chameleon

Are we losing the 'sound' of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons?

When it comes down to the ‘sound’ of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons it seems that fans have been done a disservice over the years. The recent Box Set issue of Jersey Beat was a missed opportunity and the muddy mono mixes and disappointing 60s stereo mixes leaves this groups ‘definitive’, sound quality compilation a distant dream. It hasn’t always been this way.

 

Back in 1968 Bob Crewe remixed what he could find of their masters. (Philips apparantly didn’t do a good job of managing the multi-track masters and these appear to be lost.) But did Bob give us ‘true’ stereo on Edizione D’Oro or as the sleeve indicates…”Mono recordings electronically reprocessed to give stereo effect on stereo equipment”?  

Back in 1997 Steve Massie said….”Bill Inglot has indicated that multi-tracks do not exist or at least can’t be found. He’s been through PolyGram’s vaults several times and says that Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli do not have them either.”

Bill reviewed all that Bob and Frankie have for this Box Set with Rhino. Associate Producer Charles Alexander told us of the sound decisions on this set…….“Bill Inglot offered Bob Gaudio a choice of mono or stereo, except in the cases like ‘Ronnie’, for which stereo is unavailable. Ronnie is not in stereo even on the ACE sets.”

However check out Crewe’s work on Edizione D’Oro back in 1968 . Whatever he did with the mixes, it could be argued that this album is a ‘definitive’ set of what the producer felt the ‘SOUND’ should be….from what was available. No-one knows for sure what happened to the ‘stereo’ masters of this album and ACE couldn’t get them when they did the album's only CD release back in 1997. Whether lost or not, no issue of these excellent stereo mixes on CD has happenned. Now the decisions on mixes are made by Bob Gaudio who was not the original producer.

For the ‘Jersey Beat’ set although alternate stereo and mono discs where prepared for Bob Gaudio, he elected for MONO on the first 23 tracks in the 76 track set. Charles covers the argument familiar to all those who have researched the Mono V Stereo arguments. The Beatles Masters and The Beach Boys Masters have a chequered history too but at least the multi-tracks haven’t been lost like those of  the Four Seasons. And then there are the Duophonic versions!

Charles told us of the arguments considered for the Jersey Beat Box set….”The main arguments for stereo were that it sounds more modern and was well done on most of the tracks, though on a few tracks, like Beggars Parade, the stereo was truly terrible. The stereo version of Rag Doll is good, but one of Frankie’s notes is missing. I guess that’s why Bill Inglot has almost never used the stereo version of Rag Doll. Here are the arguments for mono:

1. Mono is how we first heard the early songs. We heard them first on singles.
2. Early stereo mixes were not done, I don’t believe, by Crewe and Gaudio. They were afterthoughts done just by the engineers.
3. Fans already have the stereo mixes on many other CDs.  Mono on CD is rare. That was Ace’s rationale for putting the mono versions on Edizione D’Oro, but that CD is out of print.
4. It can be argued that the 4 Seasons’ famous four-part harmony is more glorious in mono than when the other three voices are separated from Frankie’s in stereo.
5. It’s always been weird that even on the best CD collections, the tracks go in and out of stereo, because of missing stereo tapes, like Ronnie. It just seems haphazard. In that sense, it was more coherent to stay consistently with mono for 23 tracks before switching to stereo. (Cousin Brucie in mono was the only flaw in that pattern.)”

So those are the reasons why we have this set of tracks which many believe are below par…” Here are some comments from reviews…..

“And the sound quality isn’t much an improvement than the older Rhino, Curb and Ace UK reissues. It’s just been remastered louder than before with more compression and bass EQ for the IPOD generation (a fault of most newly “remastered” CD’s -some have already complained, so hang onto those 80-90’s vintage Seasons CD’s!).”

“I was extremely disaappointed at the sound quality of the first disc of this set. I didn’t even try another CD. The distortion and fuzz were awfully noticeable. It was not my Bose speakers or the notebook’s sound-card as I tested an mp3 from my music library. The sound was as bad as a bargain Roy Orbison live performance CD I bought for $3.99 years back…….I can’t believe the sound I am hearing here.”

“This is an excellent boxed set, but the sound is fuzzy and most tracks sound like they were washed with clorox. This is a common problem with copy protected discs. As I own the original sets on Rhino and the LP versions, I am very disappointed with the MONO FOLDED IMAGE PRESENTATION PROVIDED BY THE RHINO ENGINEERS. .ln no way is this collection true to the original recordings ….so yes the music is there and if you can’t hear the copy protection distortion, go for it...lf you don’t believe me and you own the original Rhino recordings, just compare them yourselves. And to the RHINO ENGINEERS..TAKE YOUR ORIGINAL RECORDINGS AND COMPARE THEM.UNLESS YOU ARE DEAF COMPARE THEM.YOU WILL BE SHOCKED!!!!!!THANK YOU!I would wait until they are remastered in clean stereo sound, without the crappy distortion on this one.”

However George Schowerer, who was sound engineer to Bob Crewe at Mira Sound for the 1966/67 sessions said he was very disappointed with the remixes of his original studio masters on Rhino’s original CD mixes for the 25^th Anniversary set.  . Of the Jersey Beat project he told us…….

“Bill Inglot told me that when he received tapes from all the songs, he noted that in some cases the record company had destroyed the multi-tracks, thereby causing only the famous mix heard on the radio to be the defacto recording heard by everyone. While I certainly do not condone that rationale, I can somewhat understand their fear of having other versions appear…as in the case of the group Bread… I must have half a dozen totally different mixes of their albums...with the very first CD release being dry and mixed as if the engineer had never heard any of the groups’ previous releases. But then again, the same thing happened to Simon & Garfunkel’s fist CD mix. I had A-B ed the CD against my two track 15” safety copy and my jaw dropped. The Sony guys had to get Roy Halle back into the studio to remix the album for CD. Same went for classical first CD’s.
Columbia brought Andy Kazdin back in to remix his previous albums to CD. Columbia evidently had young (cheap) kids do the first set of transfers to CD, and they added highs and they equalized (terribly) some of the greatest albums into trash.”

So is there any hope as Paul Bigelow asked back in 1997… “I have never heard anything on CD by them (The Four Seasons)  that I would call superlative…..(sound quality) The ACE reissues sound OK and look good, but I think they’re working from the same tapes Rhino worked from - just mastered better.”

So who will find that ‘Definitive’ compilation of the 60s “Sound Of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons” and should it be in mono or stereo.?

We agree with the words of Steve Hoffman who is not only one of the true legends in audiophile circles, he is also one of the most open minded and open hearted people you can find.  He is loved and well know by audiophiles and musicians all over the world. He is a true magician when it comes to breathing life into music. His work can be heard on albums like The Eagle’s Hotel California, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, and Joni Mitchell’s Blue.

“It’s all in the mastering. Digital is a great medium. Any CD can sound good….. It takes a good mastering engineer! : Stereo is better but it’s not about stereo vs. mono, it’s about which classic song has the best mix. If the stereo mix “nails it” it’s the mix to listen to. If the mono mix “nails it”, it’s the mix to listen to. In the old days the MONO mix was the one that the producer made.  In the 1950’s, mono was live to one track and the three-track machine was running separately for the final stereo mix. It was only when records started being OVERDUBBED a lot (Beatles, etc.) that the separate mono feed was dropped and the final mono and stereo mix created from the four track tape.”

When asked ….Is stereo a must? …he replied. “ Not to me. The best mix is the best mix. A song like DRIVE MY CAR by the Beatles, the stereo mix is really weak, the mono mix is really strong and punchy, therefore that’s the good mix”

So what can we the fans do. We can’t wait for a quality sound re-issue…life is too short. Firstly let’s find good copies of all the Four Seasons 60s albums in stereo on vinyl and CD and define the best mixes.

Secondly using good technology and software show how we care about the mixes and see if we can get a quality result from good/mint vinyl.

Thirdly list  the mixes (mono or stereo)  in a Four Seasons Sound Archive to preserve the best mixes for future generations. With something like 110 CD releases since 1986 in our discography(and there may be more) we have plenty to evaluate.

But if we can define the best mix and identify it's source we have a library reference point for any future releases that don't measure up.

The question is whether there are enough people interested in such a project and if we can find good enough vinyl.? Contact us if you are interested and want to help. Maybe we can achieve something nobody seems to be willing to invest in. It appears a project to remix from the masters cannot work commercially because of the low benefits from it. But someone should try. It’s what the fans today and tomorrow deserve.

For more interesting quotes and comment re 60s sound including more from Bob Crewe's sound engineer click here.

And just beware…because our reliable European based expert sound engineer tells us of today's CD's ….”The Ace CD pressings from that 1997 period are low quality (they used cheap pressing plants), so checking for errors (C2) on the original CDCHD 642 showed a max of 80 and a total of 570. Companies shouldn’t accept anything over 30 max and 100 total from a pressing plant! “

So we may lose the 'sound'. It’s time to make a good copy before the original fades away and becomes unreadable. More soon on how best to hear the ‘sound’ and  what is involved in creating the ‘best mix’

Casey Chameleon

Contact for contributors to our Sound Archive project

[email protected]

 Photo courtesy of George Schowerer - Studio shot - Crewe and Valli 1967

 

The Future Of Music Is 'Free'- The Latest War Report

This week has been a milestone week for changes towards the ‘Future Music’ models.

With CD sales falling(10% last year)…..the ever decreasing cost of CD’s and burners …and the continuing popularity of P2P software(always amongst the top downloads at CNET), it is no surprise that not only has the download leader I-Tunes been challenged but every element of the market is changing.

This weeks announcement was about Qtrax….”the world's first fully-licensed advertising-supported peer-to-peer (P2P) music-sharing service -- free to listeners -- and offering the largest selection of musical tracks of any authorized online music source and the highest quality of service (QoS) in the industry.”

Arguments abound about what music will be available and if it will succeed……but you can bet we will all try them…….and hope that it does.

Although the war goes on as reported by Mark Charmer this week. The fans will eventually win….it’s just a matter of time…..I recall saying that before. But the evidence is growing daily

So why do we want our music for free, and will the cost of music continue to move to zero.

The fact is we love music….but now we have so much it has become disposable. When we don’t like a track any more we dump it from the I-pod. Music moves in web based groups......specialist groups of consumers. They abound on the Internet in blogs like this and fan clubs. Richard Jones when asked whether users would not prefer to own music - and be able to put it on a portable player - rather than just being able to stream it,  said: "The way people consume music is changing - sometimes you just want to listen to it there and then."

Whereas back in the 60s to the 80s we had to rely on cassette tapes and the mail to keep our collections of much loved music together…..we can now discover virtually all music on-line. Much of it is available free through blog sites where you can find virtually any rare album from the 50s to the 90s available as a Rapidshare(or some other sharing service) download. Then you can get help through groups like the Yahoo network to find lost or unheard recordings in specialists e-groups.

Gone are the days when you had to buy an album to hear it and to see if you like it. Download it as a zipfile dubbed from vinyl ….and if you want clean out the clicks for your personal collection using de-clicker software.

The impact is being felt by the vinyl resale outlets as the BBC reported the further closure of a major record shop. But now the supply of vinyl is rationalizing and stabilizing and in the future the ‘Record Shop’ will be a browsers library of ‘high end’ collectibles with the run of the mill vinyl passing through the internet vinyl resellers at knock down prices or through E-bay for 99p!

And then Last.fm disrupt everyone with their announcement of ‘the world's biggest free music service.’

Our approach is to try to persuade the artists to share their music with their fans. These are artists who had their career through the 60s and 70s in the main. Some are millionaires and they don’t need the royalties. Irrespective of their current circumstance they are lucky to have been part of the ‘pop century’. What they do need and we seek to help them do it, is tell the story of their creativity. In many respects the importance of preserving music almost lost in time is a daily crusade for many of us ‘music detectives’. Whatever the situation artists or former artists are in, it is virtually impossible for them to be ‘ripped off’ today as a result of the download culture. With the value of the music plummeting there is too little profit in it for the ‘commercial pirates’ to succeed. Once this is realized by the artists it is hoped that they will use their back-catalogue to tell their story illustrating it with the songs and stories of its creation from their past. Each track tells a story. Whether these are good, bad or ugly the stories entertain and this allows the music to shine through.

The subscription service model will we hope soon materialize as a viable access point to libraries of past years music. Last.fm have made a breakthrough as have Qtrax. The real battle is to find and preserve what has been created during this unique window of 50 plus years. That’s a war worth fighting. Whether we tune to it via Last.fm or want it for our I-pod the music is within our grasp.

Casey Chameleon

FOOTNOTE

The day after posting this note I found a blog link to all the Four Seasons Motown albums where they can be downloaded as mp3's for free. So these tracks will probably never get an official release and neither Motown Universal or The Partnership will make money from them again.Perhaps! This was a sheer coincidence and we have no association with the blog but now we can all enjoy the great quality of these tracks. You'll find lots of other great albums here too including the Seasons 'Christmas' album. Click here for the link.

It's Just a Matter Of Time

The forthcoming release, at last, of Ginny Arnell’s best work on CD prompted our last post and makes me ask just what is happening in the re-issue market.

I was asked the other day why an ‘official’ release of Jean Thomas’s work hasn’t happened. I couldn’t explain it other than the fact that the tracks may not exist now as masters and vinyl dubs are all that would be available.

And then , of course there is the ‘old nutmeg’ of when are we going to see the unreleased Four Seasons…. Philips and Motown tracks pulled together for us.

But from the 60s there seems to be a dearth of companies prepared to ‘go for it’ in terms of early/mid sixties work anymore. With many tracks now no longer existing as ‘masters’ or with the difficulty of licensing the only chance we have of getting the music to enjoy ‘in this lifetime’ is via the Spectropop e-group or various download blogs which in the latter case are clearly breaching copyright.

Why can’t record companies be more prepared to do what Marginal did a decade ago but with one difference and that is to pay the royalties.? Goldmine have also been prepared to dub from vinyl with their Northern Soul compilations with great success.

There is a failure to see the long-term potential of sales year on year as the www establishes the story of the music for everyone to access and discover. These songs have the potential to earn royalties for decades as successive generations discover them.

With I-pod listening also so prevalent……..and destined to be the future collectors medium for their music management, low cost CD’s of vinyl dubbed tracks would find a market just as Marginal and Goldmine found out.

Only ACE continue to lead with great compilations but they generally look for master tapes and they are only scratching the surface of the lost music libraries .

Then there is the lack of compilations of composers work. One customer review of a recent Brill Building
compilation asked… “Why is it so difficult to find good compilations by songwriters? While the fame and glamour go to the people who sang the songs, some respect is well overdue for the backroom boys and girls who wrote them. After all compilations by artists are two a penny. Although there are some excellent collections of the works of David-Bacharach and Jimmy Webb, where are the decent compilations from Goffin-King, Mann-Weil, Barry-Greenwich, Leiber-Stoller or Holland-Dozier?”

At least ACE have tackled producer/arranger JackNitzsche ‘s work in 2 volumes so far and the recent Goffin-King release is more than welcome. But a ‘Producers’ genre on their web site would be a start.
And take for example Bob Crewe’s or Sandy Linzer’ s BMI database listing of songs and there is a wealth of great material for compilations. Even as vinyl dubs the material is well worth collecting. And then there are the ‘lost’ tracks produced by Charles Calello through the 60’s and 70s.

Collecting tracks for Jean Thomas based on her logs of songs she appeared on or did demos for has unearthed not only a great source for compilations but some virtually lost songs not available on CD.…..well if ‘Phil’s Spectre’ can succeed (with 3 Volumes) it shows the interest in the early 60s New York sound……and Mick Patrick’s ‘On Broadway’ compilation should have been the first of a series but Westside’s demise prevented that.

The figures for Motown’s re-issues on the likes of Kim Weston, Chuck Jackson and Billy Eckstine  show sales in excess of 35,000 each  on Amazon alone so the market interest is clear on oldies artists and their ‘Cellarful of Motown’ tracks from the vaults has now reached 3 volumes. There are some terrific compilations if you search them out, but there is no cohesive release strategy amongst any of the record companies to get the tracks …from vinyl if necessary. When is someone in a ‘visionary’ record company going to pledge to support the archiving of early 60s vinyl or is it down to us to preserve what we can find ?. Sorry that was a rhetorical question.

As for the Four Seasons catalogue, the Partnership missed the opportunity to keep it in the marketplace back in the 1990s when they failed to ‘partner’ with ACE. Now however their relationship with Rhino( and through them ‘Collectors Choice’) may eventually lead to the release of unheard Philips material from 1970. And with Universal Motown having a contractual relationship with the Partnership (even though ‘Romancing the 60s’ remains a huge disappointment) they might just ‘negotiate’ a deal to release the Motown Anthology. As Brook Benton famously sings….’It’s just a matter of time!’.

Be sure to check out the links in this post

Chameleon

 

 

The Future of Music

 

It may seem from reading most popular press that the battle over copyright revolves around the RIAA’s mp3 police and poor teenagers being sued but that isn’t the case. A respected number of academics, lawyers and media experts are debating the future of music and the way technology changes and commercial adaptation will create a new future. Illegal copying and downloading is on the increase and must be stopped is the headline!. Opinions on the rights and wrongs abound and everyone can see the arguments and counter arguments. They are well set out in a recent guide. A published paper called, “Music Survival Guide - from NARAS” offers a detailed analysis of the problem and some solutions

People are constructively addressing the problems although it is the RIAA who grab the headlines with their litigation..

“7 Music Survival Tips - (from the Guide)

#1: Educate to Eradicate Piracy
“Unaware of the large number of people who collaborate to make a record, many consumers have turned to illegal file sharing as a response to the high price of music, believing that they are not hurting all of the 'rich' musicians. They simply do not understand the ramifications of their actions.”

#2: Make Music Retail Therapy
“Sometimes when you go to a record store, you bump into a record. You bump into people that may hip you up to records. It’s a whole other experience. And we need that journey. It’s important that as artists we take time to dig, to see the roots of where everything is coming from so that we can offer it to the fans, and they all can offer it to the next generation.”

#3: Declare a Music/Tech Truce
“Simply put, the industry does not make it easy for consumers to purchase and use digital music online legally, while piracy delivers what companies hold back. Digital music is a vital force in the industry and technology needs to be properly embraced to provide ease of use to consumers.”

#4: Commit to Artist Development
“If the music industry wants to win back the financial loyalty of fans lost to illegal means of obtaining music, the major labels should work with artists to cultivate their talent, rather than casting an artist aside after a commercially unsuccessful release.”

#5: Embrace New Music Avenues
“If the music industry hopes to survive, it must embrace the new face of musical community to reach out to potentially dedicated fans. Labels as well as artists should take the time to interact online with their fans in the interest of developing an artist-fan relationship that will entice fans to support artists monetarily as well.”

#6: Offer What Piracy Doesn’t
“So how can companies drive illegal file sharers to legal Web sites? This is something many are struggling to figure out, and there is not one clear answer or solution. However, if legitimate Web sites and online companies want to continue to grow, they must offer what piracy cannot.”

#7: Make Music a Priority
“More people are discovering more new music–and a greater variety of music–than ever before. There are tremendous challenges facing traditional music businesses, but for artists and fans this is an incredibly exciting time. One day, we will look back on this period in music history as a kind of Internet adolescence—a confusing, sometimes awkward transition that in the end leaves us stronger, smarter…and a little less innocent.”

Get a copy of the complete guide here and check out their very informative site "Whats the Download".

These may contain some debatable statements……but are part of a growing consensus.

Check out more new concepts on music use at The Future of Music to explore the emerging concepts of ‘global licenses’ or ‘music pools’ amongst other ideas

Four Seasons fans have long debated the qualities of various mixes on the various re-issues….but not as much as the Beatles fans and their great debate. The options exist to remix and share experimental mixes but this is a breach of copyright albeit in a small group of some 320 dedicated fans based on the yahoo ValliSeasons e-group. You’ll find this group on an island off the coast in the Bay  of Angst on this recent internet map.!Click the map to see.

But there is a new way and Wired have sought to pioneer it…

At root, sharing and stealing music start from the same impulse: Cribbing is creation. Building on what other musicians have done - with or without their blessing or collaboration - is what it takes to make new music, music that will delight and sustain people. That, after all, is why it's called making music (playing music is something else altogether). Elvis Presley, that pioneer of appropriation, put it best: "Fair exchange bears no robbery, and the whole world will know that it's true. If you wanna be hugged, well, you gotta hug me too."

In the interest of more fair exchange, we present The Wired CD.

It is, in a sense, a concept album. But unlike Ziggy Stardust or OK Computer, the concept isn't in the music, though the songs are pretty great. It's in the fine print. All the songs come with a license that gives you permission to do more than just listen to them. You can swap them. You can sample them. You can use them to fuel your own creative impulses, without worrying that the copyright cops will beat down your door.

The licenses come from Creative Commons, the innovative nonprofit founded by Wired columnist and Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig. The songs on this CD use one of two Creative Commons licenses.The Noncommercial Sampling Plus license permits noncommercial file-sharing and noncommercial sampling. That means, first, that you can swap the songs on a peer-to-peer network (just don't sell them). And second, that you can sample from them, mash them up, use them to make something fresh - and then share that work, too (though again, you can't sell it)."

Catalogues like the Four Seasons set should be moving this way in time. The forthcoming 76 track CD box set will be analyzed by the fans as to how the mixes compare with the various previous releases we already have, as none of the songs are new to us…..but the debate now and in the future is about how we might prefer to hear them…its all in the mix. Fans have the ability to remix mono to stereo, remix the stereo sound stage or to add an analogue vibe to the hard digital sound. Some have the ability to create a completely new sound…like the Springfield UK mix of ‘I’m Beggin’ You’ which we have featured.

And after all, the Jersey Boys casts are re-creating the music in a different way for us all and this will continue as more and more college theatre groups tackle the show and the music too.

Whether it is part of the ‘sound pool’ or with Creative Commons licences the music is already being seen in a new way. This new release will set the baseline for the status of Four Seasons mixes. Waiting for the rest of the catalogue is not an option as life is too short and the workings of record releasing via CD too slow and ponderous. The remixes will roll and maybe future project may include…..The ‘Lost’ Box Set CD 4…. A set of the missed tracks not in the box set that the fans love so much. All remixed to give a warmer and balanced sound….or  the “The Beatles v Four Seasons  Digitally Enhanced” with that much valued double album combining remixes of both groups much criticized mono or early stereo mixes.  Maybe Bob Gaudio can grasp these concepts for ‘future music’ and make the leap of faith before the rest. At the core of it all should be a creative view of the musics future.

Now what about me putting those old VHS tapes onto DVD and uploading them to You Tube and maybe I should revisit the ‘Who Loves You’ and ‘Helicon’ albums to do a 70s Remixes CD!! Certainly I could have these done before the Partnership could produce them …..but unfortunately even though it would boost the profile of the group I wouldn’t be able to do it. I won’t be able to share the CD and the videos would be taken down within a week. But maybe these ‘Future of Music’ sites show that things really will change someday. Chameleon