NewsPaul McCartney confirms The Beatles’ White Album 50th anniversary release
Reissue confirmed • Demos will form part of the content
In an interview with DIY Magazine about his new album Egypt Station (published yesterday), Paul McCartney confirmed what was rumoured to be happening – a 50th anniversary reissue of The Beatles’ ‘White Album’.
Paul was asked if he had “finished preparing the 50th anniversary package” of the 1968 double album and responded by saying “It’s all in place, I’ve just got a couple of essays [to approve]. It’s all lined up and it’s really good.”
He went on to say that “The album itself is very cool and it sounds like you’re in the room; that’s the great thing about doing remasters. But we’ve also got some demos of the songs, so you get things stripped right back to just John’s voice and a guitar. You just think, how fucking good was John?! Amazing. We were just doing it; it was amazing. We were having a good time.”
The reissue is likely to be scheduled for November this year, to tie in with the 50th anniversary of the original release, so an official announcement from Apple Corps/ Universal Music could come as early as next month, although August/September is probably more likely.
How excited are you about the forthcoming reissue and what content would you expect or love to see as part of a super deluxe edition box set. Leave a comment!
Read the full interview over at DIY Magazine
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I can’t wait More for this great Beatles álbum… One of the best Ever!! Thanks Paul!
What i would like most is a clean intro to Dear Prudence without the fade out of Back in the USSR.
Look for the Beatles ‘RockBand 1967-70’ CD. It has a clean intro with a count in.
It would be nice to have remastered copies or the demos for the white album and any out take that are still in the vults unheard.
Maybe like with the original issue it could smell of apples when you open the box that would be great
I have the white album around 10 times already but there is always room for another Beatles album in my collection
I’m the same way i’ve got all kinds of white albums around but still can’t wait to get this release.
I have a original White Album that I’m selling. Are you interested?
Please don’t offer to sell people items on this forum. And other people don’t offer, either. From now on any comments that contain anything like that won’t be published.
If they possibly are able to release the son Goodnight with John singing it instead of Ringo, THAT would be the holy grail of this album as nobody has ever heard john doing it and he wrote it for baby Julian.
Simply, I can’t wait!!!!!!!!!! Love the White Album!!! White Album reborn!!
Hey, it’s The Beatles!
Looking forward to this 1968 masterpiece! Love “de luxe” box set; all the material is probably more expended and enriched with a lot of photographs and extra sleeve notes as well. Wondering how it will sound; especially George’s “while my guitar gently weeps”.
I still listen to, as soon as I’d seen photo’s of each (as I also have) I knew “The White Album”….Wonderful 50 years!!
This is great news!!! Cannot WAIT for the new release to go on sale!!!
Fantastic! I’m actually on the poster, on the Hey jude recording at twickenham film studios.
Oh, Man, I can hardly wait, I remember when it came out, I felt like it really was like a present to the fans, And loved Every Min of it, Yes, Even Revolution #9, in a whole new way of listening, just one more breakthrough, for The BEATLES …….
Be nice to have this edition with a proper photo book like the original Let It Be special edition, also a 4 LP vinyl edition with just the outakes! Let’s hope the Let It Be film gets re edited properly next year with the FULL rooftop gig…ah the rooftop gig also on vinyl wold be ace!
I would love to see the FULL rooftop gig as well on this 5oth edition. Looking very forward to its release! Exciting official news – straight from the horses mouth
As with the original release in ‘68, I’ll be counting the days once the release date is confirmed, and for me it’s got to be on Vinyl.
I hope they give this album a proper remix. And please take some chances and don’t fade every song out exactly where it did in the previous stereo or mono mix.
The Sgt Pepper Remix is outstanding, was so looking forward to the White Album REMIX, but if you read Paul’s comments, he says and I Quote, “The album itself is very cool and it sounds like you’re in the room; that’s the great thing about doing REMASTERS”. I really hope he misspoke, but I’m bummed at the prospect of a REMASTER and not a REMIX.
Yes that would be awful. A “remaster” would just have more compression added. I don’t think there’s anything else could be done to make the reissue sound any different. But a remix, wow, that could would just do wonders. But I would assume that Paul misspoke. Right??
Me too at already was remastered with all the other beatle albums and singles in 2009 so anything short of a remix like sgt pepper would be verry disapointing
Me too. I hope it’s a remix
This is going to be one of the great Beatles events that marks a truly wonderful record. I had my mono copy (156468) for Christmas 1968 when I was 15 and it still plays wonderfully. I bought the mono box set when it came out, and cannot wait for the anniversary issue, of course on vinyl with lots of extras.
I was born at the end of 67 and become a Beatles fan at the age of 15. They are amazing, the way the songs were put together, the lyrics etc.
I cannot wait to hear new versions of songs from the White Album…looking forward to Dear Prudence. Lets have more please Macca…how about Rubber Soul, Revolver, Help! etc
Hopefully Abbey Road box set next year!
Looking forward to this more so because it means Abbey Road will be next for the big box treatment. Bring it on!
Demos are from the sessions held at Georges house ? Lot of good stuff there then, possibly an early version of Jealous Guy.
Remix of Revolution No. 9 will quite certainly be excited :-)
Number NINE… number NINE… number NINE… number NINE…
All I pray for is if we do get a remix of the White Album, its Peter Cobbin at the helm and not Giles Martin.
Peter’s remix of the Yellow Submarine song-tracks were just phenomenal !
whereas Giles’s Pepper attempt was just a sort of (Paul) hit and (John) miss effort.
And by the way ,what happened to Magical Mystery Tour.
Sorry but YS songtrack remix is terrible. Hey bulldog or It’s All Too Much are quite unlistenable in opposite with 2009 remaster.
YS songtrack was a great remix; the problem is with the added compression (so everything sounds louder).
I totally agree with you on the Yellow Submarine remixes, stunning! I can’t believe that no one talks about it. I guess minimal marketing didn’t help much. I was disappointed in the Sgt Pepper remixes, but the outtakes and alt. versions made it worthwhile.
I am so looking forward to this release as it is my favourite Beatles album. A lot of people feel the original mixes are perfect, and while I admit that they are fantastic, the fact that there was so many people involved in the production, the sound varied throughout for better or for worse. A remix might very well make the album sound more cohesive as a whole. Bring it on!
Fully agreed!
Time to save up $200 [or equivalent!].
Would love to hear a 5.1 blu-ray! Some video footage of that period, too! Hearing “unearthed” material of The Beatles is so awesome. Can’t wait!
This could turn out to be a 10 disc set. You figure, 2 stereo CD’s, 2 mono CD’s, 2 in 5.1, 1 Esher demos, 2 outtakes and a DVD of some kind. $$$$$$$$$$
I hope they do one like the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band super deluxe edition that will be awesome
One question. How expensive will this be?
I would guess at around the £100 mark…
Dead excited, like i was at xmas 1968.
Can’t wait for this to come out – then maybe we can get on with an Anniversary release of Abbey Road in Surround Sound…
It does irk though that inorder to get the surround mix of Sgt Pepper last year (which could have been so much better – did Giles Martin hold back out of fear?), I had to buy the SDB. That said, the book inside is the BEST book I’ve ever seen in an SBD and that’s because of all the informative text. So many books are just boring old photos)
Hope this set is just as good for content: there ought to be twice as many discs as a minimum…
What’s SBD?
I think David meant SDE
Hi Res version too, please! Plus half speed vinyl remaster! Bring it!
First, it would be a pleasing surprise to not have these issued at prices some can no longer afford. Members of my family have purchased every commercial release, first on vinyl in the 60’s and 70’s (and a few replacements since they wore out), and the UK CD’s in the 80’s and the Capitol CD’s in the 90’s, and once again some 5 or 6 years ago as a new batch of remastered CD’s were released. Plus add the one shot we took with the Swingin’ Pig six volume bootlegs about 25 years ago and the official three volume bootlegs based on the American docu-series. Then the times we purchased McCartney’s stuff (all on CD except a vinyl copy of Wings Greatest in 1980 or so). These special edition sets with prices higher than $20 U.S. is too much, especially since every McCartney album (except for Band On The Run and Venus And Mars) didn’t have a such a collection of music that made us want to listen to everything twice. To say we grew up with The Beatles and then McCartney would be an understatement, but after 50 years, we’re listening less and don’t want to fork out big dollars anyore. We never cared for Lennon’s solo material (Mind Games could have been better if they would have toned down that screeching damn guitar), Harrison’s songs were few, Starr’s / Starkey’s songs were also few and why we went for greatest hits for those three. McCartney’s Band On The Run and Venus And Mars reissued deluxe editions for over $30 U.S. was ridiculous and not worth it. McCartney’s DVD video collection for $20 was worth it. Too bad we don’t get a remastered blu-ray of a set like that, but fear it would be $75 or higher.
A fair amount of WA demo and outtake material was officially released as CD1 of Anthology Vol 3 including some of the songs people are asking for such as What’s The New Mary Jane (which having heard explains why it was left on shelf!). Is there really much of great import we haven’t heard? I agree that the Sgt P box remix/remaster was impressive but apart from giving WA tracks a wash and brush up I’m a bit sceptical about this one.
Some surround sound should be a must I would say.
I hope the package will include the Esher or Kinfauns sessions (bootlegged as the Black Album), and a lot more outtakes and demos. Plus all the tracks that were passed over.
I’m looking forward to this one more than sgt pepper. I’d love to hear the long version of helter skelter, but i doubt that will happen. Also a “complete” set of demos, a complete set was mooted for anthology but Macca chose to keep his complete set in his archive, here’s hoping.
I was mostly satisfied with Giles’ remaster of Sgt. Pepper last year, but there were a few parts that were just too compressed (such as the intros to Mr. Kite and Good Morning), but other than that, it sounded great! So I hope The White Album isn’t too compressed in any spots. As for bonus songs I’d like to see on there, yes, demos are cool, but I really hope the outtakes get first priority, such as:
– Sour Milk Sea, not only the demo, but a mixed together version of the demo and the instrumental Jackie Lomax version which George, Paul, Ringo, and Clapton all played on. There are some decent fan-made versions online, so I can only imagine how awesome a professional mix would sound!
– Circles
– Not Guilty
– What’s the New Mary Jane?
(and of course)
– Hey Jude
– Revolution
50 years down the track and over 100 responses to the news and counting.
Impossible to describe how much “The Beatles” shocked and divided opinion at the time, and they are still doing it in 2018. Even their album sleeves were/are the source of much debate.
I think we should give a small thank you for their interest in The Maharishi for providing the circumstances that led to so many new songs being written. Without their Indian sojourn many of these songs would not exist.
Its not all great Beatle music, but its a good documentation of just where The Beatles were at the time of recording and for that we should mighty thankful.
I
Well said Steve, and to that I would humbly add my highest recommendation to a book “The Beatles in India” recently published by Paul Saltzman. This book which contains dozens of gorgeous colour photos, details their visit to Rishikesh in great detail. It’s a truly fascinating read which describes much of what led, as you said, to this wonderful album. How Donovan made a great impact on John is just one of the stories.
Niles did such a fantastic job on Pepper of COARSE I want to hear him remix the White Album. But truly the album that will benefit the most of his remixing skills is Revolver. The original (mono AND stereo) is mixed terribly. It sounds muddy to my ears and the drums are way too low in the mix.
Of COARSE (sic)… Get Niles (sic) to do one over on it…
An extended Beatles White Album would be superb, especially if there is a delux version incorporating:
* the original album + the additional withdrawn tracks (Not Guilty & Whats The New Mary Jane)
* the WA tracks from the Anthology album
* the unreleased remastered demos (remastered) as a bonus album
* Sour Milk Sea (remastered) & Dehra Dhun (Trident Studio version)
* any other outtakes
The Pepper box was so complete and satisfying; I expect great stuff with this!
It was pretty jam-packed, aside from the glaring omission of the 1967 stereo mix. Now, I know the mono mix is considered by many (including John Lennon) as the definitive version, but I would have preferred the 1967 stereo and the 1967 mono to the 2017 stereo. Just to put it into historical context. Nevermind… I have the 1967 stereo in the Stereo Box. Just a thought though…
I do hope John’s original demo of ‘Good Night’ has been found and will be included….
And how about a 50th anniversary deluxe of ‘Beggars Banquet’? I’ll say this for Apple: they’ve finally got things moving after years of lawsuits and legal wrangling. But ABKCO continuously sit on their goldmine and continue to disappoint Stones fans. Back to the Fabs though: and I am looking forward to a deluxe White Album. I expect there will be Kinfauns material and I hope there are variations on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ with alternate guitar work by Clapton.
Good point, Albert. I almost forgot… It would be fantastic to hear a snippet of Derek chatting to the Fabs during the recording of WMGGW.
I’ve got blister on my credit cards!
Thank you Ralph for that comment, you just made my day! LMAO!
There is no reason why a deluxe box set has to coincide with a specific anniversary (e.g. 40th or 50th) so a deluxe version of Revolver can be issued anytime. It’s just a nice marketing tool. The super deluxe edition of The Smiths The Queen is Dead was issued last year on the 31st anniversary of its release for example.
got enough beatles so couldn’t care less about another re-issue. i may be swayed if it’s all analogue and they keep giles martin away from it !
Would love to see a 2 LP picture disc with the 4 photos used on each side. Like the John photo on side 1, Paul photo on side 2, George photo on side 3, and Ringo photo on side 4. A white die cut gatefold sleeve would house the albums with the poster included in the package. Would also like to see Hey Jude and Revolution added to the album.
Eliot, there was such a double picture disc vinyl release about 5 or 6 years ago (although I don’t believe it was an official Apple release) of the White Album with image of John on side 1, Paul on side 2, George on side 3, and Ringo on side 4. The copy I obtained on e-Bay back in 2013 has a white single (non-gate-fold) outer sleeve that houses both albums stored in separate heavy gauge clear plastic inner sleeves, which allows you to see John, Paul, George or Ringo’s face through the cut-out square on the plain white glossy front cover, depending how you configure the albums in the sleeve. There was no poster or separate photo portraits of the Beatles included in the set like the standard White Album release. Likewise, there was also a double picture disc vinyl release of The Beatles 1 album showcasing the 1967 Richard Avedon psychedelic portraits of the Beatles on each side. The Beatles 1 picture disc album I obtained is gate-fold, and replicates the standard release right down to the inclusion of the large fold-out poster and picture sleeves. Sound quality on both record sets are very good, but have some audible surface noise inherent in picture discs.
Ah the white album…my 16 year old self ingesting things I should not speak of! But man what an experience to blow my mind with with John,Paul,George,and Ringo!
There are some challenges in creating a SDE of “The White Album”. An “Alternate Album”? A few of the songs (“Dear Prudence”, “Martha My Dear” & “Revolution #9”) have no alternate take. And, remember, the stereo “Revolution #9” mixdown was a unique mixdown “performance”. The mono mix was a folddown. To what extent can a 5.1 mix be musically identical?
Isn’t dear Prudence on the Esher sessions?
Include Esher demos, please.
I might buy it just for ‘Rocky Raccoon’. I love that song!
“C’mon, Rocky, boy!”
It was ultimately the 5.1 Blu-Ray that put me over the edge to buy the Pepper’s set. I would imagine this one will have the same. I do wish there would be 5.1 Blues for all the albums from Rubber Soul onward, but I’ll take what I can get I guess.
So true Bill!!!! The jewel of the Pepper box was the surround mix. It was very tastefully done, and, most importantly, you get to hear this great music without the hyper compression applied (to make it all sound louder). If you want it to sound louder, that’s what the volume control is for.