AF to do Simon & Garfunkel's Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

If Mr. Simon is so dead set against mono mixes seeing the light of day, then how did the mono mix of "Fakin' It" end up on the Best of Simon and Garfunkel?

Wouldn't he have been consulted, and either said yay or nay? Is it indeed his decision on what is released?

 

I seriously doubt Sony consults Paul Simon on their plans.

 

Then what is Sony afraid of? Release them in MONO.

 

and spend all that money (cough cough) and expend that time to put out a cd, and risk Paul's lawyers throwing a snit or at the very least stalling manuevers..........nope.

 

So what you are saying is that Mr. Simon has some sort of a contract in place that tells everyone that MONO can't be released?

 

I've got all the Simon & Garfunkel mono LPs and they are all GREAT! Even the Graduate soundtrack.

But the "Sounds Of Silence" mono LP blew me away! Couldn't believe how much better the mix was. Stuff like "Blessed" just jumps out at you. And the title track of course, with the cool reverb on their voices. "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" seems to have all sorts of effects added that weren't used on the stereo mix.

 

It's been a while, but my recollection is when I asked Bob Irwin why the clean intro version of America wasn't used on the same best-of, he said Paul wanted the Bookends version (faded up).

I also seem to recall both Paul and Art were somehow involved in the remixing, even if it was just auditioning the mixes.

 

I'm not sure the mono mixes exist anymore. I've been told by a very reliable source they were destroyed, cut up and thrown out ages ago. The metal reels still exist, just no tape.

 

Ouch, that would be terrible.

 

No tape in New York perhaps, but in LA? Or, perhaps, the next best thing, a copy in London? It's not like the mono master never existed, discs were pressed and bought, there must be a usable tape somewhere?! So it won't be first generation, but hey, life is hard sometimes...

 

I look forward to this great album remaster, no matter what form it finally appears in.

 

The only track I've heard from Sounds of Silence in mono is "We've Got a Groovy Thing Going Baby", on a Columbia '66 compilation LP. It sounds terrific, much better to me than the stereo version. If that's representative of the entire album, I'd like to have it in mono. Now, that was produced by Bob Johnston (if memory serves), so it might be a different story for Parsley, Sage Rosemary and Thyme", or is it? I have that album in mono, and while I enjoy it equally to the stereo, the differences seem less pronounced.

 

If I recall correctly, Paul Simon's brother (and manager) Eddie had something to do with relaying internet requests for a CD release of "The Paul Simon Songbook" to him, and that ultimately happened. How do we get the mono box requests to Eddie?

 

Looks like March 16 for this title according to the email.

 

And you would be wrong. Paul (as well as Artie) was consulted on the Legacy reissues, and, at a minimum, they had to sign off on all the bonus content . I don't know if Paul's approval is required in order to do a straight mono reissue of an album, but the absence of any mono reissues suggests to me that it is.

 

I'm 99% sure that the stuff from SOS and PSRH are the same remixes as the regular remasters. The material from Bookends and Bridge are the original mixes.

 

You can quite easily score a copy of the French pressing which is good and can be found in MINT-M or EX condition. I bought mine for EUR 8 and i don't regret it!

 

Unlikely.

 

Coming soon ...

 

I would agree and say that anytime Sony would want to alter the content of a catalog cd title such as Bridge or PSR&T, they would need the Ok from the parties involved (ie, Paul And Artie). Redoing an lp in mono would, for me, qualify.

 

Then do a straight reissue in Mono and Stereo, with no bonus material. No altering of the "original" content there. You could even put both mixes on one CD.

P.S. Panda, would the "redo" in mono you speak of, be because the album was never released in mono on cd? Maybe Mr. Simon voiced his "displeasure" of mono before the CD era? Maybe his wishes wouldn't cover release on CD? Wishful thinking on my part, maybe. I wish there was a way (or a reliable source) that we could all find out exactly how (and why) Mr. Simon feels the way he does about mono mixes?

 

What's the release date?

 

March 16th (according to the Audio Fidelity e-mail I got today).

 

yep. "you guys wanna release a new mono cd of my lp with Artie? That's different, I don't approve." Pfft. If I worked at Sony and even sensed that Paul would say no, I wouldn't even bother to bring the subject up. I wouldn't anyone to say I wasted people's time, heaven forbid.

 

Thanks. I have to get this and I hope we would also see Steve-remastered AF Gold CD's of "Bookends."

I am already satisfied with the sound of the Sony Mastersound Gold CD of "Bridge Over Troubled Water."