Sgt. Pepper poll

[GoogaMooga]

I am playing the 2CD anniversary set of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a new stereo mix by Giles Martin. Sgt. Pepper should be heard in mono, but I still got this set for the bonus disc. I also think the double A-side of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" would have fitted nicely on the original 1967 album, the two songs don't feel intrusive at all, tacked on as they are as the last tracks on the bonus disc. Anyway, here is a poll on your Peppery listening habits.

[robertff]

Don't really care Googa, I've got versions of them all and like them all, it's Sgt Pepper's for goodness sake.

Nevertheless, at the time everyone wanted stereo - stereo was the big thing and that's what I wanted when I first got the album and that's the one I'm most familiar with.


.

[GoogaMooga]

Don't really care Googa, I've got versions of them all and like them all, it's Sgt Pepper's for goodness sake.

Nevertheless, at the time everyone wanted stereo - stereo was the big thing and that's what I wanted when I first got the album and that's the one I'm most familiar with.


.

I had it on vinyl in my youth, in stereo, but when the mono masters box was released I bought it without hesitation.

[Matt Wilson]

Mono

[The Slider]

The original stereo mix is fine
So that.

[Charlie O.]

Stereo, but I understand why some folks prefer the mono - I like it fine myself.

There are aspects of the remix that I like, but I find the bass really obtrusively loud 'n' boomy, and the whole thing sounds a bit overcompressed to me.

And Revolver just might be better, but I'm voting "stereo" anyway.

[The Slider]

^ that

[C]

Sorry Googs - I got bored with this album well over 50 years ago

They made far better albums





.

[Quaco]

I'm going to go with the Giles Martin stereo mix. The original has always seemed a bit strange to me. Mono was better, more impactful. The GM version seems to have the best of both worlds, and finally made it the full-color experience it was always meant to be (or that it's always been touted as). Like its forebear Pet Sounds, it's an immensely ambitious album hamstrung by the technology at the time. If ever an album cried out for eight-track recording, it's this one. (But the almost-as-ambitious S.F. Sorrow a few months later sounds stronger.)

Then again, I only listened to the GM version once, was impressed, and immediately shelved it. One is so used to the album that one doesn't really hear it when it's playing, so a new version is the only way to hear it for what it is. I appreciated that, and put it back for another 20 years!

[BARON CORNY DOG]

I grew up with the stereo version and, at some point in my late teens, began to hear mumblings about a mono version and its alleged superiority. This all seemed preposterous to me. Turns out, it was true. Mono transforms the record and makes it something different and better. It is more direct, has more force and punch. It rocks in a subtle and profound way. Of course, you have idiots like Jimbo who think it's only psychedelic man if the sound is separated enough for a dullard to imagine something extra far out, and I guess I understand the principle. Which is why the Giles Martin mix is a good idea. Like Q, I listened to it once or twice and concluded it was a good compromise, preserving the heft of the record while also delivering something swirly.