920 E ROOSEVELT RD
WEST CHICAGO, IL
60185
thewcsocialclub
@gmail.com
AN EATERY, BAR, PREMIER LIVE MUSIC VENUE, AND EVENT SPACE
Fri, Nov 01
Sun, Nov 03
JELLY ROLL
AND PENTAGRAM
Thu, Nov 07 Fri, Nov 08
WAX PLUS BOY
BAND
REVIEW
STRUGGLE
JENNINGS
UBI
of CES CRU
AND
LANCE
SKIIIWALKER
Sat, Nov 09
Wed, Nov 13
DITCHWATER
PLUS
OUR BROKEN
VIEW
WITH
FATE SHIFTER
AND
LEFT TO REASON WOLVES AT
THE GATE
PLUS
MY WITH
EPIC
COMRADES
AND
MY EMPTY
Fri, Nov 15 Sat, Nov 16
VAN HALEN TRIB
DIAMANTE DIVER
DOWN
Wed, Nov 20 Fri, Nov 22
DOOBIE
GENITORTURERS
PLUS
DJ HYLYTE
AND
KRASH MINATI
Wed, Nov 27
Sat, Nov 23
EMO/POP PUNK TRIB
LED ZEPPELIN TRIB
LOUDER
NOW
KASHMIR
coming Feb 22
AMERICAN ENGLISH
www.thewcsocialclub.com
#
facebook.com/TheWCSocialClub/
20 illinoisentertainer.com november 2019
One Sweet Dream: The Beatles Abbey Road
50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Box Set
By Jeff Elbel
A
s with the 50th anniversary edi-
tions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts
Club Band and The Beatles (aka The
White Album), any fan could argue that this
new mix of Abbey Road is unnecessary.
Some may go as far as saying that tinker-
ing with the Fab Four’s last-recorded stu-
dio album is sacrilegious. If you’re happy
with your old vinyl or early CD, no one
can fault that. For those who enjoy digging
deeper into the Beatles legend, however,
this anniversary set is marvelous and reve-
latory. For this review, your humble scribe
made comparisons to a clean 1995 LP
pressing and the 2009 CD remaster (a
major overhaul itself).
Giles Martin and Sam Okell used
George Martin’s original mix as the blue-
print for their makeover. In his accompa-
nying essay, the younger Martin admits
that the album sounded “pretty great
already.” You won’t hear a wildly different
version of Abbey Road. What you will hear
is more clarity, detail, and bandwidth with-
in the songs you’ve always loved. Imagine,
perhaps, that the change is like hearing
Abbey Road in the control room at Abbey
Road Studios, rather than listening to
Abbey Road on the AM radio of the white
Volkswagen parked outside on Abbey
Road (check the cover photo).
The differences in “Come Together”
from the 2009 master aren’t dramatic,
although Ringo Starr’s left-handed drum
fills in Lennon’s refashioned Chuck Berry
tribute have unprecedented presence and
body – as does George Harrison’s slinky
guitar solo. Paul McCartney’s bass during
John Lennon’s brooding “I Want
You/She’s So Heavy” sounds like some-
one lifted a heavy blanket from the amp.
The guitars aren’t so thin, and Lennon’s
desperate vocal bites harder.
Abbey Road was the album where
George Harrison emerged fully from the
shadow of the Lennon/McCartney team as
a songwriter. There’s a compelling argu-
ment that Harrison’s lush and romantic
“Something” and the sparkling “Here
Comes the Sun” are the album’s best
tracks, and stoked anticipation for his tri-
umphant triple album All Things Must Pass
that arrived a year later. With this mix, the
acoustic guitar shimmers afresh through
“Here Comes the Sun” while Harrison’s
tremulous tenor drips with melody. The
biggest liberties taken are balancing the
soundstage, moving the lead vocal to the
center, and smoothing out the brittleness
that formerly characterized the bass and
toms. “Something” sounds glorious. It’s
familiar, but every detail is more lifelike.
George Martin’s orchestral support and
McCartney’s mellotron are more distin-
guishable without being more intrusive.
In addition to the main album, the
Super Deluxe set includes a Blu-ray disc
with high-definition audio and a surround
mix. Two further CDs feature session out-
takes. Among these is “The Long One,” a
previously unreleased version of Abbey
Road’s side two medley of catchy song
fragments that leads with McCartney’s
gliding “You Never Give Me Your Money,”
visits Lennon’s snarky “Mean Mr.
Mustard,” and concludes with “The End.”
“The Long One” features extended musi-
cal breaks differing from those on Abbey
Road, and an altered sequence.
McCartney’s “Her Majesty” makes medley
in this version, setting up Lennon’s brash
“Polythene Pam.”
The Super Deluxe set’s 100-page hard-
bound book features a foreword by
McCartney, photos, essays, and track-by-
track examinations of the music. A repro-
duction of Harrison’s lyric sheet for “Here
Continued on
on page
page 41
48
continues