mousepod
03-25-2007, 10:28 AM
As all hardcore Beatles fans know, their original releases in the 1960s were not "in sync" on both sides of the Atlantic. In England, they released a series of non-lp singles and EPs, plus a host of albums, originally on the "Parlophone" label (then Apple, of course). In America, Capitol records repackaged the material to suit the US market. If you were record shopping in Britain, you would never see albums with the titles "Meet The Beatles", "The Beatles VI", "Yesterday... and Today" etc.
Once the Beatles catalog finally made its way to CD, they decided on a global compromise. Most of the LP catalog would be released the way they were in England, with a couple of exceptions ("Magical Mystery Tour", "Yellow Submarine") and the leftover singles tracks were collected on two volumes called "Past Masters".
Since then, the only other "official" Beatles releases have consisted of CD reissues of two compilations: "1962-1966" (The Red Album) and "1967-1970" (The Blue Album), a 2-CD collection of early BBC appearances, and 3 "Anthology" collections. In the past 2 years, Capitol has released 2 box sets of the "American versions" of the Beatles albums for the die-hard fans who can't program their CD players or miss the original art. And of course, there was the "Love" soundtrack.
But most Beatles fans also know that there are tons of bootleg releases as well. Some are studio outtakes, some include other BBC recordings, while some are CD "remasters" of original vinyl pressings of official albums which purport to sound better than the existing EMI CDs. The problem with most of the bootlegs released thus far is that while many of them contain a few nuggets of gold, few of them are "complete", most of them are redundant, and all of them are expensive (when you can find them at all).
Enter the Purple Chick.
The Purple Chick is a fan (or collective of fans) who've taken all of the bootlegs, found the best quality version of each track, and organized them in a way that makes sense. The resulting CDs are distributed among fans and collectors for free.
With a few minor exceptions (Elvis, The Beach Boys, Buddy Holly), the Purple Chick's output has been entirely Beatles.
The first project was a 10 CD collection of all of the existing Beatles appearances on the BBC. A bonus CD-ROM included a few other appearances of lesser quality.
The second project was on a much grander scale. The Beatles spent most of January, 1969 in two different studios, trying to make an album from scratch in front of movie cameras. All of the audio was recorded on mono recorders that were synchronized to the cameras. There were two recorders going simultaneously, the 'A' and 'B' rolls, so that nothing would be missed. Over the next 30 years, all (or almost all) of the rolls became available on different bootleg sets, but were difficult to listen to, because of the tape breaks and the audio sync 'beeps' that occurred throughout. Purple Chick's "A/B Road" edits together the 'A' rolls and the 'B' rolls to get rid of the breaks and beeps. The resulting set is a whopping 83 CDs, but is probably the most listenable record of that part of Beatles history.
The current project is called "The Deluxe Editions". What the Purple Chick has done here is take the best (vinyl-sourced) bootleg version of each Beatles album (in both stereo and mono) and supplement it with all of the single and EP tracks that came out around the same time. Additionally, each album has a bonus CD of all of the existing (read: bootlegged) studio sessions for the time period. So far, there are eight "Deluxe Editions" (one of pre-Parlophone demos, plus "Please Please Me" through "Revolver"). While I own all of the official releases, they have gone into storage, and the Purple Chick versions now sit on my CD shelf.
In all my years of collecting music have I come across a bootlegger who appeals as much to the trainspotter in me. If you're into The Beatles and are the kind of person who makes pointless checklists (like me), I urge you to seek these out.
Once the Beatles catalog finally made its way to CD, they decided on a global compromise. Most of the LP catalog would be released the way they were in England, with a couple of exceptions ("Magical Mystery Tour", "Yellow Submarine") and the leftover singles tracks were collected on two volumes called "Past Masters".
Since then, the only other "official" Beatles releases have consisted of CD reissues of two compilations: "1962-1966" (The Red Album) and "1967-1970" (The Blue Album), a 2-CD collection of early BBC appearances, and 3 "Anthology" collections. In the past 2 years, Capitol has released 2 box sets of the "American versions" of the Beatles albums for the die-hard fans who can't program their CD players or miss the original art. And of course, there was the "Love" soundtrack.
But most Beatles fans also know that there are tons of bootleg releases as well. Some are studio outtakes, some include other BBC recordings, while some are CD "remasters" of original vinyl pressings of official albums which purport to sound better than the existing EMI CDs. The problem with most of the bootlegs released thus far is that while many of them contain a few nuggets of gold, few of them are "complete", most of them are redundant, and all of them are expensive (when you can find them at all).
Enter the Purple Chick.
The Purple Chick is a fan (or collective of fans) who've taken all of the bootlegs, found the best quality version of each track, and organized them in a way that makes sense. The resulting CDs are distributed among fans and collectors for free.
With a few minor exceptions (Elvis, The Beach Boys, Buddy Holly), the Purple Chick's output has been entirely Beatles.
The first project was a 10 CD collection of all of the existing Beatles appearances on the BBC. A bonus CD-ROM included a few other appearances of lesser quality.
The second project was on a much grander scale. The Beatles spent most of January, 1969 in two different studios, trying to make an album from scratch in front of movie cameras. All of the audio was recorded on mono recorders that were synchronized to the cameras. There were two recorders going simultaneously, the 'A' and 'B' rolls, so that nothing would be missed. Over the next 30 years, all (or almost all) of the rolls became available on different bootleg sets, but were difficult to listen to, because of the tape breaks and the audio sync 'beeps' that occurred throughout. Purple Chick's "A/B Road" edits together the 'A' rolls and the 'B' rolls to get rid of the breaks and beeps. The resulting set is a whopping 83 CDs, but is probably the most listenable record of that part of Beatles history.
The current project is called "The Deluxe Editions". What the Purple Chick has done here is take the best (vinyl-sourced) bootleg version of each Beatles album (in both stereo and mono) and supplement it with all of the single and EP tracks that came out around the same time. Additionally, each album has a bonus CD of all of the existing (read: bootlegged) studio sessions for the time period. So far, there are eight "Deluxe Editions" (one of pre-Parlophone demos, plus "Please Please Me" through "Revolver"). While I own all of the official releases, they have gone into storage, and the Purple Chick versions now sit on my CD shelf.
In all my years of collecting music have I come across a bootlegger who appeals as much to the trainspotter in me. If you're into The Beatles and are the kind of person who makes pointless checklists (like me), I urge you to seek these out.