Herman's Hermits - new Bear Family Anthology CD set...

Ernie B calls it "ENORMOUSLY SUCCESSFUL" and says it's his store's best-selling CD, though he might be playing it up to further promote sales.

 

If anyone was unhappy with it, send it to me. I'll gladly give it a home. Have never had a Herman's Hermits LP (unless I got the one with the Frazetta cover used for the artwork...not sure) or CD, but have been checking out various songs beyond the ones I was already familiar with or have on compilations. The new samples have me close to pulling the trigger.

There are some tracks I like better that are not included (not a whole lot), but some things I'd need to compare versions via CD-R. I do have the Reeling in the Years DVD since I bought the British Invasion box set. Always really liked the Gouldman tracks (and love "A Must to Avoid") and had checked out all of a BLAZE reissue a few years ago.

 

OK .... some people like it....some people don't like it. That's life! (That's what all the people say...)
Despite the fact that we quite often see threads here asking for a "forum-consensus" on a particular artist, sometimes there isn't one! (Lord knows I've posted a few of those myself over the years....) If we all liked exactly the same stuff all the time, this place would be as boring as watching paint dry.

I'd like to de-rail this for a few minutes and ask some questions:
1) These remixes were done 24 years ago! Have they been released before? If so, when & how? (I apologize if this has been discussed already...)

2) The booklet mentions "2, 3, 4 & 8-track master tapes". Do we know which ones are 3-track? ..... when they started recording in 4-track? ..... in 8-track?

3) Do the 8 songs that "appeared over the years in poor stereo sound" appear here as remixes?

4) As a 12-15 year old, I owned their first 2 US studio albums - mono, of course - and Hold On. I never purchased a comp on vinyl that I can recall. I have Retrospective & the older Abkco Greatest Hits on CD. I do believe that from a historical perspective, you have to have their hits in mono to understand how they sounded. The new Bear Family set is a nice "alternative". So if Retrospective is not the way to go, then what is? Whatis the best sound Hermits comp?

Thank you!

 

I know a LOT about Bear Family and they are the best at what they do, but because their sets are usually so big and expensive, that they are rarely spoken in the same breath as say, the old classic "RHINO" or "COLLECTORS CHOICE MUSIC", when it comes to reissues. There is no chance that Bear Family has ever had the same type of "SALES", like they are experiencing with this one.

 

Alright, I'm convinced that someone on this forum that live near members "lucpac" and "audiomixer", need to invite them over to their house to hear this set on your sound systems. It almost frightens me that one of the few guys in this thread who feels that this set is "lifeless", has the name, "AUDIOMIXER". Just what does his audio mixes sound like, is what I want to know?

 

Hey - read the thread from the start and the press releases! All questions are answered. Two people will chime in and say they weren't, but they were. And yes, it's a great alternate set.

So expect those two (audiomixer - c'mon, I'd expect from you than this obvious targeted campaign) - please let it drop - for me?... but Luke - please keep bumping this thread to page 1! You're angry and we know it!

Batears, If you want the original mixes, I'd say - IMO - go for the SACD. But for crystal clear alternates (for guys like me who love the seperation and be immersed) this set would be second thing I'd grab! Id' actually grab both because not only are remixes immersive but so is the fantastic book!

Have fun with it - it's only rock and roll - and even that would be debated by some!

Jeff

 

I can't speak for lucpac, but I'm good, thanks.

 

No invitations offered with that type of comment.
And, by the way, I am only commenting on a CD release, not personally attacking anybody.

 

Angry? I'm too tired to be angry. I'm fairly put off by what's been directed at me in this thread, however.

I was mostly just lurking in this thread, because I didn't feel like bashing this set. If people love the sound, well, I don't agree with them, but I don't really care that they do. I'm glad it is making people happy. But what I do care about is people claiming that anyone who doesn't like the sound must not have good hearing, must have a bright sounding system, must not be used to the sound of master tapes, etc, etc. The irony is that you probably wouldn't have heard a peep out of me if not for some of the people defending it the most. And it's clear those are the people least interested in hearing from me.

If you like the new set, great. But if you don't like what I have to say, too bad.

 

Tons of opinions and must preface my opinion with..... I don't own any HH's other than this set right now. I had the Abkco?...for while but have no idea where it went and haven't heard it in 7-9 years or so.
Anyway, pretty happy with what I'm hearing with this set. Without overly critiquing the sound quality, many of these songs are putting a smile on my face.

 

And that would be? Why would you have a reluctance to share the names and models of your CD player, your preamp, your amplifier, and your speaker? Mine are up for the world to see in my profile, and I have no shame about it at all. Ain't no thang.

I believe it's common courtesy in a conversation about sound quality to specifically cite the equipment you're hearing, to give us an idea of why you hear what you hear. Maybe it's the gear, maybe it's the room, maybe it's you, maybe not. It's all subjective to a certain point. For the record, I did pull out the EMI Best of the EMI Years (vols. 1 & 2) and the Abkco Retrospective, and compared to those, I think the new Bear Family box actually does sound cleaner. You can quibble with the EQ decisions, but it sounds reasonably good to me, knowing what the mono hit mixes previously sounded like.

 

Sorry, didn't mean angry. But you are, without a doubt, the most vocally jealous "mixer" I have ever seen on the forum. Sorry you dont get to mix this stuff, but thats that!

Audiomixer has a fine sounding system. I can attest to that. And I hope he knows to separate himself from you.

Back to the front page we go!

Jeff

 

There is no requirement for people to list their gear, if there was people could lie about it anyway. Why not just learn whose ears you trust by keeping track of comments made by others and compare those to your thoughts on a release?

 

Good for you.

It doesn't to me.

As for equipment, what exactly would telling you anything accomplish? I listen on lots of different equipment, most of which you've likely never heard. And if my equipment is the "problem", where are all of my posts constantly complaining about brightness or lack of midrange?

Excuse me? I honestly have no clue what you're talking about. Do you have me confused with someone else?

 

It only takes a few posts to lose many years worth of goodwill, trust and respect.

 

Well, the facts still tell a different story.

By the way, there are already some trusty Bear Family collectors complaining about this set – they argue that BF used to stand for some kind of "musical quality," and "now: Herman's Hermits!! out of all those crap sixties bands…" ;-)

 

A question to everyone that has bought the set - isn't there something unusual going about Don't Go Out Into the Rain (which is probably my favourite HH track)?

I'm asking because among the samples on the Bear Family page this one definitely sounds as if sped up by a semitone as compared to the version I know and love.

 

You mean like the Lesley Gore 5 Cd collection from some years ago? Geeesshhh.


This new Hermans hermits collection produced by the legendary Ron Furmanek is FANTASTIC and belongs in every rock fans collection.

 

The money Bear Family makes on releases like this will allow it to prepare and market a 16 disc box set of the complete works of some blacksmith from the depression in rural Kansas who wrote songs about trains. Relax.

 

Listened to this again today and I think it is really good. Enjoying it very much.

 

Since all of this has gotten me into delving deeper into their catalog I sure wish they had put the unreleased Tallyman on there (or release it officially). It was on the COME TO THE SUNSHINE podcast #19 in stereo (though it has crossfading at each end so you can't save it intact). I had found it in mono online a while back (and I think it edited out those crossfades also making it incomplete, but not stereo elsewhere). Another excellent Graham Gouldman song from back in the day and there is also a BBC performance of it.

Most of the other covers that were not released by MGM from those sessions I could live without, though some are pretty good.

 

Really? Graham Gouldman-written unreleased HH track? I don't know enough about the whole story of the MGM sessions.

COME TO THE SUNSHINE is very cool! They played Honeybus's "Walking Aphrodisiac" about a year ago - probably means nothing to anybody here in the states especially, but that was pretty amazing to hear an unbooted unheard song by that brief but wonderful baroque pop band...

Jeff

 

Here's the BBC version. Can't find where anyone has posted the studio version on YouTube. Jeff Beck originally released it as a single. Now if I can ever dig up my "Graham Gouldman Songbook Vol. 2" CD-R I compiled a few years back. Where is it!!!?? Could upgrade some of the tracks now and add the Applejacks CBS 45 they recorded of a Gouldman tune: Love Was in My Eyes (fiddled with it some in Audition to clean it up).



http://www.45cat.com/record/202615