Showing posts with label George Harrison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Harrison. Show all posts

Sunday, March 7, 2010

The Beatles Remastered Catalog - The Assessment (Let the music speak for itself)

Hope we hear some news from the sipmac ensemble anytime soon! Because right now the entire team is experiencing for the first time the entire Beatles Catalog Remastered! So far so good! The sound is great (any backward or headphones gimmicks have not been used until now), but it is for sure a deluxe (for once it is the right word) set, with pictures, liner notes... it is worth every penny spent! An in-depth analysis is pending... you have been warned! Now, sit down, relax and enjoy!

Long live the Beatles! Now at home, next time in... Liverpool?

The Assessment - December 24th, 2010

I been procrastinating with this long-time announced post; but, what can I do? What can I add to this long Beatles saga? What new insight did I brought to the Beatle people? Well, yes I can. But the more I try, the less I can. I bought the entire collection in stereo and started to listen... and listen... and listen... as matter of fact, the music speaks for itself. The CD covers bring a comfy atmosphere, and you start trying to suck everything you can from the mini-documentaries, and you start to feel... happy.

Being a beatlemaniac for so long, you start to think you're start to run out of adjectives and praises, but as I said, let the music (you can feel the difference) speak for itself. The Box is worth every penny you give, and conceding I can't still stomach the Magical Mistery Tour, nevertheless it is great to appreciate firsthand the art of the entire album - not to mention the music.

John Lennon's influence cast a ever-growing shadow on the Beatles oeuvre, something still makes Paul McCartney nervous, but he should not to bother too much. He did his bid, too (But we have to concede that the first albums were Lennon's territory, but from Rubber Soul on he fortunately takes off). The White Album looks greater than ever, and Abbey Road baffles me like the first time. I still wish George and Ringo had more songs on those albums. Hey, Let It Be, properly conducted and produced, could have been another original double album, not to mention Abbey Road! The repetitive final chords of I Want You (She's so Heavy) makes me to thank God Almighty, just because this is such a great time to have all The Beatles' Albums, when twenty years ago it was a task for really wealthy collectors. Downloading them on Ares is for sissies.

Sometimes God and The Beatles doesn't seem to belong together in the same sentence (witness Lennon mean attitude to God, Jesus and religion - more on this maybe on a later post), but then I look for McCartney's assistance: he said most of their songs were about peace and love, and Ringo still clings to his given mantra; not to mention Harrison's spirituality (You can feel it in "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun"). Hope God take note on this.

Yes I want it, because I am always willing to forgive The Beatles' individual shortcomings. They made it right once then. The remastered albums are witnesses to this. Thanks once again.

FULL DISCLOSURE: April Camus first Thesis was dedicated to John, Paul, George, Ringo, Axl and Slash (more on Axl and Slash maybe on a later post).
Enhanced by Zemanta

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Beatles Catalog (Finally) Remastered – A satiric Beatles-wordplay-and-puns-free assessment

On September 9th, 2009, the entire Beatles original catalog was released to an always avid target: three loyal generations of Beatlemaniacs and unsuspecting buyers we could qualify as collateral damage. As we saw with the 2006 released Love, we could appreciate in the documentary how difficult it was to the producers to come up with decent mashups, even with the entire same catalog at disposition (Yeah, sure. Just look out for Beatles’ mashups in Youtube. Start with Paperback Believer). With this in mind we can infer how difficult it was the remastering of every single song released in the 13 official albums with the singles and EP original material without botching it.

Because it doesn’t matter how many times the marketing team ends up not with a bang but with a wimp: the original songs remained the same. Until now. With such a task, the EMI engineering team, supervised by none others than Paul, Yoko, Olivia and Ringo, worked 4 years straight… until they could not hear a Beatle song anymore. First they searched for similar experiences around the world. Finally, in Colombia they bought the 1998-produced 30 Grandes Exitos – Diomedes Díaz and the original albums. After carefully (and for most of them, painfully) listening, they knew then what to do exactly with the Beatles catalog:

* First, suppress all chat and greetings to zero. Otherwise the recordings get too mundane instead of classy. Since Let It Be… Naked was released in November 2003, people would know already what to expect. Oh! Sorry What Goes On Website, your work is not needed anymore.

* Get rid of embarrassing out-of-tune performances! That means you, Hold Me Tight! Ole Paul was literally forced to re-record the With the Beatles’ track entirely with the early technology and sing correctly this time. When he protested, George Martin said: “You saw this coming from 46 years ago!” Mr. Moonlight? Out with the annoying Hammond solo! And another slap in the wrist for Macca!

* As in "30 Grandes Exitos", where the guacharaca was suppressed and replaced for *stylish, refined* cymbals, the entire drums and percussion of the tracks were removed and replaced with a drum box! In an upcoming Rolling Stone interview, Ringo will talk about how he is finally fed up with being the butt of jokes and harsh and unfair criticism for his drumming job in the band, so he gave up all his work for a bigger share in the Beatles’ business. Finally a point for Macca (fair or unfair his drum parts weren’t removed)!

* Revolution 9 was supposed to be enhanced with disparaging remarks of Michael Jackson made by Paul, Yoko, Olivia and Ringo, but self-styled King of Pop’s death recent death made them quit the project.

* As a special gesture, Strawberry Field Forever was intended to be reworked since the late John was never satisfied with the final result, the originally 1967-released version. But it was not possible to contact him, in spite of all the attempts made.

* In the most controversial move, all non-Harrisongs lead and rhythm guitar work was scrapped and replaced for all new Macca and Eric Clapton’s work. In his final days, close to achieve another happier and peaceful plane of existence, George Harrison couldn’t care less about the request and gave his permission to this. If this was the way for Macca to “finally set things straight”…

Well, speaking seriously now I wish the entire work can be heard as I heard Let It Be… Naked for the first time. Thank you, lads!
Enhanced by Zemanta