THE ORIGINAL BEATLES RELEASES are classics and will always remain so. Even their big rip-off, Yellow Submarine and the Phil-Spectorized Let It Be are still part of a classic canon and are fondly remembered (and listened to). Even so, these original home audio products leave a lot to be desired.

For one thing, there were a *LOT* of songs that were never available on any British releases. Thus one reason that Magical Mystery Tour (the album, not the EP) and Hey Jude were eventually released in Britain. Much remains that was originally released on singles and EPs but is not yet available on CD -- and may never be. Certainly EMI (and the Beatles themselves) must realize that there is a *HUGE* market out there which will support these releases. So, what are they waiting for?

Trying to fathom the rationality of rock stars and record company executives is like a fish trying to ride a bicycle. Not being involved in the industry myself, and with no emotional hang-ups about songs good or bad, I feel qualified, as a fan and a consumer of home audio products, to lay out for them and you THE BEATLES CATALOG: The Way It Should Be.

The original Beatles albums have never been released on CD.

WHAT!!? you say? But I have all of those albums on CD! No, you don't. What you have is George Martin's 1980s remasters of the original albums. The actual, original music is still locked in the vaults -- now not even available on cassettes. If you have the original albums, especially the Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Original Master Recordings set released in the early 1980s, then you know there's a difference.

So, the first thing for EMI to do is release the original master recordings on CD and get rid of the 1980s versions. Yes, I know George Martin re-mixed them, so you feel they're "legitimate." And, yes, he mixed them the first time too. But I still prefer to hear the original works, not a re-mix, even if re-mixed by the oriignal mixer.

These original master CDs should be in stereo, not mono (I'll be getting to mono in a moment). Even if it's only twin-track and not so-called "true" stereo, that's okay; that's how we heard them the first time. I have the complete Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab versions, and I can tell you hey sound great. Why EMI didn't release these is beyond me. If they had, they could have had the CDs on the market in 1983 instead of 1987. Like I said ... fish on a bicycle!

Remember bonus tracks? These were added to CDs in the early days to encourage people to buy them ... as if we'd prefer vinyl or cassettes. Nowadays certain bands add bonus tracks to the vinyl editions, not as an enticement but as a reward to those why have stuck with the analog pizza format.

The Beatles CDs should have bonus tracks. These should be whatever singles were released at about the same time as the original LPs, or in the same style as those LPs. For instance, I was stunned to find that We Can Work It Out and Day Tripper were never on an album. I thought they had to have been on Rubber Soul or Revolver; that's certainly where they belong.

One album, of course, should not have bonus tracks: Sgt. Pepper. For one thing, all the singles released in the same era were later collected on Magical Mystery Tour; for another, Sgt. Pepper deserves to stand alone as a singular masterpiece. I would make one little change, however: I'd include the complete "Sgt. Pepper Run-Out Groove," which is identified by Mark Lewisohn as actually being named Edit For LP End. The whole thing still exists in EMI vaults, and it lasts a lot longer than 2 seconds. CDs have plenty of space; how about it, EMI?

My only rule about bonus tracks would be, don't include a song as a bonus track on the same album where it originally appeared. For example, the Wildlife Version of Across The Universe should be on any album except Let It Be; probably Abbey Road would be appropriate.

Now, how to include the bonus tracks is another matter. Some would simply tack them onto the end, but I don't know. Elvis Costello had his first three albums drastically changed by his American record company -- and this was in the late 1970s! -- so when the CD editions came out he combined the US and UK LPs, paying no attention to the original sides and rearranging the songs to play as one continuous, seamless whole. If you have his 4-CD boxed set, you know how it came out.

How could this be done with the Beatles? Maybe by putting the bonus tracks between the original first and second sides, thus creating a conceptual "intermission" for those of us accustomed to the LPs. Or, maybe the whole thing could be reconfigured by George Martin and/or the Beatles however they like it.

Inclusion of all these bonus tracks makes both Past Masters volumes superfluous, which leads to ...

Both Past Masters collections ought to be eliminated, since they will be superflouous. Likely EMI will retain them, just because some people will still buy them. What should definitely be eliminated, however, is Yellow Submarine. This album has no reason to exist; even the Beatles hated it when it came out. The only original songs on it - All Together Now, Hey Bulldog, It's all Too Much, Only A Northern Song - should be added to Magical Mystery Tour, where they'll fit right in.

Also ripe for deletion are the compilations -- Love Songs, Reel Music, 20 Greatest Hits and the red and blue albums. What the hell are the good for? Absolutely nothing. Again, they'll probably be retained, but I hope they don't sell.

The only Beatles live album done even half-way right is the BBC album. Even that doesn't include all the between-songs banter or all the songs. A better way to do it might be to cre-create the feel of an actual show, and do several volumes, each a single CD. Sure, that would cost us all more, but I'd like it better.

The Hollywood Bowl concerts should be released, warts and all, in their entirelty. If I were an EMI honcho (or a Beatle) I'd copy the 2-CD bootleg set which includes not only all 3 concerts but two rare interviews as well. Paul could re-do his vocal on the second one, where his mic was defective for the first half.

Barring that, EMI should at least combine all the shows onto one CD which includes ALL of the songs performed, with no breaks.

What about the Star Club tape? There are bootlegs which contain all of the released tracks, better than any "legitimate" version. Why not a re-mastered Star Club album with those tracks that were originally left out as "bonus" tracks? And no edits or overdubs! The Star Club tape is a historical document and should be treated as such.

No, not Sie Lieb Dich and Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand. I'm talking about the songs they did with Tony Sheridan and their first single, Ain't She Sweet/Cry For A Shadow. These should be considered as regular Beatles recordings and should be acquired by EMI if they haven't been already. They should be included as bonus tracks on the CDs of the original albums. The Tony Sheridan songs were all recorded in live stereo; the other two, maybe not. If not, they'd have to get ...

Like I said, all of the above should be in stereo, with the exception of the Star Club tape, which was recorded in mono. Why? Because the general masses like it that way, and these albums have to sell to people who (GASP!) don't especially like the Beatles (yes, there are a few).

But what about collectors, many of whom prefer the mono versions, and all of who recognize them as the "true" Beatles recordings?

For those of us who need it I would create MONOBOX, A boxed set of about eight CDs with all of the Beatles released mono tracks. These would be all crammed together to fit on the fewest CDs possible, thus making it as cheap as possible. The original song order could be preserved, maybe by putting two LPs on each disk intact and grouping the uncollected singles together - remember, Let It Be and Abbey Road would notbe included, since they weren't released in mono.

It seems amazing that this would only take seven or eight CDs, but you have to remember how short the original LPs are. The Beatles released 13 original albums, one a double, for 14 original LPs. Cancel the last two and you get 12, which you divide by two again to make 6 CDs. Remember also that Yellow Submarine can be deleted and the four new songs put elsewhere (maybe bonus tracks on the White Album) and that the White Album, though two CDs, leaves about 30 minutes empty on each disk. Considering the extra space on all of the disks, it would only take two more to complete the Beatles mono oeuvre, even if including Tony Sheridan and all the Christmas records. You could fit all that into your car's 10-disk changer and listen to it here, there and everywhere. Are you drooling yet?

I refuse to speculate on what might be released in the future. Certainly I'd like to hear all 3 long versions of Helter Skelter, and I have yet to find a copy of the original Get Back, which I'd like to have on a legitimate, properly mastered, royalties-paid CD. This is all stuff that's out there, though, and could be compiled by anyone with a CD recorder today. I kinda wish bootleggers would pirate the original master LPs, or maybe compile a complete mono boxed set from tape sources. I'd buy it.

Will any of this ever come to pass? One can hope.

And a fish can hope to ride a bicycle.

James Kelley
Columbus, Ohio
April 7, 2000AD / 12000HE