Anyone with the UK "Jambalaya" single? Question answered.

[Harry]

We've found someone who has confirmed that the UK single has the same stereo orientation as the NOW & THEN album version, so the first use of the backwards stereo would have been on SINGLES 1974-1978, where it's on both the LP and the CD.

Thanks to all who've attempted to help out.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

We've found someone who has confirmed that the UK single has the same stereo orientation as the NOW & THEN album version, so the first use of the backwards stereo would have been on SINGLES 1974-1978, where it's on both the LP and the CD.

Thanks to all who've attempted to help out.

Harry

Harry, so this was probably a UK master being reversed when it was pressed to the UK Singles LP and CD?
I'm glad someone was able to confirm this information.

 

[Harry]

Harry, so this was probably a UK master being reversed when it was pressed to the UK Singles LP and CD?
I'm glad someone was able to confirm this information.

Yep. The single wasn't the cause. Too bad too - I really wanted to call the reversed version a "single mix".

 

[tomswift2002]

Tom, can you listen with headphones to that part. This is where I first noticed the difference on the SINGLES 74-78 album. On my standard original NOW & THEN CDs, that steel guitar just before "Thibodaux" comes mostly from the right channel. There could be a little bit of it in the left, but it should be more loud in the right. Headphones are useful in cases like this because you're isolating your two ears from each other.

Harry I just got around to checking with headphones, but on my LP it seems that the left channel has prominence, but just barely. It seems like the steel guitar was more mixed towards the center. I wonder if this might be the Carpenters version of the Beach Boys "Cotton Fields", where someone misread the supplied info.

 

[K.C. Jr]

I don't own this single yet, but the mix definitely sounds like it'd be interesting to hear!

I thought it was interesting that "Jambalaya" remained such a hit as a single in other countries. For example, this 45 from Japan (curiously enough, it's backed with "Someday")
Carpenters ~ Jambalaya ~ Someday/ Japan 7" »

 

[newvillefan]

I don't own this single yet, but the mix definitely sounds like it'd be interesting to hear!

I thought it was interesting that "Jambalaya" remained such a hit as a single in other countries. For example, this 45 from Japan (curiously enough, it's backed with "Someday")
Carpenters ~ Jambalaya ~ Someday/ Japan 7" »

That's interesting...I wonder if the B side has a cold opening as opposed to the fade out of the drums from Your Wonderful Parade as it does on the album?

 

[Harry]

I thought it was interesting that "Jambalaya" remained such a hit as a single in other countries. For example, this 45 from Japan (curiously enough, it's backed with "Someday")
Carpenters ~ Jambalaya ~ Someday/ Japan 7" »

That 45 looks like it might have been a reissue. The 45 that exists in the Japan Box Set has a different picture, an ochre label, and "Heather" as the B-side. This one uses the later tan/silver label with a different picture and "Someday" as the B-side.

I know that things get reissued all the time in Japan, so perhaps this is one of those cases. Don't know.

That's interesting...I wonder if the B side has a cold opening as opposed to the fade out of the drums from Your Wonderful Parade as it does on the album?

It's not that difficult to start "Someday" panned all the way to the left and gradually fade-up the right to create a cold-open start, eliminating the fade of the drums at the first few seconds of the track. If you listen to my "(Improved Mythical Mono Mix)", I did just that, but then the whole track is mono. Still, same effect.

Harry

 

[Walkinat9]

Harry, I finally got a chance to listen to the Dutch copy of the 45 and also the Now & Then LP (they're at my parents' house) and the steelguitar right before Thibideaux also comes in on the right.

However... I also have a Quadrophonic copy of the Now & Then album (printed in the USA) where the stereomix, if you can call it that, also seems to be reversed . Although the steelguitar just before Thibideaux seems to enter in the center (but slightly to the left).Heck, it even seems to be behind me, as strange as it may sound, listening thru earphones and not thru 4 speakers (the way it was intended to be heard). But this quad mix of Jambalaya is quite an adventure. First of all the very booming bass or kick drum (not as prominent on the regular releases), then these steelguitars seem to be all around you. They sound much clearer than in the regular mix and there's even a short guitar riff or lick on the right that I hadn't heard before. It's after the flute solo, at the end of the word "down" (Settle down, far from town), the guitar does something like pop-pop-pop-paah, similar to what can be heard in the Palladium version at the end of "..deaux" when Karen sings Thibideaux... At first I thought that it may have been added for the quad mix, but knowing now that it's there, I could actually hear it buried very deep in the mix on the right on the Singles '74-'78 LP and on the left on the regular Now & Then LP, but it's almost inaudible... This and some other steelguitar effects that are heard on the right on the regular N&T LP are on the left on the quad LP and vice versa. I also noticed that there seems to be less reverb on the vocals, but K&R's voices are pushed back slightly in the quad mix, so maybe therefor the reverb is less audible, I guess. Don't know if all of this goes for other songs on the album as well. Could be that the whole "panning" was done differently especially for the quad release?

Greg

 

[Harry]

If I recall correctly, Richard has disavowed all of the quad mixes because he had nothing to do with them. He and Karen were busy touring and someone else at A&M undertook remixing the tapes for quad. That's why you hear odd stuff that wasn't intended to be in the final mixes. Still it makes for a fascinating peek into the mixing process.