Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [VINYL]

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This will be the very first time Apple have authorised a super deluxe edition box set of a Beatles studio long-player. My father was an American advertising executive assigned to Japan Air Lines, and had been transferred to Yokohama. And my mother was a bit of a bohemian - born in Paris during the 1920’s, her parents were members of the Lost Generation. She was happy to be in Japan, but realized we still needed a connection to home. So one hot summer day, we rode a crowded train to a Tokyo theater specializing in American movies. Revisiting Sgt. Pepper is also a lot more fun than mere nostalgia . Start with the cover, a witty, iconic work of art. Next, the conceit it depicts: the Beatles’ death and replacement by an alter-group called Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The concept is entertaining and original, but it also serves to liberate both the musicians and the listener from any ingrained expectations. Nor have the hummable melodies, assorted musical styles, day-in-the-life tales, or now-serious/now-sardonic lyrics lost any of their appeal. In short, Sgt. Pepper has aged but it’s never gotten old. Apple Corps and Universal Music will next month reissue The Beatles‘ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as a six-disc super deluxe edition box set, 50 years after the original album was first released. DB - In the end, RCA decided to close the factory and I was sent to EMI, as I was told they might have a position for me. I now had quite a bit of experience. When I arrived, EMI said they’d heard about my reputation, and were offering me a job. And I said, “Um, what have you heard?”

If the new mix and stereophonics were equally laudatory, this album would be a watershed event. Sadly, this is where the younger Martin fails us. He boosted all of the vocals—as well as certain instruments—to the point where they’re right in your face. And there’s no letup. So rather than the Beatles’ carefully-plotted journey through emotional highs and lows, Martin gives us an album that’s unremittingly aggressive. Rather than inviting you into a fascinating world, as even the lousiest-sounding predecessors did, the new edition pushes you away. Apple, the Beatles’ label, has attempted to set things right a couple of times, first in 1982 with a remastered Beatles in Mono CD box set; and later, in 2014, with a 180-gram mono vinyl box set taken from the original analog tapes. Still, although these releases did allow us to hear the album as the Beatles had intended, they were still in mono and thus missing the spatial benefits of stereo. The Beatles "Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" RARE UNIQUE PLATINUM Vinyl Cd Record And Autographed Cover- Platinum Frame - Unique Gift DB - My first job was a Van Morrison best of compilation, and we had to put the master together as well as cut the master lacquers. I had already been editing tape at home, so I gave it a go. Richard said, “no, it’s not good enough” and told me to do it again. He pointed out the level issues and other aspects to me, and then how to do it right. It was a great learning process. The album was released and was quite popular. The facility was then bought by Columbia and became CBS records. Not much difference, but there was a bit more diverse product coming through. The second pressing of this LP took place in 1969 for both the mono and stereo version. It displays "the Gramophone & Co. Ltd." but no "sold in UK".

DB – They were quarter inch 30 IPS tapes. I was amazed at how it corresponded with that first record I had been listening to. I thought it would be more open and detailed, but there was very little difference in terms of those early vinyl recordings, which is a testament to how good they were. That’s the thing about this album – how well it was recorded and produced. And how the tape sounded like the original vinyl issue – there was so little difference. The tape was nearly identical. I worked for the Sydney Water Board in their electronic section as a cadet design engineer, looking after two-way radios and telemetry systems. It was quite interesting, actually. It was quite advanced for the 1960s. One day, a component salesman I knew stopped by and said “I was talking to a guy who is looking for someone to help in the mastering department of their record plant – would you find that interesting?” So I went and met Richard Harvey. It was a position in the mastering rooms for international releases from Columbia, Polydor and Warners, as well as some local product. At the time, they had Ampex tape machines, Neumann lathes and Westrex cutters – one was a valve room, and the other was a transistor room. Yet for most fans the Anniversary Edition’s promise is for greater authenticity, better sound, and less clunky stereophonics. For me, it’s a split decision. First, the sound. The original LP and CD of Sgt. Pepper are quite similar sounding. They share thin tonality and pond-flat dynamics. The CD is worse due to sharp highs and pervasive edginess that make it hard to listen to. A 2009 CD remastered by Guy Massey and Steve Rooke smooths and fills things out. Rhythms have more drive, dynamics have some life, and the superior transparency makes details more audible. Not surprisingly, since it was made from the very same digital remasters, the LP found in The Beatles 2012 vinyl box set sounds very much like this CD. Both constitute worthy upgrades over their predecessors.

Thus, a lifelong appreciation of the Beatles started for me. Yellow Submarine is one of their more underappreciated albums, but it is still my favorite to this day. I listen to it every few months without fail. The Beatles Collection - "Sgt Pepper" RARE Apple Green Vinyl Cd Record And Autographed Cover Mounted And Framed - Unique Collectable/Gift I basically said “Wow!” and chatted with Richard for a few hours, and he eventually said, “I think we can do something.” So I put my name and number on a piece of paper, and didn’t think anything else of it. He called a week later and said: “When can you start?” My family was cautious about it at the time – “when you get a job with the government, it doesn’t get any better.” But that’s how I started at the Australian Record Company. And when I worked at EMI in Australia, there was an engineer there who had worked at Abbey Road at that time, named Richard Lush – I think he was the original assistant engineer on Sgt. Pepper’s…. He said everything for the original was done in mono, and fully designed around a mono release. They had spent two to three weeks mixing it for mono, and just as they were sending it off, someone came running down from the office and said ‘by the way, we need a stereo mix.’ One rare version has been out of reach: the Nimbus Supercut pressing, said to be one of the best. But in the course my research, I came across a lesser-known Australian audiophile release from 1983, the EMI Audio-5. I have come to realize that, from a sound quality perspective, this may be the most valuable and best sounding of them all.

The Beatles "Sgt Pepper" 50th Anniversary Gold Vinyl Cd Record And Autographed Cover Mounted In A GOLD Frame- Unique Collectable/Gift BW: So moving on to the Audio-5 Sgt. Pepper, what was that day like – when you first received the tapes? So I believe they mixed it in two days for stereo. It’s an incredible mix as well, and it’s quite different. Interesting how they did something like that in such a short time. In those days, people were questioning stereo, and saying that mono was still the way to go. In stereo, it’s moving around a bit, which makes it interesting in one respect – but the mono mix is a different experience. And they were using 4 channels of a Studer tape machine, and bouncing it across to achieve the mixes - this is a difficult process. In 1987, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released on CD for the first time. It was, by some considerable distance, the most ballyhooed reissue in the history of pop. A two-hour documentary about the album and its place in history was shown at prime time on ITV, even then a very peculiar place to find Allen Ginsberg and Abbie Hoffman discussing LSD and the Exorcism of the Pentagon protest. We arrived and took our seats, the aisles crowded with expatriates. The first film was “Marooned,” about astronauts stranded in space. The special effects were state of the art, with our friends the Russians saving the day at the end. But then the second feature started to roll - the movie was “Yellow Submarine.”

And so, it also began for Don Bartley. One of the top sound engineers in Australia, Don first heard Sgt. Pepper’s…. upon its release in 1967, and decided then and there to enter the music business. As a result,, he eventually came to master what many consider the “holy grail” of audiophile Beatles records: the “Audio-5 Sgt. Pepper’s”.

The Beatles "Sgt Pepper" 50th Anniversary Gold Vinyl Cd Record And Autographed Cover Mounted And Framed - Unique Collectable/Gift So eventually I got a job at the Australian Record Company. I told my parents about my new position, and they said “Oh no! A government job is very secure!” As well, my school careers adviser had suggested being a train driver, or bus driver instead (laughs).

DB – After a couple of years on the job at EMI, management called me into a meeting. They presented me with these tapes. They said they were special tapes from Abbey Road, and they wanted to produce an audiophile version of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. I was amazed, and said to myself, “This is me? I’m going to work on this album?” It was like a dream coming true.

Finally, the bonus album contains a version of “A Day in the Life” with the originally-conceived ending: a large group humming an E natural. The band concluded that, after the song’s monumental orchestral crescendo, ending with a hum was anti-climactic. After listening to this ending, you’ll no doubt agree. The group decided instead to deploy an array of keyboards (mostly pianos) hammering a single E major chord in unison. The rest, as we know, is history. DB – It’s more artistically correct, and quite a nice atmospheric effect. Whereas with the early Rubber Soul it’s an extreme technical pan, and it just sits in place. The DVD and Blu-ray include ‘fully restored’ version of the 1992, 50-minute documentary The Making Of Sgt. Pepper and 5.1 surround and hi-res stereo mixes of the album, plus Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever. The content is the same on the DVD and blu-ray, but the latter will offer lossless 5.1 and improved visuals.