Beatles best album and concert dvd?

@rgs92 ,

'If you ever get into the vast library of Beatles rarities, alternative takes, and all sorts of Beatles archives out there on CD, you may go nuts.'



Err yes...

It is frustrating that even in 2020 we have NO definitive digital versions of their albums. Since the initial 2007 George Martin supervised CDs every subsequent digital release has been hampered in one way or another. Many still prefer the 2007 set (give or take the dodgy stereo of the first 4 albums).

This is an appalling state of affairs for a body of work that has so much historical and cultural value.


On the other hand there's tons of stuff about their vinyl releases esp on the Stevehoffman music forum and the excellent Parlogram Auctions YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Parlogram

Yep, I was always a bit obsessed about the lack of SACD/DSD Beatles recordings. (The Stones catalog managed to do this almost 20 years ago.)
The great advances in DAC technology for PCM have of course helped with this, but it just seems a waste not to have these versions. This has been discussed forever on the Steve Hoffman forum.
Are you referring to the Capitol Album box sets from 2007?
The Beatles on USB recordings on a Chord Dave sound the most compelling to me at the moment (I think). The glare is controlled as long as your system is not too ruthlessly revealing.

@rgs92, 

Sorry, my mistake. I was referring to the 1987 original George Martin supervised releases. Or at least I thought I was.

The only other digital set I like is the US Box of 2014 which I believe is a slightly tweaked version of the lacklustre 2009 UK remasters. I forget who tweaked it, but they did a good job. 

Unfortunately that one only goes up to Revolver after which both the UK and US releases coincided. IIRC it's possible to reconstruct all of their UK albums up to Sgt Pepper bar one track via that set.

I've not heard either the USB or the Blu-ray releases, but some fans rave about them.

Deviating slightly within this thread, the huge musical and cultural upheaval that the Beatles were part of in the 60's shouldn't be overlooked. As a teenager in the rather drab UK of the early part of that decade I wish I could have foreseen what was to come - I would have been up to Liverpool like a shot, "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "Please Please Me" brought a visceral excitement to the music scene which grew and grew to culminate in those great albums already mentioned

@xiang,

Yes, everything can only be a product of its time and they were lucky with theirs.

WW2 generation being superceded by those who hadn’t known war.

National service abolished in the UK.

Post war economies were booming
Pirate Radio stations playing hip sounds
LPs gaining dominance over 45 single

US wanting a lift after JFK’s murder
Elvis not the force he was
Dylan giving them pot and much more
LSD and meditation
The swinging sixties - esp in London
Colour TV on the horizon