Jackson Browne CD's


One of my all time favorite albums ever is Jackson Browne's "For Everyman". I literally wore out my LP back in the day. But now the CD version's overall sound quality and fidelity is down right awful. Horrible sound. Does anyone know or may have heard if this CD will be digitally remastered in 24 bitstream or perhaps in HDCD? I don't have an SACD capable player so that won't work. I am unable to find out any info on the net. Jackson's two more recent CD's (I'm Alive and Naked Ride Home) sound fantastic. No comparison. Any info would be appreciated. I know it's a long shot.
pdn
I don't know the specific answer to your post, BUT, I just picked up his new Solo Acoustic Vol.2 CD tonight and between the Solo Acoustic Vol.1 & Vol.2 there are 4 songs off of the "For Everyman" CD: "Take It Easy", "These Days", "Redneck Friend" and "For Everyman". These two CDs are very well recorded.
I just receied the Solo Acoustic Vol. 2 (Vol 1 is great) today and it sounds terrific.

Highly recommended.

Richard Bischoff
I agree with you entirely on the album and the recording quality. The cuts redone on his greatest hits CD are much better. I feel the same about my alltime favorite, Late for the Sky. It's a shame the recording quality was so poor. Jim
I was just thinking about this post. I have the original LP issue of Late for the Sky. Very Good sonics however I wore it out and purchased a subsequent lp copy. Terrible. I had the same reaction to the cd issued by Elektra. My remastered (Mobile I think but will have to check) CD is quite nice though. The greatest hits sounds are much better than the Elektra CD.

The Running On Empty reissue CD last year sounded good though.

Richard Bischoff
A few of His cds were remastered on the DCC Gold discs I have Late for the Sky and the Pretender not sure if for everyman was also done on DCC, they are great versions. All out of print I think so check around. The solo acoustic vol 1 is a fantastic disk.
I'm a huge fan. There are two different CD releases--the originals and those remastered by Joe Gaswirt at Oceanview Digital. The Gastwirt remasters are the ones to get. He has done a lot of remastering of artists in this genre (Karla Bonoff's debut, Greatful Dead, etc) and the sound is pretty good. The early Jackson Browne recordings are very poor quality--muddy, rolled off on the top end and lacking dynamics. The LP's really don't sound very good at all. As they say, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear but he has done a pretty good job with what are clearly pretty dismal tapes. The Pretender was really the best sounding record JB put out and the MOFI LP is pretty darn good (I own this one). Saturate, For Everyman and Late for the Sky are far below the Pretender in sound quality but the Gastwirt remastered versions get you pretty close.
Wow, all great replies and excellent information. Yes Leigh, "Late for the Sky" is right up there too, perhaps my 2nd favorite of early JB. But unfortunatley poor CD sound. Dodgealum: I just went to Joe Gastwirt's home page. Would I purchase these directly from him? If not, how can I obtain his remastered early JB CD's? I want to pursue that right away. I'll send him an e-mail and inquire. Rbischoff: Are you saying you have a digitally remastered "Late for the Sky" CD with good sound? Thanks eveyrone.
I had no idea until this morning that there are newly-remastered (01/2008) versions available from the usual retailers, etc. Amazon, BestBuy, and the like are all listing practically the entire early catalog as recent remaster releases. I can't tell you (yet) how good any of these is but I do know I'll try to hit a couple of stores on the way home this afternoon to see if there are any available.

"Late for the Sky" has always been one of the greatest and most frustrating CD's I've ever owned. I darned near played right through the album way back when and have had to live with the compromise of LFTS on CD ever since.

Thanks for starting this thread, Pdn, 'cause otherwise I wouldn't have gone looking and found out about all the remasters out now.
Mr hosehead:

Glad you liked my thread. Appreciate that. Did you purchase any remastered JB CD's since you posted your message on 3/9 and if so, which ones? How do they sound? I'm going to hit our Borders tomorrow and listen first. Still hard to tell with those crappy headphones they have but you can get an idea. Let us know. Many thanks.
I just purchased a digitally remastered "Late for the Sky" CD and wow, what a huge difference. Only paid $11.99 at Borders. Plays louder, clearer, much greater soundstage and vocals, bass ext, depth, information, etc. Now just waiting for "For Everyman" next !!
Pdn: How can one tell a "digitally Remastered" CD? Is there a sticker on the CD itself. I looked at some today and didn't see any signage. Basically I'm asking how I can tell.
This is a great thread. I'm glad I discovered it. I too would be very interested to hear people's experience with the sound of new re-mastered versions of Everyman and Late. I love them both, but hate the sound.
Pdn - Yup I ordered 'em and yup I like 'em. I found the 01/13/2008 "street date" CDs at CDUniverse - these are the recently and (I think) much better mastered CDs. "For Everyman" is about all I could hope for, given that the source is from 35 years ago - definitely recommended (plus prices were OK given the improvements). Unfortunately, I think I may have gotten their last copy of Everyman - it's been backordered since my ship date. Sorry 'bout that...

If you're unhappy w/ the original CD sound I'd highly recommend these - it's worth the wait for these to get back in stock.
I seem to remember seeing somewhere that the Solo Acoustic discs could be "programmed" to skip the intros. I have Vol. 1 and it is very fine, but the intros -- which are admittedly charming -- wear a bit thin. Is there an easy way around them? Thx, J

PS: This IS a nice thread. Saw Jackson once, maybe late 70s or early 80s, and it was a great show. When Lindley broke into the falsetto for Stay . . . . hadn't thought of that in too long.
"Linda Paloma" from "The Pretender" is a gorgeous song on the LP but on the old original CD it was blah. On the remastered CD it is somewhere in the middle. And IMO that's the case for all of the songs on the remastered Pretender CD.

But there is enough of an improvement that I will probably buy more of the remastered CDs. Looks like I might be too late to get Everyman though.

JPO
Jdoris,

As with any CD, one can program individual tracks, i.e., change the order, leave some out,etc. The intros are individually numbered along with the songs. Just program your CD player to play only the numbers that are songs. If you don't know how to program tracks with your CD player, read the owner's manual. Of course, there's a slight - but unlikely - chance that you have a player that doesn't allow programming. If that truly is the case, I'd highly recommend that you get one.

Hope this helps. By the way, TO EVERYONE (or Everyman : ) - Jackson is beginning a tour with his band next month. He also has a new CD (Time the Conqueror) coming out shortly. I saw him solo in April, and can't wait to see him again so soon. It's been a while since I've seen him with his band. IMHO, it's an understatement to say that he's one of the most underrated songwriter/singers around (maybe even ever).
I reconsidered him after learning that he wrote the best songs on Nico's Chelsea Girl. Before learning that I associated him with some forgettable stuff from the 80s. I agree that he's one of the most underrated songwriters around. I might have to give some of his early albums a try.
The Running On Empty CD that comes with a dvda also sounds awful. The odd thing is the dvda is outstsanding so the master tapes must be in good condition. We all know CD can sound wounderful so this one kind of makes me scratch my head.
EUREKA: I went to our local Borders today (7/2/09) not looking for this CD but there it was and on it was a sticker that stated "Digitally Remastered from the Original Master Tapes". There wasn't much more info than that. It didn't state for example to 24 bit but it's probably that. I played it and oh yes, a huge difference. It's got some real true bass and soundstage, not tinny anymore. A Greg Ladanyi of Maple Jam Music Group (www.maplejammusic.com) did the digital remastering and his name appears in the credits. He's quite famous in the LA area working with many top name performers and rock bands at his studio. I guess Asylum Records hired him to do this or he just did it on his own and sold it to Asylum. In either case, it's done and the audio is vastly improved.

When I removed the cellophane, I cut out the sticker and taped it to the jewel case so I know in the future this is the digitally remastered version. Same for the other JB CDs. And here's the best part: only $11.99. Hard to believe. So it's out there. Enjoy.
Pdn - Ladanyi did work on a bunch of Browne's albums way back when. I know he did Running on Empty, Hold Out, etc. - whether as engineer, mastering, whatever Ladanyi was on literally every one of the earlier albums. I think he's even part of a conversation on Running on Empty, too (but I'm too lazy to get up & check that part).

Glad you finally found your copy of Everyman. The remasters were definitely worth the purchase.
I've eyed the 2 disc deluxe version of Running On Empty that includes the DVD-A & DTS versions in a certain MAJOR retailer's $5 section recently. Pick it up while you can.
Running on Empty on CD just woeful. After years of my one vinyl copy, I was very disapointed