What are your 3 favorite CD catalogs & what 3 do you think need the most improving?

There's a lot of good stuff in there, but some of the remasters are boosted so much that they're almost unlistenable - "Afraid of Sunlight" comes to mind, as do some moments on "Brave" and "Misplaced Childhood". Even Fish has commented on this in comparison to the remasters of his own solo albums...

There are also a number of typos, etc. in the booklets that should have been caught before going to press.

By the way, you didn't mention the singles box sets, which are another nice addition to the overall approach to the band's back catalog.

 

The comparisons i've done between the Prince LPs and the CDs show that the CDs are pretty faithful to the vinyl, if not better in the case of "Parade".

Prince usually put his albums together rather quickly and between gigs and movies. "Dirty Mind" was actually a demo.

Many of the earlier Prince LPs were mastered by Bernie Grundman.

 

NEEDS WORK

1. The Beatles (this has been blatantly obvious since 1987.)

2. George Harrison....The All Things Must Pass remaster was hit and miss, Concert For Bangladesh should be remastered from the (superior) film mix, Material World, Dark Horse, and Extra Texture are all sonic lemons. The Dark Horse catalogue and the Wilbury's stuff is completely missing in action.

3. E.L.O....This stuff could sound fantastic on SACD. There were four tiltes remastered on CD a couple of years ago, but the whole reissue campaign was shelved when according to rumor that a surplus of unreleased material and out-takes were discovered in the vaults, paving the way for deluxe reissues, but 'til I actually see them, it's still a rumor.

 

I agree with you here for the most part. Certainly not one of his best sets but the fact that it's his last professionally recorded performance and that that set contains tracks never/rarely performed live makes it essential for the fan IMO. The thing that's puzzling is why they released the IOW set now when there are many MUCH better live performances that EH hasn't released yet.

It's so frustrating that you can't walk into a record store and pick up some some live Jimi at his best (outside of BOG, Woodstock...). The 3 Winterland sets, LA Forum' 69, San Diego '69, Berkeley '70 and Maui '70 are SO much better than IOW that it's silly. A shame that one has to seek out boots or way OOP releases to get the man at his best. EH has had 7 years now to get this right but hasn't yet. Maybe after they release a few more compilations we will get the the Berkeley stuff

Chris

 

Prince--I agree with the comments of the current CD's that are out there. Not very good. But unfortunately with Prince trying to regain control of his masters and WEA being unwilling to work with him, I don't know if we'll see this happening anytime soon. We can only hope.

The Jacksons--With the recent remastering of Michael Jackson's catalog and their subsequent success(all of the albums re-charted on the Billboard Catalog Chart) this should be a no brainer, especially "Destiny" and "Triumph" are in desperate need of remastering help.

Earth Wind & Fire--While we're on the subject of great Sony R&B catalog, where's the rest of this catalog? They've reissued 5-6 of their titles and stopped. The last titles came out nearly two years ago. Where's "I Am", "Faces", and "Raise"?

Isley Brothers--Grant I agree with your comments. Only two of their catalog titles have been remastered (The Heat Is On, Harvest For The World), and I definitely want the rest. With the box set that came out in '99 having been deleted, the full albums should be out in their place. There's really been no rhyme or reason to how their catalog has been re-issued. All of the early T-Neck albums except "It's Our Thing" are available on CD. That one along with "Live It Up"(I can't believe this one has never been released on CD!),"3+3"(I know this one's out as an SACD, but how about a hybrid CD?) "Go For Your Guns", "Showdown", "The Winner Takes All" all need to be remastered.

 

Aggreed about the non-appearence of the above 2 tracks. FWIW there is more A quality unreleased '67 studio stuff than those 2 tracks. Also, Candy and a Currant Bun, Apples and Oranges and Paintbox are currently unavailable on CD outside of the $120 Shine On box The superior stereo mix of Apples and Oranges and the very unique mix of Intersteller Overdrive from the French EP have both never been on CD. Why Pink Floyd doesn't release a single disc that covers the '67 singles and '67 outtakes is beyond me.

Chris

 

True enough -- in addition, the bass boost on the first two albums is pretty ridiculous. Good ol' Peter Mew.

I thought "Clutching At Straws" was an improvement over the muddy first issue, though.

Hadn't heard Fish's comments -- is there something online that you can point me to?

Yeah, they had a field day on the old mailing list about that. They were relatively minor, though. A bigger problem is that the first few were hard to read because of some questionable color choices.

Indeed I neglected that. Those are awfully nice little sets for the fans. All the singles with original art in "mini-LP" (or in this case mini-12") format, with all the b-sides that appeared on all formats of the single. In some cases, there end up being eight or nine tracks, and "Dry Land" is practically a live album.

Ryan

 

The box set is already deleted? That is a tragedy!

Regarding remasters - The Brothers: Isley was also reissued by Legacy in 1997 as part of their Rhythm & Soul Series and is already out of print.

 

Yes Mike, Sony deleted Isley's box set last year. I've seen copies of it out there so grab it if you see it. It's especially tragic when you hear how good the 70's era material sounds on the box. Most of those albums were engineered by Bob Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil who were Stevie Wonder's synth programmers and also co-engineered "Music Of My Mind", "Talking Book", "Innervisions", "Fullfillingness' First Finale". For those who didn't know, the Isley Brothers recorded most of those albums at Todd Rundgren's Bearsville Studio.

 

Good point, Luke, but I think they should've separated those. You know, try to keep the Hot Rocks collections nice and tidy, pack them into two discs, and then put the rarities and strays with another collection. Would made it easier on the casual fans and minimize the overlap for diehard fans.

As for catalogs needing a rehaul, the Beatles, David Bowie, and Frank Sinatra's Capitol albums are easily in the top three. Unfortunately, the remasters for all three have been subpar.

Prince, Talking Heads, and the Pretenders could use a lot of help. I'm hopeful Rhino will be able to do to them what they've done for Yes.

 

I agree - I had one of the Charly's years ago and it was no good. You might want to check out the Sequels because I don't think Rhino is going to do any more. The Sequels were taken from the original masters and come 2 cd's to a package. They are all out of print already.

 

I got mine the first week of release. I love that box and I agree that it has excellent sound. (That was my first comment on sound quality - I better fill out my profile) Too bad it went out of print so fast!

 

No, I would rather they add to the appropriate albums in the catalog as bonus tracks, just as Columbia/Legacy has done with the Byrds albums.

What wouldn't be a cheap shoddy job is the following:

Get rid of all existing ABKCO Stones hits compilations: Big Hits: High Tide and Green Grass, Through the Past Darkly, Hot Rocks, and More Hot Rocks.

Replace them with one 2-CD Hot Rocks compilation with 75+ minutes of music on each disc. Include every UK a-side (double a-side singles such as Let's Spend the Night Together / Ruby Tuesday would have both tracks included on this set, while more obscure b-sides such as Who's Driving Your Plane, etc. would not be included on this set, which focuses on the well-known hits and key album tracks. These b-sides would be added to the individual albums as bonus tracks). Add key album tracks such as Under My Thumb and Sympathy for the Devil.

And finally, maybe I'm really living in a fantasy world, price the 2-disc revised Hot Rocks as a single CD and market the hell out of it as your one stop source for all of the key songs of the golden age of the Stones. ABKCO would have a shot at Beatles 1-type sales numbers if it did this.

Or ABKCO could just keep on marketing 4 different hits compilations (5 if you throw in 40 Licks), each flawed in its own way. You make the call.

 

I ran out and got right when it was released too! In a way I can see why it's been cut out. I know I was a bit irritated that there were several key album tracks and singles that were excluded from the box. Criminal when you realize that a significant part of their T-Neck catalog is either out of print, or has never been released on CD. Hopefully they'll do it over again with the missing tracks and expand it to four CD's!!!

 

I don't know about the shortcomings of the box because I've only been getting into the Isley's these past few years. 4 cd box? I can deal with that!

 

I wouldn't limit the complaint to just Sire. The Twintone catalog is much worse. The recent remasters suck, soundwise, with their overcompression and loudness maximization. The packaging is slipshod, with no liner notes and no bonus tracks.

You know, it's much easier to come up with examples of catalogs that need help, as opposed to catalogs done right. Sad, eh?

Probably the best remaster series I can think of is the Meat Puppets on Ryko. Great sound, copious liner notes (with running comments by drummer Derrick Bostrom), lots of bonus tracks, plus multimedia on each disc... and all at a midline list price. Everyone should follow their example.

 

I'm sort of a dissenting vote as far as all the positive comments on the Rhino Elvis series. I say "sort of" because the only one I've heard is the reissued "Spike". I was unhappy with the sound on it, finding it to be substantially worse than the original CD. The usual suspects to blame: some digital compression and loudness maximizing, and the excessive boost in treble that is slightly pain-inducing when I listen on headphones. I agree that the liners and bonus trax are nice, though, but I had to keep my original Spike disc because it sounds superior to the remaster.

 

At least the remastering of the Elvis catalog isn't maximized-to-hell, the way "When I Was Cruel" has been mastered. I pulled "My Little Blue Window" off that one for a mix CD, and can not believe how squashed it is!

 

Yes! The "I Am" CD has a glitch at the end of "In The Stone", and sounds thin. And, I'm still miffed that Sony won't issue the single version of "Fall In Love With Me".

FWIW, I took it upon myself to put the remaining Isley Brothers LPs on CD-R:
Live It Up
Showdown
Grand Slam
Inside You
Go All The Way

Those Ray Parker Jr/Raydio albums I restored to CD-R are:
Raydio
Rock On
Two Places At The Same Time
A Woman Needs Love
The Other Woman

My Raydio/Ray Parker Jr transfers sound good.

 

Favorites: Byrds, Elvis Costello (Rhino), Super Hits of the 70's (Rhino)

Needs Improving: Beatles, Springsteen, Pretenders

 

Should I say it any LOUDER! THE BEATLES Gee, I hope that wasn't too many capitals!

 

Frank Sinatra's Capitol/EMI Catalog is a generally a disgrace and needs a complete makeover.

A few Nat King Cole's Capitol's that Steve never got around to

Of Course The Beatles Catalog Capitol/ EMI



I don't want it to appear as though I'm picking on Capitol.

Generally, the sound quality of Capitol's CD re-issues is pretty sad.

 

I agree for the most part. They couldn't add the US AM & BTB differences as bonus tracks? Those to albums would be fantastic with those singles. Even worse is having to buy Flowers for a few oddities...which I haven't...I'm hoping to find a friend with it. They also could have added the cover art to Flowers inside BTB, and both covers on one Aftermath disc. I think the sound quality is pretty good though.

 

Grant, how is the 45 version of "Fall In Love With Me" different from the LP Version? Is it just an edit or is the mix different from the one on the "Powerlight" album? I have no idea since I never bought the single and don't remember the difference from hearing it on the radio back in '83.

 

The single is remixed and re-edited. The arraingement is much tighter than the LP cut, and sounds more like what EWF would have placed at the beginning of an album back in the 70s. It sounds much more like a hit single. It should have been that way on the album too. It probably would have done better than it did. I did a nice transfer of the 45 to CD-R, and use it everytime I need the song on a compilation. I don't like the LP version at all.

The way a song is mixed and edited is everything!