Do you dislike it when an original album is reissued with longer tracks?

Are you sure about that? I've never heard of that before. Are you thinking of "Passing the Time" with its longer jam section?

 

It depends on the album. I have liked it in a few cases.

AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Rainbow - Bent Out Of Shape (The longer tracks matched the cassette release.)

 

I am a purist in that regard and like the album to be issued as it originally was released. I do not like longer fades or remixes (even if they are technically superior).

Though I do like it when non-album singles from the era are tacked onto the end, however I generally do not care for the demos & unreleased tracks (usually there is good reason why they were left off the original release)

 

I've thought of one (I think) very good example. Level 42's debut.

The CD and cassette (as far as I remember) has the longer versions of Love Games and Starchild. I'd imagine these were not included on the LP because the length could have affected the sound quality- too much music on the album! But the CD came out a few years later, as it the album was released in 1981 (no CDs then, of course) - so that's why I recon the cassette has the extended versions too.

As wonderful as the LP is - and it sounds beautiful too, I recon the CD has the edge especially on Love Games with the bonus instrumental bits. Love that piano solo.

 

I usually don't mind longer instrumental sections or "lost" verses being restored, but what drives me batty is when they add studio dialogue to the beginning of tracks. You know, something like, "Roger, Roger, what take is this? 24. 24 or 25? I believe it's 24. Alright, should we count in, then.." This happened on a lot of those early 90's Columbia/Legacy remaster CDs and totally destroys any flow the album might have. It's like they were trying to show-off and prove to you that they found the "real" mastertape - "see - you can even hear to what they said at the tracking session!"

 

The "missing" part heard on the Those Were The Days" set was actually newly inserted from another evening, rather than "restored". IMHO, the mix sounds so different from the original track, that adding that insert was a mistake.

 

Could be worse. The UK version of Tori Amos Boys for Pele substituted a remix of "Profession Widow" and removed "In the Springtime of His Voodoo". I avoided that version.

 

Sometimes there are abysmal cases such as cutting intro to Highway Star on Deep Purple's "In Rock". They also did such a thing with another album (it escapes my mind which one) where they dropped the track and replaced it with a single.

And yet, there are such cases as Rhino's TFTO by Yes where you have extended intro for the first track which is sublime and was such a surprise to hear.

 

I didn't really care for the 'restored' 'Revealing Science Of God' on the remastered "Tales from Topographic Oceans" by Yes. I thought the LP edit was just fine

 

It bothers me, but it depends on the album, I suppose.

When Columbia Legacy reissued Earth, Wind & Fire's "I Am" album on CD, they included a longer version of the last track "You And I". It really annoyed me at first, but i've come to love it. Still doesn't sound quite right, but I like it.

Next, when Motown remastered Teena Marie's "It Must Be Magic" album on CD about a decade ago, it really angered me that the reissue producer used a longer, unedited version of the album's centerpiece "Square Biz". It doesn't sound right, and doesn't belong there. There's a reason the original producer, Teena Marie, edited a piece out of the intro for the album.

Next up: I bought the Debarge complete album collection, and found that, again, a decision was made to include the complete, unedited version of "Time Will Reveal" with a cold ending. It just doesn't sound right smack dab in the middle of the side. Oh, I know, the hard-core fans love it, but I prefer albums to remain true to their originally released versions.

Off-topic, but somewhat related: Almost the whole world got one track listing of Tina Turner's "Private Dancer", while the U.S. got a Dave Dexter-style re-ordering of the songs (Capitol Record, again). I suppose it worked just fine, but it was all corrected when the CDs came out. Now the album makes sense, as the album was specifically created and sequenced for the CD format by the producers.

 

I never liked how they replaced the album version of Pretty Little Ditty with a long version, even though it was what Flea originally wanted. They should have at least included the short version as a bonus track. There are also long versions of Taste The Pain (on the "Say Anything" soundtrack) as well as the other MM remaster bonus track, the long version of Sexy Mexican Maid. Anthony said that the record company was editing the songs against the band's will, ostensibly to fit on vinyl but mainly because they wanted radio hits.

EMI left Show Me Your Soul off the remaster as well so they could sell more copies of What Hits?! They're supposed to be releasing a 25th Anniversary version later this year, but no tracklisting has been revealed yet.

On all the remasters they changed most of the fadeouts to cold endings which meant some of them stopped cold without finishing the song (noticeable on American Ghost Dance and Fight Like A Brave) for example.

The remasters are brickwalled and basically worth it only for the bonus tracks, although I did feel that Mother's Milk kind of rocks harder this way due to them mixing the drums down compared to the 80s production of the original. Of course that is counteracted by the ear-splitting loudness, but oh well.

 

They reissued Rumours with the longer fadeout (looped version) of Second Hand News.

 

It bugs me. One example that springs to mind is the Deluxe Edition of The Waterboy's 'Fisherman's Blues' which replaces two tracks with longer (extended) versions. It just sounds wrong when I listen to it.

I'd also prefer to have Blondie's 'Parallel Lines' as originally released, without the Disco version of Heart of Glass that was added later.

 

Yes, yes, I grew up with the immediate anthemic intro which I love. Thing is, it seems they had clearly to cut it to fit the record onto LP. So I have no problem with this. It doesn't add a ton, but it's nice anyway. Again, don't have anything negative to say about the original beginning. But it was not the initial artistic decision. Just like Gabriel had to move In Your Eyes to the middle for LP track list's sake. This was corrected on the subsequent editions.

 

Most of the time no. What's Going On on Al Stewart's Modern Times has a great groove and when I heard it going on for almost another minute, I was ecstatic. (didn't read the liner notes in time to see that it was longer).

 

If you are a purist and you don't like re-issues with minor changes like longer fade-outs then my advice is to stay away from the Morrissey re-issues. In that case it is a matter of entire tracks disappearing and being replaced.

On the matter of having longer versions I think I can understand it when artists where forced to cut songs short because the label would not allow a double LP. The Waterboys example mentioned above is one of those cases: Mike Scott wanted to use those longer versions but the label didn't want a double album, so it makes sense that he went back to the versions he liked when he got the chance.

 

It wasn't just that one though, was it? Reissues of the 1st two albums did this, can't recall about This Is The Sea. I tend to find, imo, that record company decisions like this were normally correct...

 

I hate it when a track is released with extended music ! Hate it !

Especially tunes I like. I can't get through them quick enough. I wish ALL albums were JUST single edits....get em over with, ya know ?

Fr'instance.....When King Crimson released the full Providence, RI show and had all that extraneous music that was absent on the 'Providence' improv of the proper album, RED.....it just ruined it. More jamming, really just noodling as King Crimson did back then...to bore me to tears. I was like...what is this ???? MORE KC ??? Give me a break !!!

I'll take the truncated version everytime !!!!!!!

 

IS "Sysyphus" longer on the CD's?? I thought the difference was just that the four sections were divided differently?

 

Thanks for the update John. I had no idea the 'missing' passages were from another night. I kinda wish I didn't know as I really like the 'new' version even though I now know it's a frankenstein.

 

It's on the "Those Were The Days" box set.

 

Completely agree with this. IMHO, those 2 modified tracks reduced the quality of the album. It shifted the balance in favour of flat out dance tracks, whereas Manifesto in its original release was a good balance. The 2 new recordings weren't as accurate recordings as the original - from memory, some distortion crept in. Glad the Complete Studio Recordings set restored the album to its original version - and we have the ersatz versions on the singles 2CD set.

 

So there is more than one edition/version of this album... I need to look out for the original then, as I was not aware of this before.

 

There were in the UK. The original had a black inner sleeve, the later version had a reddish inner sleeve IIRC. Both were on Polydor.

 

It is 30 seconds longer.