The Dylan Hybrid SACD's -- How it should be done

Sony has announced that they are releasing the following 15 Dylan albums on hybride SACD:

Here are the 15 Dylan titles that will be release as hybrid SACDs:

Free Wheelin', Another Side of Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, Blood On The Tracks, Desire, Slow Train Coming, Infidels, Oh Mercy, Time Out Of Mind, Love and Theft, Royal Albert Hall, Street Legal

This is what I would would do:

Free Wheelin' and Another Side of Bob Dylan -- The mono mix should be on the CD layer and both the mono and the stereo mixes should be on the SACD layer.

Bringing it All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited -- The stereo mix should be on the CD layer and both the mono and the stereo mixes should be on the SACD layer. (Blonde on Blonde should be handled the same way if it is ever reissued as a hybrid SACD.)

Nashville Skyline and Desire -- The stereo mix should be on the SACD layer and both the quad and the stereo mixes should be on the SACD layer. (Planet Waves should be handled the same way if it is ever reissued as a hybride SACD.)

All other titles would feature the same stereo mixes on both layers (although I wouldn't mind if Sony had Daniel Lanois prepare new 5.1 mixes for Oh Mercy and Time Out of Mind).

And finally, to satisfy both the purists AND the bootleg collectors, the initial run of each title should include a bonus CD with outtakes.

 

I noticed the other day that Sony is releasing the Byrds' Fifth Dimension on SACD with the same bonus tracks as the most recent CD reissue. That would appear to bode well for bonus tracks on the Dylan discs, but I'll believe it when I see it.

 

Well, I'm not holding my breath on bonus tracks. I'm sure that Bob Irwin would LOVE to do that, but the only Bob who matters in this regard is Dylan himself. I suspect that Dylan and his people wouldn't want to mess with his albums by adding bonus tracks. On the other hand, Dylan did allow Sony to release a deluxe edition of Dylan's latest album that included a bonus disc with two outtakes -- of course these outtakes had absolutely NOTHING to do with the album (the tracks dated back to the early 60's), but it's the thought that counts, right? I'm hoping Sony does something similar with these reissues.

Of course, I'm also waiting for The Bob Dylan Bootleg Series Vol. 7: The Complete Basement Tapes and The Bob Dylan Bootleg Series Vol. 8: The Complete Publishing Demos.

 

It's up to Dylan, right?

dolstein, your plan gets my vote, but I think a 5.1 mix for "Love and Theft" would also be worthwhile.

 

Actually, I have been working with some people I know close to Bob's managment and at Sony Music's SACD team. My effort is to suggest to Bob's manager that the SACD technology will permit all of Bob's albums through Blond on Blond to contain the unique Stereo and Mono versions. After that any mono releases were fold downs from the Stereo mix. (We will leave the quad mixed versions aside for now).

The proposal is to place the stereo mix on the normal stereo SACD section and the mono mix in the normal Multi-channel section and the stereo mix on the Red Book layer. The SACD Team at Sony has told me that this is easily done.

If anyone here has any influence on people they can contact to let the powers that be know that this can and perhaps should be done it would be great. I have written directly to Bob's manager on this point as well. We can only hope. Too bad neither Steve or Bob Irwing appear to be in on this project.

Richard.

 

Actually, I find it hard to believe that Bob Irwin isn't involved in some way. At the very least, he's been involved in doing tape research, having tracked down the original mono mixdown masters in the course of preparing LP reissues for Sundazed. And as a result of the LP reissues, he's obviously developed a working relationship with Dylan's people. It he isn't producing the SACD reissues, that's a shame -- he's one of the best people Sony has.

 

I stand corrected. I just received the following e-mail from Bob Irwin:

Hi David:

Unfortunately, I am not involved with any of the Bob Dylan SACD releases,
and have no information about the plans for the reissue series. Sorry!

Thanks for taking the time to write -

Best,

Bob

 

Greg Calbi will do the remastering... I have no good feelings!

 

The Sony SACD web-site has a pop-up message on the Dylan release. It says all titles are "stereo only." Now that could simply mean than none of them contain a multichannel mix (which is a shame, since Desire and Nashville Skyline were both released in quad), or it could mean that each SACD will feature the stereo mix (which is also a shame). No mention of bonus tracks.

I'm already preparing myself for the disappointment.

 

I have to laugh. No disrespect to you, dolstein, but give me a break. The darn things aren't even pressed yet and you are already expecting to be disappointed? People have been carping about the state of the Dylan catalog for years. I say give the new discs a chance.

I am generally opposed to the idea of bonus tracks on those Dylan reissues. I say put 'em out as they were originally.

Personally I'm just glad to see that Slow Train Coming was included. It always sounded great on vinyl, so I am hopeful it will sound good.

I'm already preparing myself for the fun.

Chris

 

But as long as the original lineup/mix is on the SACD, you *are* putting them out "as they were originally". You're just adding on to that.

 

I used to have the Ten Of Swords 10 LP Box set...I remember the Demo's sounded great on that set. Long gone....

 

Yes, I am preparing to be disappointed. To quote the master himself, you don't need a weather vane to know which way the wind blows. I can count the number of times Sony has gotten it "right" when it comes to the reissue of an artist's catalog on one hand -- and Bob Irwin was involved in each case. He's not involved in any way with these Dylan reissues. To put it bluntly, I am not optimistic.

 

He was not involved with the SACD of Blond on Blond and the Sony Music guys and gals did a good job on that project.

Richard.

 

Well, maybe it's too early to know if Bob Irwin is in or out of the loop. At least, thanks to Steve & Bob's work, Sony has a better idea where the masters are! Also, a lot of their SACD releases have not been too shabby.

Todd

 

Well, seeing as Bob Irwin has told me that he "is not involved in any way" in the SACD releases, I think we can safely say that he is out of the loop. But yes, thanks to Steve & Bob's work, we know that Sony has ready access to the original stereo mixdown master for Highway 61 Revisited and the original mono mixdown masters for Freewheelin', Another Side, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61. Whether they'll actually USE any of these tapes, on the other hand, is anybody's guess.

 

The Dylan hybrids could make or break the SACD format, as far as the mass markets are concerned. I got into the format after I heard about the Blonde on Blonde SACD, and I know plenty of people who are ready to buy into SACD if the Dylan remasterings work out. Personally, I think we might be okay if they try to do just a little bit better than they did when remastering Street Legal a few years back. But if they ruin Blood on the Tracks, I'm outta here.

 

I must respectfully disagree with you there - off the top of my head, Sony has gotten it right with the catalogs of:

The Byrds: great liner notes, rare pictures, lots of bonus tracks, and even brand "new" releases - the live album with Clarence White from 69

Miles Davis: a exhaustive series of box sets for the obsessive, and a seemingly endless string of remastered individual albums, again with great liner notes, original artwork, rare pictures, and bonus tracks

Simon and Garfurkel: again, well-remastered individual albums (the remaster of Bridge Over Troubled Water is one of the better-sounding CDs I own), original artwork, rare pictures, and bonus tracks

Laura Nyro: see above

Psychedelic Furs: another recent reissue of a Columbia/Legacy artist's catalog with all the plusses outlined above

Charlie Christian: great new comprehensive box set

Dave Brubeck: all the plusses outlined above - Columbia/Legacy has brought Brubeck albums back into print that have been out of print for decades

Louis Armstrong: I just bought the single disc highlights of Sony's Hot Fives and Sevens Box Set - the remastering blows my old ASV highlights disc and Portrait of the Artist as Young Man box set out of the water. I did not think this material could sound this good (and you can even hear some surface noise and/or tape hiss, which indicates that it wasn't just simply a case of "Let's no-noise this thing to death".

I could go on and on - suffice it to say that when I see that yellow Columbia/Legacy sticker on a reissue, it is a trademark of quality to me. My only concern in this case is that Bob and his management will veto bonus tracks a la the Stones SACDs. While for some Dylan albums bonus tracks might not be appropriate (as far as I know, there are no outtakes from the John Wesley Harding sessions), for others it would be a crime to omit the wealth of material Dylan recorded at the sessions that did not make the cut, often simply due to the limitations of what could fit one two sides of an l.p. There was a whole album's worth of extra material recorded at the Freewheelin' sessions, almost a whole album's worth during the Times They are A-Changin' sessions, key tracks left off of Highway 61 due to space limitations, etc. etc.

I don't think its going to happen until Bob kicks the bucket, but Sony needs to treat has catalog exactly like it has treated the Miles Davis catalog - a series of box sets for the completist and individual reissues for the more casual fan. I hope I live to see Sony release a Basement Tapes box with the same attention to detail as the Miles Davis Complete In a Silent Way sessions box.

 

I realized after I posted that I should have limited my statement to rock artists. Yes, Sony has done an excellent job of reissuing the Miles Davis catalog -- even though the packaging of the box sets leaves something to be desired (I'd much prefer discs in separate jewel boxes and a larger booklet).

But when it comes to rock reissues -- and I'm not talking one-offs, but rather reissures of a whole catalog -- the best of these (the Byrds, Simon and Garfunkel, Spirit) were done by Bob Irwin.

 

You don't need a weather MAN to know which way the wind blows.

 

If you go to the Sony SACD site there's a pop up add for the 15 new Dylan SACD's. The bad news is:

"All titles will be stereo only."

Dylan SACD ad