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FORGET MATRIX NUMBERS |
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Yes, new You Are What You Is and Tinsel-Town
Rebellion masters were released on Rykodisc in 1998, packaged identically to the not so popular
earlier (1995) CDs, and the Zappa Patio tried to offer advise on how to
tell the old from the new by looking at - not listening to - the
discs.
The advice focused on "matrix numbers", the
little numbers around the rim of the hole in the disc (so known since the
LP era).
But soon, people started mailing in exceptions to every
rule about these matrix numbers. It has now reached a point where the only
method we can recommend is listening to the discs, and so we have removed
all references to matrix numbers from the page. |
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You Are What You Is
A new CD master was made
by Spence Chrislu in 1998. This is out now on Rykodisc, and quite popular
among fans. (Read more below.) Before that master, there had
only been inferior CD versions ever since the good European EMI CD went out of
print in the 80s. These inferior CDs had severe audio errors and only half of the "Dumb All Over"
guitar solo (due to Zappa himself); it is the clear worst of the "bad
batch" of discs. The new remaster sounds even better than the EMI CD, but
"Dumb All Over" is a bit different - the guitar solo is
edited together instead of fading in and out, so it's actually slightly
shorter.
What We Need: So, were all non-EMI/1998 versions equally bad?
It sounds as if the 1995 CD merely had boosted dBs, but was from the same
digital master.
ESSENTIAL VERSIONS FOR COMPLETISTS: The vinyl and EMI CD have the most actual
material, but the 1998 CD is almost as swell; it sounds better than the
EMI CD, and is only missing a few seconds of the Dumb All Over/Heavenly Bank
Account guitar solo. [completist's guide]
Issues
- Original vinyl (Barking Pumpkin PW2-37537 in the US,
September 1981, gatefold cover; CBS 88560 in the UK, October 1981)
- Canadian vinyl (Epic Records PW 37538/37539, gatefold cover
with lyrics on three sides of the (black & white) picture sleeves and Shut Up & Play Yer Guitar ad on the fourth)
- European vinyl (EMI 164 26 0812 3)
- Spanish vinyl (Barking Pumpkin/CBS S 88560, 1981)
- Portuguese vinyl (CBS 88560)
- Japanese vinyl (CBS/Sony 40AP 2217-8)
- Mexican vinyl (CBS LP2S-122, gatefold sleeve, track titles in Spanish on
back cover & labels)
- Cassette (CBS 40-88560)
- 8-track (Barking Pumpkin WAX 37537)
- Argentine vinyl (EMI 58415, no gatefold cover and no "say cheese" liner notes,
but lyrics on the inner sleeve)
- Digitally remastered European vinyl re-issue (EMI EN 5000 (?), 1985)
- EMI CD (CDP 7 90075 2, UK only, April 1986)
- Original Ryko CD (RCD 40165, US only, May 1990)
- Zappa Records CD (CDZAP 27, May 1990, UK only)
- Original Japanese CD (VACK 5044)
- Australian CD (Ryko D30378, 1990)
- IRS 970.727 CD (?)
- Russian CD (Dora JPCD 9801102, black disc)
- 1995 CD (Ryko RCD 10536, May 2 1995; VACK 5130 in Japan,
renumbered 5265 in 1998)
- Remastered 1998 CD (Ryko RCD 10536, remastered in
1998)
- Japanese paper-sleeve CD (Ryko/VACK 1242, May
29 2002 - black & white inner sleeve with Shut
Up & Play Yer Guitar ad & printed lyrics)
COSMC: I just got a vinyl copy of You Are What You Is, which, upon its
arrival, I discovered to be the Canadian Epic pressing. Some irregularities I was
wondering about: The side sequence is mislabeled. The flip side of side one is labeled as
side 2, though it is actually side 4. The songs listed are correct, but the label says
"side 2". The other album, what is labeled as side 3, is actually 2; what is
labeled side 4 is actually side 3. Again, the songs are correctly labeled, only the number
is incorrect. Are all the copies of this pressing like this, or was it corrected? ...
9-HI-LOP-LOP: My copy is also mislabelled. Not sure about it ever being corrected. My
copy was from Columbia House, though it doesn't mention it on the cover or LPs. Perhaps
this error was with just their copies.
COSMC: ... also, the FAQ lists the Canadian version as a gatefold, but not the US [it
does now - Ed.]. Does the intended-for-Newsweek article appear in the US copy?
How about the picture of Zappa? If there were different printings of the jacket, why is it
devoid of any Epic labeling?
JOHN HENLEY: The Barking Pumpkin LP release of 1981 is indeed a gatefold sleeve, and
the Newsweek article and a nifty color pic of Frank, clear-eyed, friendly-looking and
wearing a bathrobe, are there.
THAT GUY FROM KUNG FU CULT MASTER
: I have to clarify that I only list "gatefold
cover" or "non-gatefold cover" for a vinyl version of an album in case
someone specifically reports a gatefold or non-gatefold cover. In the case of the US You
Are What You Is (which is nowadays labelled with "gatefold cover" just
like its Canadian counterpart), I never meant to make it look like there was no gatefold
cover. In fact, I've seen the US vinyl dozens of times in record stores, so the abscense
of a cover specification was due to negligence on my part, not lack of information. Hey,
at least I work for free.
Speed Intrigue
DUKEOPRUNZ writes:
I read an interview way back when and
which I couldn't possibly hope to locate now, in which I recall Zappa saying
that one of the records of You Are What You Is was mastered a little
fast. My hypothesis for years has been that the side 1/4 record was mastered
fast, which would account for a) the difference in speed between the Crush
All Boxes/Have I Offended Someone? mix of
"Goblin Girl" and the You Are What You Is mix, and b) the
difference in pitch between the outro of "Dumb All Over" and the
intro of "Heavenly Bank Account".
JWB:
I agree with that hypothesis very much!
David G. follows up: I've always been interested in the You
Are What You Is speed issue. I agree with the Duke that LP 1--sides 1 and
4--clearly runs a bit fast. What I've never been able to figure out, though,
is why this persisted into the CD era. If this "problem" only affected LP 1,
then why would the original masters show signs of this manipulation?
Wouldn't the only versions affected be releases sourced from the EQed, LP
master? If the mixing sessions were conducted on a tape machine that was
running a bit slowly, however, that's something else entirely. Still, I'm
surprised that FZ didn't bother to correct the speed problem in later
pressings.Anyway, for those curious about listening to the album at the
"correct" speed: I compared three versions of Goblin Girl to get an idea of
the different releases of the album. Version 1 was the current version from
Spence's fantastic remaster. Version 2 was the alternate
mix from the "smiley-face" CD version of
Crush All Boxes. Version 3
was the remix from Have I Offended Someone?
A quick examination revealed that all three ran at different speeds, with
the album version being fastest and Crush All Boxes being slowest. As the
vintage of the Offended version is fairly recently--which means it was
mixed recently from what was, presumably, a fairly-stable tape machine--I
pegged that version as running at the correct speed. It's about a quarter-step
slower than the You Are What You Is album version. The specific Adobe Audition
ratio for the 6-second snippet I compared was about 101.8 in Audition's
resample function, but this is of course just an approximation.
I've since burned a 1998-version derivative CD for myself with the "new"
speeds, and I have to say that some of those tracks do sound a bit more
"relaxed" at the slower pace. If you're planning on doing this at home,
remember: it's just sides 1 and 4 that are affected, and as the 1998 CD puts a
little bit of "Heavenly Bank Account"'s beginning guitar solo at the end of
the Dumb All Over track, you need to slow that little snippet down, too.
8-Track
This was probably the last Zappa album to come out on the old 8-track tape format.
From David Pearlman:
I have the 8-track for You Are What You Is, which is a 1981 release.
It's a commercial (not record-company) issue. For you discographers out there, it's WAX
37537 (Barking Pumpkin records). The two-record set is on one 8-track.
As for 8-tracks in general, 1980 is about the cutoff for de facto releases. A trickle
of releases (major label, mostly) came out in '81-'82. After that, they were basically
record-club-only. Believe it or not, the record club continued to manufacture 8-tracks
until the late '80's, although only for select mega-popular releases (and then in
extremely small quantities). The newest 8-track I have is Fleetwood Mac's greatest hits,
which is from 1988. George Harrison's Cloud Nine, from the same period,
also exists on 8-track. Zappa was never a record club staple, and he was certainly never a
big selling artist, so I doubt any of his stuff from the record-club-only period made it
to 8-track. It's possible You Are What You Is was the end of the 8-track
line for Frank ...
EMI CD
- Total time of this CD: 69:54
This used to be considered the only good CD issue of You Are What You
Is. (See "1998" for the new development.)
The sound quality was better than the other [old] CD versions
and it has the guitar solo intact on "Dumb All Over". It is not perfect, though.
David G. notes that it's "a bit tinny," and Mark Edmonds points out:
The track markers are screwed for "Dumb All Over" so if you jump to
that track, you jump right in where the guitar solo starts.
This CD clocks in at 69:54, compared to 67:24 for other CD versions.
In second-hand record stores, you can recognise this issue by:
- The catalog number CDP 7 90075 2
- The EMI logo on the back cover
- The legend "Mastered by Nimbus" around the inner rim of the disc
Original Ryko CD
Zappa Records CD
All the You Are What You Is CDs except the old European EMI CD are considered virtually defective. The are made from a master
with audio problems and a cropped version of the "Dumb All Over" guitar solo.
This defective master was made and/or approved by Zappa himself. These CDs include:
- The Original Ryko CD (RCD 40165), a US release
- The Zappa Records CD (CDZAP 27), a UK only release
- The 1995 CD (Ryko RCD 10532 / VACK 5130)
- Possibly/probably the Japanese VACK 5044 CD, the Australian Ryko D30378 CD and the
Russian JPCD 9801102 CD
Sound Quality
From "Dog Biz":
The first Zappa-approved Ryko release of this album had this over-compression screw-up
and the European Zappa release had the same screw-up. Ryko said that the problem had been
solved with their definitive re-release and that Zappa delivered new masters for the
re-release. Well, either Frank wanted it to sound that way or Frank's hearing was fucked. ["He
was in too much pain to care that day" - Mike Keneally]
From "Uncle Meat":
I got the CD a few years ago and wondered if my speaker wires were loose!!! Certain
tracks fade in and out, left and right with no rhyme or reason. I returned the CD to the
record store and got a different copy, only to find the same thing happening on the new
one. I gave up and bought the vinyl. [The problems seem to have been
corrected in 1998.]
From Steve Wik:
I've bought You Are What You Is three freakin' times now. The first
time I thought "oh, it must be damaged". The second time I thought "oh, all
the copies in Tucson must have come from the damaged shipment". The third time (Ryko's exciting new re-release) I thought "what the fuck?!? Zappa
approved this?!?". Now I just never listen to it and try not to think about it.
Someday when I pur***se a turntable I'll buy a vinyl copy ... [The
problems seem to have been corrected in 1998.]
From JWB:
I first noticed the sound problems with the original You Are What You Is
CD the day I bought it, while on vacation in Maryland. I was 14 years old. I put it
in my discman and went for a walk on the beach to hear the album for the first time. I
immediately noticed all kinds of weird shit going on. Volume fluctuation, drop-outs, and a
swishiness in the cymbals that fights with the vocals for space. They
sort of cancel each other out at times in a phase-like manner. It is obviously a high
frequency problem. I originally thought it was my discman or my headphones. I couldn't
take it anymore when it got to the ear-piercing "Mudd Club" and I shut it off,
disgusted with the album. Years later I bought the '95 CD and found
that it was identical. I finally bought the original LP and it sounds terrific. Any dissendents who think that there is nothing wrong with the Ryko CDs or
that they sound better are friggin' deaf! ALL of
the Ryko issues have this sound problem. "Jumbo Go Away" has some really
bad drop-outs in it. [However, the problems seem to have been corrected in
1998.]
Michael Pierry's Specific Examples of Drop-Outs & Shit and EQ Introdction
If you can listen to the Ryko [pre-1998] CD with the volume cranked up, in headphones, without
getting a headache ... something is wrong with your ears! And if
you're not listening to You Are What You Is cranked up through
headphones, you're missing a great deal of the experience of that album! There's a lot
goin' on in there, ya know.
Whoever EQ'd that CD couldn't hear really high frequencies, because the digital reverb
has some fucked-up frequencies in it. Turn up the vinyl as loud as you want and you won't
get that amount of harshness in the upper range. Not only that, something about the EQ
makes the cymbals and/or drums keep interfering with the vocals. They are both competing
for the same sonic territory. Can't you tell how crowded everything is on the CD? The
vocals and the cymbals are in direct competition with each other here. You think this is
"brighter"? "Brittle" would be more like it!
Now, you want specific examples of drop-outs and shit? Here we
go:
- Track 1: There's some kind of weird volume swell or SOMETHING right
around 01:11. What the fuck IS that anyway? Seems to have something to do
with all the digital echo that's been added.
- Track 2: Hilarious volume fluctuations here. Want a concrete example? Check out the
slide guitar in the right channel from 01:20-01:25. What is up with THAT?
Don't bother comparing with the vinyl, I've already done it. It don't happen there.
- Track 6: There's a very clear drop-out in the right channel at the entrance of the
vocals (00:08).
- Track 8: What de fuck gwine on here? What's goin' on in de right channel during "A
beautiful guy" (02:11-02:15)?
- Track 10: Check out the fluctuating volume of the fuzz guitar, starting around 00:40.
Also, there be somethin' funky gwine on from around 00:15-00:20. I dunno exactly what it
is, but it ain't on the vinyl. It's just weirdness, I think it's the volume.
- Track 13: "Mudd Club" is actually fun to listen to in the original mix. Here
it is just annoying. Oh yeah, the big drop-out occurs right around 02:17-02:19.
- Track 14: Big volume swell at 00:23.
Okay, that's enough for me. I am seriously getting a headache.
From Ron Spiegelhalter:
I took up the challenge and had my girlfriend listen to the two discs with headphones
(I kept the EQ flat). She was not real excited about the experiment but she humored me. I
put on the EMI disc, and she looked bored. I let her be bored for a few minutes and then I
took the disc off, much to her relief. Then I played the Ryko
[pre-1998]; she
looked even more bored as she had just heard this a minute ago. So she sat there like
"whatever" and then suddenly she got this weird look on her face and said,
"What was that? Is that what I was supposed to hear?" I asked her what she
meant; she vaguely gestured at the headphones and said, "It went all funky in this
ear ... there it did it again! Did you copy this or something?" Not the most
scientific experiment, but at least it confirmed the existence of the drop-outs to my
satisfaction anyway.
Some people do not agree that all such CDs really sound bad; you can
read about this in the Dissent section.
"Dumb All Over" Guitar Solo
From British Record Collector Magazine, No 171, November 1993 (?),
provided by Henry Griggs, Sydney, Australia:
The 1981 double album split the up the guitar solo which links "Dumb All
Over" and "Heavenly Bank Account" over two sides, and it was expected
(unfairly as it turned out) that EMI would run these tracks together on the CD. But the
self-styled "Greatest Recording Organisation in the World" received no small
amount of flak when they managed to issue a CD that mysteriously faded out in mid-guitar
solo, only to start up again with the end of the same track!
It was only when Zappa remixed his own version for CD that the truth emerged: the split
guitar solo was in fact not a continuous performance and it was therefore impossible to
match up the two parts. Accordingly, the Zappa/Ryko CDs have over
two minutes of guitar edited out to enable the tracks to seque. Again, completists will
need the LP or the EMI CD to fill this gap.
From Frank Zappa (quoted in a publication called the ICE
Booklet):
I never liked that solo anyways ...
Anyway, the solo seems to be back on the Ryko CD from 1998
onwards.
Booklets
From Dr. István Fekete:
The Zappa Records CD had a bad booklet (missing some song lyrics) - later, it has
been corrected.
From Juha Sarkkinen:
There are at least two versions of the CD booklet. On both Ryko CDs "Say
Cheese" starts on page four; on the ZAPPA CD it starts on page three.
1995 CD
- "Dumb All Over" track time on this CD 04:03 (both listed and
actual)
- Total time of this CD: 67:24 (approximate)
Unfortunately, this was one of the CDs that were considered virtually defective,
just like the original Ryko CD and the Zappa Records CD. It does not have the complete
"Dumb All Over" guitar solo from the the vinyl. However, in 1998,
Ryko got a new master which seems to be great!
Official Ryko statement: "New master. New timing sheet. Louder dBs than first
Rykodisc CD." [full statement]
"Typo Alert":
"I'm a Beautiful Guy". Lyric booklet reads "atheletic". The vinyl
didn't have this typo.
Dissent
Not all people agree that all the bad CDs are indeed bad.
Usually, they think their copy sounds good and must come from a
"good run" or a "good batch"; most people think that these
dissidents
just don't hear the difference. (It must be pointed out that no matter how you look at it,
the EMI CD is the only CD with the complete "Dumb All Over"
guitar solo. Only the sound quality can be construed as a matter of opinion.)
(To avoid any bad blood, the names of dissendents will be withheld. Note that
this "Dissent" section is only here for fun, and not to be taken
seriously.)
Dissendent BH:
Aparently, some of the You Are What You Is CDs are fine, yet others
exhibit the strange audio problems that you described. I have a Rykodisc release which is
fine. I bought it about two and a half years ago. The problem may occur only on a certain
manufacturing lot of the CD's. My CD - Rykodisc catalog number RCD 40165 - Has "MADE
IN USA BY PDO", "818 PUMPKIN", and "RCD40165 01!" inscribed on
the track side of the CD - label side of the CD is black with white lettering except for a
light blue "RYKO" on it. Hopefully we can figure this out.
Dissendent GC:
I loved the vinyls, disliked the EMI, and loved the Ryko. I found the EMI to lack dynamics.
Dissendent MA:
My CD of You Are What You Is sound[s] absolutely normal ... in
fact, I think the CD has no defect at all. You must have bought a CD from a bad
batch, or what not ... Maybe I got that CD from a good batch ...
A "batch" is not 1 copy. Actually, a "batch" comprises probably 50,
100 or maybe 10000 units. This depends on the title and artist involved, and the market
demand. It's also known as a production run.
Mike Keneally Gets the Last Word
All the horrifying volume swells and drop-outs, the distracting result of some mangled
"stereo-imaging" attempt, are inherent in that master. They
were there in the 1990 FZ-25 Ryko issue and they reappeared in the 1995 "FZ-approved" (which meant he was in too much pain to
care that day) master. The miserably tinny EQ is there in both issues of the master. The
original Barking Pumpkin vinyl sounded amazingly rich for such a heavily overdubbed album,
and the EMI Euro CD sounded fantastic, since it was
just a straight, non-re-EQ'd transfer from the digitally remastered Euro vinyl master
(which Frank deluded himself into believing was a rip-off - but his attempts to right this
wrong were awful), but without the inherent limitations of vinyl as a sound medium
(scratches and pops).
1998 CD - Remastered; Dandy!
- "Dumb All Over" track time on this CD: 05:45 (but listed as
04:03)
- Total time of this CD: 69:16
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"Spencer
Fuckin' Chrislu, you are a saint. You are a god. You are a wonderful
human being." |
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Doug
Boucher, "Screw That Jeezus Guy, I Now Worship Spence Chrislu",
alt.fan.frank-zappa, May 18 2000 |
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In May 2000, DK de la Mar was the first to report that Ryko had
somehow got a new master of this CD - and that the problems have
been FIXED! Yes, the new printing of the "1995 CD" was a
remaster. Days later, we're proud to present, from the remaster engineer
himself, Mr Spence Chrislu:
Oooh golly this is fun! Geez, you think that you tune out of a newsgroup
for a few months, check back in, and all hell breaks loose! Did he do it on
his own? Did he circumvent the ZFT? Is Ryko secretly changing all the masters?
I understand the breakup was less than amicable?
This is so much fun I can hardly stand it. OK, Spencer here to put your
minds at ease (and to piss some of you off as well. I don't know why, but
someone on this newsgroup always gets pissed off about something).
Some time in '98 after reading the various complaints about You Are What
You Is and Tinsel-Town Rebellion
(and hearing about it personally from Mike Keneally and Joe Travers) I decided
to take it upon myself to re-master those two titles. However, I did do it
with Gail and Dweezil's complete knowledge and understanding (no intrigue here
so stop looking). We used the same sort of care on these masters as we had
done on the Au20 projects [audiophile versions of Apostrophe
(') and One Size Fits All] and the results, I think, speak for themselves.
Now for the obvious questions:
Q: Why did the original release sound so bad?
A: I can't answer that one directly other than to say that FZ was
always experimenting with new technology. I believe that these CD releases
coincided with an experiment using a (then) state-of-the-art digital
mastering console with neato DSP compression, limiting, etc.
Q: Why the artificial reverb? Was it on the master? Did you use
the original master?
A: Rest assured that I used the original 2-track master extracted
straight from the vault.
Q: What's the deal on the edit between sides 3 & 4? Where's
the missing music?
A: As the dukeoprunz so recently pointed out, there is indeed an
edit between sides 3&4 of You Are What You Is. Why? Because I
thought it sounded stupid to have a piece of music on a CD fade out and then
fade back in during a guitar solo. Continuity (conceptually speaking of
course) and all that. And yes, the edit was a bitch and no, it's not
seamless. But I thought it worked and it glues the whole thing together as
well.
Q: How come you didn't tell us about it sooner?
A: Because you would have been moaning and groaning and
complaining that it's sitting there just out of your reach. Besides, I never
knew when (or if) it would be released and letting on would only torture you
guys. I guess you could consider this a present from me, Gail, Dweezil, and
Rykodisc.
Q: Why didn't you do Sheik Yerbouti
as well?
A: I never considered Sheik Yerbouti
to be nearly as offensive as Tinsel-Town
Rebellion and You Are What You Is. It suffers from some
digi-titis for sure but it's difficult to put yourself in FZ's shoes and
re-release something that he specifically approved as being final. I felt I
could make a good argument for the other two as being worthy of fixing but
on borderline calls like Sheik Yerbouti,
it becomes a matter of putting my opinions ahead of FZ's and I really don't
feel that's my right. Again, let me reitereate that I got Gail and Dweezil's
approval on these projects before ever going forward and then I got their
approval after the work was done (like signing off on the above-mentioned
edit). Who knows? Maybe I'll get to re-master the whole catalog for DVD-A!
There's a lot of Quad mixes down there that would sound great through a
surround system ...
Groan now ...
This has been fun,
Spence
(Ryko had a new CD booklet printed up for this remaster, but some copies of
the new CD still had the old booklet. Curiously, the new booklet gave credit to
both masters:
The original album was released in September 1981
It was digitally remastered for CD in 1998
at UMRK by Spencer Chrislu
FZ approved master, 1993)
Select mini-reviews:
MICHAEL PIERRY: This is unbelievable. Not only are the drop-outs gone, but the brittleness
as well. Whatever was wrong with the EQ has pretty much been fixed and the
guitar solo is back. It's beautiful. I'm sort of in shock because I never
thought this would happen. I'm seriously hearing stuff I've never heard before
on this CD. The bass is quite a bit more prominent, but without making
anything else suffer. I've never heard these songs with this much clarity. The difference between this and the "FZ-approved"
master is like night and day. I've never heard the EMI
CD but I'd be surprised if it sounded any better than this CD. Holy cow,
Ray White just sang, "But you don't care ... if it's a lie" and
it's completely dry, no reverb at all. The presence is pretty unbelievable.
And it doesn't have that stale aftertaste ...
DUKEOPRUNZ: I've listened to the edit several times since I posted,
Spence, and I've got to hand it to you - while the edit is apparent to
someone who's listened to the album 1,000,000,000 times (as I have), it's
about as seamless as one could possibly make it, and I don't really feel
gypped out of my 10 seconds of guitar solo.
DAVID G: I attempted a little experiment a while back...basically, I
tried to see whether Spencer had been a bit overzealous, and whether it was
possible to somehow get "more" of the guitar solo, while still making a
convincing edit. My verdict: it isn't, and Spencer is amazing for pulling this
one off.
MICHAEL PABST: I don't like the 1998 Spence Chrislu remastered
versions (although better than Frank's), especially some of the edits and
crossfades he did. Think the EMI CDs are still the best
(despite the artwork).
Japanese Paper-Sleeve Version (2001-2002)
Starting in 2001, Video Arts Music released a limited-edition series (2000
copies each) of Zappa CDs in
paper sleeves - miniature LP sleeves. There was nothing special about this
series other than the covers, which were very well done - inserts and
"bonuses" were reproduced, the albums that originally had gatefold
covers got little miniature gatefolds, and cover track lists were exactly as on
the corresponding LPs, even in cases where the CD has bonus tracks or a
different track order. Included in this series were some entries that never had
"proper" LP issues, i.e. Läther. Additionally, some rarities--like the "green/gold"
cover of Chunga's Revenge--were reproduced as special items in this run.
We need to stress that the sound quality of these discs matches the US
Ryko issues, which they are clearly derived from. These are collectors
items, not new remastered editions.
LATE-2005-UPDATE: Ryko USA has apparently been importing the overstock
of these releases to sell as domestic "special editions," causing the
speculators who paid top dollar for the entire collection to hari-kari
themselves. This includes some of the discs that, as of August 2005, were pretty
hard to find ("Money" and others).
Version-topia
From the 2004 Zappa CD Rundown:
The infamous mess of Zappa's catalogue! Ryko claims that their '95
disc has "louder dBs" than the first Ryko disc...can anybody confirm this? If it
does, is it just the old master boosted, or is it some odd new variant on the
same (bad) digital master? Regardless, it's safe to assume that the discs are
all identically awful. Frank clearly couldn't hear high frequencies
by this stage,
as the EQ on the album is just *wrong*. The right channel distortions that
plague the
other bad-batch albums are at their hilarious height here, and almost every
cymbal hit
causes a ridiculous volume swell.
Thankfully, there is no longer any need to be concerned.
Questions
- Any details on cassette versions?
- The Japanese VACK 5044, Australian Ryko D30378 and Russian JPCD 9801102 CDs do
belong in the "bad" bunch, don't they?
- Any other details on the Russian CD?
Additional Informants
- Record Collector magazine #171, November 1993
- Marcelo Gasió
- Neil Schlegel
- Richard Kolke
- Gonçalo Falcão
- Ken Walter
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