When I was around twenty years old I lived in a three bedroom townhouse with my brother. We rented the third bedroom out to a friend of ours. Now, my brother and I were both music fans, rock and roll and the blues. I believe I’ve mentioned previously that our record collection approached 1500 LPs. Our roommate at the time also had a pretty extensive record collection though it was mostly music I wasn’t interested in. He had one record though that I treasured – the 45 single of The Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back,” which to me is Michael Jackson’s signal achievement as a recording artist (along with “Billie Jean”, perhaps his only one). The record was loud, in your face, crackling with excitement. It captured a sound I’d rarely heard before – I thought it was one of the greatest pieces of rock and roll ever recorded. I listened to it over and over and over again.
Then the roommate moved out, which was fine with me, but he took the record with him. No problem. I thought, let me just buy a Jackson Five compilation LP. Which I did. I put “I Want You Back” on the stereo and waited to hear that enormous sound come wash over me. Except it didn’t. The enormous sound was gone. The record sounded like it had been recorded through a muffler, one designed to drain all the excitement out of the recording, to smooth out all the jagged edges. The verve was gone. The record was dull.
It didn’t take me long to figure out the problem. The original 45 that I loved so much was an original recording, in mono. The compilation LP had been remastered in stereo. Hence the difference. Stereo remasters of songs originally recorded in mono drain all the life out of a song. Early rock and roll, including rock in the 1960’s, was meant to be heard in mono, i.e. on AM radio. The producers knew that’s where the songs were headed so they recorded the music with that in mind. Rock and roll’s ultimate destination was a transistor radio and the producers did all they could to ensure the music sounded alive, exciting, immediate through that medium. Stereo remasters take sandpaper to those recordings, then throw a blanket over them. I realized then that much of the music I had been listening to had that blanket thrown over them. I went back to listen to a lot of the records I had from my childhood, original mono recordings, and realized that, scratches and all, the sound was better, more immediate, more alive, than the stereo remasters of songs from the era. I’ve been acutely aware of the differences between mono and stereo since.
That is why I am so excited about this. EMI is about to reissue all The Beatles original albums in both stereo and mono, take your pick. My pick is clearly mono. Now, if any band in history was meant to be heard in mono, it’s The Beatles. The enormous sound George Martin produced for them was perfect for AM radio, as history has proved. Most of what I have of The Beatles are remastered stereo recordings, except for those five or six original release albums I bought as a child. Now, I’ll be able to listen to the entire catalogue in exhilarating, ear-popping mono. Read the entire article about the mono release in the Washington Post Style section by Peter Kaufman. It’s great. He explains much better than I the virtues of mono.
I’ve already told my wife what I want for Christmas this year.
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