Released in November 1968, the album titled 'The Beatles' (colloquially "The White Album"), was gifted to me for Christmas, that year from my older brother. The album, was the hot holiday gift for teens and young adults that year. When I returned to Pasadena, from Brooklyn after Christmas break from Caltech, it seemed like everybody had a copy. In 1968, this 2LP album was a big deal, and also caused quite a stir with its minimalist cover, lyrics ("I need a fix" for instance) and the poster with John naked and Paul in a bathtub.
To be honest, at the time, I didn’t really think too much of the album, as a lot of it sounded disjointed with half finished throwaway songs. Also, due to what I was listening to at the time: Miles Davis' 'Nefertiti' and 'Miles in the Sky', Roland Kirk's 'The Inflated Tear', Thelonious Monk's 'Underground', Bobby Hutcherson's 'Stick-Up!', Sonny Criss' 'Sonny's Dream' and others, "The White Album" to my ears, just couldn't compete.
Meanwhile, on campus, you couldn't swing the proverbial "dead cat", without hearing "The White Album", and it slowly but surely grew on me.
Fast-forward to 2024. A few weeks back, I had a few friends over, and were, having a conversation about American music of the 1920s, and Bix Beiderbecke was mentioned. One of my friends said they had never heard Bix, so I looked for Bix Beiderbecke LPs to play. While thumbing through the "B Section" of my vinyl collection, I came across the 4LP set of 'The Beatles (White Album) and Esher Demos', which I never got around to unwrapping, let alone listen to.
I put the first LP side A on the turntable, and "Back in the USSR" exploded with warm, crystal clear sonics out of my speakers. The rest of the four sides sounded equally excellent, "The White Album" .
Giles Martin (George's son) mastering is sublime, and the attention to detail is very impressive. With modern
digital technology, he was able to undo some of the compression and other
technical choices that were made in 1968. It all gives the recordings a cleaner sound that allows us to hear the
voices and instruments with new clarity. This is not "The White Album" reimagined, as the new mixes don’t take
away from the original visions for the songs.
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| A thinly veiled 1968 drug reference |
Much of the initial songwriting for "The White Album" was done
in Rishikesh, India, between February and April 1968, when John Lennon,
Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr took a course at the
Maharishi’s Academy of Transcendental Meditation.
Ringo left India early during the Beatles' visit to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram, as he
struggled to adapt to the food, the living conditions particularly the insects and
lack of amenities. This led to him and his wife Maureen to depart after only 10 days. John Lennon, in a postcard from India to
Ringo in England, wrote: "We’ve
got about two L.P.s worth of songs now, so get your drums out."
Giles Martin discovered the Esher demos when he was at Olivia Harrison’s home while working on the movie 'All Things Must Pass'
At some point in the early 1970s, these demos leaked out in inferior quality and circulated on various bootlegs, and eventually on the Internet. But now we can really hear the demos in all their first generation clarity.
For the freeload, what albums do you have, where the remastered version is a remarkable improvement?
The first 3 lps by The Meters were remastered by Kevin Gray. Much like the way you describe the remastering of The White Album, nothing was actually altered from the original tapes, but the new sound makes it like you are hearing these albums for the first time.
ReplyDeleteJust recently discovered that there is a remastered version of the Getz Gilberto masterpiece, and I am itching to get it, but the 185e pricetag is making me a bit nervous.
Save your €s, here’s the expanded edition from 2014, in 24-192.
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Years ago, Nat Hentoff related a story to me about standing in the wings with a very dunk Lester Young watching Stan Getz play. According to Nat, Lester was not happy with Stan being the headliner. At one point, Stan played a run lifted note for note from Lester’s playbook, causing Lester to turn to Nat and say, "What Lester plays, Stan gets!"
PS, You can’t go wrong on anything with Kevin Gray’s name attached.
Muchas gracias, querida amiga! Gray has done some amazing audiophile work. The Meters remasters are really interesting because it was a project taken on by Jack Records, in Portland - small, record shop, with a nice clientele. Was a limited run of 300 discs per lp. Not sure how they raised enough to pay Gray and turn a profit - all 3 lps combined were less than $100. But, economics aside, a really great job by all. And, yeah, that plant in Germany is the epitomy of audiophile magic!
DeleteThe Grateful Dead's "Skull & Roses" comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteI'm not an audiophile; (nor a lawyer!)
ReplyDeleteColumbia did such a crappy job moving their jazz catalogue, think Miles Davis, to CD, it was instantly an upgrade when Sony Japan reissued the late fifties and sixties Davis sessions to CD a few years later.
Lots of ink spilled on Miles Davis vinyl reissue programs, but I basically stopped buying vinyl in 1988, albeit I've got my collection of lps and have a turntable down in the studio.
I concur with Shoon, I'm a music lover and musician (now partly deaf!), not an audiophile. Can't tell the difference (for the most part) between analogue and digital, mp3 and flac, etc etc. Columbia also went apeshit on Louis Armstrong's Hot 5s & 7s, which was nice of them I suppose. I do have a CD on the Hermes label (UK, I believe) entitled "1928-1931" containing larger ensemble work from the master. Sounds good to me!! I did like some of the Stones' hybrid SACD releases, interesting to really hear Charlie's fantastic high hat work.
ReplyDeleteUsually I strain to hear any difference when something has been remastered (as opposed to remixed) but the remaster of Electric Ladyland by Eddie Kramer is a big improvement over what Hendrix himself was dissatisfied with.
ReplyDeleteFrom the "Unpopular Opinion Department"; None. That's the sound of the time, everyone had to work with the tools that were available. Those limitations (such as they were) is part of the charm of the recordings.
ReplyDeleteI get that. But, I also appreciate when a recording is able to be sonically improved to the point where it makes you feel like you are at the studio. And some of the Hot 5 and 7 recordings were virtually unlistenable until the past 10 years and the technological advances that have been made.
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One that leaped to mind was obtained right here, thanks to your beneficence, Babs. It's the expanded reissue of the Wynton Kelly Trio with Wes Montgomery "Smokin' at The Half Note" sessions.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, around the time you went to Caltech, I heard rumors that some students as a prank had disassembled a large pipe organ taken from a Pasadena church, held it for a bit, then reassembled it in its original place. I've wondered if this was an urban folk myth and it occured to me you might know something.
The version I heard was that in the late 1940s, a group of engineering students snuck into to St. Andrew's Church in Pasadena, disassembled the organ (and pipes) took it back to Caltech. There they cleaned it fixed the keyboard action etc., took it back to the church, and reassembled it. Legend has it the next morning the clergy and nuns discovered the bright and shinny pipes, restored organ and thought it was a miracle. How true any of it is, I don't know, but who knows?. There are all kinds of Caltech folklore.
ReplyDeleteYour more detailed account rang bells when I read it. as being what I originally heard. It's a wonder the Pipes of St. Andrews didn't take on the quasi-religious sheen of the Bells of St. Mary's
ReplyDeleteI'll leave it up to those who bother about such things as even if I could guarantee that my ageing ears were not deceiving me, I've never been one for chasing the high priced equipment needed to reproduce such quality sound with fidelity. Most of the music never sounded that way when it was released nor indeed would it were it to be played live. Does a heavily remastered track (from decades old tapes) actually reflect the artists that produced it or just the state of technology at any time?
ReplyDeleteEqually I'm not convinced that its value for money or indeed something to be encouraged that many bands in their dotage are supplementing their pensions by issuing endless remakes of the same songs with slightly different productions let alone those produced through non official sources. They'll be celebrating every second anniversary with a reissue the way its going which seems as much like flogging a dead horse as anything else. I'd much prefer they put out new material frankly.
And that's before you start getting into issues around the shelf life and storage of magnetic tape, the quality of any transfer to DAT tape in the 70's and beyond and so forth and not forgetting the possible impact of the acoustics of where it was recorded and where or through what you played it as well. Given how many variables there are to consider (ears, equipment, tape quality, location, producer etc) I've never thought it something to focus on.
Suffice to say the only time I've been consciously impressed by the quality of sound over a previously heard version was when I acquired an original mono copy of 'See Emily Play' which in my humble opinion was far superior to the stereo version later released on 'Relics' and back in those days as Mono ruled it seems reasonable to expect that the sound engineers spent far more time working on the mono version than they did the stereo version.
I've never been much of an audiophile, never been able to afford the equipment. But I do recall, like Bombshelter Slim, hearing a noticeable improvement in sound with the SACD Rolling Stones releases and my mediocre sound system.
ReplyDeleteBrian
The John Lennon Reissues that have been appearing in recent years are a huge improvement over the originals. Phil Spector was already mentally disturbed when they were originally recorded and John and Yoko took care to preserve the masters. At the time I was amazed at how awful the Spector mixes were (that applies to All Things Must Pass as well). I also like all of the Giles Martin remixes.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on the mixes. Apparently, from what I can gather, John didn't like his voice, and insisted on heavy reverb etc. etc.
DeleteAs an aside. Ever notice that mental illness (addictions included), is the only illness that people don't send get well cards, flowers, chocolates, fruit baskets and balloons for?
There's so much ambiguity. Does one attribute all of the obnoxious behavior exhibited by someone like Spector to mental illness and call it excusable or is he blame despite his illness? We have no good answers.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Psychfan.
DeleteDylan's "Street Legal."
ReplyDelete