Numero Cinco

[stosh]

Hi all,

This is my first post, although I've been visiting here for quite a while. My first question is has anybody ever heard the spoken intro to numero cinco on a stereo LP? None of my copies have it, but a friend of mine says he has a stereo copy with the intro. Anybody else heard of this?

 

[Captain Bacardi]

My first question is has anybody ever heard the spoken intro to numero cinco on a stereo LP? None of my copies have it, but a friend of mine says he has a stereo copy with the intro. Anybody else heard of this?

It was on the mono LP and on the CD, plus the 45, but never on a stereo LP.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[stosh]

Have to check more into this. Maybe he was mistaken.

 

[david]

I have the spoken intro on my LP from Numero Cinco. Interesting in that when I had the record transferred to CD I can hear a loud "Pop" similar to a microphone being turned on or off. I did not pick this up on the record The tech who made the recording for me said he noticed sounds like this throughout the album and attributed it to outdated recording equipment dating back to when the album was recorded (1964?). Regardless, he said that for it's time, it is one beautifully recorded album.

 

[Rudy]

This one was recorded at Gold Star Studios by Larry Levine to three-track (which was all they had back then), same place that Phil Spector worked his "Wall of Sound" magic at. That microphone "click" was obviously left in for effect. It sounds more like a public address system than a recording mic.

I don't have a stereo copy of the LP with the spoken intro, but did have it on my parents' mono copy as well as the CD. I'm not sure if it may or may not exist on a stereo LP--I thought I'd heard of someone owning a copy that did.

 

[DAN BOLTON]

This one was recorded at Gold Star Studios by Larry Levine to three-track (which was all they had back then), same place that Phil Spector worked his "Wall of Sound" magic at. That microphone "click" was obviously left in for effect. It sounds more like a public address system than a recording mic.

I don't have a stereo copy of the LP with the spoken intro, but did have it on my parents' mono copy as well as the CD. I'm not sure if it may or may not exist on a stereo LP--I thought I'd heard of someone owning a copy that did.

That was Harry, who has a mono copy of SOTB WITHOUT the spoken intro....


Dan

 

[stosh]

So it could be possible if a mono LP doesn't have the intro, that some stereo copies (although probably very rare) do? I really have to nail my friend down on this. (Meaning play it so I hear it.) This sounds like the "WHAT NOW MY LOVE" mystery. Guess I'll have to start buying up all the vynil I can find.

 

[Harry]

I don't have a stereo copy of the LP with the spoken intro, but did have it on my parents' mono copy as well as the CD. I'm not sure if it may or may not exist on a stereo LP--I thought I'd heard of someone owning a copy that did.

That was Harry, who has a mono copy of SOTB WITHOUT the spoken intro....

Confirmed. I've only ever heard the spoken intro on the CD. Neither my stereo nor mono LP has it on there.

Harry
...who also loves the 'sound' of this album, online...

 

[Steven J. Gross]

I have the stereo lp and cd- gotta check it out.

 

[thetijuanataxi]

The silver/white label pressings from the 70s and 80s have the spoken intro as well as the 8-track.

David,
hope this helps

 

[Rudy]

The silver/white label pressings from the 70s and 80s have the spoken intro as well as the 8-track.

OK, good...that means there may have been two stereo masters of this album, and they standardized on the version for the white/silver label pressings as well as later tape and CD versions.

I grew up with the spoken intro version on mono...it sounds weird without it!

I think what we should start doing is posting matrix numbers from the run-out area of these LPs. I can post the info from my stereo copy when I get home later, and I'll see if I can still find that old mono copy as well.

Don't worry about the album jackets though--those are irrelevant. Especially if you own a used copy of the LP, the jacket may not be the original.

 

[Harry]

I'll check when I get home from work sometime over the long weekend.

Harry
NP: radio at work

 

[Rudy]

My stereo copy (with spoken intro) has a couple of things in the runout. Stamped on side one is SP--115--1E. Just before this is inscribed a small letter C. Just after, a large slash (vertical line); could it be a 1? And just after that, a very tiny inscribed letter "P".

Side two is stamped SP-116-1D. It is preceded by a small scribed "O". Just after, another large slash, followed by a tiny inscribed "R". 180 degrees from that is what appears to be the number 2, and a letter C (which is actually backwards). Side 1 has something similar, the backwards C and a number that might either be a 1 or a 2.

This LP has the standard A&M label with logo on the left. I don't believe any were pressed with A&M logo at high-noon.

 

[stosh]

Hey Rudy,

I hate to burst your bubble, (and start another debate) but my mono copy has the A&M logo at high noon. Paid 1 buck and is like brand new. Wore the needle on the turntable out playing this sucker... Anybody else have one of these high nooners?


Still working on finding a mono copy of Beat of the Brass.....Later y'all

 

[Mr Bill]

Rather than post these #s in a thread that will eventually be hard to locate, maybe we should generate a page (gallery or otherwise) for this data. Probably best to make it all inclusive -- not just TJB, but organised alphabetically by artist, growing as we learn more.

And I'd expect a lot of input from W Brown, the pressing plant maven!

--Mr B

 

[Harry]

Stereo album, ochre label, logo 9 o'clock, no ®, smallish fonts:

side one: (hand-scribed): º SP-115-SIDE-1- 1J

side two: (hand-scribed): ( SP-116 (1-C) |

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mono album, ochre/greenish label, logo 9 o'clock, no ®, large title font:

side one: (typset): a five-pointed star followed by LP-115-1A, then handscribed 11-18-65

side two: (typset): a five-pointed star followed by LP-116-1A, then handscribed 11-18-65

Harry
...for what it's worth, online...

 

[Rudy]

I hate to burst your bubble, (and start another debate) but my mono copy has the A&M logo at high noon.

Wow! I think it would be safe to say you have a first pressing. Does your mono copy then have the spoken intro, or not?

 

[stosh]

Yep my mono copy has the spoken intro. As far as the runout markings-

Side 1 has: LP-115-side 1-1B
Side 2 has: LP-116-1A

 

[stosh]

And whats the deal with these numbers anyway? The album is cataloged with one number and the runouts have different numbers. Anybody know why???

 

[Mr Bill]

Each side was numbered so

A&M's 1st LP (#101) was pressed from plates 101 & 102
A&M's 2nd LP (#102) was pressed from plates 103 & 104
A&M's 3rd LP (#103) was pressed from plates 105 & 106
A&M's 4th LP (#104) was pressed from plates 107 & 108
A&M's 5th LP (#105) was pressed from plates 109 & 110
A&M's 6th LP (#106) was pressed from plates 111 & 112
A&M's 7th LP (#107) was pressed from plates 113 & 114
A&M's 8th LP (#108) was pressed from plates 115 & 116
A&M's 9th LP (#109) was pressed from plates 117 & 118

and so on...

The other #s and letters indicate whether it was the 1st, 2nd, etc plate made and what pressing plant it was used at. William Brown is our Pressing Plant/Matrix Maven and hopefully will join in on this thread soon (haven't seen him lately, though)...

--Mr Bill

 

[Jay Maynes/Juan Oskar]

"It sounds more like a public address system than a recording mic."

The voice is what the musicians hear when the engineer is talking through the intercom to the head set. "take one...take two...etc."

Jay

 

[Rudy]

The other #s and letters indicate whether it was the 1st, 2nd, etc plate made and what pressing plant it was used at.

Keep in mind, too, that back then, the tapes were mixed down to mono and stereo and sent out to the pressing plants, where the metal parts were made for the stampers. I do know that for awhile, Herb was mixing the stereo version twice--once for the east coast plant, and once for the west coast. Larry Levine would do the mono mixes, including the single mixes.

 

[Mr Bill]

The voice is what the musicians hear when the engineer is talking through the intercom to the head set. "take one...take two...etc."

Yep. That's how it sounds to me, too. All the production houses I worked at had a little mic built into the board for the Eng or Prod to talk to the talent over their headsets (and could be either put on tape or bypass the recorder). To talk you held down the "slate" button. This would also put a subsonic tone under the voice slate so while shuttling through you'd hear a "beep" under all the chipmunk sounds, to helpyou find the dead space between tracks. "Numero Cinco" sounds like a voice slate to me...

--Mr Bill