On 1 June 1967, the most significant album in the history of popular music was released. In recent weeks, thousands of column inches worldwide have been devoted to this album and how it changed the face of popular music. But nothing beats hearing it, especially in its new, glorious, remixed stereophonic form.
I'm Jonathan Mosen, and as anyone who has heard even a few of my radio efforts over the years will know, I’m a hard-core Beatles fan and collector. So it’s hard for me to overstate the excitement I feel about what Giles Martin and his team have done to what Beatles fans simply refer to as “Pepper”.
So what, precisely, have they done? Wasn’t the Beatles’ catalogue remastered only seven years ago? The process of remastering is essentially a cleaning up. It makes the albums we’re already familiar with sound crisper and cleaner, but the mix, in other words the balance of all the instruments and vocals and where they appear in stereo, was not changed at all.
A completely new stereo mix of Pepper is being released on 26 May. For many, it will be a revelation. Like most serious Beatles fans, I maintain that the definitive and vastly superior version of Pepper up until now has been the mono mix. That’s the version that the Beatles personally supervised, and it took over three weeks to mix. Stereo in those days was an after-thought and a throw-away, and only took three days to make. The stereo mix is primitive by today’s standards due to Beatles’ producer George martin and his team only having access to four-track machines. Further, in my view the stereo mix loses some of the trippy, psychedelic feel of some of the key tracks. The song “She’s Leaving Home” is even at a different pitch and speed on the mono album.
Giles Martin has gone back to the first-generation tapes, not touched since 1967, and created a brand new stereo mix. It makes Pepper sound fresh, punchy, and much more trippy. Giles has tried to keep faith with the production decisions made in the mono mix. The mix has been approved by Sir Paul, Ringo, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison.
If that isn’t exciting enough, if you have the equipment to hear it and the money to throw at it, they’ve produced a 5.1 surround mix of the album. Imagine, for example, being in the circus atmosphere depicted in Mr Kite, with the background coming from all sides.
As you may be able to tell, I’m super excited about this release, and have been counting sleeps. Thankfully, Friday in New Zealand gets here before it arrives in most of the world.
It’s my hope to be able to bring you a special show, in which we’ll salute this incredible album. All being well, if my plans play out, I’ll hit the air at 5 AM New Zealand time on Friday morning, which is Thursday afternoon at 1 PM Eastern, 6 PM UK. If you’re in another time zone, check our schedule for the details. By default, it displays the time in your local time zone.
In this show, we’ll begin by giving you some background and setting the stage. We’ll hear recordings of the late Sir George Martin reminiscing in front of the tapes at Abbey Road, talking about his favourite moments and technical wizardry. The Beatles will tell the stories behind some of the songs.
And then, we’ll move on to hearing some of the new mixes, plus play some of the never-before-released out-takes that are being released along with the new version of the album.
This is a day in the life anyone remotely interested in The Beatles won’t want to miss. A Splendid time is guaranteed for all, and with these new mixes, even though it didn’t seem possible, Pepper after all these years is getting better all the time.
So hopefully, with a little help from my friends, I’ll be here at 1 Pm Eastern on Thursday. If by chance it turns out not to be possible, I’ll post here about rescheduling.
Looking forward to listening to these incredible new mixes with you. They’re guaranteed to raise a smile.