The Beatles - Live At The Hollywood Bowl

By UltimateClassicRock
Beatlemania was never about just the music. From the start, it was also about the haircuts, the media frenzy, the look, fan pandemonium, the charts, the Cute One, the Quiet One and whatever else that could be marketed.
Watch film clips of the Beatles‘ early appearances, and you’ll see a blur of activity that had only a little to do with the music. You can barely hear the group over the screams and shrieks in concert recordings from those peak touring years of 1964 and 1965. The Beatles were such a little-heard presence on their only official live LP, 1977’s The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, that the murky-sounding album never made it to CD.
Live at the Hollywood Bowl, a remastered and reconfigured update of those same Los Angeles stage recordings from 1964-65 tied to the concert film Eight Days a Week, finally brings the music to the foreground. Make no mistake: This is still mostly about Beatlemania, but this time you can hear what all the fuss was about.
Unlike the Anthology series or even the two BBC volumes, there are no revelations on Live at the Hollywood Bowl. The Beatles onstage never came close to the Beatles in the studio. When they finally quit touring for good in 1966 (because, among other reasons, all those screams and shrieks made it impossible for them to even hear their own voices and instruments), they became a better and more significant band because they could finally give all their time to creating their masterworks.
Live shows, after they made it big in early 1964, were pretty much played to feed the beast. More often than not, they went through the motions, performing the same songs, the same way, night after night after night. There was little inspiration to do more than show up, plug in and play.
If the Beatles don’t sound too enthusiastic to be tearing through their biggest hits yet again on these 17 tracks compiled from three different sold-out August shows at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965, they at least sound raw and weary, which gives some of the songs some new shades to try on.
The best of them – “Twist and Shout,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Boys,” “Help!” – are ragged garage rockers that bristle with the energy the band brought to its fabled Hamburg sets just a few years earlier. And on less scruffy songs like “Baby’s in Black” (one of four new tracks not found on the 1977 edition) they still display a wildly electric pulse not found on the tamer studio versions.
But the biggest revelation here is the sonic upgrade; you can actually hear the Beatles over the relentless audience squeals now. It’s the best presentation of the live Beatles ever assembled, with precise instrumental definition that’s almost entirely missing on other recordings. You can thank Giles Martin, son of the group’s late producer and collaborator George Martin, for getting these 50-year-old tapes in listenable shape.
Still, through it all, the excitement of Beatlemania rings throughout Live at the Hollywood Bowl‘s 45 minutes. As John Lennon and Paul McCartney introduce songs, their hoarse words are nearly drowned out by the crowd’s cries, and the sea of high-pitched screams that greets each song at its start is still deafening all these years later. Did it matter which songs they were singing on the Hollywood Bowl stage five decades ago? Probably not. And the album isn’t going to convince you the Beatles did their best work onstage. But it does give you an idea just how much Beatlemania, in all of its screeching glory, played a part in their legend.

The Art of McCartney

The Art of McCartney



By Kory Grow at Rolling Stone
Half a century ago, Paul McCartney established himself as one of the most influential songwriters ever. Now the former Beatle is getting his due in a big way, with the compilation The Art of Paul McCartney featuring covers of songs by McCartney during his tenures in the Beatles and Wings and as a solo artist.
The roster is a veritable who's who of fellow influential singer-songwriters: Bob Dylan ("Things We Said Today"), B.B. King ("On the Way"), Smokey Robinson ("So Bad"), Barry Gibb ("When I'm 64"), Billy Joel ("Maybe I'm Amazed," "Live and Let Die"), Willie Nelson ("Yesterday"), among many others, all put their unique spin on McCartney songs.
The first song to be released from the record is a take on the Beatles' "Hello Goodbye" – as recorded by the Cure and Paul's son James – which Rolling Stone exclusively premiered on Tuesday. The full compilation is set to come out on November 18th. Elsewhere on the album, Kiss takes on "Venus and Mars"/"Rock Show," Alice Cooper handles "Eleanor Rigby" and the Who's Roger Daltrey belts out "Helter Skelter."
Onetime McCartney producer Ralph Sall dreamt up the project in 2003 when he worked with the Beatle on reviving the song "A Love for You" from McCartney's sessions for the 1971 album, Ram, for the In-Laws soundtrack. It was then that Sall got the OK from McCartney to begin work on the tribute project and began recording songs with the singer's backing band – guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, keyboardist Paul "Wix" Wickens and drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr. – and approaching performers to record the songs. The first to accept Sall's offer was Brian Wilson, who chose "Wanderlust" from McCartney's 1982 solo record, Tug of War.
The compilation will be available in a variety of formats, ranging from standard 34-track CD, vinyl and digital releases to extravagant 42-track deluxe sets with hardbound books, a DVD documentary about the making of the comp and more, depending on the edition. The most ornate edition is a deluxe box set, which has been limited to 1,000 copies, and includes signed artwork by Beatles associate Alan Aldridge, a USB drive designed to look like McCartney's signature Hofner bass, the aforementioned DVD documentary, an audio doc, an illustrated guide to the release, art cards, CDs, vinyl and a certificate of authenticity.
The album is available for preorder on The Art of McCartney site, iTunes and Amazon.

The Art Of McCartney Track List:

1. Billy Joel - "Maybe I'm Amazed"
2. Bob Dylan - "Things We Said Today"
3. Heart - "Band on the Run"
4. Steve Miller - "Junior's Farm"
5. Yusuf Islam - "The Long and Winding Road"
6. Harry Connick, Jr. - "My Love"
7. Brian Wilson - "Wanderlust"
8. Corinne Bailey Rae - "Bluebird"
9. Willie Nelson - "Yesterday"
10. Jeff Lynne - "Junk"
11. Barry Gibb - "When I'm 64"
12. Jamie Cullum - "Every Night"
13. Kiss - "Venus and Mars"/"Rock Show"
14. Paul Rodgers - "Let Me Roll It"
15. Roger Daltrey - "Helter Skelter"
16. Def Leppard - "Helen Wheels"
17. The Cure, featuring James McCartney - "Hello Goodbye"
18. Billy Joel - "Live and Let Die"
19. Chrissie Hynde - "Let It Be"
20. Cheap Trick's Robin Zander and Rick Nielsen - "Jet"
21. Joe Elliott - "Hi Hi Hi"
22. Heart - "Letting Go"
23. Steve Miller - "Hey Jude"
24. Owl City - "Listen to What the Man Said"
25. Perry Farrell - "Got to Get You Into My Life"
26. Dion - "Drive My Car"
27. Allen Toussaint - "Lady Madonna"
28. Dr. John - "Let 'Em In"
29. Smokey Robinson - "So Bad"
30. The Airborne Toxic Event - "No More Lonely Nights"
31. Alice Cooper - "Eleanor Rigby"
32. Toots Hibbert with Sly & Robbie - "Come and Get It"
33. B.B. King - "On the Way"
34. Sammy Hagar - "Birthday"

The Art of McCartney Bonus Tracks:

1. Robert Smith - C Moon"
2. Booker T. Jones - "Can't Buy Me Love"
3. Ronnie Spector - "P.S. I Love You"
4. Darlene Love - "All My Loving"
5. Ian McCulloch - "For No One"
6. Peter, Bjorn and John - "Put It There"
7. Wanda Jackson - "Run Devil Run"
8. Alice Cooper - "Smile Away"

The Beatles - Stereo Vinyl 2012 Box Set

By Kory Grow at Rolling Stone
Five years to the day after the release of The Beatles in Mono, a box set of the group's monaurally mixed catalog through 1968, the band is issuing a vinyl version of the box set. Although the quartet put out stereo versions of their albums concurrent with the mono ones throughout most of their career, the Beatles considered the mono versions as definitive.
The limited-edition 14-LP Beatles in Monovinyl box set includes the group's first nine U.K. albums – from Please Please Me to The Beatles – the American-compiled Magical Mystery Tour and a collection of Mono Masters, which consist of non-album singles and tracks, all on 180-gram vinyl with artwork matching the original releases and a 108-page hardbound book. Each mono LP will also be available to purchase individually, outside of the box set.
Grammy-winning engineer Sean Magee and Grammy-winning mastering supervisor Steve Berkowitz remastered each record for vinyl in the same room at Abbey Road Studios where most of the group's albums were recorded, using quarter-inch master tapes without the help of any digital technology. Instead, they opted for the mastering procedures used in the Sixties, even consulting notes used by the original engineers who cut the vinyl. Magee and Berkowitz spent weeks listening to the recordings, comparing the masters with first pressings of the vinyl albums from the 1960s.
The record cover–sized book accompanying the box set contains new essays and a detailed account of the mastering process by radio producer Kevin Howlett. It also contains rare photos of the Beatles in the studio, archive documents and articles and ads from publications in the Sixties.
The box set and the individual mono vinyl releases will be available September 9th.
The Beatles issued a vinyl box set of the stereo versions of the albums in 2012. Magee told Rolling Stone that while he spent less time working on the vinyl editions than he did on the CD versions of the box set, he did encounter some roadblocks, mostly concerning the letter "S," which was coming out raspy and distorted on LP. This required him to reduce the volume on almost every "S." "A good example is 'She Said She Said,'" he said. "It's time-consuming, but it's the best thing to do – attention to detail, and being as fastidious as you can."
Earlier this year, the Beatles put out a CD box set called The U.S. Albums, which contained the American versions of their LPs and their rearranged track lists. The release was meant to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the group's arrival in the United States and coincided with the Beatles receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys and a TV program called The Night That Changed America. For the latter, Paul McCartney teamed with Ringo Starr for "Hey Jude," among other performances.

The Beatles - In Mono Vinyl Box Set

By Steve Guttenberg at Cnet.com
If you're under 40, there's a good chance you've never heard the Beatles' music the way it sounded in the 1960s. All of their music, every note of it, was recorded on analog tape -- but all of the Beatles' CDs and LPs mastered after 1986 were sourced from digital masters. Even the 2012 remastered stereo LPswere cut from digital masters. So the big news here is the 2014 remastered mono Beatles LPs are the first to be 100 percent all-analog albums since the 1980s. If you've never heard the band's older LPs, the new mono, 180-gram LPs will knock you for a loop. I have the limited-edition "The Beatles in Mono" box set, but the mono LPs are also available individually.
To put some perspective on why I'm making a big deal about this, almost all new LPs by today's bands are mastered from digital sources, even when they were originally analog recordings! Digital is cheaper and faster technology. Analog tapes are delicate, locating an analog tape machine in tip top condition isn't easy, and mastering all-analog LPs can be a big hassle. Generations of engineers have grown up with digital -- they don't always have the skill set required to get the best out of analog tapes.
That's why the latest Beatles mastering job was performed at Abbey Road Studios by engineer Sean Magee and mastering supervisor and all-around nice guy Steve Berkowitz. "The Beatles in Mono" CD boxed set released in 2009 was created from digital masters. For this vinyl project Magee and Berkowitz cut the records with the original analog tape masters, and no digital converters were used. Magee and Berkowitz worked in the same room at Abbey Road where most of The Beatles' albums were cut in the 1960s, guided by the sound of the first-generation albums and detailed transfer notes made by the original cutting engineers.
Their hard work paid off -- the new LPs are the quietest pressings I've ever played, with nary a pop or click. The quality control issues I experienced with the 2012 stereo LP remasters are thankfully not repeated with the mono LPs. The LPs for all markets are being manufactured in Germany.
I own a ton of stereo British and American pressed Beatles albums, but just two original mono British pressings, "Rubber Soul " and "Revolver." Both of these are in excellent condition so they were called into service for comparison listening tests. My old LPs sounded a tad more compressed and less clear, the 2014 versions were more three-dimensional. Obviously, they were much quieter, and there was more depth and body to the sound of voices and instruments. I felt like I was listening back through time and tapping into more of the Beatles' energy. Vocals are more present and, for lack of a better word, complete.
I know some Beatles fans prefer the sound of the mono versions of the albums -- possibly because the mono mixes were supervised and approved by The Beatles back in the day -- the stereo mixes were not. Even so, the mono versions never really connected with me -- but there's something about the sound of the 2014 LPs that's turning me around. The more direct quality of the sound, compared with the stereo versions, is addicting. The orchestral climax on "A Day in the Life" sounds more dramatic on the mono "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" LP. I've heard the tune a zillion times before, and now it's changed for me. That's monumental.
The box set's 12-by-12-inch hardcover book features new essays and a detailed history of the mastering process. The book is beautifully illustrated with studio photos of The Beatles, fascinating archive documents, and articles and advertisements sourced from 1960s publications. The quality of the printing is superb; the large storage box for the 14 LPs and book is nicely done.
For the mono-curious, I'd recommend starting with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," but any album from "Rubber Soul" forward would do; The 14-disc "The Beatles in Mono" box set would make a terrific gift for any Beatle fan with a high-end turntable. The last three Beatles albums, "Yellow Submarine," "Let It Be," and "Abbey Road" were stereo only and never released in mono, so they're not included in this new series.

The Beatles - In Mono CD Box Set

By Edison (California, United States)

I think it would be more helpful for potential buyers to compare the various incarnations of Beatle material out there so that buyers can make an informed decision about what is right for them. There really is not a definitive package of Beatle recordings. Each has it's own magic and benefits and you just need to figure out what you are after.
As for me, so you know, my background is a musician and recording studio owner with 32 years of experience. As for my perspective in comparing Beatle recordings, I've owned the entire Beatles catalog, both American and British versions, in multiple and various pressings on vinyl LP, as well as many unique foreign pressings, cassette and some 8-tracks. I currently have the 1980's box, the Capitol box sets, the Apple remastered stereo box and the Apple remastered mono box and I've been listening to them all side-by-side for this review.

I think buyers of these discs may fall into a few key categories:
1. Long-time Beatle fans who had the original LPs
2. Audiophiles who are looking for the most pristine audible version
3. Young/new fans who just want a nice copy of everything

In short, I'd recommend the following for the respective categories:
1. Apple remastered mono box or Capitol box set, rounded out with individual missing discs
2. Apple remastered stereo box
3. The previously-available 1980's box set

Here's why:

For category 1, the remastered mono box set (or the Capitol box sets, which are stereo and mono) may be the way to go, then just round it out with the individual copies of the missing discs. The mono box has much better sound, clearer than ever before, but still reminiscent of the original LPs tonality and far superior packaging. The mono remasters mimick the original LP packaging even down to spine text and the printed paper inner sleeves! Each disc in the mono set has a resealable outer plastic sleeve (Japanese style) and a plastic inner sleeve to protect the actual disc. The box itself affords direct access to any CD without disturbing the others and the overall box is about the size of CDs, so it fits nicely on a CD shelf (albeit a slightly taller CD shelf; e.g. CD/DVD shelf).
The remastered stereo box is a terrible package. It's 12" high and vertical, doesn't fit on the shelf with other CDs/DVDs. You can't access any CD individually. Instead you have to lift this cloth strap to pull an entire stack of CDs out to get to the one you want, frequently spilling the others everywhere like a deck of cards. You are forced to grab the disc surface to get it out of the cardboard sleeve it's in. Only the front cover reproduces the original artwork. Everything else, back, inside and booklet, while it's nice that there are new, never-before seen photos, makes it hard to reminisce if you remember the original LPs. But for audiophiles and new fans, this packaging might be fine, or even preferred.
The remastered mono CDs only have the original liner notes on the back cover, as they were on the LPs, but this is difficult if not impossible to read. The mono set also lacks the album recording notes that the stereo box has. Only notes for the past masters discs seems to be included in the mono set. The benefit of the remastered stereo CD packaging is that the original liner notes are printed in a booklet for each disc, so they are easy to read.
Unlike the mono remasters, the stereo CDs themselves have significantly different sound from the original LPs. Whether you consider it better is subjective depending on your listening goals. For example, Please Please Me (and all other discs that Paul Hicks remastered) seem to be bass-heavy compared to the original LPs and CD sets. While it's quite an improvement that you can now hear the bass lines clearly and the balance seems more up to date with modern recordings, it just won't be as familiar to those who owned all the original albums. Additionally, the beautiful reverb tails that were on the original Please Please Me album seem to decay quicker on the remaster. (Possibly due to various limiting/compression/eq artifacts?) The mono remaster of Please Please Me seems to suffer this same way. The reverb tails are slightly shorter than previous CD editions like the Capitol box or 1980's Apple box.
The mono set, being mono, all musical elements have to fight for audibility in the center, so, for example, you won't be able to focus on a particular instrument all the way through as easily. The real benefit of the remastered stereo box sound is that you can now clearly hear many of the little things that were previously buried in the mix. It is beautiful and incredible sounding. The various layers of overdubbed parts across the entire box set are clearly audible, which is a treat to hear clearly for the first time.
There are a very few cases, however, where this isn't true. One very small example is on Don't Bother Me. Early in the song George can be heard saying "Fast" on the backing track, but only on the Capitol box set stereo version is this completely and clearly audible with the level of detail other tracks in the Apple stereo box have. This gets back to my point that there really isn't one definitive set. Details come out differently in different versions. There are also some strange artifacts of this latest stereo remaster. For example, on Maxwell's Silver Hammer, the lead vocal occasionally seems to shift between being perfectly centered to splitting into a duophonic kind of sound from both the left and right. None of my other copies exhibit this characteristic. I believe this may be caused by phase artifacts introduced in the remastering from the heavy processing required to being out all the details. I also noticed that on some songs the lead vocals actually were quieter than on other available CD editions, possibly caused by the same.
The short movies included on the stereo remaster CDs and the DVD are sometimes interesting, but not great. There are a few comments buried in there that I had never heard before, but there are also strange inaccuracies; like seeing stills from Paperback Writer/Rain promo films during the Rubber Soul segment. In general, the movies are only a bonus for Beatle completists, due to a couple details that are revealed. They aren't terribly enlightening otherwise.
While the mono set lacks the videos, the bonus of the mono set is the complete original cover art (front, back and inside, where applicable) as well as all the original inserts, e.g. the 4 individual photos from the white album and the original green cut-out card in Sgt. Pepper, not to mention the groovy rose-to-pink paper inner sleeve, etc.
These sets are a bit overpriced. If the stereo set had the mono packaging, then it would be worth the price. The mono box really should be reduced to the price of the stereo set or less, particularly since it's no longer a limited edition (or at least the edition has been expanded such that it's not as much of a rarity now) and it doesn't have all the music or extras (no booklet for each album, no movies).
The terrible packaging, the overpriced price tag and significant deviation from the original sound (in general) knocks the remastered stereo box down to 3 stars for me. (Yes hearing all the little details is great for me as a fan, but the tonal balance was compromised notably to get that, and that is not how these albums were originally mastered nor intended to sound by George Martin and the band themselves. I think these details could have been brought out reasonably without changing the sound as much as they have.) Because of the cost and significant differences from the original cover art and sound, I can't consider the stereo remaster a 'definitive' set, but rather a supplement to the others sets that are available.
The mono remaster box however, I give 5 stars for having pristine sound without sacrificing the original tonality of these legendary recordings, having the original LP packaging and inserts, much better protection of the discs and sleeves, as well as sized to fit on a CD/DVD shelf.

In summary:

If you are a long-time fan who wants to reminisce and re-experience the original LPs, I would suggest either the new Apple remastered mono box set or Capitol box sets, then round it out by buying any individual stereo discs that are missing (Abbey Road, Let It Be, etc.).
For the new fan who wants a copy of everything but isn't nit picking over whether they can hear John say, "Cranberry Sauce" on Strawberry Fields or whether everything is in mono or stereo, the previous 1980's box set would be just fine. You might even find it used/cheap on an auction site, now that these remastered boxes are available. For what it's worth, the previous 1980's box set actually does sound like the original LPs. It's just that people are listening to them on modern equipment. Those mixes were originally created for equipment with tube amplifiers and real wood speaker cabinets, which impart a great deal of bass and warmth to the sound. Putting the same mix through printed circuit board stereos with modern plastic little speakers doesn't quite work with the music to produce the intended result.
For the audiophile who must hear the creaking chair on the final chord of Sgt. Pepper in stereo, the newly-remastered stereo box would be the way to go. The remastered stereo set is also good for anyone who wants to read the original liner notes from the albums and learn more about how the albums were originally recorded.
For the Beatle-completist who must have a every version of a Beatle recording, I'm assuming you already own the 1980's box, the Capitol boxes, the Apple-remastered stereo and the mono box sets prior to reading this review, and there is no review that would help you, since a Beatle purchase is compulsory. 

The Beatles - Japanese 5 CD's Bos Set

By Steve Manassas
In the 1960s and 1970s, Toshiba-EMI, forerunner of EMI Music Japan, and now Universal Music Japan (UMJ), issued the largest number of Beatle records of any country in the world - more than 30. In addition to three "specially created for the Japanese market" albums, Toshiba-EMI also issued all of the standard British LPs, as well as all of the U.S. albums, except for Beatles '65,Rubber Soul, and Revolver, and also issued non-U.K. European compilations, such as THE BEATLES' BEAT and THE BEATLES' GREATEST. They were also the only country, outside of the U.S. and Canada, to issue Capitol Records' documentary The Beatles' Story, in a deluxe box set, no less, with text of the album's narration in Japanese and English (!). Toshiba-EMI also issued all of the compilation/theme albums of the 1970s and early 1980s, including both the U.K. and U.S. versions of RARITIES, as well as the World Records 8-LP mail-order box set From Liverpool: The Beatles Box, which, sadly, I do not own.
As a result of EMI/UMJ's heavy involvement with The Beatles in Mono (The Complete Mono Recordings), as well as The U.S. Albums collection, it was only natural that UMJ put together a 50th Anniversary collection of The Beatles' Japanese albums on CD. There are only 5 discs in the set, including the three "specially created for the Japanese market" albums - MEET THE BEATLES!, THE BEATLES' SECOND ALBUM, and BEATLES NO. 5 (with front cover art and graphics similar to Beatles '65). While obviously modeled after their U.S. Capitol counterparts, these Japanese Odeon versions have significantly different track listings. On the reissued vinyl albums on Apple, which I own, some, but not all, of the tracks appeared in "fold-down" mono mixes created from the stereo master tapes, but the CDs are pure mono, from the 2009 remasters. NOTE: The version of "Love Me Do" from MEET THE BEATLES! is the standard LP version with Andy White on drums, not the original Ringo-on-drums single version, as Amazon claims. Once you unscramble the unusual running order of the tracks, the three CDs contain the complete contents of the Please Please Me and With the Beatles albums, plus all of the MONO MASTERS non-LP tracks from "From Me To You" through "She's A Woman," with the exception of the B-side "I'll Get You," which was apparently displaced by "Can't Buy Me Love" on THE BEATLES' SECOND ALBUM.
The Japanese version of A HARD DAY'S NIGHT has a significantly different cover, but is otherwise identical to the 2009 remastered U.K. stereo version. The Japanese version of HELP! has the original 1965 stereo mix, which can also be found on Disc 5 of THE BEATLES IN MONO box set (tracks 15-28, following the mono mix).
As with the earlier mono and U.S. box sets, each CD comes in a resealable outer cellophane wrapper, with faithful reproductions of the original LP sleeves. HELP! has an impressive gatefold sleeve, with the standard British cover artwork on the front, a black-and-white autographed photo of the band on the left-inside gatefold, Japanese liner notes on the right-inside gatefold, with a color photo similar to the U.S. album on the back, but with different cover graphics. Each CD - issued with the original black-and-silver English-language Odeon label - is housed in a rice-paper inner bag, with reproductions of the original paper inner sleeves, complete with flaps. The first three albums have plain off-white inner sleeves; BEATLES NO. 5 and HELP! have colorful inner sleeves (slightly different) promoting other EMI Japanese releases; classical on one side, mostly from Capitol and its subsidiary label Angel Records, and pop, rock, and jazz titles, many of them also from Capitol, on the reverse side. Interestingly, the Japanese BEATLES FOR SALE is featured on the inner sleeve, even though it is not included in this CD box set. Each CD also contains reproductions of the original inserts, with Japanese, English, and German lyrics; the HELP! album also contains a color still photo of The Beatles from the film.
The package also contains a mini-cellophone package of the five OBI strips for each of the albums, and a colorful collector's book, featuring reproductions of the early Japanese LPs, EPs, and singles (some duplicating the U.S. releases, others with unusual couplings), a photo of a master tape box for one of the EPs, and photos of several Beatles-related Japanese music magazines. The EPs, usually mono 45 RPM records in most markets, are in stereo and play at LP speed, 33 1/3 RPM. I own the Apple reissue of the HELP! EP (Odeon/Apple OP/AP-4110) and it was the first and only record to have "I'm Down" in true stereo, until the ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC LP was issued in 1976. The ANNA EP (Odeon/Apple OP/AP-4118) contains a simulated stereo version of "Sie Liebt Dich"; a true stereo version would not emerge until the RARITIES albums were issued in the U.K. and U.S. in 1978-79-80. In addition, BEATLES NO. 5 was the only LP in The Beatles' worldwide discography to include "Sie Liebt Dich" prior to RARITIES. Only four Beatle albums contain both German-language tracks: BEATLES NO. 5 (possible "fold-down" mono on vinyl, pure mono on the CD), the U.K. RARITIES (stereo with echo), PAST MASTERS ("fold-down" mono on 1988's PAST MASTERS, VOLUME ONE; true stereo without echo on the 2009 remastered two-CD set), and MONO MASTERS (pure mono). The U.S. RARITIES includes "Sie Liebt Dich" in true stereo without echo; Capitol had previously issued "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand," in both mono and stereo, on SOMETHING NEW.
The liner notes of most of the rest of the booklet are in Japanese only, but the song lyrics also appear in English (and German, for "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" and "Sie Liebt Dich"). They appear to be the original words and are not translated from the Japanese. Even the outer slipcase box, which has English text, has its own resealable cellophane wrapper, so collectors can keep the wraparound Japanese-language banner intact on the outside of the box.
This set is not for everyone; most fans will be satisfied with the standard British and U.S. releases. It is aimed at Japanese Beatle fans, who, much like their U.S. counterparts, want CD versions of the albums they grew up with, as well as the worldwide Beatles collectors' market. This collection will probably not come down in price anytime soon, and once out of print, will no doubt become even more expensive, so if you are interested, grab one before it is gone.

The Beatles - LOVE

By Stephen Thomas Erlewine
If boiled down to a simple synopsis, the Beatles' LOVE sounds radical: assisted by his father, the legendary Beatles producer George, Giles Martin has assembled a remix album where familiar Fab Four tunes aren't just refurbished, they're given the mash-up treatment, meaning different versions of different songs are pasted together to create a new track. Ever since the turn of the century, mash-ups were in vogue in the underground, as such cut-n-paste jobs as Freelance Hellraiser's "Stroke of Genius" -- which paired up the Strokes' "Last Night" with Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" -- circulated on the net, but no major group issued their own mash-up mastermix until LOVE in November 2006. Put in those terms, it seems like LOVE is a grand experiment, a piece of art for art's sake, but that's hardly the case. Its genesis lies with the Beatles agreeing to collaborate with performance dance troupe Cirque du Soleil on a project that evolved into the Las Vegas stage show LOVE, an extravaganza that cost well over 100 million dollars and was designed to generate revenue far exceeding that. During pre-production, all involved realized that the original Beatles tapes needed to be remastered in order to sound impressive by modern standards when pumped through the huge new theater -- the theater made just with this dance revue in mind -- and since they needed to be tweaked, they might as well use the opportunity to do something different with the familiar music, too: to remix and re-imagine it, to make LOVE be something unique to both the Beatles and Cirque du Soleil.
Keep in mind the Cirque du Soleil portion of the equation: George and Giles Martin may have been given free reign to recontextualize the Beatles' catalog, but given that this was for a project that cost hundreds of millions of dollars this wasn't quite the second coming of The Grey Album, where Danger Mouse surreptitiously mashed up The White Album with Jay-Z's The Black Album. This isn't an art project and it isn't underground, either: it's a big, splashy commercial endeavor, one that needs to surprise millions of Beatles fans without alienating them, since the mission is to please fans whether they're hearing this in the theater or at home. And so, the curious LOVE, a purported re-imagining of the most familiar catalog in pop music, winds up being less interesting or surprising than its description would suggest.
Neither an embarrassment or a revelation, LOVE is at first mildly odd but its novelty soon recedes, revealing that these are the same songs that know you by heart, only with louder drums and occasionally with a few parts in different places. Often, what's presented here isn't far afield from the original recording: strip "Because" down to its vocals and it still sounds very much like the "Because" on Abbey Road -- and that arrangement is actually one of the more drastic here. Whether they're songs as spare and stark as "Eleanor Rigby" or "Yesterday," as trippy as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" or as basic as "Get Back," the songs remain the same, as do most of the arrangements, right down to the laughter and sound effects sprinkled throughout "I Am the Walrus." There's only one cut that has the thrilling unpredictability of a genuine mash-up and that's a cut that blends together "Drive My Car," "The Word" and "What You're Doing," punctuated with horns from "Savoy Truffle"; a chorus from one song flows into the verse from another, as keyboards and percussion from all three, plus more, come together to make something that's giddy, inventive and fresh. But that's the exception to the rule, since most of this delivers juxtapositions that seem obvious based on the concept of the project itself: it doesn't take a great leap of imagination to set the melody of "Within You Without You" to the backing track of "Tomorrow Never Knows," since both derive from the same psychedelic era and share similar themes.
Throughout LOVE, songs are augmented by samples from roughly the same phase in the Beatles career, so "Strawberry Fields Forever" is enhanced by "Penny Lane," "Hello Goodbye," "Piggies" and "In My Life," but not "There's a Place," "It Won't Be Long," or "I Feel Fine," selections that could have been truly startling. It also would have been startling if those snippets of "Penny Lane" and "Hello Goodbye" were threaded within "Strawberry Fields," in a fashion similar to "Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing," but they're added to the end of the song, a move that's typical of the Martins' work here. With a few exceptions scattered throughout the record, all the mash-ups are saved for the very end of the song, which has the effect of preserving the feel of the original song while drawing attention to the showiest parts of the Martins' new mixes, giving the illusion that they've changed things around more than they actually have.
Not that the Martins simply add things to the original recordings; that may be the bulk of their work here, but they do subtly change things on occasion. Most notably, they structure "Strawberry Fields" as a progression from the original demo to the finished single version (a move that is, admittedly, borrowed from Anthology 2) and they've used an alternate demo take of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," to which George Martin has written a sympathetic new string arrangement. It also has to be said that the craft behind LOVE is impeccable: it flows as elegantly as the second side of Abbey Road, which is an achievement of no small measure. But there lies the rub: even if LOVE elicits a certain admiration for how Giles and George have crafted their mash-ups, it elicits a greater admiration for the original productions and arrangements, which display far more imagination and audacity than the mixes here. Take a song as seemingly straightforward as "Lady Madonna," a Fats Domino tribute so good the man himself recorded it. This mix highlights weird flourishes like the carnival-esque vocal harmonies of the bridge -- things that were so densely interwoven into the original single mix that they didn't stand out -- but by isolating them here and inserting them at the front of the song, the Martins lessen the dramatic impact of these harmonies, just like how the gut-level force of McCartney's heavy, heavy bass here is tamed by how it's buried in the mix. The original has an arrangement that builds where this gets to the good part immediately, then stays there, a problem that plagues all of LOVE.
Here, the arrangements have everything pushed up toward the front, creating a Wall of Sound upon which certain individual parts or samples can stand out in how they contrast to the rest. This means that LOVE can indeed sound good -- particularly in a 5.1 surround mix as elements swirl between the front and back speakers, but these are all window-dressing on songs that retain all their identifiable elements from the original recordings. And that's the frustrating thing about this entire project: far from being a bold reinvention, a Beatles album for the 21st century, the Martins didn't go far enough in their mash-ups, creating new music out of old, turning it into something mind-blowing. But when there's a multi-multi-million dollar production at stake, creating something truly mind-blowing is not really the goal: offering the familiar dressed up as something new is, and that's what LOVE delivers with big-budget style and flair, and more than a touch of Vegas gaudiness. It's an extravaganza, bright and colorful and relentless in its quest to entertain but beneath all the bluster, LOVE isn't much more than nostalgia masquerading as something new.