Customer Rating:  
Summary: For Hardcore Beatle Fans
Comment: The second installment of Capitol's long-awaited, ongoing series of reissues of the Beatles' American albums covers the four Fab Four albums Capitol released in 1965: The Early Beatles, Beatles VI, Help!, and Rubber Soul. The first of these, The Early Beatles, was a quick roundup of all the material from Please Please Me that hadn't been put on an American LP and it appropriately plays like a truncated and jumbled version of their debut; it's fun, but lacks the momentum and punch of their British debut. Beatles VI, whose very title suggests the ferocity of Beatlemania, since it's their sixth LP in just over a year, relies heavily on their fourth British LP, Beatles for Sale, pulling six songs from that album ("Kansas City," "Eight Days a Week," "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party," "Words of Love," "What You're Doing," "Every Little Thing"), adding to the mix a couple of new songs that would later show up on Help! ("You Like Me Too Much," "Tell Me What You See"), a pair of Larry Williams covers ("Bad Boy," "Dizzy Miss Lizzie"), and "Yes It Is," originally released as the B-side to "Ticket to Ride." Since it's culled exclusively from late 1964 and early 1965 material, the album winds up holding together better than some of the grab bags from 1964, and since the newer material is lighter than the excised material from Beatles for Sale -- "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" may be weary, but without the gloomy opening triptych of "No Reply," "I'm a Loser," and "Baby's in Black," the remaining songs from this album don't quite feel as dark -- Beatles VI winds up as a pretty fun snapshot of the waning days of the peak of Beatlesmania.
Help! and Rubber Soul were the first U.S. LPs to bear the same titles (along with roughly the same artwork) of their U.K. counterparts, but they still had distinctly different running orders than the albums released in Britain. The American version of Help! is designed as a soundtrack to the film of the same name, containing selections from the movie's Ken Thorne-written score interspersed between the Beatles songs. Where the U.K. Help! had 14 tracks, including music not heard in the film, the U.S. Help! is 12 tracks, with only seven songs from the group -- just the songs actually heard in the film. The result is a distinctly different listening experience, one that's certainly not as satisfying as the U.K. LP, yet there is a certain charm to Thorne's exotica-tinged, swinging-'60s score, particularly to the James Bondian fanfare that opens the album, that helps make the U.S. version of Help! a fun nostalgia trip. The American Rubber Soul is also different than its British cousin, removing four songs from the U.K. version ("Drive My Car," "Nowhere Man," "What Goes On," "If I Needed Someone") and replacing them with two tunes from the U.K. Help! ("I've Just Seen a Face" and "It's Only Love"). The new tunes open up each side of the record, but the sequencing remains roughly the same as it is on the U.K. version, yet the U.S. LP does wind up with a subtly different feel than its British counterpart; by opening with the folky "I've Just Seen a Face" and omitting rockers and trebly pop songs, Rubber Soul winds up feeling like the Beatles' reaction to America's folk-rock movement of 1965, which is a feel that some listeners prefer.
As on the first Capitol Albums box, each of the four albums contains the original stereo and mono mixes for each LP (initial pressings contained incorrect mono mixes for Beatles VI and Rubber Soul, which were folded down for the stereo mixes instead of the original mono mixes, but this error was quickly corrected). Where several of the 1964 LPs on the first set were bathed in echo and were in fake stereo, the four 1965 records -- with the exception of The Early Beatles, which has such an extreme hard pan on its fake stereo that it is a bit difficult to listen to on headphones -- were not dressed up in as much post-production studio trickery and the stereo sounds natural, so the mixes aren't as disorienting as they were on, say, Second Album. There are some subtle differences between mixes -- and one not-so-subtle difference: the stereo version of "I'm Looking Through You" begins with a false start -- but most of these will only be noticeable only to the hardcore fans, who are indeed the target for this set. And like last time out, they should be pleased with this set, despite its flaws, chief among them the packaging. Like Capitol Albums, Vol. 1, this set has an ugly front cover that makes it seem like a Reader's Digest exclusive, the cardboard on the slipcase as well as the individual mini-LP reproductions feels flimsy (and Help!, which was originally a gatefold, is not a gatefold here), and the set feels like it could have been put together with more care. That said, there are some improvements this time around. The set has been issued as a (roughly) CD-sized box, which is preferable to the longbox of the first set, and Bruce Spizer's notes do an excellent job detailing the histories of these American LPs. And, of course, the sound is much, much better than the sound on the CDs for the regular albums, which are now nearly 20 years out of date. That sound, along with the nostalgic joy of getting these American incarnations on CD, is the main reason the hardcore fans will be more than happy to forgive this set its few flaws and simply enjoy the many pleasures of this collectors-oriented set.
Customer Rating:
Summary: May I offer a suggestion for Capitol/EMI?
Comment: As an ageing fan who fondly remembers Beatlemania and occasionally feels a certain nostalgia for it all, I myself am not particularly interested in resurrecting all the hatchet-job releases we got on this side of the pond, although I completely understand long-time fans' desire to re-obtain the mixes they prefer. Too many of these albums make little stylistic sense and are, strictly speaking, jumbled and misleading versions of the real thing, although being The Fab Four, they're still good listening.
Please, Capitol/EMI, this is what I'd like instead:
1. A complete overhaul of the entire catalogue - all of the Parlophone LPs. Please supplement each album with contemporaneously recorded (or most appropriately so) 45 RPM releases and EPs and dump those hideous PAST MASTERS discs. So, for instance, RUBBER SOUL gets "Day Tripper"/"We Can Work It Out", REVOLVER gets "Paperback Writer"/"Rain", PEPPER gets "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields" and MMT still gets "All You Need Is Love" and "Hello Goodbye". Just tack them onto the beginning or end of the disc. So simple. The early LPs would benefit greatly from this approach, too.
2. A proper remastering. Bring the volume of the guys' instruments back up where it's supposed to be. Correct the anachronistic imbalance in the voices which, in the present British discs, uncomfortably emphasizes the "lead" vocalist. (Their chorus was never intended to sound like that; it was the 1960s - not the 1980s.) Lose the bizarre fetish for "previously unheard details" like giggles and snapping fingers. (Who cares about that?) Please get rid of the fake stereo; mono is plenty exciting when it's properly mixed. George Martin knew that. The Beatles knew that. And the fans who purchased millions of 45s knew it, too.
3. And finally, please issue, as an adjunct to the complete British set, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (Go get George Martin's instrumentals from UA) and thanks for having done HELP! and RUBBER SOUL.
This is what we need.
PS. Oh yeah, remember the reverb on "I Feel Fine" and "She's a Woman", too!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Volume II Rocks
Comment: This is a great box set. It brings me back to when I first heard my sister's version of Beatles IV. I've heard some complaints about the sound quality. Don't forget that when Capitol records got the masters from E.M.I., they changed the mix, by adding a little echo to the record. This was a common practice for records released at that time. Listen to any E.M.I. British Beatles release and you will notice the difference.
For any Beatles fan growing up in the states, it is a must have. Along with volumeI ,it is something that will be enjoyed all the time. whole
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! 2's a Charm!
Comment: With all the controversy swirling around this collection (the dreaded fold-down mono flap), I was dead scared to order it, even though it's been out for a couple of years and supposedly Capitol fixed the problem (for details read the other reviews).
Well... I finally decided to just go for it, and I ordered.
Moments ago I pulled it out of the box and ...
It had "SK1" attached to the sticker and ...
Rubber Soul mono had the non-false start (read: correct) version of "I'm Looking Through You!"
So, for all you other scaredy cats out there, be scared no more! Problem is fixed. Get Volume 2!
Peace
Kaz
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Beatles as we remember them.
Comment: If you grew up in the 1960's U.S. as I did, you probably remember The Beatles from the Capitol albums. The stuff they've been playing on the "oldies" FM stations is mostly from the U.K./European releases (Parlophone?) and they just don't sound the same. Back in the day, you'd only find those on the "import" albums sold by the weird little shops on back streets of major cities. Some even seem to be alternate takes or mixes, most notably "In My Life" on the Rubber Soul album.
These are all the songs in the exact order (except you don't have to turn the record over!) complete with the sometimes tinny sound, the super-wide stereo separation and even the occasional funny noise between tracks. The only thing that annoys me about this collection is that the mono version of each album follows the stereo, so you need to pop the disc out if you don't want to hear the whole thing again in mono. I guess they had to put it in there for the REAL purists.
I bought both volumes at once and ended up with Volume 1 in a long box and Volume 2 in a "brick." While that would totally freak some people out, I was only mildly miffed as I bought them to listen to, not for the aesthetics. Still, they look like "Mutt and Jeff" sitting on the shelf.
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