Welcome to my Fantasy BBC Sessions. A brief disclaimer… the recordings used in the production of this little blog post were free-range recordings… and not the copies that were used by Capitol/EMI/Apple records in the production of their Beatles at the BBC releases. All recordings utilized here are for the purposes of discussion and as historic examples of recording and production techniques used by the BBC, and later reproduced for official release. Further, they’re a teaching tool to show us what is possible with modern-day digital recording and enhancement technology, and therefore constitutes “fair use” under copyright law.
Now, in keeping with my ongoing theme of grumpiness… allow me to tell you what I really think of the official reconstruction and releases of the compiled Beatles at the BBC CD’s.
Back in 1994, there was a promotional campaign that read “On November 30, Apple Records will take you back in front of the radio, listening to the Beatles like never before”. Now I have to admit, that was one hell of a tempting offer. Having collected every BBC session that was rediscovered up until that date… I was certain that EMI/APPLE, the powers that be, and George Martin would surely take those tapes… or perhaps cleaner copies, and enhance them, restoring them to a realm of glory that surpassed everything that I have heard thus far.
So I couldn’t believe my ears when I pressed “play” on my trusty old CD player and discovered that, aside from some minimal noise reduction… the tapes were basically a digital core dump… straight to compact disc, with one exception, tons of mid-range.
My theory on that is simple: Only old-timer engineers and producers are ever entrusted with a Beatles project. Think about it… up until that point…it was absolutely true. Seasoned old professionals only mix vintage material one way: Dial back the bass, mute the high end…and jack your mid-range up to 11. Because that’s how you safely mastered a good LP record. We don’t want too much high or low end… because that might cause some deep shit at the factory. It’s just a boring fact… the sonic characteristics of mastering to vinyl involves applying compression, limiting, and an array of other techniques that absolutely fucking kill a decent master recording. Old codger engineers just automatically gravitate towards mixing for the worst case scenario… instead of the best.
And then there’s George Martin, who at that point was suffering significant hearing loss… need I say more.
So after hearing Apple Records put me “back in front of the radio”… my thoughts were “screw this… I don’t wanna be in front of the radio… I want to be in the front of the studio…
So, I’ve gone back the the best tape sources I could find, and I began digitally patching drop outs, wrinkles and areas where you could tell the oxide practically flew off those poorly stored, age-old disintegrated reels of history. Then I began applying re-equalization and very light noise reduction. Finding tapes with defined endings to songs that weren’t cut off too soon… that was a major challenge as well. But soon… the project came to life… and so did the performances.
And what I’ve learned during the process of cleaning up these pieces of music history… is that there’s actually a lot of life left in these tapes that nobody seems to know about. There’s Paul’s bass… and you can coax it out of those muted frequencies if you try. There’s Ringo’s bass drum… and a clear high hat that rings out. On “Lonesome Tears In My Eyes… there’s a squeaky bass drum pedal, or possibly the seat Ringo’s sitting on. The BBC version of “Oh My Soul” was released with a nasty drop out and tape damage evident in the second solo…. our version is patched and is using a cleaner source tape. There’s a lot of gems hidden on those sessions that are just waiting to be dusted off and polished.
My goal was to make those tapes sound like they were recorded with top-end equipment in a place equal to EMI Abbey Road, circa 1962. And yes, I realize I set the bar very high. But I work better that way. So, without further delay… these are selections from my Fantasy BBC Album… Let’s call this “Volume One”, shall we? I have a feeling there will be more to come. After all, we ARE talking about “The Beatles”.