Willie and the Poor Boys - yowza!!!

Yea!!!! I snagged a DCC digital drink coaster of Willie and the Poor Boys on Ebay last week and got it - man oh Manischewitz, does that pup blow away my Fantasy K2 screech disc!!! If you don't have this one, keep your eyes peeled - it's got that "go ahead, crank it up to 12 cause it won't sizzle yer ears" mastering we all know and love - thanks, Steve! Keep pushing for an SACD or gold disc of Chronicle...

 

Fantasy K2 screech disc. Great description.

The DCC disc kills any Fantasy remaster ever done. Hoffman has the touch for Creedence, that's for sure.

I remember him saying that when he heard the master tape of "Fortunate Son" for the first time he just scratched his head, not knowing quite how to approach it. But he nailed it by simply "going for the voice", and everything else falls into place.

Trust me on this, the better our stereo's get, the better the DCC Gold CD's and LP's sound and the WORSE everything else sounds (at least to me).

 

Too bad the cymbals sound a bit on the dull side, but there's no way around it without bringing back the screechiness in Fogerty's vocal track. Maybe it was recorded that way or just mixed that way, but regardless, it's better to have everything easy on the ears, even if it means making that small sacrifice in the music.

 

Is it safe to assume that the word throbbing might describe what Fortunate Son sounds like via the Altec/Mac combo? Kinda makes me think that's what Creedence might have sounded like on a stage back in '69 (I was 6, but I remember those Creedence tunes blasting on WLS 890 AM in the Windy City) My dad was a sport and would leave WLS on when we'd ride in the Impala to visit my grandparents in northern Indiana...

 

Screech, murk and goosh. Now if I only had cats to name.

 

Steve, I used to own a pair of Altec Lansing floor monitors. Huge 'ol 15 inch woofer and Horn tweeter/midrange. Man, those things could move the air. Drums, ahhh drums sounded so REAL through those babies. I could play those soooo loud. Now why is it that I miss those days steve? Oh my current system beats it in all of the usual aspects of sound except one: that wall---that chest shaking bass and HUGE Wall of sound that seemed to do so much justice to rock music. I used to love cranking up "Lazy" from Deep Purple's Machine Head. I had some good times with those speakers. Oh, and Michael Jackson's Thriller through them-----FORGET IT! You just gotta hear the opening to Billie Jean through a pair of Altec Lansing Voice of the Theater speakers to know what I'm talking about.

I do know what Tom Port means when he talks about needing 15 inch woofers. And he's got eight of them!! Have mercy!!

Yet years ago so many people put down those speakers---"Horns, are you crazy?" I guess they were not the last word in depth or width of soundstage. And the horn, with the wrong material, would beam at you. But I have fond memories.

 

WLS

Believe it or not, in south Texas before FM was
worth listening to (late 60s) you could, on a
clear winter's night, get WLS like it was next
door. I spent many late nights glued to the
radio, hearing some great rock and roll that
wasn't played down south. Ah, the memories...

 

Betcha heard Bubble Puppy's Hot Smoke and Sassafrass (shoulda been spelled Hot Smokin' Sassafrass like the boys intended) down in the Lonestar State - I heard it up in Yankeeland via good old WLS, too!

 

Steve,

You nailed the Creedence experience for me... that swampy guitar and growling vocals. foot tapping bass.

Listening to Willie right now.

Strange they were from Frisco.

ferric man
"I ain't no senator's son"

 

Hot Smokin'...

Indy Mike,

You nailed it! Actually, Rod Prince (lead guitar)
with the Puppy hails from Corpus Christi; the
band used to play garages, beer joints, etc. for
tips and grins. Those really *were* the days!

About a year ago, I found a 180-gm LP of
"A Gathering of Promises" that isn't too bad,
considering the master tapes probably don't
exist anymore. It's a regional rarity.

Anybody remember any of the DJs from WLS back
then? KTRK in Houston? Now there was station
really into the Bubble Puppy...

 

I think Charly Records in the UK owns the International Artists catalog now - many moons ago they licensed the IA stuff like the 13th Floor Elevators and did a crummy job reissuing the goods from crummy records (rechanneled You're Gonna Miss Me - grrrrrrrrrr), but that's finally appeared in good, clean mono (hi Grant!!!) on the Nuggets box (grrrrr - here I go again!!!), so keep your fingers crossed for Bubble Puppy's tapes... Corpus Christi - are you a Zakary Thaks man, too??? You NEED the Sundazed/Beat Rocket cd of their stuff, all from tapes (took Bob Irwin a looooong time to have those tracked down)...

 

Yes! Those guys played our high school prom. I
particularly remember their cover of "You Keep
Me Hanging On". Should have been a record!

Indy Mike, I can point you to a local record
shop down there that has tons of that kind of
thing. It's owned/operated by a barber/harp
player named Tracy--you can get your DA done
while 13-floor elevator music cranks out onto
the sidewalk...

 

I'm a BIG fan of the Zakary Thaks cover of the Kinks' I Need You - sounds soooper fine dandy on that Sundazed/Beat Rocket cd! Hope that barber doesn't indulge in any trippy sorts of hallucinogenic material before giving buzz cuts to unsuspecting customers while Roky and the gang are pounding it out on the hi-fi!!!

 

Nope, no high-n-tights on acid...you might get
a conservative lecture on politics, though.

On a side note, Roky has been receiving much-
needed treatment lately, in the custody of his
brother, and actually can hold a conversation,
play his quitar again, etc...things are starting
to heat up down here! Can't wait to catch him
in a show somewhere. He'd better lie low til
all this SWSX blows out of town, though. WAY
TOO MUCH hype about just now...

 

as herb caen would have said, "don't call it frisco"!

anyway, they were from el cerrito, just north of berkeley.

and i love how the guitar pick sounds on the acoustic guitar strings throughout dcc's "WATBP" disc.

later, chris

 

CCR & JB

Well, I think I will have to be on the lookout to get that CCR DCC ASAP (smile)!! The latest issue of Guitar World Acoustic has a good article on Creedence's music in there. As for the somewhat dull or "unexciting" sound mentioned in a post above....I would say thats the case for the DCC of Jackson Browne's "Late For the Sky". When I listen to the same tracks that are on Elecktra's "The Best Of- The Next Voice You Hear", and other tracks on there like "Doctor My Eyes", well..... the sound really is much more lively and literally jumps out've the Speakers at you; the DCC version just sounds too timid in comparsion.

 

Re: CCR & JB

Oh man, I have the totall OPPOSITE opinion of the DCC Jackson Browne. To me, the DCC is PERFECT. The Asylum CD versions both old and new are harsh and unmusical; like they thinned out the bass, added some top end air that wasn't needed (Japanese style), and, hey, did they add some extra echo?????? Please, no!!!!

The DCC version nice and analog sounding and is pretty much what my original Asylum LP sounded like, except more of all the good stuff.

But, ****, it depends on your stereo totally. Pointless to go on about that. We don't all have the same system.