Number 9, Number 9, Number 9...

[Otis Westinghouse]

Bargain. The Beatles are suddenly everywhere, all over the media, record stores are back in business, etc. As Petridis observes in the above Guardian review, back in the day Johnny Rotten defaced a Beatles LP as symbolic of old guard, but from Oasis onwards, they're untouchable. That said, I know several people in their 30s or even 40s who like to claim they were totally over-rated. I find it hard to imagine anyone born in the 60s who doesn't feel some sort of strong attachment to their songs having grown up amongst them. My earliest song memory is Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, but I realised the other day on hearing it on the radio that it was the Marmalade version that I probably knew as that was the chart hit.

My 16 year old doesn't have any of the prejudices of those older folk and loves them unreservedly. The NME proives their untouchability by running a huge article in which all LPs are reviewed. He was reading it eagerly.

A few months back a friend gave me some early Beatles LPs on vinyl, German pressings. As I haven't been playing vinyl at all, I just stuck them on the shelf without giving it much thought, and remembered it as only being a couple. I chuckled tonight when I pulled them out and found that I had With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Help! and The Beatles for Sale - 4 of their first 5! Also, they are in pristine condition. It's fun to look through and see how many of the classics I know from them, but also exciting that there are many songs I don't know at all. Will convert all to MP3 when I get a USB turntable soon. In which case I can live without the remasters, but then again a big box set is a tempting idea...

[Jack of All Parades]

Otis-these remasters are worth the expense-they have been thoughtfully done and for me capture the fun and excitement I felt when I first purchased the lps 'all those years ago'- the sound has been so improved in the few I have listened to at this time and the photos are vibrant, funny and evocative of the times[there is one which has the four of them kicking up their heels as they run down a back alley with grimey old factory buildings in the background and it for me epitomises what they mean for me-four jubilant youths having jumped beyond the bounds of depressing late 50's early 60's England and who are ready to conquer and change the world] it is my favorite Beatle photo-I cannot warm up to an MP3 but I can handle these jackets and spend time pouring over the pictures and the graphics- I cannot imagine anyone not enjoying them and begrudging the expense-it is a no brainer- one or two less coffees a week- will give my old cds to the daughter to tide her over until she can build her own individual library.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Nice way to feel good about justifying replacing your CDs. My son is keen to buy some of the remasters himself.

The thing I'd really like to know which Petridis above doesn't help with is how do the mono ones compare to the stereo ones? He finds the first 4 LPs a revelation in mono, but makes no ref whatsoever to the stereo. I didn't realise that effectively the Beatles only worked on them in mono and assumed they'd have been involved in the stereo aspects of the later ones.

I'm in no rush, whereas the USB turntable, and at last a decent music system to play my collection on...

[Jack of All Parades]

I have read that real audiophiles prize the mono versions over the stereo-my ear is not that sophisticated- all the records except for the last two were done in Mono originally-that seems to be the format that the band prized more giving little thought to stereo as it was a new technique at the time- they actually gave little time to the stereo versions.

[mood swung]

My daughter got Revolver for me for my birthday, and I left that bastard at home this morning.

[Otis Westinghouse]

That's a very rude way to refer to your daughter, especially when she got you such a nice present...

Happy birthday!

[Jeremy Dylan]

I thought the crispness and dynamic range of these remasters was stunning - the horns on Magical Mystery Tour, the bass on Paperback Writer, etc. just pop out of the speakers. The Abbey Road team did a *NPI* masterful job.