How would you do the reissues?

["Eddie W. Presley Jr." <epresley@iu.net>]

         A lot of folks are bummin' about the new Quad reissue, and I guess
I can chip in as one of them, but this reissue stuff is no easy task. I
would like to think that they would release alongside the complete lp, all
the tracks from those same sessions and for the concept albums, any Scoop
quality demos that are a part of the actual song cycle itself. Like, with
WN, I would have liked to see all the Life House songs, be they outtakes,
b-sides, or Scoop quality demos, be put into one place in the original
intended running order... filling up any left over time with live stuff
pertinent to the recording. Though there is an equal argument to made that
original release's running order shouldn't be mucked with as that is what
made the lp a classic; and that argument definately lends itself to the idea
that the album should be released as it was on vinyl, no more - no less and
that includes pictures and liner notes. I thought the Iron Maiden reissues
were fairly cool - regular CD price with the all the b-sides from the
classic Euro 12"er's on a second CD. This was an over looked route for the
Who reissues. Some of the Maiden bonus disks run regular lp length and some
only have a couple of songs, and this would probably be the same with the
Who disks, but those didn't want any extra cuts could leave the extra CD in
the case.
        I can see them not wanting to mess with the 'conceptual feel' of
Quad and Tommy, (and lucky for them Tommy fills one entire disc), but an
extra disc could have allowed for Tommy live stuff - The Leeds Tommy? You're
buying Tommy anyway... so why not get a live Tommy to boot (as it were)?
        As for the rarities and singles collections I would like to see
Odd's and Sod's dropped completely in favor of not having redundant tracks
from existing reissues and for a series of comp releases. OAS would then be,
"the Who - Anthology" (or "Who's Anthology?) I would make it a series of
releases with extensive liner notes with the songs in chronological order.
Though, I can fully see the labels and the retailers point about not wanting
to have to merchendise yet another big Beatles type reissue series or
another set of  comps of the Who that rely on Waspman and Dogs to sell it.
(No offense to WM and Dogs lovers out there). They would have to Beatlize it
with extra live stuff and demos and outtakes and new stuff. I would like to
see Magic Bus and My Generation come out in some fashion - Particularly
MG... even if for now they just remaster MG from what they have.
        I guess this leads into the point another lister made about, once
they are done with the reissues they will have little reason to go back and
fix things or put out 'newly found' things or to rearrange the tracks into
more efficient running orders. They can't please everyone, but they should
have finished with the research before they started, you only get to do this
once. Perhaps Pete and the boys should have let MCA's rights to issue the
material run out and give it to say, Ryco, to reissue? How would other
listers out there prefer to see the material reissued?