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Beatles in Mono: Sgt. Pepper Lives, At Last

Roger Friedman
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There’s nothing simple about what the Beatles are releasing today. You may feel like there’s a lot of studying to be done, in fact, in order to understand it all.

Basically, there are two box sets: one in mono, one in stereo. This is because back in 1987, when the only set of Beatles CDs were released prior to today, the mixes were all screwed up. The stereo wasn’t true stereo, the mono wasn’t true mono. And, on top of that, the mastering ‘ think of it as shellacking ‘ wasn’t nearly as good is it is now.

The Beatles Mono Box Set is already sold out, but Capitol/Apple is going to make some more. In the meantime, what you can buy today is the Stereo Box Set. All the Beatles albums are now remastered in perfect stereo, not something created by “folding in” or “folding out” mono mixes.

Confused? I haven’t heard the stereo box yet, but I have heard the mono one. In particular, the mono box focuses on “Sgt. Pepper.” That’s because for reasons no one can explain, the guys only stuck around for the mono mix back in 1967, and never worked on the stereo one. Stereo was new then, and there were complications. The stereo version of “Sgt. Pepper” on CD which we’re all used to sounds fine, and a remastered version will sound even better. But the mono is another story.

The mono CD of “Sgt. Pepper,” from a listen last night, seems like the Holy Grail of all today’s Beatles releases. From beginning to end, it is a different experience. In the stereo CD (I’m using a U.K. reissue from a few years ago that has a slipcover and a fold out inside with album notes, of all things) it’s as if you’re looking at something through binoculars, but you have to look one eye at a time. The sound is separated, without much logic, so some of it is coming out of one speaker, and some from the other.

In mono, “Sgt. Pepper” is seen through the binoculars, but the experience is akin to making the two eyes come together. There is no separation. It’s all one picture. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” rocks. “She’s Leaving Home” and “A Day in the Life” are symphonic masterpieces. You can hear the carnival sounds as intended on “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.” For some reason, the stereo mix of “Fixing a Hole” has some weird, loud clapping. It’s muted in mono, where it should be. And in the stereo version of the “Sgt. Pepper” reprise at the end of the album, Paul cannot be heard at all. It turns out he’s singing loudly on the mono master. Who knew? I’ll bet even McCartney forgot.

So do order the Mono Box Set. Neither “Abbey Road” nor “Let it Be” are in it, because they were recorded only in stereo. But the box is a gem. And the stereo box? It’s going to be a must have, in order to replace all the 1987 CDs. In my collection they will be boxed up and put away. Not just a new generation will discover the Beatles, but the original fans are going to love hearing the best pop music ever as it should have been.

Kudos by the way to Jeff Jones, who took over the whole Beatles catalog of recorded music after the legendary Neil Aspinall retired. Neil was a purist, and was slow to make changes or fiddle with conventional Beatles wisdom. That was fine for its time. Jones, who came from Sony’s Legacy label, has done the impossible. The Beatles should be happy, especially Ringo. You can finally hear what a great drummer he is, and how he made these tracks singular, monumental achievements.

And oh yeah, Beatles Rock Star, the video game, is out today. But that’s another story.

Obama, Bill Clinton, Stars Say Goodbye to Walter Cronkite

Roger Friedman
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cronkitememorial Obama, Bill Clinton, Stars Say Goodbye to Walter CronkitePresident Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton were among those who paid tribute to Walter Cronkite today at the famed newsman’s Lincoln Center memorial service.

Avery Fisher Hall was jammed with media heavyweights and celebs who came to pay final respects and celebrate the life of Cronkite, who died last month at age 92.

Tom Brokaw, Andy Rooney, Steve Kroft, Morley Safer, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Bob Schieffer, Katie Couric, Charles Gibson, Brian Williams, Cynthia McFadden, Charlie Rose, Christiane Amanpour, Deborah Norville, Bernard Shaw, Bob Simon, Bryant Gumbel, Les Moones and Sir Howard Stringer were among the media types who either attended and/or spoke. Liz Smith was front-and-center, and I spotted 93-year-old Eli Wallach and wife Ann Jackson, as well as astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Tyne Daly, Nick Clooney (George’s dad and an old pal), Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas, Jerry Adler, Georgette Mosbacher, Robin McNeill, Ernie Anastos, Joe Armstrong, and Kerry Kennedy.

Of course, the entire Cronkite family was there, as well as Joanna Simon, Walter’s companion of the last few years, with sisters Carly and Lucy, brother Peter, and Lucy’s husband, Dr. David Levine.

There were musical performances by Mickey Hart, of the Grateful Dead, Jimmy Buffett, and Michael Feinstein. Cronkite got two special and very cool handmade awards from the folks at the U.S.S. Intrepid, accepted by his family.

Rooney, who was too overcome at Cronkite’s funeral last month to finish his speech, instead delivered a taped video tribute that was absolutely hilarious and poignant. Cronkite, who had a wicked sense of humor, would have appreciated his oldest friend’s salute.

There was also a New Orleans jazz send-off with Wynton Marsalis and a band of five marching up and down the aisles. They were in fine form, and lifted what could have been a somber mood into jubilant reverie.

Both Clinton and Obama stayed through the entire two-and-a-half-hour ceremony, each receiving thunderous standing ovations. Clinton told the audience that in 1998, when he and his family were on Martha’s Vineyard during the Monica Lewinsky mess, Cronkite offered to go sailing with him. Clinton recalled: “He said, ‘People might take pictures of us.’ ” Clinton paused, then added that that would not be a problem: “At the time, I could have done with a picture of me and Walter Cronkite.”

Schieffer — who called Cronkite “the most curious man I ever met” — told the best story, though: He and Cronkite managed to get an exclusive interview with President Gerald Ford, and in the process hoodwinked both Dick Cheney — then Ford’s chief of staff– and Barbara Walters. Walters was then on the “Today” show, and I was surprised that Schieffer said Cronkite considered her his biggest competition. Walters had already gotten a promised interview with Ford, but Schieffer and Cronkite went around her and fooled Cheney into a nine second on the spot interview that they used to lead off the news that night.

One thing I will say for CBS: They put their best foot forward with this memorial for Cronkite. It was letter perfect, classy and elegant, a fitting send off for their biggest news star ever.

Lost New York: More Artifacts from a Distant World

Roger Friedman
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I loved Joni Evans‘ piece in the Sunday New York Times about how the little things about book publishing have evaporated. You can read it here.’When I worked at Ballantine Books in 1983 we had one computer, set up in a small closet. It was made by Xerox and ran a program called Xywrite. In a short time it changed our lives. My cherished IBM Selectric II was starting to look like a relic.

Eight years earlier, at my first job ‘ during college ”we had something called a Quips machine. It had a telephone attached to it. You put a piece of paper in it, dialed the number of someone else with a Quips, and 18 minutes later the page went through to the receiver. By ‘83 they were called faxes, and the send time was cut in half.

Office equipment is not the only way New York has changed in that time. Back in those days, the city was dotted with bookstores, record stores, stereo shops. I had a routine, which I think was common, of stopping in the Doubleday shop on Fifth Avenue and 57th St. while waiting for the downtown bus. Four blocks south, on the opposite side of Fifth, there was another Doubleday, with a spiral staircase. A few more blocks south there was the beautiful, ornate Scribners, and Barnes & Noble across the street from it at 48th St.

It’s all a thing of the past now. The Kindle is here.

You would linger in book stores, and in record shops. This was before the Virgin Megastores, which are gone now, and around the time of Tower, which has also vanished. There was Sam Goody just about everywhere, and the Record Hunter. When it was LPs, you thumbed through rows and rows of them. When CDs came, there was the ooh and ah of what had been transferred, and the debates of vinyl vs. disc. Ha! It didn’t matter. Now music is compressed into our computers, the stores are memories. The big behemoths are closed, and now even the little shops ‘ like the Discomat on West 4th St. ”reside in dreams.

There aren’t many good landmarks to stop and browse in during a walk through Manhattan. That is, unless staring at shoes is of interest to you. How lovely it used to be to see which shops had which titles, whether in books or music. Very little was centralized or computerized. A clerk might have “to call the other store” to see if they had what you were looking for. There was no way to look it up. And so a walk home from work could be broken up by these little investigations. Wasn’t that the whole point of “the city that never sleeps”?

Carly Simon Will Serenade 9/11 Ceremony This Week

Roger Friedman
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‘

Getty photo

Getty photo

Good news: legendary soft-rocker Carly Simon has been tapped to perform at the 9/11 ceremony this Friday at Ground Zero.

Simon, with her band including kids Ben and Sally Taylor, will showcase a gorgeous, new acoustic version of her Oscar winning hit, “Let the River Run,” according to sources.

“Let the River Run,” coincidentally, is one of the tracks on Simon’s new CD, “Never Been Gone,” set for release on October 27th, on son Ben’s Iris Records. I just happened to listen to an advance copy of this album over the weekend ‘ it’s ten of Simon’s biggest hits reworked in a contemporary setting, with two new songs as well. It’s a great project.

Some of the re-done numbers could easily be hits all over again a la Eric Clapton’s “Layla” from his “Unplugged” album. They include “You’re So Vain,” “Anticipation,” “You belong to Me,” “The Right Thing to Do,” and a sensational new take on her original 1971 hit, “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard it Should Be.” (Simon has had more than a dozen top 40 hits but isn’t in the Rock and Roll you-know-what. What can we say at this point?)

Anyway, sources also say Carly and sister Lucy will accompany their older sister Joanna to Walter Cronkite’s memorial service this Wednesday at Lincoln Center. The Simons and Cronkites are old, old friends from Martha’s Vineyard. Joanna Simon Walker, who was recently widowed, and Cronkite were very close in the last couple of years, a fact that many credit to Cronkite’s good health and humor after his wife Betsy died.

Update: Neverland Trademarks Will Go to Estate

Roger Friedman
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We can relax a little.

I am told that the many trademark requests filed by Colony Capital for Neverland are not going to remain in their current state.

A source says that the Trademark filings will all be transferred to Michael Jackson’s estate. We will not be seeing toy guns or anything like the items listed in the item below with Neverland Valley Ramch.

It does sound as though Colony Capital’s efforts to exploit Michael Jackson in death are coming to an end. The Jackson executors ‘ John Branca and John McClain ‘ are taking firm stands on protecting Michael’s image and likeness, and his associated endeavors. There won’t be any “Heal the World” bandaids or “Remember the Time” alarm clocks either. No “Man in the Mirror” dressing tables.

Brad Pitt Drives “Basterds” to $100 mil This Week

Roger Friedman
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Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” has just crossed the $95 million mark and is heading toward $100 million before the end of the week.

This makes the Brad Pitt blockbuster the first $100 million movie for The Weinstein Company, which been in business for four years. By comparison, respected mini studio Focus Features ‘ releasing films since 2002 and home to the great Ang Lee ‘ still lacks a film that’s broken that magic number. (Although, the Coen Brothers‘ “A Serious Man” may be their breakthrough, you never know.)

For Pitt, “Basterds” is his 7th $100 million-plus film in this decade. The others include the three “Oceans” movies, “Benjamin Button,” “Troy” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” Brad’s done a lot better in the 00s than in the 90s, when it wasn’t clear whether he could “open” a film. His list of flops in that decade is long, including “Sleepers,” “Devil’s Own,” “Fight Club,” “Snatch,” “The Mexican,” “Seven Years in Tibet,” and “Meet Joe Black.”

Brad’s success shows a couple of things: that it takes longer for actors to hit their stride than actresses, and that he’s improved not only as an actor but in choosing the right projects.

Whitney Houston in at No. 1 with 300K-Plus

Roger Friedman
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Whitney Houston makes a triumphant return to the album charts this week at No. 1 in her debut week. Her album, “I Look to You,” sold more than 300,000 copies.

The final count is in, and hitsdailydouble reports a whopping 301,000 copies sold.

And just think: Next Monday and Tuesday, Whitney holds court on “Oprah” for two hours total. She’s on her way to 1 million in sales in less than a month. That’s quite an achievement for a singer who hasn’t had a new release in seven years, was considered “washed up” by gossip naysayers.

Houston can be proud of herself for what she’s done to recover from her personal problems. And then, of course, there’s Clive Davis, Larry Jackson, Richard Palmese and co. at Arista Records, Whitney’s trusted aide de camp Lynn Volkmann, sister-in-law Pat Houston and mom Cissy. It takes a village, after all. Now just think what Clive’s pre-Grammy dinner will be like this year!

Whitney has hits galore on “I Look to You,” but I still say, when they release Leon Russell’s “A Song for You,” it will trigger an avalanche.

Whitney has the jump on Mariah Carey, whose own new album is coming on Sept. 29 with lots of hits included. It’s too bad there aren’t any record stores anymore! What with the Beatles action and these ladies, there would certainly be traffic!

Neverland Owners’ Trademark Requests for Jackson Souvenirs

Roger Friedman
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Michael Jackson’s partners in his Neverland Ranch, Colony Capital LLC, have filed 20 trademark requests to brand the ranch for souvenirs with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

I do mean lots of souvenirs. Here’s a partial list of where Colony would like to see the Neverland name stamped. If they’ve forgotten something, it beats me:

Games and playthings, namely: plush toys, paper dolls, dolls and accessories, toy action figures, toy vehicles, toy cars, toy trucks, toy bucket and shovel sets, roller skates, toy model hobbycraft kits,’ musical toys, jigsaw puzzles, badminton sets, bubble making wand and solution sets, toy banks, puppets, toy balloons, yo-yos, kites, baseball bats, balls of all kind, play wands, board games, playing cards, and children’s games to play during travel; ornaments, and decorations for a Christmas tree; sporting goods, museum services- namely: operating a museum in Michael Jackson’s former home and providing tours thereof; providing theme park services; entertainment services, namely: live shows and events; tennis and golf resort services; recreation and sporting club services; organization of meetings and conferences as well as clothing, footwear, headgear, and printed matter, namely: post cards, holiday/greeting cards, art prints, art reproductions, bumper stickers, stickers, decals, tissue/giftwrap, printed tickets, posters, wall calendars, flags and pennants of paper, printed and paper emblems, brochures, catalogs, and merchandise bags; books, namely: non-fiction books about Michael Jackson, activity books, address books, appointment books, coloring books, picture books, and comic books; paper and paper articles, namely: photographs, stationery, memo pads, notebooks, envelopes, pencil sharpeners, pen and pencil cases and boxes, pens, pencils, erasers, rulers, paper weights, staplers, binders, notebooks, stationery consisting of writing paper and envelopes, memo pads, writing tablets, paper table cloths, paper napkins, paper coasters, and paper mats; money clips, and in keeping with Michael Jackson’s theme of peace ”toy rockets, toy guns, toy holsters.

Got the picture? The requests were made on August 12, 2009. Sycamore Valley Ranch, which made the filings, is the joint venture of Colony Capital LLC and Michael Jackson. Of course, the problem with at least some of this is that the town of Los Olivos, California, where Neverland fills 2,900 acres, is against the ranch being turned into a Graceland-style museum. The road that leads to Neverland is a country two lane blacktop that runs through horse country. A private school sits across the street from the Neverland entrance.

Colony has invested over $50 million in Neverland so far. They probably figure they’re going to make their money back somehow. Of course, they don’t seem to realize that Jackson had parted company with Neverland in June 2005 and didn’t want to go back. And that there are many associations with the ranch, including police raids, searches for evidence and pornography. Jay Leno is probably getting Back to School jokes ready right now.

But Thomas Barrack, who owns Colony, lives in the county and sources say he is pressing on the local government to give him what he wants. Whether or nor he succeeds remains uncertain. In the meantime, I think they should make Neverland into a Playmobil Playset where the gates open to find zoo animals, rollercoasters, and several Rolls Royces and Bentleys. Featured characters could include Colony’s Tohme Tohme, Bubbles the Chimp, Shmuley Boteach, and Tatum O’Neal.

The, er, attempted selling of Michael Jackson continues.

(A tip of the hat to michaeljackson.hu)

Neverland NOT Sold, Certainly Not to Designer

Roger Friedman
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Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch has not — NOT — been sold to designer Christian Audigier. It still belongs to Michael’s estate and Colony Capital LLC.

How did this story get legs? Audigier may have purchased the Holmby Hills estate where Michael died. At least, he’s telling people he did. When Jackson died, Audigier — which is French for publicity vacuum — took huge billboards out in L.A. saying goodbye to Michael. He’s gone on TV proclaiming that they were good pals and working on a line of clothes together in secret.

Whatever.

Anyway, Audigier — who’s responsible for the pedestrian Ed Hardy line of clothes — has not, however, bought Neverland. The 2,900-acre ranch remains as is, awaiting some decision from the Jackson estate and Colony about what will happen. In all likelihood, it will be marketed next year and sold off. There’s nothing left in the house. It’s all gone.

Meantime, Michael’s brother Randy has issued some kind of statement complaining about news organizations that tried to film Michael’s funeral on Thursday night. Randy says it was a private family affair. And of course, it’s being sold to A&E for profit.

Other observations from the funeral on Thursday night: Rebbie Jackson would not go anywhere near her father, Joseph, and as such ceded her monitoring of Michael’s three kids. Janet Jackson shepherded the kids through the service.

Beatles Dominate Charts, 40 Years Later

Roger Friedman
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Amazon.com is listing not one or two but seven Beatles albums in its Top 20 CDs.

Is it 1969 or 2009?

The CDs — the first remastered since the original Beatles digital discs were issued in 1987 — won’t be released until Tuesday. The next day — 09/09/09 — is officially Beatles marketing day as the group’s “Rock Band” video game is launched.

But for those of who, god forbid, don’t care much about video games but are audio-centric, Tuesday is the day. Amazon’s listing right now has Susan Boyle’s unreleased album at No. 1, Whitney Houston’s comeback at No. 2, and then the Beatles — “Abbey Road,” “Sgt. Pepper,” “The White Album,” “Let it Be,” “Past Masters” and “Magical Mystery Tour” have squeezed out the new Jay-Z album and several other new releases. Coming up fast behind them are the rest of the Fab Four’s catalog: “Rubber Soul,” “Revolver,” “Meet the Beatles,” etc.

What’s going to be interesting about all this is that the whole Beatles catalog comes out on Tuesday individually and also in two boxed sets — mono and stereo. Beatles purists want their music in mono. Capitol already released mono versions of the first four albums on CDs a couple of years ago with the stereo versions. But fans will be expected now to disregard all that. That’s easy since those mixes apparently weren’t from George Martin’s original tapes. These are. Like most Beatles fanatics, I’ve preordered everything.

So get ready for an avalanche of Beatlemania. And lots of Beatles radio play. How utterly sad and ironic that Sony/ATV Music Publishing is enjoying boom times now that partner’Michael Jackson is dead.

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