We compared the sound of the new Beatles remastered CDs with original LPs.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)They're good, but do the remastered Beatles CDs offer a big enough sonic improvement over the 1987 CDs to make them essential? Listening over my high-end, two-channel system they absolutely do! But are the differences large enough to show up over an iPod, car system, or computer speakers?
The 2009 remasters are louder than the 1987 versions, so a quick comparison might lead you to believe the remaster is "better" simply because it's a little louder. And there's more bass. So if you compare old and new adjust the volume of both CDs to make them the same. Then tell me what you hear.
I compared two of the better sounding CDs, "The Beatles (The White Album)" and "Abbey Road" over my iPod, using my Monster Turbine in-ear headphones, and over my computer, with Audioengine2 speakers. Mind you, the Turbine and Audioengine2 are a good deal better than average-sounding ways to hear music, and after I compensated for the volume differences between the 1987 and 2009 versions, the sound was nearly the same.
And I was listening in a dead quiet room, add some background office or street noise and the differences would be even harder to hear. Rather than buy the new Beatles CDs, buy better headphones or speakers. They would make the Beatles music you already own sound better.
Thing is, with the 2009 remasters we're talking about fairly subtle improvements in clarity, especially in high-frequency detail, overall spaciousness, and naturalness. And the music seems more dynamically alive. Too bad those qualities evaporate over iPods, computer speakers, and car systems.
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A ticket to ride, $5 to see the Beatles, not bad.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)I have no idea why, but "The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl" has never been released on CD in the U.S.
Worse yet, I don't think it's going to come out on CD or download when the remastered Beatles albums are released later this year. "Hollywood Bowl" came out on LP in 1977, before the CD was invented, and long after the group broke up. In 1977 all four Beatles were still alive. Luckily enough, it's not at all hard to score a decent "Hollywood Bowl" LP now.
I can't think of another major sixties band that didn't eventually put out a great concert LP. For reasons lost to the mists of time the Beatles live recordings were all pretty poor quality, and these Hollywood Bowl dates are less than stellar-sounding. But the thing is, the performances rock harder than the Beatles ever did in the studio.
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Money can't buy love, but it can buy this book.
(Credit: Harmony Books)Some might say that modern pop music started with the Beatles. Yes, before the Beatles there was this singer, Elvis Presley, and the other guy, Chuck Berry, pretty much invented rock and roll, but the Beatles were in another league. Jonathan Gould's new Beatles biography, "Can't Buy Me Love" (Harmony Books, $27.50) provides an insightful overview of the Fab Four's career.
As Gould recounts the Beatles changed pretty much everything. Pop and rock music in the early 1960s was released mostly on 45 RPM singles, but the Beatles' producer George Martin was onto something from the get-go when he insisted on recording a full length LP. True, the early success of the "Please, Please Me" single had something to with that decision. That first LP quickly rose to #1 and held the top spot on the English charts from May to December 1963. Something on the order of 30 weeks at #1, and that was before they conquered America!
Gould dissects the band's influences--Buddy Holly, Motown, Brian Wilson and Bob Dylan and how they shaped the Beatles music. There are times where "Can't Buy Me Love" reads like a textbook, perhaps because it so exhaustively details how the music came to be. The Beatles restless trajectory of change, constantly moving the music forward reached its zenith with the release of the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" LP. Paul McCartney explains that he wanted to put aside the Beatles identity to create a new band with a completely different sound. Which was, when you think about it, all the more amazing that he fiddled with the Beatles sound at the height of their popularity.
Alas, the Beatles were destined to be a phenomenon of the 1960s and by 1970 John, Paul, George, and Ringo had released solo albums. The rest, as they say, is history. "Can't Buy Me Love" thoroughly documents the journey.
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