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THE TOWN HAS
NO NEED TO BE
NERVOUS!
THE GROOVIEST 1960s MUSIC ON CD
NO NEED TO BE
NERVOUS!
THE GROOVIEST 1960s MUSIC ON CD
Your All-Genres Guide To
Exceptional Reissues and Remasters
"...Benefits For Mr. Kite..."
Yet another
review of The Beatles game-changing 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Club Band" is hardly what the world needs in 2020 - but I'd argue
(until I'm 64 which is not that bloody far away frankly) that this truly
eye-watering and ear-opening 2017 multi-disc reissue deserves all the scripture
it can get.
Man did the mixing desk hoards of transfer-boffins over at Apple
and Abbey Road stump up good and do us old fogies proud. Let's get to Lucy and
her sky-bound diamonds, lovely Rita and the Stereo holes she fixed and all the
benefits being for Mr. Kite (splendid times ahoy)...
UK released
Friday, 26 May 2017 - "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: 2CD
Anniversary Edition" by THE BEATLES on Apple/Parlophone 0602557455366
(Barcode 602557455366) features the STEREO MIX of the 1967 Album on CD1 with 18
Outtakes and Rarities on CD. It plays out as follows:
CD One "Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" STEREO MIX 2017 (39:47 minutes):
1. Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band [Side 1]
2. With A Little
Help From My Friends
3. Lucy In The
Sky With Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing A Hole
6. She's Leaving
Home
7. Being For The
Benefit Of Mr. Kite!
8. Within You
Without You [Side 2]
9. When I'm
Sixty-Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning
Good Morning
12. Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
13. A Day In The
Life
CD Two "The
Sgt. Pepper Sessions" (60:27 minutes):
1. Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band (Take 9)
2. With A Little
Help From My Friends (Take 1 - False Start and Take 2 - Instrumental)
3. Lucy In The
Sky With Diamonds (Take 1)
4. Getting Better
(Take 1 - Instrumental)
5. Fixing A Hole
(Take 3)
6. She's Leaving
Home (Take 1 - Instrumental)
7. Being For The
Benefit Of Mr. Kite! (Take 4)
8. Within You
Without You (Take 1 - Indian Instruments)
9. When I'm
Sixty-Four (Take 2)
10. Lovely Rita
(Take 9)
11. Good Morning
Good Morning (Take 8)
12. Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (Take 8)
13. A Day In The
Life (Take 1 and Hummed Last Chord)
14. Strawberry
Fields Forever (Take 7)
15. Strawberry
Fields Forever (Take 26)
16. Strawberry
Fields Forever (Stereo Mix - 2015)
17. Penny Lane
(Take 6 - Instrumental)
18. Penny Lane
(Stereo Mix - 2017)
The outer card
wrap houses a gatefold card sleeve of the famous album cover that cost £3000 at
the time when most had a budget for £100. CD1 is in the first flap with the
cardboard cut out that came with original LPs (disc in the second flap) while both CDs sport the
British black and yellow Parlophone label logo. The truly beautiful
40-plus-pages of the colour booklet break down everything – track by track
details – names of all 87 things and people featured on the front sleeve –
their jackets – tape boxes – even American and British trade adverts. A
splendid time indeed guaranteed for all…
A team carried
out the audio restoration work, remixes and remasters – Produced by GILES
MARTIN (son of original LP producer George Martin) with SAM OKELL (Mix
Engineer), MILES SHOWELL (Mastering Engineer), MATTHEW COCKER (Transfer
Engineer), JAMES CLARKE (Audio Restoration), ADAM SHARP (Mix Coordination) and
Mix Assistants Matt Mysko and Greg McAllister. Everything sounds incredible –
like dust has been lifted off these mixes – the STEREO impact truly beautiful.
I personally think it's the most impressive old Pepper Pot has even sounded.
Deep cuts like "Fixing A Hole", "She's Leaving Home" and
the ethereal brilliance of George Harrison's "Within You Without You"
(practically introduced Eastern mysticism to the West) shine like new diamonds
(and they're not out of reach up in the sky either).
The first couple
of outtakes are interesting but not a lot else (that Billy Shears piano part
before the segue guitar opening of "With A Little Help From My
Friends" is the most fascinating) but then you get a genuinely insightful
peek into genius - Take 1 of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" where
even if it isn't John's greatest ever vocal - the instrumentation is magical
and so bloody inventive. You can actually hear Paul working out chords and
melody as he tinkers on and then plays the Harpsichord (lead vocals too that
are channeling his inner Liam Gallagher). Another eureka moment comes with the
truly gorgeous Take 1 of "She's Leaving Home" where Mike Leander's
instrumental-only arrangements of four violins, two violas, two cellos, double
bass and harp will surely leave even the most jaded of Beatles nuts reaching
for the superlatives (a true highlight on CD2).
The almost-serene
pastoral feel to leaving home is quickly and abruptly followed by John's quirky
circus music and vaudeville poster lyrics to "Being For The Benefit Of Mr.
Kite" - his nasals telling us that "...the production will be second
to none as Henry the Horse dances the waltz...". Swirl and swoon. The
running order also demonstrates so vividly the two wildly differing songwriting
talents Lennon and McCartney possessed - battling you suspect against each
other all the time - something you’d have to argue made the finished listen so
remarkable. Then we get genius number three when you throw in George
discovering India, Sitars and Tabla beats with the stunning "Within You
Without You" - here given to us as an almost perfect Take 1.
Back to Paul and
his jaunty "When I’m Sixty-Four" ad-libbing the lyrics towards the
fade out. Looking indeed a little like a military man, Take 9 of "Lovely
Rita" has acoustic portions I kind of wish they had kept in the final
version (and that final piano bit is a blast). Having never liked it and ever
rated "Good Morning Good Morning" – Take 8 actually feels like a
better song than the overly produced finished article which just came across as
a meddle too far. Take 8 of the Reprise packs a surprisingly rocking kick –
Ringo whacking that bass drum while Paul wails and John lets rip on the guitar
in the background. As John starts singing Take 1 of "A Day In The
Life" it feels shockingly similar to the finished song - just stripped
back more (1000 holes in Lancashire). And what a blast to hear engineer Mal
Evans count out the numbers one, two, three… each one more echoed than the last
– Paul brilliant on the piano. And then that hummed note. The stand-alone
single "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" issued
around the album ends Disc 2 on a high with differing takes that scream
creative brilliance – the outtakes capped of nicely with new Stereo Mixes of a
Mono single for both songs.
If you want the
much-applauded MONO MIX and more of those juicy outtakes along with the full
LP-Sized impact – the Super Deluxe Edition weighing in at around a ton is the
'I heard the news today oh boy' for you. In the meantime, I'll settle for this 2017 sexy wee reissue belter – sonically splendid and spruced up to the
flowerbed nines. Well done to all involved…
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