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| CD Reviews | Feature | Reviews & Features Archive | Photo Archive | Contact | MWE3 Home |
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Copyright
© 1999-2017 |
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Regarding
his 2017 stereo remix of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club
Band, offspring of fifth Beatles legend George
Martin—the son, Giles Martin has said in recent interviews
that the fabled, original Beatles-endorsed 1967 mono mix of the Pepper
album sounded ‘old’ to him. Henceforth, young Martin was
summoned by current Apple Records ex-pat honcho Jeff Jones to present
a new 2017 CD remix released at the midyear, just in time to celebrate
the half-century anniversary mark of the original Sgt. Pepper album.
That remark by young Martin is quite a remarkable statement in and
of itself. I realize that Martin’s 50th anniversary stereo remix
album will be a million seller, yet fans who were actually active
record buyers in 1967 will tell you that we were never even told that
the Beatles themselves mixed their albums only in mono and that they
basically wanted to have nothing to do with a cumbersome, distracting
and ear-splitting stereo mix. In retrospect, one belief among industry-ites
now is that the then burgeoning pop music industry of 1967 was fueling
an extremely lucrative high end audio industry eager to promote and
pedal its wares. Yet, for all the new fangled gimmicks associated
with the quickly growing stereo trend—during the car radio era
of the mid 1960s, mono was still the key. 
Were
young Beatles fans misled by the 1960s audio industry into buying
stereo Beatles albums in the mid 1960s decade? Sam Goody's famous
music store in Valley Stream Long Island was where I bought the Pepper
album (in stereo) the week it came out in May 1967 and it's interesting
to note that "Goodys" as we called it, also sold high end
audio gear at the same time! Audio stores were booming in the mid
1960s. Just consider the fact that back in the mid 1960s most people
never even knew the Beatles prepared mono only mixes / versions of
their albums and might've even laughed about the stereo mixes. Even
then, after 20+ years of Beatles albums available only in stereo on
compact disc (discounting the now disregarded first ever CD pressings
of their first four albums in mono as prepared by the German audio
geniuses in February 1987)—the masses were finally given the
whole truth on September 9th, 2009 when the famous Japan-pressed Beatles
In Mono box arrived, along with the lesser desired Beatles
In Stereo box. Only the stereo albums were reissued separately,
as individual titles in 2009. So, going back to Summer of ’67,
the fans and the teenyboppers, 13 and under, who were sold the stereo
Lp of Pepper were not even hearing the Beatles’ music
the way the Beatles themselves wanted it. Everyone back then was afraid
of "catching mono" so the connotations alone ... (lol) Even
though more astute collectors knew about the mono albums thanks to
pricey Japanese vinyl pressings—like the brilliant Japanese red
disc Beatles mono Lp reissues of the pre-CD early 1980s—most
of those misled millions, ironically heard Pepper properly
for the first time on CD in impeccable mono on 9/9/09. So, sorry to
differ, but just 8 short years ago after the 9/9/9 mono box, Pepper
in mono isn’t even close to being “old” as the young
Martin predicates in his recent interviews. 
Back
in 1997, 12 years before 9/9/9, the fabled Peg Boy Records released
It's Not Too Bad—a definitive 25 track audio log of the
making of “Strawberry Fields Forever”. Never before heard,
long lost mono masters used on that CD had never been equaled by Capital
or EMI until the 9/9/9 mono box—including, or at least compared
with the stereo masters used for Martin's 2017 double 50th CD stereo
remix Pepper release. In a passing note, one among those same
bootleg labels actually released what I consider to the definitive
mono version of the “White Album” back in 1998. Let’s
see if Capitol comes close to that one in 2018 and please Jeff, no
2018 white album-remix in stereo! And don’t get me started on
the impressive Brazilian fold down mono mix of 
and
the crucially important social statement the Beatles made in the first
half of 1967 culminating in the most important song of 1967, “All
You Need Is Love” —a track which didn’t originally
appear on the Beatles’ official Magical Mystery Tour release—and
for good reasons. The sound of the ’17 Giles Martin stereo Pepper
is quite good for collectors of Beatles in stereo—complete with
some new impressive stereo pans and sundry audio feats, mixing vocals
more center, etc. Only some tracks on this Pepper in stereo
actually hurt my ears—yet more proof how conditioned I am to
hearing the Beatles In Mono. Compared to the modest scope here,
at least on this 2 CD stereo version, it appears at the onset that
Capital missed a really good chance to set the all-encompassing Beatles
1967 event into an even better audio perspective but really, who knows
what Fab Four audio relics and concept albums will come around in
the next 50 years? Here’s a toast to 2067’s 100th anniversary
10 disc Sgt. Pepper's box set. And yet, who knows what type
of discs or music players they’ll have in 2067! All you need
are the Beatles, in any century right? One highlight of this 2017
Pepper stereo reissue marks the first time the original backdrop
of the Pepper album art (at least on the 2017 CD booklet and
pictured above) was restored on an "official Beatles release",
with the headshot of Leo Gorcey, aka Terence Aloysius
‘Slip” Mahoney, pictured right next to his Bowery Boys partner
Huntz “Satch” Hall. I hope Apple finally settled
up with Leo’s estate on the five hundred bucks he was asking
(and denied!) to use his mug back in 1967!