You Never Give Me Your Money: How much you’re spending on Beatles-related Reissues

On September 9, 2009 Apple, EMI, and Capitol Records reissued the entire Beatles catalogue. All the albums had been remastered and restored for the first time since 1987, when the Beatles albums were first released on CD. Both critics and fans loved the new reissues and though the sound on the CDs was brilliant. It was worth every penny, for many fans. However this year sees the release of more Beatles related products, all of which are pricy. This leaves the fan to ask themselves: should I buy what I already own? With the Beatles issues, it was a no brainer: of course you were going to shell out some two hundred bucks for a box set of albums by the greatest rock band of all time. However with these other reissues, what does a fan do? This will cover all the prices for the Apple/EMI/Capitol reissues released this year and will determine whether to buy it or not.

Note: All prices are based on Amazon.com

The Beatles Red and Blue albums

These two double compilations were the original greatest hits albums of the Beatles. There’s a great selection of songs and it’s good for anyone who’s new to the band.

Red Album price: $19.88

Blue Album price: $13.99

Last time released: 1993

Should I get it?: If you’re a collector or completist, then yes. If you already have the remasters box set, then no. There’s nothing new on here…at least I don’t think so.

John Lennon reissues

Early in October, Yoko Ono reissued the entire Lennon catalogue to commemorate what would’ve been Lennon’s 70^th birthday on October 9. The albums feature John’s original mixes and new liner notes. Among the reissues is Double Fantasy Stripped Down. The album includes the original 1980 album along with a stripped down version of the album (remember Let It Be…Naked? This is like that).

Box set price: $149.99 (this set doesn’t come with the stripped Double Fantasy)

Single disc price: $12.99 or less

Double disc price: $19.99 for Sometime in New York City (which finally re-adds the bonus live disc not included in the 2004-2005 reissue)

Last time released: 2000 to 2005

Should I get it?: If you don’t own any of John’s music, go ahead. If you already own the ones from last decade, stick with those. I just bought what I didn’t have already and I also got the new Double Fantasy as my copy was pretty old. Plus, I wanted to hear the stripped version!

Apple reissues

At the end of October, Apple Records reissued some 14 selected titles from their catalogue. Artists include Badfinger, James Taylor, Mary Hopkin, Jackie Lomax, Billy Preston, and others. Of those artists, I like Badfinger the most. I own all their albums, even the one album they did as the Iveys (which wasn’t picked to be reissued).

Box set price: $303.49…screw that! I think the reason why it’s so expensive is because it’s a limited edition.

Single album price: $12.99 more or less

Last time released: For Badfinger- 1992 or earlier. The others…no clue

Should I get it?: Only if you’re a fan of any of those artists which I doubt (who reads this blog anyway?). I’m torn between getting and not getting the Badfinger titles, which there are four of. I’ve said before that I’d gladly repurchase Ass, since my version has poor sound quality. But I’m afraid if I get that, then I’ll have to get the three others. According to one Badfinger web site creator, they aren’t a must have unless you’re a diehard fan of Badfinger and want those bonus tracks (which have changed from the earlier versions, which I find weird). There is one title that’s a “best of” Apple records. You may want to check that out.

Paul McCartney reissues

McCartney’s albums by himself and with Wings will be reissued. This month, they started with Band on the Run. More titles and release dates will be announced soon. Below are the prices for the different versions of Band on the Run.

Single disc: $10.46

Double disc and one DVD: $14.99

Triple disc and one DVD: $74.99 (this also comes with a 120 page hardcover book with rare pictures taken by Linda McCartney and Clive Arrowsmith. The third disc is the same as the second disc from the 25^th Anniversary edition from 1999. That disc is a audio documentary on the making of the album)

Vinyl record (2 records): $33.23 (with an MP3 download of 18 tracks)

Last time released: 1993 and 1999

Should I get it?: I recently pre-order the two disc version. I’m excited to see the long lost documentary One Hand Clapping from 1974, which is on the DVD. If you don’t have the album, then get the single disc. I already own Band on the Run on CD and vinyl. The play count for the album on my iTunes is ridiculously big. However, it’s not my favorite by Paul. When it comes to his albums with Wings, this is my favorite. When it comes to Paul’s solo work, I’ll stick with Ram. If any other titles comes out, I really have to think about getting them. If they got any extra goodies, I just might get them. Of all the Beatles solo material, I own more of Paul’s stuff.

Also if you don’t have the Beatles reissues themselves, what are you waiting for? Get them now! The stereo box set is priced at $188. There’s no problem with getting them one at a time either. Though if you are a diehard fan, you should already have them. It’s kind of like a crime to not have those reissues by now.

Nowhere Boy review

Nowhere Boy

Rating: *** 1/2

The Beatles have been the subject for many motion pictures over the years. Aside from the five movies the band made themselves (A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine, and Let It Be), there are some that are pretty good and there are others that are just flat out terrible. Nowhere Boy, a new biopic on the early life of John Lennon, can be considered one of the best Beatle-related movies made. Although it was released a year ago in the UK, this is the first time American audiences get to see when it was released on October 8 (one day before Lennon’s 70^th birthday). While the topic of the Beatles’ rise to fame is a bit overused, Nowhere Boy does a good job.

The movie tells the story of John Lennon from the time he gets his first harmonica to when the Beatles go to Hamburg. Aaron Johnson is the actor who portrays Lennon in the movie. Audiences may remember Johnson as the lead role in the superhero-comedy movie Kick Ass earlier this year. Initially, Johnson doesn’t look like Lennon nor does he sound like him. After watching this movie, I can safely say that Johnson did a really good job. He does look like a young John in the movie and has a decent Lennon accent down. The only thing working against him is his blue eyes, when Lennon’s eyes were brown. A fun fact: Johnson and the director of the movie, Sam Taylor-Wood, are engaged (despite the 23 year difference). Everyone else in the movie does a good job. Anne-Marie Duff does a great job with her role of Julia Lennon, John’s ever-loving mother (who Lennon adored and would write songs such as “Julia” and “Mother” for her). Kristin Scott Thomas plays Mimi Smith, John’s strict but loving maternal aunt. Thomas pretty much nailed the role: Aunt Mimi was strict on Lennon during his teenage years but wanted the best for him. Thomas Brodie Sangster plays Paul McCartney. Although he’s a bit too short, he does a good job as well. Everyone in this movie did great, aside from a few negatives.

While Nowhere Boy is a strong movie, there are a few things that don’t seem right. For starters, the movie’s screenplay is based off of an autobiography written by John’s half sister, Julia Baird. What puzzles me is that Baird was just a child when all the events in the movie happened. How does she know that all this happened for sure? I’m sure her book was faithful enough to make into a movie. However, there are a few things the movie may’ve gotten historically wrong. In the beginning of the movie, John’s Uncle George gives him his first harmonica. I thought I heard that John got his first harmonica when he was ten. Also, there’s an error in the scene where Paul sees John perform at that festival. According to the movie, John and his band played “Maggie Mae” (no relation to the Rod Stewart hit at all. It’s a traditional song that the Beatles later covered on the Let It Be album. As seen in the movie, John’s mother teaches her son the song). In John’s last interview ever (hours before he was murdered), John says that he and his band were playing “Be-Bop-A-Lula” at that festival. In the scene where John’s mother killed after being hit by car, it’s in broad daylight. I always thought that it was at night, since that makes more sense. Still aside from these few possible errors, the movie is still great.

If you like the Beatles and/or John Lennon, you should check out Nowhere Boy. I personally think it’s a really good movie, aside from a few historical errors. To be honest, I don’t think there’s really anyone who can remember what happened back then or how it was supposed to be. Many books have been written on John Lennon. How do we know what exactly happened? In some way, Nowhere Boy is one of those “what may have happened” sort of movies and it’s a very good one (trust me. I’ve seen movies like that and most of them are not good). If you rather see something that’s more factual, I highly recommend you see the amazing 1995 mini-series The Beatles Anthology. It’s in eight parts so the DVD is pricey. You could find that on YouTube for sure, along with the five movies the Beatles made which include A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine, and Let It Be. Of those, A Hard Day’s Night is my favorite. For now, try and see the movie. It has a limited release and I’m sure if you do miss it, it’ll be on DVD very shortly.

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason is open to a reunion

Recently, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason was interviewed. He said in the interview that he'd be open to reuniting with former bandmate guitarist David Gilmour and bassist Roger Waters. Mason has stated that he likes the idea of "repeating the Live 8 concept", which means Mason is wanting to do a performance for charity. Live 8 was back in the summer of 2005, in which the classic line-up of Pink Floyd reunited for the first time on stage in over 20 years. The band also reunited in 2007 for a tribute show to Syd Barrett but the line up for that was Gilmour, Mason, and keyboardist Rick Wright. Waters was at that show but didn't join his former bandmates on stage that night. There are other signs that show a reunion could just work. Earlier this year, fans were surprised to see when Waters and Gilmour performed four songs together at a benefit concert in England. As a result, Gilmour has promised to make a surprise appearance during one of Waters' tour dates for his 2010 tour for The Wall to perform "Comfortably Numb". Waters himself has also been open to a reunion saying he would do a one-off gig, according to an interview with Rolling Stone about a month ago. Waters has said there is no way they'll do a tour but he likes the idea of doing something like Live 8 again. However, Waters remarked it is a shame that the band didn't get together again before Rick Wright passed away back in September 2008.

When I first saw the title for this article on Rolling Stone's website, I was actually hoping to hear about some kind of tour. Why the hell did I fall for that? Jeez. Still, I'm pretty surprised that the guys are open to reuniting despite the fact that Rick has been dead for two years (also, Syd has been dead for four year but wasn't he metaphorically dead already?). The way I see it, Live 8 did a lot for the band. I think it put everyone on good terms, especially David and Roger. After reading the fantastic book called Comfortably Numb, I learned many new things about the band. One of the them being that Roger was a bit of a bully, especially around Rick. What I got from that book is that Roger and Rick didn't get along too well and thought that there could be a small chance of a reunion of some sorts. If there is a one-off gig, I'm pretty sure this might be the last time Pink Floyd get together since Roger has ruled out recording any new material and Nick has said that a one-off gig could be a nice way to retirement.

Michael Jackson- New products revealed

It was reported months ago that the estate of singer Michael Jackson made a deal with Sony Records to start releasing a line of posthumous products of the late King of Pop. There are three new products coming towards the end of the year, one of which hasn't had any information released yet.

The first release will be a DVD set called Michael Jackson's Vision. The new DVD set will contain three discs, featuring all of the singer's iconic music videos including "Thriller", "Billie Jean", and "Bad" just to name a few of the 40 some videos. This is the first time that all of Jackson's videos are released together. The DVD set will feature at least ten videos that have never been released on DVD before. One of them, "One More Chance", has never been seen before. The song was released on the 2003 compilation Number Ones as a new studio track. Jackson meant to release the video but with the child molestation charges coming back, the video was never released as a result. The set will also include some collaborations Jackson participated in. Examples include his hit with Paul McCartney "Say Say Say" as well as the promo videos he made with his brothers in the Jacksons. Jackson's videos have indeed been released on DVD on the HIStory DVDs, which there are two volumes of. Visions will most likely replace those DVDs with this, as this set is clearly superior to the older DVDs. A limited edition of the set will include a 60-page book. Michael Jackson's Visions will be release on November 22.

Following the release of the DVD set, a new video game will be released. The game, Michael Jackson: The Experience, will test both fans and gamers if they can dance like the King of Pop. The game will mainly focus on dancing as opposed to the singing (in other words: this is more DDR than Rock Band or SingStar). There will, however, be a karaoke option for some versions of the game. Only a few song titles have been announced: "Bad", "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Smooth Criminal". The game could possibly be a party favorite as the game does allow more than one player. The game will be released on November 23 on Wii, PSP, and Nintendo DS. The game will also be released on PS3 and XBOX 360 but according to Amazon, the XBOX game won't be released until March 1, 2011.

Finally, Jackson's first posthumous album will be released at some point before the year ends. No release date has been announce nor has a tracking list or details. Still, the album will included ten never before released songs.

This is really cool news. I'll think about getting the DVD set and would love to hear more information on the album. As for the game, I'd like to see a sample of it. Still, this should be very interesting.

John Lennon reissue reviews- Walls And Bridges & Double Fantasy

John Lennon

Walls and Bridges

1974

Rating: ****

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Double Fantasy

1980

Rating (Original 1980): ****

Rating ("Stripped Down" 2010): ****

Today would've been John Lennon's 70th birthday. On Tuesday, eight albums were reissued from Capitol Records in celebration of this milestone. The albums were remastered and remixed by Yoko Ono and the same team of people who worked on the Beatles remasters last year. Honestly, I don't think the albums needed to be remastered. They had already been remastered and reissued from 2000 to 2005. I doubt these new remasters would sound any different from those. Therefore, I'm only getting what I don't have. For my first purchase, I got Walls and Bridges and Double Fantasy. I do already own Double Fantasy but my version is so old. Plus, the new Double Fantasy has a remixed version of the album.

Walls and Bridges is a really good album. I really think it's overlooked and underrated. The album's big highlight might be John's duet with Elton John, "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night". There are so many other great songs on here. "Going Down on Love" and "What You Got" are both funky and catchy. "#9 Dream" is also pretty neat. It almost sounds spacey and reminds you of George Harrison, in some way. "Steel and Glass" is another great cut. The song is supposedly about the Beatles' last manager, the infamous Allen Klein. Klein had put the Beatles in a financial crisis and was also known to have stolen money from his acts (such as The Rolling Stones. According to sources, Klein had Mick Jagger running through a hotel lobby yelling at Klein "Where's my f**king money?!"). Much like Lennon's mean attack at Paul on "How Do You Sleep?", "Steel and Glass" attacks Klein (and for the record, the bastard died in the summer 0f 2009). All the songs off this album are great. The only weak spot is the last song "Ya Ya", which features an 11 year old Julian Lennon on drums. Julian doesn't make the song bad at all, it's just that the song is annoying.

Lastly, there's Double Fantasy. The original album is great. Some of John's best songs are on here and Yoko's songs are good as well. If you're a fan of the original album, you'll love the new "Stripped Down" version that comes with it. Yoko and the album's original producer Jack Douglas remixed the album. For Beatlemaniacs like me, you may remember 2003's Let It Be...Naked, which is a stripped down version of the Let It Be album. This stripped down version of Double Fantasy is amazing. There's much more focus on John's vocals and they sound so rich and raw. Yoko's songs are about the same but like John's, her vocals are more up front. You'll even get to hear the dialog before and after the songs too, which can be amusing sometimes. For example, John says some silly things at the end of "Cleanup Time" and "Dear Yoko" that weren't heard on the original.

If you don't own any of John's solo material, get it now! I highly recommend the Plastic Ono Band album. Personally, it's my favorite Beatles solo album. Imagine is great as well. John's 70th birthday will be followed on December 8 this year with the 30th anniversary of his tragic murder. I'll have something on that. If I get the other two reissues I need (which, at that point, I'll have all of John's solo material), I may review them as well.

Happy birthday, John!

Ron Wood's "I Feel Like Playing" Review

Ron Wood

I Feel Like Playing

Rating: ****

The past few years have been hard on Ronnie Wood. In 2008, he and his wife of many years Jo Karslake divorced. He left her for a teenage Russian model but that was finished after Wood was arrested over assault. Also, Wood has been in and out of rehab constantly trying to kick his drinking and drug taking habits. After all this madness, Woody makes his first studio album in nine years. The album, I Feel Like Playing, lives up to its title: Wood is playing his guitar and rocking. The Rolling Stones guitarist of 35 years has made a really good album that has the feel of an old Stones record. Wood didn't do the album alone. Guesting on the album are his friends Slash, Flea, Jim Keltner, Ian McLagan, Daryl Jones, Bernard Fowler, and many others. I Feel Like Playing has twelve track, plus two bonus tracks. Personally, I like "Sweetness My Weakness" which is a reggae-tinged track that brings back memories of the Stones' "Hey Negrita". "Lucky Man" is quite catchy while "Thing About You" is a nice grooving rocker. "Spoonfull" is cool and "Well I Don't Know" has Wood shinning at guitar. Wood's vocals are fair for the entire album, especially the album's closer "Forever". Overall, Ronnie Wood's I Feel Like Playing is good album. If you're a Stones fan, you should have this for sure.

Janis Joplin (1943-1970)- 40 years later

Janis Joplin

January 19, 1943- October 4, 197o

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39620109@N02

Today marks 40 years since singer Janis Joplin passed away. Born in Texas, Joplin grew up listening to music. A friend of hers had lent her records by Leadbelly and Bessie Smith, the latter influencing her to start singing. Despite being bullied in high school and college, Joplin pursed her dream to become a singer. She sang for a local band, which got her name around to California. A band called Big Brother and the Holding Company liked her and asked her to join the band as their lead singer. In 1966, the band were signed to an independent label called Mainstream Records and released their debut album the following year. Joplin made her breakthrough performance at the Monterey Pop Festival when she sang an amazing rendition of Big Mama Thorton's "Ball and Chain". Clive Davis signed the band to Columbia Records as a result. The band's second album, Cheap Thrill, is praised as one of the best albums of the late 1960's and also contained two of Joplin's best known songs: "Summertime" and "Piece of My Heart". Joplin left Big Brother in 1968 and formed her own backing band, Kozmic Blues Band. The resulting album, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again, Mama! wasn't well received. Still, Joplin and the band performed at Woodstock before breaking up at the end of the year.

In 1970, Joplin had formed a new band called Full Tilt Boogie. She really liked the guys in the band and together, the band performed well received shows. The band were also working on Joplin's next album. On October 4, Joplin was supposed to record the vocals to a song called "Buried Alive In the Blues". Her band had recorded the music and needed her vocals. When Joplin was late, her road manager rushed to LA to the hotel she was staying in. He went there only to see that Joplin was dead at the age of 27. Joplin died from a heroin overdose, according to the autopsy. Joplin was cremated and weeks later, a private funeral was held. Joplin's ashes were scattered in the ocean. Despite her death, the Full Tilt Boogie Band were able to record the music to Joplin's pre-recorded vocals. In 1971, Pearl was released and became her biggest album yet. She even had a #1 with "Me and Bobby McGee".

Rest in peace, Janis.