Great CD Watchdog - This is Classic!

I'm sure many of you have read this but this is a great example of record label laziness...

Regarding the remasters of the Love and Rockets albums:

"The reason there's a fade on the original but not on the remastered version is because those fades were often added while they were cutting the vinyl. So the cutting master has a fade on it. However, we went back to the original studio masters and... frankly, didn't notice. The engineers don't slavishly match the feeds and the track breaks because it would take way too long in remastering to try and match the original cuts. It's always the fans that hear these things. Even the band didn't spot anything"...

I'm sure this happens all the time...

 

Sure it happens all the time! We all have tons of examples of this attitude.

The companies know *someone* out there is going to notice, but they don't care. They figure that it will only be one or two die-hard fanatics, and they hardly count in the scheme of things.

It's all about the money, ain't a damn thing funny...

 

I think most collectors (not me though) would be happy to have a few extra seconds of their favorite songs.

Isn't that why Bob Irwin let "Mr. Tambourine Man" play on at the end of the stereo version instead of fading it out? Bill Inglot's stuff as well. They do it on purpose I think.

Most remasters have longer fades than the original records (even some of Steve's stuff). I think they feel that they are doing a us a service by letting our favorite songs go on a little longer than the record.

 

I agree with you John. The only problem is when they try to recreate the single version. It still bugs the crap out of me when the single version "That's The Way I Like It" by KC & The Sunshine Band, and The single edit of Chic's "Le Freak" run longer than the original 45s did.

Anyway, sometimes songs running longer on albums is a result of correcting things done in the final master assembly or mastering phase, like the last track "You And I" on Earth Wid & Fire's "I Am" album runs longer on CD.

On the upcoming deluxe remaster of Teena Marie's 1981 album "It Must Be Magic", we will be treated to the completely unedited version of the hit "Square Biz". Seems, Motown did some editing to this song for final release back then.

 

It's one thing for record companies to give the fans a little something extra, like an extended fade or whatnot. It's another thing altogether when they simply let something slide because they couldn't be bothered to get it right. The fact that the band didn't catch it may or may not be meaningful. By now the band has heard their record a million times and are probably heartily sick of it. They may not be listening very carefully. (The latest remaster of Chicago Transit Authority is a case in point: Lee Loughnane has said he stands by it "100%," despite the fact that there is gross distortion and digital clicks and buzzes on it, and "Introduction" starts a quarter-tone flat because of a tape speed error.)

The thing that really galls me is that we could have better quality control with very little extra effort. How long does it take to listen carefully to an album to make sure all is well? This isn't the difference between good quality control and fanatical quality control, not that I wouldn't welcome the latter. It's the difference between good quality control and mediocre quality control, or no quality control at all.

 

I've always liked some of those extended endings Inglot came up with, especially tracks like the Beau Brummel's "Laugh Laugh" and the Monkees' "Valleri", each of which had logical endings that didn't really need to be faded.

In both cases, the original fade-outs were restored by Inglot for later reissues, and though I know that's the way they were originally released, I couldn't help but be a bit dissapointed.

 

I think the worst disaster in these regards is Barry White's "You're The First, The Last, My Everything." In a way, White himself is to blame, since he started with a long Lp version which he edited for 45; then, on the original pressing of BARRY WHITE'S GH, he edited the 45! On CD reissues, there must be at least four edits of that one(and, lest we forget, sometimes he snuck still another edit onto the occasional promo 45).
On the other hand, it is nice once in a while to get a longer version. My favorite has always been Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" from GREATEST HITS. The original UK Hi CD kept that album's original mix(it was meant for quad--an 8-track was issued--but they didn't put an Lp out in 4-channel after all, typical of the US London label)and the longer version. So what does The Right Stuff do? Put the original stereo mixes and edits on the CD--and then the DVD-A--and leave the long LST for the follow up CD.
But then, as we all know only too well, collecting ain't always easy, and always expensive, somehow.

ED

 

To make matters worse, the version on most of his Greatest hits collection isn't even the single version!

I have the same problem with Donna Summer's "Love To Love You, Baby". All of her best ofs or greatest hits comps use either the unfinished single billed as the single mix, or the bad edit. The radio-friendly edit that most radio played in 1976 appears only at the end of the album version.

Tsk-Tsk!

 

Grant, I have a Donna Summer, Japanese, four CD box set, titled "Great Box....The Complete Hits Collection". It's amazing...all of the oldies, in what appear in their original lengths ! An oldie, originally released in 1993.

 

Is Love To Love You Baby under four minutes? Does it have the orchestra and background singing?

 

Grant,

You mean there's an even longer version of this song floating around? I have the vinyl LP and promo 12" of "Square Biz" and it runs just over six minutes. I'd be interested to see how long this song is unedited.

About Barry White, what version of "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe" is the correct single version? Does the original single have the additional vocal overdubs at the start of the song like on the original BW Greatest Hits album? I was wondering since most comps use the version w/o the extra vocals and bridge in the middle. I'm a bit confused because there seems to be at least three different mixes or edits of this song.


And about Donna Summer, is the bad edit you're talking about the original version or the remade version of "Love To Love You Baby"? I always wondered if there was an edit of the 16:50 version of this cut, which I always thought was the superior version of this song.

 

That has not been my experience. In fact often things seem faded a bit prematurely, whether on a "normal" or an "audiophile" re-release. Bugs me when I'm used to mentally singing along all the way down the fade, if a couple of notes are missing.

 

Grant, quite right about the White, and Summer's first dozen or so singles present quite a challenge for anybody wanting the right single edits on CD. Somewhere I think I even have a comp that has the B-side version of "Love To Love You Baby," rather than the A that Am radio played. It's really pot luck with Summer: one CD will have the 45 edit of "Hot Stuff," but there are at least two more out there, and it's not the only one. Just totally, utterly screwy. Another reminder of why I kept every piece of vinyl: it's as if I knew this was going to happen.

ED

 

Steve: The only problem I ever had with the way Mike Callahan reviewed CDs was that he was always a bit too fixated on tape hiss(but I always appreciated the fact he listened with that passion. Miss his newsletter). Funny, but I always think of hiss the way I do little ticks'n'pops on vinyl: play something long enough and it hardly registers. You know it's there, yeah, but so what? IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA without hiss? Wouldn't be the same, really. One of the great guilty pleasures of the era, so bad it's good(and the title track brilliantly used by director Michael Mann in his criminally underrated MANHUNTER).

Grant: Well, now we have an essential Summer box to track down. While I'm chagrined not to have even heard of it, I'm glad it exists. Now, to track the bugger down. It will gnaw on my brain for a while, I'm afraid. The collector, he be a restless lot.

ED

 

Well, according to Harry Weigner. the song was edited down a bit before release. It isn't that much but he is going to insert the "new" version onto the album to restore what was apparently meant to be there.

That song, i'm not sure about, but I can tell you that they played the version you described on radio back in 1974.

The 16:50 version of that song is the album cut.

Side A of the commercial single is an edit of the first part of the album version with the strings and background singers.

The B side of that single is the last portion of the album version, starting somewhere around 12:52 where the songs starts over, and faded sooner. This is the one that I recall was played on radio in 1976.

The recent CD version that is billed as the single version is actually the unfinished single edit without the orchestra and the background overdubs. Whew!