Re: Avoid this CD

[dat93sbo@ludat.lth.se (Svante Borjesson)]

Hi,

Alan writes:

	While in NY, I got a CD of The Who's entire Woodstock set, titled The
	Who Starring The Who?  Unfortunately, when I got it home and started to
	play along, I noticed the whole thing was speeded up a half tone, such
	that things played in A were being played in A#, D chords became D#,
	etc.

	A friend of mine said he had heard that there were two CDs of this
	performance available, one of which was speeded up.  He listened to
	mine, and said it sounded OK (and, in fact, it sounds OK to me to at
	first listen), but take it home and compare it to known pitches and it's
	definitely off.  I'm sure the performance would be much more powerful if
	heard at the correct speed.  Anyone know where to get a correct copy?


Upon reading this I was quite satisfied with myself in getting the correct CD
of Woodstock. Mine's called "The Who live in Woodstock" with a subtitle on the
actual CD "Once upon a time in Woodstock". When I got home I compared the boot
with the TKAA soundtrack. This is when I realized that in fact this boot ALSO
PLAYS FAST. "Pinball Wizard" is 2.48 mins on TKAA and only 2.38 on the bootleg.
A difference of 10 seconds!

Also, it seems to be a slightly different mix of the sound. The Guitar, for
instance, is more to the foreground, or sounds clearer, on the bootleg.
This might not be entirely negative though, but of course it would seem 
natural to mix it the same way as on TKAA.

I find it very frustrating that there are so many Who bootlegs around that
are of bad quality. There's always something wrong with them. Of course
it would be simple just to blame the greedy bootleggers for this. But I think
also that we, the fans, have to take a lot of responsibility for the quality
of bootlegs and such, because it's quite likely that this Woodstock material
has been provided by a "Who fan". It seems that the bootlegger, upon receiving
such a tape, will make no extra efforts to obtain a "near perfect" copy of the
music, but simply issues it as is, taking no responsibility whatsoever.

I think one way to avoid this is for a _REAL_ who fan to give a tape of
music that he considers near perfect (ie mot speeded, not cut or faded etc.),
long before it gets spread too much, and the quality has degenerated, to a
bootleg company stating _HIS_ terms for the release. He could also provide
rare pictures and info to include in the CD sleeve, which I rarely see
in a Who bootleg.

Maybe this has been done with the Woodstock show. But where is that CD?
Maybe there are bootlegs made that are only available to a closed circuit
of Who fans. One example of this is "From Lifehouse to Leeds" that I
believe was a limited edtion, and one I luckily got my hands on [Hey, maybe
this plays fast too, but I don't really have anything to compare it with,
since it contains completely unissued material]. Others might be  "Life-
house Live" and "Horton hears the Who" which I've never even seen.

OK, there is no way to completely stop bad bootlegs, but at least they could
be limited to a mere few.

At a recent record fair I saw a Beatles bootleg 9-CD !! box titled "The
complete BBC sessions" (On Great Dane recs.)with a thick magqzine filled with
pictures and info included. I can only hope that some similar Who box is
issued. Of course the coming 4-CD box in all respect, but as far as rare
material, it's really a bit disappointing.

I didn't mean to encourage anything illegal by writing this. My first
wish is of course that lots of good material will be issued OFFICIALLY, but
even this is no guarantee of quality [Take that Polydor/MCA!!!].

- Svante