Ess Ay Cee Dee wrote:The hell with the US albums. Here's what I'd like to see...
They need to take the complete contents of the 22-disc CD Singles Collection and reconfigure it into a nice little 2-disc set. They wouldn't even have to remaster it. There's no way in hell I'm going to pay $100+ for the box, but I would buy a 2-disc version in a heartbeat. I can't imagine that they've sold too many copies of that overpriced box in the last 10 years, but I can guarantee that they'd sell a shitload of "Complete Singles" double-CD's.
As far as the US stuff is concerned, I think a 2-3 disc collection of all of the unique tracks would do the trick. I have zero desire to buy all of those craptacular Capitol sets all over again.
I really have no desire to hear any of this stuff at this point. That said, in the early 90s, there was a brief period in which you could find the singles on 3" CD for about a buck each, once the music industry figured out that the CD-3 was a lousy idea. I managed to pick up all of them in the cutout bins without really trying to. I dumped most of that collection on ebay. (But I threw out the long boxes as soon as I purchased them -- sorry about that, collector scum!)
If the Beatles weren't such money-grubbing bastards, they could easily make a complete singles/EP set, ala the Rolling Stones
London Years (that one I do like to hear), and solve the problem once and for all. Won't ever happen, though -- not when there are so many SDMEtv types who WILL go gaga over $40 Japanese mini-LP sleeve versions of
Something New. I can hear it now: "Oooooooh I just sent Red Trumpet a thousand bucks for the preorder of the first four Capitol Cee Dees from Japan! They've got mini-LP sleeves! They have obis!!!"
[Dig the irony here: Apple in the 21st century is far more exploitative and greedy than, uh, Allen Klein's ABKCO.]
And a month later, when these things are available domestically with the exact same mastering, they'll be arguing that, "no no no, the Japanese mini-LP versions really do sound better! Just check out the echo in the second chorus on 'Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand' and listen to the sploodge, splash and pookwoojoo on the hi-hat.... If they sound the same to you, you better check your equipment."
Ultimately, who cares how they sound? They cost me $90 each and they have OBIS!!!
