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WHICH WAY
FOR THE BEATLES' APPLE CORPS?
Now that the mercenary,
predictable CEO Jeff Jones is gone, what direction will the company take?
Will the creative potential of The Beatles' archive at last be mined?
by Rip Rense
(Feb. 27, 2025)
What was Apple thinking, re-releasing U.S. mono
versions of the first seven Beatles LPs for Christmas, 2024? (Six, really,
as “The Beatles’ Story” is a documentary.)
The answer, of course:
money, money, and also: money. The cynical calculus: X-million fans will buy
the re-releases ($300 per box), never mind that they probably owned the
albums in multiple forms. It’s guaranteed massive profit, cashing in on
“completist” mentality, and, to a less extent, recent generations who
consider LP’s to be “cool.”
Apple, which really
should be referred to with slashes including Capitol and the behemoth,
Universal (and sometimes the other behemoth, Disney), has become largely
mercenary in its releases. Creatively, imaginatively exploiting the Beatles
archive, and serving the interests of original fans, has long taken a back
seat to three r’s: re-releases, remasters, and remixes.
All in all, a far
cry from the company's original, idealistic brief back in 1968:
to welcome and showcase a wide array of artists in pop,
jazz, classical, avant-garde music, as well as poetry, publishing---whether
the artists were well-known or not. While the company was founded to rescue
The Beatles from massive British income tax, it was conceptually a
populist---not primarily profit-based---corporation.
With the exception of the
fabulous, revelatory Peter Jackson-directed series, “The Beatles: Get Back,”
all the releases during the 17-year tenure of recently resigned Apple CEO
Jeff Jones have served the coffers, less the art. And “Get Back” was an
accident. First-tier Beatles fan Jackson was hired for a different project,
an interactive concept, never realized. Instead, he asked to create a
new movie from the “Get Back” footage, and then cleverly (subversively?)
talked his way up to the invaluable nearly eight-hour series.
The pre-Jones Apple era was very inventive and promising,
starting with the massive George Martin-produced Anthology in the
mid-90’s, followed by the George Harrison-instigated “Yellow Submarine
Soundtrack,” a CD of all songs from the movie issued for Christmas, 1999.
This marked the first time ever that new mixes were presented (done
elegantly by Peter Cobbin, who subsequently was bumped aside by Giles
Martin.)
 
OUT: predictable CEO Jones.
IN? Creative "Fanboy" Jackson |
Next came the welcome McCartney pet project, “Let it Be. . .Naked” (2003),
which came close to what a polished “Get Back” album might have been (far
more cohesive than the Phil Spector “Let it Be” take), followed by the
wildly imaginative George/Giles Martin production, “The Beatles Love”
(2006), a CD compendium of wizardly mash-ups of songs done for the (recently
closed) Vegas Cirque du Soleil. It holds up wonderfully, a sparkling ride of
innovative combos and surprise arrangements that make the songs thrilling
and fun all over again.
But Jones
arrived from the commercial monolith, Sony, in 2007, and that was creatively
that. Consider the Jones era releases:
*The remastered CD’s of 2009 were welcome, long overdue, but
ultimately just another way to sell the same albums again.
*The
incredibly expensive boxed set remixes of “Sgt. Pepper,” the “white
album,” “Let it Be,” “Abbey Road,” the so-called red and blue compilations
are sonically bigger, louder, more detailed---but are, in the end, the same
songs sold over again (yes, plus outtakes.) They are also a mixed blessing.
Producer Giles Martin has extensively meddled with the original mixes,
essentially replacing the work done so artfully (with comparatively limited
technology) by. . .his own father, and The Beatles. The Giles remixes often
reveal new detail, as one would hope, but equally often, they can sound
cluttered (see: “Day Tripper”). The tightness and dynamics of the original
mixes, in other words, have been sacrificed to “kitchen sink” philosophy of
giving voice to every plink and plunk. And then there is Giles’ mixing
judgement, which, among other crimes, often renders Paul McCartney’s
lyrical, carefully crafted bass lines---integral to song arrangements---as
rumbly background, as if they are merely part of the rhythm section. Gasp.
*The “bonus”
CD’s of outtakes and rehearsals included in those boxed sets, while they are
treasures, have been presented in a jumble, as leftovers and curios, chosen
capriciously by Giles. In the case of the especially fascinating “white
album” outtakes, he deliberately did not even mix them, with
the flimsy justification of wanting fans to hear them as they were found.
This was a huge missed opportunity (more about this later.)
*The
“Eight Days A Week” film/CD live project is an embarrassment. It began
with what was intended to be a comprehensive, incisive look at how The
Beatles evolved from scruffs messing with guitars into a tight performing
unit, including many rare performances. Great idea! But Jones came along and
(gasp) scuttled it, instead hiring Ron Howard to put together a dull,
predictable general audience documentary, with the would-be comprehensive
live album reduced to “Eight Days a Week: Live at the Hollywood Bowl,”
released in 2016. Neither movie nor film acknowledged the huge amount of
surgery on the music to make it more appealing to the current demographic,
which (Giles said) allegedly would not comprehend “original patina”
glitches, pitchiness. Just shameful, all of it. A wasted opportunity, an
unabashed cash-in.
*The “Beatles ‘64” documentary, while pleasant enough
viewing, contained no revelations, and covered familiar territory already
well covered in Albert and David Maysles’ documentary, “The First U.S.
Visit.” In a word: redundant. What’s more, as Beatlefan’s Brad Hundt pointed
out in his review, there was a surplus of talking-head interviews (Terence
Trent D’Arby? Really?) that too often interrupted beautifully restored live
performances (done by Peter Jackson), and the inevitable cliched
contextualizing with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A
compendium of the restored live performances would have been massively
preferable, and more valuable, historically.
All of
which is to say, the idea of creatively presenting the remaining
music and footage in The Beatles’ archive was abandoned under Jones.
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How else to explain, for easy example, the miserly, token collection of
bonus tracks in the “Let it Be” album and DVD? At minimum, there should have
been: a CD cherry-picking all the best jams, outtakes, oldies, and complete
song performances done during the sprawling “Get Back” sessions, AI-demixed
into stereo, and a DVD of complete studio performances of the principal
songs from those sessions, including alternate takes and the “rooftop”
performance. First priority should have been to AI together a performing
version of the band playing Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass,” culled from
rehearsal takes and Harrison’s own solo studio self-accompanied version.
But. . .
Didn’t
happen.
This is
nothing but neglect of history. Insult to injury: “Get Back” director
Jackson, whose Beatles expertise is beyond challenge, urged Disney to issue
a few more hours of material in the “Get Back” DVD, but to no avail---and
Apple did not step in. The result: with no incentive for fans to see
anything not available in the original streaming of the series, DVD sales
did not meet expectations.
Translation: the imaginative curation of Beatles music and film seems to
have been pigeonholed by Jones-era Apple as “fanboy” fare (Jackson’s amusing
term) of interest only to aging appreciators. Further translation: dumbed
down for a mainstream buck. Yes, this is how commercial and corporate
Apple---founded idealistically as an anti-corporate champion of new
music!---has become. If there is money in recycling albums that have been
released many times before, it’s a go.
We are left
with this question: what is of more value: hearing an additional guitar note
or two, or clearer harmonies, or unmixed outtakes---or hearing unreleased
and/or restored “new” Beatles music? The answer should be obvious. Yet
Apple, one supposes, must be of the opinion that any “new” material---such
as an AI-realized Beatles version of “All Things Must Pass”---is of such
potential publicity and monetary value in the future, that it should not be
“wasted,” say, in a full album of such music.
This is a
tragedy, and a disservice to The Beatles and George Martin.
With Jones’s
departure, Apple now has a chance to reverse course and get back to the
spirit of what was happening under former Apple CEO Neil Aspinall.
I have
written extensively in Best Classic Bands and Beatlefan
(and this website) about various projects that should be green-lighted
immediately since the advent of the Jackson-invented artificial intelligence
“de-mixing” technology, MAL 9000. (See Beatlefan# .) Top priority, as
stated above: a MAL-9000-remixed “Get Back” sessions album of alternate
versions, jams, outtakes, oldies, studio and rooftop performances (including
“All Things Must Pass”). For purposes of further illustration, here are
even more potential projects that do not seem likely to occur under
Apple’s leadership, unless Jackson or someone with his expertise and
“fanboy” enthusiasm takes over.
| The pre-Jones Apple era was very inventive and
promising, starting with the massive George Martin-produced
Anthology in the mid-90’s, followed by the George
Harrison-instigated “Yellow Submarine Soundtrack,” a CD of all songs
from the movie issued for Christmas, 1999. |
*The Beatles Christmas Album---Released to fans only as an
Apple LP in 1970, this has, incredibly, never otherwise been officially
issued. It contains all seven original messages sent to fans on flexi discs
from 1963 to 1970. It should be supplemented with Christmas message
outtakes, the six-minute goof, “Christmas Time is Here Again,” and why not
throw in a new “Beatles” Christmas EP with McCartney’s “Wonderful
Christmastime,” Lennon’s “Happy Xmas,” Harrison’s “Ding Dong, Ding Dong,”
and something from Ringo’s terrific Christmas album, such as “I Want to Be
Santa Claus.” Perhaps Paul and Ringo could be induced to write and sing a
new contribution for the set. (Yes, all the flexis were reissued in a
ridiculously expensive $300 boxed set in 2017, but we’re talking about an
album here.) This would make a mint, could be issued in affordable
configurations, and make a hell of a lot of people happy.
*Alternate albums---Releasing outtakes, rehearsals, embryonic takes
of Beatles songs in a jumble, as has happened with every Giles
Martin-remixed boxed set so far, is akin to discovering veins of gold and
not turning them into gorgeous jewelry, art, or sculpture. There are, in
some cases, full alternate albums to be created. What? Tampering with
history? Yes. What do you think remixing is? To leave the riches left behind
by The Beatles unmixed, unrestored, unreconstructed, is to leave diamonds
uncut and unpolished. Why not have a completely alternate version, say, of
“Revolver?” Just present it as such. Ditto for “Rubber Soul,” I suspect, and
possibly others. Such ventures should consist only of sufficiently
different finished versions of songs (the early take of
“Tomorrow Never Knows,” for example, or “Yellow Submarine” with all the
sound effects turned up), or they can be, yes, artificially created (much as
George Martin did with “Strawberry Fields Forever” on “Anthology 2.”) For
example, take the vibraphone instrumental backing for “I’m Only Sleeping”
done by George Martin. Lennon passed on this treatment, but fans have looped
it into a complete backing, and added the acoustic vocals (and guitars) from
an early take. The result: a completely new and wonderful version of the
song! The biggest missed opportunity along these lines is. . .
*Alternate “white album.”---George Martin famously tried to persuade
the band to put out one strong album, rather than a double. Well, this
can still be done---but with very different versions of songs. Top of
the list: restoring Lennon’s original concept for “Revolution” (later
“Revolution 1”), which devolves into about seven minutes of chaos and sound
sculpture. The approximately 13-minute version was bootlegged some years
back, but lacking Lennon’s lead guitar overdub and Martin’s horn
arrangement, and without several tapes of Beatles vocals earmarked for
addition to the song. Why not restore it? That Giles Martin did not
do this for the “white album” boxed set was egregious. Another “Revolution”
candidate: a boffo uptempo version (released on the “white album” outtakes
discs) without the feedback on guitars, and vocals. Well, add vocals!
Especially the “shoo-be-doo-wops,” which really should have been on the
original single. (Or just add them to the single version.) Also: “I’m So
Tired” with the Harrison guitar fills, “Yer Blues” with the dual George and
John leads, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (either the acoustic version with
George Martin orchestration or the outtake electric version---restored after
the “I aren’t Smokey” breakdown with the last thirty seconds or so of the
released version), and “Good Night,” the four-part harmony version with John
accompanying on electric guitar. Further begging construction: the very
different early (unnumbered) instrumental outtake of “Everybody’s Got
Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey,” but with the vocals added
for a finished version (fans have done this to great effect on Youtube.)
More: Jackie Lomax’s recording of Harrison’s “Sour Milk Sea” (with
McCartney, Starr, Harrison, and Eric Clapton) could be, with AI, adjusted to
feature the Harrison demo vocal. Ditto for the Mary Hopkin version of
McCartney’s little, gem, “Goodbye.” This could also be a great opportunity
to release “Across the Universe” where it chronologically belongs---and in
the natural speed version that has never been issued. More
possibilities abound. An alternate single disc “white album” of this ilk
would be a blockbuster release.
  |
*Abbey Road as originally envisioned---George Martin and Paul
McCartney first wanted Abbey Road to be one huge suite of songs connected by
band interludes and/or original orchestral music by Martin. It would
effectively have been one gigantic symphonic medley, start to finish. Think:
orchestral overture, and orchestral interlude between side one and two, with
Beatles and/or Beatles-with-orchestra to fashion segues between songs. A
rather thrilling prospect, I think. As is well known, the medley on side two
of Abbey Road was a compromise reached with Lennon, who absurdly thought the
concept to be pretentious. Well, this still can be done with the entire
album. Why not? Highly skilled contemporary composers are everywhere! Hire
one of them and put him or her to work with McCartney on how to frame the
whole album, and how to link the songs. Band interludes gracefully joining
tracks could be fashioned from existing music with help from Giles Martin,
whose creative mash-ups on “The Beatles Love” attest to his powers of
invention. Of course, George Martin’s original orchestrations should be left
intact, but could also be drawn upon (or stylistically imitated) for
overture and between-track passages. Not to replace Abbey Road, but to
create a fabulous alternate version.
*Album(s) of best alternate versions---If full alternate albums
seems too extreme, then why not a series of albums of the greatest alternate
versions/outtakes/restorations as described above? Grouped chronologically,
so as not to mix wildly different Beatles styles.
*The
Beatles Live---Revive the original concept of the live project that
tragically morphed into the bland “Eight Days a Week” film and the heavily
doctored Hollywood Bowl album---but restore film and music to pristine
condition with MAL 9000 under the supervision of Peter Jackson. DVD and CD.
The original brief: chronicle the development of The Beatles from kids
plinking guitars into a hot ensemble, documenting everything from The
Quarrymen through the Pete Best-era Beatles to the jaded “old guys” on the
Apple rooftop. Include never-before-released Cavern material owned by
McCartney. No one could do this better than Jackson. Movie and boxed set.
*BBC---All the band’s BBC live mono recordings
(some had vocal overdubs) can now be brought up to near studio (stereo)
quality via MAL-9000. Boxed set and single disc of highlights.
*Magical Mystery Tour film, Special Edition---Yes, the knock on this
film is that it is wacky psychedelic slapdash indulgence, with flat spots.
Doesn’t matter. It’s the Beatles. The only thing better than Beatles is more
Beatles. Gather up all the outtakes, and there are many---all the cutting
room floor material---especially the part in the diner where Auntie Jessie
(Vaudeville veteran and actress Jessie Robins) plays the hell out of a drum
kit with a jazz band, and sings! Re-cut the movie to include it, and more,
and hire artists to make video sequences for additional songs not originally
in the film: “Hello Goodbye” (use the various promo films as a basis), “Baby
You’re a Rich Man,” “All You Need is Love” (the “Our World” live broadcast
would fit nicely), “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)” (mostly recorded
in ’67.) Put Jackson in charge of this. (If the big race sequence is cut
down a bit, in the process, it wouldn’t break any hearts!) Maybe have “old
Ringo” and “old Paul” do cameos in their old wizard outfits. Hey, why not?
This could be wonderful.
Why not an expanded special edition of "Magical Mystery Tour,"
with more footage and newly commissioned sequences for omitted songs
such as "Hello Goodbye" and "Baby You're a Rich Man?" |
*"It’s All Too Much,” Special Edition---This epic Harrison anthem
should have become a Beatles staple on par with “All You Need is Love,” but
due to slipshod production (no George Martin present) and being “thrown
away” on the original “Yellow Submarine” soundtrack album, it never got its
due arrangement or acclaim. This can be rectified today! The excellent
missing verse and bridge must be restored, for starters, and a badly needed
George Martin-esque orchestral backing could be composed by Giles Martin,
McCartney, and Ben Foster (the team that composed the strings for “Now and
Then.”) This would allow the song its full scope and breadth for the first
time, and imbue it with a grandeur merited by its subject matter.
Here are a
couple of “fanboy fantasies:”
*"You’ll Know What to Do”---Fanciful? Sure. The second original
Harrison song written for The Beatles was found in a cupboard in George
Martin’s home as a studio demo from 1964 with Harrison accompanying himself
on electric guitar, and someone (probably Paul, given that Ringo was
hospitalized with tonsillitis) shaking a tambourine. Well, The Beatles’
rhythm section still exists! Why not convene Paul and Ringo to add bass and
drums to this good little tune? Harmony vocals? Why not invite Dhani and
Julian (and/or Sean) to sing them? This would “do right by George,” and give
the song full stature, rather than leaving it as a leftover, a curio.
*"Bad to Me”---This
Lennon-McCartney original exists only as a demo by John and Paul with
acoustic guitars. With a MAL 9000 clean-up, it can be rendered close to
studio quality. Give it the same treatment as the one proposed for “You’ll
Know What to Do”---Ringo and Paul add the rhythm section, and invite Beatles
offspring to do additional harmony vocals, if deemed desirable. Guitar solo?
Let Paul play it. Boom: song promoted to full Beatles status. There are
other early demos where this approach is possible, including McCartney’s
“One and One is Two,” “I’m in Love.” And this, of course, along with “You’ll
Know What To Do,” could all be part of an album or boxed set of. .
.AI-upgraded Beatles demos.
Whether
one agrees with these suggestions or not, they are illustrative of a
creative, imaginative approach to The Beatles archive that has been
frustratingly lacking under the Apple reign of Jeff Jones. Let it be hoped
that he is not replaced with another corporate CEO whose priority is money,
money, and also: money. My vote: Peter Jackson.
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