By Terry Ott

Old reliable Steve at AbbeyRd has once again the scoop on the Apple poop for 2005.

It seems that the Capitol Albums Vol. 2 is on hold for well into 2005, but before we see that, we may see a redux of Beatles 1, except this time it will be 2.

Now the only logical quibble I have with the 2 concept is that very few Fabs' songs did not achieve number 1 status, at least here in North America. (I seem to recall one instance in the UK where a Beatles song was denied the top spot by Englebert Humperdink's Please Release Me!)

So obviously, the complilation would have to be heavily stacked with album tracks, which I guess will be good in a way because we will FINALLY get some post 1964 remastering done.

Oh, and I can't wait to read all the wankings of what tracks should and should not be on the set.

Apple is a never ending grinding machine that turns out product for what seems like neither ryhme nor reason, so I guess what will be on the 2, will have to do.

After all, they know the fans will buy anything.

Hope you all had a Merry Crimble, and enjoy a very gear new year.

Well, as Archie Bunker once said, oh Lord, the Christmas season is once again at our throats.

I'm sitting here listening to all of the crazy Beatle Fan Club Christmas messages, and for recordings made some 2 months before Christmas between 1963-9, I'd say the lads caputured the spirt quite well.

Too bad that Apple STILL has not seen fit to give these recordings a legit release, but wot the 'ell, give extra thanks to the booters at X-mas time when you hear them.

And, don't foregt to join me on Dec. 24, from 4-5PM EST on www.900chml.com, where yet once again, I will be dispensing Beatle cheer, as well as the usual talk about their trousers.

If you have never heard these Beatle Christmas meanderings, you really MUST tune in to hear how the Fabs' were so far above most of us first gen fans, way, way back in the big Beatlemania years.

So, as my people like to say, Merry Crimble, and a nappy New Year.

And of course, all you need is love.

Major kudos to Ms. Yoko Ono.

I just opened up my copy of the December 20, 2004 New York Times, and there in the front section, is a full page ad replicating the famous War Is Over ad campaign from 1969.

Can't believe that somehow 35 years have slipped by since John Lennon and Ms. Ono first plastered the message on billboards in select cities in United States and Canada and the event garnered worldwide media attention.

Yet here we are in 2004, and the message is just as important-even perhaps more so-than it was in December of 1969.

Many then, and now, condemmed the John and Yoko message as too simplistic, or even childish, but I think in the simplicity is the wisdom. War can only be made by man, and can also be stopped only by man, if you (we) want it stopped.

Giving peace a chance can't turn out any worse than what we got.

I ripped my copy of War Is Over out of the paper and posted it on my wall.

And I suggest all of you get a copy, and do the same.

If any of you out there in Beatleland need any more proof that Apple is just about rotten to the core, look no further than the Capitol Albums Vol. 1 set, and what I like to call "Spizergate."

Well known Beatle author Bruce Spizer says that he was retained by Capitol records as a consultant and he proceeded to prepare a nifty little booklet or insert for the box set, utilizing the incredible wealth of Capitol records knowledge that Bruce has accumulated in his many, many years of Fabs' research.

But according to Spizer, at the last minute the rocket scientists at Apple decided in their infinite unwisdom to deep 6 Bruce's contribution, for as yet, fully unexplained reasons.

(Bruce said in an e-mail that it would have taken too long to get (Apple) board approval for his booklet, but I still think the whole thing was a wanking on the part of Apple.)

Now of course I am not privy to any of the machinations of the deal between Spizer and Apple, but even if it was about money or whatever, Apple should have bit the bullit and bought Bruce's notes, because they are exactly what the box set is missing.

Bruce has been providing the sharp looking booklet at a cost of only $3, for any fan so inclined to mail him a request.

And Apple can make this thing right by making nice with Bruce and including the notes in all future manufactured box sets, and in so doing, create another "must have" for completist fans.

Plus when it comes to Vol. 2 and 3 or what have you, Apple should be on the phone to Bruce right now and make damn sure that his input is included on all new box sets from here to eternity. (Bruce says he will be providing Apple/Capitol with notes for all future release in the series, but as of now, it appears he has not been promised anything.)

At least that's what I think about Spizergate.

When the Capitol Albums Vol.1 set was first reported last August-and I broke the story in the print media in Canada for the Toronto Sun-I expected most, if not all of the fifth estate would be rarin' to talk about release and what it meant to Beatle fans here in North America.

Boy was I wrong.

The reaction in the Great White North to the Capitol albums has been lukewarm, to say the least. The Toronto Star, Canada's largest circulation daily, has so far not even run a review of the set, and when the Sun went with a rather subtle put-down of the package last week, I really wondered why.

The United States media seemed to be all over the release, with many, many print articles including the New York Times, and Beatle author Bruce Spizer even yaking up the box set on CNN.

Somehow, the fact that over 20 songs would be appearing in stereo for the first time on CD, and remastered with 21st century technology, seemed to go over-or under-the heads of most Canadian arts page editors. Maybe it was the cheesy packaging that turned off the Canuck papers, or perhaps they just didn't "get it."

After all, they all-or most of 'em-took the bait a year earlier with the Let it Be...Naked hullaballoo, yet this time it was like, yawn, so what?

Believe me, I tried hard to sell many of them on the story, but eventually struck right out, as even the Sun review-which I had hoped to do- was done in house, by a reviewer that was un-impressed, and said so.

I'm not saying that the Cap Albums Vol. 1 is the greatest thing since, well, whatever, but I still think it deserved more of a shot than it got in Canada.

Maybe the Canadian media would sit up and take notice if EMI Canada released the 3 unique Canuck Beatle albums as part of a set. But I'm not holding my breath on that one.

So I will be back on the radio-www.900chml.com-on Thursday,Dec. 16, from 4 to 4:30PM EDT, trying to make sense of why the set sort of laid an egg up here, as well as the usual talk about their trousers.

Hope you can listen in.

Was beamed up-or is that down-by that old inter-galactic wizard, Mirror Spock today.

And as I type, I am listening to his German Metal Master edtion of the White Album.

Without further poo-poo, I will say that this WA is absolutely the BEST sounding edition of the WA, bar none.

In fact, it is hard to se how EMI- when they finally get around to it-can top this effort on a regular audio CD. (Obviously a Super Audio or DVD-Audio 5.1 mix should be tops of the poppermost, but that eventuality is still way, way out there on the edge of space.)

The overall sound of this MS GMMWA is very smooth and warm, and the bass is the most tight I have ever-ever heard for this album.

And do yourself a favour and have a listen with headphones;you will hear things you never even knew exsisted-including barely audible mutterings from various Fabs and George Martin- on this now, 36 year old recording. (On the downside, you may also hear a few slight "clicks" from the vinyl transer, although none too troublesome.)

As for packaging, the 2CD set comes with nicely reproduced artwork from the original release, cheeky insertions of the MS Vulcan Boy perched atop the Apple logo on the discs themselves, and speaking of insertions, a very, very cheeky (and other) John Lennon Bag One doodle that may make ya blush.

My only mild critique is that the front cover-a repro of the original plus the Pressung 'Weiss' DMM logo-is a bit faded, but maybe that rascally MS gave me a second, saving the best for you, the fan.

So, this sucker gets my highest recommendation.

As I've said numerous times before, MS, you is a genius!

But how about a super-duper mono version?

As John Lennon himself might say: well, well, well.

Just can't believe that 24 years have passed us by since that awful, early winter night in New York City when an inspiration to an entire generation was snatched from us in such sensless and tragic circumstances.

John Lennon had just turned 40, was riding the crest of a hit single and a new album, and was already working on the follow up, as well as thinking about getting back out on the road in 1981.

Instead, he was violently cut down, ironically by a "fan" who had professed originally to love the Beatles, and the works of John Lennon, but who had then come to see Lennon as a "phony."

And oh, how I wish to God that I didn't have to write this piece today, or any other day that I have tried to put my thoughts in order for an event that was perhaps second only to John F. Kennedy's death in importance for the Baby Boomers.

Sometimes, I still don't believe that it happened. The dream, really is over.

After all, it was the realization of the Beatles worst fears from the touring years-that they would be shot by some right wing zealot and/or nut-and for it to come to pass after John had put so many things behind him and was really looking forward to a new decade and to making new music and perhaps shaking new foundations, just don't seem fair-for lack of a better word.

So I will borrow a few from a reader who said, "I just really miss him."

As do we all.

(You can hear me talking about John today at www.900chml.com, from 4-5PM EST.)

So I finally picked up the special issue of Rolling Stone that has a list of the proposed top 500 rock songs of all time.

Now everyone knows-or should know-that these lists are usually designed to provoke debate, and have been also known to be quite fluid through the years, I have to say that I think it was a mistake to rate the "best" Beatle song, Hey Jude, at number 8, whilst listing the "best" Rolling Stones song, Satisfaction, at number 2.

I don't even think that Satisfaction was the "best" Rolling Stones song, as Get Off My Cloud and Jumpin Jack Flash may have been more worthy contenders.

Put that with the listing of Yesterday-which was not even really a Beatles song-at number 13, and, well, you get the idea.

Although the Fabs had the most songs on the list with 23 tunes, I say leaving A Hard Day's Night, or even Help out of the top 10 or even 20, makes the RS list out to be sort of bogus.

I have no quarrel with Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone coming in at number 1 as it is a truly great piece of pop/rock, but the Beatles best tracks, should have been nipping more closely at his heels.

Another strange occurence is the personal "best" list compiled by Beach Boy Brian Wilson. For a guy that has been widely quoted as saying he composed each album with the intent to best the Beatles, not having one single Fabs' song on his top 10 is bogus also.

The single most energized year or there about's of rock music was the 1964-5 period, and during those 12 or so months, it was the Beatles that ruled with AHDN and Help and the RS list should have reflected that very important fact.

Well, I see that the Macca Madhatters may have been unleashed yet again after a San Fran newspaper columnist opined that if Paul McCartney thought playing the Super Bowl was the biggest show of all, then perhaps Macca may been struck one too many times on the head, with Maxwell's Silver Hammer.

I'm sure that a lot of the same nuts who pester me whenever they sense a transgression to their beloved PM, are right this minute doing the same to the columnist who dared use a little cheek to make a point.

Actually, today I come not to bury Paul, but to praise Him for his new gee-just-in-time-for-Christmas coffee table book, Each One Believing.

I checked it out in the local bookstore today, and I kinda liked it-not enough pay $48 however-but I would certainly be pleased to have the publisher send me one, at which time I would give a detailed and careful review.

Yet suffice to say, a quick flip through the pages led me to believe that book was actually worth looking at, and even perhaps reading.

Lots of great pix and even big words.

However, if Sir Paul thinks this is the "biggest book of all time," then I say he should go back to being a Paperback Writer.

The End

NB: Would everyone who sent an e-mail regarding this column please resend. I had them all swallowed up by my PC.

"Their first album took 20 minutes to record. Their second, even longer."

Ah yes, we are of course talking about the trousers of Dirk (McQuickly), Stig (O'Hara), (Ron) Nasty and Barry (Wom).

The Pre-Fab Four of lore, a musical act and cultural phenom that will last at least a lunchtime, etc.

You know I always did-and do now-feel sorry for those Beatle fans who just do not "get" the Rutles, somehow thinking that the Ruts were disrespectful of the real Rutles, otherwise known as the Beatles, when in fact eveyone knows that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Eric Idle and crew created such an incredible likeness of the Beatles, that for me at least, it is sometimes tough to seperate fact from fiction.

For instance, in those Hollywood Bowl tapes that I wrote about in BB258, any clunker notes from Stig, er, George Harrison, are funny because true to form, the Rutles early playing would invariably have those sour notes, just like in real life.

And it was such a drag when last year the sequel to All You Need Is Cash, Cant' Buy Me Lunch, sort of fizzled before it got rolling, and we haven't even had a video release of what I am told is a pretty hilarious film.

Plus you know what I like best about the Rutles? Every single one of 'em is still with us, unlike the real Fab Four, of which only two remain.

For that, I remain, stunnned. Very stunned.

PS: if you think the Rutles are funny, get a load of this: ex-PTL'er Tammy Fay Bakker-Messner announced on Larry King Live tonight that in the new year, she would be teaming with Ringo Starr, for some singing. As always, truth is stranger-and funnier-than fiction.

Stunned. Very stunned.