The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper Lonely Heart's Club Band Deluxe Edition

antifash

Remember when they used to say, "You've never heard Pepper till you've heard it in MONO?" I'd be interested in the out-takes but I don't need a new stereo mix in my life. 

SEE WHAT I DID THERE.

antifash

£35 for half speed mastered double vinyl. Taking the piss.

mart

stickyfiddle said:

I get that it's a great, cohesive record, but it's not in the same league of side 2 of Abbey Road...

Sadly I can't agree with you there. Side 2 of the Abbey Road sounds like a car crash to me. A combination of Lennon trying to sabotage things ("let's see how shit we can make this and still have the fools buy it") and them not bothering to finish songs off, just ramming bits together and calling it done. Sorry, I'm a heretic, I know!

RandallFlagg

Lovely Rita is my favourite

SidNewton

I'm a huge fan but Sgt Pepper is far from my favourite album. At the very least I prefer Rubber Soul, Revolver, Abbey Road and dare I say it The White Album.
Sgt. Pepper for me is a bit over blown and suffers from the omission of Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane as both those songs are superior to the majority of material on the album.

JezWynd

ICBM said:

scrumhalf said:

I read somewhere recently that Macca would go back and re-do his bass after everyone else had recorded their stuff. Interesting.

Quite likely, since his bass parts are often much more like a melody accompanying the songs than a 'bassline' underpinning them.

I think I'm right in saying he usually put the bass part in toward the end of the session which goes along with your take on it. Absolutely my favourite bass player.

AndyR

SidNewton said:

I'm a huge fan but Sgt Pepper is far from my favourite album. At the very least I prefer Rubber Soul, Revolver, Abbey Road and dare I say it The White Album.
Sgt. Pepper for me is a bit over blown and suffers from the omission of Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane as both those songs are superior to the majority of material on the album.

This is/was exactly my position.

Not so sure now... Our copy arrived yesterday, about 4pm. We were absolutely blown away by it. Suddenly I like the "meh" songs!! Fixing a Hole and Lovely Rita, Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite and Within You Without You.

I LOVE Fixing and Lovely Rita... who knew?!

After a first run through, my only concern was Day in the Life. So we listened to the 67 stereo mix of that a few times and then the new one. I proved to myself what the differences were and that the original's vibe wasn't gone - in fact, even the original doesn't have the vibe that I think I have in my head!! (I've never heard the mono mixes - I passed on the box sets a few years ago and am now regretting it).

I'm not binning the old '87 CD, but this new one is preferable for me at the moment. I can't even be bothered to go back and check the old versions of the others, to find out what I didn't like or whatever... I just want to hear the new one.

I mean, crumbs, I actually want to LISTEN to Sgt Pepper's now!!! I have never felt that way about it before...

(The extras on the 2CD are good - really good - but it's only the remixes of Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane I'll want to hear regularly).

stickyfiddle

@AndyR ;I thoroughly recommend the monos. The new mixes achieve a stereo version of what the mono version was getting at very well. 

But Abbey Road is still better

AndyR

stickyfiddle said:

@AndyR ;I thoroughly recommend the monos. The new mixes achieve a stereo version of what the mono version was getting at very well. 

But Abbey Road is still better

Yep, I'm getting the impression now that I REALLY should have sprung for the mono box set.

I have always been very fond of Abbey Road - not sure I'd be saying "better", though!

I LOVE the early Beatles (yeah, I know, why didn't I buy the monos... curses!), but my favourite is the Rubber Soul and Revolver pairing. I think the new stereo of Sgt Pepper joins them now. Abbey Road has always been out on a limb, I need to be in the right mood to even think of it... when I put it on, it just works (and SOUNDS fabulous).

richardhomer

I have to get this.

I can remember hearing 'A Day in the Life' for the first time (on the blue 67-70 double album). I was 11 at the time - it still gives me goosebumps whenever I hear it.

StageStruck

TheBigDipper said:

Adjacent question. Am I alone in vastly preferring "Let It Be - Naked" over the original release? 

No, no you're not. Vastly better than the overproduced original LP version that Phil Spector oversaw. Pity they couldn't remaster the Let It Be movie to go along with it. I believe the remaining Beatles and estates of John & George don't want it released as "it shows them in a bad light...". Just have to do with a poor quality bootleg in the meantime.

Placidcasual79

I am sold. 

This record is such an indelible part of our collective musical heritage and is so perfectly formed that it almost feels like it occurred naturally and has been here forever like a river or a mountain..... which can make it easy to forget that it was created by 4 lads from Liverpool stepping way off any existing musical map and if its possible, under appreciated. 

That probably makes no sense......

ICBM

Placidcasual79 said:

I am sold. 

This record is such an indelible part of our collective musical heritage and is so perfectly formed that it almost feels like it occurred naturally and has been here forever like a river or a mountain..... which can make it easy to forget that it was created by 4 lads from Liverpool stepping way off any existing musical map and if its possible, under appreciated. 

That probably makes no sense...…

Not at all.

In contrast to some others here I think it's the Beatles' greatest album, and although I personally prefer Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper was the great leap forward for both the band and music in general… but as you say, it's become so much 'part of the furniture' that it's easy to forget just what its impact was like 50 years ago.

Don't forget George Martin as one of the creators either, he was as important as any of the band members.

streethawk

I'm with you guys ^

Looking at their discography, the frequency of their subsequent output is amazing.
Wasn't long before they issued the white album which was like: we can play anything. Just crazy. Happiness is a warm gun still blows me away.

impmann

Sara Cox played a few tracks from the remixed/mastered Pepper this morning, and even in the car you can hear big differences in seperation and clarity. Day in the Life was startlingly fresh sounding and the title track seemed to have more 'jump' somehow. The bass work is sublime - Macca should be revered in the same way as Entwhistle, as they both changed the way the bass was perceived. It is also a great advert for the Rickenbacker bass... although I believe the Fender Bass VI was used too. I must dig out the book...

The hype about Pepper stands up to close examination. It *was* the first time a band (a well known band at that) had dug in at a studio and made a record that wasn't just a collection of songs. It was a 'concept'... even if that concept was a bit flakey and runs out of steam. The idea was that these were sounds that were other-worldly. It wasn't supposed to sound like a bunch of guys playing their instruments in a room. It was supposed to make you imagine different places/worlds and not be tied to the concept of a 'band' just playing their instruments. And NOBODY had done that to the same extent before. It was brave and groundbreaking - not least in the treatment of sound. It was totally cutting edge and some techniques that you can now just select from a drop down menu, they made up on the spot with the help of the electronics boffins at Abbey Road.

I don't disagree that Abbey Road (esp. side 2) is a masterpiece, but Pepper still gives me goosebumps.

not_the_dj

Howard Goodall's docu on C4 now is jolly good indeed. 

richardhomer

not_the_dj said:

Howard Goodall's docu on C4 now is jolly good indeed. 

Watching it too. Always thought McCartney was a great bass player - but watching this I've decided he might be the best ever.

The level of creativity they had never fails to amaze me....

streethawk

In related news, here's a little jam from the Let It Be sessions with Lennon playing a Jaguar, Ringo looking smashed out of his head and falling off his stool at the end. 

https://realtimes.real.com/s/0l43D2

Blueingreen

richardhomer said:

not_the_dj said:

Howard Goodall's docu on C4 now is jolly good indeed. 

Watching it too. Always thought McCartney was a great bass player - but watching this I've decided he might be the best ever.

The level of creativity they had never fails to amaze me....

I played bass exclusively for a good few years and that was my conclusion as well, at least for rock pop. No-one else so often did really unexpected things without making them sound merely experimental and clever. Instead he made them a natural, organic, unobtrusive part of accessible but great music. 

RandallFlagg

streethawk said:

In related news, here's a little jam from the Let It Be sessions with Lennon playing a Jaguar, Ringo looking smashed out of his head and falling off his stool at the end. 

https://realtimes.real.com/s/0l43D2

That's not a Jaguar, it's a Fender Bass VI