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The Beatles: The Capitol Albums Volume 2

First the obvious question should be answered--why are the Beatles being reviewed on a prog rock page? The simple answer is that they were one of the band's that gave birth to prog rock with seminal releases such as "Revolver", "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "Magical Mystery Tour", "The Beatles" and "Abbey Road". They also helped give birth to power pop and many other types of rock music. So it's only fitting and fair that we visit the cradle of prog rock civilization and its some of its earliest inhabitants. ***

When the Beatles music first appeared in America their albums were sliced and diced by Dave Dexter at Capitol to reduce the amount of songs and get as much mileage out of the material for the short two or three years Beatlemania lasted. Just as Capitol miscalculated how long the band would last they also miscalculated the quality of the Beatles material from the moment they DIDN’T sign them (they passed on the band’s first album and singles in America believing that they had no hit potential). They miscalculated by rearranging the band’s material for the U.S. market. The one thing that Capitol did right was in marketing the band to the U.S. public. The butchering of the band’s albums wasn’t necessary (it was done because in the United States albums only had eleven or twelve tracks vs. the fourteen in the rest of the world due to royalty issues) but it did provide Capitol with lots of product for hungry consumers. Capitol’s savvy approach helped keep the band successful in the United States. By the time of “Rubber Soul” the band was making records with the idea in mind of an album unfortunately Capitol kept removing tracks (although by “Revolver” then didn’t substitute material any longer). Whe n “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” rolled out in 1967 it was the first album that was released the same throughout the world by the band. While Capitol’s strategy would continue (the popular “Magical Mystery Tour” wasn’t released as an album anywhere else but the U.S. where Capitol wisely put the EP on one side and singles recorded throughout 1967 on the other side because EP’s had a history of not selling in the U.S.) to a lesser degree future album releases by the band would be unaltered. ***

The good news about this CD release is that American fans finally have the albums (butchered although they may be) they grew up on allowing fans to stroll down memory lane. This also allows the rest of the world an excuse to hear stereo masters for most of the band’s material prior to 1965 that we might not otherwise have. Capitol did have enough foresight to recognize that stereo was the wave of the future and demanded that George Martin remix the band’s albums for stereo. Although these mixes were flawed (Martin mixed them so that they sounded right even on a mono record player with vocals on one track and music on the other in many cases) they were what America fell in love with. Dave Dexter< /st2:PersonName> added endless echo to some tracks (destroying Martin’s careful production in the process) again for a market that they imagined different than the U.K.’s. ***

While the U.S. version of “With The Beatles” (“Meet The Beatles”) was superior to the UK release many of their later releases were inferior in just about every sense. That’s also true for the most part of “The Capitol Albums Volume 2”. Just as with the first volume this one has both the stereo and mono mixes of the album on the same disc. The first set contained “Meet The Beatles”, “The Beatles Second Album”,“Something New” and “Beatles ‘65”. This set resumes with “The Early Beatles”, “Beatles VI”, “Help!” and “Rubber Soul” all altere d versions of their European cousins. These have all been remastered from Capitol’s original mastertapes for the U.S. albums. That means that they were already third or fourth generation recordings and, while the fidelity can’t compare to a first or second generation recording, it is quite good given the limitations of the time and conditions of the tapes. ***

The saving grace for “The Early Beatles” (which is “Please Please Me” altered for the U.S. market) are the true stereo mixes of many of these classic tracks. “Twist and Shout” has considerable punch while Lennon’s sensitive vocal has never sounded clearer on “Anna”. Curiously the album cover is an outtake from the session for “Beatles for Sale” where the four look haggard. The stereo mixes as with most of the ones Martin did for the early material feature instruments primarily on one track with vocals primarily on another. ***

“Beatles IV” (a mixture of the British “Help!”, “Beatles for Sale” and single tracks) sounds surprisingly cohesive even lightening up one of the band’s darkest most dour albums (“Beatles for Sale”) with light pop (“Tell Me What You See”, “Yes It Is”) with nasty rock ‘n’ roll (“Bad Boy”). The transcendent “Eight Days a Week” was kept as part of the album and, in fact, released as a single. While musically it’s quite similar to a previous Lennon-McCartney original (send in your guesses as to which one), the stunning harmonies and arrangement make it a unique gem in the early Beatles catalog. Lennon would later dismiss it as junk but it perfectly captures all the elements that made their pre-“Rubber Soul” material so memorable. ***

Arguably it’s a more balanced album overall. The stereo mixes despite their inherent flaws sound marvelous here. Remastering engineer Ted Jensen has done a stellar job of cleaning these up without subtracting from the magic. You’d be hard pressed to tell these were second generation mastertapes. Please note that the first pressing of this album has fold down mixes of the stereo mixes NOT the original mono mixes. Capitol has fixed this and if you contact them via their website they will arrangement for you to exchange them for the proper mixes. This mix up reportedly occurred at Sterling Sound. ***

“Help!” suffers the most by comparison to both the British album and ANY Beatles album. We get the seven songs from the film with Ken Thorne’s curried James Bond sounding incidental music filling out the rest of the album. Although the packaging for the original American release was superior to the British (it was in a colorful, marvelous gatefold sleeve) this miniature “album” doesn’t duplicate the original sleeve subtracting the one aspect where this album was superior to its British cousin. I have to admit having grown up hearing Thorne’s Bond-like instrumental introduction to “Help” does, however, instill nostalgia. ***

“Rubber Soul” comes out equal to the original British release. While it’s missing four songs (all four of which would end up on “Yesterday and Today” which featured songs from “Help!”, “Rubber Soul”, the “Day Tripper”/ “We Can Work It Out” single and “Revolver” prior to its release) the two songs curiously grafted onto the album (both from “Help!”) fit the largely acoustic folk-rock sounding group of songs that inhabit the rest of the album. The British version is still the ultimate version but this is an interesting variation. There are some minor quirks as well as the mix is slightly different from the UK release but most of these differences are marginal. The 1987 CD release of “Rubber Soul” sounds muddy and inferior to this version which just to show how badly these albums need to be remastered. This version a lso features the original mixes for the stereo album. Martin remixed “Help!” and “Rubber Soul” balancing the mix better with a more contemporary audience in mind. You can tell if you have the wrong mono mixes on this album by listening to “I’m Looking Through You”. The incorrect mono mix has the false start like the original Capitol stereo mix included on the album. You’ll also note that most of these have the vocals predominately on one channel and the instruments on the next. This wasn’t an accident. George Martin mixed the tracks this way in the early days of stereo so that if you played a stereo album on a mono player the album would sound correct in mono. He later revised and remixed both “Help” and “Rubber Soul” with a more balanced mix, i.e. vocals and instruments on both channels. ***

The packaging is flimsy although slightly sturdier than the previous set. We get cardboard reproductions of the original artwork (although it isn’t an exact duplicate) but the CDs come without a protective sleeve which is a major flaw. The booklet features a brief but interesting essay by Beatles U.S. scholar Bruce Spizer (he’s authored a number of fascinating books on the band’s releases on both Capitol the band’s U.S. and Canadian label and Apple Records). ***

This isn’t a bad package by any means but it’s a cheap substitute for the band’s back catalog in remastered format. Still, for American fans that want to hear the music the way they first heard in the States this will be a glorious trip down memory lane. This isn’t a perfect set though as the first pressing used the wrong masters for the mono tracks for “Beatles VI” and “Rubber Soul”. This issue has been dealt with on the second pressing of the set. –Wayne Klein ©

Thin Ice Publications ***

Ratings: The Early Beatles **** Beatles IV **** Help! *** Rubber Soul *****

Overall: **** for material/***for sound quality