New Beatles Box Sets

the early beatle records were indeed bright,forward,shouty, and metalic. they were also brilliant. you have to enjoy these for what they were, and still are...the most important rock music ever made.

Slaw3: Having grown up on the American Capitol mix of "I Feel Fine", ever since radio switched over the CD remixes I've dearly missed hearing that gloriously reverb-laden version when it comes on while I'm driving in the car. OK, so the CD remixes were a bad idea from the start IMO -- I bought "Rubber Soul" back when it first came out just to see and practically got sick to my stomach, just awful -- and the comparitively threadbare version we hear on radio today is no more "correct" to my mind than Capitol's version, which at least is reflective of its historical period. As John Lennon said, the record's the thing -- there is no original performance to accurately recreate with a pop record; the sound of the record itself is the artwork, and that includes choices made in mastering which become part of our consciousness of that art. Stickin' with my 60's LP's and 45's...

I'll take the UK Parlophone CD's for my money. If you can't have the Parlophone, Odeon, or lastly the Mofi OMR vinyl IMHO these are the next best. I have compared them to each of these vinyls and they are not half bad. Why would you want the Capitol pressings that are way down the dup chain?
Happy Listening!

Hey Zaikesman: I don't disagree, the versions you grew up with ARE the versions for you, and that makes good sense to me. I was lucky enough to have an British friend who sent me the "real" versions whenI was a kid, so I never listened to the American albums (although I bought and still have them all, most still sealed). I did hear the songs on the radio, and always shook my head and wondered why they felt the need to do that. But man, the CDs -all of them - have always suuuuucked. So my advice stands - buy the original British (or American if you must) LPs, and play the heck out them. They still sound great today!

I have only one Parlophone LP, a later pressing of the UK-only compilation "A Collection Of Beatles Oldies" (originally released for Xmas '66 and deleted not long after the group broke up). The cover art is great, but the sound doesn't strike me as anything special compared to Capitol and Apple releases of some of the same material.

RF: It's not that I "want" or "don't want" the pressings I have -- it's that they're either what I've always had since I was young, or what I've come across by chance in my used record scrounging (not at record stores -- at garage sales, thrift stores and such). The Beatles are nominally my favorite rock band of all time, but I don't pursue building my collection from either an audiophile or a Beatles-collector point of view, and have never paid money worth mentioning for any of it. I just have what I have, and to tell the truth, hardly ever listen to The Beatles at home, as it's so familiar and I'm always getting more not-so-familiar records to listen to. But maybe I ought to try one of the Parolophone CD's you mention, since I presently have no Beatles on CD -- any best bets to your mind?