REMIXING ABBEY ROAD: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

The heritage rock industry is dominated by ‘boxed set’ re-releases of iconic rock albums from the ‘60s and ‘70s, with all manner of enticing add-ons thrown in: session outtakes, previously unreleased live tracks, original tracks remastered, sometimes remixed and sometimes even enhanced with new overdubs. Of course, it all comes packaged with spectacular artwork, hitherto unseen photos, new essays, interviews and more. There have been boxed sets by Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Beach Boys and many more. The Beatles have joined the melee but their boxed sets have become more controversial than most because their albums have achieved iconic status; making any changes brings to mind the proverb about repainting the Sistine Chapel.

Here we are in 2019 with three massive boxed sets to date, marking the 50th anniversaries of Sgt. Pepper’s (2017), The White Album (2018), and Abbey Road (2019) respectively. Great packaging and session outtakes are par for the course, of course. The controversial bit is that repainting has indeed taken place, in the form of remixing the original album tracks in Pro Tools. Screams of ‘sacrilege’ have been muted, however. Reactions from fans and critics alike have been overwhelmingly positive and this obviously has to do with the quality of the remixes, which were conducted by producer Giles Martin (son of George Martin) and engineer Sam Okell.

SERGEANT PEPPER’S...

Following the release of the Anniversaryin May 2017, Giles Martin explained that the impetus for the remixes came in 2015 when he and Okell were invited by the remaining Beatles to make 5.1 remixes of the tracks on the 1 album (a compilation of The Beatle’s number one hits) that had music videos. In the process, Martin and Okell also did stereo remixes that were received with all-round applause. This, said Martin, “gave us the confidence that we could successfully remix .”