Sgt Pepper 50th anniversary box next month

[gareth brown]

The Beatles / Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band super deluxe edition | superdeluxeedition

New stereo mix of the album and Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane, two sessions discs, unreleased mixes, 5.1 mix, videos blah blah blah.

Looking forward to hearing the stereo mix! Guess after the remasters there was nothing left to do but set off down the deluxe box set route. But in all seriousness this sounds pretty exciting and if that italian Amazon price stays as low as it is, that's a bargain compared to U2.

 

[DaveC]

i'm looking forward to the anniversary of let it be in a few years, hoping that the entire film gets a proper restoration and re-release. though i do hear that paul is the main obstacle on re-doing that one as he does not like the way he comes across in the film, particularly in the scene where he's giving george the business over the way he's playing maxwell's silver hammer.

 

[Hewson]

Friggin' John Lennon and his cash grabs.

 

[lazarus]

1. Makes you wonder why George Martin didn't do a new stereo mix years ago, when he could have sat down with Paul, George, Ringo, Emerick, etc.

2. I hope Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields new mixes will be on a CD and not just the DVD/Blu-ray.

3. Weird that they didn't do a Revolver set. This might be just a one-off, though I really hope the White Album gets this treatment


Also, I'm a second away from putting through the order via Amazon Italy, I'm through checkout and I'm on the final page. Does anyone think it's going to get cheaper? My main reservation is that I simply don't listen to Peppers that often, and as far as the early takes/sessions stuff goes, this was already covered extensively on the Anthology 2 discs, no?

 

[BVS]

Is it just to ruin their legacy??!!

 

[cobl04]

This will cost a fucking arm and a leg in Australia :groan:

 

[lazarus]

With shipping to Los Angeles it's gonna be about $95 from Amazon Italy.

I still haven't completed the order yet.

 

[david]

Friggin' John Lennon and his cash grabs.

The zombie John should re-record vocals in one of the tracks....

 

[Danny Boy]

2. I hope Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields new mixes will be on a CD and not just the DVD/Blu-ray.

Pretty simple to rip the Blu-ray and burn your own CD. They are being released as a 7" single for Record Store Day.

RECORD STORE DAY - SpecialRelease

I haven't decided whether to pull the trigger on this, either.

 

[Danny Boy]

He zombie John should re-record vocals in one of the tracks....

Just the verses, though, not the chorus.

 

[gareth brown]

2. I hope Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields new mixes will be on a CD and not just the DVD/Blu-ray.

They're on the second disc (in the boxset not the 2 disc version)

Also, I'm a second away from putting through the order via Amazon Italy, I'm through checkout and I'm on the final page. Does anyone think it's going to get cheaper? My main reservation is that I simply don't listen to Peppers that often, and as far as the early takes/sessions stuff goes, this was already covered extensively on the Anthology 2 discs, no?

Looking around, the Stereo and Mono boxsets from 2009 haven't dropped much at all in 8 years, which is fucking ridiculous at this point.
85 quid down from 140 for a new bells and whistles Beatles thing like this is a steal, I'd just bite the bullet and order it while the offer's still there.

 

[intedomine]

Was just thinking a couple of days ago... Will they do anything for Pepper's 50th?... and bang, this gets announced.

Been on a Beatles bender for a good month or so. Watching the anthology in full, listening to the albums. Even attempting to rank every Beatles song from favourite to least. Such a fascinating catalogue/story.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

I kind of figured they would be going with 50th/60th mega-sets for basically all the albums, but that seems a little unlikely since this is a test run (since it's the first in an industry where physical media is truly on the wane) and they are including new mixes of two songs that are on Magical Mystery Tour.

Pretty sure the holdup over Let It Be is actually because of George who wasn't fond of the sessions and the acrimony that went on at the time. George is also the one who vetoed putting the one unreleased Beatles track, "Carnival of Light", on Anthology 2.

I'm assuming that the sessions tracks that are also on Anthology 2 are all in this box set to make the Sgt. Pepper section of that release entirely irrelevant...if they do continue down the route of doing these for all the albums, it would be nice to just make the Anthology releases a needless purchase if you have all the big box sets.

Probably could do a 50th anniversary of the break-up Past Masters release in 2020...the two Past Masters sets remixed plus sessions stuff for all of those non-album tracks. Maybe finally chuck in "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love" with those.

Video-wise, the smart thing would be to just have all the promo videos included in the big box sets and make the recent 1+ release needless, but I'll doubt they'll be that comprehensive. Packing in the five movies with their respective albums would also be nice. It would be great to wake up in a world where you could basically have all the audio/video The Beatles via Super Deluxe LP sets and the BBC Sessions releases. Obviously, that would not include post-breakup documentaries and remix projects (such as The Beatles Love).

Also, George Martin did do stereo remixes of Help and Rubber Soul back in the 80s after he was kind of blindsided by the mono release of the first four albums. So the general releases of those two albums have been the 1987 mixes (or 88?) of those records ever since. They released the original stereo mixes of those two as add-ons to the Mono boxed set in the recent remastering campaign. Obviously, those two records have always sounded a lot brighter than their counterparts as the old Revolver CD release, for example, is relatively flat by comparison.

 

[gareth brown]

I kind of figured they would be going with 50th/60th mega-sets for basically all the albums, but that seems a little unlikely since this is a test run (since it's the first in an industry where physical media is truly on the wane) and they are including new mixes of two songs that are on Magical Mystery Tour.

Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane were recorded for Sgt Pepper but EMI pressured the band to release them as a double A-side instead because it had been so long since their last single. Including them here as part of the sessions makes perfect sense really.

If anything, what's confusing is why "Only A Northern Song" was left off this set completely, since a fair amount of work was done on it then.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Well, the double A-side was at least released around the same time whereas "Northern Song" was finished later and shelved for a while. I do think it makes sense to include it here though, but it kind of shows their hand that they hadn't considered an MMT set...which was probably unlikely anyway given the already released boxed set for the Blu Ray release of that film.

 

[gareth brown]

I think Northern Song definitely falls into the Sgt Pepper timeline (it was on Anthology 2 instead of 3 for example, and the overdubs and mono mix were done right after the album was mixed and eventually turned up on Mono Masters)

I've just realised though, there's probably very little left of that song worth releasing beyond the alternate take on Anthology 2, the 1999 stereo mix and the mono mix.
They probably realise anything further's going to be barrel scraping. More so if you want to be really mean about the box itself. Still a curious omission even if just for completion's sake.

As for Magical Mystery Tour, there's probably a less swanky boxset on the way eventually. I wouldn't be surprised if everything post Sgt Pepper is going to get the full 5.1/new stereo mix treatment. I wouldn't surprised if it's already been done and is sat waiting in the vault to see how the Sgt Pepper test run goes like you said, BigMac. Sensible I guess, but I'm sure this is the one band that could still comfortably release the whole lot in one go and watch the money pour in.

 

[DaveC]

only a northern song and it's all too much are definitely both sgt. pepper era songs. they were basically finished then besides a few overdubs (it's pretty evident by the production).

i really hope they remaster and release the 9 minute version of it's all too much.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Tell me about it! It's so god damn irritating to watch the movie and yet we don't have the longer version of "It's All Too Much" that's in it...guess a YS box set could happen?

Nah, but seriously, if it did, are there like George Martin orchestral outtakes from the soundtrack recording sessions? That would be kind of nice....or maybe a release of some more orchestral stuff that didn't make the film and/or soundtrack.


I'm in agreement that the eventual plan is to have remixed/5.1 versions of everything...kind of makes you wonder just what exactly was the point of tossing out the original stereo mixes in the first place with the remastering batch from 2009...pretty much everybody agrees remixed stuff like Yellow Submarine Songtrack and 1+ are way better sounding than the rest of the pack.

 

[gareth brown]

White Album's next apparently!

 

[Hollow Island]

only a northern song and it's all too much are definitely both sgt. pepper era songs. they were basically finished then besides a few overdubs (it's pretty evident by the production).

i really hope they remaster and release the 9 minute version of it's all too much.

Only A Northern Song: recorded between Fixing A Hole and Mr Kite.

It's All Too Much is from the Magical Mystery Tour sessions, recorded between You Know My Name and All You Need is Love.

 

[Hollow Island]

White Album's next apparently!

really? deets? they better include at least one long version of Helter Skelter and Revolution Take 20! As a double A side 12 inch single....

edit: i see, Martin is going to remix the White Album. I've never been unsatisifed with the mixes of the White Album but it'll be interesting to hear it balanced differently - I wonder what else is lurking in there.

 

[lazarus]

Nice.

I'll buy any deluxe package of that album.

Still odd they passed up Revolver.

 

[namkcuR]

I have the 2009 box, so I really can't justify buying any of the albums again, but these still look like good purchases for those that don't have the albums.

 

[djparky]

I don't think the master tapes exist for some of earlier Beatles albums

 

[Danny Boy]

I just discovered $100 in unused Amazon gift cards in a drawer, so I finally broke down and ordered this.

 

[lazarus]

GAF just found $100 in unused condoms in a drawer, so he finally broke down and wept over his life choices.

We're one, but we're not the same.

 

[david]

The remix sounds sick. From what I heard.

 

[Danny Boy]

Mine is on the way, will be here tomorrow.

 

[djparky]

Going old school and buying it from HMV in a store

 

[Danny Boy]

There are still HMV stores?