Records you truly love in spite of genuinely awful sound

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by michael landes, Jan 29, 2013.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. spice9

    spice9 Senior Member

    Location:
    New York, NY
    What's so bad about that? Live and old. Sounds okay to me.
     
  2. quietmouse

    quietmouse New Member

    Location:
    Central Arkansas
    Bruce Springsteen "Greetings from Ashbury"
     
    ultron9, dlabruyere and svoegtlin like this.
  3. davidshirt

    davidshirt =^,,^=

    Location:
    Grand Terrace, CA
    Bon Iver - For Emma Forever Ago. I own two copies on vinyl, both are marred by bad surface noise. Wonder where it was pressed...

    Sent from my AT300 using Tapatalk HD
     
  4. elaterium

    elaterium Forum Resident

    Fugs 1st-Strictly Personal-White Light/White Heat-and while I don't love the record, Pretties For You (Alice Cooper) is one of the worst recorded albums ever. I released an album in 1992 called BALLS (3 bass players and a drummer) which was recorded on a 30 dollar Radio Shack mono cassette deck! Actually it sounds better than the aforementioned.
     
    quarl23 likes this.
  5. SteelyTom

    SteelyTom Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, Mass.
    Charles Mingus, Mingus at Monterey (Meditations On Integration in particular).
     
  6. MrRobivan

    MrRobivan Active Member

    Location:
    Atlanta, Georgia
    Potliquor - Levee Blues
    The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards
    The Hot Monkey - More Than Lazy
     
  7. spencer1

    spencer1 Great Western Forum Resident

    Love this album but ... Welcome To The Canteen.jpg Traffic "Welcome To The Canteen"
     
    TonyG, ultron9, phillyal1 and 6 others like this.
  8. B.Bartokomous

    B.Bartokomous Senior Member

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Springsteen. The River.
     
  9. chewy

    chewy Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Coast USA
    ironically the only crimson lp i have a pink island of. LOL
     
  10. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    This is a very low fidelity recording.
     
    Adam9 and Sneaky Pete like this.
  11. chrischerm

    chrischerm Forum Resident

    Ramones, End of the Century. Great album, brutal production...
     
  12. Hamhead

    Hamhead The Bear From Delaware

    I wish that the Harry Smith material that came from their first session (that was on the first album and Virgin Fugs) comes out in it's entirety.

    My picks for great album, lousy sound:
    Love - Forever Changes (lousy mix)
    The Turtles - It Aint Me Babe (ditto)
    Anything by the Rascals
    Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue (the mono is tolerable, the stereo is painful)
    Bobby Darin - That's All (it sounds like the band was recorded a quarter of a mile away)
    Frank Sinatra - Any of the 1940's Columbia recordings expecially "The Voice Of Frank Sinatra". I know that was all done on disc and sounds fine for the era, listing to all the surface noise on that reissue of The Voice Of Frank Sinatra makes you wish that tape machines are around in 1946. The same goes for Charlie Parker.
     
  13. mrdiscman

    mrdiscman Disc Manufacturing Specialist

    Bruce Springsteen - Magic
     
  14. spanky1

    spanky1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    Delbert McClinton's first 2 lps on ABC Records ~1975-1976. VICTIM OF LIFE'S CIRCUMSTANCES and GENUINE COWHIDE. Great albums, but the sound is not great.
     
  15. Beck-Ola, at least on CD is muddy as hell.
     
    Dan Steele likes this.
  16. michael landes

    michael landes Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Good point. And your selection points up a problem with the topic. Often, the unique sound becomes a vital part of the
    record 's magic. The fact the unique sound was the result of incompetence, being in a rush, lack of budget or whatever,
    doesn't alter the fact that in many cases these bits of strangeness are inseparable from the magic of the track.
    Quarter To Three is a great example. It sounds awful, yet...... can you it sounding otherwise and liking it as well?
    I can't. Even my own pick. Strictly Personal, I'm confident, is a brilliant example of lousy sound, yet I can't imagine it
    sounding otherewise. Here's a special favorite of mine: ANGEL BABY. This truly sounds awful, but when I heard the
    cleaned up version released in the U.K. at the time, I was fascinated to find it had lost some of its magic for me. This in spite of
    the fact that Rosie herself sound infinitely better on the UK 45 ......................... yet less magical (???????) The
    cleaner Brit version sounds better, but the original sounds .................... otherworldly. the topic morphs into one about found art.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  17. NapoleonXIV

    NapoleonXIV Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI
    Huge portions of The Animals', The Yardbirds', and the early Rolling Stones output sounds pretty horrific yet wonderful; the primitve sound maybe part of their charm. Should rock and roll really sound pristine?
     
  18. brimuchmuze

    brimuchmuze Forum Resident

    Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music
     
    spindly likes this.
  19. michael landes

    michael landes Forum Resident Thread Starter

    For me the sound of British Out Of Our Heads never became part of it's magic. That is to say, that
    while it is one of my very favorite l.p.'s, in this case I DO cringe. I love it IN SPITE OF the awful sound.
    I would kill to have a better recorded version of those performances. (sigh ! )
    On the other hand the pristine awfulness of their Bye Bye Johnnie, recorded in mid '63, I love without caveat.
    I totally embrace the garage sound of that track. Case-by-case issue, totally personal, to be sure.
     
    goodiesguy, bonus and mschrist like this.
  20. jumboshrimp

    jumboshrimp Forum Resident

    Location:
    kalamazoo, mi
    Chicago II
    I don't think there's ever been a decent sounding release of this on any media.

    By the way, is the Mobile Fidelity CD of II ever going to see the light? Will it have improved sound?
    I suspect it was recorded poorly, but any upgrade would be welcome.
    I've had it on order from Music Direct for more than a year- schedule still says release date "TBD"
     
    Trbnado likes this.
  21. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    I love Quarter To Three and in fact, the low-fi sound is great for this recording.
     
  22. unclesalty

    unclesalty Rzzzzz!

    Location:
    Jendell
    Kiss - Hotter Than Hell

     
  23. princesskiki

    princesskiki Kiki's Mom

    Sex Pistols Never Mind ...
     
    Slick Willie and Sneaky Pete like this.
  24. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Beatles '65. US Capitol Records.
     
    Sax-son and Slick Willie like this.
  25. MadMelMon

    MadMelMon Forum Resident

    I'm surprised I'm the first to mention the MC5's Back in the USA, The Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy, or Iggy's Raw Power.

    There's obvious glorified (or not so glorified) home demo stuff like the first couple Ween things. There are a few things, though, that you'd think would have spectacular sound, but don't even come close to when they should be. Kate Bush's 50 Words for Snow is weirdly flat and muddy. Maybe the CD sounds better, but the vinyl is nasty. I actually returned my first one, but the one I have now is still an absolutely lousy pressing: crappy dynamics and a lot of the low-level crackle that you get with cheap vinyl, which is especially disruptive for an album as quiet as that one. I actually set the album aside, knowing I'd love it at some point in the future when I tried again, after I'd forgotten my first impression. WTF?

    Pretty much every Creation Label band from the C86 era (Biff Bang Pow!, The Revolving Paint Dream, Meat Whiplash.) The first several Television Personalities albums are awesome, and wore their lo-fi recordings with pride.

    Can's Monster Movie isn't exactly hi-fi.

    This is going WAY out there, but I recently hunted down an original copy of the Last Year at Marienbad soundtrack. To be fair, the super-minimal spooky organ sound gets a lot of its power from the lo-fi recording (when The Criterion Collection restored the film for Blu-Ray, director Alain Renais asked that they leave the audio untouched, hiss, crackles and all.) It's only about 16 minutes total, but it's REAL easy to get seriously lost in that mono haze.
     
    vonwegen likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine