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The Beatles - Unsurpassed Masters Volumes 1 & 2 (Original Mono Mis-Mastered Pressings)(Remasters Workshop)

Track listing:
Volume 1
  1. Besame Mucho 2:33
  2. How Do You Do It 1:54
  3. There's A Place (Tk 5 & 6) 2:18
  4. I Saw Her Standing There (Tk 6-9) 4:49
  5. Do You Want To Know A Secret (Tk 8) 2:04
  6. A Taste Of Honey (Tk 6) 2:08
  7. There's A Place (Tk 12 & 13) 2:23
  8. I Saw Her Standing There (Tk 11 & 12) 3:35
  9. Misery (Tk 2-6) 4:50
  10. From Me To You (Tk 1 & 2) 3:26
  11. From Me To You (Tk 8, Edit Pieces 9-13) 4:00
  12. Thank You Girl (Tk 2-4) 2:14
  13. Thank You Girl (Edit Pieces 7-13) 4:02
  14. One After 909 (Tk 1 & 2) 4:13
  15. Hold Me Tight (Tk 22-24) 4:00
  16. Don't Bother Me (Tk 11 & 12) 3:50
Volume 2
  1. A Hard Day's Night (Tk 6 & 7) 4:30
  2. Leave My Kitten Alone (Tk 5) 2:50
  3. She's A Woman (Tk 7) 6:23
  4. I Feel Fine (Tk 6 & 9) 5:27
  5. Yes It Is (Tk 1 & 2) 4:15
  6. If You've Got Trouble (Tk 1 Rs 1) 2:45
  7. That Means A Lot (Tk 2) 2:29
  8. Help! (Tk 1, 3 & 5) 3:51
  9. Norwegian Wood (Tk 1) 1:58
  10. Day Tripper (Tk 1-3) 6:21
  11. We Can Work It Out (Tk 1 & 2) 4:28
  12. 12-Bar Original (Tk 2 Rm 1 Acetate) 6:50
  13. I'm Looking Through You (Tk 1) 3:11

Notes

THE BEATLES
UNSURPASSED MASTERS Volumes 1 & 2
Original mono mis-mastered pressings
Remastered Edition
RMW 678 / 679

In 1989, Yellow Dog made its first impression on the world with the release of the groundbreaking "Unsurpassed Masters" series. Except that the first two volumes were mis-mastered. Instead of being excellent quality stereo, they wound up pressing an unknown (although fairly large) number of these discs in noisy mono, using only one of the stereo channels on both tracks. They were made aware of this, and at some point, distribution was stopped while the situation was rectified. The discs were remade and redistributed, along with new artwork that read "Previously available in mono only - NOW IN STEREO" on the back. This may be the only case in history of a bootleg having been withdrawn and reissued.

A collector kindly supplied new EAC extractions of these first two CDs and scans of the artwork. Examination of the sound files shows that, as with everything that Yellow Dog guy has ever released (even under all his pseudonyms), everything was at the wrong speed and out of phase; track markers were placed in odd locations after the track had started, and there were large areas of blank tape with thumps from the tape machine starting and stopping before and after every track.

It was our aim to preserve these now-rare editions for posterity. Rather than trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, we have opted to leave all the warts in, and just correct the pitch and levels and redo the track markers to start at the beginning of a tape segment (not necessarily at the beginning of the music). The only other difference is that the acetate of "12-Bar Original" has been declicked. No noise reduction was used, it's all still there.

ffp file and artwork are included.

Special thanks to Philippe.

Enjoy!