Goodbye to Love - Quad 8 Track

Billy Rees

Well-Known Member
I have a question about this version of Goodbye to Love...

How did there end up being a different lyric version ("All the TEARS of useless search...") only on the 8 track releases of A Song For You & The Singles 1969-1973.

And... Was it an earlier version which was then re-recorded and changed to "All the YEARS..." afterwards or was the word TEARS originally sung by mistake?
 
The line was sung by Karen during one of the takes of the song and she mistakenly used the word "tears". It is likely that this was otherwise a very good take and became the core basic track - except that Richard had to fly-in a corrected line from another take to fix the "tears/years" problem.

While Carpenters were out on the road doing one of their many concert tours, someone at A&M (Marv Bornstein? Bart Chiate?) was given the task of taking the Carpenters albums and converting them into quad. Not knowing, or not being able to follow Richard's notes for one reason or another, the wrong take "leaked" through on that mix.

Today, it provides us with an interesting peek into the recording process.
 
No it isn't as far as I know.

That line also has an odd doubling of Karen's lead.
 
It’s also that way on the quad Vinyl The Singles 1969-73, or lp as we used to call them. All The Tears of Useless Search.... so cool of Billy and Harry to bring it up. Thx
 
It’s also that way on the quad Vinyl The Singles 1969-73, or lp as we used to call them. All The Tears of Useless Search.... so cool of Billy and Harry to bring it up. Thx

Thanks! I had no idea there was a quad LP as well as 8 track... That's going on my shopping list!
 
No, they should play fine on any turntable. If connected to a good surround sound or 5.1 or 6.1 system they sound great. Different mixes and instruments come from all around. There are 3 of them. The best is Now & Then, then Horizon, then Singles. The N&T and Singles are in SQ format and Horizon Quad CD4 format. None successful. Richard did not like these pressings and didn’t authorize their release he said after the Singles 1969-81 SACD came out. I’ll leave the SQ and CD Quad 4 for Rudy to explain, though I think he’s done that before. Great to have in my collection as the voices and backgrounds are mixed different from standard recordings.
I play them in the DTS mode for the best surround mix on my Yamaha amp.
 
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Harry were there also quad vinyl pressings of Carpenters and A Song For You ? I’ve seen the 8-track for ASFY not sure on Carpenters. Thanks for any information on those too.
Ken
 
Harry were there also quad vinyl pressings of Carpenters and A Song For You ? I’ve seen the 8-track for ASFY not sure on Carpenters. Thanks for any information on those too.
Ken

‘The Singles’ and ‘Now And Then’ were the only quad albums available on LP.

‘A Song For You’, ‘Close To You’, ‘Now And Then’, ‘Horizon’, ‘Carpenters’ and ‘The Singles’ were all released on the Q-8 format, which is an 8-track tape with 2 programs instead of two with more discrete separation between channels. The sound quality was/is excellent. I own each of them.

The best quad mixes are ‘Now And Then’, ‘The Singles’ and ‘Horizon’ (as mentioned above). It’s a real treat to hear all the sounds happening, as originally envisioned by the people that mixed it in Richard’s absence. His 5.1 SACD is fantastic, but there are many thrilling moments on the quad releases, too!
 
That’s not true. Horizon is also in quad vinyl format CD-4 version, not the SQ like the other 2. I listened to mine today in fact and N&T. It’s got great mixes on Only Yesterday and Happy and I’m Caught Between Goodbye and I Love You. CTY, Carpenters, ASFY, N&T, Singles, and Horizon were all on quad 8-track. There was talk of Kind of Hush but not released.
It’s all in the closed Quad thread that I read on here earlier today.
 
According to the Discogs catalogue, the Quad vinyl of "A Song For You" was only released in Australia/New Zealand?

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WOW!!!! What a find. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen ASFY in quad on vinyl. That’s big news for quad collectors in general.
 
That’s not true. Horizon is also in quad vinyl format CD-4 version, not the SQ like the other 2. I listened to mine today in fact and N&T. It’s got great mixes on Only Yesterday and Happy and I’m Caught Between Goodbye and I Love You. CTY, Carpenters, ASFY, N&T, Singles, and Horizon were all on quad 8-track. There was talk of Kind of Hush but not released.
It’s all in the closed Quad thread that I read on here earlier today.


Correct. Forgot about the CD-4 quad LP of ‘Horizon’. Everything else I listed above is indeed true.
 
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