THE Lowly Peon

The Beatles: in Mono 
14 April 2010, 11:25am

The Beatles recently released a box set of every album as it was originally recorded in compact disc form. Up until their later stuff, this was all mono, though the original release of CDs are all in stereo remaster.

My dad's first CD ever was Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, one of the Beatles' finest. Considering the use we got out of it as children, I'm amazed it hasn't yet vaporized. Though, come to think of it, it's not too far off — the booklet's ink is nearly all rubbed off, almost every track skips, and the back of the CD itself is white with scratches. Not bad for a crazy new technology, eh?

My entire Beatles collection — I proudly say I have everything they've ever released — was "borrowed" from my dad's. As such, they all came from CDs.

The average Beatles history buff knows that the CDs were remastered in stereo, mostly as an incentive for fans to buy what they already had on the more authentic vinyl. And, just recently, EMI re-released the old mono stuff, again, as an incentive to spark sales.

For any of you who have ever listened to a Beatles album on headphones, you know the stereo is not exactly subtle. On many tracks, you can only hear the lead vocal in one ear, or maybe nothing but the guitar solo. Frankly, I think it's pretty irritating, and I thus prefer to hear it on a real stereo.

Additionally, because my dad's collection is pretty old, and was the first bunch of CDs I imported into my iTunes years ago, some of the tracks make some weird noises.

So what a perfect opportunity, I thought yesterday. Why not get this mono box set? It's about $230, contains the first ten albums the Beatles made (the rest were originally stereo anyway) and three discs of other stuff. At last, I'll have my own copies of the music from the greatest band of all time. And, I won't get really confused when all I hear is George shouting because I only have one earbud in.

What do you guys think? Worth the $230? Realistically, I could get all of the original releases of the CDs (meaning in stereo) for closer to $150, but it wouldn't be in a neato box set.