It is the the most ancient Beatles argument: “Lennon or McCartney” Which musician was most important to their music? It’s my opinion as a huge Beatles fan that the real answer is “both!” It may sound like a cop-out but I really think it’s true.
I’m definitely not one of those people that goes out of his or her way to disparage the solo careers of John and Paul but I do think it’s clear that they never reached the same level on their own as they did together with The Beatles I think that’s pretty good evidence that there was something magical about their songwriting partnership that allowed their work together to be more than the sum of the parts.
A lot of The Beatles greatest work wasn’t the songs that they wrote on their own but were the songs that they worked on together. Many of their early singles such as “Please Please Me” and “Love Me Do” were written together and some of their most timeless songs such as “A Day in the Life & “We Can Work It Out” consisted of different song segments that Paul & John wrote which were added together to form a whole song.
And even when a song was solely written by one or the other such as in the cases of “Hey Jude” and “Dear Prudence” there was still some great input by the other one.
For example with McCartney’s songs like “Hey Jude” and “Getting Better” John would give Paul very helpful advice on his lyrics. John told Paul to keep a lyric in the song “Hey Jude” that Paul felt wasn’t clear enough. With “Getting Better” John added the “it couldn’t get much worse” bit which helped to add a bit of weight to the positive lyrics of the rest of the song.
Paul added some incredible bass guitar parts to John’s songs such as “Dear Prudence,” “Rain,” & “Come Together.” Without the great bass parts on these songs, they’d be nowhere near as great!
The essential point that I’m trying to get across is that both Paul & John were necessary ingredients of what made The Beatles so great.
Now that I’ve had Box Set|The Beatles Stereo Remastered CD Box Set|The Beatles Remastered Stereo CD Box Set] for almost a full seven days I think it’s time to do a review of the set as a whole. Now I have heard everything at least once (although some albums I’ve heard multiple times and others just once) and I have no reservations in saying that these remastered CDs are far superior to the old CDs most of us Beatles fans owned previously.
It’s amazing how much clearer these new discs sound when comapred to the old CDs. I’m hearing so many details in the music that I didn’t even know were there! It’s really like rediscovering The Beatles awesome albums again as I go through each of the 16 CDs in The Beatles Stereo Box Set.
There’s already been a lot of argument among Beatles fans over which box set sounds better; The mono mixes or the stereo mixes? This debate is raging because along with this stereo box set The Beatles Mono Box Set was also released on September 9th.
In my opinion the stereo CDs definitely sound better for the the band’s later CDs because they allow for greater clarity which is essential considering how much is going on in most of the later mixes. With the first four or five albums it’s a closer call. I still like the clarity of the stereo mixes even with the earlier albums, but it is true that the really wide panning can be a bit distracting so I think there’s a good case for the more “powerful” sounding mono mixes too!
In short, I’m very glad that I bought both box sets and I really think they are both essential for serious Beatles fans. After all the mono mixes were how the albums were originally intended to be heard so they have great historical value, but the stereo mixes sound really really good, so you have to have those too.
And while the major reason I’m so excited about this box set is, of course, how great the music sounds – another great thing about it is the awesome packaging. An informative booklet with many pictures and notes on the historical context of the album and the recording process for that album is included with each CD.
The Beatles In Mono Remastered CD Box Set includes The Beatles first ten albums in their glorious original mono mixes along with the “Mono Masters” two CD set which includes the mono versions for all of their non-album songs that were mixed in mono.
The Beatles In Mono Box Set is a real “revelation” in some cases. A lot of the band’s earlier songs really sound far~better in mono than they do in stereo because they were originally mixed in mono and the stereo mixes were often done as an “afterthought” (because stereo wasn’t taken very seriously at the time.) Many of The Beatles stereo mixes are totally crazy by the standards of today because they pan everything to one side or the other which can be unsettling to listen to (especially when listening on headphones.)
It’s great to be able to hear tracks like “Eleanor Rigby” without the ridiculous panning approach that screws up their stereo versions of these tracks.
Panning is not the only differences between the mono & stero mixes. In quite a few cases there are actually different takes and different effects used! And in many more cases different instruments/parts are highlighted in the mono mix vs. the stereo mix.
A great example of a different mix in mono vs. stereo is “Helter Skelter” because it’s almost a full minute shorter in mono than in stereo and it doesn’t include the “blisters on my fingers” scream at the end.
Another good example is all of the extra vocal effects on the mono version of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” But really a lot of the songs on the mono Sgt. Pepper have a lot more vocal effects than do their stereo brothers.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Mono Masters Non-Album Compilation is that it includes four previously unreleased mono mixes (“All Together Now,” “Hey Bulldog,” “Only a Northern Song and “It’s All Too Much.”) These four songs were never released in mono (in any format) before because when the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album was originally released in 1969 it was only for sale in stereo (which is why the whole album is not included in the mono box, the George Martin instrumentals were never mixed in mono) so these mono mixes were shelved in Abbey Road Studios for 40 years before finally being heard in 2009.
The Beatles had 12 official studio LPs from 1963 through 1970 and most of them were great which makes picking out just 3 of their albums as the top three is extremely hard.
Why 12? You may have heard that The Beatles recorded 13 albums. That 13th “album” was actually Magical Mystery Tour which was originally released in 1967 just as an EP in the UK. An “album” version of it was cobbled together in the US by adding some earlier singles to it.
Many Beatles purists don’t think of it as one of their official releases, although it has been added to official UK discography since 1976 (when it was released in the UK because so many people were importing the US version.)
This double album includes many of The Beatles greatest moments. It also includes some of the songs that a lot of people think of as their worst. But I actually think those weird songs (such as “Wild Honey Pie” and of course “Revolution #9″) add to the magic of the album. This is an “anything goes” album and it’s all the better for it
A lot of people claim that this legendary album is overrated and I can understand that opinion from the point of view that The Beatles other albums sometimes get overlooked in comparison. For example a lot of less informed people think that Sgt. Pepper was The Beatles first attempt at “art music” but obviously Revolver beat it to the punch. But, I still think Sgt. Pepper is an amazing album that works as the band’s most “cohesive statement” and I think while it may be underrated by those who are slightly ignorant of The Beatles entire catalog, I think it’s actually underrated by those known as “hipsters.”
Revolver is probably The Beatles most consistently great album. Every song is worthy of high praise from the perfect “For No One” to the acid rock of “Doctor Robert”
It was not until the time of Let It Be & Abbey Road that the stereo mixes became The Beatles only. Until then they were actually far more interested in the mono mixes because they were considered to be the “standard” at that time.
The Original Beatles Albums
You can make a great case that these original mono mix CDs represent The Beatles albums in their most pure form. These are the mixes that most people heard back in the 1960s. These original mono mixes are the ones that made them the most popular band ever. Even if just for historical context, these mixes are very interesting to true Beatles fans.
Help! & Rubber Soul in their original stereo mixes
The mono mixes of all of the band’s singles that were mixed in mono.
Where’s Yellow Submarine, Let It Be, & Abbey Road?
The band’s last three studio albums were actually never mixed in mono because by 1969 stereo was the standard and mono mixes had been completely phased out.
Why Are Stereo Mixes Of Two Of The Beatles Albums Included?
The two albums included in stereo (Help! & Rubber Soul) were recorded in 1965. Why is that relevant? Because that’s when the band first started to do these stereo mixes and they were very experimental. Because of that when the bands albums were first released on CD in the 1980s they decided against including these 1960s stereo mixes and created new stereo mixes to replace them with. That means the original stereo mixes for these two legendary albums have never been included on CD until this box set.
For The First Time Ever The White Album Will Be Released In Mono In The US
This will actually be the first time the band’s classic self titled 1968 album (best known as The White Album) will be released in mono in the US in any format. Why is that? Because in 1968 mono was already done in the US so only the stereo version was released. In the UK both the stereo & mono versions were released.
There are actually two box sets being released on 9/9/9. A stereo box set & a mono box set. Both are necessary purchases by~essential for} real Beatles fans.
If you have a Beatles fan in your family & friends (yourself included!) you should circle September 9, 2009 on a calander because that’s the day three incredible Beatles related gifts are being released. The stereo box, mono box, and Beatles Rock Band video game. In this post I’ll go into a little detail about what makes each of these products such a great gift for Beatles fans.
Every single song The Beatles released from 1962 through ‘70 in very high quality stereo. That’s all thirteen British albums from 1962’s Please Please Me through ’70’s Let It Be. And yes this is a great gift even if the Beatlemaniac in question already owns all of their albums on CD. Why? Because these CDs sound much better than the older CDs.
These new CDs capture more of the original sound from the master tapes than do the old CDs. They allow for more details in the music to be heard and they have a “warmer” sound as well.
This is a great present for really serious Beatles fans because this is what all of the true “purists” have been waiting for: Finally, the original mono mixes from the 1960s are available on CD. This is the first time that the Beatles albums will be heard as they were originally intended to be heard by many Beatles fans!
Each of the band’s first 10 albums was mixed in mono and the band actually spent much more time working in mono than they did in stereo. The reason for that is that in the 1960s stereo was still a new concept and was thought to be something of a “fad.” Most of their fans listened to mono at that time so it only made sense for them to concentrate on the mono mixes.
This is a great gift for any Beatles fan who also enjoys playing video games. But I must say that you don’t have to be a video game addict to like playing Rock Band. I hate video games in general but I love playing this particular game.
If you have younger “gamers” in your family who don’t yet know or appreciate The Beatles music this may be a great way to get them into it.
