Publisher at The American Bystander
is Blogmom of Hey Dullblog. His novels and parodies have sold 1.25 million copies in 25 languages. He lives in Santa Monica, CA, and runs The American Bystander all-star print humor magazine.
Latest posts by Michael Gerber (see all)
- From Faith Current: “The Sacred Ordinary: St. Peter’s Church Hall” - May 1, 2023
- A brief (?) hiatus - April 22, 2023
- Something Happened - March 6, 2023
O frabjous day! Variety reports that Revolver will be the next Beatles album to get the Deluxe treatment, with the box set likely to appear this fall. Which means that by December 26th at the latest, it will be nestling cozily next to my box set of Sgt. Pepper.
Yeah, I have that much confidence in Santa. He never lets me down, when it comes to the Beatles.
Highlights of the set will include:
- A handwritten description by Paul McCartney of each of the seven levels
- A photograph of the condom used to record “Yellow Submarine” (Lewisohn denies it was ribbed, but I’m not so sure)
- The AWFUL TRUTH about “Ken’s Flanger.”
I canna wait!
Related posts:
A Few Words on Conspiracy Theory
I Saw Her Standing There Refracture Remix
“I Think [The Beatles] Are Underrated”
From Dangerous Minds: The Beatles’ In-House Astrologer
Hey Jude Times Square
Vinyl remasters: To buy or not to buy?
Phil Rickman’s “December”: Wrestling with Lennon’s ghost
Sgt. Pepper in the Age of Social Distancing
Beep beep yeah!
Discovered! Another bad Beatles lyric
Paul McCartney Makes Mashed Potatoes
Happy 50th Birthday to McCartney’s “Ram”
I can’t recall ever hearing any Revolver outtakes or demos. This should be interesting.
I’m looking forward to hearing more detail in the album with a fresh production. The original mix is still embedded in the grooves of my brain.
The Beatles youtube account is leaking some of the new mix. Here’s Taxman 2022:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdTzOUUZ8Vg
Some contemporary music (genres like alt rock, progressive hip hop, etc.) reminds me of Revolver. Artists like Sampa The Great and Sa-Roc and Desiigner use sampled loops that sound like they came from the Beatles early psychedelic phase.
Even TV commercial music! There’s an ad for NY E-ZPass that features a trippy backwards keyboard riff intro to a jaunty jingle. Every time it plays I expect to hear Lennon’s heavily processed voice intone “turn off your mind relax and float downstream!” rather than the animated E-ZPass mascot exhorting me to “sign up now!”
This should be interesting:
Here’s a link to the Guardian article:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/10/beatles-revolver-reissue-shows-band-in-new-light-this-is-the-record-where-we-were-each-most-ourselves
I generally have reservations about remixing old albums, because usually there is a reason why the original release sounds like it does. That being said I get why people object to the rather primitive 60’s ideal of stereo (instruments and vocals being panned to the far left and right channel).
I was very disappointed by the new mix of Sgt. Pepper. It sounded way too clean to my liking, and I missed small details like Lennon’s voice moving from one side to the other in “A Day in the Life”.
However, listening to the 2022 mix of “Taxman”, it actually sounds quite good, and also more true to the original expression than the Sgt. Pepper remixes did.
I’m with you, @Anders. Part of listening to a song/album is hearing what people heard then. Remixing is essentially remaking something to modern tastes (fine) while calling it “more true” (it’s not).