I posted about this album back in August, when the 40th anniversary of the front cover shot was taken. Back before music was thought of as a product, before the cover, liner notes, disc and even the recordings were considered parts, this iconic album was created. Today marks the 40th anniversary of its release. So much has been said about Abbey Road in the 4 decades since its release… by The Beatles, George Martin, musicologists and of course, fans, that it’s hard to imagine a new perspective. It’s been analyzed, criticized, and hypothesized over – for the music as much as the symbolic artwork. However, I recently read a great article on Musicradar.com which gives a fascinating track by track perspective on the creation of the album – from the point of view of Geoff Emerick, Abbey Road’s engineer. Among the highlights in the article, the extraordinary revelation that it was the first Beatles album to use 8 tracks in the recording process – especially when you look at what was created before Abbey Road – Let It Be, Sgt. Pepper’s, the White Album.
Abbey Road is among a handful of albums I’ve had in my collection for the majority of my life, and is among a handful of albums that I go back to constantly. I’m not necessarily looking for anything new – it just continues to reward me with every listen. So I was excited to tear the plastic off the re-mastered version and listen to it fresh when it came out three weeks ago. It’s rewarded me already in the first couple of listens. There’s more there than before – clarity, the drums are more resonant – even more swampy in places, the guitars sharper, there’s more depth in the vocals – as if that was ever an issue! The purity of Abbey Road aside, this remastering reminded of how lost Apple’s (the label) strategy has been in digital distribution and even mining the catalog for CD re-releases or reissues. While the combined sales of the albums in the US, since the remastered releases on 09.09 is now about 2.25 million, I would question the opportunity cost – how many potential sales have been lost over the last decade – both in physical CD sales and digital download sales.
As I said, Abbey Road is among a handful of albums I return to constantly. Consider another of those, Miles Davis’s Kind Of Blue. I purchased it on vinyl, wore it out and purchased it again. I purchased the CD when it was released. I purchased the “pitch-corrected” version when it was released. (CBS and Sony had discovered that the original mastered version had about a 3% error in playback speed on the tape machines which altered the pitch of the music – stuff like this happens!). I purchased a “gold standard” version when it was released, then a second replacement copy of the now standard “pitch corrected” version with extra tracks. If a new version were released tomorrow – I would probably buy it as well. Miles did alright by me with that disc – but then it’s Kind Of Blue. Here’s another – John Coltrane – Live At The Village Vanguard. Vinyl, a couple of volumes worth. CD – once, twice, then an Impulse re-release earlier this decade. Somewhere along the line, a second copy of that same disc because I was traveling and wanted to hear it, and copies of the extra sessions when they were reissued. And lastly, the beautiful Complete Live At The Village Vanguard package. Both the Davis and Coltrane albums have been given respectful treatment worthy of their stature, not just in jazz, but in recorded music. Furthermore, both have these albums have been available as digital downloads for at least 5 years.
The Beatles were one of, if not the last contemporary artists to have their catalog released on CD, in 1987. That was the only time the original albums were released – no reissues of those original 12 in 22 years. It was also, in 1987, the second time that I bought Abbey Road. Once previously as a vinyl album, then that once as a CD. That’s it… not much for an album of Abbey Road’s stature. It’s been a great value for me on a per listen basis – I would imagine I’ve listened to this album more than all combined listens to the Coltrane and Davis albums, and several others I’d consider core (a topic for another post). It’s not a great return for the Fab Four. I would have bought Abbey Road every 5 years given the opportunity and appropriately updated versions. 22 years without a remastering or repackaging is an eternity in the music business… especially given the prestige of those original 12 albums (Apple did release the Red and Blue, #1s, #2s etc. discs in the intervening years). And during those years, catalogs of their contemporaries, have been turned over countless times – many deservedly… many given more repackaging than they were necessarily due.
When I was licensing content for MediaNet, I used to keep an alphabetically sorted spreadsheet of exceptions – artists who had not made their content available for digital distribution, and their repertoire. We had a real problem with the EMI and the B’s. Beach Boys, Beastie Boys, Garth Brooks and The Beatles. EMI couldn’t get any of their content cleared. Eventually The Beach Boys and Beastie Boys did agree, around 2004. Garth Brooks did a Walmart exclusive. It’s 2009, and The Beatles catalogs are still not available as download purchases. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison solo works – all available. So the strategy behind holding back The Beatles’ albums digitally seems (like the delay in remastering) out of touch given their cultural impact and commercial success.
Fortunately, the medium, or lack thereof, doesn’t detract from the message. The magic of Abbey Road is, and remains preserved in the music – as extraordinary now as it was when it was released 40 years ago.
