With the (Purple Chick) Beatles

Recently, at one of my usual Internet haunts, I found a thread about the Beatles “Purple Chick” releases. Although this apparently isn’t anything real new, it seemed new to me. I couldn’t remember ever having heard about this.

Here’s the deal, as posted in the forum. This note comes originally from an article in Rolling Stone:

The Beatles' albums came out on CD in 1987, but fans have long complained that the early digital technology used to remaster the recordings left them sounding hollow and thin — and that the official remasters are way overdue. That's where Purple Chick comes in — a secretive fan (or group of fans) who has been quietly remastering classic discs like Revolver and A Hard Day's Night, and releasing the digital files for free online. How is this possible? The Beatles' CDs sound so bad that carefully digitized tracks from pristine vinyl copies are noticeably better — with crisper highs, a fuller soundstage, and more realistic reproduction of instruments and voices. And the Purple Chick editions are superior to the originals in other ways, too: The Sgt. Pepper collection contains the original record in mono and stereo, and four discs worth of studio outtakes; the White Album comes in a whopping twelve-disc version, including alternate takes, studio chatter, demos and fascinating jams.

As a starting point, I downloaded With the Beatles. I’m pretty much a non-audiophile with non-audiophile-type listening devices, so I didn’t pick up on any noticeable differences. However, those in the know insist the Purple Chick recordings are far superior. I don’t know if you’ll be able to tell from these few songs I’ve posted or not. The full files are available from several different sites if you look a little. Drop me a note if you absolutely cannot find them and I’ll try to point you in the right direction.

She Loves You.mp3 single version
It Won’t Be Long.mp3
One After 909.mp3 outtake
All My Loving (Hi-Hat intro).mp3
I Want to Hold Your Hand (Anthology mix).mp3

Labels: classic rock, outtakes, rereleases

posted by aikin @ 9:06 PM