Worst RSD 2019 releases.

Thank goodness!! I had the mono Woodstock soundtrack and Elvis live at the International in my hands yesterday and ended up getting Elvis and putting the Woodstock back. The store had six copies of Woodstock and one remaining Elvis. Ultimately it was the price ($63) and the fact there were multiple copies of Woodstock which prompted me to put it back and I am now glad I did. Elvis live sounds great btw.

 

My store is getting one more copy of the Albert King later this week and I am getting a full refund on the defective "Plant" which I will use towards that. I believe it's around the same cost if not lower. From what I hear regarding the Albert King, this may have worked out for the best, plus I have the Robert Plant box set (CD's) that was released several years ago, so all good. Best of luck to you!

 

The timings on the jacket (and wherever you have seen them) are from the original album. The entire tri-fold has all the same stuff as the original pressing other than it says Mono. The timings are way off on a lot of the music and stage announcements. It really is fairly different in many respects - and as I mentioned in other posts I don't rate it as badly as so many others here do.

 

The funny thing about the Hendrix cuts is they are probably the best sounding tracks on the new Woodstock mono set. With that said, the Hendrix tracks seemed to sound no different than what is already out there, which leads me to believe (and I have no real insight if my answer is correct) that the Hendrix tracks might be an actual fold-down of the stereo tracks.

 

Re: Woodstock Mono

So, what happened here? It's as though the record company was going through their Woodstock materials (hopefully to put out a new more comprehensive collection for the 50th) and came across the mono PA feed recording. "Hmmm, what could we do with this? Not a whole lot of value, since it's mono and lower quality than the multi-track stuff. Oh, I know! We could put it out as a RSD release. We'll just use it to make a duplicate version of the original album, but in mono! It's Woodstock, people'll snap that up!"

IMO, this would have been a perfect as an additional free download for some 50th anniversary release. That would've been a nice, respectable thing to do after all the ridiculous ''exclusive tracks'' split up amongst Wal-mart, Target, QVC releases and whoever else when they did the 40th anniversary.

I'd love to know more details about this recording. How long is the Mono PA feed recording? Did they capture every performance? Did they capture anything that was not captured on the multi-tracks (even just stage announcement stuff?) Who exactly was recording this?

 

Well he is doubling down with video/audio evidence.

 

The audience tapes sound better. So no, not what the audience heard. The PA descriptor is a complete misnomer, nothing to do with what the record contains and what it was sourced from.

 

Nearly all are different in some way, which would be nice if it was listenable. No idea why they chose to replicate the original cover and credits.

 

I believe it is taken from the promo mono folddown. Pure mud.

 

There was no "mono PA feed". There are a few soundboards that do not reflect what was heard by the audience, mono rough mixes and a promo folddown mix. Don't believe the hype. They made up the idea behind this release.

 

Personally I am really enjoying the Woodstock RSD. It clearly states it is a mono soundboard and yes the source is poor in some cases but overall I think it's a fascinating listen and i like it more as this is the way i kinda heard this back in the 1980s from a cassette source. Plus you have proper Woodstock versions of 'Coming Into Angeles'
and 'Sea of Madness'. The worst sounding track is canned heat 'Going up the country' which happens to be the 2nd track, but if you preserver the rest of the sides
are quite consistently listenable as much as good/bad as you would expect a mono soundboard to sound....

 

Exactly right. Not only is that story about the PA nonsense but adding insult to injury, they put this in the press release, which again, is totally false.

“Also featuring actual Woodstock versions of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's “Sea Of Madness” and “Wooden Ships” that have never been issued before and this version of Arlo Guthrie's “Coming Into Los Angeles” is the actual real-deal Woodstock performance; the version that’s on the original Woodstock album was recorded at the Troubadour in LA four months later!”

 

My best RSD purchase was a NM original Woodstock set for $15.00. I might have been tempted by an "alternate" RSD Woodstock soundtrack, with different songs/artists/more Who or Airplane, etc.

 

According to the matrix number...

Quote from the comments on his YT page.

 

Jesus how can we tell. I still haven’t opened mine

Man that blows

 

For the record, regarding the Woodstock RSD - this is the same CSNY Sea Of Madness (with a slightly different mix) that was on the original Woodstock releases. It is from the Fillmore East and was recorded on Sept 20, 1969. It is certainly not, "actual Woodstock versions of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's “Sea Of Madness” and “Wooden Ships” that have never been issued before".

 

Yes absolutely, and same with the Arlo Guthrie song. Exact same as on original release. They def got that wrong on press release. As far as sound, i guess it was either issue a stereo fold down (which i hear was issued to radio back in the day) which, yeah woulda been pretty lame, or these rag-tag mono mixes that are all over the place. Listening to the last 2 sides now. The "I'm a farmer" part of Max Yasgurs' speech was cut out. WHY?? Maybe instead of "worst rsd release", we could settle on "most confusing".

 

Seems to be a Canadian problem so far, thank you for this heads up though

 

Sad to hear Woodstock LP is junk.

 

Really, Damn it. I opened mine and it's fine. My brother and best friend might not be so lucky. I hope they are able to identify the issue somehow

 

It makes it a disappointing copy.

 

Oh, it was totally a 90's nostalgia thing for me, but I also have always enjoyed the Coneheads soundtrack. Plus, it was fairly cheap, especially in regards to what a lot of the other RSD soundtrack releases were selling for.

 

So this Canadian RSD 2019 of Pink Floyd's A Saucerful of Secrets lp, is a mistress, side 1 is one song at 45 rpm and the other side is correct tracks at 33 1/3 rpm? He didn't say what was the name of the tune on the side 1 either. That's pretty wild! He should get a replacement from the store where he purchased it.

 

"Huh, I don't remember the mono version sounding like that! PF was really ahead of their time!"

 

Oh man. Thanks.