The Monkees (debut) Rhino Handmade Super Deluxe 3-CD set

It came out during a period in my life when the Monkees had completely fallen off my radar. By the time my interest in the Monkees started to ramp up again, the set was gone.

 

It wouldn't surprise me. It is a more famous Monkees album after all.

 

Given how many missed out on the HQ Sessions - myself included - could they not just make this one a 4 disc set . It would make no sense at all to issue a HQ Deluxe and have things missing from it and to omit stuff merely to placate those who already have HQS shouldn't be an option. The work has already been done on these tapes so the extra cost to Rhino would be minimal.

 

I wasn't really into the Monkees when it originally came out, therefore I didn't buy it. I hope they rerelease it in some form or another, regardless of what anyone here wants or says. If you have it, don't buy it again. Simple. (Not directed at you, BobT)

 

Agreed. It's clear there's more than enough people who don't have the HQS and would buy it if available. To those who already have it and are complaining about it possibly being part of the box, I say "tough". You should be happy that fellow fans who missed out originally potentially have the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful music. The material shouldn't only be available to those lucky enough to get it back then. Some fans want to be that guy who has things other fans don't have. It's that entitled collector's mentality. There's nothing wrong with being a collector but it shouldn't be at the expense of other fans. There are fans that if they had the ability would prevent the HQS from ever being re-released in any form. That's wrong.

The problem is with clearly your ears then. Not the mastering. Not too bright.

 

wow-I would never begrudge anyone having HQS. I (and others too I assume) just want something different if we are going to shell out that much money. BTW, HQS is available in download form.

 

I agree with you, it never ceases to amaze me how many people argue for the non- release of an item. Often through elitism other times I'm sure because of cost - basically they can't afford it so would rather it didn't happen.

 

I think you have to accept when the deluxe HQ rolls around, if you already have the sessions set, repetition is the name of the game. That's why I suggest an extra disc in this case. As for a download, it hardly compares to having the discs.

 

I didn't get back into the Monkees until the 2006 Deluxe sets, so from ML3 in '96 till then...that was a whole decade I missed.

 

No, Hutch is correct, it's excessively bright. It would sound great if you have high frequency hearing loss though.

 

To be fair though, the other 4 albums that got boxes didn't have a 2-Disc deluxe edition already. If there was no 2-disc deluxe edition of the first album guaranteed all of those bonus tracks would have been on the new box. We have to keep that in mind for the MoTM through Pisces boxes as they get released. Everything on the new box and those future boxes is just gravy after looking at what we've already gotten on the 2-Disc sets.

Nope. It's quite agenda pushing and self-serving to push such a myth. Not excessively bright at all. Albums with pre-emphasis that aren't de-emphasized are excessively bright. Suggesting that box and the others are so bright that it must be described to hyperbolic excess is inaccurate. Nice dig with suggesting that those who think it isn't too bright have high frequency hearing loss.

 

Agenda pushing? No agenda here, just calling it as I hear it. There's a lot of treble, more than I find comfortable to listen to. How is it a myth when one version of something is obviously brighter when compared to another?

The only agenda around here seems to be the "Rhino is beyond criticism" agenda.

"The problem is with clearly your ears then." ~ The Spaceman to Hutch

Having a dig at someone for disagreeing with your opinion is fine, however.

 

I have the HQ Sessions, and I already said I'd buy it again if they just reissued it in the big box--just so I have a complete set. And, I have absolutely no problem sharing what I have with anyone, I hold nothing, I want everyone to enjoy everything that is available. I was merely thinking through the HQ box, what we might expect. Would Andrew decide to to include the stereo and mono album....because I he did, then the original HQ Sessions won't work as a SD Box set? There's no room!

The HQ SD Box won't have the stereo album if it is a HQ Sessions re-issue. I don't see RHM doing this, when all the other boxes have the stereo album. So, something from the HQ Sessions disc has to go, or they add an extra disc (which is highly unlikely, since they're cutting corners, not adding). My conclusion is they aren't going to re-issue the HQ Sessions as a SD Box set, I'd be surprised if they did. I'll accept the NY sessions on the MOTM SD box, but it seems more likely that they'll hold it and use it to fill up the 3rd disc of the HQ Box (a lot of NY sessions were visited on the standard HQ Deluxe). I also concluded that the MOTM SD box set will be 3 discs of MOTM sessions-era material, no straying into some filler 3rd disc like the debut SD box or the HEAD SD box. I'll be happy with whatever RHM decides, but with the HQ Sessions available as a digital download, currently, I think we should expect something else from the HQ SD box, if it is realized.

 

If the Headquarters sessions has too many songs for 3 cds, a logical solution for a Headquarters Super Deluxe edition would be to put all the extra songs on as leftovers for the Pisces Box Set. It seems like the Pisces box will be the most difficult to fill 3 cds with. So why not put all the extra Headquarters songs on it.

 

Or just make Headquarters a 4-disc set.

 

Are there any Rhino discounts or promo codes right now?

 

Agenda pushing? That's my favorite song, like, in the world. I have no axe to grind. I just wish they hadn't mastered it so bright so I could listen to it more. Self-serving? What? Do I work for a rival company that is also putting out Monkee CDs? I love the re-issue series, but their mastering it kind of loud and bright and I'm sure others feel the same way. There's some science behind it that shows that this is, in fact, NOT an opinion. I just don't have a Freeble Energizer on hand at the moment.

EDIT: By the way I was speaking SPECIFICALLY of BBM's Auntie's Municipal Court (Mike's Vocal).

 

It seems that these superdeluxe sets are different from the HQ set, which presents lots of the sessions, mulitple takes rather than alternate versions and mixes and outtakes. I would be surprised if everything on HQ sessions makes it to the SD set.

 

I think a Headquarters super deluxe will include a complete stereo remix, like the Arista CD. And perhaps it's a nice way to get some of the live tracks from the recent tours out there? Also any alternate TV Versions (if there are any). My two cents...

 

If they do the above, definitely count me out. Live recordings from the 21st century would be completely inappropriate on such a collection.

 

Good point... the HQ Sessions set only has the mono mixes (which were presented in the original, rejected album running order) and not the final stereo album. (I haven't checked, but I assume that capacity of the discs on that set are filled to capacity.)

 

I would bet on a newly-configured version of Headquarters, assuming they get that far. So far, the new versions of these albums include the original mono and stereo mixes, and some but not all of the bonus tracks from previous reissues. The majority of bonus tracks have either been different mixes than those used before, different edits, or something. I would hope for the full versions of the two tracks from Sessions which were shortened and had longer versions available for download back in the day, at least.

My understanding is the whole reason those two tracks were shortened on Sessions was because of disc capacity issues.

I like how they just included the whole alternate mono master in its entirety, in the original (later revised) sequence. "No Time" as I recall was not going to be on the album originally, but had been mastered and was left on the end of the tape, so they included it on the set. They also stated "All Of Your Toys" and the Nesmith-sung version of "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" which followed the alternate mono master were from an ultimately unused single master, for a single that was never released. That kind of stuff is cool. I wonder if they'll do the same thing for Pisces, since Rhino also has an alternate mono master with songs in a different sequence. That would be cool.

 

I didn't remember anything awful about that song, so I just played it and it sounds fine to me. It is trebly, but so are a lot of Monkees' recordings. I certainly wouldn't describe it as "damn bright", "positively shrill", or "Stabs my ears."

I'm guessing the pushback comes from this, you make these claims about the awful sound, but anyone who has the box can put on the song and hear it isn't true.

 

The debut Monkees SD box set has about a discs worth of tracks over the original Monkees Deluxe set. I cut the set up and re-sequenced to look a lot more like the other SD box sets. I posted that a while back. There was enough tracks from the bonus section of the original Deluxe, combined with the bonus tracks from disc 1 of the SD, to flesh out the first 2 discs bonus sections pretty good....one disc mono mixes, the other disc stereo mixes. The third disc of my re-sequenced SD box was pretty much a cut and paste of the second "Sessions" disc. Anyway, there's a point to this....

If there's going to be a Pisces box, the original Deluxe set bonus tracks can only go far enough to cover about one and a half discs of new bonus tracks. That means there will have to be a disc and a half a new tracks to flesh out the SD set. I look over Andrew's book a lot and discovered, though a lot of sessions are missing, there are a lot of chunks of cool stuff in existence. That would be the sessions disc. RHM could use chunks of tape, i.e. Ditty Diego sessions from HEAD - type bits. There's a lot of stuff to hear from the Pisces sessions not made available.

 

Same question.
Thanks, in advance, for any answer.