beatles

[shokhead]

I've got the past masters vol 1&2. Is it worth it to get the Capitol Albums also?

[SAEA501]

You have two Beatles collection albums and you want to know if you should buy more?

If you like Beatles music, the collections are the last albums you should buy. If you are going to buy all of their album releases, buy all of the original British catalog. These were the ones that were released when Capitol started releasing their music on CDs in the mid 80s. The anthologies are pretty interesting to hear as well.

Should you buy more Beatles.........what a question!

[shokhead]

This is a forum,i asked a question.

[SAEA501]

Shokhead:

The problem with writing questions and answers like this is that we cannot see or hear one another. We cannot see facial expressions or hear voice inflections. I was being facetious. I was trying to be a little tongue in cheek which obviously failed. I am sorry if you took offense as none was meant.

I love Beatles music, have since I first heard them in 1964. I was lucky enough to see them in 1966. So my response to a question like yours is just that, everyone should buy the Beatles albums.

[shokhead]

Well thats cool,your the first person i've ever talked to that got to see them,pretty cool.

[SAEA501]

I still have my ticket stub. I paid the HUGE amount of $4.75, and there probably wasn't 2000 people there. Concerts used to be a lot different than they are today. Which is probably why I don't go to any anymore.

[MindGoneHaywire]

I recommend the Capitol albums, obviously it's different & a distortion of how the releases actually occurred, at least as far as the Parlophone albums being the ones that were the way they were intended to be heard. But they leave a bunch of 45s & EP tracks unaccounted for, and in spite of the US albums being weak on length, most of the records are good listens, they flow well & it's just a different experience. Also, this is not my bag to care all that much, but many would say that the UK albums are best represented by the vinyl releases. The Capitol packages are pricey, but very decent in terms of layout, photos, liner notes, etc., and each disc has stereo & mono versions, but you probably knew that. I'd have to say that I like them overall better than the Anthology series...but there is one specific collection that any Beatles fan should absolutely have, the Live At the BBC collection. That's unlike anything else in the catalog, really, and, unlike Anthology, it's not a bunch of outtakes & demos that, to varying extents, never saw the light of day for a reason. A lot of the Anthology stuff is an interesting listen because you can hear what ended up being done to bare bones ideas; the Live At the BBC stuff is more interesting all by itself, and while it's not as polished as the studio records of the period, it's a great representation of what they could've done in live performance had they not been deluged with screams for the last 3-4 years they toured.

There's been a lot in the way of put-downs towards the Capitol butchery of the UK albums to create more albums to sell by using singles that weren't on the actual UK albums, pulling goofy stuff like the German versions of 45s, padding soundtracks with instrumental George Martin music, but when you come down to it, it's hard to really wreck the presentation of this material, and though there are significant differences in the sound & mixing on a lot of tracks, it's still a good Beatles listening experience, one that some have never had, and one that many will enjoy as a reminiscence, and in better sound than most could reasonably remember. Oh, and the US version of Rubber Soul, in spite of its having less songs & recycling stuff that was actually from Help!, etc., was always a better listen, for me, than the British version. And it's nice to hear it on a CD, start to finish. Hard to figure how a chopped up issue of a record that's shorter than the original could be better, but...it is, sez me.

[shokhead]

Thanks.