That does not mean that it’s perfect or that there is no
room for improvement. Even The Beatles’ most influential and definitive album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,
could use some gussying up, largely because of the obvious flaws of its
original stereo mix which committed the same crimes as so many of The Beatles’
stereo mixes. As the now well-known story goes, The Beatles were mono purists
who usually baled on George Martin’s hastily performed stereo mixing sessions.
Those stereo mixes tended to be poorly balanced and lacked some of the
carefully considered signature touches of the mono mixes. On Sgt. Pepper’s, songs that were treated
with effects in the mono mix might lack them in stereo. Tracks that had their
speed altered in mono might not receive the same colorations in stereo.
Consequently, and perhaps ironically since stereo is made for hearing the full
spectrum of trippy music through headphones, the mono mix of The Beatles’
psychedelic opus ended up more psychedelic than the stereo mix.
Correcting this issue is clearly the main concern of the new
six-disc 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe edition of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,
which focuses a lot of its attention on Giles “Son-of-George” Martin’s new
stereo mix of the venerable platter. Martin uses the mono mix as a reference,
and indeed, many of those neat touches only present in the original mono mix
are now part of the stereo one too. So feel free to pop on those headphones and
trip out to the extra phasing on John’s voice in “Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds”, the speedier tempo of “She’s Leaving Home”, and the varied speech
effects in “Within You, Without You” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
(Reprise)”. More importantly, the frailty of that original stereo mix is now
bolstered with better balance. Lead vocals once shunted off to the left or
right channel are now centered throughout the disc. Drums and bass tend to
move to the middle too (though, oddly, Paul’s bass, which was centered
in the original stereo mix of “A Day in the Life”, is now nudged to the right).
Though the original mono mix is the stated template of the
new stereo mix, Giles Martin doesn’t shy away from taking advantage of stereo’s
unique features. So the celestial organ line of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
and the swaramandala upstroke that kicks off “Within You, Without You” now
travel across the stereo spectrum. And to my tremendous relief, Giles’ retains
the original stereo mix’s one major improvement over its mono
equivalent: the weird spliced tape of organ samples that runs through the end
of “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” is not buried in the mix as it was in
the mono original.
The new stereo mix of Sgt.
Pepper’s is the main feature of this Super Deluxe set’s first CD and discs
five and six, which present it in Blu-ray and DVD audio. I must say that I
actually preferred listening to it on the standard CD. The Blu-ray audio
version is certainly big and present, but it’s a bit too big and present.
Excessively loud and thundering in the low end, the Blu-ray audio version made
me feel like my skull was strangling my brain by the time I got to the two boomingest tracks on the album: “Good
Morning, Good Morning” and the title track’s reprise. That being said, the new
mix really is the best of both mono and stereo worlds, and as much of a purist
as I am, it makes me wish that Giles will do the same for the rest of The
Beatles’ catalogue (a wish I’d wager he’s already contractually obliged to
fulfill).
Discs Two and Three are devoted to sessions, so we hear
works in progress, studio chatter (John can always be counted on for a surreal
comment here and there), and stripped down mixes of tracks on the original
album, as well as “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane, which were both
recorded for it but paired as a single instead (sadly, “Only a Northern Song”,
which was also considered for Pepper’s
but ended up on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack
instead, is not afforded similar treatment). The tracks are arranged according
to when they were recorded, but Disc Two is the preferable one not because it necessarily
features the album’s best songs but because almost all of its tracks include
vocals, which is not the case for Disc Three.
On Disc Two, we hear such tantalizing tidbits as the first
version of “Strawberry Fields Forever” with harmony vocals not included in the
version on Anthology 2, as well as
the entirety of the guitar/bass/drum and orchestral versions of the song that
were spliced together to make The Beatles—hell, pop music’s—most enthralling single. A pre-overdub recording of the
album’ title track really highlights the funkiness of its guitars while a
version of “Good Morning, Good Morning” does the same for that track’s bass and
drums. We also hear a hilariously sparse stage of the recording of “When I’m
64”, which consists mostly of thudding bass, drums, and Paul’s voice, and the
massive choral hum that might have capped “A Day in the Life” instead of its
familiar piano chord. Be sure to play the track that isolates its terrifying
orchestral crescendo for a loved one when he or she least expects it. Just be
sure to have plenty of paper towels on hand to clean up the pee.
Disc Three is another important document, and a track of
George leading the Indian musicians through the arrangement of “Within You, Without
You” is both historically fascinating and mesmerizing listening. Yet the fact that
most of the disc’s tracks lack vocals may inspire fewer repeat listens. It
would also have been nice if this set made a place for the unreleased “Carnival
of Light”, a lengthy experiment The Beatles pieced together for the “Million
Volt Light and Sound Rave” event when the Sgt.
Pepper’s sessions were getting underway.
Disc Four provides the option of hearing the original mono
mixes of the featured LP and the “Penny Lane”/ “Strawberry Fields Forever”
single already available in a couple of other Deluxe Beatles boxes. There are
also a few otherwise unavailable bonus tracks, such as a mono mix of the early take
of “A Day in the Life” that provided the bridge for the composite version on Anthology 2, a vintage mono mix of “Lucy
in the Sky with Diamonds” with extra-intense phasing, and the first mono mix of
“She’s Leaving Home”, which features some slightly awkward solo cello fills
edited out of the final version. The promo version of “Penny Lane” with
alternate trumpet parts also gets its first commercial release since it was
included on the U.S. edition of Rarities
in 1980, though it sounds like it was pulled from a scratchy old acetate—which
it probably was.
In addition to audio of the new stereo mix, the Blu-ray and
DVD discs contain several video features: the 50-minute documentary The Making of Sgt. Pepper’s from 1992,
which feels like a dry run for the Anthology
TV series, and the same promo videos for “A Day in the Life”, “Strawberry
Fields Forever”, and “Penny Lane” released on the 1+ set two years ago. The doc is nothing super creative, but it is
informative and touches on some things not discussed in the Anthology, such as the influence of Pet Sounds on Pepper’s (Brian Wilson even makes a quick appearance to give his
two cents on the topic). It’s also interesting to see Paul squirm through an
honest explanation of the difficulties of discussing how drugs influenced the
album and the original Corn Flakes advert that inspired “Good Morning, Good
Morning”.
Also very worthy of mention is the packaging. The LP-sized
box is housed in a cool slipcase with a lenticular image of Michael Cooper and
Peter Blake’s iconic album cover. The discs are enclosed in mini LP sleeves,
each featuring a different shot from Cooper’s photo session, and those are
encased in a replica of the LP’s original gate-fold cover. Inside the box
you’ll also find neat, full-size replicas of a promo poster, the sheet of
cut-outs included with the original release, and the circus poster that
inspired John to write “Mr. Kite”.
The most valuable goody of all is a 145-page hardbound book.
These books are usually little more than fancily packaged liner notes intended to
boost the price of a set such as this. However, this is a book I’d actually
purchase if it were sold on its own. Beautifully designed and lushly illustrated
with photos, handwritten lyrics, and poster art, the book is genuinely good reading with essays composed in appropriately personal, informative, or analytical voices to cover
The Beatles’ career leading up to the album’s creation, the London Underground
scene, the heady political and cultural times surrounding its creation and
release, its inventiveness, the conception of its cover, and recording and song details that
update the stuff in Mark Lewisohn’s landmark The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. This, my Peppery friends,
is how to make a genuinely super-deluxe package. I just wish we could roll back
time a year so that The Beatles’ best album could get similar treatment on Revolver’s own 50th
Anniversary.
