DCC Archive Strangest/Most Frustrating Reissues - Pt. 2

Watch out - all of the MPO discs from this time period I have owned have deteriorated and are unplayable, about 20 discs. Hold them up to the light and you see pinholes that will increase in size over time. It's time to dub those puppies, while you still can.

 

Since you are talking about the Kinks, I have a Japanese CD " the Kinks - the Complete Singles Collection 1964-1970” pressed in 1993. It sounds ok. Maybe a little flat, but not as muddled as my copy of Arthur on Reprise. Nothing a little EQ doesn’t fix (boasting 3dB at 120 and 240 really gives it some warmth). The only problem I have with it is there is echo on the guitar in "you really got me". Since this is my only copy of this song, I cannot tell if this is correct. And I don't remember it sounding like that before. Is it supposed to have echo on it? Also, the version of “Lola” on the disc has the word “coke” instead of “cherry”. What gives with that?

 

The LP version has "Coca Cola", while the single used "cherry cola", I believe at the BBC's insistance, although I'm not positive why - I'd guess there was some rule about no free advertising?

 

Ha, maybe so, maybe not. First, I don't recall ever hearing MPO implicated in any of the press coverage of poorly manufactured cds.

And FWIW, that old Kinks cd had big visible pinholes in it WHEN I BOUGHT IT, and it seems to look the same now. I was just playing it again yesterday and it's fine.

Also, I have other old MPO CDs (e.g., the 1986 SUN Jerry Lee Lewis Ferriday Fireball CD CHARLY 1) that are also looking stable and playing nicely.

So, for the moment, things seem all right with them as far as my experience goes.

But the fact that you had some go bad makes me worry a little, I must admit! What can I do?

 

Yeah, I haven't heard of these problems either. I *have* heard of problems of discs from the UK PDO plant. I've seen said discs as well. The discs turn a kind of brownish color, not unlike tarnished silver. Many CD players have a hard time reading them...

 

Ok, looks like I wasn't far off on that silver tarnish idea. Those PDO discs *DID* use silver...:
http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Strasse/2216/brown.html

 

Well guys every MPO disc I've owned pressed before 1989 has had this problem. The one I miss the most was the Bam Carouso complilation of Left Banke material that had the orignal mixes. I'm not talking pinholes here, big areas of missing silver layer.

 

CRAP!!!!!

OK, Luke just solved a bit of a mystery. I paid about $15 for my copy of Metallica - Creeping Death/Jump in the Fire used many years ago on the 'net. I noticed the nice coppery color way back when, but I had no idea why it wouldn't play on some CD players.

And now this.

Can anyone guess where this was made, as read off the hub of the CD?

Argh.

 

A guy at work told me that the Kinks had originally recorded Lola with the word “Coke”, but had to change it to cherry for the US market. He seemed to remember something about Coke threatened to sue the pants off of Ray Davies. I couldn’t find anything on the web about it so who knows? I was just a small child so I have to take this guy’s word for it. Anyone with anything different?

 

I heard something similar about UK Editions of Pink Floyd's "A Nice Pair". One of the photos had the name of a Dentist's (?) office and Floyd were forced to change it by order of the BBC (Or something to that extent). So I think you may be right on that one.

 

The BBC had a rule back in the 60's and 70's that you could not mention product names on songs played on the radio. Hence - the single version of Lola uses cherry coke instead of Coca-Cola. It had nothing to do with the US market - or any action by Coca-Cola.

 

Funny, I saw Ray Davies perform the other night here in L.A. and was a bit surprised when, during "Lola," he used "cherry cola" rather than "coca cola."

But everyone above is correct about the two versions.

Ray

 

In an earlier post, someone pointed a cool site on MFSL at http://pages.prodigy.net/amicus1/violet.htm

Here's a quote:

"One of the things that still bugs me about the early CD stuff is the out gassing of the polycarbonate. It cracks me up whenever I see Belkin step out there with some tech explanation. Talk about muddying the waters! The problem wasn't the aluminum. It was the polycarbonate. As it got more exposure to temperature extremes it would out gas internally and one of the byproducts was acetone. This would, in turn, etch the aluminum and could cause pin holes in the substrate or even complete eradication of the aluminum.

"The research on gold CDs was done by me and I accompanied Herb to Japan on that quest. He would like to make it sound like Mr. Yamaguchi came up with the solution when in reality it was suggested to Mr. Yamaguchi by yours truly as gold wouldn't suffer from the etching process. The thing is that the aluminum CDs can last a hell of a long time. Longer than a human lives and more - if it is simply stored correctly. We knew this from the very first pressings we did. Gary's 928 was one of my labs. It had this big back window and I would put CDs on his rear tray in the car and we could make them go clear in one day! An oven at 130 degrees would do it in a few hours so we knew it wasn't light but heat that hurt them."

[ October 24, 2001: Message edited by: Camarillo ]

 

My brother's got a similar CD like that. It's a Japanese import that comes in a yellow can, titled something like "The Complete Singles Collection: 1964-1966." Let me see if I can find it and do a comparison.

 

Considering the theme of the song, Cherry Cola probably took on its own life as a double entendre.

 

What! Two versions!?!? So I am not going insane. What a releif. I guess I will have to hunt down the Kinks PTR Cd you mentioned and the Complete Singles will have to do for now. Unless DCC is workin' on a Kinks greatest hits disc with the single versions, except for "Lola" of course. If Ray Davies wanted to say "Coke" then it should be that way IMHO. Artist's original intent and all that.

 

There are more differences between the single version and the album version than the substitution of "cherry cola" for "coca cola." The UK single mix is in mono, whereas the album version is in stereo. I'd rather have the UK single version on a DCC collection. Of course, I'd love to have Steve remaster all of the Klassic Kinks titles.

 

Well, I too would love to have all of the Kinks remastered by Steve, but if that doesn't happen a greatest hits will do. Often a little is better than nothing at all.

 

Gotta agree with the mono/single "Lola". It was more compressed - but overall sounded a ****load better. Even more dramatic is the difference between the stereo "Apeman" and the mono single. I grew up with the single version. When I "upgraded" to the lp version in the late 70's, I wondered how all the "life" got sucked out of this song.

 

Steve mentioned that there was a licensing glitch for a USA release of a complete Kinks greatest hits package, Warner Bros. Records owning the 1966 and later stuff. Makes for a licensing nightmare. Probably why Rhino stopped short back in the early 1990's when they did their versions of the Pye stuff.

 

Thanks for the tip on the PRT discs, Steve. I lucked out and found 4 today for $8 each at a local record store. They do sound more natural, less compressed. On Face to Face sides one and two are reversed: the CD starts with Holiday in Waikiki and Party Line appears halfway through the disc. Do you know why this is? Was it released in the UK with this track lineup? Even the Castle release has Party Line as the opening track.

 

I found a 1988 Japanese PRT pressing of ”the Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society” yesterday. It is in stereo except for five tracks that are fake stereo.
Still, it beats the hell out of the new re-mastered version.
I also came across a East West pressing of Otis Blue in stereo. Interesting. It seems to have more life than my Rhino mono re-master version.

 

Evan; which five tracks are fake stereo on your Village Green? My UK PRT Village Green with a 1987 date is true stereo throughout. That's odd.

 

This is gonna be a dumb question but I'm gonna ask anyway...
I was looking through the Kinks section of the local independant and they had "Kinks" "Kinda Kinks" and a few others on the Sanctuary label. Am I to assume that these are the same as the Castle reissues?