I could not find a open thread so I had to start one . I'm trying to find the best copies of american fool ,Uh-Huh , scarecrow . I picked up american fool with a yellow top on the cd with Riva made in the usa and Scarecrow same yellow Riva made in west Germany . Went on ebay and noticed these came out on those atomic pressings . Is there a sound difference and which "Uh huh" should I look for ? Thanks
I think all of John's 80s CDs, sound best on their original US editions, the exceptions is ''The Lonesome Jubilee'', for that one i prefer the 2005 remaster. The original ''both US and Germany'' always sounded too thin to me, the remaster is fuller sounding, and has a bit more punch to it, the music just sounds more alive to me.
Polygram probably used the same mastering between plants (US PDO). Agreed on Lonesome. The US Precision lp isn't much of an improvement. I should check out the 2005 if it isn't modern compressed to death
I agree with Jackson, except that I have no issues with the US Jubilee. Big Daddy (especially) sounds really nice. I got the MoFi Scarecrow for free as a promo, so I can't voice an opinion on that vs the US.
I have all the original releases. I'd stick with those for the 3 you mentioned. The remasters were the first time I became aware of the "loudness wars", so I'd avoid those, especially with the originals being pretty easy to find.
I agree. The original US pressings sound great to me and they are cheap on eBay. However, I would love to hear the MFSL of "Scarecrow".
I don't know why, and maybe it's just me, but the remaster of L J doesn't sound as loud/compressed as the other remasters. I've mentioned this before on the forum, for those interested in the best sounding Scarecrow on vinyl, the 2016 RSD release is the way to go.
I have the following W. German CD of Scarecrow: To my ears, this disc sounds fine, if perhaps a bit bass-shy, which some EQ'ing can help, plus it includes "The Kind Of Fella I Am" as a bonus track. The latter song was why I chose this CD over the LP, which I believe may have been a Robert Ludwig mastering, like my copy of Uh-Huh (this sounds great, btw!). I don't actually own American Fool at the moment, but I do have a very similar looking Riva CD of Mellencamp's John Cougar album, which was actually made in the USA at PDO, and I expect should sound comparable to its W. German counterpart. For American Jubilee, I opted for the vinyl, so cannot speak to any CD editions. Hope this helps!
Odd that this thread popped up. Today I bought this from a flea market. John Cougar* - American Fool The disc is the standard red and silver one Mercury used in the 80s. Haven’t tried it yet.
I lucked out on this one , got it used for a couple bucks , same copy with the bonus track . The amercian fool looks the same as above but made in the usa . Now I just need Uh-huh , Is the west germany the best or first usa would be the same ? Has anyone ever compared the japan cds for these ?
Ha, you learn something every day! I never realized that "The Kind OF Fella I Am" was a bonus track. I guess I've only owned the album on CD, and it's always been on the one I had, bought in the early '90s. I don't remember any indication that it was a bonus track. Is it on all CDs and cassettes, but not on any vinyl, or is it more complicated than that?
I believe "The Kind Of Fella I Am" was a CD only bonus track, as it does not appear to have been featured on any cassettes I'm aware of, at least stateside. Interestingly enough, the cassette version presented the LP tracks in a slightly different order, swapping "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." for "The Face of the Nation" as being the last songs on Side 1 and Side 2 respectively, so if you have the CD you could program it to play in that sequence instead, which I've never actually tried. BTW, I learn new stuff here (almost) every day too! I haven't compared Mellencamp CDs of the same album, but can say that my silver-to-center "Made in USA by PDO" of John Cougar has a fairly similar sonic signature as the W. German Scarecrow pictured above, so my best guess is any differences between these should be negligible. While I realize this thread is asking about CDs, if forced to choose one format over another, I'd probably go with vinyl for all of these, particularly those titles featuring "Masterdisk RL" credits in the deadwax, and including The Lonesome Jubilee (a belated correction here to my prior post erroneously calling it "American Jubilee"). Thanks for asking!
I've got the yellow RIVA West German for USA version of American Fool. I assume it came later than the "atomic" version.
I looked and it's not the same, but very close. Final DR was same, but some slight differences in a handful of tracks. I doubt I have the ears to differentiate between the two.
I think I have an oddball pressing that I can't even find on Discogs. Mine looks the same as this except it's a Canadian pressing with a record club number on it. D144512. Also has slightly different mastering to the ones on the DR database.
I have Scarecrow and Lonesome Jubilee. I love both. He's no poor man's Springsteen, he's on his own league
I just picked up Scarecrow atomic CD for $5. I didn't realize how good this guy is. It will get heavy rotation in my house.