AW: Vinyl/CD

[JWBarlow at aol.com]

Hi Terry,

In a message dated 5/27/99 4:21:29 PM, 104065.2340 at compuserve.com writes:

>I couldn't agree more.  The Beatles first four albums were originally
>
>recorded in stereo, their vinyl albums were stereo, the stereo master tapes
>
>still exist, but the albums were re-released on CD in monaural.  Why?

I'm pretty sure this isn't true. I've heard Sir George talk about this a few 
times; the albums were originally mixed to mono for the UK releases, but 
Capitol would "remix" the records for the US (as well as cut off the tracks 
beyond those -- 12?-- which generated album royalties). When they remixed the 
records to stereo, they did lots of strange compression and EQ stuff. Martin 
found out, and was able to stop it by the Pepper album, and all the rest. Oh 
those extra tracks??? extra albums for us to buy in the US -- me? cynical? 
And aren't those "original" US Beatles albums (e.g., Yesterday and Today) now 
being reissued on CD too, because the UK mixes sound so foreign to us yanks? 
did I hear someone say cynical?

JB