First now let me tell you about my original copy of The Beatles No. 0441033. I was at Cornell November of 1968 and working part time at Record Runner, a record store in "Collegetown", defined as a small area adjacent to the Cornell campus.

Imagine Beatle fan disappointment in America upon buying this record, which was the follow-up to Sgt. Peppers.... The cover art was tacky as were the masks on our heroes, with whom we'd grown up.

Klaus Voormann's cover alerts fans that Rubber Soul's bucolic country acoustic phase was over, replaced by a harder, electric edge and if the boys didn't exactly wear their dark shades comfortably on the back cover they surely did in the grooves.

The sound is flattened against the speakers, hard, two-dimensional and generally hash on top, yet it does have a few good qualities as CDs often do: there's good clarity and detail on some instruments. The strings are dreadful and the voices not far behind. The overall sound is dry and decay is unnaturally fast and falls into dead zone.

First, in general, it's too bad the producers didn't pay as much attention to the albums as they did to the book that accompanies the box. It's superb and in fact my EMI contact told me the box was delayed more because of the box than anything else.