But the CD thing also made listening to the album a more
rewarding experience, from the great visuals of the album art, to the extra
sparkles that came from the lp sound, not simply from the scratches on the
disc. Often the sound is still brighter
on my lps than the CD’s.
After years of listening to some great funk & soul in
both formats, there are a few tracks that are glaring in the contrast from lp
to CD, both good and bad:
Here are the most memorable to me:
1) Parliament Live: P-Funk Earth Tour (1977). When the 2lp came out when I was in high
school, I was thrilled, only to discover that the mix was hella murky on
lp. It would be another 15 years before
the CD reissue would “fix” the sound and deliver a much brighter mix. You can finally hear the Mike Hampton guitar
solo on “Dr. Funkenstein” live. This is
one instance when the CD was an upgrade sound wise from the lp. But you don’t get “Fantasy is Reality” on the
CD, so you are missing something. And of
course you don’t get the crazy Dr Funkenstein poster and Iron on T-Shirt
Transfer!
2) Similarly, I always tripped on how murky Stevie Wonder’s
70’s albums sounded. Particularly Fulfillingness
First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life.
But the 2000 remaster of “Songs …” (thanks Harry Weinger) brings out all
kinds of new layers on songs like “Another Star” and “All Day Sucker” that I
never heard before on the album. In this
case, the CD is a great new treat.
3) Brick “Good High”
(1976) This was always one of my favorite creative funk records back in
the day, and I had to wait a hella long time for the CD reissue on Wounded Bird
in 2011. Unfortunately by then I had
already converted my lp to an mp3 album – And that still sounds way brighter
than the new CD. That was a big
downer. I don’t know what was missed but something is
flat on all the tracks. You can compare
the versions from the Greatest Hits versions of “Dazz” and “Good High” to that
disc and it won’t feel good.
4) Collectibles has always had a shaky reputation when it
comes to putting classic soul on CD.
Maybe it is because other labels will remaster tracks and Collectibles
appears to just take a tape and put it directly to CD. That was the case when they did Slave’s two
albums “Hardness of the World” and “The Concept,” two of the wildest funk
albums ever created, put on one CD. I
really wanted The Concept so I could put all 9 glorious minutes of “Stellar
Fungk” on the radio with all the spacey sounds (and Steve Arrington’s
other-worldly percussion!) nice and clean for a change! But no, the sound is gloomy and murky to the
point where I’m still playing my lp or mp3 from my lp on the radio.
The tough part with this is that Rhino did a best of Slave
featuring Steve Arrington that really brought to life “Stellar Fungk” and “The
Party Song” – but cut them way down to fit single versions on the CD comp. So you can easily see how hot the Rhino mix is
versus the Collectibles mix. So I’m
still pining for a sparkly clean version of Stellar Fungk.
I wasn’t impressed with that 5CD Album Series release
either. Coulda given a mug some sparkle
on their funk.
5-6) Earth Wind & Fire: Gratitude and That’s the Way of
The World. Somehow the CD manufacturers
just don’t know what to do with EWF and their style of putting silly interludes
all over their albums. Do we track them
as individual tracks? Or blend them into
main tracks, therefore messing them up for those of us making mixes. Or do we just delete the sounds altogether?
On “Way of the World” on both my CD’s the first piano
interlude in front of “All About Love” is gone altogether. Just like it never happened. WTF? That song is magic, for a reason, because of
Larry Dunn’s weird piano/synth tripping, the lovely song enjoys a special place
“inside” EWF’s jazzy world, but not on the CD.
Poof. Some industry hack just
distorted the vision of Maurice White.
Also, the 2 minute piano/synthesizer vamp at the end is stuck on the
track, so if you only want the ballad, too bad, you get: no mellow intro but
you have to get the long outro.
I have an old version of the “Way of the World” CD that put
the piano/synth intro to “All About Love” at the end of the previous track “Happy
Feelin’” which meant that Happy Feelin’ in a mix would go into a piano ballad
before the track ends, making a mess of the mixes I was trying to make with
that song.
Gratitude was almost as bad, as the intro to “Sun Goddess”
is messed up. Most of us OG’s love
hearing the nice intro: “Right now, we
have a special song for you, a song we recorded with Ramsey Lewis…” and then it kicks into the jam. That is one of the most memorable moments of
a legendary live album. For the CD the
track kicks in right on the song, and the dialogue is stuck at the end of
“Devotion.” That means, if you want to
play “Devotion” live in a mix, you also have to listen to the Ramsey Lewis
intro before the song cuts out.
They did put that crazy riff that comes just before “Cant
Hide Love” on the last side of the lp, on the CD and it is tracked by itself,
which was a good idea. An idea that
should apply to all EWF interludes; make them all separate tracks, period.
7) “Aqua Boogie” on Motor Booty Affair. When I came across “Motor Booty Affair” for
the first time in 1978 it was one of the greatest surprises! I didn’t know Parliament was coming out with
something new, and I was still swimming in the P, with One Nation Under A
Groove and Bootsy’s latest “Player of the Year” still making noise. So I copped that disc and ran home and played
the whole thing! I couldn’t believe how
trippy, liquefied and stanky the album was, and Aqua Boogie was just on another
level, with the final ripping groove turning a mutha out! But dang it faded out hella quick! As it turned out, the lp LISTED the song at
6:43 but it was about a minute shorter.
It always bugged me out. Nevertheless
the song was psychedelic p-funk perfection, so I wasn’t trippin’…
But when the CD came out in 1990 I was stunned to hear the
final minute of Aqua Boogie in all its super stankiness, and sloppiness. I figure it was faded on the lp because that
underwater bird (performed by who?...) kinda lost his breath in that final minute,
and the perfection of the arrangement is somewhat lost. Maybe that was the case, maybe it was just a
ghost in the machine…
8) Spider on Herbie Hancock’s “Secrets” album. This has always been one of my all time
favorite jazz funk albums, and “Spider” is to me a masterpiece of precision stank
funk hiding on a jazz album. Herbie’s
ability to put a serene sheen on the gangly spidery groove has always been
hypnotic to me. The ending, in a splash
of synthesizer splatter is also a memorable jazz funk legendary moment. But when I rushed out to buy the first CD
reissue, there was a “glitch” in the end of Spider, as if the “tape” had folded
as it was being digitized. A funk
buzzkill if there ever was one.
So I figured it was just a bad CD, and I bought another one,
same glitch. Dang. Glad to know that used CD’s are always being
bought & sold, but I really wanted that Spider to come out clean. Many of those mid 70s albums have been
remastered and completely upgraded sound wise, but not Secrets. Still waiting. Fortunately one can download “Spider” from
itunes from a “Greatest Hits” and it sounds fine. Or better yet, crank the original album!
9) Sometimes CD reissues come with sound that is way too hot
& loud, like my best of the Emotions, and my best of Mother’s Finest. Sometimes CD reissues come in way too low,
like for some reason a lot Al Jarreau, my Gil Scott Heron “Pieces of a Man”
comp, and my Quincy Jones “Mellow Madness” CD from Japan. For a long time there was no real standard
for what level to put the lp out on CD.
Drove me nuts trying to make a radio mix.
10) Does anybody else remember when CBS messed up and put
the “alternate” Fresh album by Sly & the Family Stone out? That was a trip. Apparently it was murkier and trippier than
the album most of us knew and loved anyway.
I believe it is what Sly gave originally to the label, and somebody
decided to mix it again after Sly handed it in.
Any other big surprises?
