I would rather have reeditions of Stormwatch and A flowing as quickly as possible instead of This Was or this 50-50 stuff. But I guess, I still buy This Was just for the completionist side of things. I consider the Peter Mew's remix of This Was just fine.
I have no problem with Mew's mix either, but they're saying the Wilson This Was will include additional unreleased material. For me, that has always been a major selling point of these booksets.
If we are talking several bonus tracks then it would be worth upgrading from the Mew set but i need another box set like a hole in the head
No, but it's definitely bluer than anything that followed. I'm not a blues fan either and there are certainly a number of tracks that I rarely play, but I'm a terminal completist and there's enough good stuff to make the album worth it for me - particularly with the inclusion of "Love Story" as a bonus track. That's one of my favorite early Tull singles. The mono mix is puncher than the stereo, which I don't expect to change with the remix; Wilson uses the existing stereo mixes as templates, so I don't think he'll deviate from that practice to make the remix feel more like the mono version.
Having both original and 40th anniversary mixes at hand, I've done a geeky thing: I've tried to find out what may be recorded on which of the 4 tracks This Was was recorded on. Here's the result: This Was mixes Bad news is that the tracks are often bounced to one track, in case of two songs it's even drums, bass and guitar blended together (My Sunday Feeling and It's Breaking Me Up). I don't believe separate tracks exist for these, they were most probably bouncing and erasing on the same tape; but who knows? There are 4 songs with no bounces at all though (all the instrumentals + Someday...).
On a Tull forum it was said that it would be released in November, so it might be early for more updates.
You're welcome. The spreadsheet is opened for comments and notes, so if anyone spots a mistake, it can be pointed out there. By the way, while doing this I had a chance to better compare the original mix with the 40th anniversary mix, and I think the former is actually better. I believe Peter Mew hasn't been using it as a reference while doing his job, he has just been given the 4-track tape to do whatever he wanted to do with it. So his mix is dry and doesn't replicate the reverbs and panning shifts of the original - all track are fixed in the stereo span. His version has revealed a few things that have disappeared in the original mix, but it happened by chance I guess. And sometimes he did the other way around: for instance, he has put all the tracks in Cat's Squirrel in the middle, and rendered it almost in mono, while all the tracks are clearly separated in the original stereo mix, with the guitar floating from left to right and back.
I do not like blues much either, so you might try a download comp using the first 6, something like mine here: My Sunday Feeling Beggars Farm A Song for Jeffery One for John Glee Seranade to a Cuckoo Round Love Story Living in the Past Sweet Dream 17 (the long version rocks) Up the Pool Singing All Day Life is a Long Song
All right guys, show of hands. How many guys who have the SW Benefit would buy it again if it came out in book edition? I’ll go first.
I wouldn't buy without previously unreleased tracks ~ not merely mixes. Lovely as it would look on the shelf.... Maybe there's an even longer June '70 edit called Wond'ring Agape, Aloud, Again. That would be enough for me! Glenn can't provide any further recollections for a new edition, alas
If it's reissued straight I wouldn't re-buy it I think. If there are some more bonus tracks and even mixes I will seriously consider it.