Love

The word to my supplier is that the U.S. market will get only 5,000 copies of this limited edition, vinyl version of the amazing Love album. If that's really true, I'm very lucky to have got my hands on any at all! If you haven't heard of Love, or haven't heard any of its tracks yet, I can testify that in many cases it's like hearing this music again for the first time. That may sound like a commercial, but unless you are a total Beatles purist, I guarantee you'll feel the same way I do about it: It's simply a wonderful gift to Beatles fans who haven't had any new John, Paul, George, and Ringo in nearly 40 years now!\r\n

So, what is the Love album, and how did this two-LP set come to be? Here's a brief semi-official summary:

The project came about when Paul and Ringo, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, approached legendary producer Sir George Martin about making experimental mixes from their master tapes. Actually, Martin says that the concept was born several years before when George Harrison and Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, began to explore the possibilities of a collaboration between Cirque du Soleil and the Beatles. Out of that vision, Love was born. Martin and his son, Giles, have created a completely unique soundscape. Says Martin: "My brief was to create a soundscape of around one and a half hour's length using any sound I needed from the original Beatles multi-track recordings. It was an offer one could hardly refuse."

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If you like your Beatles tunes precisely as they were originally released, you may not like Love. On the other hand, if you'd like to hear how some Beatles tracks fit like a glove into others, or if you'd like to hear bits of some tracks stripped of a few of their layers... or with new layers from other tunes added in... in other words, if you're curious to see how some of these songs might have been mixed differently with still stunning musical results, you'll be ready to celebrate!

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This is a beautiful 2-LP set (still sealed), pressed on top-quality, 180-gram vinyl, with a full-LP-sized, 28-page booklet full of Beatles photos. And of course, it's got music, too... 26 songs in all:

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1. Because
2. Get Back
3. Glass Onion
4. Eleanor Rigby
5. Julia (Transition)
6. I Am The Walrus
7. I Want To Hold Your Hand
8. Drive My Car/The Word/What You?'re Doing
9. Gnik Nus
10. Something
11. Blue Jay Way (Transition)
12. Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!/I Want You (She?'s So Heavy)/Helter Skelter
13. Help!
14. Blackbird/Yesterday
15. Strawberry Fields Forever
16. Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
17. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
18. Octopus?'s Garden
19. Lady Madonna
20. Here Comes The Sun
21. The Inner Light (Transition)
22. Come Together/Dear Prudence
23. Cry Baby Cry (Transition)
24. Revolution
25. Back In The U.S.S.R.
26. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
27. A Day In The Life
28. Hey Jude
29. Sgt. Pepper?'s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
30. All You Need Is Love

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