly remixed audio for all but the first three songs which are in mono. I haven't had a chance to go through the DVDs yet, but the CD is a decent listen even though I like my Beatles best in original mono. It's a better sounding remix project than Yellow Submarine Songtrack. I'd bet that deluxe Steven Wilson type versions of the catalog for which they have the multi-tracks will be the next step. The 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper is coming in less than two years.
"It was a cruel song, but fair."-Roger Waters
What I would do is put out the albums as 'deluxe editions'. The 1st disc with the mono mix and the 2nd with a new stereo remix. A 3rd with 5.1, I suppose. This way there is no confusion with what is already out there, the single disc 2009 stereo issues.
^Ah, but that's something for the 'super deluxe' market.
I think that the multi-tracks exist for most of their catalogue, the exceptions are their 1962/3 recordings...and I'm not sure how much of a loss that is given that it was mostly recorded onto 2 track, so little could be done. So quality remixes of most of their catalogue is certainly possible. Of course, the originals should never be replaced.
The original mixes are plenty good and, IMO, in no need of remixing. The remasters showed that. I shudder to think of someone goofing around with them to make 5.1 mixes.
I'd rather they focus on a genuine live anthology.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Remixes aren't needed at all but they're fun. I've heard this music for 45 years; I'm sick of it frankly. Love was fantastic because at least it gave a fresh spin on the music. It helped me hear it in a new way.
I don't agree that the original stereo mixes are good. Some are, to be sure, but many are not. It's the singles which were particularly badly done, but also things like 'Taxman' where most of the music is on only one speaker.
Check out the sample tracks which they have released for this and they haven't done anything radical, just moved the stereo placement. That's all that needs doing.
Yes, I too would prefer other projects were prioritised over album remixes.
Yeah, I supposed they can be fixed. But, I'd hate to see 5.1 forced onto them just for the sake of it.
Most of the stereo mixes prior to Pepper were done by the studio technicians with no supervision, or the record labels, which weren't even true stereo. Multi-tracks aren't even available for the earliest recordings. There are only a few true stereo mixes during that period, which is why the monos (which were supervised by the band) are considered definitive. The Capitol stereos (duophonic?) were particularly bad. I don't even see how the mono "Revolver" can be surpassed. But, YMMV.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
^In the UK the albums were released in stereo. A few of them (the first two and Rubber Soul) were that band left/vocals right sort of thing, though, yes. And some of the others had stereo choices which, although technically 'true stereo', would probably never be made now.
I'm not really an advocate for 5.1 either. I don't know if you could tell from the 'I suppose' in my original suggestion!
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
"It was a cruel song, but fair."-Roger Waters
I watched all of 1+ last night. It's great.
Groovy. I may have to pick this up. Sounds like there are some rarities I've never seen. And it will be nice to have all this in a physical collection for posterity, not just low-fi data coming from a computer.
I don't know if this is included, but one thing I saw on YT recently that blew me away was a complete 1965 concert from Australia, shot on early black and white video. What was really cool was they even had the opening bands in the film, like Sounds Incorporated, so you really got a feel for what those kids experienced back then. The Beatles themselves were very aloof and workmanlike but they were still so fucking good that they blew every other band off the stage with room to spare.
I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
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