The Beatles: The U.S. Albums

On January 20th, commemorating the 50th  anniversary of the Beatles first visit to the States, Apple arranged through Capitol Records for a special set of albums released for the US market specifically to be issued in both boxed and for a limited period separate editions as well as on iTunes. They contain both mono and stereo versions of each album.

As you can see they come in the collector popular Mini LP style mimicking the feel of a vinyl album with card jackets, replica inner sleeves and like their Japanese counterparts, have a plastic sleeve to keep the cd free from scratches with the entire packaged disc in a resealable archive see through plastic wallet. 

In America because royalties were charged per track rather than per album it was normal for their lps to have 11 or 12 tracks compared to typically 14 on British releases plus in the states albums always featured the hit single(s) whereas in Britain they didn't.

This needless to say is why these albums, the ones I grew up with on record, are different than the now standardized British ones and so for many North Americans are the albums we cherish as quirky as they were.

Eight of these albums were reissued in a set of cheesy boxes in 2004 and 2006 with thin card covers the sort British people would associate with newspaper giveaways or some of us remember ISP's giving out with the first set being quite blurry too. I wrote about these sets at the time.

The recordings used were sent over from Great Britain usually using the same final mixes for mono or stereo as the UK releases although when tracks were sent early due to requests from Capitol for an upcoming album, sometimes different versions were sent from the one decided upon for the UK.

These were copied altering the sound, adding echo and in some instances making fake stereo versions from mono tapes and then used on the lps, a process which while giving it a unique sound nonetheless caused some loss of quality compared to the tapes Capitol received.

The earlier box sets used these modified tapes throughout  with the mastering engineer just trying to get them as good sounding as the material he had would allow.

This album, a favourite of mine in this set, is a good example of that with two incredibly bad fake stereo songs in the middle of quite reasonable stereo with one unique mix and on the older cd it's that you hear on the stereo portion and some of mono tracks are not actual mono mixes just the stereo combined into mono.

The new version removes the fake stereo replacing it with true stereo mixes one of which had been available since 1966(!), keeps the echoey  mono US single version and uses the UK mixes for everything that's not unique.

It's this that has proven controversial with some fans who wanted an exact replica in sound of their lps but speaking personally having bought this version, I'm delighted with it as it approaches what I consider a 'audiophile' remastering, going back to originals, removing the  sonic grime to reveal more of the music making never mind the uprated packaging.

The four previously unreleased on cd albums are the A Hard day's Night movie soundtrack with instrumentals from the film originally issued on United Artists, Yesterday and Today, the US Revolver album I had which only had 11 tracks and the stereo only Hey Jude compilation of February 1970 featured then unreleased stereo versions of a good number of  Beatles singles.

I was going to buy the Box set complete with the mainly talk The Beatles Story bonus album but I didn't, this was sadly connected to another, less defensible aspect of how this project was handled by Apple.

Way back in the mid 1980's as plans were drawn up to release on compact disc the Beatles catalogue, Sir George Martin  was allowed to remix two UK albums (Help! and Rubber Soul) from the four track session tapes.

Discovering Abbey Road studios echo chamber used on a number of tracks was out of use, he used digitally generated delay to attempt to get the same sound. Unfortunately it sound more like a karaoke type echo especially when he over did it on Dizzy Miss Lizzie and Drive My Car. Personally I can't stand them being 'too modern'.

These versions were themselves remastered in 2009 for the stereo set although the original 1965 stereo mixes were put on the mono cd set as bonuses.

Coming back to 2014, Apple have decided to use these stereo  remakes for the tracks from those two UK albums featured in four of the albums in this box set  (Beatles VI, Help Soundtrack, Rubber Soul and Yesterday and Today) where the previous 2006 box that had the first three with the 1965 stereo mixes on.

Personally, owing the the previous set, I really object to paying £146 for three albums whose stereo portions deviate from that which was issued not just in North America but even in the UK up to 1987.

I decided to rebuy the first four (Meet The Beatles, Second Album, Something New and Beatles '65) as the sound on at least the first two wasn't so clean,Second Album had an excessive amount of echo added to it and get the four previously unissued ones even with the stereo portion of Yesterday and Today being compromised with only 5 original mixes for the otherwise unavailable mono version.

As for the others, if I can come by cheap copies I may get them and switch the discs over as there's nothing on the jackets to tie them to any specific cd because I adore the packaging.

To  summarize my thoughts on this set, I really liked the idea of it as quite a bit of thought had gone into the packaging and even a great booklet for the boxed edition, almost equalling the acclaimed Beatles in Mono box but feel the sound side of it was compromised for a number of the discs needlessly in the stereo portions by insisting on not using the original UK mixes sent at the time and loved by most fans.

I'd give the set 7 out of 10 on balance .

More Beatles Mini lps:
At the start of the year I'd acquired some unofficial mini lps of albums put out in the 1970's that had been retired with aim of buying this set adding these to them.

1976's 28 track Rock and Roll Music compilation, a double lp on a single cd although it lacks the gatefold of the original is well printed.It uses the untouched UK versions of the tracks unlike the Capitol edition.

1977's Love Songs compilation which comprises of 25 songs with a love theme, lacking the gatefold but this section is part of a four page insert.
It's always been a favourite of mine being a comforting listen at boarding school running for about an hour.

1977's Live album of recordings from August 1964 and 1965 at the Hollywood Bowl that Apple refuse to release presented in full gatefold form reproducing the rear essay by Sir George Martin clearly with original lp styled photo inner sleeve.

The audio on these pressed cds (they're not cheap home made jobs) is actually very good matching that of the lps reproduced on a high quality vinyl system and come with Japanese notes and full English lyrics. 

If you need them, these discs are good value.

Think Pink!

 

The Pink Panther was a long running cartoon series I loved as boy, watching avidly on tv, collecting memorabilia and stationery of even to the point in 1980 of having as a boy in mid teens a Pink Panther calendar.  

It's not the only kewl thing by the Pink Panther although I own a dvd set of classic animated episodes.

Take these cute ankle socks that I'd just love to wear with a short skirt and t shirt on.

What it is

 I've been writing this blog for some six years now seeing a couple of computers and umpteen light bulbs changed and in around a month I'll be away with friends just being that eternal boy that I am, the way I am. 

Everybody is different, I'm all for being inclusive but for me this is about being a feminine boy, able to do, feel and present as I feel.

It was not about trying to act or dress in a way that impersonates in a respectful way a female, while remaining a male nor was it about expressing by way of gender expression a sense of being a female in the "wrong" body in the way a transsexual would.

Thus for me there is no need to be curvaceous, to appear to have a bust, to create a waist that emphasizes your hips because I am a sissy and I present as a little sissy gurl, very much flat chested.

That's the thing: Being a sissy isn't a synonym for being a "cross-dresser" as those people have understandable tried over the years to find more respectful terms for them but instead it is the direct opposite of being a tom boy.

 Even if dress like him, I would be carrying those feminine but boy past traits with me because they are in my head, have been ever since I was a little boy mixed in with bits that are more stereotypically boyish.

That is the thing people like my friends need to understand.

Finding the real me

I started to severed more of those connections that had only messed my own head up, embracing the littles world instead as much as it may of caused consternation to them.

I started to have a very clear view of what my own identity was, becoming aware of how male identity as a specific thing was under attack not from just so-called feminists who believe it's not enough to have equality but to remove the place of men and boys from society and how the change in the trans movement away from one that recognized gender roles and was only about helping people who felt they are really women to gain that to one that denied biological sex.

At the end of the day, how many times I keep going around this, whatever my biological sex may be, I am very much feminine, prefer wearing skirts and have spent long enough to know whatever connotations people put on it being neither a girl or a boy by gender I am and ought to own Sissy Gurl as my gender.

It doesn't matter if I may wear grey short trousers taken up as short as they were when officially at least I was junior schoolboy, I felt sissy then and in my frilly little girls knickers I am even when in them.

I was never really socially a boy at all and not a girl in disguise either,

This is the goddam truth.

New Year Thoughts

As we approach years end I usually say something or or other here about me, this blog and the universe.

The first thing is I was delighted to see recently  a Royal Pardon was granted to the former mathematician  and scientist, Alan Turing who played a big role on cracking German military codes during WW2 as well as contributing a lot to understanding the principals of what is the modern computer for his then crime of being in a gay relationship at a time when this was a criminal offence in the UK.

His work shorted by years WW2 and without it the World would probably be different, many of our societies  would of lost our freedoms if not we'd also  lost our grand parents generations lives.

Moving on over to music, David Bowie surprised many of us with his comeback album The Next Day  which I bought on vinyl and Mastered For iTunes download sidelining cd, something a number people at one forum also have been doing outside of certain deluxe of specialty  issues.

The topic of just how good such downloads or home conversations from cd for that matter remains as contentious as ever although for me personally, I see those especially from iTunes as being at least as good as a high quality type II 'chrome' tape was back in the 80's and 90's having copied loads back then for either convenience when it came to lps or or playing on the Walkman for lp and cds during that period on quality equipment. 

I was hoping to get an upcoming box set next year but reported issues concerning using inappropriate mixes may well put an end to that and I find the ineptness of reissue programs on cd very irritating not least the use poor quality 'lossy'  files by Demon Music Group on a number cd titles.

I do update from time to time some reviews especially if they are of a series staggered in release date such as the Audio Fidelity and MFSL discs so it is worth checking entries you may of read previously. 

Talking of forums one appears to blocked off Curiosity from logging in for some strange reason, maybe the software got feline flu or something.

I visited a number of places this year, having a whale of a time, not least Llandudno where I drifted very much into my little side as well as giving me much needed rest from the stresses of home life.

Perhaps the biggest thing for me personally came at the end of the year where I presented for the first time to group of people not known in 'RL' whatever that is including those raised as female from birth, as my feminine little boy self and they just accepted it without question. 

I was rather nervous about it but I just felt I belonged with them, carrying myself being able to engage freely as me. 

That for me was progress

You might recall I mentioned in the Christmas edition about sometimes getting the 'wrong' presents as in socks too big and scarcely me.

Well oversized boring black socks got replaced by smaller grey socks that are more girls socks suitable for a adult little gurl like me a few days ago so at least we start the new year as I intend to: Being me.

Here's to 2014.