Beatles "Love"

[TomR]

I was listening to this on vinyl last night and thought what a great release this would be for the Tape Project, if the guys could get their hands on the masters. If you haven't heard "Love", it is the "soundtrack" for the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name, and was produced by George Martin and his son from the original Beatles tapes, with the blessing of the Beatles/estates.  It is, in a way, a new take on the music and makes you hear the songs in a new light. It also gives a complete overview of the Beatles careers, something you don't hear in "Ones" for example, which has no songs from Rubber Soul, just to mention one LP. You hear one new thing - Martin composed some string quartet music to accompany the full acoustic version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" - a verse was cut on the White Album. I like it a lot, but others might disagree.

You hear a lot of snippets from various tapes simultaneously - I think I counted bits from 6 different songs in the segue into "Get Back", and honestly, the first time I heard "Love" I hated it. But repeated listenings proved that it is addictive, and provides a new way to listen to the Beatles - the next best thing to a brand new Beatles album.

From what I hear on vinyl, the sound is excellent. Getting the best selling (and best) rock artists of all time in a relatively new release onto the best formatseems to me like it would be a major score. It would probably require a double release (4 tapes), but it would be worth it.

[xcortes]

I admit that I have not listened to Love but I'm not a fan of compilation or re-releases. OTOH a Beatles album such as Sgt Pepper's, Abbey Road, etc, etc, etc would not only be a major score, it would make history.

[Tubes n tapes]

Tom,

I fully agree. I have 'Love' on SACD and play it through my own Virtual Surround processor back in two channels. What stands out in this release is the exceptional quality of the original recordings. I have not heard an original Beatles release that brings out that quality. From that point of view it would be great to have it on tape.

I'm sure that this remix is not to everyone's liking, even though if you allow the time it indeed grows on you.

Furthermore, I don't think that George Martin will be jumping at the bit to support the initiative and I expect that the 'Love' album is mixed in the digital domain, which disqualifies it for TTP.

In any case it's a great album.

[High and Outside]

I like this album too--and enjoyed the show--but it was definitely done digitally, so we won't be doing it as a Tape Project release.

[docb]

Interesting story about that -

Paul, Romo and I participated in a back stage tour at the Love Theater. Along with all the other stuff they have behind the scenes was a room built just for doing the mix for the show and the album. They supposedly had really heavy security so no one could steal any of the digital files, to the point that no cell phones or other equipment that could potentially transmit stolen files were allowed in the building. And they claimed that the original analog to digital transfers were on a hard disk that is hidden away in some highly secure location in the bowels of the theater. I think we guesstimated that the Love show grosses about $30 million a year. So I guess they can afford some pretty stiff security for their bits.

[ironbut]

Here's a nice article that was in Sound on Sound magazine (that I tossed by mistake, good ole internet!) on the making of Love.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar07/articles/beatles.htm