I'm certain many of our following is aware of the big news of the day in Smithdom.
This is the real deal, folks. From a collector's standpoint, these are nearly all the outtakes and alternate unreleased mixes everyone drooled about while reading Simon Goddard's excellent book.
From an audiophile perspective, though, I'm not sure where these fit within the defined constraints of this blog. While I am as excited as any of you are to hear these, and they ARE revelatory, they are sourced from mono bootleg vinyl. The story is these ultimately came from Warner Strategic Marketing, on CDs, a few years back. I would kill to get a CDR dub of those WSM CDs, and I can only imagine how pristine THOSE sound (and hopefully stereo!).
The vinyl capture is also somewhat compressed/clipped, big no-no's in my (admittedly anal) arena. While less of a bugaboo to my audiophile ears than the mono aspect, of course if I had my way - fat chance - someone with a thousand-dollar rig would re-transfer the vinyl at a more reasonable level to avoid undue clipping/compression.
Those are my nits and my nits only, though. What is the collective mindset on using some of these (like the original unmixed, unreleased John Porter-produced "Sheila Take A Bow" version) as bonus material in our little project? Should I see what I can get from these vinyl rips, or let them exist in their own domain out in the wild, and hope some little birdie drops CDRs of the Warner Strategic Marketing discs in my lap?
Any reader who wishes to take me up on said offer - to work from the actual CDs (or CDRs) as-sourced from Warners, and has source material to contribute, please drop me a line at analogloyalist AT gmail DOT com.
Hi there.
ReplyDeleteI've been checking in with you on a regualr basis, more so than the forums, as what you have been doing is much more interesting and rewarding than the accumulation of bootlegs these days.
I'm just not sure about some of the playing on these demo's, there is a suspicion thats nagging me that some of the playing sounds like its more than just overdubbing at actual demo stage. I think we might need simon goddard to verify if these are the same demo's he had heard.
As you will already know, the market for fake demo's and outtakes is huge, the beatles and the stones and zeppelin worlds are rife with this sort of thing. So why not Smiths fake boots and outtakes?
I shall keep listening in the meantime.
Best regards
gary
Those Demo's are not fake. You heard the alt lyrics for some of the songs; right? Faking Morrissey's voice would be a parlor trick the best bootlegger couldn’t pull off. If our blogger friend says they are real; well then they are real.
ReplyDeleteAfter a listen frankly, mr shankly I like you sounding so Horny.
ReplyDeletecalm down darkman.
ReplyDeletedidnt say anything about the vocals being faked. If you can read back a little slower to take it in, I pointed out some of the playing, thats all.
Then i pointed out the huge market in fake demo/outtakes. Fortunately most of what we get now is free, but when you are throwing money at something, I'd advise caution.
gary c
I wouldn't spend your talents on these unless you can get the CD's/CDR's. Thank you very much for linking to that blog though. Can't wait to check them out.
ReplyDeleteGary
ReplyDeleteWasn’t trying to be rude; when I have something to say, I go straight to the point. Was just trying to make the point that no part of those demo’s are fake, including the music. No worries my man. I completely see you point, as far as, the fake material that is floating around………….
A fun find and as a bonus it would be nice to hear your work on them, but after the project is complete please.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't want anything diverting you from the pristine restoration of the real thing.
There's a line, and I think you've got to decide where it is for you, your standards. One of the reasons we like your stuff so much is your exacting standards, someone else doing a similar project might go throwing loads of stuff like the soundcheck Purple Haze at it. So while I feel that some of these tracks could add to the project it's got to be what feels right for you. Getting better sources could be a good way to go as long as you were happy with the quality of those.
ReplyDeleteSo basically I'm saying thanks for asking us, but I think you should take limited note of the collective mindset because it's your nits that make your stuff so good!