Stamp Out The Beatles

I want to voice my misgivings about the soon-to-be-released boxsets of The Beatles: one in mono, one in stereo.

The Beatles In Mono is "limited," though EMI will not say definitely to what extent, and lists for $299. The Beatles In Stereo lists for $259.

Now, I don't know what economy EMI are living in right now, but I would not even consider buying either one of those for anything near that price. I would consider, say, $75 for each.

For those of you asking "why mono?", The Beatles' monophonic mixes differ greatly from their stereo counterparts, and have been unavailable since late 1968.

Let me give you an idea of how outrageously priced these sets are. Recently, there was a boxed set of the 13th Floor Elevators titled Sign Of The 3 Eyed Men released on the tiny International Artists label. Here's a video of all its contents:



Lovingly compiled by long-time fan and biographer Paul Drummond, the sound is as good as it's ever gonna get for these guys. Previous CD releases have sounded comparatively horrible. It is absolutely limited to 4,000 copies. The cost? US$158 including shipping (it ships from the UK). Knowing a thing or two about manufacturing and shipping, I would assume that a corporation as monolithic as EMI would be able to finagle a more reasonable price than, say, International Artists. The cost to EMI for manufacturing and shipping each boxed set ain't anywhere near three hundred bucks, limited or not.

So, I'm calling "bullshit" on EMI's extortionary prices and so should you. No way would John Lennon or George Harrison endorse these practices. They'd be listening to the 13th Floor Elevators boxed set. They really would.