Dutton Vocalion November 2022 Quad SACDs - Mac Davis, Ted Nugent, REO Speedwagon

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ar surround said:
I never realized that Ted Nugent played guitar for The Amboy Dukes. Talk about a true early psychedelic prog song:

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What?? You didn't? I'm so disappointed...lol! I've been pimping Amboy Dukes in the All About Music thread (or somewhere) often! Ted has a pedigree man...not always good...but he has one.
 
GOS said:
There is no doubt, I think we all know the sort of titles we can expect from DV...and...we know the overall direction in genre. Yet, I have to admit, when they started putting out things like EWF, Guess Who, now REO and Nugent! Are you freaking kidding me? This is spectacular. No, I don't really think they are going to get some super top tier act like Paul Simon, nor do I think they'll get anything like Sabbath Paranoid.

That's OK, I mean, it is what it is and I love these titles they are putting out. Wonder what @steelydave has to say about these recent titles??!! He always has some nice insights. :)
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Well there isn't a ton I can add to what @fredblue has said (especially in the enthusiasm stakes!) but there are a few things worth highlighting about this batch.

Before I do that though, I wanted to say to the people who are disappointed in these titles for one reason or another, I get it. If you don't like them, you don't like them. Batches of reissues like this where there are hundreds of possible titles or artists and only three are chosen is like we've all sat down for dinner at a restaurant that serves one type of meal, and it only makes sense that some people aren't going to like it - some people have tried it before and don't like it, some haven't tried it before but are picky eaters, and others just had another meal on their mind. What I would say, however, is that if you like these genres of music (rock, or country) that you head over to YouTube (or your favourite streaming service of choice) and preview a few of these tracks in stereo because there's some really good music between all of these albums, and in almost every case the quad mixes (more on this shortly) are better than the stereo versions. One of the great things for me about collecting quad over the years is all the stuff I never would've investigated otherwise that's come to my attention, and the hidden gems that I've found as a result of that. If your complaint about this batch is "I don't like these ones because I don't know them" there's an easy way to remedy that.

I've also noticed over the years that there's always speculation after a D-V release (moreso on the Hoffman forums, but it's everywhere) what it might indicate about D-V's so-called "direction" - 'they're giving up on rock!' 'they're only doing easy listening!' 'too much classical!' 'why don't they want to do <my personal favourite artist>?' 'why don't they go after the good stuff?' and so on. The truth is there's no "direction" except that they constantly have loads of licensing irons in the fire, and some of them pay off quickly and some take longer. There are so many factors involved in what can and can't be done, from other labels already holding the rights, to tapes not being able to be found, to artists having veto power, and a load of other things. Having "seen how the sausage is made" a bit, it's actually remarkable that Mike has been able to make the stars align as much as he has over the last 5 or 6 years. Meanwhile he's also got to figure out a schedule for releasing these discs that makes both financial and aesthetic/stylistic sense as groups of releases, which is a lot to contend with. Frankly I think he'd be doing even more if it were possible - these releases over the last few months (and there should be more ahead in the coming months) are from a backlog of titles that have been in the pipeline for nearly two years, delayed repeatedly because of the effect of the pandemic both on Sony's corporate operations and their vault storage partners capacity to retrieve tapes.

Anyway, about the music: For me (and for those who don't know) Mac Davis seems to be a more countrified version of Jimmy Webb. Like Webb (who wrote most of Glen Campbell's big hits) Davis rose to prominence first as a songwriter - he wrote In the Ghetto and A Little Less Conversation for Elvis, and Watching Scotty Grow for Bobby Goldsboro amongst others, which led to a contract with Columbia and the five albums that make up this SACD set. The fact that Davis wrote most of his own material made him somewhat unique amongst country artists (especially in the country-pop sphere that he operated in) who mostly relied on outside contributions from professional songwriters, aside from the "outlaw country" movement that included Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, etc. If you've got the Kristofferson SACD that D-V recently put out, I guess you could kind of consider Davis to be his "city slicker" cousin - he's more capable as a vocalist, more gifted with melodic sense, and the arrangements are bigger and more lush.

The quad mixes of the first 3 albums in this set (Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me, Stop and Smell the Roses, All the Love in the World) were done by Don Young, who, for my money, was CBS's best quad mixer. With apologies to Larry Keyes (who was no slouch himself, and who arguably got more "high profile" mixes) it's my experience that more of Young's quad mixes are huge sonic upgrades on their stereo counterparts than any other engineer: look no further than Derringer's All American Boy, Beck, Bogert & Appice, and Poco's Seven and Cantamos as proof of that. I expect that his Mac Davis mixes will be no exception to that. The other two albums also have great pedigrees - Burnin' Thing by Bruce Botnick (Doors, EW&F Open Our Eyes, Weather Report Tale Spinnin') and Thunder in the Afternoon by Dick Bogert (Return to Forever Musicmagic, Tower of Power Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now).

I think it's also worth noting that in addition to obviously being the first digital airing of the quad masters, this set marks the first CD release ever of All the Love in The World, Burnin' Thing and Thunder in the Afternoon, and the first time Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me and Stop and Smell the Roses have been in print on CD since they were issued as a two-fer in the mid '90s. Maybe it's sort of a moot point if you don't care about the music, but to me this is such an important thing to highlight: releases like this ensure that a small part of our collective cultural legacy are preserved permanently. Not only are high resolution digital stereo and quad masters now held in both the UK by D-V and in the US by Sony, by selling these discs there are now copies of this music that are virtually indistinguishable from the master tapes scattered across the globe, so it's virtually impossible that this music will ever become lost. Each release like this protects another album (and another artistic legacy) from the fate that befell the tapes that burned up in the UMG vault fire, where the only copy of the music was lost forever.

Don Young is also the common link to the REO Speedwagon release, as he did both of the quad mixes on this one. Again, given aforementioned glow-up his quad mixes afforded the two Poco albums around the same time, I'm really looking forward to how good these will sound.

There's also not much I can add to the Nugent conversation, as others have mentioned Meat Loaf, who was brought in by the producer after Derek St. Holmes quit the band mid-way through the recording of the album, based on his work in the Rocky Horror Picture Show film. While I agree it's kind of a shame that neither the self-titled album or Cat Scratch Fever got a quad mix, for the devoted fan, sometimes these kinds of "less successful or lesser-known album in the middle of the golden era" types of records can be the most rewarding ones, because you can listen to them straight through without any of the tracks having been ruined by classic rock radio oversaturation. Pink Floyd's Animals is one of those for me (not that I'm suggesting Free-For-All is on that level, but you get my point) and I'm sure there are lots of other examples of this. The quad mix of Free For All is also really good, having been done by Tim Geelan who has an excellent hard rock pedigree as the quad mixer of both the Blue Oyster Cult albums, as well as Mahavishnu Orchestra's Between Nothingness and Eternity Live and Weather Report's Mysterious Traveller, which are all excellent mixes.

Also, not that it matters to the SACD purchaser, but given that it was released in late 1976 right at the tail end of the format, the quad version of Free For All was really tough to find. As Adam pointed out, the LP was expensive and pressed on really crappy vinyl, and the Q8 is even more rare and costly as a result - I don't think I've ever seen one go for less than $75 bucks on eBay, and at the height of the Q8 craze a decade ago they could easily go for twice that. So I feel incredibly fortunate to not have to even think about that any more, and instead can just enjoy a master-quality fidelity copy of the album in both quad and stereo with the first hirez version of Cat Scratch Fever tacked on as a bonus.
 
steelydave said:
I think it's also worth noting that in addition to obviously being the first digital airing of the quad masters, this set marks the first CD release ever of All the Love in The World, Burnin' Thing and Thunder in the Afternoon, and the first time Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me and Stop and Smell the Roses have been in print on CD since they were issued as a two-fer in the mid '90s. Maybe it's sort of a moot point if you don't care about the music, but to me this is such an important thing to highlight: releases like this ensure that a small part of our collective cultural legacy are preserved permanently. Not only are high resolution digital stereo and quad masters now held in both the UK by D-V and in the US by Sony, by selling these discs there are now copies of this music that are virtually indistinguishable from the master tapes scattered across the globe, so it's virtually impossible that this music will ever become lost. Each release like this protects another album (and another artistic legacy) from the fate that befell the tapes that burned up in the UMG vault fire, where the only copy of the music was lost forever.
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I think I may have mentioned that fact a while back as well. Some artists have just fallen by the wayside for one reason or t'other. Eventually, I hope it lights a fire under the estates of other acts. "Hey, if Mac and Kris got a D-V release, Jerry Reed should, too!" sort of deal. I really can't see how it can be a bad thing. The rights holders get some income, we get some valuable Quad mixes, everybody gets some lovely stereo remasters. How on Earth can you go wrong with that formula? I just hope this train builds up one hell of a head of steam. (which I believe it is!)

Though I do kinda wish we could stick to the one album/one disc or even the two-fer format.... I really shouldn't kvetch about the price of FIVE Mac Davis Quads in one little set. First world problems, am I right? :LOL:
 
Nugent and Kristofferson on their way.

While I don't buy every DV release, I applaud the company's wide variety of music being released. There is almost always something for someone. Besides, any organization that only appeals to my tastes will be out of business in two months.

From everything from the wide selection to the fidelity to the surround mix to the liner notes to the cost per album, everything has been top notch. Can't wait for what 2023 has for in store.

Cheers
 
steelydave said:
Before I do that though, I wanted to say to the people who are disappointed in these titles for one reason or another, I get it. If you don't like them, you don't like them.
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In response to the above:

- If you end up liking only one song on an album, then it is worth it at these prices. I remember paying 89 cents for a 45 rpm single back in 1968. That was $7.53 for two songs in today's dollars. Plus it was in mono and mastered to sound good on AM radio. The horror.

- The presentation in high-resolution, well-mastered quadraphonic sound is miles above what one has heard in the past. Songs I actually thought I despised...Rock The Boat comes to mind...blew me away at how good they sound in high-res quad.

- This DV amusement park ride we are on won't last forever. "Buy now or repent later."

- Prog Heads: If you haven't already, try some of those DV immersive classical music titles. Classical music is the roots of Prog. I like to listen to classical music while I'm reading. During my last session, I had to put the book down and pay attention to the music and the quad presentation because it was that enchanting. They are truly remarkable.
 
ar surround said:
In response to the above:

- If you end up liking only one song on an album, then it is worth it at these prices. I remember paying 89 cents for a 45 rpm single back in 1968. That was $7.53 for two songs in today's dollars. Plus it was in mono and mastered to sound good on AM radio. The horror.

- The presentation in high-resolution, well-mastered quadraphonic sound is miles above what one has heard in the past. Songs I actually thought I despised...Rock The Boat comes to mind...blew me away at how good they sound in high-res quad.

- This DV amusement park ride we are on won't last forever. "Buy now or repent later."

- Prog Heads: If you haven't already, try some of those DV immersive classical music titles. Classical music is the roots of Prog. I like to listen to classical music while I'm reading. During my last session, I had to put the book down and pay attention to the music and the quad presentation because it was that enchanting. They are truly remarkable.
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John, I've been a Dutton~Vocalion/Epoch fanboy before it became 'fashionable' meaning before Michael J. Dutton embarked on his wondrous Quadraphonic blitz!

His two~fers extended to RBCD from a diversity of labels spanning Easy Listening, Jazz, Classical, obscure vocalists, et alia and the very same expertise he lavished on the current crop of QUAD SACDs extended all the way back to D~V's origins in the reissue biz.....and almost ALWAYS remastered from the original analogue master tapes.

While a lot of us complain about compression in modern RBCD replication, never a concern when D~V released their glorious reissues and as always, when they ran their generous sales ..... one could purchase two albums on one disc for as low as £0.99!!!!!!!

In fact, to round out my current batch of 3 QUAD discs from D~V, I adhered to GOS' LAW by adding a London Decca Phase Four two fer for £0.99!

In My HUMBLE OPINION, Michael J. Dutton & Company are truly the WIZARDS OF WATFORD, UK...and should one day be awarded an HONORARY GRAMMY AWARD for achieving excellence in resurrecting literally hundreds of neglected QUAD treasures from the vaults of major studios who heretofore had NO interest in doing so themselves!

VIVA Dutton Vocalion and the esteemed Michael J. Dutton!
 
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ar surround said:
In response to the above:

- If you end up liking only one song on an album, then it is worth it at these prices. I remember paying 89 cents for a 45 rpm single back in 1968. That was $7.53 for two songs in today's dollars. Plus it was in mono and mastered to sound good on AM radio. The horror.

- The presentation in high-resolution, well-mastered quadraphonic sound is miles above what one has heard in the past. Songs I actually thought I despised...Rock The Boat comes to mind...blew me away at how good they sound in high-res quad.

- This DV amusement park ride we are on won't last forever. "Buy now or repent later."

- Prog Heads: If you haven't already, try some of those DV immersive classical music titles. Classical music is the roots of Prog. I like to listen to classical music while I'm reading. During my last session, I had to put the book down and pay attention to the music and the quad presentation because it was that enchanting. They are truly remarkable.
Click to expand...
I like prog, but I don't like classical any longer. Used to listen to it in my younger years, but I grew out of it. I only listen in multi channel now, and and don't like classical presented that way.
 
sjcorne said:
The intro to "Dog Eat Dog" where the rhythm guitars and bass enter sequentially from different speakers never fails to entertain :)
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Hell yeah! 🤘 That dug-a-dug-a-dug-a-dug-a-dug guitar/bass intro sounds amazing. :cool: Tim Geelan was an epic quad mixer, It smokes away a lot of the Atmos mixes... There's also a really cool intro on the REO Speedwagon 'Wild As The Western Wind' - where it's almost like an early take/warm up, but Don Young decides to put the guitar and other elements into individual speakers. Just very clever, creative genius!
 
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