Beatles Announce Remastered Beatles Catalog to Be Released on CD on Sept. 9, 2009

1987. Ronald Reagan was still president. The first Simpsons cartoon appears on the young Fox network's Tracey Ullman Show. Gary Hart drops out of the Presidential race after being photographed on the Monkey Business boat with Donna Rice. And music lovers everywhere herald the release of the catalog of world's greatest band, The Beatles, on compact disc. At the time, the CDs seemed like a revelation. Free of the pops, crackles, and limitations of the LP format, for many it was like hearing the band for the first time. For others, the discs were a disappointment. Some were upset that the albums were not the US releases they grew up with, but instead the original UK releases. Others complained about the stereo and/or mono mixes used or the album being inferior. Still others were upset at the fact that the discs contained no extras, bastardized the original packaging of the albums, contained no bonus tracks, and cost too much (typically $15 or more for 25 minutes of music on some of the albums).

Fast forward 22 years. In the time since then, the Beatles contemporaries like Led Zeppelin and the Who have seen their catalog remastered and reissued sometimes three or four times, each with cleaner sound, more bonus tracks and better liner notes. Artists that first released albums in the years following those original Beatles CD issues have seen their albums remastered and reissued. During that time Apple Records (the Beatle label) has sporadically issued outtakes, a few hits compilations, and those original American vinyl LPs on CD, but left those original albums untouched. In fact, with the exception of Prince's Warner Brothers output, it is hard to think of another major artist that hasn't seen a decent reissue treatment since the first wave of CD issues in the mid 80's. Thankfully, Apple announced today that these much maligned original issues would be put out to pasture with a new remastered catalog on Sept. 9, 2009, the same day that the Beatles version of the video game Rock Band is issued.

According to Apple, the remastered versions of the original CD issues will be available in three ways. Each album will be available separately, with early pressings containing brief video documentaries about the making of the album. These issues will also be packaged in a boxed set with a DVD compiling the documentaries. Additionally, a collectors boxed set of mono mixes of the albums will be issued with bonus alternate stereo mixes of Help and Rubber Soul. These will be packaged to look like the original LP issues of the albums.

As a New York Times article stated today, the prospect of remastering these albums is a daunting one and is sure to make at least some of the many rabid Beatles fans angry. When artists such as the Who and the Doors have remastered their catalogs, the master tapes have been remixed and digital processing applied, which angered some fans who felt the integrity of the original music was shattered with the computerized tri

While I can understand the concerns of these fans, after listening to the the remixed and reimagined Beatles mixes on their mash-up album, Love, I was struck by how much fuller and richer the sound on the new disc was compared to those original CDs. The mixes on the original CDs sounded thin and smashed together, while the mixes on Love were made up of full, rich, beautifully separated sounds. It helped me appreciate anew the songs and band I'd begun to take for granted.

Purists will surely balk at the fact that their favorite mistake from the original recordings has been covered over or that one instrument or another is too loud or too soft, or too far to the left or right of the center. But Apple has apparently been working for four years to provide an experience that is as close to perfection as can be achieved. I have no doubt that thousands of life long Beatles fans like myself, no matter what their reservations may be, will be in line at stores everywhere on 9/9/09, spending hundreds of dollars to complete our Beatles collections with both sets of remasters and the Rock Band video game to pass the time between listens.