THE BEATLES – In Mono (box set, 2009, currently $260.00 on amazon.ca)
I’ll be brief here, mainly because this is The Beatles, and this music is so ingrained into everybody’s psyches now. Nobody wants to see me blather on about these songs. I was very happy with my purchase of The Beatles in Mono, despite the price. I was not lucky enough to get a first run, but Amazon hooked me up with the second run when it was in stock.
The Beatles in Mono is, as far as I know, a complete collection of every mono mix they’d ever done. The Beatles were hands-on with their mono mixes, where George Martin and his staff tended to helm the stereo mixes. This is, therefore, the mixes that the Beatles intended you to hear back in the 60’s. Playing them remastered on a modern stereo today makes them sound that much more fierce and aggresive, noticeably different from their stereo counterparts. In addition many of the actual mixes are drastically different. “Helter Skelter” is the one in particular that jumped out at me. It sounds like a completely different version of the song. Really refreshing after only having the stereo version for 20+ years!
There are some Beatles albums not included in this set, but that’s OK. Let It Be, Abbey Road, and Yellow Submarine were not mixed in true mono. The mono mixes once available of those albums were not mixed by the band. They were just “fold downs” of the stereo mixes. I guess if you were dying to hear them, you can make your own fold-downs from The Beatles in Stereo set. What is included here is a new compilation called the Mono Masters (a companion piece to the Past Masters) which includes all the non-album mono mixes, and some previouly unreleased ones like “Across The Universe”.
This box set is for anyone who calls themselves a true Beatles fan, anyone who wants to own the versions that the Beatles themselves mixed, or any completist.
Is it worth the price? Well, the packaging is very nice, each CD is housed in its own little duplicate LP packaging with the white, square box. That means you get the full booklet from Magical Mystery Tour and all the goodies enclosed within the White album. Very nice. The CDs slide in and out, which may not be to your personal taste especially after spending this much money. The call, ultimately, is yours. There is also an exhaustive booklet to consider.
LED ZEPPELIN – self-titled box set (1990, retail price approx $60 CAD at press time)
It was the fall of 1990, and I was on the verge of graduating highschool and entering the “real” world. However, my musical development was way far behind — everybody’s was, in 1990. Poison, Whitesnake and Motley Crue ruled the charts: All bands, one way or another, influenced by Zeppelin, by the way. Yet, I had avoided actually hearing a Zeppelin studio recording. MuchMusic’s endless showing of The Song Remains The Same had cooled any interest I might have had in this great band. I really didn’t like that concert, and I still don’t listen to it.
In 1990, pop rock was showing its first signs of death and I was becoming interested in bluesier, more authetic sounds. I was beginning to listen to FM radio and I heard a song called “Travelling Riverside Blues”. The slide guitar was eloquent and infectious. Immediately, I wondered what I was missing.
A friend, Danesh, who also had never owned a Zeppelin album in his life, picked up the box set released that fall. I asked him how it was. Cryptically, he responded, “It’s good.” It went on my Christmas list and I anxiously opened it on December 25, 1990.
I didn’t get to start plowing through the thing until the next day, after the turkey and Christmas guests were gone. On the 26th, I woke up early. I read the liner notes and I listened to the whole thing in one marathon almost-5-hour-session. Today, this is the running order that I associate these Zeppelin songs in, not the original studio album order. I listened to the box set in these marathon sessions 3 times during the Christmas break!
This was actually the first box set I ever owned. Not too many bands I liked had one, back then. In fact I think the only other box on the market at the time that even slightly interested was The Ultimate by Tommy Bolin.
I loved the cover art. I was obsessed with the crop circle phenomenon. I bought a T-shirt with this design on it a few weeks later. upon seeing the cover, my friend and fellow Zeppelin fan Andreas said “Figures, Zeppelin created everything else in rock, why not crop circles too?”
For the record, this is still no substitute for owning all the Zeppelin studio albums. They have a life all their own. However, Jimmy Page carefully assembled this running order to breathe new life into these tracks, and breathe they do.
I can’t imagine a better opener than “Whole Lotta Love”. It is a one-two punch followed by “Heartbreaker”, and then “Communication Breakdown” takes things to an out-of-control pace. Geniously, Page followed this with “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”. Total switch of pace, and another brilliant side to the band. But yet even on this, Plant refused to tame down his vocals, straining at the leash to let hell loose. I was hooked. I couldn’t even fathom a set of songs better than these. Better late than never, right?
I was entranced by the swirling “Kashmir”, a song I will never tire from. I could not believe the power of “What Is and What Should Never Be”. The Rush-like complexity of “Achilles Last Stand”. The tender acoustics of “Going to California”. The muddy, churning synth of “In The Evening”. The dark, foreboding blues of “When the Levee Breaks”. The fun, upbeat reggae of “D’Yer Mak’er” (still don’t really know what that means). The tropical heat of “Fool In the Rain”. The ominous “No Quarter”. Song after song, hour after hour, Led Zeppelin continued to reveal new layers of this band to me.
The only songs that I didn’t care much for, and still consider also-rans, are a lot of the tracks from Coda, their posthumous outtakes release. I felt stuff like the punk rock of “Wearing and Tearing” and the folky “Poor Tom” were not as great as the A-listers. While they are not without their merits, I don’t believe that today they can stand up against “The Immigrant Song” or “Tangerine”.
We kids didn’t really get the lyrics, or why Robert was singing about wearing flowers in your hair. We found the lyrics amusing, quaint.
Today I own all the individual Zeppelin albums in box set form (The Complete Studio Recordings), but I still listen to this box and its sequel, 1993’s Box Set 2. When I have 5 hours at home, this is the way I prefer to go. This box set creates a journey. Each disc is a journey with a distinct opening and a distinct end, but the entire running order is like that as well. There are distinct sections, moods, and movements in the box set. Witness “All My Love” as the final track. I couldn’t imagine a better way to end a five hour journey than that hopeful fade out.
Then Bonzo died and the hope was gone.
Interestingly, even though the unreleased/rare tracks here were later reissued on the Complete Studio Recordings (they were “Traveling Riverside Blues”, “White Summer/Black Mountainside”, and “Hey Hey What Can I Do”), one slipped through the cracks and to the best of my knowledge is only available on this set: Moby Dick/Bonzo’s Montreaux”, an interesting remix (today we would call this a “mash-up”) of Bonzo’s two drum solos intertwined. It is not on the Complete Studio box. It’s not because it’s inferior or redundant, in my opinion. Jimmy lovingly put this track together as a tribute to his friend 10 years after his death, and it works brilliantly. It neither replaces the originals, nor gets in their way, because it’s more a cool showcase of Pagey’s mixing skill, if you asked me.
10 years gone? It was hard for me to believe that Zeppelin had been gone for only 10 years at that time. It seemed to me like they were part of pre-history, something that predated everything I’d known. Yet all the bands I knew cited Zeppelin as an influence, from Kiss on down to the newest groups, like Cinderella (who worked with John Paul Jones). They were a part of my rock and roll soul without me even knowing it. Hearing this box for the first time was like discovering a part of myself!
Liner notes are excellent, and until reading The Hammer of the Gods, was pretty much my sole source of Led Zeppelin information and photographs. They are ample, and include an essay by Cameron Crowe.
Interestingly, even though this set has theoretically been supplanted by newer, superior sounding collections, it remains in print and reasonably priced. There must be something to it, I guess!
Pearl Jam – Ten(2009 Collector’s Edition, 4LP, 2 CD, 1 DVD, 1 Cassette boxed set)
This is how you do a box set!
Obviously, due to the price tag ($250 give or take), this box is not for every fan. This set is for the diehards — the ones who try to collect all the live bootlegs, all the singles, are members of the Ten club, and go see them live every year. Or, this is for people who just want to own something monstrous and cool looking. No matter who you are, if you have the disposable income, you will not be disappointed. There are some things that I was mildly disappointed with (which I shall get to in a moment) but on the whole, if you bought this, you got exactly what you wanted.
This box is packed full of goodies so numerous that I can’t list them all. Needless to say, don’t let the kids get into it or stuff will go missing. From Vedder’s scrap book, to photos, to even a reproduction Mookie Blaylock rookie card! (Pearl Jam’s original name was Mookie Blaylock in case you wondered.) Like I said, this box is loaded. It will take days to absorb all the goodies inside, all packed within a very sturdy and attractive black case. Amazon shipped this set very well packed.
To some, all that stuff is just paper and doesn’t matter next to the music, and in some sense they’re right. So onto the music.
This box includes the original Ten on vinyl and CD. It also includes the 2009 remixed Ten on vinyl and CD. The CD version contains 6 bonus tracks. Brendan O’Brien himself helmed the remixes. I have never been fond of the sound of Ten, until now. If you liked the remixes done for Rearviewmirror, you will like this. I have always found the original mixes too muddy and dull, now they are very bright and crisp. Dare I say it, they are heavier and more rocking. But the essence is the same, and casual fans will probably think this is the way the album always sounded. The six bonus tracks are mostly demos, all very rare.
Also included on DVD is the complete MTV Unplugged performance, previously unreleased and longer than the original broadcast version. This DVD was also included in the more affordable regular retail version so don’t shell out just for this DVD, although it is truly excellent and a great performance. Legendary performance in fact. Back in the early 90’s, this is one that spread by word of mouth. We didn’t get MTV up here in Canada so it was even harder to see stuff like this. Generally you had to buy a bootleg video at some shady store in Owen Sound or something. And it looks and sounds a heck of a lot better than bootleg video. 5.1 surround sound plus “Oceans” which did not make the broadcast.
There’s exclusive music in this box, which is another real reason to get it. Drop In The Park, included on vinyl only, is a September 20, 1992 concert at Magnuson Park in Seattle. This is a 9 song album, two records (four sides!) with a 12 minute version of “Porch”. This is a fantastic early concert, a highlight of which was “State of Love and Trust”. As an added bonus, and one not heavily advertized, was that the album comes with a tiny coupon with a download code. You can download the whole album on mp3 and burn it to CD. Nice added touch.
And more! Also included is a reproduction of Pearl Jam’s original demo cassette, Momma-Son. Right down to the cassette shell and J-card, this replicates the tape that Eddie and the boys made. These early arrangements are really interesting, with “Once” being quite different. This being a cassette, it sounds like…well…a cassette. I would recommend playing it just once, and burning it if you have the technology to do so. After all, tapes wear out fast. One play could screw it up if it doesn’t like your tape deck.
I mentioned earlier that some tunes were not included. What I wish they did was give you a download code to get mp3 versions of Momma-Son. Throw in some mp3s for MTV Unplugged, and now we’d be cooking. However these items were not made available for mp3 download. Astute fans may already have them on mp3 anyway…(wink).
Also not included were the four bonus tracks available for sale on the iTunes version. For the record, those tracks were “Why Go”, “Even Flow”, “Alone”, and “Garden” recorded on December 31, 1992 at The Academy Theater in New York. After spending this much money, I felt ripped off that I needed to buy those tracks separately. So being the obsessive compulsive collector that I am, I shelled out. Again. I had to buy the whole album again to get the four tracks. I guess different retailers need different exclusives, it’s what makes the music world go ’round?
There are also MIA bonus tracks from earlier versions of Ten. Europe had “Alive (live)”, “Wash” and “Dirty Frank”, while Japan had “Master/Slave” and the Beatles cover “I’ve Got a Feeling”. For a box set of this stature, I’m afraid to say that these songs really had to be included. Otherwise, this is an incomplete picture of what Ten was and is. In my opinion. Some of that stuff can be easily found on singles and Lost Dogs, others not.
Yet Ten is an historic album. It is one of very few that you cannot deny was part of a dramatic movement that shook the music world to its core. Not the rock world, the music world. Don’t forget, two years later, Pearl Jam were collaborating with Cypress Hill.
I’m going to be totally truthful to admit that Ten is not my favourite PJ album (Vitalogy is), and that I don’t really listen to it much anymore. I’ve heard “Jeremy” a lotta times…let’s put it that way. Still, I have never been tired of “Even Flow”. The guitars of Stone and McCready are strait out of 1970, they are buttery smooth. Sounds like Fenders and Gibsons to me! You can’t go wrong with the basic album, even if you don’t like every single song. It’s an album, it’s a portrait, and it friggin’ rocks at times!
The bottom line is, armed with this information, only you can decide whether this edition of Ten is worth the money. Another drawback to consider: After spending this money, do you really want to play the CDs in the car? It does look awesome on the shelf, but unless you have the money to burn, you may be wiser get the scaled down edition.
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