DCC Archive Follow Up But Slightly Different Angle on Boxed Sets

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Doug Hess Jr., Sep 23, 2001.

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  1. Doug Hess Jr.

    Doug Hess Jr. Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Belpre, Ohio
    Dr. Winston O'Boogie asked a splendid question concerning new boxed sets. I'd like to explore some problems with the old ones-- which I hope the record labels will not do again.
    The first problem I have is putting live tracks on IN PLACE of the regular studio versions of songs. Put them both on. In the case of KANSAS as an example of a poor set-- only 2 CD's for this group with their career? At least they put the full version of "Song For America" on it unlike the first "Best Of" which had an edited version. :mad: Which brings me to the last rant before unleashing the rest of you...45 versions of songs-- not so we can have it and the album version both-- but so we can simply have room to put more songs on. Let's just have more CD's in the set so we don't have to use the short versions to stuff it all in.
    OK. Next.

    [ September 23, 2001: Message edited by: Dough ]
     
  2. Sckott

    Sckott Hand Tighten Only.

    Location:
    South Plymouth, Ma
    The only way to listen to Kansas is to get the actual albums, CD or LP and stay away from the CBS associated "Best Of" or compilations of any kind. "Carry On Our Wayward Son" sounds 100% better on the self-titled LP or CD. The "Best Of" Cd sounds like a science project.
     
  3. Gary

    Gary Nauga Gort! Staff

    Location:
    Toronto
    Dough, you raise a good point.

    This is slightly off topic but related: I generally HATE "greatest hits" packages. I always disagree with the producers of what should be on it. But the greatest sin :mad: is when they chop off pieces of songs or use the short "single" versions. My greatest recent disappointment is the two CD set of Dire Straits GH where they chop off the beginning of Money for Nothing and other atrocities.

    As a shining example, look at DCC / Tull - Original Masters. It's what a compilation SHOULD be! :) (way to go, Steve!!)
     
  4. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    A well compiled and sounding excellent throughout compilation I have bought lately is the Reader's Digest collection of Peter, Paul & Mary which was compiled by the trio themselves. This 4 CD's in a jewel case set contains, the hits on disc 1, group favorite album tracks on disc 2, album tracks from the kids albums and "songs of The Spirit" on disc 3 and solo tracks on disc 4 including what is a major hit otherwise hard to find on CD commercially except for a Contemporary Christian wedding compilation on Sparrow entitled "Giving You The Rest of My Life" with the track being "The Wedding Song (There Is Love") by Noel Paul Stookey, the Paul of the trio. The pocket sized booklet does contain comments of all of the songs by all 3 members of the trio and Ted Jensen remastered the set. Peter did supervise this set as well as all of the individual album CD reissues as well and all of their CD's actually came from the original master tapes and not copies.
     
  5. btomarra

    btomarra Classic Rock Audiophile

    Location:
    Little Rock, AR
    Dough,

    I, too, concur. That was why I didn't buy the Doobie's box set. They used the single edit of Listen To The Music. On their latest Greatest Hits collection, for a change, they used the...single edit. That box set was poorly paced and overstuffed. DCC's Best of The Doobies still is the superior choice!

    Brian ;)
     
  6. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Quoth Gary
    Funny, I know a lot of people who think totally the opposite - that all GH sets should have the single versions. In a certain sense I agree with them - we've already got the album versions on the albums - shouldn't the single versions be issued somewhere?

    It does vary. While the single version of say, Listen To The Music makes sense in some respects, Money For Nothing doesn't - all it is is the album version with no intro. Same thing with Where The Streets Have No Name (if memory serves).
     
  7. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    I like the single versions of Steve Miller Band's hits as I'm partial to them so I like the vinyl of Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits 1974-1978 compilation.
     
  8. Unknown

    Unknown Guest

    I think it's a good idea to include "single versions", but only as bonus tracks.
     
  9. btomarra

    btomarra Classic Rock Audiophile

    Location:
    Little Rock, AR
    Quoth Luke: It does vary. While the single version of say, Listen To The Music makes sense in some respects, Money For Nothing doesn't - all it is is the album version with no intro.

    I agree with you that the single version of Money For Nothing makes no sense. I do believe it had more than just the intro chopped off. I believe the second verse was also edited out, and it had an early fade at the end.

    Interestingly, the LP version at around 7 minutes was edited. The CD version is at around 8 minutes. Maybe due to LP sides being limited to under 30 minutes. If they used the full versions of Money For Nothing, Why Worry, The Latest Trick, and So Far Away you would have an LP side at around 32 minutes.

    I, too think that Listen To The Music works in some settings. It's just it has been used too frequently. If memory serves, the full length version remastered is only on the DCC Best of.

    Brian
     
  10. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I agree with Luke in that the single version should be issued somewhere. Boxes that are collections of a particular artist should have singles mixes/edits, IMO. I also like both in my colection.

    I welcome single versions because I grew up with top 40 radio. If I have the albums why do I want the LP version AGAIN? And AGAIN? And AGAIN?

    In the case of live versions, I want whatever the HIT was.

    In some cases, it is the artist themselves that want certain versions of a song included on a package. So, there is little that can be done in those cases.
     
  11. Uncle Al

    Uncle Al Senior Member

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    Well, I always feel that the "unavailable version" should be, somehow, made available.

    That said - it becomes a little tricky when dealing with "album oriented artists" that may have never had a seconds worth of input on a single edit. It also becomes a little "fuzzy" on what the hit actually was once you hit 1970 or so. While a single edit may have existed, and the record may have charted on the Top 100, underground FM radio stations always played the "hit" song, but they usually played the album version. Many of us grew up with songs on the radio that WERE NOT the single edits. The first time I heard The Whos' "Won't Get Fooled..." single edit I wanted to barf. I don't think you can deny that song was a hit, and I don't think that edit made it one.

    Becomes a little strange if you are buying a box, or "collection" CD which contains single edits YOU DO NOT REMEMBER from the radio, and you do not have, nor do you desire to buy into individual catalog albums. I find myself more often in that situation than missing a long lost single edit (that Billy Joel Greatest Hits CD comes to mind, I don't think I ever heard that edit of "My Life").
     
  12. Doug Hess Jr.

    Doug Hess Jr. Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Belpre, Ohio
    I would certainly agree. There are several songs that supposedly have the 45 edit on it, but Radio never played that version. And on the other hand, sometimes you can't get the "radio" version because they are made special. "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake is a perfect example. Try finding the Single Edit that was the hit-- but on the other hand, that was the hit version of the hit music stations. The rock stations just played what was on the album. That's why I think BOTH versions of songs should be included in boxed sets.
     
  13. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Yeah, but I just happened to live in a place where FM radio DID play the 45 edit of "My Life"and lots of other songs. I'm not the only one.

    What bugs me is when, on box sets, they come up with "single versions" that never were. This is probably because the compiler may not have known better and "single" was written on the tape box. A good example of that is "Love To Love You Baby" on Donna Summer's Anthology and Greatest Hits. It is the version that Giorgio Moroder played at a disco to test it. When he got approval from the crowd he finished it. But that is the version on the CD. The actual finished single is on Side B, which can be created by using the last part of the LP version at somewhere around 12:51. Side A contains a different edit, which is the edited version of the first half of the LP version, which is also on earlier CD's and compilations. I suppose the reason it was issued on CD is because it was side A on the Oasis single. BUT, radio played the B side in 1975/76!

    Another one is "Got To Get You Into My Life" on the Earth Wind & Fire "Eternal Dance" box. It says it's the single but the actual single is the one that appears on the Best Of compilation from 1978.

    [ September 25, 2001: Message edited by: Grant T. ]
     
  14. Doug Hess Jr.

    Doug Hess Jr. Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Belpre, Ohio
    That brings up a whole other point. My younger brother likes to collect original 12 inch versions of songs. Back in the 70s, the 12 inch WAS the real song for DISCO and they edited them down for radio. Now the radio version is made first and then they create the longer club mixes.
     
  15. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    A lot of urban radio stations played the 12" or disco versions. In 1975 a Phoenix AZ FM radio station, KBBC, played a disco 12" of "Get Dancin'" by Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lets. All I can ever find now is the LP version which is basically side 1 of the single. But, alas, the rest of that 12" is on side 2 of that single. The best I could do is spend a few hours with Cool Edit trying to reconstruct the 12" from memory using the 45. No one I talk to about the 12" version claims to have ever heard of it.

    Another popular 12" is Shalamar's "The Second Time Around". It has a totally different mix than either the 45 or the LP. But this IS on CD everywhere along with the LP mix. But try to find the single mix on CD! It was a top 10 hit...
     
  16. Unknown

    Unknown Guest

    I remember "Get Dancin'"....in fact I still have the 45rpm of it (along with a lot of others) buried somewhere. I do think I recall hearing the long version once on AM radio....but I could be wrong.
     
  17. Elton

    Elton I Hope Being Helpful, Will Make Me Look Cool

    Location:
    Carson Ca.
    The biggest problem is that after the early 80's there weren't any single versions, there were only edits. The verison of Money for Nothing on the new GH disc is the vinyl LP verison. The 45 verson did delet the verse about the "earring and the makeup".

    And record companys will try to make as much money for as little work as possable. I burougt Firefall's GH and all the song except there biggest hit "Strange Way" used the LP verison. I called Rino (Should have known) and they used the "45 verison is the one most people remember" song and dance, so I bought the CD of the LP (Elan) and swore off any buying any more Firefall CD's until they give the public more then what they think, we want. (There not going to ask us anyway!) I'm not talking about you Steve! :mad:
     
  18. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    uh, no Elton. The "Money For Nothing" 45 DOES have the "earring and makeup" verse, and I have the original Warner Brothers 45 to prove it. Someone at Warner Brothers or Polygram in England probably took it out of the CD greatest hits because of political correctness. :rolleyes:

    Another song faded early on their greatest hits is "Hungry Like The Wolf" by Duran Duran". The Sandstone "Cosmopoliaton" CD series, mastered by Steve Hoffman, has the complete, full length single version with the female cries of passion. :D
    [​IMG]

    [ September 28, 2001: Message edited by: Grant T. ]
     
  19. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Ah, Grant, you noticed that, eh? It took me weeks to get EMI to give us that version! Neat, isn't it?
     
  20. Unknown

    Unknown Guest

    You guys are causing me to have 80s flashbacks...can't get the Duran Duran and Dire Straits vids out of my head! :)
     
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