Bossa Rio Live Album

[Trevor]

I have seen the Bossa Rio Live Album, but have never gotten it. For those who have it, what are your thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[Harry]

I like it, but only have a somewhat murky copy of it. I'd love to find an original someday.

Tracks:

Spinning Wheel
Irene
Come And Get It
Canto de Ossanha
Juliana
Zazueira
Eleanor Rigby
Blackbird
What A Pity (Que Peña)
Girl Talk
Quem Dez Que Sabe
Far Away (Eng. Lyrics - Lani Hall)

It was released as Blue Thumb Records SR 410.

There's also a live Bossa Rio EP (like the extra track "Viola" for EXPO '70) containing four tracks:

Do You Know The Way To San Jose
Up, Up And Away
Day By Day
Old Devil Moon

Harry

 

[Steve Sidoruk]

I have the EP, but not the LP. I very much like the tracks from the EP and would like to have the full album, however, I'm not about to pay the absurd amounts that an e-Bay dealer in Japan is charging. He has a stock copy for over $200 and a promo copy for over $400!!! For that much money, he can shove them both!

 

[CherryStreet]

He has a stock copy for over $200 and a promo copy for over $400!!! For that much money, he can shove them both!

Now that is what I call, "gouging" !

Too bad someone doesn't get the rights and remaster both The Bossa Rio Live Album & The EP and release them as a CD. Seems like a "no-brainer" to me. BTW I think that Live EXPO '70 unfortunately is one of the worst recorded live albums I have ever heard. Such a waste IMO.

Anyone going to any of the two shows at the Hollywood Bowl tonight or tomorrow? Sure would like to know who the "And Friends" will be? Unfortunately probably more "rap/hip-hop" artists like at the 2006 Anniversary Show.

 

[Rudy]

I revived this thread due to the A&M album being a "Classic AOTW."

I actually like the performances on the Live In Japan album--all sixteen of these tracks are posted on YouTube. As lousy as YouTube can sound, these don't sound half bad, and I might "rip" the audio from them shortly.

BTW, the catalog # for the A&M EP is AMS12. There are two copies on eBay for a hefty price...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bossa-Rio-7...7451639?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item3cb65af377

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BOSSA-RIO-L...2514043?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item588e2e317b

The two copies Steve saw are likely still there: a stock copy for $199 and promo for $499.

I need to make a large-scale buying trip to Japan!

 

[TulitaPepsi]

It is indeed inexplicable that this has never turned up on CD. Does anyone know who controls the Blue Thumb catalogue?
The sound of BOSSA RIO IN JAPAN is so superior to LIVE AT EXPO '70.

 

[Rudy]

IIRC, Blue Thumb was one of the ABC Records imprints. ABC was bought (or absorbed?) by MCA, so it is actually part of the Universal family, same as A&M actually.

So in other words, there is no excuse not to release all of those live tracks on one CD! I wonder if a label like RevOla would be able to license the second Bossa Rio album Alegria and the live stuff, and release them...

 

[JMK]

Actually I think (in fact I'm positive, I just checked ) Blue Thumb was a subsidiary of Capitol Records. I'm assuming therefore their catalog would be owned by EMI.

 

[JMK]

(I'm going by the label of an album).

 

[Rudy]

The Crusaders were on ABC/Blue Thumb, as I have a few on that label. I think it might be one of those distribution deals like CTi (which was with A&M and later Columbia...and those early CTi masters stayed with A&M).

 

[JMK]

I think I gave away that All Day Thumbsucker retrospective CD set that had a complete history. I'm wondering if maybe ABC purchased it from Capitol, or vice versa.

 

[Rudy]

I checked Google and came across a brief history at Wikipedia. For what it's worth:

Blue Thumb started out using independent distribution, but went to Capitol/EMI for distribution during late 1970 until mid 1971. Gulf and Western's Famous Music Group took over distribution in mid-1971, and then they bought the label outright in 1972. Late in 1974, the Famous Music record labels were sold to ABC Records; ABC kept the Blue Thumb imprint active (mostly for albums by the Pointer Sisters and the Crusaders, and it was also used for reissues too) until ABC sold its labels to MCA Records in 1979. MCA then discontinued the Blue Thumb imprint altogether.

In England and Europe, Blue Thumb releases were licensed to Harvest Records (also owned by EMI) from 1969 to 1971, and to Island Records thereafter.

So, Blue Thumb did bounce around a bit. There's no telling where the masters may be sitting for the Bossa Rio. (IOW, are they Capitol/EMI property, or did they revert all masters to Gulf & Western, who subsequently sold the label to ABC, and then ABC to MCA?)

Too many letters!! And the way the vaults are handled these days, I'm sure both EMI and Universal have no clue as to who owns it!

 

[JMK]

My guess would be since it was only the imprint (and not the catalog) that went from Capitol to ABC, the sides that were originally distributed by Capitol would still be residing with them. Who knows? EMI is raiding their vaults for high profile releases--I just reviewed the two "Immersion Box Sets" of Pink Floyd Blu-rays that came out. Could a Bossa Rio Blu-ray be far behind?

 

[Rudy]

The plot thickens. I'd have gone with the "imprint" idea too, but now I found an article featuring the history of Blue Thumb, and it's possible those masters may be with MCA after all:

In 1978, MCA bought ABC records and so inherited all the Blue Thumb product. Very few of the original albums are in print today.

This is from the following Goldmine article, written in 1996, about a year after the retrospective Thumbsucker set was released:

http://www.billdeyoung.com/bluethumb.htm

 

[Harry]

On the off-chance that a more reasonable LP would turn up, I looked on eBay recently and saw both of the $200 and $500 still there - and one other one starting bidding at just $7.99. With the chance of a low price I put in a $10 or so bid, which pretty much sat there all week. Sometime on Friday, another bidder put in an $8.88 bid, so my earlier bid took over and sent the price up to $9.38, where it remained the high bid for another day or so.

Last evening, as I remembered that the auction was about to end, I thought some more about the album, its ridiculous rarity and how much I was willing to spend on it. I rationalized that it was at least worth maybe $25 to me, given that shipping from Japan won't be cheap either, so I raised my maximum bid to around the $25 mark and went to bed. The auction was supposed to end after midnight local time and I wasn't going to lose any sleep over it.

I just woke up a little while ago and recalled the auction and wondered whether or not I won, so I slogged out of bed and wandered to the den, powered up the computer and checked my email - prepared to read either "Congratulation, you won item...." or "Sorry, you've been outbid..." noticed.

Thankfully it was the "Congratulations..." notice. Looking at the auction's history, I can see that the other bidder attempted a snipe with three seconds to go bidding $21.98 which was immediately countered by my automatic bid of fifty more cents.

Now I'm in the process of communicating with the seller to find out what the astronomical shipping rates will be on top of my $22.48. I figure even if it costs another $20 pr so to ship, I'll still have this rare album for well under what the other eBay gougers are charging, and will finally own a legit copy of this hard-to-find set of recordings on LP.

Gee. At 5:49 in the morning on a Sunday, I guess I DID lose some sleep over it!

Oh. My apologies to the other bidder if it's someone here. If not - nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyaaaah.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

I usually use Auction Sniper to do bids on rare items--that is likely what the other person used.

Shipping may not be as bad as you think--a couple of CD orders from years ago were really quite reasonable. They took a few weeks to arrive, but showed up in fine condition and meticulously packed.

 

[Harry]

Just heard from the seller, and the shipping is only $10, so I think I did pretty well on this one. It's supposed to be in VG shape, which might be good enough to do something with. We'll see. It'll probably take a few weeks to get here.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

Good score then!

 

[Harry]

The BOSSA RIO LIVE IN JAPAN album arrived today safe and sound from Japan. On first inspection it seems like really nice vinyl.

Harry

 

[JMK]

It's a nice album. Enjoy!

 

[JMK]

BTW, note that Joao Donato joins the group on keys.

 

[Harry]

I'm impressed with the foil group name on the cover. That's one thing that never photographs or scans properly.

 

[Harry]

An LP of BOSSA RIO LIVE IN JAPAN is on eBay for a semi-reasonable, buy-it-now, for $69.99.


Harry

 

[Brasil_Nut]

Do You Know The Way To San Jose
Up, Up And Away
Day By Day
Old Devil Moon

"Old Devil Moon" is such an excellent arrangement and one I think would have been well suited to Brasil '66.

Jon...the "Brasil Nut"

 

[Hardbossa]

A fine copy of Bossa Rio Live in Japan gatefold album has just arrived at home from Japan, after a long waiting period. It was worth the waiting.