Discussion of Get Back stereo polarity

[Lord Reith]

i'm not sure why you're concerned about reversing the Glynn Johns mixes..

just taking the song "get back" as an example,
every version of this song on this deluxe box set,
including the Glynn John's mixes
is mixed with John's lead guitar on the left side.
as well as the following...

Hmm. I don't think Get Back was issued in stereo until the Blue Album was it? There's one on the LIB album but Spector mixed that and it's shorter.

What I think may have happened...

The tracks were remixed in one stereo orientation for the first version of the GB album and then were flipped by Glyn for the second and that's where the commercial stereo mix of the song Get Back comes from.

Why do I think this? Because three independent sources from 1969 all have the stereo remixed so that the guitar solo in the song Get back is on the right. This applies to the Electrola acetates of Glyn's early rough mixes, the copy of the 1969 album that was booted in the 1970, and the high quality version that appeared in the 1980s (and is on Thirty Days in its best condition). That surely cannot be a co-incidence - what is the likelihood that THREE bootleggers would all master it in reverse? I haven't checked the Kum Back boot from 1970 but I bet that also has the same polarity.

Following on from that, the 1970 rejigged version of the GB album on The Complete John Barrett Cassette Dubs Vol.7 has the flipped "2021" orientation with the GB guitar solo on the left.

So it looks to me like Apple have used the 1970 version of the album as their starting point, but decided to keep the 1969 track listing. So it's neither fish nor fowl. But in my humble opinion at least, if they are following the 1969 track listing then it should also reflect the 1969 stereo polarity.

In the end people will just have to decide for themselves which way they prefer it. Myself, I've been listening to it since 1983 with the snare drum on the left. I just can't listen to it any other way, even if Glyn is the one who made the call. It's like trying to listen to the Rock And Roll Music lp with the vocals on the left instead of right.

Anyway, at least you now have a choice!

[Mark Graves]

Hmm. I don't think Get Back was issued in stereo until the Blue Album was it? There's one on the LIB album but Spector mixed that and it's shorter.

The USA single was originally released in stereo, so is John's guitar on the left channel, just like on the just released Get Back LP, or not?
That's the clue. Any USA vinyl single out there?
Cheers, M.

[C90]

Slightly off topic, but I've found some mixes of live shows where the stereo soundstage is wrong - guitarist 'A' always stands on the left of the stage, but his guitar is panned to the right, and vice versa - and find VLC's playback option to flip the stereo image (left to right) useful.
(In VLC's 'Audio' drop down menu, go to 'stereo audio mode' and choose 'reverse stereo')
And idiot proof, for techy novices like me!

[Doug]

Just popped on the U.S. stereo single - John's guitar is on the left.

[Milu]

Just listening to the old bootleg "Renaissance Minstrels Vol.2" to.
The guitar solo on "Get Back" is on the left side.

[jpa]

LR: "For You Blue is the wrong mix unfortunately, but I have made a corrected version of that track and will post it in a week or so."

Looking forward to this. Now it seems we need two versions with opposite stereo polarity, so that everybody can enjoy it with their preferred GB polarity!

[aslak]

If I just switch my earphones round, right earpiece on left ear and vice versa, will that work?

[alphabeatles]

It's obvious from the sound though that the GB LP included in the box was sourced from a bootleg.

So for the hi-res version they must have just upsampled the boot CD!

[powerPC]

Actually the Get Back album mix on the box set was largely taken and tweaked from an inferior Purple Chick copy of the Get Back album with a few attempts to replace a couple songs with newer mixes if they came across them while compiling the other discs, if you notice the 1969 GB album mixes still have the hiss, not a master source at all, yet nothing from 1970 came from the John Barrett dub bootlegs as you can tell they came across the 1970's tapes for those mixes. In the other thread where another member gives the rundown of the box set track by track there is more details of sources and what's actually new.

So is there a consensus on what the "best sounding" bootleg is for for the 1969 (and 1970) GB album mixes? Just for the sake of curiosity...

[Jukka]

When they swapped stereo channels, they did it for certain reason.