IT WAS AROUND 40 YEARS AGO, TODAY

Shoulda really been The End

It is interesting that in many quarters, the newly remastered version of Abbey Road was the fastest off the shelves and outta the bins on Sept. 9.

Many of us so-called all-thing Beatle watchers were predicting that shurely, the winner(s) would
most likely be Sgt. Pepper and The White Album.

Any bloody ways, there is no argument that AR was/is a great recording, and it should have been the Fabs' swan song LP in the early fall of 1969.
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Instead, the good but mish-moshy Let it Be was cobbled together by now jail-bird Phil Spector in 1970, and so LIB stood as the Beatles final offering.
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Which is really too bad cuz the looseness of Let it Be would have fit in perfect for '69, whilst the more polished Abbey Road was surely a harbinger of things to come for rock in the more production-value/style of the early 70s.
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Still, I would place Abbey Road at number 4, in the Beatle big-top.

RS+YO=ART CRIME

Nice cover, (some) bad inside(s)




No secret that Yawn Weiner's rag has been up close and personal with YO's arse for over 40 years.
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Now, when John Lennon was this us, I can pretty much understand why.
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But now?
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Well, you better think fourself if you can, and click on the scan at left wherein some
poor RS sluggo assigned to the new YO Platex Onon Band outrage actually gave it
FOUR BLOODY STARS!!!
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I mean, it was bad enough when they credited Her Nibs with "inventing" New Wave before it even existed, but my gawd, this, this, is beyond the shit pail.
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YO as "empress"? Yech.

NME WANKFEST,FABS SELL OUT & BEATLES HELD PRISONER

Text by twit(s), pix rich

I suppose the very tarty hipsters at the UK new Musical Express must show a certain trendy disdain for olde geezer rockers like the Beatles, but some of the rubbish reviews in their new "Collectors' Issue" on the remasters, are, well, rubbish.

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But what saves the whole lot is great and rare pix of the lads through the years, and a fresh interview with Paul McCartney on what he thinks of the digital do-overs.

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Pick up a copy of this mag, if you can find it, in 13 cover variations, if you dare.
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Rolling Stone's latest issue is banging the Beatle drum, as well.
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Click on the scan at left for news on the Fabs' success at the CD cashbox, and how the
whole seemingly terminally sick music industry may get a temporary stay with these

new discs.
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Unfortunately, the piece repeats the myth that the Mono Box set is a "limited edition."
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As previously noted in this space, even Apple Corps own website does not so assign the box, but rather describe it as being at present unavailable due to overwhelming demand.
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Finally, many Beatle fans are old enough to have been around for The Prisoner, the English TV series that ran in North America from late 1968 on, and on and on in perpetual syndication.

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A bizarre tale of (seemingly) a secret agent who quits, and then is abducted

to a weird "Village," where he is tormented by a succession of sado-masochists, who try to get the agent (Number 6) to spill the intel beans.
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Whatever they, the beans would be is not entirely clear, yet all in good fun. And in the (anti)climactic final episode, not only is the Beatles All You Need Is Love used in satire, but the jukeboxes playing it display American album covers like Second Album and Help! Strange, that.

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For much more on The Prisoner 40th Anny DVD box set, be seeing you at:

http://www.boomermediareview.com/ThePrisoner40thannyDVDBox.html

JOHNNY "C" LENNON and BEATLE TREASURES

Oi vey!

Hey, here's a little twist (and wank) to the frankly, quite tired talk

about what John Lennon really meant when he opined that the Beatles were "bigger than Jesus." (Click on scan to enlarge.)
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Although brushed off by Lennon as words taken out of context and flamed by the lunatic right-wing in the US, the recent auctioning of a signed copy of the teen mag Datebook, may provide yet more fodder for whichever side you're on.

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Lennon, who at that time rarely signed a middle initial, scribbled a "C" which knowing John's sense of humour was most likely a take the piss out of those who had gone nuts over the affair.
(If in fact the "C" was short for Christ.)
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The magazine fetched about 12 large.
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Hey, Fabs' fans, a great new book authored by Terry Burrows could make a fab gift for any true

Beatlemaniac.
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It is chock-full of reproduced Beatle mementos, and has a full album by album track annotation, as well as some solo effort stuff as well and other interesting tidbits.
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For much more on this new coffee-table extravaganza, please go to: http://www.boomermediareview.com/TreasuresBeatlesBook.html

COME UNCUT TOGETHER

Cor, blimey!

Regular readers of the PPC will know what regard we hold the Brit music mags in.
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So no exception this month for UNCUT, which features a rather inventive use of multiple pages devised around the Sgt. Pepper model/phenom.

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Click on the scans provided here to see: 1) the mag's front cover shot with a Pepper cover modern reprise, and 2) the cheat sheet for all the "celebrities"-all 69 of 'em-featured.

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An interesting concept this, as all 69 are tied to some sort of Beatle theme and/or wankable.

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Some of it is a bit marginal, but all is in good fun. A-O!

Pick up the magazine, if you can.

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http://www.boomermediareview.com/

MS DB JERRIES v APPLE/EMI PPM LIMIES

Heil, but no cigar!






Last time out we awarded a close decision to Mirror Spock's Mono
Sgt. Pepper over the new Apple/EMI mono remaster of same.
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But even the most wile Vulcans can not emerge victorious, all the
time.
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Case in point, a ear-to-ear of the MS, Die Beatles (Please Please Me) stereo needle-drop CD, and the new PPM from Apple.
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Previously, the MS DB kraut special blew off its competitors with a nice full sound, but an inherent weakness in the original recording has forced me to place Die Beatles as second best, now.
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All previous recordings of stereo PPM-in two track "stereo" with vocals on one channel, and instrumentation the other-suffer from bleed-through from one track to other. (Panning hard to one or the other speaker, you can hear remnants of the other channel as well.)
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Now, unless listening on headphones this defect is not that noticeable.
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But the new Apple stereo PPM has eliminated almost all of the bleed-through, and one would need a Brian Wilson ear to hear it on speaker. Even on headphones it is barely audible.
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So, the score at the end of two rounds is: MS 1, Apple/EMI 1, round three to follow.

MMT or LIB?

You wot?

Thanks to fellow Kanuckistan Beatle fan Richard, for pointing out
another in a long, long, long-very long-line of Apple et al FUBAR's.
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It seems that a printer or such had some of the bad green tea when he or she placed a graphic on the stereo Magical Mystery
Tour CD. (Click on left to enlarge.)

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You'd think that after 22 years they could get it all right, but no.
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The MMT track listing ends with "Let it Be Mini Documentary"

which should come as a surprise to those who worked on the MMT

mini doc!

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They should have had all the bloody CDs made in Japan!

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MEANWHILE...here are the new Boomer Media Review Beatles Stereo and Mono Box reviews:

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STEREO- http://www.boomermediareview.com/BeatlesStereoRemasterBox.html

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MONO- http://www.boomermediareview.com/BeatlesMONOBoxRemaster.html