The Beatles - Let It Be revisited by...Peter Jackson
Oct 25, 2021 0:48:03 GMT
rayge, oh oooh, and 3 more like this
Post by loveless on Oct 25, 2021 0:48:03 GMT
I’ve been streaming the special edition “Let it Be” and really enjoying it. I’m finding the surprise run-throughs and fly on the wall type stuff are especially enjoyable.
I’ve been grazing a little press of it online. I think Giles Martin has become the Steven Wilson of Beatles World. Me, I like Spector’s mix & * always have. I LIKE the harp and the choir. Even if I didn’t, does it make Giles Martin some sort of SUPER-Genius because he turned those things WAY down?
I don’t know. I’m asking.
I'll do my best to answer.
So..yeah, all these Beatles boxes. The "extra shit", right? Pretty cool, I say. I'll take as many discs of it as they wanna give me. The White Album box was about as revelatory as it gets (so much new data and intel - three full discs of mostly unheard materal in tip top quality, not at all "futzed with" as it had been on Anthology or Naked). And...a joy to listen to. Between this and the surround mixes (the Blu Ray content), they'll keep me coming back for as long as they keep selling this shit. I'm a demographic!
Now...putting aside "the extra shit".
Giles.
You ever really want a job? Maybe a good job? One that pays? A real job? One that satisfies your artistic needs?
Sure. Things are tough out there. I can see why his dad got him in there for Love. I'd do the same thing for either of my kids.
And I can see why a group like the Beatles would have such severe "stranger danger". He's "family". If he (or someone else) says the old classics need a modern remix, what 73-79 year old man is gonna argue with him? Shit, we're lucky Sir David Grohl isn't in there showing Paul "how the kids do it now". Ringo is probably as deaf as a post, so every year when he comes around saying "I like it cause you can REALLY hear the drums!" you just kind of smile and nod. Bless.
And...ultimately, I think once "they did Pepper", everyone quickly realized that they'd be leaving a LOT of money lying on the table if they DIDN'T keep rebooting the back catalog.
But, sure - you get that kind of gig (gatekeeper for the world's biggest act), that kind of job security, it might go to your head, and...shit, if you actually realize how deeply inessential your efforts are (and, yes - his remixes are IMPRESSIVELY unnecessary), you might get a little bullish about inflating your apparent purpose. People are used to hearing the timeless sounds of Ed Sheeran these days - it won't do to have some silly old mix of "Wild Honey Pie" pop up on a playlist and sound (comparatively) out of date.
The fuck is he gonna do to "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" to make it "a banger"?
His remixes are...I mean, is anyone genuinely sitting around going "Whoa! 2017 Pepper!"? No...of course not. I stopped bothering to (deliberately, see below) listen after that one, and just went straight to the outtakes. Audiophiles have been shitting themselves over Beatles albums for what seems like centuries. Giles didn't come along and "fix" them. There's an energy to the original thing, created in the heat of its initial gestation. If he bumped up the bass and the kick drum or some stupid shit like that, he oughtta get slapped on the wrist with a ruler. (The Pepper remix - which I at least tried with - sounded SUPER "Beatles on steroids" and not in any good way).
His claim with THIS album is that "you've got tracks from the basement, tracks from the roof, and then all the stuff Spector overdubbed - it needed someone to give it continuity". You don't think Spector aimed to do that the first time around? Whatever flaws this album has (and, yeah, they are MANY), Giles has kept them intact (he didn't resequence it, he didn't choose better takes - which he could have in some crucial cases, he didn't REMOVE anything that made the original such a chore to listen to). So...what has he done? Given it a more contemporary and reliable stereo/EQ profile? Bully for him.
"Across the Universe" STILL has all those suffocating overdubs, still plays at the wrong speed, "I Me Mine" still has that stupid extending edit that nearly doubles the length, "The Long..." still has a fairly indifferent take, "Get Back" no coda, "Don't Let Me Down" is still absent...it's still a dreary dog of an album that manages to be quite a bit less than the sum of its (often fantastic) parts.
And...as with all of these Martinized versions...there's a million collectible special editions (just like a new McCartney record these days). A 2CD version, a box(ed) set, probably a single disc iteration, a 5 LP, a 2 LP, a single LP, a picture disc. All to prey on...well...SOMEONE'S fetish. Meanwhile, we're living through a vinyl supply chain shortage (my friends and I are all struggling to make our release dates and promotional campaigns work while the pressing plants are trying to keep us as clients, but...you can sure as shit buy a million different colored variants of the indispensable masterpiece McCartney III-Imagined).
I'm not done here, of course.
Go into a record shop tomorrow and attempt to buy (on CD or LP) a copy of any of the final four Beatles albums (not counting YS or MMT) as mixed by the band and/or original production team for stereo or mono in real time. I think you will find that they are all out of print. I've got old LPs/CDs/etc., but...man, how many young people discover/get into these records in a given year, and...THEY will grow up ONLY hearing them in "Giles-vision".
Fuck him.
The fact that the originals MIGHT go back in print (ala Star Wars) as a limited edition thing briefly on some subsequent anniversary only adds insult to injury.
It is natural, perhaps - given my estimation of his endeavors - that I would find him insufferably arrogant.
He landed a great gig, and I can see why he's protective (and, presumably, a bit insecure about it), but...dare I say that these particular works were never in need of his magic hands.