🥂 50th A&M 50th Anniversary 3-CD Set

[Captain Bacardi]

I just listened to "Skokiaan". The 'highs' on the track are rather intense, and it almost sounds as if some reverb was added to the horns. Not much bottom on the song.

The highs on "Summertime" are rather shill as well.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Steven J. Gross]

A "mediOCHRE" collection at best- to include Baez and Dino and Simbello while leaving out the Baja Marimba Band, Wes Montgomery and Lee Michaels is a dealbreaker for me.

 

[GroovinGarrett]

Mine is from some 1998 compilation called Chicken Soup For The Soul -- Love and Inspiration.

You keep that on a shelf with all of your Dr. Phil books?

 

[Rudy]

You keep that on a shelf with all of your Dr. Phil books?

Oh yes...and my "Healing Disc."

 

[Harry]

A "mediOCHRE" collection at best-

Now THAT's clever!

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Thanks Harry

 

[Dave]

Well, where IS Dino & Sembello? I couldn't see anything like 'Dancin' Jones' on either set! The Sandpipers 'Guantanamera' is as important a milestone, as would be We Five's 'You Were On My Mind', and TjB's 'The Lonely Bull' for that matter! (Maybe Michael Sembello's 'Maniac'--was THAT on A&M?)

Well, "Who IS Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of Friends?", might ask some consumers who obviously have never seen an A&M inner-sleeve, prior to the 'Man's Best Friend', one--wouldn't an "introduction", via 'Kinda Wasted Without You' or 'Love So Fine', get that bunch some recognition and make this set something actually PLAYED?!

So far, to me, a little more nudging and catching up w/ some of these later artists works in my collection is what would get me to buy this set; I usually seldom buy anything for looks, & these seems to be where it ranks so far, in my book...

I just can't stomach the Joan Baez track, or deal w/ the lack of anything by Lee Michaels and Baja Marimba Band, and the Sting 'Set Them Free' was never a fav' of mine... Then again, The Brothers Johnson is an act I wouldn't expect anything from, but "Thunder Thumbs & Lightnin' Licks", deserve something better, as does Joe Cocker, while the Cat Stevens and Procol Harum tracks still rank as "definitive" as opposed to "what I would like to hear" at best; 'Peace Train' for the former and 'Whiter Shade Of Pale', for the latter?

It's still a good place to get Milton Nascimento's 'Bridges', though, but Antonio Carlos Jobim needs something, too, I believe... (And Ike & Tina Turner's 'River, Deep Mountain High'?)


-- Dave

 

[Actorman]

(Maybe Michael Sembello's 'Maniac'--was THAT on A&M?)

(And Ike & Tina Turner's 'River, Deep Mountain High'?)
-- Dave

"Maniac" was on Casablanca.

Wasn't "River Deep, Mountain High" on Philles?

 

[Harry]

Heh. I just got a refund from Amazon for 73¢ as they had lowered the price after I ordered it.

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Oops! I wrote Dino and Simbello but I meant Bell and James (I'm embarassed)...

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Heh. I just got a refund from Amazon for 73¢ as they had lowered the price after I ordered it.

Yeah, so did I. Hello Vegas!


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Wasn't "River Deep, Mountain High" on Philles?

No, that was on SP-4178.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Wasn't "River Deep, Mountain High" on Philles?

The single, in 1966, yes. But the album was on A&M in 1969 (SP-4178).

 

[Mike Blakesley]

So if everybody KNOWS that brickwalling is bad, and everybody from critics to sound experts to radio people to average listeners keeps saying it's bad.....why do they do it??

 

[Mike Blakesley]

.....maybe it's so in a few years, they can start reissuing all the music AGAIN with the sound re-remastered to its original non-brickwalled glory and everybody can buy it all over again.

 

[Steve Sidoruk]

So if everybody KNOWS that brickwalling is bad, and everybody from critics to sound experts to radio people to average listeners keeps saying it's bad.....why do they do it??

It's either because 'louder is better' or they're stupid. I'll go with the latter.

 

[GroovinGarrett]

Heh. I just got a refund from Amazon for 73¢ as they had lowered the price after I ordered it.

I got one too. Every (almost) dollar counts!

 

[Captain Bacardi]

So if everybody KNOWS that brickwalling is bad, and everybody from critics to sound experts to radio people to average listeners keeps saying it's bad.....why do they do it??

Plus radio stations run CDs through their own compressors as well, making it even louder for the airwaves.

A few years ago when I first met Randy Alpert I asked him why this loudness war was happening and why don't engineers flat out refuse to do it. He told me if someone did refuse to compress the hell out of it the record company would just find someone else to do it. If you want the work you have to play by the corporate rules these days.




Capt. Bacardi

 

[Harry]

It's silly in this case though. This set isn't really marketed for radio play - most stations already have this stuff - in other forms if they need it.

It can't be thought of as a sampler - half of the stuff on here isn't available anywhere else.

It's not really for youngsters - the typical ones don't care about this "old" music.

Therefore, it's a set for collectors, aficionados, who tend to care about such things as how it sounds. The logic of smashing the sound the way it was done here escapes me. This set makes DEF. HITS sound like an MSFL SACD release by comparison. And we all complained about the state of the master tapes in THAT one.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

So if everybody KNOWS that brickwalling is bad, and everybody from critics to sound experts to radio people to average listeners keeps saying it's bad.....why do they do it??

It's the old loudness wars. It happened in radio for decades, then when someone realize they could digitally compress CDs during mastering, they applied that there too. (The physical limitations of vinyl and tape sort of prevented the practice.)

As one engineer put it to me over 15 years ago, Tanya puts out a CD that was louder than Reba's last one, so Reba's new one needs to be louder than Tanya's. And the stakes keep going up each time.

It's like Harry says--why does a set made for collectors need to be so slammed? None of us who have bought, or will be buying, this set needs our discs to be louder than others we own. Save that crap for Top 40 releases...or wait, maybe not.

 

[Dave]

Oops! I wrote Dino and Simbello but I meant Bell and James (I'm embarassed)...

Well, that's OK, Elkie Brooks is not included either...! 'Pearl's A Singer', (Dino & Sembello's song) for her?


-- Dave

 

[toeknee4bz]

My friend who collects early pressing CDs...you can tell which section of his rack has over a dozen Synchronicity CDs.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I told my wife that I didn't want any more grief over my seven copies of RISE (Two lp copies, two CDs, one 8-Track, one cassette and one reel).

 

[toeknee4bz]

They obviously couldn't include everything and I'm sure each of us has a song or five that we wish had been included, but I think they did a really nice job with the track selection.
Grouping everything by theme as opposed to presenting chronologically was a wise decision as well. It really helps emphasize the diversity of the acts on the label.

Agreed, there's bound to be at least one or two favorites that just wouldn't make it. Personally, I like "Take A Little Rhythm" by Ali Thomson, but since it wasn't that big, I can't complain about it's absence.
Where I differ is that I DON'T think they did a very good job with grouping. I mean, "Skokiaan" followed by Janet Jackson's "When I Think Of You"? Jobim's "Wave" in between Bell & James and Jeffrey Osborne? Really? What were they thinking here? "Don't You Want Me" by Human League in between "Wild World" and "Love Will Keep Us Together"? I realize that diversity is part of the charm of the A&M legacy, but major jerking head switches don't blend all that well. I have always preferred a chronological set. If there are stylistic changes along that line, they seem to be easier to swallow than going from late 70s R&B to 80s new wave to mid 70s bubblegum pop. Continuity.

 

[Dave]

--Antonio Carlos Jobim needs something, too, I believe...


-- Dave

Wait, 'Wave' by ACJ is on there--I meant, Wes Montgomery! Why not something that kicked off A&M/CTi, or at least jazz on A&M, in fact Jazz covering pop songs in a (sometimes most often indulgent) commercial foray! Yes, 'A Day In The Life'...!!!!


-- Dave

 

[Rudy]

Thank you so much for sharing this. I told my wife that I didn't want any more grief over my seven copies of RISE (Two lp copies, two CDs, one 8-Track, one cassette and one reel).

I don't have too many albums like that. I think format-wise, Carpenters' Passage is the one I have covered the most--cassette (when it was first released), LP, two CDs (although I sold the earlier one) and 8-track.

As for the most copies of one LP, I have four of Uniquely Mancini, three of those a futile attempt to find a clean playing copy. I think I have three LPs of Pat Metheny Group's American Garage, two of them sent to me by a fellow collector in Portland who had spares. (His latest plays like new, so that's my keeper.) Oh, and I have both of these on CD also.

I admit there are a couple of times I bought a used LP, not remembering if I had them already.

My own Rise stash is limited to my original LP copy, an A&M Audiophile pressing (purchased used), and the original-release CD. The only other one I really want (other than the updated Signature Series CD) is the Mobile Fidelity version of Rise on LP, just for comparison.