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New Beatles Capitol box set misunderstood by criticsPage 2 (For top of article click here)
Something New is arguably
the weakest album of the bunch. Capitol was faced with a dilemma brought on by
United Artists’ film contract with The Beatles that covered A Hard Day’s
Night. UA had the exclusive right to issue a soundtrack album in America,
so Capitol had to come up with something new to compete with the soundtrack LP.
Capitol’s album mixed songs appearing on the UA disc (I’ll Cry Instead, Tell
Me Why, And I Love Her, I’m Happy Just To Dance With You and If
I Fell) with a few songs from The Beatles latest British album (Things
We Said Today, Any Time At All and When I Get Home), the two
remaining rockers from the Long Tall Sally EP (Slow Down and Matchbox)
and a version of I Want To Hold Your Hand sung in German titled Komm,
Gib Mir Deine Hand. Although Something New was unable to knock the
UA soundtrack album from the number one position, the Capitol album stayed at
number two for nine weeks and sold over two million copies.
Beatles ’65 featured eight
songs from the group’s latest British LP, Beatles For Sale (namely No
Reply, I’m A Loser, Baby’s In Black, Rock And Roll Music,
I’ll Follow The Sun, Mr. Moonlight, Honey Don’t and Everybody’s
Trying To Be My Baby), and both sides of their latest single, I Feel
Fine and She’s A Woman, plus I’ll Be Back, which was on the
British A Hard Day’s Night LP but had yet to appear in America. Capitol
did not completely deviate from the running order of the songs on Beatles
For Sale, with side one bearing a strong resemblance to the British disc.
So much so that the album can be described as Beatles For Sale, Part 1.
The disc held down the number one spot on the Billboard Top LP’s chart
for nine straight weeks and sold over three million units.
As for Capitol’s alleged remixing
of the songs, here are the facts. EMI did not send Capitol original two-track
or four-track master tapes, so Capitol could not have "horrifically remixed"
the stereo songs even if Capitol had wanted to. Capitol used the same stereo
mixes for its albums as those sent to Capitol by George Martin. In a few
instances, the U.S. mixes sent by Martin differed from those that ended up on
the Parlophone albums. Sometimes this was intentional on Martin’s part. Other
times it was a case of Capitol getting an earlier mix that was later improved
upon.
On the first two albums, the stereo
mixes have the instruments on one channel and the vocals on the other. This was
not done by Capitol. This is a result of how the songs were recorded. George
Martin recorded those songs on a two-track recorder. To ensure he could get a
proper mono mix that had the vocals at the proper level, he recorded the
instruments on one track and the vocals on the other. So if you don’t like the
stereo mixes on the first two albums, don’t blame Capitol. The company used
what it was sent. The stereo mixes on Meet The Beatles! are exactly the
same as those appearing on the stereo verison of With The Beatles.
For the stereo version of The
Beatles’ Second Album, Capitol did add echo to the stereo masters. The box
to the stereo master tape for the Capitol album indicates that the songs were
dubbed with E/Q and limiter plus echo. This explains why the songs on the
stereo album have significantly more echo than those on the mono album or the
British version of the songs. This is particularly noticeable on the cover
songs, such as Roll Over Beethoven and Please Mister Postman.
The stereo mixes found on the
Capitol albums Something New and Beatles ’65 use stereo mixes
sent by George Martin. With a few exceptions, they are the same as the stereo
mixes on the British LPs A Hard Day’s Night and Beatles For Sale.
Except for the songs I Feel Fine and She’s A Woman, Capitol did
not add echo to the master tapes of those U.S. albums.
Three of the Capitol stereo albums
contain a few duophonic fake stereo mixes. This was in keeping with the
practice at the time that every song on a stereo album should either be a true
stereo mix or a simulated fake stereo mix. Engineers took a mono recording and
placed it on two tracks, with the bass being boosted on one track and the
treble being tweaked on the other. Sometimes the two tracks were slightly out
of phase to add to the illusion. Capitol was not alone in this practice. All
record companies did it, including George Martin’s Parlophone label. The stereo
version of the Please Please Me LP has simulated stereo mixes of Love
Me Do and P.S. I Love You.
While some critics give the
impression that all of the four Capitol stereo albums are full of duophonic
echo-drenched mixes, this is clearly not the case. Capitol only made duophonic
mixes for the seven songs that had no stereo masters at the time the albums
were compiled. Most of these songs, especially I Want To Hold Your Hand,
She Loves You and I’ll Get You, are effective simulated stereo
mixes. However, the duophonic mixes for I Feel Fine and She’s A Woman are truly horrendous.
For the songs taken from With
The Beatles that appear on the mono versions of Meet The Beatles! and
The Beatles’ Second Album, Capitol created its own mono mixes by
reducing the stereo master in a 2-to-1 mix-down. As the stereo master for the
album was nothing more than a balanced copy of the original two-track master
tape, Capitol’s engineer merely duplicated what George Martin had done in
mixing the mono master. Why Capitol did this is not entirely clear. It is
possible that Capitol did not initially have the mono master tape for the
album, but that seems unlikely. A Capitol engineer who has been with the
company since the fifties told me that 2-to-1 mix-downs of stereo masters were
sometimes made under the belief that this gave the mono songs a fuller sound.
Those who rightfully point out that
the Beatles had no part in compiling the Capitol albums often downplay or
ignore the involvement of George Martin and Brian Epstein. While George Martin
did not program the Capitol albums and did not approve of the practice, he and
Brian Epstein were fully aware that Capitol was reconfiguring Beatles albums
specifically for the American market and understood Capitol’s reasons for doing
so. They cooperated with Capitol’s plans by supplying the label with songs to
place on the American albums. When Capitol needed a few more songs to round out
The Beatles’ Second Album, George Martin, with Brian’s approval, sent
the company Long Tall Sally and I Call Your Name. For Beatles
VI, George Martin sent Capitol four new songs, namely You Like Me Too
Much, Tell Me What You See, Bad Boy and Dizzy Miss Lizzie.
The latter two songs were recorded specifically for Capitol. Dizzy Miss
Lizzie ended up on the British Help! LP because the group needed an
extra song. Bad Boy was slapped on a British greatest hits collection.
When Capitol was compiling its Yesterday...And Today album, George
Martin sent the company three songs from the upcoming Revolver album.
» More: Page 3
Published October 20, 2004
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