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[Derek]

i was reading where the U.S. album box sets are coming out and for a limited time you can even buy them seperately. i NEVER liked what the U.S. has done to Beatles' albums. there was a reason when the CDs first came out, they used the U.K. discography. it is artisticly supioer to the U.S. discography. the Beatles themselves never liked what Capitol did thier "babies" (hence the infamous butcher cover of "Yesterday & Today").
but it does have me wondering. in 1967, when "Sgt Pepper...." came out. Did Capitol take one listen to that album and changed thier minds about butchering thier albums. was that album a turning point in which Capitol had a change of heart?
and then Apple happened. I'm not for sure but was Apple international? Was one of the reasons for Apple was to make sure that the U.S. would not butcher (or to put it nicely) "alter thier future albums. because, aside from the "Magical Mystery Tour" album (which i completly understand and agree with) and "Hey Jude" (this one not so much, but a good album just the same). U.K. and the U.S. became identicle. The only Beatles Capitol album that stayed the same as the U.K. was "Sgt. Pepper...", i wonder if that album alone changed the way the record industry was run. and one more question: Did Capitol have anything to do with Apple?

[kylenz]

I'm not for sure but was Apple international?

I know that we had a pressing plant here in New Zealand pressing Apple records.. in fact I have a New Zealand pressing of Magical Mystery Tour here that had a completely different cover to the regular version.

http://www.beatlesbible.com/wp/media/new_zealand_magical_mystery_tour.jpg


I also have a record called 'The Essential Beatles' which I'm sure was only released in NZ/Australia under the Apple label - http://www.ebay.com.au/bhp/the-essential-beatles

I used to really enjoy when 'Baby You're A Rich Man' came on when playing that record, after all the 'oldies' at the start and 'Baby' of course is so different and far out compared to the others! Ahh memories..

[Derek]

i was doing some research. this is an interesting article: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2004-11-25-beatles-box_x.htm
that man who "americanized" the early Beatles' albums was Dave Dexture, Jr. and from what i'm reading he had little or no respect for the Beatles or thier music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Dexter,_Jr.

http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col-collections/dexter/beatles
let me add one more bit, this is the "kicker". is this the way most record companies were ran? really? with no sense of artistic integrity. the artists themselves had no control how thier music is sold in other countries? there's something wrong with that. i wonder if its still like that today?
http://library.umkc.edu/sites/default/files/images/spec-col/col-dexter-letter-1965-08-31-thru-09-02.pdf

[Derek]

still researching... (OK, feel sorry for me, because ive got nothing better to do, LOL  )
I'm reading this article:http://www.guitarworld.com/making-beatles-us-albums
it says here "As the folk-rock boom took off in 1965, he got the idea to peel away a few electric-guitar-driven tracks from the British Rubber Soul and add a couple of acoustic-guitar-heavy songs from the group’s previous album, Help!, namely “I’ve Just Seen a Face” and “It’s Only Love.”
in that case he messed up a little on the George Harrison songs because "Think For Yourself" is more guitar-drivin and "If I Needed Someone" sounds more "folksey", he probely shouldve done a "viceverca" on that one. just my op.
i was comparing the U.S. mix of "I Feel Fine" with the U.K. mix...WOW!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9pptW7JOwc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INE-ml6pBy4
All i know how to describe the U.S. mix is that its too much noise. it seems to overwhelm the senses. as opposed to the U.K. mix.

[kylenz]

Wow that US mix of I Feel Fine is heinous. I've never actually heard the US Beatles albums apart from 'Yesterday and Today' (bought a vinyl reissue of it many years ago, complete with 'butcher' cover.. and I thought the sound quality was excellent, dare I say it, superior to my copy of Revolver at the time) but now more than ever I'm interested to hear what the other albums sound like. It's almost like a bit of a thrill to hear a 'bad remix', just to know that they existed and that the American public grew to love them in spite of the dubious audio quality unleashed upon them!

That Dexter guy seemed like an intriguing character too. I bet it's no different now. I bet that's why all music now sounds compressed with no sense of dynamics - if the song is going to sell it needs to make itself heard on an ipod or phone/portable device. Therefore you cannot have anything quiet on a record! Oh well. Maybe the tide will turn one day.

[Derek]

i was listening to another artist. from the 50s, Buddy Holly. i have the compilation double disc set "Gold" which everysong is recorded from the original masters. (excespt the last 4 songs, the famous "apartment tapes" overdubbed by The Fireballs.) and i also have the imported 2 albums on 1 disc "Reminiscing" and "Showcase". when i hear the songs "Reminiscing" and "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" from the "Gold" complilation they clean, clear crisp, pure an natural. like the way it was meant to be. but i play those same songs from the other disc, it sounds like those Beatles U.S. albums.
i even remember back in the day i was listening to old Elvis records with stereo reprocessed from mono where it sounds like 2 exact same recording being played at once to give that "stereo" feel.
All this just confirms to me what the record industry had been doing in the last 55 years. Screwing with our music and duping us into thinking thats how we like it.  that makes me feel a bit ripped off. but in the 80s and 90s it seemed they were coming clean and admitted that they were wrong. only now some old fans are cropping up feeling nostalgic saying "i miss reprocessed stereo and reverb" so the industry is having to go back and rescrew what they fixed from the srew up they did in the first place. this can be  a bit comical in a certain way.