beatles remasters

I had no idea that they were remastering The Beatles...though since it's timed with the release of The Beatles: Rock Band it makes perfect sense. Leave it to Bob Lefsetz for a couple of choice bits on the remasters. First, on "I Should Have Known Better":

This remaster is the anti propofol. It’s like Disney imagineers came up with a serum they could inject into corpses to bring people back to life.

And this one on "Tomorrow Never Knows":

This one track is a metaphor for the whole experience of listening to this boxed set. You’ve got to turn off your mind, relax and float downstream. So you can hear each and every instrument and effect in this track. They built this, the Beatles, George Martin, a host of string players and... There was a vision, which fit no contour in an executive’s brain.

Emphasis mine. Reminds me of the piece by Andrew Bird that I blogged about last year.

I feel like it is a deliberate creative process to hear a sound in my head and then rummage around for the object that makes that sound. Sometimes, as I’ve noted before, the object itself gets assigned a mystical value and must be on a song, though I know most listeners could not care less whether we use a Telefunken mic or a 30-year-old calf skin drum head.

Comments

[Xris Ernest Hall]

Great review. Makes me even more excited for them. I removed the Beatles (actually retagged them in such a way that they wouldn't end up in any of my smart playlists or on my ipod) months ago in iTunes so that when I hear the remasters, I can do so with fresh ears.

There are rumors that 9/9/09 is also going to be the date of the annual Apple ipod/itunes special event, at which event they will announce the digital release of the Beatles catalog, but there have been so many false alarms about that I'll believe it when I see it. In any case, I'll be buying the CDs, traditionalist that I am.