Terry Ott on the Capitol Albums, Vol. 2 release

from the Toronto Sun

Capitol Records has some diehard Beatles fans grumbling - again.

When Capitol/EMI first released the Beatles entire United Kingdom back catalogue nearly 20 years ago, long-time fans in Canada noticed that the UK Fab albums were not the same as the ones they grew up with. So, in 2004, Capitol remedied the situation with the release of The Capitol Albums Vol. 1, a remastered CD boxset containing four of the group's first five original North American 1964 albums: Meet The Beatles, Beatles Second Album, Something New, and Beatles 65. (The North American soundtrack of A Hard Day's Night is seemingly lost in the shuffle, at least for now.)

Some consumers complained the Cap mixes in that release were still lousy despite improved digital transfers, and sales peaked at a somewhat disappointing one million units, despite the obvious audio upgrade from 1987's sister releases in the U.K.

So, when word started to leak out earlier this year that Vol. 2 was in the works, and contained the remastered 24-digital-bit original stereo and mono mixes of The Early Beatles, Help! (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Beatles VI, and Rubber Soul, all in LP mini digipack form, expectations again ran high among hardcore Beatle freaks.

Until someone threw a spanner in the works. Beatles Internet forums and websites have been increasingly consumed with the rumour that the supposedly "unique" Capitol mono mixes were in fact, merely "fold downs," from the stereo mixes, making them, well, very un-unique.The Beatles spent much more time mixing in mono than stereo right up to 1968, so to have a stereo-to-mono reduction mix of Help! included in Vol. 2 - which was one of the first Fabs' albums to be recorded in four-track stereo - is something that would trouble serious Beatle fans.

Encyclopedic Fabs' fans were also upset when the first eight-cut promo samplers were released, containing the dreaded stereo-to-mono reductions on Beatles VI, and Rubber Soul as well as The Early Beatles. Fans identified this cock-up because they knew that the North American Capitol stereo mix of I'm Looking Through You, from Rubber Soul, had a unique false start found no where else in the Beatles recorded catalogue. When the false start showed up at the beginning of the mono version of the song in most of the sets manufactured and released in Europe and the Far East last week, the Internet community cried foul.

The rumours were true. Capitol remained silent until April 4, when it admitted its mistake - but blamed it on a "third party" - and explained that anyone buying a defective set could return it for a correct one and that the error was being fixed. Capitol would not say how many defective sets are out there, or even if the mistake will show up in the North American sets being released today.

To the average music fan, this may seem like much to do about nothing, but many Fabs enthusiasts are anything but average: some are even complaining that the Vol. 2 version of Help! will not have the colourful gate-fold cover as the original. Ouch!

While some fans are calling the whole Vol. 2 mess-up, well, "a mess," and "Rutle-like" - referring to the cult 1978 Eric Idle send-up of the Beatles, the Rutles, in All You Need Is Cash - AbbeyRd Beatles webmaster Steve Marinucci, on whose site the "drama" unfolded in recent weeks, has a slightly different take.

"As much as some fans want to blow up over this, it really is no big deal, in my opinion," said Marinucci. "It shouldn't have happened, but it did, and it was fixed. That's the important thing."

Terry Ott is a Hamilton, Ont. journalist who writes on the Beatles at http://terryott.blogspot.com.