Beatles Remasters

The Beatles's entire catalog was finally released in newly remastered form for the first time since their records appeared in compact disc form in 1987. The ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year of this century was an appropriate release date (albeit a Wednesday, bypassing the usual Tuesday standard),as it was John Lennon's lucky number.

Monophonic versions of each LP through the Yellow Submarine soundtrack (the last Beatles album released in mono) and stereo versions of their first four LPs are available for the first time on CD in history, resulting in previously rare variations of the original masters. On the stereo version of "Please Please Me" from the album of the same name, John Lennon gets a line wrong (he incorrectly sings "Why do I never even try, girl?") toward the end of the song and thus sings the words "Come on" with a chuckle. Paradoxically, a mono remix of "Helter Skelter" from the White Album fades out but doesn't fade back in so you don't hear Ringo's scream about blisters on his fingers.

It seems ironic that the Beatles were among the last recording artists to have their work issued on CD, yet Apple Corps has since used the compact disc format to re-present the group's work in fresh and exciting ways, from the BBC Radio discs and Anthology series to a reworked variations of the Yellow Submarine soundtrack and the Let It Be LP. And that's not to mention the CD versions of the repackaged albums Capitol compiled before 1967 (so I won't).

Also out today is the video game "The Beatles : Rock Band." I'm not into gaming, so i can't comment on that much. But I can't wait to hear the new CDs.

The Past Masters collections compiling the Beatles's nonalbum tracks, as noted earlier on this blog, are being reissued as a single package rather than as two separate releases.

I'll comment on President Obama's speech later.