Break Away II

Beatles in Stereo Box Set

After the years of lawsuits between Apple Computer and Apple Corps. were settled once and for all in 2007, it seemed like only a matter of time before The Beatles music was finally available on iTunes and on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 that time did indeed come. The Beatles music is in iTunes!

Before I tell you about exactly what Beatles stuff is available in the iTunes store, I think I should tell you a bit more about the back story of why it has taken a decade for The Beatles to join this most popular online music store.

Way back in 1968 The Beatles started up a new company called Apple Corps{ (pronounced “Apple Core”)} which is still a going concern today. Apple Corps began as a rather grand idea but today it exists almost entirely for The Beatles music.  In 1976 a computer company called Apple Computer started and in 1978 Apple Corps sued Apple Computer over the Apple trademark. There were two further lawsuits before the dispute was finally settled for good in 2007.

So what Beatles material is available to buy at the iTunes music store? Their entire remastered stereo catalog! It can be purchased all at once (like The Beatles in Stereo Box Set) or album by album or song by song (this is the first time that every Beatles track has been available to purchase by itself.)

But what is not not available to download at the iTunes shop? The remastered mono mixes. The mono mixes are still only available to be purchased as a part of The Beatles Remastered Mono Box Set. I think the thinking is that most casual fans will prefer the stereo mixes so it is better not to confuse them by having the mono versions available as well.

As a bonus iTunes is also letting people stream The Beatles first US concert (February 11, 1964 in DC){ in its entirety}. Even as a huge fan of the band I had never seen this before, and what’s really cool is that it is completely free.

Beatles Stereo CD Box Set

Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon’s debut solo album, is also his best one. This great album features Lennon’s most emotionally intense songs. This is not to say that he didn’t record more great stuff after this album, but I would argue that the rest of his career is a bit of a let down when compared to this incredible debut.

The album opens up with “Mother.” You can really hear Lennon working through the issues of his childhood in this song. For anyone who does not know his life story that specifically means singing about his mother and father leaving him to grow up with his aunt. When he was 17 his mom was killed by a drunk off duty cop. The depressing closer, “My Mummy’s Dead,” is also about the pain of losing his mother.

“Hold On” is a very simple song that could be seen as “filler” especially with the ridiculous “cookie!” heard at around 1 minute into it (which I love.) But I definitely don’t see it that way, it’s a great link between the much more intense “Mother” and “I Found Out.”

Plastic Ono Band contains some of his most heavy solo tracks including “I Found Out” which has an awesomely raunchy guitar tone and some fantastic lyrics and “Well Well Well” where you can hear an example of the “primal scream” technique Lennon had been using in his therapy at the time.

The guitar part of “Look at Me” sounds a lot like The White Album’s “Julia” but that has never kept me from loving it just the same. It’s such a pretty song that I can’t resist it. I think what really makes the album work so well is the fantastic contrast between the sweet tunes like “Love,” “Look at Me,” and “Hold On” and the heavy songs like “Working Class Hero,” “I Found Out,” and “Well Well Well.” And then there’s “God” which isn’t that great musically but which has some of Lennon’s best lyrics. 

Plastic Ono Band is one of 8 John Lennon solo albums contained in the new John Lennon Remastered CD Box Set. This solo box is following in the footsteps of the extremely successful Remastered Beatles Stereo Box Set and Beatles in Mono Box Set released in September of ’09.

The Beatles Remastered Stereo Box Set

The Beatles final five albums were Magical Mystery Tour, The White Album, Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, and Let It Be. Below you will find short overviews of each of them.

All of these albums are contained in the Remastered Beatles in Stereo CD Box Set but just Magical Mystery Tour and The White Album are contained in the Remastered Beatles Mono Box Set.

Magical Mystery Tour (1967) – I think this is an underrated album and that’s probably because it’s not really a true album so some people have a hard time giving it respect for the excellent songs on it. Magical Mystery Tour is The Beatles at their most purposefully psychedelic before they began to pull back the experimentation a bit and as someone who loves psychedelia, that makes it right up my alley.

The White Album (1968) – I’ve probably listened to this album more times than any other in my life. It does not flow as well as Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road and one could argue that it’s not as consistently outstanding as Rubber Soul or Revolver are but I love listening to it for the great variety of styles that it lets me hear. This 30 track album is a true masterpiece.

Yellow Submarine (1969) – This “album” is not really a Beatles album because it includes only four Beatles trackss that were not already released on a previous album. Yet “It’s All Too Much” and “Hey Bulldog” alone make it worth buying.

Abbey Road (1969) – The favorite album of lots of Beatles fans and for some very good reasons. The most obvious is the fantastic “suite” of side two put together by Paul McCartney and George Martin. Along with the suite there are the classic stand alone tracks like “Something,” “Come Together,” and “Oh! Darling.” This album also features the “smoothest” and most “modern” production of their career.

Let It Be (1970) – This was the last album released but Abbey Road was actually the final Beatles album to be recorded. It’s a bit sloppy and uneven by Fab Four standard yet it still contains several absolutely classic songs like “Let It Be” and “Across The Universe.”

The Beatles Stereo Box Set

People have been waiting forever for The Beatles catalog to be available as mp3s to download so that their albums could be easily put onto an mp3 player. As of January 2010, The Beatles are still not available for download at AmazonMP3 or the iTunes Store but instead there is a cool little gadget known as The Beatles USB Flash Drive which holds all of the 2009 Beatles stereo remasters in the mp3 format.

This USB flash drive contains everything that is in The Beatles in Stereo Box Set except in a much more portable form! With this tiny memory stick you can carry The Beatles entire stereo catalog around with you in your in your back pocket.

When I tell you that the USB memory stick includes everything in the stereo box set, I really do mean everything. Yes, it even includes the previously unreleased photographs and the new liner notes. It also contains the short documentaries on the making of each album that are on the DVD.

But there’s more, this flash drive also includes 24bit FLAC versions of their stereo albums which are actually higher quality sound files than those on CDs! CDs are only 16bit, these FLAC files are 24bit. This truly makes The Beatles USB a “must buy” for any audiophile who needs to have these legendary albums in the highest quality available at this time.

One negative aspect is that this memory stick does not include the original mono versions that are in The Beatles Remastered Mono Box Set. If you want to listen to these legendary mono mixes then you’ll have to get the CD box set (at least at the moment.)

I purchased both box sets and the memory stick because I am a a real Beatles completest, of course not everyone has that kind of money available to spend on buying music (even when the music as awesome as this is.) If you are on a budget then you will have to think about how you most frequently listen to music. Do you play CDs or do just play mp3s on your Mac and your iPod? If it is the latter then the USB device is probably what you really need.