Why I Love Collecting Vinyl (Records) (Page 12 of 12)

Picked up the Deluxe 50th Anniversary Edition (4 LPs) of “The Beatles” (White Album) - the Giles Martin-remastered stereo version, and the famous acoustic Escher ‘demo sessions.’ I’ve heard the latter, which is great listening, and am looking forward to the former...should be a nice compliment to my mono edition 

I'll now discuss the mono version of Revolver.

Generally I'd say most of the early Beatles LPs are best in mono, as they were meant to be heard, with Beatles for Sale and Help! being possible exceptions.

I got Please Please Me, the original mono, and it sounds great, really vibrant and bracing and loud, unlike the recent remastered edition on 180g don't you know, I mean really it just doesn't do it for me at all, it's like mogadon.

That said, it is winter now and that harder, more brittle and darker sound maybe works better for this time of year. Beatles LPs did come out in winter quite a lot, I think. On my original LP - and this is the yellow Parlophone label, vinyl of course - it might be that some songs are prettier on stereo, such as Ask Me Why, and the backing vocals by George on Do You Want to Know a Secret and Anna sound a bit slurry and distracting.

Now, this darker mono sound works well with Revolver's monochrome design. Taxman works well, it's rockier and messier and angrier, which helps distract from its rather routine melody. The stereo version is daft, really bad with rhythm section in one speaker and vocals in another. Now, Eleanor Rigby really has an awful stereo vocal jump early on, which you don't get on the mono (the best stereo version might be on the Yellow Submarine Songbook album). Aside from that, the mono is darker and quite gripping, almost apocolyptic. The stereo one is a bit George Martin doing a nice orchestral arrangement, it's a bit Pepperland. It's the same song, same arrangment, but it's far less cosy on the mono.

Another one that benefits is Here, There and Everywhere - it's a bit tighter and cooler, the electric guitar backing comes through better.
But otherwise, you could argue Revolver is a summer record and in the book Shout! the author does a great paragraph about how it summed up the summer of 66. And stereo does make for a lighter, more shimmering sound, it's a summer sound imo. So I'm Only Sleeping and Good Day Sunshine might be better in stereo and the whole thing might be more expansive.

I'm afraid George's other songs sound quite dirgelike in mono and might be better in the other format. Part of me thinks, they could have put on Paperback Writer instead but of course his Indian thing did add another perspective.

Maybe the true Beatle fan could have 2 versions of Revolver, one for winter and one for summer!   

I have the vinyl. I think you should get it 

Mine is stereo. Got it for a very friendly price, so I didn’t quarrel.

Ah... there was a compilation I was going to recommend for you and never got round to it.   

I picked up Barry's soundtrack to Out of Africa on vinyl.

Now, the theme to Out of Africa is famously brilliant and imo should have been released as a single, just as you come across second-hand singles of Lawrence of Arabia from back in the day. Then again, maybe not because the single of Chariots of Fire didn't dent the top 10 on its release, and that was a massive film. Out of Africa wasn't a massive hit.

It appears that John Barry agreed with my assessment of the theme, as it features no less than three times on his soundtrack. It's an LP with a wide areola around the central nipple - that's the area where there is no music, the equivalent of a wide margin on a Word document, but I prefer the nipple/areola analogy myself.
Another theme sounds a bit like Moonlight in Vermont, which is also duplicated in various forms. Another will have you going 'You Only Live Twice' 10 seconds in. One bit of music is by Mozart, which may be in the film I guess, but is a bit of a swizz, especially as one who bought the Moonraker soundtrack as a kid and expected to hear the classical bit accompanying the jokey gondola ride.
Ironically Moonraker had cues to spare, which never made it on to any soundtrack, even the remastered extended CD, due to copyright reasons I understand.

The Out of Africa soundtrack is just the wrongside of soporific to me. Maybe the film needed a change of pace, a dogfight or something, to allow Barry to liven things up! An album like Moonraker is streets ahead, but the film was not Oscar-worthy, as Barry more or less pointed out when he explained why some of his scores won Oscars and others didn't.

I also picked up Barry's Cotton Club soundtrack from a local tat shop. Maybe I am in the wrong mood, but while this 1920s homage is lively, it's a bit thin sounding and anaemic. It's generic 1920s flapper music, or at least side 1 is, and would sound better in mono and on a 78. Some mid-80s vinyl cheats you out of the big experience.

Now I'll break ranks and explain what I don't like about vinyl records.

I've yet to get a good version of the Beatles single Paperback Writer. It just sounds a bit discordant (to be fair, the harmonies aren't Who standard). In fact, few of my Beatles singles really pass muster. Reasons may be because production values weren't so good back then, it seems to me most 70s singles sound better all things being equal. Abba's production was great, v thorough because of advances. Not saying Abba were better than the Beatles, but some of their songs or rather records sound better.

It reminds me of an argument I had in the early 1980s when I said that modern records were only better because of the technological advances. 'Yeah, that's why they're better' the other guy replied, and he had a point.

60s records may also sound worse because they're older and got played more, plus they got bought by teens who could not afford much because of pocket money restrictions, so those few records got played more and worn out.

Also, 'modern' songs like the Kaiser Chiefs or the Killers - I bought the singles and they sound horrible really. Like someone took the digital track and just pressed it on vinyl, which is likely what happened. On the other hand, Supertramp's Logical Song, which is not a great song imo, sounds great on vinyl.
You might argue this was done deliberately to make CDs and digital sound better, the idea being you run down the competition, that is run down one sector to enhance the other - a bit like what's happening to the NHS to benefit the private sector.
I won't be getting any more singles from bands in the early Noughties, no matter how good the song. And the same applies to these modern vinyl reissues, even if they say it's 180g, they just don't sound right to me. Wish that they did.