Guess I'll have to buy the White Album again

After years of wrangling and internicene indifference among the surviving family of the Beatles, and the last two Fabs themselves, it looks as if Apple (no not Apple. Apple!) are putting the back catalogue on iTunes. I had the White Album on vinyl. Twice. I sold the first one, with all the colour photos tucked in the sleeve, when I was a hard-up student. Then the first Mrs Weasel somehow kept hold of the second one. Someone I know had it on Eight Track, but I never seemed to get a cassette. I hated cassettes. Of course, then, I got the CD. All in all, not counting Abbey Road, Sgt Pepper, and the rest, I must have bought the albums several times over. Of course, should you be gullible or desperate enough to buy Beatles material as iTunes, strangely, you will not be able to share them like an album, or make a good quality copy or play it on anything but an iPlayer.

So, let me get this straight. You used to have vinyl. Vinyl was magic, because you could play it on any old piece of crap, practically a knackered Dansette, and it would still sound great. If you were flush enough to have a Linn or Goldring Deck and a good amp and speakers, it sounded like you were sitting on the fret of George's 1957 Les Paul.

Cassettes. Cassettes are like women with little tits. Cute but ultimately depressing.

So why did my CD of the White Album sound terrible? Somebody out there must know. The remasters sound a bit better, but are compressed so they sound like everyone's done acid and helium at the same time. We have had CDs since about 1985 and as far as I am concerned they are a bit of a step backwards, quality wise. Why pay twenty grand for a posh stereo if your source is still several bits short of a bite. Like running a Bentley on lighter fluid.

But I digress. Apple, the popular digital shit company, want to sell it to us again and charge album prices for bugger all but a bit of binary, that they still own. Well, sod them. If you know where to look, you can do that for free. Know what I mean? And you can play it on anything you like.

Let's face it, the Fab Four and their offspring are well sorted for money. Why give more to that screaming nut-job, Mrs Lennon? Why fill Steve Jobs trousers? They are far too tight already.

No, I will not be buying the White Album yet again, but I know where to get it, and I hope that one day, somebody will discover a way to make it sound like brand new vinyl.

Meanwhile, here's a DRM free track for you. Connisewers will discern that it is not the White Album version, but hey ho, couldn't be arsed to upload it from the CD.