Records, CDs and Music:

To say that November 22, 1963 is a day that has been burned into history is putting it mildly.

Not only was November 22, 1963 the day that The Beatles issued their second long-player in the United Kingdom, an album that truly ignited Beatlemania, it was also the day that President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Looking back it seems like such a weird juxtaposition of joy and terror. Kids in Britain were exploding with anticipation of the latest Beatles release while people in the States were greeted with a tidal wave of horror and disillusionment that sadly has permeated the political and social landscape to this very day in my opinion.

How odd to have the candle of youth and vitality and hope distinguished so brutally by the winds of change (and an assassin) whilst in another breath the youth of the 1960s was galvanized by four lads from Liverpool that took the mantle of hope that JFK represented and began breaking down barriers socially and politically which led a generation on a quest for meaning and a desire for personal freedom.

Heady stuff certainly. And certainly low these sixty years later that powder keg of excitement and vitality that was lit by the music on “With the Beatles” still reverberates with all the energy and power it possessed on that far away day in November.

As a second generation fan who was born in 1966, it was ironically the early Beatles and the “Meet the Beatles” album (the American version of “With the Beatles”) that drew me toward the group and made me a fan.

I distinctly remember walking around the record section of a local Sears store in 1975, yes Sears sold records back then, and spending about an hour gazing at the cover of “Meet the Beatles” and “The Beatles’ Second Album” while my mother was shopping and being transfixed by images on the covers.

By this time in 1975 long hair was the norm yet their was still something different about these guys. They had an aura of excitement and yet an oddness that reached out to me even twelve years after these songs were originally recorded.

I had never seen this unique mixture of cool and strangeness (the suits and long hair was weird to me in 1975) plus there was just a magnetism that leap off of these record covers that drew to discover what the music was inside.

Shortly thereafter a few weeks later I received both albums, courtesy of my grandmother, and thus began my life-long love, some would say obsession, with The Beatles’ music.

Sure I was already familiar with The Beatles hits like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You”, both on these records, but the pure power and force of Lennon’s vocals on songs like “It Won’t Be Long”, “You Really Got a Hold on Me” and especially “Money (That’s What I Want)” were even by 1975 standards so gutsy and vital that I had to hear more.

In the next few years I obtained most of The Beatles US albums followed a few years later by the British pressings. As they say it was the beginning of it all for me as far as my love of The Beatles music was concerned. Because I started listening to the early Beatles first I never felt like a second generation fan as I was discovering their music almost in order of release and marveling at each new twist and turn their music would make on the later albums.

So even after listening to “With the Beatles” and its US cousin “Meet the Beatles” for well over forty years myself I still find the music on them fresh and vital and something that stands outside of time for me.

So in celebration, above and below are some photos of the favorite issues I own of the “With the Beatles” album. The tattered and well-loved copy mono of this album pictured here is a first issue UK mono copy that I found in a flea market in the early 1980s and the first original UK pressing of any Beatles album I ever owned.

Despite the cover looking like it has been chewed up and spit out the vinyl itself sounds great and beyond a few pops and clicks retains all the energy and power as the day it was bought in the UK back in 1963.

There is a slight skip on “Roll Over Beethoven” but I have read that these first 1N copies (the number stamped in the matrix on the inner groove of the record) had this same skip on some or most copies so it was quickly withdrawn and redone. I see no visible scratch on any of the tracks on this album so I’m guessing it was one of the bad copies from this first issue.

I’ve also pictured my first CD pressing of “With the Beatles” that was made in West Germany plus my favorite stereo version of this album on CD the SHM-CD mini-lp version made in Japan.

And last but not least I have a photo of my favorite sounding US pressing of “Meet the Beatles” as this US version of the album was the start of Beatlemania in the States after its release in December of 1963 on Capitol Records.

Anyway, so happy 60th anniversary to one monumental record and to one of my all-time favorite records not only by The Beatles but by anyone.

Take some time and reflect on or maybe discover some of the truly wonderful music that’s contained in this album and maybe you can find a minute or tow of pleasure that will take you away ever so briefly from the troubled world of 2023.

As usual take a gander at the photos above and below and until next time I hope you are healthy and well and have a most Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow if you’re reading from this somewhere in the United States.

See you soon!