Just think, no more Webb Pierce or Bill Anderson boxed sets, no chance of ever having a definite Warner Mack set, Loretta Lynn's all gone; probably even her Zero recordings. Conway Twitty, gone. Most depressing thing though is that they sat on these recordings for years and years and did nothing with them. And there is so much out there today in vaults that no one is doing anything with. We are more worried about putting stuff back on vinyl instead of just reissuing what is sitting in the vaults that hasn't been heard in decades.
At the pressing plant/factory there are negatvie tape of the recordings on tape.So it can be rescued with these tapes.
If audio copyright law had long ago stated that the artist owned their masters, this would not have happened
It doesn't guarantee there won't be any more box sets by those artists, but it does mean any potential reissues will have inferior sound quality and no unreleased material. Depressing indeed.
Many reissues never came from actual master tapes. Only some did. Most were from tape dubs or even vinyl/78 transfers. There is still a lot of great music out there by all of these artists. Most of what we have now is not "inferior", so there is plenty of music by these affected artists to enjoy in this world
True, I was just referring to Bear Family releases in particular which use the masters whenever possible.
I actually wonder if the original tapes were used in many BF productions. My guess is that they often had dubs provided by the US corporations. Certainly for many of the items issued by Bear Family, even from the tape era, first generation tapes no longer existed at the time of BF reissues.
First Dick Curless CD box mostly all was recorded in Stereo.But is in mono in the box.These was played on radio in Norway in the 80s.That is a mystery. Just like most of the Carl Manns Phillips International recordings was recorded in stereo but released in Mono on the CDbox.These are amazing in stereo.
I think that in almost all cases of a vocalist recording, the mono is better than the stereo. I wish all the BF boxes had selected the mono.
What a tragedy. Check out this article out which is from 6/11/19. Universal are claiming the New York Times report wasn't entirely accurate. If Universal are trying to save face, that would make sense as well. “While there are constraints preventing us from publicly addressing some of the details of the fire that occurred at NBC Universal Studios facility more than a decade ago, the incident—while deeply unfortunate—never affected the availability of the commercially released music nor impacted artists’ compensation.” Universal Music Group Claimed No Master Recording Burned in 2008 Blaze. New Report Estimates Hundreds of Thousands Did | Smart News | Smithsonian
Good point. I wonder if BF utilized different sources to complete the project? At the time of its cancellation a few years ago, I seem to recall they said it was completed, but couldn't get legal clearance for certain tracks, which made it impossible to release a truly "complete" set.
That could be a case of Universal covering themselves. Giving our litigious society these days, I have no doubt there are legacy acts with their lawyers pondering lawsuits over this against Universal.
A boss from Universal was asked about original movies was burned up in the flames.He said it was only copies of the original movies.It was shown on CNN when it was burning.So maybe some music did not burn up.
The Patsy Cline set was in production for several years already. All the masters, transcriptions and demos had already been remastered. It wouldn't have been the first time that Bear Family sends back original tapes and the "major" company enquires about them – "What's this? Did you get it from us? We thought we've lost them somewhere...."
Information about Universal studios fire: Millions of iconic tracks destroyed by fire at Universal Studios This link may not work,i had to create a log in password to read this: The Day the Music Burned
George Jones --- Starday/Mercury, United Artists and two Musicor boxes. Pre-1970 Possum was a total mess before those four.
First disc of the Merle haggard set was even better than expected. The only less-than-great track was the version of "Sam Hill" with background vocals, which isn't even the fault of the Hag. Will be listening to the next CD or two today. Narvel Felts' Rocks is essential if you don't have Did You Tell Me and Memphis Days, and still a fun listen if you do. Rare one from 1966:
Got to be this one. I’ve enjoyed that set a lot. I have the two covering his earliest years. I’ll need to give them a spin, soon.
