Remastered edition Sly Stone albums out?
Cosmo
9,768 Posts
I heard they're releasing all his albums, starting with "A Whole New Thing" with everything remastered and with extra cuts. Any word on this? Couldn't find nothing.
Comments
The individual discs came out on April 24th.
One of the good things about this is that it was mastered by Vic Anesini, who is respected among those who like the work he has done with Sony over the years. In other words, no "brickwall limiting" shit. Reviews so far, in terms of sound quality, has been great. I want to hear the bonus tracks on There's A Riot Goin' On[/b].
In Japan, they're all coming out as mini-LP CD's today. Same remastered versions (digital clones), but just in a limited edition cardboard sleeve, which they should have done here. I'll have to get this down the line.
Good GOD this is fucking so good.
I tried to cop this at all the Best Buy's around me yesterday with no luck... It was $39.99. They are even sold out on-line...
Yup, I just wound up ordering from Amazon. A bit under $50 shipped.
I think that was on High On You. Which wasn't included in the box set.
Me too.
Albums sound much improved over the earlier editions. An easy decision to cop for like $7/per.
That was a Sly "solo" album, although most of the ones from "Riot" on were actually mostly Sly.
I paid $55 for the set at Virgin at Union Square. WORTH EVERY PENNY. These mixes are unreal.
Ugh. I can't stand that place, the worst priced CDs/DVDs in the city, even their 'sales' were nothing more than bringing the price down to what everyone else was selling them for.
Shame though, great selection there.
Anyone know the store between the different album covers of "Riot?" I assume the crowd shot one is the second pressing, but why did they lose the flag version. It's such an amazing and ahead of it's time design.
My uneducated guess would be that the crowd-shot cover was thought by the record company to be a better consumer reminder of Good-Time Woodstock Sly, who was probably more marketable than Bad-Vibe 1971 Sly. (Per the reissue liner notes, the o.g. cover photo is of a flag that actually hung above the fireplace at the Stone compound. Isn't that some shit.)
Also: The Small Talk remaster has "Crossword Puzzle (Early Version)."
Also: Nickel-and-dime dudes need to get off the pussyfoot. The price tag on this shit should read: "WHATEVER IT TAKES."
Also: For the last three days, this box has been my second heart.
The crowd shot was originally meant for a live album Epic had planned on releasing. That was scrapped, and for the last 15 years Epic/Sony have been talking about putting together a box set, and it would have featured the live album as originally planned. That, of course, never happened. It would be perfect now to do a Legacy edition of that live album, perhaps with the complete performances, but who knows if that will ever happen.
Since the live album was scrapped, that left Epic with a scrapped album cover photo. When There's A Riot Goin' On[/b] was released, a few international divisions of Epic/Columbia felt the American flag cover may offend some. It was released in the middle of the Vietnam War, and basically no one wanted to raise a stink over it, so Epic gave them the scrapped live album cover photo.
Moving up to the CD era, Columbia were very slow in reissuing classic albums on CD, and even when all major labels were digging deep in their vaults, many felt that Columbia's "quality control" was smoking hash, and I'm talking of the corned beef variety. As many of you know, early CD pressings were done in West Germany and Japan, since there were no CD pressing plants in the US at the time. Epic/Columbia used their Japanese pressing plant to handle everything, so blame Japan for using the wrong cover on the CD. The fact that it had stayed in print for so long shows the strength and power of the original album, leaving younger fans who avoided vinyl to think that the live shot was THE cover. The album had never been remastered, even when Epic initially did remasters for *some* of the Sly & The Family Stone albums in the mid-90's. When Sony Japan did a digipak version, reviving the American flag cover once and for all, fans were disappointed in discovering that the CD was nothing more than a digital clone of the CD that was released in the early 90's. The version that came out this year is the first time it had ever been properly remastered. The tape that Epic used in the early 1990's for the CD was probably a copy of a copy of a copy of a safety copy, but Epic has never admitted this.
SHORT VERSION: The live photo was meant for a scrapped live album that Epic had planned on releasing, especially after the success of "Greatest Hits" and his performance at Woodstock. When Sly came up with an album of new material, he wanted to represent it with a photo of the American flag. When released around the world, some international divisions of Epic felt it may have been too much of a political statement, and had asked for an alternate cover. Epic gave them the scrapped live shot.