Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Well folks, it looks like Capitol is finally bringing out Volume 2 on April 11th! The set will supposedly include the four 1965 U.S. albums: "The Early Beatles", "Beatles VI", the U.S. soundtrack version of "HELP!", and "Rubber Soul". The packaging apparently will be similar to Volume 1 and the albums will be remastered from the 1965 Capitol master tapes in both mono and stereo. List price like the last set will be $69.98.
I loved the sound on Volume 1, but felt the artwork and packaging had a lot to be desired. Oh well, at least the sound on these should be pretty incredible.
The musicangle.com report said that EMI also is working at Abbey Road on the long overdue remastering of the entire U.K. Beatles catalog, but I'll believe that when I see it!

That's great news. I've always liked the musical score at the beginning of the song HELP that is only available on the US version of the album...I think.

April 11th. Right around the corner! Thanks for the update Jeff.

Awesome, i had never heard all the american albums, cant find them in oz, but i was so surprised with how much reverb they had, didnt think the packaging was great either, but i guess for me it was worth having just for the stereo version of i saw her standing there, roll on April 11!!

Funny, they skipped over "The Beatles' Story" and "A Hard Day's Night."

Certainly good news!! The reason 'A Hard Day's Night' may have been excluded was because the soundtrack was originally on the United Artists label in the U.S.

Very good news, but I still want to see them release 'Yesterday and Today'. It has some very different mixes (i.e. 'Dr. Robert' and 'I'm Only Sleeping').

Randy, I would suspect 'Y&T' will be in Vol. 3, along with, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers and Magical Mystery Tour. These were the last LP's Capitol released before Apple and the last four LP's to offer both a mono and stereo mix.

Stan: I hope you're right. That would be a great set to have!

I dont want to sound like a spoiled sport here, but if we already have all that material (usually multiple times and in multiple forms), why would we want to buy it all again?

Good point, Kent. Collectors item I guess. Others may want to hear the discs and songs in the order they remember hearing them when they were originally released on vinyl in the U.S. Still others may prefer mono over stereo, and lastly others may just have 60 bucks burning a hole in their pocket and want to spend it.

Kent: It may sound silly, but I like digitally remastered music. I sold all of my vinyl a few years ago (for a quick $12,000). Now I want everything on CD. 'Rubber Soul' with a different running order, different mixes, and one false start is will be fun to listen to again. If you haven't heard 'Dr. Robert' from 'Yesterday And Today', it is very different. Same thing for 'I'm Only Sleeping'. I draw the line at 'Let It Be' sessions material. I've heard too much of that stuff!

You are right, but being grown up on the US Vinyl versions, it would be great to see them all available on CD. I did hear something about the vinyl versions of "Yesterday..and Today" is that during the pressing runs of the LP there were different label variations. (ex: Black rainbow label, purple label, Apple, etc...) I heard that there were different mixes among the labels starting in 1969. So if you have the LP on the Orange Capital label, you have one mix, the green label, another, the Apple- another. Not sure how true this is, I never did the A/B test. I also thought that Capital had the rights to "A Hard Day's Night" as it was re-issued on Capital in the 1980's.

I still find it odd that I have to pull out Past Masters Vol 2 to hear "Day Tripper" and not the "Yesterday" LP.

Blecchhhhh

Don, Capital did acquire the distribution rights to AHDN (at least on vinyl) in the late '80's, but what I think they are doing here is just re-releasing what 'their label' originally released of the Beatles,

Don, actually the mix remained the same during all the label changes on "Y&T", except for the Capitol Record Club version of "Y&T" which is the only release to feature the album in true stereo. Quite collectable now! Wish I had a copy!
And yes, Capitol reissued "A Hard Days Night" in the eighties when they obtained the rights to it.
I would have loved Capitol to have included "AHDN", and "The Beatles Story" in Volume 1. That way all 6 1964 albums would have been included in one set. They even could have included "Y&T" and the U.S. version of "Revolver" in this new set, but Capitol has their own 'set of rules' to go by I guess.