DCC Archive Strangest/most frustrating reissue program?

Lemme give y'all an idea of what I mean...

Take the Turtles, for example. ALL of their work, for the most part, is availible on CD; however, not one, not two, but THREE different companies have substantial Turtles offerings out.

a) Sundazed. Sundazed is normally wonderful, of course, and their Turtles stuff tends to sound the best (their Turtle Soup and Happy Together albums sound markedly better than the ones from other companies). Yet their liner notes are strangely bad in this case--containing many inaccuracies, mis-identified song credits, et cetera--and the lack of a REAL cache of bonus tracks really hurts the discs. Even worse, they REMOVE a track from It Ain't Me Babe, because Let Me Be also shows up on You Baby. Errr, OK.

b) Repertoire. By far the most comprehensive. However, their liner notes are exactly the same for each disc, and aren't terribly informative (this is Repertoire's 1992/1993 period...their Zombies and Easybeats releases are similar). Track details *are* admittedly better, but the same mis-identified song credits are given. Sound quality is occasionally inferior to Sundazed. Yet Repertoire throws MANY more bonus tracks on, even though some of the mono "single mixes" used are actually just reductions (which makes sense...assuming they're using European tapes, they might not have ever been given true mono mixes of, say, You Showed Me).

c) Laserlight boxed set. Only offers 60 tracks, so kinda skimpy, and the sound is occasionally wonky. Yet contains, by far, the best set of liner notes...I finally learned what the hell Goodbye Surprise, You Want to Be a Woman, and other tracks *were*.


Any other examples?;-)

-D

 

My pick would be the Kinks' 60s albums reissued on Castle. Extensive, comprehensive liner notes. A healthy selection of bonus tracks. Yet the sound is so, so awful due to the egregious NoNoising and treble cranked up to 11. Literally painful to listen to in some cases. Add to that the inexplicable use of the mono mix of VGPS. "Frustrating" is clearly the word here, since obviously a lot of work went into these packages, and they could have been great (like the 70s/80s Kinks reissues on Koch are).

 

LOL
Touche' Steve!

 

Um, yeah...

THE WHO!

At least The Beatles' catalog has *some* semblance of being organized, even if much of it sounds (and looks) like ****.

 

There's so many things happening in reissues, and audiophile repackages that seem to sell well. I don't think it won't happen. It's just a matter of when. Rolling Stones. Someone liberate the sound of the London Stones!!!

-Sckott

 

Booo, Steve...technicality. Frankly, I barely view the Beatles current catalogue as any sort of "archival reissue," really...it's the original series of discs. Now, so is the Turtles catalogue, but they were obviously produced with "archival reissue" in mind.

Great poin made above on the Kinks', and let me put forward the whole Boettcher/Millennium/Sagittarius crew (tracks spread out between many CDs, two distinct reissues, a "definitive" reissue on Sundazed that missed tracks, etc.)

-D

 

Well, the Beatles CDs are frustrating in a different way. I myself find it more frustrating when a lot of time and effort is put into a reissue series, and they still screw it up royally (ie Kinks or Who) as opposed to when they just slap something together and toss it out there without much thought or effort (eg Beatles or Abkco Stones).

 

I agree with David re: The Beatles. When I think 'reissue program,' it implies more than one generation of CDs.

Anyway, here's the trump card:

HENDRIX

How many different versions of his stuff have been out? How many issues are/were only available in certain countries? Overdubs from modern recordings. Tracks hither and thither. How many different places have the Woodstock tracks appeared? Posthumous LPs that were reissued, then got their tracks spread out (some never appearing) over several CDs, the a new batch of CDs with a new lineup of tracks, etc. A total freaking mess. I guess it makes more sense now that Experience Hendrix is in charge, but it's impossible to make sense of his catalog on CD.

Folks, there's your answer. Forget all the other bands mentioned so far.

 

I think the most insane reissue or maybe recycle CD program is the RCA Elvis catalog. Every release seems to be 50% of the previous release of the previous release etc... When will it end??

Todd

 

Oooh, goody, you just reminded me of a REALLY bizarre one: the ARGENT reissues! Let us recap:

a) Beat Goes On has reissued Argent/Ring of Hands.

b) Collectibles has done Ring of Hands and In Deep

c) Sony has done All Together Now

d) Some European company did Nexus.

Well, why is this confusing?

Because apparently none of these companies has the *Sole* ownership of any of the material. So the Sony All Together Now disc, which came out first, adds bonus tracks on (like God Gave Rock 'N Roll To You and Rejoice) that are on In Deep and Ring of Hands, respectively, while the Collectibles discs pinch off some tracks (Hold Your Head Up, He's a Dynamo) that also appear on the Sony disc. Yech.

And while the Beat Goes On set is OK track-wise, the mastering on Argent reveals that said album is in desperate need of a remix...can we say "waterfall of hiss," ladies and gentlemen?


Oh, and no "odd reissue program" would be complete without mentioning the Small Faces. Y'see, here's the difference between, say, the SFs and the Zombies, who've also been comped beyond all reason: unique stuff ACTUALLY SHOWS UP all the time on those Small Faces comps. So you have, for example, Charley's IMMEDIATE YEARS collection, which collects together tons of alternate mixes, but then you have tons of rare vinyl, obscure CDs, new CD issues, country-only comps, et cetera., that actually have *different versions* of the stuff. And of course, there's the horrendous wrong that the "current, definitive" crop of issues (the recent Castle stuff, like Darling of Wharpping Wharf) doesn't sound as good as some of the older issues, having some of the same ultra-brightness as the Kinks material. Not to mention that NOBODY, seemingly, has ever issued Ogden's on CD with the track 1/2 semi-segue intact...

-D

 

Secretly, David owns the 12" picture disc single of "God Gave Rock & Roll To You II."

 

What about the Beach Boys? First they put out almost nothing but "Best of the Beach Boys" and that abortion of "Summer Days" that they called "California Girls" ... then they do the original Capitol-era two-fers, which was the right idea even if the sound could have been a little better.

If they'd just left it at that it would've been fine. But then they DELETE the two-fers and replace them with exceptionally short one-fers (for lack of a better term), without any of the liner notes from the previous issues or anything ... at which point people start paying out the nose for used copies and still-in-print imports.

Then ... they decide to reissue the two-fers again ... this time with better sound (in my opinion) but cheaper, thinner booklets.

Weird, frustrating and almost confusing.

 

I'll add Deep Purple to the list. I don't know how to swim in all those Japanese releases, Gold Discs (non-DCC), rare releases, special packagings, and heaven knows what else.

I heard Gentle Giant is particularly bad, too with so many incarnations of their albums - sounding and looking different.

 

Lol. Do not. I absolutely detest that song (and it DOES crib the intro from Pinball Wizard. SHamelessly)

Re. the Beach Boys, I completely agree, but at least they finally got it right, no? It's like how I'm not complaining about the Zombies reissue program; what we have now is reasonably comprehensive, even if various different mixes haven't made the transition yet.

-D

 

The Beatles.

Bob Dylan.

Deep Purple.

 

Almost forgot. Van Halen.

 

Yeah, I suppose so. I still haven't replaced all my original two-fers with the new ones, though ... maybe I SHOULD while they're still available ...

Regarding Bob Dylan, it's a situation similar to the Beatles, where we're still stuck with a mostly sub-par first stab at CD mastering. The disappointing thing with both artists is that there hasn't been an attempt at anything better ... although with the Beatles, if Peter Mew's going to be involved, I'll just clutch my old LPs ever closer to my chest ...

 

Why? Cause you don't like sound of the remasters?

 

Motorhead.
1) After Bronze folded, Profile picked up their catalogue they changed the running order of Ace Of Spades (the original Mercury/Bronze had "Ace..." kicking off side two whereas the Profile has it opening the album) and also changed the back cover of the album from a shot of the band playing cards to simply an ace of spades.
2) RoadRacer takes over the catalogue. Adds bonus tracks but doesn't correct AOS and also does not reprint any of the back cover photos on any of the CD's.
3) Exit RoadRacer enter Castle. Changes bonus tracks but STILL doesn't fix AOS... No Idea if back covers were restored yet.

On a similar note... Does anyone know if Castle used a second or third gen tape for Paranoid? There's an annoying dropout at the beginning of Iron Man that I've only heard once before on an imported copy of Paranoid on the NEMS label that I owned nearly 20 years ago.

 

Not only that, the few stabs that HAVE been made at remastering are so damn confusing (the 50,000 versions of Blonde on Blonde, the Biograph/Bootleg series variations, the endless "remastered" Greatest Hits, the actually-remaster LP-sleeve reissues, the gold discs, the silent upgrades, the country-specific permutations...)

-D