Giles Martin did a superb job in re-mixing/re-mastering “Sgt pepper” and “White” from the original individual track tapes into 24-bit reissues. Notably, he used very, very little noise reduction to preserve the sonic fidelity.
No doubt he did an equally masterful re-mix/re-master on Abbey Road - currently available as a 24-bit/96khz download at HDTracks.
I am really conflicted as to which is the better album — St. Peppers or Abbey Road. Both were superb in my book.
But I’d say I am partial to Sgt. Peppers. As one writer described it: Its kaleidoscopic approach to record-making – layer after layer of instruments and voices piled on top of each other until it all blurs into one colorful explosion – would become a marker and pattern for everything that came after it. In many ways, it still hasn’t been topped.
For me, Abbey Road will always be connected to my first Florida-FSU game as a student. The game was three days after the album release (in U.S.).
That week some student organization was raising money by selling orange and blue kazoos at a kiosk with a banner that read, “Kazoo FSU.”
Walking into Florida Field, I could kazoos playing Orange and Blue. Thousands of us fledgling kazooists (?) then helped the Gator Band play the national anthem and the alma mater. If you haven’t heard that sound, your musical experience is incomplete. Kinda hard to keep playing while laughing uproariously.
By halftime the student side figured out you could speak a certain phrase starting with ‘F’ through the kazoo (a phrase that didn’t contain ‘Florida’).
By Sunday morning in the dorm, Abbey Road (now out for four days) had connected with the kazoos. For the next week, my dorm was filled with kazoo versions of Abbey Road songs (OK, maybe not She’s So Heavy). Here Comes the Sun was clearly the best fit.
After a week, the wax paper reeds started to wear out and the dull roar of dorm life returned. I was tight with the cafeteria ladies and they gave me wax paper to repair my kazoo. By then I remembered The Boys had used an actual kazoo on Lovely Rita and became an extra Beatle.
Beatles Forever, Baby!