White Album news
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| The ninth of November 2018, my son turns 25 and the 50th anniversary edition of The Beatles will be released. |
It looks like an official announcement with a full track list is imminent, regarding the fiftieth anniversary edition of “The Beatles” (aka “the white album”). Beatlefan published this info yesterday:
1) a 4 LP Limited Edition, consisting of the regular double album in a new stereo remix, (2 LP stereo remix + 2 LP Esher demos.
2) 3 CD version with the same as on the 4LP edition.
3) And a Super Deluxe CD Box (3 CDs as above + 3 CDs of outtakes). Plus the box will include a Blu-ray disc that will be audio only. There will be no video. The Blu-Ray disc will consist of everything that’s already on the CDs, plus some extra material not on the CDs.
The outtakes include non-album tracks/jams/improvisations. Of the latter, Beatlefan has been told that at least a couple are previously unknown. There also are some rehearsals. There will be 19 Esher demos of album tracks, plus outtakes of “Hey Jude”, “Revolution”, “The Inner Light”, “Across The Universe” and “Lady Madonna”.
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| This is a screendump of what thebeatles.com website looks like at the time of writing. |
Included will be the 12-minute version of “Helter Skelter” that previously was boiled down to about 5 minutes for the “Anthology,” but the legendary 27-minute version of “Helter Skelter” will not be included. The release will have one huge surprise in the form of a song which was rehearsed during the White Album sessions, but released it (in a different version) a few years later.
An official announcement of the releases is expected soon.
Also, there’s this interview with Giles Martin which was published in Spanish over at Diariodosbeatles.blogspot.com:
Journalist Daniel Buarque from Folha de São Paulo spoke with Giles Martin at the Abbey Road studios, son of Beatles producer George Martin on the new 50th anniversary edition of the White Album.
“I did not make the gold, but I help bring it to the surface,” he says. “I have a privileged position, I can go to Abbey Road and unscramble original tapes of recordings from the biggest band that ever existed, and my job is to try to give people the chance to have the experience I have in this job.”
“My dad never really liked ‘White Album’, he felt like he had lost control of the band because the Beatles went mad in the recording process,” said Giles Martin.
The result of all this work will be a new remix that will be released in November along with extra material totaling almost 7 hours of recordings.
Giles talked about the initial process of listening to the recordings. “It’s really like looking for gold, you have to be attentive. So we discovered conversations, comments, the mood of the recording. We have 102 recordings of ‘Sexy Sadie’, for example. During the recording, the band acted differently, creating almost everything in the studio. What is equally disappointing and brilliant is the fact that there is no magic is just the beauty of collaboration between humans in a studio. Only people making very nice sounds. They are excellent vocalists, guitarists, drummers. That’s what the Beatles do.”
According to journalist Daniel Buarque the new material sounds clearer from each instrument and also includes conversations between the Beatles before and after the recordings, as well as interruptions, mistakes and alternative versions of the songs that underwent changes before the final recording.
Aboyt the Esher demos: “They are acoustic recordings of the Beatles that they recorded in their homes and they sound beautiful,” says Giles. “In addition, we found more tapes that George Harrison had at his house. The sound is great, and we were looking for something new and different for this 50-year edition,” he says.
So it looks like the new “white album” boxed set will be very similar to the upcoming John Lennon Imagine – The Ultimate Collection boxed set, and likely priced similarly.
Gracias, Miguel
Wonder if there'll be any chat and extra stuff with/from Eric Clapton?
Also, will we get the bits of 'Revolution 9' as isolated pieces?
Like the test tape saying 'This is EMI tape reel, Number nine'?
The surprise wouldn't be 'Child Of Nature' (later 'Jealous Guy'), by any chance?
I'm personally hoping it's a classic Wings track, but done by The Beatles, myself….
Will the prints be the original four photos taken by John Kelly that came with the 1968 release, or will they be alternate photos of the boys from the same sessions?
I vouch for The Long and Winding Road for the surprise. But who knows ?
The interview with Giles was published in PORTUGUESE, for god's sake. Folha de São Paulo a brazilian newspaper.
yeah The Long & Winding Road – although i think very rough lyrics – but who knows ?
"The release will have one huge surprise in the form of a song which was rehearsed during the White Album sessions, but released it (in a different version) a few years later."
I nominate Not Guilty as the "surprise". And I really hope I'm wrong.
Why not " Not Guilty" ?
Because I want it to be something I haven't heard.
It'll be Let It Be !!!
Will there be a code for the digital material only on the bluray? If not, it sucks to be a fan and not have the tech needed to listen to it properly.
No video. At minimum there should have been the Hey Jude rehearsal/recording video. Talk about a missed opportunity.
Every missed opportunity now it's a revenue opportunity for the future. We can still squeeze the Beatles brand until the last deop, don't forget 🙂
The new found track is let it be.
With Let it be in the pipeline it is likely we also get a 50th anniversary edition of Abbey Road in between. What a pity the same treatment for Rubber Soul and Revolver was not done. Does anybody know whether anything is preserved from the With the Beatles session, except for the Hold me tight and Don`t bother me outtakes?
When I saw a 'surprise track' I had my hopes that it would be Etcetera, which was recorded by Paul during the White Album sessions and only heard twice in the studio before he took away the tape. The song still exists as an acetate in Paul's personal archives. That song, along with the 27 minute version of Helter Skelter and 1967's Carnival Of Light, are the holy grail of unheard and unreleased Beatles recordings….that we'll most likely NEVER get to hear. I didn't get the Sgt Pepper box set because of Carnival's omission and it's doubtful I'll be getting the White Album set since Apple Corps refuses to give the fans what they really want. One can only hope those tracks get leaked and bootlegged somehow because they need to be released.
Let It Be it is. Macca is on record saying that he thought it was an attempt to imitate Bridge Over Troubled Water, but the latter wasn't released until Jan 1970.
I'd love one of the other versions of What's The New Mary Jane!
I was looking forward to this but now looking at the outtakes list it looks like a poor selection and missing opportunities for these sessions, so much recorded and it should have at least been another disc minimum of outtakes.Esher demos,big deal,well known and heard for decades regardless of quality. Revolution RM 20,legendary Helter Skelter? This should have been much much better.40 plus years of collecting vinyl boots and official Beatle and Solo releases Im hoping that Abbey Road will be a better product, but it will be a Remix,a 5.1 and look up Abbey Road bootlegs on Bootlegzone and thats what we will get. Disapointing .