Ah, thanks for your detailed replay, and I hope that by now (Tues., Aug. 4th) you've received it and had a chance to enjoy it. Somewhat on a tangent, I just got the 2 LP two-color Amoeba Gig from the PM site and it is a terrific looking and sounding pressing. My first time ordering from the Man himself, and am very happy, since I hear that returns/exchanges are not so easy.
Not sure if this has been pointed out before, but after comparing, I believe the "Acoustic" version of Calico Skies is the same version as the clip from the WT doc: Compare the video starting 2:10 to 1:34 in the acoustic version. Pretty hard to argue those are not the exact same version.
Of course! I was sitting there thinking who else would've had a right handed guitar around McCartney during that timeframe and Jeff Lynne & Steve Miller came immediately to mind but I totally forgot James, who plays on the album too. Thanks for the heads up.
Listening to my 2cd my lovely wife surprised me with. Haven’t listened to it for a good while, but it’s still arguably my favorite album by his.
The (super)deluxe release of Flowers In The Dirt was a weird phenomenon: Leaving the most interesting leftovers off of any version (even the 1993 ‘PM Collection’ cd made more sense) and deliberately avoiding any of it on the Pure McCartney set a couple of months earlier. I’m glad that at least the experimental part of that seems to have passed.
Reading that you feel good with this investment, makes me feel better as well. Maybe my perception of the whole thing is wrong. We are not obliged to buy the sets and the 2 CD version is great deal. The main thing is that we feel happy with what we have purchased.
It's great until he tells that same old Hey Jude anecdote AGAIN (!!) I mean even he must be bored of it by now.
Firstly, I have the standard Deluxe edition (375 for those keeping scores) and therefore feel that after five days or so I can give it a fair assessment. I have no problems really with the standard of the production (apart from a couple of minor manufacturing issues). It appears to give a good overview of the album, perhaps at the upper end of the scale in terms of the the other sets in terms of scope. I have heard all of the discs so far except the documentary and have looked at all of the contents and am perhaps half way through reading the book. I think the only way to assess the value in terms of purely physical contents is to compare the individual items and put a fair price on similar items. I am doing this live so to speak so as I write I have little idea what price will emerge, so here goes: 1. CDs/DVDs: I think that if you look at these in the cold light of day each disc/packaging would probably be purchased at £10 and as we have 7 that equals £70. The packaging is obviously more robust than a single disc but as it is divided by seven the overall disc/packaging tends to balance out so I think that is fair (you get a nicer booklet and portfolio than a standard release, but you only get one). 2. Book: Very nicely produced but it is a 128 page hardback book essentially. Similar books I have in terms of size and quality are perhaps in the £20 bracket. 3. Lyric sheets. Again very nicely presented but in essence we have a series of single page facsimiles in an envelope along with a guitar pic.They are the sort of thing that you may get with a special edition of a magazine (I have received poster, photos etc. with music magazines over the years (and yes these are very nicely produced in terms of quality and attention to detail) but I am going to put them in the same price range of say a quality magazine - £6.99. 4. Club Sandwich. Again very nice done. I could be unfair and price this up as a newspaper, but it is better than that so I am going to put it in the same bracket as the other envelope - £6.99. 5. Notebook. This is perhaps the most difficult item to price. It is again a nice facsimile items but in terms of value you could say that it would have perhaps been better including in the main book either at appropriate points or as an addendum at the end. I don't really think it gains a lot from the hardback book format and is probably not going to be a regular read for most. The closest thing I could relate it to is a children's hardback story book in terms of size and and format so I am going to give this a similar price point £7.99. Sub total £111.97. 6. The box. Not sure what to give this, so I am going to add up the above and see what we get and then make a decision In light of this and perhaps in comparison with a deluxe gift box I am going to say £20-£25 so the grand total comes to £136,97. And you know if I had to have gone in cold I would have probably said £140 based on previous boxes and price trends generally over the years If you had and compromised on the additional memorabilia and placed it in the book I am guessing that it could have been brought in at £120. That is my assessment. I am not going to be unfair and assess they Collector's edition as I have not seen this, so maybe someone who has could do a similar breakdown. Having said that, I think it is a fine release and one that adds to the set of Archive releases with little complaint about the actual audio visual content. It is just a little bloated in terms of the price. Does that sound fair?
That's really good to hear.. My 2-CD version arrived on Monday but so far I've only listened to the main disc twice, which sounds excellent. I'm really looking forward to the second disk, which I'll be putting on this afternoon.
I appreciate your input here. I realize your are assessing the value of this archive in terms of "purely physical contents", and comparing the "individual items" to "similar" items, but I simply cannot do that and come up with a meaningful value. For me, this is almost like taking an artists highly unique painting and then assessing it's value, by breaking it down into the materials used to make it, the price of a comparable frame of that size, the cost of the canvas, the paint, and what it would actually cost to reproduce a "similar" painting. I simply cannot parse the value of this archive package any more than I can a unique painting. I view it as a collective, cohesive, artistic whole, filled with some specific, personal, hand selected items by Paul that were never made available to the public before this, let alone be found in "similar" items. No, this isn't a standalone single painting. But it is a limited edition collection of something very unique, very personal, and very special. I can go and buy the official release CD, a McCartney single issue off the magazine rack, order a DVD about McCartney, pirate a bootleg cd of Macca home recordings, throw in a black guitar pick, and then shove it all into a 25.00 "deluxe gift box", but it would never be the same thing. Because this archive collection is not the same thing, I personally don't feel the need for the company to charge the same thing. Don't get me wrong. I also don't like how these sets are going up and up in price and they can prove to be too costly for many. But my perspective as to why they should cost less is a bit different. They just need to stop gouging loyal fans. Mye take.
Of course, ALL the food on that grill is vegetarian: Paul: "I love to cook Linda’s veggie burgers and sausages, which I have got down to a fine art. I also like to BBQ asparagus brushed with a little olive oil, but you have to keep an eye on these (like everything in life!)" Paul McCartney
i received notice of cancellation from MusicVaultz this morning. with my uDiscover order on the delivery truck today i’m feeling a good bit relieved (and excited, of course). not sure what i would’ve done with two CEs, aside from asking Sargon for their estate attorney’s contact info to determine how to incorporate unopened box sets into one’s will. i need to thank everyone on this thread for sharing your insights (always fun to read), order struggles (hugely helpful for commiseration), and deal alerts on various sites. the latter ended up saving me around $178 (!) from my original MV pre-order to catching the uD deal Friday. thank you! i also share in others’ frustrations with the buying experience this time around. someone alluded to it earlier, but the stress involved with some people’s buying decision/experience seems to have dampened the enthusiasm, especially when FP (and even more so the pricing) was announced. i’m not one to complain about “$600 for a single album?!” that’s ridiculous and i fully appreciate the many costs associated with producing sets of this type and scale. but given the severe discounts on release day, i only hope that the PMAC team apply lessons learned from FP to whatever’s left for the Collection and that we buyers end up with less stress and more fun. of course that all goes out the window if/when they do a BBB-style London Town/Back to the Egg, in which case they could charge whatever they want and sell out in a day…
70 pounds for the discs is a bit over the top, several are nowhere near full and you can get much of the audio bonus content (and remastered album) for about 15 pounds. I would suggest that without deluxe packaging, they would be in the 30 to 40 pound range.
Speed of Sound sounds great no matter what mean of playback. Its Wings best recorded album sound wise.
I may be wrong but wasn’t Peter Henderson the coproducer of Supertramp’s Breakfast In America involved in the recording of Speed of Sound?
You are probably correct, but I was trying to be fair in respect of the packaging and that there are 2 Dvds.
I realise that everyone's perception of value is different, but I felt I was being reasonable in terms of the costs and I was really viewing it as a deluxe edition. I ca appreciate your painting comparison which is why I did not feel comfortable tackling the collector's edition as I have not personally seen that version. However, I would expect something like that to be signed if you are charging 'art prices. My view ultimately on this package is that it is very well done but is significantly overpriced. It is a £140 product priced at £259. The Collector's Edition I am not going to comment upon further for the reasons above but it is most definitely an expensive product. I don't class these sets as art, I class them as special edition music releases, no matter how many additions are bolted on. That said, I do respect your opinions and views. I think ultimately we are all just saying be fair to your fans and appreciate that they are not all millionaires!
