Adrian Belew / Desire caught by the toil
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@boxer12 - I haven't heard vol. 2, but I love "The Acoustic Adrian Belew" the first. For the regular studio albums, Probably "Mr. Music Head", then "Young Lion". This was a GREAT string of albums.....
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Hey Bro. Music can still do incredible things to my heart. It doesn’t just put me back to a long time gone place and time (at the stadium, in the dorm room, in the roadster parked along the Santa Barbara Surf...) but pulls back very real but hidden feelings connected to those moments. Oh man, who needs drugs when you have an 834p and a pair of ZMF headphones. |
Funny, I really never used recreational drugs. Maybe I missed out on more revelation and transcendence than I’ve had without but I tend to think that for me in the long run it’s been for the best. This music, from the times when most of my friends and I let the music saturate, inform, and reflect our lives in ways long over now, is transporting and affirming and well so much more than, as they say, the soundtrack of our lives. It’s just important. ———————————- Love Song Eponymous |
Hi @slaw. my LRS was selling the boxset at full price, and Amazon was discounting it only 10%, so I dug deep and found it for $117 on the Walmart website (of all places!). But I knew I would get an Amazon giftcard or two for Christmas (I did), so waited. Amazon is now selling it for $105, and my copy is on it’s way. It has long been said that the master tapes for the brown album went missing years ago. So when Audio Fidelity released the Steve Hoffman-mastered gold disc version and claimed Steve’s source was the "Original Master tapes", the question was, what was meant by "master"? The 4-track 1" tapes producer/engineer John Simon had recorded? The 2-track 1/4" final mixes used for mastering? Or as is commonplace, a production master---a copy of the final mix tape? Capitol is saying Bob Clearmountain created new mixes (Uh oh. I LOVE the mixes John Simon and The Band created) from "The Original Master Tapes." You can’t create new mixes without having the multitrack tapes. By the way, can you believe The Band recorded the album doing both instruments and vocals live (with additional parts added after an acceptable master take had been captured)?! By 1969, NOBODY was doing that, or perhaps even could. Except Dylan and the Nashville studio musicians he started recording with in ’65, of course. The boxset includes the album split onto two 45RPM discs, along with a CD containing their Woodstock set, and another with unreleased tracks and alternate versions of released tracks (plus a book with essays and pics, their original 45RPM single, and some prints of pics by the guy who did those for the original album, which were SO perfect for the sound of the record. I love sepia.). By the way, Robbie Robertson’s book Testimony will make great reading while you listen to the album. It is really, really good. Barnes & Noble has remaindered hard cover copies left for about seven bucks. |
Actually, it was Les Paul. He recorded those albums with his wife Mary on his own 3-track in the 1950's, in their basement, I believe. Over-dubbing multiple guitar parts, "bouncing" the recordings from channel to channel until he had all the parts on tape. The early Beatles albums were also done bouncing, as they also had only three tracks to work with, then four, eight for the white album, and then the first 16-tracks appeared. Richard Carpenter came along much later. |
Part of it slaw is that terms are used too loosely. The multi-track master, the final 2-track-mix master, the production-master used to create the "mother" (for LP stamping), etc. But there is also the matter of dishonesty and lying that is now considered acceptable and normal (even expected?) in the pursuit of profit (and power ;-) . |
@spiritofradio, not yet, my copy is on it’s way to me. I haven’t looked lately, but about a month ago there was a lot of chatter about the set on Steve Hoffman’s site. There are bound to be differences of opinion, and I expect to have conflicting reactions myself. The tapes were new when my original LP was pressed, they’re 50 years old now. The Band and producer John Simon did the mixes themselves in ’69, and I hope Bob Clearmountain has stayed close to the originals. But back then it was common to filter the very low bass out of recordings, anticipating the then-current cartridges wouldn’t be able to track a groove cut too "hot". And solid state recording electronics were pretty new in ’69, though I don’t know if this album was recorded on older tube gear or the new ss. Compare the sound of Rubber Soul (tubes) to Revolver (solid state). I much prefer Rubber Soul. I would buy this boxset regardless of sound quality, being a The Band completest. I still listen to their first two albums everyday (literally), just as some Jazz fans do Kind Of Blue. They still sound fresh, contemporary, and relevant, and I am still hearing or appreciating new things with every listen. They are a master class in how to be a Rock ’n’ Roll band, musician, singer, and/or songwriter. The rest of their catalog is pretty fine too ;-) . |