Where's the Mono Box?

[TMinthePM]

Have been listening to the new Rolling Stones Mono Box for two weeks now...whew, excellent.

And earlier this year digging into the Beatles Mono Box, finally..what can I say - those early albums had balls.

Now I need to hear the Beach Boys 60's catalog restored.

[branaa09]

We have Mono and Stereo on both Discs from Surfin' U.S.A up to Smiley Smile. We aren't going to get a Mono or Stereo box set because, Capitol has no interest in it. That is fine by me. We have both Michigan Concerts on the way from 1966. I'm sure 1967 is going to have some awesome stuff!

[sea of tunes]

I hear you on the Beatles in Mono. That's one of the best box sets ever released. Along with the Dylan mono box.

As far as the Beach Boys go, the 2015-2016 Hybrid SACDs, released by Analogue Productions (Acoustic Sounds) are the best sounding Beach Boys' the digital domain. The mono mixes on those discs are the original, un-tampered with article. Mastered with care by Kevin Gray.

Surfin' Safari
Surfin' USA
Surfer Girl
Little Deuce Coupe
Shut Down Volume 2
All Summer Long
Today
Summer Days and Summer Nights
Beach Boys Party
Pet Sounds
Smiley Smile

http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=results&searchtext=beach%2Cboys&CategoryID=4&LabelID=507

It's hard to imagine these ever being bested.

[TMinthePM]

Wow, where was I when this happened? Oh, yeah, I was in China.

But where are Wild Honey, Friends 20/20, the Concerts and random singles and B-sides?

[Rocky Raccoon]

We have Mono and Stereo on both Discs from Surfin' U.S.A up to Smiley Smile. We aren't going to get a Mono or Stereo box set because, Capitol has no interest in it. That is fine by me. We have both Michigan Concerts on the way from 1966. I'm sure 1967 is going to have some awesome stuff!

Plus the Stones box was a bit of a cheat.  It's a convenient way to have all of their 60s albums in one box but a lot of the songs included on the box were never even mixed in mono to begin with so there are a lot of fold-downs including Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed which the liner notes acknowledge are both complete fold-downs, save for "Sympathy for the Devil".  So why even include those in the box?  Who wants to listen to bastardized stereo when you can hear those albums in actual stereo?  To be fair, the set sounds good nonethless but it's still a little weird that it's being advertised as the Stones as they were meant to be heard when clearly that is not the case.  Also the mini LP reproduction sleeves were cheaply put together and mine were already falling apart when I bought it.  Nothing some glue can't fix but not ideal either.  To quote George Harrison, "Beware of ABKCO."

[MikestheGreatest!!]

Clearly no commercial potential for a BB's Mono box, or it surely would have been done by this late date.

[HeyJude]

I plan to finish the SACD Kevin Gray-mastered set sooner or later.

But beyond that, I have no interest in purchasing the old BB albums again unless they're presented in individual deluxe sets with mono and stereo (both where applicable) along with at least one disc (and many sets could easily justify several) of bonus tracks (b-sides, outtakes, demos, etc.).

No more partial reissue programs that leave random albums out.

No more boxed sets with no material we don't already have.

The Capitol reissues (and/or previous two-fers) and the AP series on SACD collectively cover almost everything in mono and stereo.

I'd love a very clean-cut approach instead of having to piece together multiple reissue programs. But I'm just not going to pay for another huge set that has nothing new on it. And BRI and Capitol don't seem to be interested in stand-alone releases of nice outtake packages (the "Copyright Extension" stuff doesn't count), so I think "Deluxe" sets for each album that gather everything together would be ideal.

Then, on top of that, targeted outtake sets and boxed sets (physical or at least via digital download) of studio and live material would be welcomed as well.

[jiggy22]

Wow, where was I when this happened? Oh, yeah, I was in China.

But where are Wild Honey, Friends 20/20, the Concerts and random singles and B-sides?

Can't speak for Wild Honey, but I believe that Friends (aside from the title track) and 20/20 were never mixed into mono.

[DonnyL]

Wow, where was I when this happened? Oh, yeah, I was in China.

But where are Wild Honey, Friends 20/20, the Concerts and random singles and B-sides?

Can't speak for Wild Honey, but I believe that Friends (aside from the title track) and 20/20 were never mixed into mono.

Mono mixes were released for "Friends", "Wake the World", "Little Bird", "Do It Again", "Bluebirds Over the Mountain", and "Never Learn Not to Love". The original single of "Do It Again" was technically a fold-down (from a lost stereo mix), making the "stereo" version (as it appeared on 20/20) a rechanneled version of a mono fold-down. The others are unique mono mixes as far as I can tell.

[jiggy22]

Wow, where was I when this happened? Oh, yeah, I was in China.

But where are Wild Honey, Friends 20/20, the Concerts and random singles and B-sides?

Can't speak for Wild Honey, but I believe that Friends (aside from the title track) and 20/20 were never mixed into mono.

Mono mixes were released for "Friends", "Wake the World", "Little Bird", "Do It Again", "Bluebirds Over the Mountain", and "Never Learn Not to Love". The original single of "Do It Again" was technically a fold-down (from a lost stereo mix), making the "stereo" version (as it appeared on 20/20) a rechanneled version of a mono fold-down. The others are unique mono mixes as far as I can tell.

Forgot about the singles, thanks for the info! It's interesting to hear the original 20/20 version of "Do it Again" was in mono, while the "Workshop" sound effects were in stereo. Pretty jarring to the ears!