"Get Back To Where You Once Belonged"

So Capitol is reissuing the first four American Bealtes LPs on CD. I don't really know what to think of this, and I think the same is true for a lot of Beatles fans.

See, the first four American albums were cobbled together from the British albums in bizzare ways. The first American album was called Meet The Beatles, and it collected tunes from the first and second UK albums (Please Please Me and With the Beatles). Such things were common practice in the early 1960s--British acts would release an album in Britain, and the US distributors would resequence the records, remove or add tracks, and all sorts of things as market strategies. It means the albums play very differently in the US versions than the UK versions. There's also the question of sound quality--the US versions of the early Beatles records were stereo, but drenched in heavy echo apparently, so they sound completely different than the mono UK albums (which are what were released on CD back in 1987).

So they've got these albums coming out. Essentially the same songs that are available on the British records, only with different sequencing and album titles. A couple of the records have singles thrown into the mix to fill out the disc. But if you've got Beatles 1 or the two excellent Past Masters discs, that's immaterial. So, is there a reason to bother releasing these things on CD? I don't know, and that's why I'm torn. I need to talk with dad about this, see what he thinks. I mean, these are the albums that I technically grew up listening to. I can remember sitting in the living room floor with my father, listening to Beatles records while he told me what it was like when these guys first came out. I can understand the nostalgia folks have for the old American versions of the albums. I mean, part of me was always a little confused that the CDs dad had didn't follow the same sequencing or song list that the old vinyl records I'd heard did.

Anyway, it's pretty immaterial right now, since I don't have the money to buy these things, and really shouldn't be making any major purchases this close to Christmas anyway. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: The Beatles, "I Feel Fine"