This Was is one of the very few albums where I preferred mono over stereo. Dharma for One sounds amazing to me in mono.
It's a reasonable question. My answer is that quite a few albums in the mid to late 60's had significant differences between the stereo and mono mixes (The White Album, Face To Face, Mr Fantasy and Music in a Doll's House being just a few examples). I'm just curious to hear This Was in mono but would first like to hear other peoples assessment of the mastering.
Good response. I personally don’t find the mono This Was particularly engaging and have no issues with stereo mix. By 1968 the stereo mixes were generally getting much better and mono was now getting less attention.
Jethro Tull's "This Was" on CD 2008 - This Was was remixed in stereo on the Deluxe 2-CDs set. On that same edition, the mono mix was also released for the first time in digital, with all accompanying singles and extra tracks. It sounds great and you get all the music recorded during that period, including the BBC John Peel's sessions. - Plan9 I said: I prefer the mono CD version of This Was, except for the vocal distortion on *A Song For Jeffrey. I find the voice effect on *track 9 (disc 1) to be torture as it is turned up too loud to the point of distortion.
I believe "Aeroplane" and "Blues for the 18th" date from earlier sessions with the John Evan Band; you can hear the horn section, mixed low. "Sunshine Day" may be the only Toe recording from the Mick Abrahams era, leading to the decision to only include recordings by the Abrahams lineup. But I'm pleased with Wilson's decision to include all the Toe tracks for the sake of thoroughness. There's a very rough live tape in circulation, briefly heard on the Classic Artists documentary; I don't know if that's considered too poor quality to warrant a widespread commercial release. Also, they were nowhere near close to the classic Tull sound yet, so the recordings may be only of academic interest to many - rather like the 1966 Iveys recording that Ron Griffiths recently released. It's interesting to hear Pete Ham and the others belting out R&B standards, but the recordings themselves are not intrinsically fascinating on their own merits.
If it were a medley, wouldn't they list the titles of the component songs (like they did on the various live discs)? If it's an original piece, there's no way to know what it's like until we hear it or an insider describes it fairly thoroughly.
Amazon.ca as well. Canadians do your own search before ordering. Price is competitive but not definitive...
I ordered passion play on Amazon on August 12 and just received notice that it will ship - very good price. Not sure it will work as it was listed as out of stock for a while and the estimated delivery window I received was between November 7 and December 19: https://www.amazon.com/Passion-Play-2CD-2DVD/dp/B00J4A27B2
So are the masters lost for "One For John Gee"? No Wilson remix on that one, I see. Same with "Sunshine Day," though less surprisingly. From a listening standpoint ~ First World problem alert ~ kinda wish the latter song wasn't relegated to the back end of disc 2 with "Aeroplane" & "Blues For the 18th." It is the This Was lineup, after all, and one of the rare Abrahams originals.
Will be interesting to hear songs such as aeroplane, sunshine day and blues for the 18th remixed. They won’t sound as old though once Wilson is done with them
They don't show as Wilson remixes on the official track listing. They're not included with the "associated recordings" on disc 1. (Neither is One For John Gee, which is listed only in "original mono mix.") Would love it if they turned out to be, though. Right now, they're just listed as song titles with no mix indicator at all.
Apparently so for John Gee, too, as it didn't get a stereo remix last round, either. Too bad, I love that little track.
