Steve Marinucci in his excellent Beatles Examiner column reports that both the Beatles “Red” and “Blue” plus the extensive Apple Records artists reissues will be available as box sets.
Called “The Beatles 1962 – 1970”, the box set containing the Red “1962-1966” and the Blue “1967-1970” will look like this:
Red and Blue Box Set front cover
Of course inside will be these two double disc sets:
The Red "1962-1966"
The Blue "1966-1970"
The initial information on these releases remains the same – they will be available as individual discs on October 18 (in the UK) and October 19 (in the US). The box set however is listed by Amazon UK for a November 29 release.
Meanwhile, the big Apple artists reissues also planned for October are to be gathered together in box set for those who would like to buy the complete set. The big news here is that the box will contain not only the “Come and Get It – Best Of” disc with its rarities, but also two additional discs featuring the additional and rare tracks that would have only been available as digital downloads – so, 17 CD’s in all. For collectors like me this makes this release a lot more interesting because I still like to have the physical disc in my hands, complete with the liners notes, photographs and artwork rather than the nebulous digitally downloaded audio….
The box set cover will look like this:
Steve Marinucci has a nice slide show of the box and all the discs it will contain.
The one problem I have with all this is that the Beatles and Apple have allowed such a large amount of collectable product to pile up all at the same time. Between now and November we’ll have George Harrrison’s“Collaborations”; John Lennon’s multiple “Gimme Some Truth” releases; Paul McCartney’s“Band on the Run” in multiple versions; The Beatles“Red” and “Blue”; and all the Apple re-issues. This makes it incredibly difficult if not impossible for most avid collectors to afford all at once.
This is the fourth and final part in a series of posts titled “Some Unusual Asian Beatles Items”. These posts have all been based around a recent holiday visit to Vietnam, and some CDs and a DVD box set (The Beatles Anthology) I picked up in a shop in Hanoi. (Click here to read Part One, Part Two and Part Three)
The last CD I’m describing comes in a cardboard package that is meant to resemble a small hardback book, complete with coloured, “sown” binding:
The packaging is designed to look like a small book
It is called “The Beatles – 1956 – 1970”. Parts of the cover are printed in a shiny, metallic silver print making it difficult to read from certain angles:
The CD front cover - lots of Chines and a little bit of English
There are three compact discs inside, and they sit flush with the page surface of the thick cardboard pages. They’re held in place by a small circle of cardboard that fits the centre hole of the CD. You can’t quite see it in the picture below, but the CD is printed to look like a vinyl record with tracks and a label in the centre. Kind of cute.
One of the "pages" showing the how the CDs are secured
As I said, there are three CD’s inside across which is a sprawling sample of The Beatles output – with songs from their earliest official album (“Please Please Me”) through to the final, “Let It Be”. However, they are not in chronological order as such. Disc One for example starts with “Love Me Do” and finishes with “The Long and Winding Road”.
"The Beatles 1956-1970" CD Cover - Rear
I’m not sure why the CD has been given the title “1956 – 1970” because there is nothing pre-1962 here. Notice the final song on CD 3 – “All My Loveing”. Spelling mistakes like this are often dead giveaways that what your’e looking at is an unofficial, illegal release.
Disc Two has “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” and “Sie Liebt Dich”, as well as some interesting B-sides like “The Inner Light”, “Rain” and “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)”. “Across the Universe” is the “wildlife” version as it has the bird sound effects start.
There is an odd-looking booklet inside which, for some entirely unknown reason, has a picture of an Alfa Romeo sports car on the front….inside are the titles of each song and lyrics.
Now that is just plain weird.....
So, where does this come from and is it kosher? A close up of the rear cover “small print” shows an official-looking barcode, Chinese writing, the words “24 Bit – 100hz”, “Fashion.D.Z.” and “Sony”:
Rear cover close-up
The really small writing says: “This compilation P&C 2007 Earth’s Earth Sound and of the owner of the recorded work reserved. Unauthorized copying, hiring, renting, public performance and vroadcasting (sic) of the recording is prohibited”.
This whole series of posts (Part One, Part Two and Part Three) on potentially fake CDs and DVDs is based on the principle that I don’t collect Beatles bootlegs, and I don’t support or promote piracy in the music business. All my collection to date has been made up of legitimate, officially released discs – that’s all my CDs, LPs, 45rpm singles, books, DVDs, magazines and other printed items. In publishing this series I’m not advocating or promoting these sorts of discs. I am still genuinely confused about a couple of these releases. Any additional information or views on these releases are welcome. Feel free to email me at: beatlesblogger@gmail.com, or comment using the “Leave a Reply” hotlink below.
And so, the ever-growing list of forthcoming releases swells with yet another interesting title….
George Harrison’s Dark Horse Records has just announced a new box-set package called “Collaborations”.And yes, it too is coming in October.
From the official press release:
Dark Horse Records announced today the October 19th release of a limited edition deluxe box set, entitled “RAVI SHANKAR GEORGE HARRISON – COLLABORATIONS“. The release honors the sitar master’s 90th birthday.
“Collaborations” is a 3 CD and 1 DVD uniquely numbered limited edition box set. All compositions were composed by Ravi Shankar and produced by George Harrison over a period of 20 years.
The DVD is a rare concert performance of the Ravi Shankar’s “Music Festival From India”, recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1974. The albums include the acclaimed “Chants Of India” (1997), “The Ravi Shankar Music Festival From India” (studio version 1976), and “Shankar Family & Friends” (1974). The 56-page book includes a foreword by Philip Glass, a history of George and Ravi “in their own words”, and rare photographs from both family archives.
"Chants of India" - original cover (1997)
"Music Festival from India" - original cover (1976)
"Shankar Family and Friends" - original cover (1974)
I could be wrong, but I think this is the first time that “The Ravi Shankar Music Festival From India” and “Shankar Family & Friends” have been issued on CD.
Speaking of Ravi Shankar, the master sitar player (who had such an influence on George Harrison and the Beatles) has embarked on a huge archival project of his own – with a series of discs being released on his East Meets West label.
The first in the series is a single disc CD titled “Nine Decades, Vol. 1: 1967-1968”:
"Nine Decades" - out now
The next release in the series will be the soundtrack to the movie “Raga” – which was originally issued on Apple Records in 1971 and features George Harrison. Details about the release schedule so far is here, and it looks like the “Raga” release will be a CD and DVD double which is good.
"Raga" - original cover (1971)
“Raga” is due in the “American fall” – which is a bit vague but I guess that could mean yet another October release?
October is going to be one very expensive month for us die-hard, complete-ist collectors. We’ll have to put out hands in pockets for the 70th birthdate Lennon“Gimme Some Truth” material; the remastered Apple Records catalogue; the Shankar/Harrison “Collaborations”, and “Raga” now as well. That’s not to mention “Band on the Run”, the first of the Paul McCartney re-issues on Concord Records that is due sometime in August…..
Herewith Part Three in a series of posts on some unusual Beatles and Beatles-related items I was able to buy on a recent visit to Vietnam. I should say again here that all my collection of records, CD’s, books and DVDs have been, to date, the official record company releases. I don’t collect pirate or illegal Beatles material. However, I was presented with something of a dilemma in Vietnam by not knowing if these quite intricately produced items were illegal or the real thing. As they were all sealed in heat-shrink plastic and on the outside had official-looking logos, etc. it made it very difficult to tell. In the end because they were so cheap and I didn’t have ready access to the internet to do research on them I decided to buy and check out their credentials later. So far I have not found anything on the web about this next CD.
Its another one I got in Hanoi in the country’s north:
As you can see its called John Lennon“Definitive Lennon”. It has a shiny, iridescent almost 3D cover that is very nicely done in green, white, silver and black. It really looks expensively produced. The photo above is of the printed slipcase around the over-sized plastic CD jewel case, which contains two CDs.
CD 1 is exactly the same track list as an official EMI Asia and Australia-only release called John Lennon “Peace, Love and Truth” from 2005. The release I have of that CD was printed in the Philippines (see below for info and images).
CD 2 has the same track listing as the CD re-issue of John Lennon’s“Rock’n’Roll” which came out in 2004. It has the same bonus tracks as that CD.
The Vietnam CD has the same SHM-CD logos that are on the Beatles Double Golden Collection series I posted about earlier. SHM-CD seems to be a legitimate process to improve CD technology and they have quite a few authorised releases – you can read more about it here.
Here’s the front cover image of the CD jewel case for “Definitive Lennon”:
The rear cover contains the track-listing:
When you open the jewel case there’s a booklet (with song lyrics) and two CD’s on a swinging “door”:
Here’s a close-up of the printing on CD 1:
As with the “Beatles Double Golden Collection”, the CD box is oversized. Here’s a comparison with the standard CD jewel case for “Lennon Legend”:
You can also see this by comparing the spines of the CD cases. The unofficial one is much wider:
The is what appears to be an official-looking Universal records logo on the outer slipcase, though to my knowledge John Lennon never had a record deal with Universal:
As mentioned above CD 1 from this set is copied from an official 2005 release called “Peace, Love and Truth” which came out in the Asian and Australian markets only. It contains a number of (then) newly remixed version of some classic Lennon songs including “Give Peace a Chance 2005 (featuring Voices of Asia)”, “Gimme Some Truth (Remix), “Love (Remix)”, “Hold On (Remix)”, “Give Peace a Chance 2004 Y2K+”, “Imagine (Remix)”, “Bring On the Lucie (Remix)”, “Mind Games (Remix)” and “I Don’t Want to Be a Soldier (Remix)”. There are also versions of “Real Love (Slow Version)”, “Help ME To Help Myself”, “I Don’t Want to Face It”, “Bless You”, “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”, “Listen the Snow is Falling” and the standard version of “Give Peace a Chance”. The cover ofthe official “Peace, Love and Truth” looks like this:
The rear cover:
The “Definitive Lennon”SHM-CD was amongst some other purchases made in Vietnam. You can see posts on those in Part One and Part Two. Again, there has been quite a lot of thought, expense and detail put into the production of the disc and its packaging, making it difficult to categorically rule it out as a fake.
I think this is the first detailed information about this release I have seen on the Internet.
UPDATE: I just realised where this CD cover comes from. It always reminded me of something I’d seen before – and its the artwork for the cover of the 2009 charity release “Make Some Noise – The Campaign to Save Darfur”:
Make Some Noise - various artists cover John Lennon songs for the Amnesty International CD release to raise funds for troubled Darfur
If the South East Asian CD “The Definitive John Lennon” is a fake then not only are they ripping off the Lennon estate, they’ve stolen artwork probably donated to the Amnesty International cause……
Ned in the US sent me images of another rare and collectable CD in his collection. This time, Paul McCartney’s US version of the CD single “From A Lover To A Friend”.
It was released in 2001 just after the terrible news of the World Trade Centre attacks in New York City came through. (In fact, at the time of the attacks McCartney himself was stranded on a runway at JFK Airport just outside NYC in a plane that had been grounded that day due to fears that other aircraft might be hijacked….).
In September 2001 Paul McCartney had just released the first CD single from his new album “Driving Rain”. On both sides of the Atlantic this was to be Track 2 from that record, the song “From A Lover To A Friend”.
However, as a result of what happened on 9/11 he decided to withdraw “From A Lover to a Friend” in the US and rush-release a different single, a patriotic song called “Freedom” which he’d written the day after September 11.
This is the stuff that collectors items are made of and Ned was in the right place at the right time yet again. He’d purchased a copy before it was taken off the shelves forever and kindly sent through these images of the now-rare US CD:
"From A Lover to a Friend" - rare withdrawn US version (front)
"From A Lover to a Friend" - US withdrawn version (rear)
"From A Lover to a Friend" - US version (case open)
Incidentally, all profits from the “Freedom” single (right around the world) went to aid the families of the New York Fire Brigade and Police who lost their lives trying to assist those in need and to deal with the catastrophe.
The promo cover of the US “Freedom” single looked like this:
Promo cover for US "Freedom"
Interestingly “From A Lover to A Friend” remained on sale in UK. Its got the same cover as the withdrawn US version:
"From A Lover to a Friend" - British release (front)
In Britain McCartney released “Freedom” as a second CD single later, backed with “From a Lover to a Friend” plus a different remix of that song. Here’s that British edition of “Freedom”:
British version of "Freedom" (front)
The same thing happened in Australia. Here’s a very rare “rush release” promo copy of “Freedom” that was sent to radio stations here:
Australian "Freedom" promo copy
The hand-written look and signature on a piece of paper from an exercise book was actually properly printed.
Following the release of the single McCartney performed four songs, including “Freedom”, at a special concert called “The Concert for New York City”. It was staged in 2001 to raise funds for victims the disaster and was recorded and released on CD and DVD later. Here’s the CD cover:
The Concert For NYC (front)
There’s more info about “Freedom” and a video of the Concert for New York live performance of the song (plus a live “Let It Be” with Eric Clapton) here.
It was in a suburb about a 25 minute drive away – way outside my usual garage sale territory, and one I had to think twice about…..But I finally decided that, yes, it sounded like too good an opportunity for the collector in me to pass up. It was those words: “Vinyl – 1000’s rare & collectable”. That did it…..
When I finally got there (a bit later than is wise with these things) the sale was literally in an old, free-standing garage at a private house on a quiet street. There were already two or three guys there picking over literally shelves and shelves of vinyl – stacked floor to ceiling around the walls of the garage, and also in the centre of the floor space as well. The guy holding the sale was definitely in the business and looked like a) a real collector and b) like he owned (or used to own) a second-hand record store and this was both his excess stock and some of his private collection combined.
The question in situations like this is “Where to start?” The feeling of anticipation mixed with the sheer volume of LP’s to look through can be daunting. I asked the owner if there was any order to the way the albums were arranged. He said no, its all pretty random, which just added to the anxiety. No sections like “Female vocal” or “Popular”, “Classical”, “Jazz” and the like. So I just delved in. First shelves were classical – so I kind of bypassed that pretty quickly. There was actually very little popular music. Mostly Broadway shows, film soundtracks, and a lot of 50’s singers as far as I could see, with some decent jazz, blues and a little bit of pop scattered throughout. Kind of disappointing really.
The only Beatles-related item I could find in the 45 minutes I was there was this:
This is the rear cover:
He had LOTS of copies of this – probably 20 or 30 – and they were all US pressings on the United Artists label, all original and all still sealed. They were “cut-outs” or remaindered stock, each having a corner cut off by a machine at the warehouse to designate their clearance status. The one I grabbed had only a tiny cut-out on the top left-hand side (which you can see in the photos). This is a gate-fold cover, but as it is still sealed in its original shrink wrap from 1973, I’m probably going to keep it that way and not open it.
I already had an Australian pressing of “Live and Let Die”. It’s not a gate-fold, and as you can see from the images below, it has a slightly different front cover:
And a very different rear cover:
And here’s the label for the Australian pressing:
Trust me. That stamp on the label stating “Property of A.B.C. (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation)” is genuine. And I genuinely purchased this record from a second-hand store. I know the ABC sold off a lot of surplus LP’s a few years ago and I’m assuming that this is one of those legitimate items.
McCartney and Wings also released a single from the album. I have two copies of this (both Australian pressings) – one on the green Apple label:
And one on the red Capital label:
The “Live and Let Die” original soundtrack recording contained music from both Paul McCartney and George Martin, and was released in 1973. It’s on the United Artists label (US catalogue number: UA-LA 100G; Australian catalogue number: L34949). The flipside to the “Live and Let Die” single is Wings doing “I Lie Around”.
I’ve always had a fascination with the Beatles and their music. From the very first days of being old enough to buy my own records I’ve had at least some copies of their albums and singles in my collection – mostly vinyl, starting with Sgt Pepper, The White Album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be, plus the odd single here and there.
But the way I got into seriously collecting a wider range of related records, CDs and books was when I became intrigued by their Apple Records label and the eclectic stable of artists they signed up – both the well-known and the more obscure. Its a quest I’m still on. There are some titles and artists out there on Apple Records that I still don’t have…
In launching Apple Records in 1968 the Beatles produced what was then and is now an exceptionally rare promotional box-set of the very first Apple singles called “Our First Four”. According to Richard DiLello in “The Longest Cocktail Party”, his 1972 memoir about being an Apple Records “house hippie”, this was a presentation box containing the first four 45 rpm vinyl singles from the label. It was “….a box made of plastic, 10 by 12 inches in matte black with a recessed lid carrying the Apple sticker that announced it as Our First Four, 3 Saville Row, W1.” It contained The Beatles “Hey Jude/Revolution” (R 5722), Mary Hopkin – “Those Were the Days” (APPLE 2), Jackie Lomax – “Sour Milk Sea” (APPLE 3), and The Black Dyke Mills Band – “Thingumybob” (APPLE 4). Richard DiLello again: “There was a single coloured folder containing the biographies and photographs of the artists with the records in a polythene sleeve. The name of the person to whom the box was going was printed on the outside Apple sticker. This was primarily an inter-industry gift presentation package for the benefit of Capitol Records and selected disc jockeys and journalists.” Here’s a website that has a photo of one of these extremely rare boxes – although I’m not sure how authentic it is. DiLello says in his book that one of these boxes was presented to Stanley Gortikov, President of Capitol Records in 1968. Others were hand-delivered to the Queen Mother at St James’s Palace; Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace; Princess Margaret at Kensington Palace; and to British Prime Minister Harold Wilson at Number 10 Downing Street, London.
In 1991, when it came time for Apple to conduct a big re-issue program of all the Apple album releases, they decided to do something similar (but not exactly the same – and certainly not as rare) with a special Limited Edition CD.
The Apple E.P. (1991) CD
As you can see it’s an official, apple-shaped CD release to mark the re-issuing of the Apple LP catalogue on both CD and vinyl – back in 1991.
When you open the “apple” it looks like this:
The Apple EP opened to reveal the 4-track CD
Inside is a 4-track compact disc with a song each from Mary Hopkin – “Those Were the Days”; Billy Preston – “That’s the Way God Planned It”; Jackie Lomax – “Sour Milk Sea”; and Badfinger – “Come and Get It”. Not exactly the same tracks as Our First Four, but still two tracks written by Beatles (“Sour Milk Sea” by George Harrison and “Come and Get It” by Paul McCartney):
The Apple E.P. - rear cover with track details
As well tracks 1 and 4 were produced by Paul McCartney, and tracks 2 and 3 were produced by George Harrison.
OK, so there is no “Hey Jude”/”Revolution”, but there is still a pretty large Beatle quotient here. And for me its a reminder that the current Beatles USB (containing all the remastered Beatles albums in high quality digital format) is not the first time that Apple has used an apple-shaped object to market product.
The artwork for the Apple EP compact disc (1991)
Its also not the first time that Apple has collected together four songs from artists in their stable and released an EP for promotional purposes. In 1969, not that long after Our First Four, they gave permission for the British ice cream company Walls to issue a vinyl EP:
As for the Apple re-issue program from 1991, I have quite a few of the vinyl LP re-issues from that time (complete with bonus tracks and original and additional artwork) and will post some pictures and info on these in the future.
The current (June, 2010 – Issue 287) edition of “Q” magazine has a front cover featuring an angry Paul McCartney:
This is a collector cover – one released just for subscribers to the magazine, something that publishers seem to be doing lately to get people to buy product from them rather than just down-loading or getting a copy from the newsagent. I think the newsagent copy will look like this:
The magazine contains a 26-page special feature on Paul McCartney – and its highly recommended reading. The dramatic cover photo(s), and some shots inside, are by David Bailey – who is not new to photographing the Beatles. His work in the Sixties helped define the decade – Swinging London in particular – and he photographed the Beatles from time-to-time. Here’s a photo he took a LOT earlier:
Inside the current “Q” magazine Editor-In-Chief, Paul Rees, gets to spend a month on the road with the man, interviewing him in England and the USA. We get a look at some really interesting and previously un-seen Linda McCartney photographs, and there’s a couple of pages about Paul the avant-garde member of the Fab Four. This is followed the likes of Brian Wilson, Chris Martin, Jamie Callum, Dave Grohl and Paul Weller, to name just a few giving their favourite Paul song recommendations. And finally an in-depth feature on what happened to Wings in Lagos, Nigeria during the making of 1973’s “Band on the Run”. Some really scary stuff….not the greatest place to choose to record an album, but what an album it turned out to be.
One of the best sections in the magazine is the one featuring the many rare photos by Linda McCartney. This one, of McCartney sitting on a straw bale at his farm in Scotland in 1978, is previously unpublished:
The other one I really like is a candid photograph taken during the shoot for the famous “Abbey Road” cover. The caption says: “McCartney and band banter with passer-by in a shot documenting The Beatles’s Abbey Road cover session on 8 August 1969. Note Macca’s sandals, which he’d remove for the iconic final cover picture”:
Its all pretty good stuff and I reckon well worth the cover price (no matter which cover you get).
Postscript: In a spooky co-incidence, I just found out that the very first issue of “Q” magazine, dated October 1986, also had Paul on the front cover…..Issue 001 included articles on Paul McCartney, Big Audio Dynamite, Cocaine, Bob Dylan, Lenny Henry and John Blake.
Following my post on some of the release variations I have in my collection of the Beatles “Love” CDs and LP, I had a note from Ned in the United States who has a very interesting and unique CD single from the “Love” releases.
He has in his collection this rare Japanese promo CD single:
LOVE rare promo single - front cover
As you can see above, it has the familiar bright yellow “Love” cover art work – but it contains just one track from “Love” called “Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows”, a mash-up mix by George and Giles Martin of the basic track and vocal from “Within You Without You” (originally released on “Sgt Pepper”), and the drum track from “Tomorrow Never Knows” (taken from “Revolver”). Giles Martin said “This was the first thing we did (for the “Love” project). We played it for them (Paul and Ringo) and they said ‘we want more like that!’ We had to remind them, ‘Fellas, you know that on most songs you did actually change chords!” George Martin said at the time: “‘Within You’ is not the most memorable song, but it’s much more interesting with that rhythm.”
According to Ned this CD single was created for Japanese radio stations and issued by EMI Japan without the full knowledge of EMI’s London office. When they found out it was withdrawn shortly after release, thus making it a very collectable item. “It is absolutely NOT an unauthorized release but remains the only CD single issued from the “Love” project”, says Ned.
LOVE single - inside
It has a nice insert that lists the other tracks on the full CD release:
LOVE single - booklet
Ned writes: “I mail ordered this from Japan right at the time of the opening of the show in Vegas. I believe it ran me around US$20 – including shipping. I have no idea what the value is now as I only collect what I like and not what might be worth something someday. Apparently, Yoko Ono had (has) the same collecting philosophy and it has served her well.
Ned has two other favorite Beatles-related items. One is a still-sealed, 4 CD Lennon box from 1990 with a blank space on the back cover art where the song “Imagine” should be listed (the song is on the disc, however). “I bought this one from a woman going through a bad divorce. She only wanted US$15 for it. Even though I was very much interested I IMPLORED her to ask for more because I knew she could get it. However, she insisted because, to her, it represented her former husband. (Years earlier, I had regretfully sold my copy…and I was desperate to get a copy back in my possession).”
The other item is a withdrawn, mid-80’s CD release of Lennon’s Shaved Fish – manufactured in Japan for the U.S. market – that has slightly different artwork on it. “It was withdrawn because EMI either failed to use “No-Noise” on the master tapes or the tapes they did use were from inferior sources. Either way, the hiss is more apparent than the common one. But the fact that it was quickly pulled off the market makes it of interest”, says Ned.
But back to the “Love” promo CD. “Promo Sample” is printed in Japanese around the hub. The catalogue number on the disc is PCD-3275.
LOVE single - the Japanese promo writing around hub
Sincere thanks to collector Ned for all the info and photos. Here’s a clearer picture of the black promo writing around the center of the CD single’s hub:
At the Beatles own official website there’s a lot of info about “Love” their 2006 album, which is not only the soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil performance show celebrating the Beatles music, but also a controversial departure for the Beatles in that its made up of some of their best-known songs remastered and re-mixed with sounds and songs from across their extensive catalogue. “Love” is produced by longtime Beatles producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles, and it won two Grammy Awards in the categories Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or other Visual Medium, and Best Surround Sound Album.
For dedicated Beatles fans and collectors it proved to be a bit of of a challenge. Firstly, had the Beatles done the unthinkable and started to mess with the canon? Debate still continues as to whether this was a smart move, or a folly. Additionally, there were numerous release variations to buy if you were an avid collector. Two CD versions, promotional CDs, and other bits and pieces to track down for the completists amongst us…
To start with there was a single disc with the standard stereo mix in a standard jewel case:
“Love” single CD – front cover
“Love” single CD – rear
“Love” CD – with the single CD artwork
Then there was a two-disc set that came with more elaborate packaging. It’s a double fold-out Digipac in a thick slipcase. The package contains the single CD with the standard stereo mix (but with a slightly different printed image on the CD to the single version CD shown above). Added to this is a separate DVD disc containing the 5.1 surround sound mix. Same track list and songs – but if you have a 5.1 stereo set-up at home, the songs and sound effects surround you. It has the same booklet as the single CD release.
“Love” two disc edition – front cover
“Love” two disc edition – rear of slipcase
The final official commercial release (which came out a few weeks after the CD’s) was the vinyl LP. It arrived in a deluxe, 2 disc, gate-fold package. Mine is still sealed, so these images I’ve borrowed from the web.
“Love” vinyl LP set
“Love” gatefold open
“Love” vinyl LP – rear
As you can see the vinyl edition came with custom labels for each LP, and is contained in a gate-fold cover with a large-format book. Its similar to the CD booklet, but because of the large format – complete with rich colour images from the Cirque du Soleil production – it is way more impressive.
There was also a four-song radio sampler released to stations around the world. This was done in an effort to generate publicity and conversation about the forthcoming new Beatles release for 2006. The songs on it were “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Octopus’s Garden”, “Lady Madonna” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (which was one of the most anticipated tracks from the whole album as it was George Harrison’s original demo tape of the song accompanied by a completely new string arrangement composed by George Martin for the new “Love” record). This promo CD was sent out with a press release containing quotes from Sir George Martin and his son Giles – who co-produced the album – talking about the four tracks on the promo CD. They describe how those songs were selected and give some of the background to the production techniques employed in mashing together different parts of Beatles songs to pretty much make completely new versions -a radical thought at the time. The cover of the radio sampler promo CD looks like this:
“Love” radio sampler promo CD – front
And the rear:
“Love” radio sampler promo CD – rear
Apple/EMI was obviously determined to give “Love” the full promotional and marketing treatment because they also pressed and distributed (in limited numbers) a special “Interview Disc” featuring Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George and Giles Martin in conversation about “Love”. The interviews were recorded in October 2006, and they are all stand-alone statements about dirrent aspects of the work that went into producing “Love”, and the running order works through the release track-by-track. Its an interesting historical artifact to have in the collection. And definitely an authentic, original release. As you can see, again it has a colour variation of the “Love” artwork common to all releases:
“Love” promotional interview disc – front cover
“Love” promotional interview disc – rear cover and CD art
This disc is entirely spoken word and contains edited voices only. No music. The idea was that radio stations would get the songs from the official CD and make their own radio specials. For a time there on the web, via Ebay and the like, there was also a disc called “The Beatles Love – Radio Special”, purportedly distributed by Capitol in the US. I got a copy of this but, while someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make it look authentic, there is something suspicious about this one. The special is hosted by a DJ named Andre Gardner. If you Google him he seems legit, very much associated with covering Beatles news, hosting a show on WMGK in Philadelphia and having a Facebook page dedicated to the Beatles. Now, Capitol may well have commissioned this radio special and hired Andre to host it. It does have additional material to the official “Interview Disc” in that there are comments on “Love” by Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono in addition to Paul, Ringo, and George and Giles Martin. And it comes with an official-looking running sheet, with track details and outcues. Here’s a short extract from the program:
There are some images of this CD below. If anyone can shed any more detail on this release – drop me a comment and let me know….
“Love” Capitol Records Radio Special – front cover – genuine?
“Love” Capitol Records Radio Special – CD
Meanwhile….at the time of the “Love” release the Beatles official website had not long been launched (it looked quite different to it’s present incarnation), and Apple used the new site to deliver a series of five down-loadable podcasts to further promote “Love”. Each was between six to seven minutes in duration, and like the official “Interview Disc” above, it contained extracts of Paul, Ringo, George Martin and Giles Martin talking about “Love”. Hosted by UK presenter Robert Lindsay, it contains music extracts mixed with the spoken word extracts. Quite nice to have.
Yet another spin-off for collectors was the DVD “All Together Now”, a documentary film about the creation of the Cirque du Soleil show and the accompanying soundtrack CDs. Earlier this year took out a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video. (I posted about this at the time).
“Love” – the “All Together Now” DVD documentay
You can still see “Love” by Cirque du Soleil at The Mirage Casino in Las Vegas. MTV reviewer Gil Kaufman saw the show just last month (April, 2010) and had this to say. The Beatles own site has some fun facts about the “Love” show.
Finally, an official printed promotional cardboard flyer for the two CD releases came my way. It’s about foolscap size, and is four pages in all – the front looks like this:
Beatles Blog 
