The Beatles Revolver

@Herman 

could not have stated it better.  All the remixes are superb.

I'm so sick and tired of reading comments like "it's all about the money" as if there is something wrong with private enterprise. At the end of the day, that's how society develops and moves forward.

Is there really anything wrong with creating an income stream? Simple, if you don't like it, don't buy it, but allow others to decide for themselves.

One thing I consider of note is what Ringo had to say when he heard George Martin’s mix of The Beatles first album: "Where’s me kick?" George Martin was not a Rock ’n’ Roll producer, and I think the groups early albums (pre-Rubber Soul) suffered for it. The vocals are imo mixed far too high, the drumset emasculated. The bass frequencies on early Beatles albums are noticeably rolled off, presumably to prevent mistracking of the styluses on most teenagers hi-fi’s. I don't consider the sound of Beatles LP’s to be sacrosanct, but I'm also not interested in the Giles Martin redo's. Abbey Road was released over fifty years ago, and I didn't much care for it then. I don't care if I never hear it again.

I remember being startled by the change in sound from the Rubber Soul album to the "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" single, and loving it. That change was even more pronounced in the Revolver album. Rock ’n’ Roll was getting tougher (The Yardbirds leading the way), and The Beatles were starting to sound kinda tame. Lots of the British Invasion groups didn’t keep up, and got left behind.

I have read that Rubber Soul was the last album recorded using valve (tube) electronics, Revolver being made on solid state. And of course Geoff Emerick was the new recording engineer for that album as well. The drumset sound on Revolver is drastically different from that on Rubber Soul; much brasher, and far louder in the mix. The guitar sounds are much different too, the Gretsch and Rickenbackers replaced with Epiphone Casino’s, the Vox amps with Fenders.

@bdp24 - ... and I thought I was the only Beatles fan for whom Abbey Road was not one of their favorites.

It had some great stuff on there, and it also had 'Octopus' Garden' and 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' to break up the continuity between the good stuff! 😄

I can appreciate Abbey Road but it just never really did it for me all that much; still much preferred it to 'Let It Be', though...

Of course the goal is to make money. So what? If someone wants yet another incarnation of some Beatles stuff - great. I have the Mofi Beatles collection with every US release (at least that's how it was sold) and it sounds great to me. I did supplement it with Hey Jude (on a Japanese pressing), which has some songs that weren't on the US releases and a couple of repeats.

At some point I was given the Beatles soundtrack to Cirque d'soleil (called Love) and it is OK for the car, but it is just a new piece of (inferior in my opinion) art that changes the original intention of the Band. Kind of like elevator music.

Sometimes I like variations, like some live albums, and sometimes not. For the "collectors" this is what it is. I don't know why you wouldn't just pick out your favorite version and just play that one, but that's me.