New Beatles reissues are for sale, but who’s buying?
The Fab Four has been in the news several times in the past few weeks—Paul and Ringo reunited onstage, Paul will be headlining the Los Angeles music festival Coachella this weekend and The Beatles’ own edition of the video game Rock Band is going to be released in September. However, possibly the biggest news for all The Beatles nerds was last week’s announcement that The Beatles’ catalog is being remastered and released in its entirety for the first time in almost 22 years.
The Beatles are understood by many to be the greatest band in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, having topped lists by VH1, Spin Magazine and Rolling Stone. With the new game and albums being cleverly released on September 9, 2009 (09/09/09), their music could potentially reach new, younger audiences and be heard in ways the songs have never been experienced before. However, the nature of the Rock Band video games and the dying marketability of CDs could limit the ability of these releases to attract new fans.
Pop Band
When inducting The Clash into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Edge of U2 declared the British punk band to be the greatest rock band of all time next to The Rolling Stones, but he had to qualify the statement by clarifying that The Beatles were “obviously pop.” The four lads from Liverpool are often categorized as a pop band, far from rock and roll and anything remotely resembling the image of the guitar-smashing, rabble-rousing genre.
So why are they getting their very own edition of Rock Band, a video game more associated with the likes of heavy metal band Guns N’ Roses and alternative rockers Soundgarden? Although the game will allow the music to be experienced in a new way, it is unclear whether or not the avid fans of previous versions of Rock Band will be impressed.
Even Glenn Gass, Professor of Music at Indiana University and the teacher of a course called “The Music of The Beatles,” acknowledged that The Beatles are an interesting choice for a game more likely to feature songs by hard-rockers Kiss or Black Sabbath.
“I can’t imagine ‘Day Tripper’ being very interesting,” Gass said. “They didn’t do five-minute heavy metal guitar solos.”
The Beatles, however, cannot be completely dismissed as just a pop group. Before becoming the band we know and love today, they played loud, rocking music in clubs, calling themselves the Quarrymen. Gass referred to them as a “savage band before they started recording music.”
In the 1960s, The Beatles also recorded several heavier tracks that appeared on their albums and singles but not necessarily on the radio. Their guitar-heavy tracks include “Hey Jude” B-side “Revolution,” “Helter Skelter” off of their self-titled White Album and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” from Abbey Road.
Weinberg freshman Todd Levine said The Beatles played pop music but that this is nothing to be looked down upon.
“I think The Beatles were first and foremost a pop group, but I think there’s a negative connotation with the word ‘pop’ that shouldn’t be there,” said Levine, a Beatles fan who owns the band’s albums on vinyl. “To say they’re a pop group, that’s not to say they weren’t innovators or masters of what they were doing.”
As the pop-rock debate continues, Gass, who has two children at the video game-playing ages of 11 and 14, hopes something interesting is done for the video game.
“I hope it’s not just a glorified karaoke,” he said.
The Album — A Dying Art Form
For a Beatles fanatic like Gass, the new Beatles albums will be a blessing. Their catalog, including masterpieces Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road, has not been re-released since 1987, when CD technology was relatively new. On September 9, they will be available as individual CDs and in two different box sets, mono and stereo. Gass compared the upcoming reissues to the cleaning of the Sistine Chapel.
“Compared to some CDs, the Beatles albums sound pretty crummy,” he said. “It’s an embarrassment that we’re still living with mid-80s CD technology when any band worth anything has been remastered.”
The September date will mark the first complete remastering of the catalog since the initial releases, but this will not be the first time their music has been reissued on CD. One of the first efforts to remaster the Beatles’ music after the 1980s was the Yellow Submarine Songtrack, a 1999 release featuring remixes of songs from the animated film Yellow Submarine.
“You heard things you never heard before,” Gass said of the clarity of the songtrack. “We’re seeing color and detail in a way we haven’t seen in a lifetime.”
Although some might be struggling to contain their excitement over the new reissues, many college students are not going to pay the money for music they already have or just plain don’t care about. The CDs are unlikely to impress in an age in which someone is more expected to download low-quality files than buy an album on vinyl or CD.
McCormick freshman Sam Kaufman said she will probably not buy the new reissues. However, Kaufman said she listens to The Beatles’ full albums, citing The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as the two she listens to the most.
“I already have the music, so I don’t feel the need to buy it again if it’s just different quality,” she said.
Although it is uncertain how many people will actually buy the CDs when they are finally released, it is still safe to say future generations will continue to listen to their music.
“I think it’s neat how they could appeal to so many different age groups and types of peoples,” Kaufman said.
Songs like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Yesterday” are known by virtually everyone, and their influence can be seen from the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds to Nirvana.
“They were revolutionary,” said Weinberg freshman Corey Berg. “They had the courage to try something new that hadn’t been really tried before. They did what sounded good and went with it.”
Beatles-loving parents might not be interested in playing a silly video game, and their children might not want to spend ever-scarce money on buying reissues, but the fact that we are even talking about 09/09/09 speaks to the legacy and power of The Beatles to keep their songs resonating for years to come.
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Sure, we all say we like The Beatles. But what are we really listening to these days? Or you can return home.
Whatever the Beatles name does, it will make millions upon millions of dollars. This event was not meant to gain a larger fan base, but to appease the fan base that recognizes the poor quality of the current CD release. I think the re-issues are well deserved, and will satisfy many fans, including myself. They’re remastered tracks straight from the original analog recordings, so every original detail will be there and in a brighter and more dynamic sound.
Brian
April 15, 2009 at 9:53 pm
I will be buying all of the new CDs as well as the video game. I already own The Beatles CDs, but as was noted in the article, they do sound crummy. I’m definitely willing to pay for better quality. They are one of the few groups that I do a lossless encode for my ipod. So CDs will be very handy for that. I don’t think I would purchase a downloadable version of The Beatles unless it was lossless.
Pat
April 15, 2009 at 10:34 pm
This old fart is a child of the 1960’s. It’s impossible for younger adults to comprehend the gigantic impact these guys had. Rock and Roll was less than ten years old when The Beatles started writing these incredible songs and it had a mesmerizing impact worldwide. It was so cool and you had to have been there……… and yes, I’m saving up right now to score both box sets in September.
Carl J.
April 16, 2009 at 8:39 am
Great article overall, but you think “Hey Jude” is ‘guitar-heavy’? Please tell me that’s an odd typo.
I will be buying the new discs. The Beatles canon is so much more deserving of the horrid ‘87 mastering.
Lance
April 16, 2009 at 8:42 am
He said “Hey Jude”’s B-side “Revolution” was guitar heavy, not “Hey Jude” itself.
Also, I will not be buying these. Even though I’m a huge beatles fan, I’m fine with the less than perfect mastering of the old cds.
To Lance
April 16, 2009 at 10:48 am
There’s an inappropriate comma after “Hey Jude” in the article, making him list Hey Jude and then “b-side Revolution” a separate song.
Also, these are mostly being released for better sound quality, not to attract people who haven’t heard of the beatles before, if they exist.
andy
April 16, 2009 at 1:08 pm
I will certainly be downloading these disks illegally…can’t wait.
Bilbo Baggins
April 16, 2009 at 11:21 pm
How about going back to the analog tapes and pressing some vinyl?
Biff
April 20, 2009 at 10:21 am
I can say I am one of The folks who bought The Yinyl, 8 tracks,Cassettes & Cd’s & I have no qualms about paying 20 dollars a CD (As I am sure will be the lowest you’ll pay for any of these re-issues, I am sure the White Album & Past master 2 cd sets will fetch much more, & I will shell it out because when it comes to spending My money I’d rather pay for something I am positive will contain a albums woth of great songs, I have wasted far too much money in the last 20 years buying Cd’s at high prices for one or two Hit singles & 10 songs of BullS**t filler music not worth wasting any amount of time on. when I can pop in The Revelver album & hear Taxman, She Said she said, Tomorrow never knows , Good day sunshine, Elenore Rigby, I’m Only sleeping, Got to get you into my life, These are classics & most bands you can span a 10 year carear & not get that many classics as are on “Revolver” alone. any kid who has ever bough a CD by Oasis or Cheap trick or Enuff Z’nuff or Redd Kross or Jellyfish etc…. need listen to these albums this is the real deal OP/Rock what ever a great song is a great song & as far as Guitar hero or Rock Band it takes far more skill & talent to Play notes slow & clean & with feel anyone with a good pick hand & a idea of a pentatonic scale 7 some Crystal Meth can play guitar solos at 100 miles per hour with retarded amouts of distortion, Try Playing the lead solo to all My Loving exactly as george did tell me whats more difficult. Kids don’t know any better because they have been force fed Crap By MTV & Fuse & where ever else you can drown in Dasboard confessionals & Chemical romances. Listen to a real band & when your done with the Beatles put the Kinks next on your List,Becaus eother han the Beatles it is Time The Kinks got the royal treatment for a change Beatles And Kinks expose your kids to these bands let them hear musical brilliance for a change
Joseph Caravella Jr
April 27, 2009 at 12:32 pm
If anyone cares about how they sound they will buy them. If they don’t they’ll stick with the crap existing versions. I don’t know how one illegally downloads the CD since it’s not illegal to copy it to your computer but the difference in sound is going to be amazing. But these generations coming up that don’t care? Their future looks very dim in terms of quality – everything will be like The Olive Garden – snazzy commercials but reality is fat white lazy trashy American’s with no taste at all eating really bad bad food in huge quantities and being satisfied – not happy.
Skip Stone
April 30, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I will buy these CD Reissues. The Beastles are the greatest Rock N’ Roll band of all time. They are also the greatest Pop band of all time. Every album is a classic and for a group who’s recording career lasted just over 7 years,(late 1962 – early 1970) their musical output and quality is second to none. It is all about the sound quality. I bought the original CD’s when they first came out and must admit I was disappointed by the mono albums (having owed the MFSL stereo recordings), and everone knows that Let It Be and Abbey Road have the worst sound quality. I will but whatever format comes out as long as the sound quality is improved. That’s what you do for your favorite groups. There is music enough in the Beatles catalog for everyone to enjoy. They encompass everything from country, pop, rock, rock n’ roll, folk and that’s just the White Album (The Beatles for purists). Rest assured that if I am willing to spend money on countless remastered versions of the Doors, Beach Boys and Simon and Garfunkel CD’s (as well as many others) who barely have enough quality music to fill up a single CD, I will not hesitate to spend the money on buying the greatest music on earth from the greatest band (Period!) on earth.
Peter Ybarrondo
May 25, 2009 at 1:22 pm