The Beatles' Revolver Box Set

[westen44]

I just got this yesterday.  I'm still not completely finished listening to it.  This is the 5 CD box set.  There are several variations, including a 2 CD set.  This is good, but simply not worth over $100.  I can compare this purchase to other recent ones I've made.  The Slade recent 5 CD release was only $43.  The Allman Brothers 5 CD set "Trouble No More" which I got in February is still only $50, although it went up slightly since I got it.  I actually got more fulfillment buying the James Gang live CD several months ago than buying this Beatles CD set.  In that case, I had been on a search for years to find that particular CD.  So I guess that's a factor.  I'm not trying, of course, to compare Slade, the James Gang and the Allman Brothers to the Beatles, although it's possible a case could actually be made for the Allman Brothers.  BTW, I don't know how much the Revolver 2 CD set is.  It may be worth whatever they're charging, though.  As for the way the remixed Revolver sounds, I wasn't planning on doing an actual review.  Suffice it to say, I was disappointed from the first song.  "Taxman" started off sounding trebly with not a major improvement on the sound of the vocals.  I was expecting better.  Also, judging on what I had been reading about it, I was expecting a fuller and deeper bass sound.  It's not bad, but definitely not worth paying $100.  I was fine with the prices of all the other CDs mentioned here, but not with this one.  Also, I'm not very interested in the outtakes people are raving about.  I don't care that Yellow Submarine started out as a depressing song and then evolved.  What's really depressing is buying this overpriced Revolver CD set. 

[uwe]

Those Beatles boxed sets are aimed at a specific market that basically doesn't worry about spending fifty or a hundred bucks, but buy into the "reassuringly priced"-concept and appreciate a lavishly packaged music history artefact even if they probably don't listen to the outtakes or the mono version more than once.

I should know! I still have mine sealed here - havn't gotten round to listening to it yet. It won't run away. The previous remixes of Sgt. Pepper, White Album and Abbey Road I all thought worthwhile if you like to immerse yourself in this kind of thing.

And great as the Allmans were, I don't think they were The Beatles (and I believe all Allman members would agree with that), Michael! No one was. What set the Liverpool guys apart was their global appeal already in an era before globalisation - their music magically appealed to the world without aiming for the lowest possible common denominator. You can't really compare the bands in any case, the Allmans were improvisational, musicologists, about instrumental prowess and creating that live magic, the Fab Four were about songwriting craft, studio wizardry and creating something new - as long as the Beatles existed, live gigs were never meant to be anything else but a representation of their recorded work. That might have changed, had they eventually resumed touring, but that never happened until their split.

[westen44]

I'm also sure any of the Allman Brothers would have laughed at you if you if you compared them to the Beatles.  Still, the Allman Brothers were legendary.  I've probably told this story before here at some point.  But I knew a guitarist who was the best I've ever heard.  He wasn't ambitious, though, and ended up spending his life playing second-rate clubs in southern Tennessee.  I remember him telling me that he once got to spend a little time somewhere with Duane Allman and got to jam with him.  He said after that he got so discouraged that he didn't even pick up his guitar for two weeks.

I can't see any circumstances in which the Beatles would have kept touring.  George Harrison especially hated that.  He hated their Philippines tour so much that after it was over he said he wished someone would get in a plane and bomb the Philippines.  The Beatles had turned down an official invitation to attend some kind of event while they were there.  From that point on, they were treated with true hostility by the government. 

[morrow]

I was approaching teenhood when the Beatles did Ed Sullivan. Overnight everything changed. I’ve never seen anything remotely like that. We all became obsessed with music , every other month there was new Beatles material on the radio. Every album was a milestone. I was just starting high school when Revolver came out. At first we didn’t quite know what to think of it . The Fab Four were getting weird.
And the Revolver we listened to was not the same Revolver that was in GB and Europe.
I’m probably not going to buy it, I have the European version on cd. It’s not the album I listened to , ButI do listen to it every once in a while.
It was my favourite Beatles album.

[eb2]

I am a sucker for this stuff, but also realistic about what it is.  I will buy the box o' LPs or CDs - or both.  I bought the Let It Be set and pretty much just listened to the Glynn Johns Get Back disc.  Revolver is a different animal though, so I will give everything a listen, and probably be more into it as it was a more impressive disc than most. Especially from a bass standpoint. And when you compare it to most discs released that year it was an impressive work. But realistically, I can't imagine this remix is THAT better than the version from a few years ago, or the mono version from a few years ago. I would suspect it a better mix than the 80s CD version, but when you can buy that for fifty cents to a buck, how bad can that be?  I guess Yoko needs our money.

[westen44]

Of course, people always have different views.  And more often than not, I'm in a minority.  Personally, though, I would rather pay $50 for Revolver remixed and not pay extra for a book and outtakes.  By the time all that is included, you're told to look at all you're getting, it's worth it, etc.  No, it's not worth $100 to me.  I'm also a Hendrix fan.  When prices for the albums get too high, people complain.  Beatles' fans don't seem to even know what that means.  Of course, I've seen a few exceptions, but not many.  BTW, I did begin to realize before I even got Revolver that I might get buyer's remorse.  You can never know for sure.  I did try to cancel my order two weeks in advance, but my request was denied.  Obviously, I'm one of those people, though, who should have just bought the two CD set.  All these extras in the $100 version just don't cut it for me.  I just looked it up and the 2CD version is only $22.  It's definitely worth that and even more.   

I just ran across a new review of 2022 Revolver a few minutes ago.  It clears up a few things for me.  The critic says that if you listen to the album with headphones on, it's probably going to sound pretty good.  But if you don't, things may become way more problematic.  Although I have some good headphones, most of the time I don't use them because it's just too inconvenient.  So, it looks like, though, the opinion on 2022 Revolver may vary from one person to another more than usual. 

[Pilgrim]

Headphones:  Sony MDR 7506? I like closed ear phones because they reduce distraction and keep the sound where it belongs.

[uwe]

I like to hear my music in a space (it doesn't even have to be an acoustically prime one) - not much of a headphones fan, even very good ones. It's a bit like scuba diving breathing for me.

[OldManC]

I bought my first Beatle bootleg sometime in the late 70s but wasn't aware of any more until I lived in England, 84-86. The bootlegs I bought there were cassettes bought in market stalls.

A few years later (once I was buying CDs), I found a CD called Backtrack 1, which led me to find Backtrack 2 and 3, and it became a bit of an obsession because I LIKE trainspotting with Beatle songs and outtakes. The Artifacts box sets were more interesting to me than the official Anthology set (even if that one benefited from the tapes being cleaned up a bit.

As of tonight (after I ripped the deluxe Revolver set), I have 323 Beatle CDs in my iTunes, I'm guessing less than 75 of those are downloaded or copied from others. A lot of it is repeated (The Singles set, the EP set, the first CD box set, the 2009 stereo remasters, the mono set, the Capitol version, etc.), but like I said, trainspotting... I don't listen obsessively to all of it (the complete Get Back session Nagra tapes can get a bit tedious), but I'm happy to shell out $125 a pop so long as Giles finds a way to get new mixes out of those old session tapes. I like having such clean mixes that allow me to hear everything they originally recorded on each track.

[Alanko]

I've just bought the 2-CD version of this release. I'm not 'Steve Hoffman Forum' enough to get the more multi-disk, hagiographic iterations of this release.

The big stand-out track for me is the raw version of Got to get you Into My Life without the brass tracks. The bass thunders on this and the rhythm guitar parts 'chunk' very nicely. Some of the unreleased tracks are more enjoyable or intriguing than others.


I primarily listen to music on my stereo system rather then headphones (my various headphones all have different EQ curves baked in).