WHAT'S THAT SOUND? Complete Albums Collection - Buffalo Springfield

Actually, he said it is “guaranteed to sound better than any earlier edition”

 

Maybe when listening in his car with the windows down.

 

Yeah - that statement stuck out to me also, but I'm guessing it's not a money-back guarantee.

With the current exchange rate, this vinyl set is $101 shipped for me from amazon.ca, but I really can't justify it (even with that great cover artwork).

 

Nice, but since I already own everything but the Again mono mix I don't need this. Vinyl is of course nice, but too expensive for me.

 

Odd that it successfully eluded multiple Amazon search attempts using a variety of key words yesterday...

 

I recall that I heard the "long" version before I ever heard the album version. A promo version was played by one or more "underground" FM stations on a somewhat regular basis. I became used to that version and was somewhat disappointed by the "banjo" version on the album.

EDIT: OMG, I just found this extraordinary essay concerning the "long" version by someone who obtained a reel-to-reel copy back in '68 from a radio station in Boston. The mix is different than the one found on the '70s BS compilation. There is also a link where you can listen to it.

Don Giller

 

or $92 from Soundstage Direct with their 20% discount....

 

I agree. I believe this will be a collection for music lovers. Not stamp collectors.

 

I don't see anything to complain about here. You don't want or need it then don't buy it. Simple as that (like every other friggen reissue and box set on these threads). But it does seem to have been made with the same care and craft as the first several Neil Young solo sets which is a very good thing. All analogue pressings in a nice package...

I ordered via Sound Stage $91.99 shipped.

 

You know...maybe that is the case. I had always assumed *both* codas were edited on, but two things are sticking out at the moment:

1) It *does* seem like you can hear a trace of the start of Stills' vocal just before the banjo starts, and it's roughly in the area that could be print-through.

2) I had always assumed the reason the acoustic guitar break was centered on the long version (it's mixed right on the album version) was just because. But it would make sense that section was mixed together with the extended electric coda (the acoustic guitar is also mixed center there).

In some ways, I guess it makes sense. It always seemed odd to me that the electric coda existed at all, with multiple overdubs. It seems like perhaps they originally envisioned the song that way, recorded it, then changed their minds and recorded the banjo coda.

 

That's an odd thing to say on a music discussion forum.

 

Of course. Not sure if you are snarky or not. Either way that's cool...

I get when folks discuss and go back and forth about sound and pressings, but the discussions and rants about artist money grabs and labels charging what they do gets tiresome IMHO. Search for deals if you can and buy what you can afford. I usually get what goes into these sets and why most of them cost what they do.

In my case I did a search, saving maybe $30 over Amazon, getting a discount and no shipping and tax. Very fair.

Remember: Use Google and some bookmarked record retails sites are your friends....

 

My frustration is less about money and that the mono mix of Again will be limited to this box set, and more that after all of this time and 2 box sets, there are still key *officially released* tracks that have not been reissued. It's unclear if Neil is unaware of them or doesn't want them reissued for some reason, but it's frustrating regardless.

 

Thank you so much for this!

I got this version via a bootleg in the early 70s...doubtless recorded from L.A. radio (likely B. Mitchell Reed, as noted in the essay).

Besides sketchy quality, it was also slower than it should have been. Of course, I speed-corrected it over the years and did my best to clean it up, but the version linked to from this article is indeed the best.

I too remember being disappointed upon hearing the "long" version on the double-LP Springfield set with how much was missing.

Thanks again!!!

 

I'm only a fan who followed them around at the time, but because of the session dates, I always thought Bluebird was set in stone in its banjo-end format during the summer while Doug was around doing the local shows and some sessions .

When both Neil and Bruce came back, the band booked about 4 mainstream tv shows that were to happen consecutively through the fall.

And because of the m-a-s-s-i-v-e mindset change a lot of guys/bands/me-included came into between May-Aug of 67, long jams were the vogue and BS was already well into that since the previous April or so.

Bottom line as I see it.... With Doug jettisoned in late July and both Neil and Bruce back by mid August.... and all the booked tv shows......Steve had full intention of leaving Bluebird as it was ...in the can with banjo....for the October album release (and the chopped down single) ..... but, Steve..... being clear of mind about the forward motion and longterm chance to finally break through.........talked Ahmet into letting even more studio time be booked..... and then the band went in and did the long Bluebird piece.

For one reason only. To capitalize on all the "new" long jam concepts of artists and to get some of it onto those tv shows they had just booked.

Of the four shows, I'd say Steve's main idea was to hand over the long we-just-made-it-for-you-this-afternoon mix to the guys over at Mannix for them to cut as they desired. And of course, hope to get various cuts of that onto the other shows if the song was picked. I can't even say that snips of the Blueberries/Mannix episode are from a particular version as I haven't watched the episode for a long time and the snips are short enough, that it would take a few minutes to figure it out....although others probably already have.

Expecting great responses to the tv shows. And following up in October with the album release and that version of Bluebird.... which of course is the stellar version.

That's how I see it. A very Beatle thing to do in 1967. And like I say, I think Steve was in his best state of mind to get the right things done during that entire year.

That long version of Bluebird was a perfect tool for a specific purpose. imo. I don't like it... but I sure see its use in the context of that timeframe and possible tv show/movie use.

Irving shoulda been in LA two years earlier to nurture all these fleeting moments.

 

"Retrospective" was my first BS album. Around '76 I was re-discovering a lot of music I'd liked when I was younger. I got into CSN and found out about The Byrds, BS and The Hollies before them. I decided to get "Byrds Greatest Hits", "Hollies' Greatest Hits", and "Retrospective".
Out of the three, I REALLY loved "Retrospective".
Then a few years later, I found the '73 BS comp. It was pretty much out of print at that time, as were the original 3 albums (I think) so I got lucky.
I'd heard about the long version of "Bluebird" somewhere before. So I was stoked I found it.
But........it was a letdown. So I never played it much.
Nice to have, but much prefer the 4:27 version!

The one in the link is very cool because of the extra Neil Young guitar, though.

 

The Mannix recording is a different recording.

As I said above, the genesis of the electric coda always seemed odd. It wasn't a jam that just happened to get recorded, since there were overdubs, so it's almost certain they were recording it for a specific reason. That it was originally recorded along with the rest of the song, and was only later replaced with the acoustic/banjo coda seems to make the most sense. Especially since the recording appears to back that up.

 

What's the best price or do we need a separate thread?

 

No point, really, it's just a collection of stereo album versions. (Then again, Neil put the first two albums on the box set when they were featured almost intact on the first 3 discs, so redundancy isn't unprecedented.)

 

Thank you for that. You just made my evening. Now to track down Mr. Giller and steal it

 

Oh bugger. I eagerly clicked that link, but even an essay about, and an actual stream of, the mythical 12-minute Bluebird ain't gonna make me sign up to Facebook.

 

Yes, thank you @Tuco !

 

So here's my story of Buffalo Springfield's "Bluebird," the original extended acetate.

I entered Antioch College in late June 1969. Located in Yellow Springs, Ohio, some of what I knew of its location was that a few miles up the road was Springfield, the birthplace of Jonathan Winters, and that Yellow Springs itself was where Buffalo Springifield guitarist/singer/songwriter Richie Furay was born and had grown up. I was a huge fan of the Springfield before I left Baltimore for college, so this was a big deal for me. (For those unfamiliar with the band, in addition to Furay were Stephen Stills and Neil Young.)

In the middle of the main town drag in Yellow Springs was a small knickknack store owned by Richie's mom called, surprisingly, "Furay's." I went in there that summer and chatted with her, and she ended up selling me a copy of the debut LP of her son's then-new band, Poco. (The Springfield had broken up the year before.)

Fast-forward two years later, mid-May 1971. A nearby dormmate named Andy Plesser was a budding entrepreneur, and, through Richie's mom, managed to persuade Poco to extend their Spring tour for one more day and come home to Yellow Springs. And so on May 23 they performed at an outdoor space on the college campus. I had been futzing around at the college's radio station since I entered the place, and so I was able to borrow its portable tape recorder and ask the band's sound mixer, whose equipment was located in the middle of the lawn, if I could plug his mixer's outputs into the recorder's inputs. He said sure, so I ended up with a soundboard recording of that day's concert.

After it was over, I walked over to behind the makeshift stage and chatted a bit with Richie, asked if he wanted a dub of the show, then mentioned a little-known and unreleased song he had written and recorded with the Springfield, then re-recorded it with Poco to very little chart success ("My Kind of Love").

I then asked him about this legendary 20-minute studio version of Buffalo Springfield's "Bluebird" I had heard about for a number of years but never heard. A 4-minute version had been released on the Springfield's second LP in 1967, but legend had it that this take was originally far longer. The song was written by Stills, and it was one of the first records I remember hearing back in Baltimore that mixed the acoustic guitar playing (Stills) with the two electrics (Richie and Neil) so seamlessly. It was such a standout recording.

Richie said it was actually around 10 minutes long, not 20, and he suggested I contact a radio station in Boston, WBCN, and ask them for a copy, using his name as a reference. After spending the rest of the night and following day making dubs of the concert for Andy, the radio station, and whoever else wanted it, I wrote to WBCN on the 25th, using the station's stationary, declared myself its "chief recording engineer," made up some fiction about an upcoming Springfield retrospective the station was planning, and hoped for the best. The school term was close to ending, and it seemed realistically doubtful anything would come of this.

Just over a week later, on June 2, I was walking around on campus and this student I didn't know came up to me, asked if I was who I was, and told me there was a package addressed to me at the station but that someone had taken it. He knew who it was and where he lived, so we went to this guy's place where I retrieved whatever it was he had swiped. No questions asked, at least I had the package.

It was from WBCN; it included the letter I had written, though now with some annotations from the person to whom it was addressed and the person to whom he had referred it. There was also a reel-to-reel tape. Based on the annotations, it consisted of two unreleased Springfield tracks, Neil Young's "Down to the Wire," and the song I had been wanting to hear for years, "Bluebird." It was recorded at the station's top professional speed, 15 ips, so the first thing I did was to go to the college station and make a dub at a speed most home recorders could play, 7 1/2 ips. And it was that version I'd play for myself and friends. The original 15 ips version I stored away.

This version of "Bluebird" sounded like a dub of an acetate, with very minor acetate "noise." Besides the extended length (9 1/2 minutes), this mix included an added Neil Young lead guitar that had been edited out of the released 1967 version.

The person who sent me the tape signed his name on that annotated letter, but all I could make out was his first, "Charles"; his last name was "Laqui…" something ("Laquiclara?" "Laquidara?"). I didn't recognize the name.

Until late that year, when Poco released their live LP, "Deliverin'," recorded in Boston and New York. The liner notes were written by a "Charles Laquidara." Aha! That's who that was. One mystery solved.

In 1973, the band's record label, Atco, released a 2-LP anthology, and included was an extended version of "Bluebird." But it was different from what I had been sent. First, it was in stereo (the acetate was in mono); second, its length was 30 seconds shorter than the version I had; and third, it didn't include Young's added guitar lead. (Also, Atco had edited out a vulgarity that Stills had slipped out.)

So what I had was still rare and unreleased. Over the next few decades there'd be the occasional Springfield bootleg that would include this rare version, but the sound quality was horrible: it'd start in the middle of the intro, it'd skip, it sounded like an acetate played way too many times so that it had deteriorated greatly. But it was a collectable since it was so rare. But I knew what I had was of far better quality.

Fast-forward again, now to late 2003. Now having the equipment to digitize music, I dug out the original 15 ips tape, played it back for the first time in over 32 years on a reel-to-reel that had 15 ips recording and playback capacity, and transferred it into the computer, saving it in both lossless AIFF format and .mp3.

I also set about looking for Charles Laquidara and to finally thank him for the tape. A few hours of Google searches, and there he was, retired after decades at WBCN, now living in Hawaii. So I emailed him, apologized for waiting so long to get back to him but wanting to close this circle.

He sends back an email 10 minutes later and says he was _just at that moment_ searching online for this version, having lost his copy many, many years ago. So I immediately sent him my .mp3 version.

I asked him what he remembered about this version: he told me that when he was working at KPPC in Pasadena in 1968, Richie Furay and Jim Messina (the new bassist and producer on the Springfield's final album released that year) came by and gave him a copy of the acetate. I had then also learned from the late Ted Alvy that the band made the acetate at their recording studio in L.A. so that they could then take it to a local radio station and have the deejay there (the famous R. Mitchell Reed) spin it. They'd then listen to the broadcast on their car radio to see how it sounded on tinny speakers and how many potential record buyers would be listening to it.

But they decided to scrap it and release the edited 4-minute version instead. They even refused to include it on their 2000 multi-CD anthology.

So, after all the decades, after all of the bootlegs, I believe that the version Charles had sent me in the Spring of 1971 remains the cleanest, clearest version that exists of this particular mix.

(This initial contact with Charles paid further dividends a year later when John C. Winn and I were researching the history of the earliest Beatles bootlegs, but that's a tale for another time.)

 

^Thank you @MYKE