New david bowie song / major compilation

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by richard a, Sep 9, 2014.

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  1. johnnyyen

    johnnyyen Senior Member

    Location:
    Scotland
    The Singles Collection (UK version) is probably the best comp of the lot, even if, paradoxically, album versions are used, with the exception of "Heroes". There are no crazy edits, and it does what it says on the tin; collects most of the key singles from '69-87.

    Talking of bad edits, does anyone remember the edit of DJ? Boy, that one was rough.
     
  2. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    I was actually taken aback when I read your post and realized that this song wasn't included on the compilation. Then I looked up wikipedia and discovered for the first time that it was a comparative flop in the US and the UK. In New Zealand it went to number one and stayed there for weeks (pre-'Let's Dance', if I recall correctly).
     
  3. botley

    botley Forum Resident

    I like 'em as an added bonus, in fact they add a lot to my enjoyment of the track — even listening to the original, I'll now keep an ear out specifically for those parts — but I guess it's possible they were left that loud by mistake, ditto the omitted sound effects on the title track. My point was you'd have to ask Maslin in order to be sure.

    "Word on a Wing" and "TVC 15" reach their complete endings during the fade-out, if that's what you mean. Again, I don't mind this and consider it a little bonus, which you don't get on the original mix. The volume's totally slammed for almost the entire album, so it's nowhere near as dynamic as any other mastering, sure; but I think it's a fun alternate version to have (as long as the original isn't going anywhere). You literally can't buy it without getting at least two better versions of the same material.

    I do prefer the original "Life on Mars?" mix (and agree that the new one is too compressed and a little harsh for my liking, as well) but I see what Scott was going for with the remix. He got rid of that weird thuddy drum sound in the original (partly the fault of that early solid-state Trident console), and brought out a little more presence in the string section — it's just printed too hot.
     
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  4. karmaman

    karmaman Forum Resident

    i think the omission of Cat People is a glaring one. it's tailor made for this compilation, not least because there are a number of ready made edits. it's a far more successful one-off than others that have been included IMO and, along with Absolute Beginners, one of his finest '80s tracks. perhaps a licensing issue kept it from being included on at least one edition.
     
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  5. MarilynsPickle

    MarilynsPickle Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    So, can a Bowie expert on here confirm if the shorter "Absolute Beginners" promo edit from the 1 and 2CD edition is the actual edit or is it a badly re-created one like a few of the mixes are on the compilation. It's funny on another forum people were trying to defend the haphazardly recreated edit of "Fashion," when you can easily tell the beat is thrown off during the bad edit point.

    This whole debacle reminds me of Madonna's Celebration hits collection. There are a lot of badly recreated edits trying to mimic the original single edits (even the video collection had some recreated edits on the songs "Get Together" and "Give It 2 Me"). The edit of "Everybody" on the CD starts off following the original 7" version, then half way through they just give up and let the rest of it be the full length version! And they even tried to recreate edits of some of the remixes from The Immaculate Collection. The only difference is at least the Madonna collection didn't try to claim they were the actual single versions, unlike the David Bowie one which clearly says "single version" for some of the incorrect versions.
     
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2014
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  6. But Cat Peopke was played a ton in the Bay Area
     
  7. dead of night

    dead of night Senior Member

    Location:
    Northern Va, usa
    Zodiac, if you could sum it up in a few reasons, why would you not buy this again if you had the choice?

    I ask as someone on the cusp of purchase yet do not want to be disappointed. I have all of Bowie's albums and have the RCA Changes 1 and 2.
     
  8. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc

    Location:
    England
    This is truly not meant as a thread-crap so please don't take it like that 'cos I'm enjoying reading everyone's thoughts, but it's worth remembering this thing is going to be in bargain buckets before you can say "that's Fred, he's a metronome".

    So that'll be the time for a lot of us to maybe add it as another curiosity / disappointment / whatever to our Bowie collections, for five £ / € / $ etc. Even The Next Day CD / DVD set was being sold off cheap in London within weeks of release, despite the high profile and successful Bowie exhibition that had recently taken place.
     
  9. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc

    Location:
    England
    That's the sort of thing that makes me occasionally stick up for karmaman (even though I'm sure he doesn't need it!): the Bowie online world is severely lacking in constructive criticism, or ANY criticisn of "archive" releases. It might be because they genuinely don't notice or care about the erratic and sh#+ty releases which have swamped the market in the last 15 years, so I'm not dissing them, but I bet it has something to do with why the crap releases keep on coming..

    Like the defences and raves about the annihalated, bricked Nassau release a few years back. Of course it's a great concert, but any Bowie fan worth their salt can hear how good it could have sounded from the tracks featured on the 1991 Ryko / EMI release.
     
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  10. karmaman

    karmaman Forum Resident

    It appears to be authentic. A digital debut for this edit and it has been spared in mastering. Thumbs up for this one.
     
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  11. karmaman

    karmaman Forum Resident

    agreed and so many are quick to rush to the defense of poor davy wavy if they think their hero is being directly criticised. just as bad IMO are those who snap up whatever crap is thrown at them as if they're gifts from the gods. as a self-confessed collector (official releases), i'm compelled to buy things i'd prefer not to, but the fawning praise heaped on some of the junk that falls under brand bowie is sycophancy of the ugliest kind.
    not the ones with an obi though, dammit. those are valuable i tell you.
     
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  12. johnnyyen

    johnnyyen Senior Member

    Location:
    Scotland
    Has the single edit ever made it to CD? At least the excellent full length version was included on the Sound And Vision box, but it's yet another omission on a sub-standard comp.

    I made up a one disc comp yesterday, which began as an alternative to NHC, but ended up as a comp with no rhyme nor reason, and ended up as a random selection.

    01. Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)
    02. Tis A Pity She Was A Whore
    03. Where Are We Now?
    04. Love Is Lost (single edit)
    05. Wood Jackson (Heathen b-side)
    06. Buddha Of Suburbia (single version)
    07. Your Turn To Drive
    08. The Shadowman
    09. Baal's Hymn (Baal ep)
    10. Criminal World (album version)
    11. All The Young Dudes (stereo mix)
    12. Cat People (full length version)
    13. God Bless The Girl (Next Day Extra)
    14. Loving The Alien (single edit)
    15. Dead Man Walking (single edit)
    16. Outside (album version)
    17. No One Calls (hours...B-side)
     
  13. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc

    Location:
    England
    lol, nah, they'll be ¥ 0001 before you can say "sod off Pet Shop Boys" :)
     
  14. ShockOfDaylight

    ShockOfDaylight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit, MI
    The single edit of Cat People is available on Best Of Bowie 1980/1987, The Platinum Collection, Best of Bowie US & Denmark editions (maybe a couple others?) and the Inglourious Basterds Sdtk.
     
  15. karmaman

    karmaman Forum Resident

    answer covered above, but what hasn't yet made it to CD is the 3.18 promo edit (works quite well) and the australian exclusive 9.20 extended mix.
     
  16. scobb

    scobb Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Not at the London school of eco-gnome-ics!

    Noooooo I just posted that!!
     
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  17. Marc 74

    Marc 74 Senior Member

    Location:
    West Germany,NRW
    The extended version is a real oddity. Always wondered why this one was only released on the australian 12". Was Cat People so successful in Australia that they released a special mix over there? Nice for collectors but i still think the original OST version is the best one.
     
  18. ShockOfDaylight

    ShockOfDaylight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit, MI
    I have not heard this version of Absolute Beginners previously and I have to say, it may be my new go to version for this track.

    .

    I'm really intrigued by the 3:18 promo edit, where was this available? This version sounds like it would have been perfect for NHC!
     
  19. karmaman

    karmaman Forum Resident

    dunno about that... the edits are quite noticeable. i like the full intro to the album version but would remove the "percussion break" which sounds like something Arthur Baker would have done to pad it out for a 12".
    US and German 7" promos. there's also an unfortunate Dutch promo that starts the song with the words "with gasoline!"
    it's not even credited on the label as a remix, and the timing is for the regular version. it's basically the album version with additional solos. it's possibly the work of a crafty engineer. not the first time the australians have taken the DIY route. the single of Breaking Glass there used the studio version and spliced the first verse in after the chorus to create an extended edit. everywhere else went with the live version from Stage.
     
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  20. JeffMo

    JeffMo Format Agnostic

    Location:
    New England
    Do you have a long drive ahead for the holiday weekend? This might be the ideal antidote to sitting in traffic. But i like listening to comps on road trips. If it cost $3o it probably wouldn't be worth it to you, but at about half that price I have really been enjoying it.
     
  21. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    I like having the stereo "All The Young Dudes" and the Toy tracks that I didn't have before (legally). And I never bought a singles collection in the past so I never had "Absolute Beginners" and "This is not America" on CD until now. But as I played the discs I found myself becoming restless and realized that these particular songs aren't really my favorites. I know they're his hits, but listening to one after the other didn't make for pleasing listening. If this were my introduction to Bowie I'd probably be scared away. But that's just my personal taste, though. My home-made tracklisting posted above shows you where my mind is at. And the edits, though nifty to have, aren't that enjoyable in the long run. In fact, many are downright obnoxious.

    It's cheap for a 3 disc set so it isn't the end of the world, but looking back I probably didn't really need it. I do like having "Starman" with the louder piano thing, and the "Jean Genie" mix is quite different.
     
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  22. jhm

    jhm Forum Resident

    We discussed this before but at least they vinyl of the Nassau concert isn't crushed like the CD release was (I have a nice needle drop of the vinyl thankfully). I love this concert and HATE that the mastering on the CD version is so poor.

    These ought to make any fan shake their head in disbelief. The first is a snap of the Nassau Coliseum "Station To Station" from the Deluxe CD, the second from the LP.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
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  23. scobb

    scobb Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Whilst you're right that the record is better than the cd it definitely still sounds crushed to me! Try listening to the two bonus tracks on the ryko station to station cd to hear how good this should have sounded. Yes the ryko has that eq that I'm not fond of but they give you an idea of what it sounded like before the life was taken out of the recording.
     
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  24. pobbard

    pobbard Still buying CDs

    Location:
    Andover, MA
    The Ryko mix -- which is close to the original broadcast mix -- is also mixed very, very different from the "official" Nassau '76 mix, and not just because of brickwalling.
     
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  25. Darby

    Darby Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    What's the point in another compilation, why not just release an album full of rare/b-sides/unreleased songs?
     
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