It's official: Mono Dylan John Wesley Harding vinyl November 25

Yes, I have the original mono 'The Graduate' and it's all true mono. Is this a hard to find record?

Todd

 

Very, true. I now recall almost 2 years ago I asked Bob Irwin at a WFMU record show in NY if JWH was true mono or fold-down. He said definately fold-down.

Todd

 

I guess fold-down or not, it's still mono!

 

Yes. Practically every mono LP issued in 1968 in the U.S. is hard to find, as few were made and even fewer were sold; some are quite valuable.

 

Hey everyone I got this from Sundazed..

in reply to

Several thousand Dylan fans thru the years can't be wrong.. I don't think there's a true mono mix despite of what they say.

 

JWH was released in mono but it was just a reduction from stereo (other contributors have confirmed this by listening to both). If there ever was a true mono mix it was never released anywhere worldwide.

Last year I had this from Tim Livingston of Sundazed: "I checked with our producer, Bob Irwin, who has worked with all of the Dylan tapes, and John Wesley Harding was most definitely not a true mono mix - it was simply a reduction of the stereo master. " What they're saying now conflicts with this.

As regards later mono Dylan albums, mono versions of Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait and New Morning were released in some countries. They were also all reductions from stereo.

Bob-rare

 

A lot of noise on this one. I trust Bob Irwin's integrity. SUNDAZED would not put out a mere fold-down mono mix. In the end we will have to let our ears be the judge.

Richard.

 

Let's hope they have now found a unique mono mix which was for some reason never used in 1967. Bob Irwin certainly didn't know about one last year.

Bob-rare

 

Another possibility is that they could have gone back to the original session multi-tracks and done a new mono mix. This would also provide a solution for taming the agressive levels of Charlie McCoy's bass and Kenneth Buttrey's drums.

 

What he's saying now conflicts with this.

 

Wait a minute. If the mono master is a reductino of the stereo mix, then the mono adds another generation of fidelity loss. It's a copy of a copy of the master reels.

What's the point?

 

Mono fetishism.

 

Um...wouldn't it make much more sense for Sundazed to release the first album in mono, seeing how it actually had a genuine mono mix? Unless the master tapes are lost, it makes no sense why they haven't released the "Bob Dylan" in mono, but we get, presumably, a fold-down of JWH.

 

Yep, we were there a few days ago:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22405&highlight=bob+dylans+first

 

Thanks for the link, but I'm still not enlightend. Are the master tapes missing or is Sundazed just waiting for the next wave of SACD remasters? If the latter was true, then why do we have "The Times They Are A-Changin' " and the "Greatest Hits" comp already out from Sundazed when both have yet to be released on SACD? Just another for me...

 

???? was the point of that other thread. I don't think the masters are missing, I believe it's just a matter of how many copies can they sell of that title. They'll get to it eventually (next year).

 

Credible reports have it that release decisions have been made and will be made by Bob's management. I can't confirm this.

Richard.

 

You can't necessarily tell with your ears whether the mono is a fold-down of the stereo mix -- if it was done carefully. That said, we can't be anything but confused at this point, since Sundazed is contradicting itself.

 

You can say that again. Bob Dylan's catalog is too hot right now. Sundazed will try their best to do the vinyl titles that were agreed upon last year, but things have changed....

 

Since Bob Irwin also works independently on other Sony reissue projects one could assume he is familiar with the studio logs, tape identification system and other archive information that would reflect on exactly how the tapes were mixed.

 

Good news!

 

Has anyone done a comparison of the new mono Sundazed JWH with any of the stereo releases out there? I've got to get this on vinyl. In the shadow of Hwy 61 and BoB, it's an underrated masterpiece.

 

Sundazed has announced that they will be reissuing Bob Dylan's self-titled debut on January 20th, 2004. Following their previous releases from the Dylan catalog, it will feature the mono mix on 180-g vinyl.