Red Mosquito

Saw him a few years ago and I still sometimes listen to the Beatles and think about how good he still was at that age on that stage in 2023.

Saw him at Outside Lands in 2013. I can’t believe it was that long ago. Great show. 39 songs played.

zeb wrote:Saw him a few years ago and I still sometimes listen to the Beatles and think about how good he still was at that age on that stage in 2023.

Saw McCartney at MetLife in 2023. Bruce and Bon Jovi came out to wish him a happy 80th. Show was phenomenal.

So there's going to be a new anthology release?

I've gone from hating, to appreciating, to really enjoying Paul's granny songs. Another decade I'll probably love them.

bada wrote:I've gone from hating, to appreciating, to really enjoying Paul's granny songs. Another decade I'll probably love them.

Hold that thought.

Anything worth checking out on the new anthology?

i got bugs wrote:Anything worth checking out on the new anthology?

I don't consider myself a hardcore Beatle fan, but I do know all their songs (much like half the earth's population).

This felt the same as it felt back in the mid 90's with the first 3 anthologies, listening to different takes of songs you know by heart feels great.
The rarities well is practically dry, and the first 2 Anthologies are pound by pound way better packed than 3 & 4.
A lot of the stuff on 4 was already available on several reissues/remasters, but they were new to me.

Lots of bits and pieces to geek out about.

To my ears...

Spoiler: show

- Sounds like John salvaged the guitar arpeggio that didn't work for "Good Night" and used it on "Julia".
- New appreciation for "You Never Give Me Your Money" (Macca is a monster all over these outtakes).
- Don't know which take made it to the record, but "In My Life" sounded amazing on 1st take.
- Maybe it's recency bias, but the facelifts for both "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" actually sound great to me.

Rubber Soul was released 60 years ago today. A pivotal album in popular music history.
Norwegian Wood, In My Life and If I Needed Someone are my favorites.

I love how it’s still relevant in popular culture. The commercial with the old ladies sledding while In My Life plays gets me though I can’t remember what the ad is for.

i got bugs wrote:Anything worth checking out on the new anthology?

A few tracks on volume 4 which are going to come out on deluxe editions later and that's it.

The 3 original albums are a rush job of smoke and mirrors "nothing" restoration other than a few poopy sounding tracks that were AI'd. The sad thing is that these were the albums that needed remixing the most because they have bizarre frankenstein 80's remixes of the most important outtakes and a majority of it was mixed to mono for no good reason. But instead they added reverb to it and ran everything through some kind of plug-in that makes it sound like shit. Best in the business.

The visual Disney re-boot has quickie AI done to it that does the usual crap. Eyes float around and turn into mouths, text is unintelligible, etc. And they edited out anything that could be deemed as even slightly offensive, or censored it deceptively.

Minimal effort for maximum profit as usual.

Happy Trees wrote:The visual Disney re-boot has quickie AI done to it that does the usual crap. Eyes float around and turn into mouths, text is unintelligible, etc. And they edited out anything that could be deemed as even slightly offensive, or censored it deceptively.

I haven't watched the Disney restoration of the original 8 episodes, just the new one. The Disney guys made their presence felt right from the intro though, way brighter.
The original episodes are pretty awesome imo, and I can totally see Disney cutting out any sex, drugs and controversy while they "restore" them.
Lots of cool stuff on the original ones though.

I always enjoy posts from Trees.

Buby wrote:

Happy Trees wrote:The visual Disney re-boot has quickie AI done to it that does the usual crap. Eyes float around and turn into mouths, text is unintelligible, etc. And they edited out anything that could be deemed as even slightly offensive, or censored it deceptively.

I haven't watched the Disney restoration of the original 8 episodes, just the new one. The Disney guys made their presence felt right from the intro though, way brighter.
The original episodes are pretty awesome imo, and I can totally see Disney cutting out any sex, drugs and controversy while they "restore" them.

My point is that there was no reason for any of it other than quick $$$$$. Big deal, right?

But the problem is that they also squandered an important opportunity to upgrade the soundtrack albums for real in the process, and at the full expense of serious fans. Those albums contain things that are in poor shape but were deliberately left off the deluxe sets because they were "already released". So people assumed they would be properly fixed "if the Anthology was re-booted". And here we are. They added reverb to the old shit and pushed it out the door to excited praise. Big surprise.

So their MO has been to remix things that don't need to be remixed and to do a terrible rush job with or ignore the things that actually do, because $$$$$$$. It's greedy indifference at its worst, but most won't see it that way of course.

zeb wrote:I always enjoy posts from Trees.

I love you too! And that's all you need.

What concerns me is how they always manage to exclude the people that these kinds of releases are supposed to be for from not only consideration, but from the conversation afterwards as well! Because there are nasty little gatekeeping trolls out there who have made it their personal duty to stop any Beatles critique. So as far as anyone knows, everything is fantastic and Apple can strike another million off the audio budget for the next release. And that makes me mad for obvious reasons. I think the "greatest band ever" deserves proper curation, not robotic and altruistic praise for cynical money-grabbing and poor quality control. And if that upsets fanbois out there, oh well.

But to be honest, I am also sick of seeing and hearing Beatles everything now. Getting bombed with their PR bullshit on my satellite radio, a brand new shitty Ringo song every 15 minutes, etc. All the while knowing how they couldn't give two shits about collectors and take full advantage of Sheeple. So I'm becoming ambivalent about them. It's having a bitter over-saturation effect that only a "Dave Grohl" type occurrence will solve.