The original songs on Beatles For Sale are perhaps my favourite set of originals the band ever did. Great songs, great performances, great recordings and great mixes.
If only they had written enough songs for the whole album! I like the cover versions on their own merits, but the Beatles For Sale album almost feels like two different albums.
Presented here are the eight original songs from the album plus 3 other originals. Or if you're American, 5 songs from Beatles '65 and 6 songs from Beatles VI. Some of those 'extra' songs from the US albums fit in with the BFS originals much better than most of the covers. I'll Be Back (Beatles '65) is very prescient of the BFS sound, while Yes It Is (Beatles VI) is almost a sister song to Baby's In Black, sharing its 'colours' theme and waltz-time. You Like Me Too Much (also Beatles VI) gives George a song, and is very much in the C&W style of I Don't Want To Spoil The Party (and the intro and outro is very similar to that song).
This started life as a simple compilation of the stereo masters (which are great), but eventually mophed into a more stripped down version of the songs, eliminating some of the 'icing on the cake'. Though the songs were hardly over-produced, the folky and introspective nature of them also works well with 'less'. Some are subtly different, others more so.
All tracks are mixed to mono, with no demixing involved. Sadder Folk* is Rubber Soul before its time.
(* if my artwork skills were up to it I would have put the title, Rubber Soul-style, on the cover)
LINK: hxxps://1drv.ms/u/s!ApnBxRqYwftnk0uS9Pn1yarIXWEh?e=Cyk81J
SADDER FOLK (An Alternate Beatles For Sale)
- El_Garnatí
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- slane
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Re: SADDER FOLK (An Alternate Beatles For Sale)
Thanks for the feedback!
A few interesting things I noticed about the original recordings as I was doing this:
Eight Days A Week, Baby's In Black and possibly Every Little Thing all feature the basic live track if you isolate the left channel of the stereo mix (I'm not sure if the vocals on ELT are an overdub or not). All of the overdubs are on the right.
The left channel of the stereo mixes of EDAW, ELT and What You're Doing are shockingly dry. For some reason, all the reverb on the stereo mixes of these songs was placed only in the right channel.
The lead guitar on ELT seems to be an overdub (I'm not sure if George is even on the basic track). The tapping and faint whistling you can hear in the left channel of the stereo mix (the basic track) is presumably a guide for the guitar intro.
George's second volume-pedal guitar part on Yes It Is must be on the same track as the vocal doubling - no wonder the vocals sound a bit off in places! (His original part is on its own track panned right, which I eliminated in my mix).
I used the US mono mix of I'll Be Back as there was nothing particularly interesting to be done with this track. But this is where I discovered that the US 'mono' is actually just a fold of the regular stereo mix (contrary to popular belief).
A few interesting things I noticed about the original recordings as I was doing this:
Eight Days A Week, Baby's In Black and possibly Every Little Thing all feature the basic live track if you isolate the left channel of the stereo mix (I'm not sure if the vocals on ELT are an overdub or not). All of the overdubs are on the right.
The left channel of the stereo mixes of EDAW, ELT and What You're Doing are shockingly dry. For some reason, all the reverb on the stereo mixes of these songs was placed only in the right channel.
The lead guitar on ELT seems to be an overdub (I'm not sure if George is even on the basic track). The tapping and faint whistling you can hear in the left channel of the stereo mix (the basic track) is presumably a guide for the guitar intro.
George's second volume-pedal guitar part on Yes It Is must be on the same track as the vocal doubling - no wonder the vocals sound a bit off in places! (His original part is on its own track panned right, which I eliminated in my mix).
I used the US mono mix of I'll Be Back as there was nothing particularly interesting to be done with this track. But this is where I discovered that the US 'mono' is actually just a fold of the regular stereo mix (contrary to popular belief).
- alphabeatles
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Re: SADDER FOLK (An Alternate Beatles For Sale)
Yes nice, like a preview of She Said She Said (SDE mix)!
- Jens Terje
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