RE:Remixes / re-issues etc

["Nigel Morton" <nigel@adastey.demon.co.uk>]

Hi folks,

Looking thru recent digests I see that the debate about the validity of
"remastered / remixed" albums and their bonus tracks still rages!  However,
it is nice to see that some of you are also starting to tire with it.  OK,
some of you find the fiddling of Jon Astley annoying - he's had the audacity
to tamper with "our" precious WHO.  I've said before in these digests,
"could ANY of us actually do any better?"  I answered myself then with the
remark that if we could then one us would be a very, very rich fu**er 'cos
we'd be a famous record producer.  Experience of making music and mixing it
doesn't always equate to being a "good" result and sometimes the involvement
of an impartial, but hired and paid for, third party really does bring in
the element most missing.

Personally I am very lucky as I work within the music industry and have done
so for around 25 years.  In that time I've managed acts and one of these,
who'll remain nameless, were fortunate enough to be recorded / produced /
mixed by a certain Glyn Johns.  I relate this so that I can recount an
incident that took place when it came to the final mixing session(s) of the
tracks they'd recorded.  The singer / guitarist (leader) of this act had
very set ideas of what he wanted the tracks to sound like and as it was
their third full length album he also believed that he knew what he was
doing so every mix that Glyn set up was put down and knocked back by the
singer / guitarist 'cos he thought they sounded shit.  Eventually, Glyn lost
his patience with this fellow and threw his hands up in horror and said,
"OK, tell me where you want me to push the faders to and how you want the
knobs fiddled and set etc, etc, etc and I'll just do it."  Myself, and the
other band members were all shocked and really hoped that this offer
wouldn't be accepted by the singer / guitarist BUT of course it was.

So, a track was run and Glyn just followed the instructions / direction of
the guitarist until he was satisfied with the "sounds, balances etc, etc".
We all waited with our hearts in our mouths as Glyn said, "Right, satisfied,
let's hear it!" and pressed the play button.  YES, you've guessed right!
The track sounded utterly f**king terrible.  At this point, as the track
finished, Glyn shot out of his chair and grabbed the singer / guitarist by
the ear and pulled him out of the control room and out into his (Glyn's)
office, we followed a few feet behind.  In the office, and still holding the
singer / guitarist's ear he said (as he pointed at ALL four walls which are
covered from floor to ceiling with silver, gold and platinium discs),
"Right, sonny, these are mine.  Tell me, how many have you got?!!!!"  In the
words of the singer / guitarist a few hours later when we were having a
drink, "it was a very sobering experience!"  (Eventually the act and their
singer did get silver and gold discs BUT not for that particular album -
even though Glyn did his very, very best and it sounds great.)

So, let's be thankfull that The Who and their management are trying to get
to us re-released tracks, unreleased tracks and previously "hard" to find
material.  As long as the stuff we do get is the WHO then let's enjoy it,
please.  Our efforts should be going in the direction of pressuring them to
release the much talked about "LIVE" album from their glory years, the one
that was shelved (apparently) because of poor sales of the IOW release.
(Personally, I think that's a load of crap, but, I can always be corrected).
On the IOW video / cd and the mixing tracks or edits we should all remember
that it took nearly thirty years for these tracks to finally (officially)
see the light of day.  The whole Isle Of Wight festival recordings (all
acts, not just The Who) became the subject of dispute and litigations
between the bands, their managers, the promoters, the site owners etc, etc
and over the ensuing years the master tapes were damaged in many places. On
the point of the DVD of TKAA perhaps the chap looking for material should
get onto Steve Margo who was one of the organizers of The Who exhibition
that happened at the ICA in the '70's.

Finally, having re-discovered "It's Hard" I strongly recommend to each and
everyone of you that didn't take to it when it was first released GO BACK
and listen again as it is pretty damn good.  See some / all of you at the
RAH in February (I hope.)

NM