It's September 9, 2009 or 9-9-09. Suddenly The Beatles are new again with their entire music catalog of original albums reissued in a remastered series featuring new packaging and a video extra on each disc.
I captured the above image of The Beatles display at the Honolulu WalMart today. The CDs are handsomely packaged in cardboard eco-packs with all the graphics of the original albums apparent on the covers of each album. The WalMart prices for the single CD albums are $13.88. The White Album is $19.99 and contains two discs.
The Beatles "Past Masters" Vol. 1 & 2 have been combined into one double CD set that sells for $19.99. The album cover I saw was the white on black one used for the first volume of "Past Masters" when they were originally issued as single CDs, the second volume having a black type on white background cover.
The Beatles #1's, the red 1962-66 and blue 1967-70 compilations as well as the blue "Yellow Submarine" albums are not part of this series. Ditto for the multi-disc sets "Live at the BBC", "Anthologies 1, 2 & 3" and the "Love" albums.
WalMart Honolulu had this Beatles display sandwiched between the ongoing Michael Jackson sales racks... but then again, isn't the Michael Jackson estate still making money off the music from The Beatles?
I'm not buying The Beatles remasters. At least not now. But I ask, is this new set worth the price? I mean I have all of these albums on the original issue CDs and then some. Plus LPs, 45s, CD singles, cassette tapes with all of them ripped to MP3. Buying the same music all over again... is it worth the price?
Tell me!
The big news for gamers, Beatles fans and wanna-be's is the release of The Beatles "Rock Band" video console game to Sony Playstation, Microsoft X-Box, and Nintendo Wii today. The gaming industry which is in an economic downturn this year, is hoping this is a huge hit. The Beatles "Rock Band" certainly has gotten a lot of press and buzz. Time will tell if all the hype turn into sales.
I know I won't be getting the game anytime soon since I don't own any of the major consoles. The promotional videos for the game are quite impressive. Too bad those per song game videos can't be released on an individual DVD. It would be nice to just listen and watch. The game publishers have a whole new music video market just for The Beatles. Come on, why not?
Posted below are some clips from the games. The songs are all familiar, the videos are new.
THE BEATLES ROCK BAND COMMERCIAL
THE BEATLES ROCK BAND REVIEW
THE BEATLES ROCK BAND GAMEPLAY MONTAGE
Embedded videos from YouTube.com may be removed without notice by their respective publishers or the YouTube.com service itself.
1 comment:
Very cool site you've got here, Mel!
I realize that the times we live in are just too damned weird to focus any degree of attention on a rock 'n' roll band that released its final recording forty-years-ago last month - two of whose members are gone from our midst. Think about it. In 1969, at the height of all that was going on then, any columnist who would have devoted a entire page to the greatness of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra would have been laughed out of the business. But this isn't just any band we're talking about here. With the exception of the President's address to a joint session of Congress last night, I didn't spend much time yesterday focusing on affairs of state. September 9, 2009 belonged to the Beatles.
Yesterday marked the long-awaited release of a box set containing all fourteen albums recorded by the Fab Four between the years 1962 and 1970. What makes this package different from what has previously been available is the fact that the engineers at EMI (the studio in London where they did most of their work) have digitally remastered the recordings from the original multi-track tapes. It was like listening to them for the first time all over again. The Beatles have never sounded better - I didn't even think that was possible!
Let me attempt the impossible and sum up the Beatles' message in one sentence: We are the makers of our own dreams. That works for me.
Dream. Dream away.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
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