Search for the Holy Grail

After searching the web for almost 2 months I was finally able to locate a Mono copy of the Beatles Sgt.Peppers album and the Mono version of the Beatles White Album. To the average person who hasn't been a Beatles freak as I have for almost 40 years, these albums are like gold when compared to the stereo versions.

What most people aren't aware of is that the Beatles themselves took 3 weeks to do the final mixing and mastering on Sgt.Peppers, where as it took George Martin only 3 days to do it for the stereo version. Even though most people like to listen to music in stereo, to a music connoisseur, the Mono albums have a richer, more textured sound; the stereo versions sound almost watered down.I was only able to find an MP3 version of Sgt.Peppers, but it is recorded at 192kbps, which is above the decent level of songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store where music is at 128kbps when purchased.I found the Peppers album on a site of Blogger.com, but I don't recall the address (sorry!) I know the album is authentic because "She's Leaving Home" is 10 seconds shorter than the stereo version and the key of the song is 1/2 a note higher than the stereo. Lucy In The Sky choruses have an almost swirling effect to them ( no, I wasn't stoned when I listened to the album) & at the end of the Sgt.Peppers reprise, Paul is screaming something totally different just before "A Day In The Life".

With the White Album I found it on a "torrent" site ( I think it was "Demonoid Torrents") that gave me the songs in the .FLAC mode (stands for Free Lossless Audio Codex) which is close to the best download mode possible. I then with software converted the songs into .AIFF mode, which is the mode regular music CD's are sold as. If Apple's iTunes was able to play FLAC songs I would have left it that way. Again, all of the differences I had read about were present on this version. The "torrent" was from a Japanese copy of the album, which was one of the countries besides the UK who had access to the Mono version. No Mono albums were ever issued to the US.Again, this version of the White Album had a richer, better sound to it; some cuts had extra harmonies added, other tracks had an extra guitar added & the Beatles themselves also mixed and mastered this version of the album.

If you aren't an absolute Beatles nut, it probably not worth the time & energy to look for these mono versions. But if you're like me, someone who is a Beatles connoisseur these versions are
absolute necessities.Even when I listen to them on my iPod, the fact that they aren't stereo doesn't
subtract from the quality of the listening experience. I don't know many Beatle freaks, so if there
are anyone out there who has a story to share or maybe even something we can swap, I would definately welcome an email or a chat on Yahoo Messenger. My name is John and my email address
is: jlj90125@optonline.net and my Yahoo Messenger handle is jak4357.

Posted by John Kish at 4:10 PM 0 comments

From the eyes of a child-Yellow Submarine

I live in Rockland County,NY.I moved up to New City when I
was about 5 years old. I remember Yellow Submarine coming to the movie theatres ( back when movie theatres were full sized theatres, not a regular theatre split in 2 or 3). The weekend finally came and we went to see it. How different it looked back then compared to when they released it on DVD. Isn't it weird how different things
looked and smelled and tasted back when we were all kids. From an adult point of view George came out with 2 of my favorite songs on the album-" It's All Too Much " & " Only A Northern Song " . John & Paul came out with one of the best Beatle songs ever- " Nowhere Man " & if you listen to a good recording on a good stereo of " Hey BullDog " and turn the balance all the way to the right you can actually make out what John and Paul are babbyling about near the end of the song. One other point, only the U.K. release has the words " NOTHING IS REAL ", on the front of the album cover under the word " Submarine ".

Who other artists listen to?

I wanted to include this picture of another of my favorite guitarists-Jimi Hendrix. I include this in my Beatles blog because of a story I read that John and Paul were very suprised and delighted they had heard that Jimi had played a cover version of " Day Tripper " at one of his concerts only a day or two after the Beatles had released the song as a single in the U.K.

Let It Be

Let It Be was originally produced by Phil Spector ( the one responsible for the reverb on most of John Lennon's vocal tracks ) It was the only Beatle Album released to the public with the characteristic red apple. As stated on the back of the album cover quote " this is a new phase BEATLES album. . . LET IT BE was that they performed live for many of the tracks; in comes the warmth and the freshness of a live performance; as reproduced for disc by Phil Spector. I don't know about any of the other Beatle fans throughout the world, but this Let It Be was electronically trashed by Phil Spector. All you have to do is listen to Let It Be. . . Naked, and that's the album that should have been originally released as a live studio album. The album with the Red Apple is merely the sound track for the concert they gave on top of what was the Apple Boutique. There wasn't any warmth or spontaneity; it was a live recording that was electronically remastered.If you haven't listened to Let It Be. . .Naked, you don't know what your missing.

A new Beatles Photo

This is a Beatles photo that I found on another site on the web. I always delight in coming across a phtograph of the Beatles I've never seen before. With all the different books on the market ( and I own quite a few ) it's hard to find something you haven't seen before. This picture again looks to be about circa 1967-68. John's wearing that necklace around his neck ( the one with the 2 eyes and smiling mouth) that's in alot of other Beatle photographs.In fact I think it's the only thing besides his birthday suit that he's wearing on the Nude album with Yoko.

Favorite Pictures

These have always been my favorite pictures of the Beatles. My old man had to go down to Washington DC on business and when he came home he gave me the White Album for my birthday.The weird thing was that at the time I was 11 or 12 and my parents were too God damn cheap to buy me a stereo to listen to my albums on. So the 1st month or so I played the White album to death in MONO. A classmate in my grade school invited me over to his house after school and when he put the album on in stereo I almost had a baby. I couldn't believe the difference.My friend laughed his ass off. He couldn't believe my reaction. I'll never forget that.

Beatles ( circa 1967)

I came across this picture on another web site while I was surfing the web one day. They all look pretty wasted, but George almost looks like he's tripping on something or other.From the length of their hair it looks like this picture was taken around the time of the Sgt. Pepper's album. ( the only thing missing is a couple of moustaches. If anyone has some pictures other than the one's everyone's seen hundreds of time , please feel free to share any pictures or songs you've got that aren't in the Anthology DVD.

In The Studio

This is something to this day I would kill for to see. The Beatles in the studio putting together a new album. Of course the 5th Beatle ( George Martin ) would hang out mostly in the booth somewhere in the studio (above in the window ). I think alot of people don't give Martin the credit he deserved for how the final album sounded. This was part of the magic. The group wanted new different sounds & effects and George would make it happen.He was a very lucky person to end up where he did, when he did. Thank you for all the great things you helped with to make the Beatles sound their absolute best.