Jethro Tull - War Child (and more) Quad Mix Question

[steelydave]

Even though the original War Child quad LP has no remix credit, I'd always just assumed that the quad mix for was done by Robin Black, because although there were no quad credits (that I know of) in the 2014 CD+DVD set, he was credited for the quad mix on the Aqualung CD+DVD set.

However!

Browsing through some old issues of Billboard from 1975, I came across a couple of interesting news bits:

Fraboni and Heenan were both veteran quad engineers - Heenan worked at both the Village Recorder and Kendun Recorders around that time and did a couple of the Keith Jarrett quad mixes amongst others, and Fraboni was the chief engineer at the Village Recorder and (as I recently discovered) did the quad mix for Dylan's Planet Waves.

So is it possible (confirmable?) that Fraboni and Heenan did the War Child mix? And what's Heenan mixing with Ian Anderson in December 1975? It's my recollection that Robin Black is credited with the unreleased quad mix of Minstrel in the Gallery in the 2015 CD+DVD set, so is that incorrect, or was Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll already done and being mixed for quad in December '75?

I have some recollection that there are photos of some master tapes in either the Tull boxset booklets, or the menu screens, but having ripped all mine, they're currently in storage and I can't get to them. Can someone who has them have a look through, and post photos of the quad master tapes if there are any?

I know we have a couple of QQ members connected to the release of the CD+DVD sets as well - @Plan9 , @JohnN , do you have any info or insight into this?

 

[MoB1]

....
It's my recollection that Robin Black is credited with the unreleased quad mix of Minstrel in the Gallery in the 2015 CD+DVD set, so is that incorrect, or was Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll already done and being mixed for quad in December '75?

Yes, Minstrel in the Gallery Quad mix by Robin Black and Ian Anderson at Maison Rouge Studios in Fulham, London. (But when?)

And Too Old was recorded between 19 November 1975 - 27 January 1976, so it seems this must have happended before .... (but when?)

The first run promo quad pressing was only 200 discs

 

[MoB1]

Search PDF
americanradiohistory Billboard-Magazine

1975-03-08
Things are busy on the West Coast, too, reports Dick LaPalm of Village Recorders in Los Angeles. Joe Cocker has been in doing tracks, overdubs and mixes with producer Jim Price and engineers Zack Zenor and Joe Tuzen for his next LP. Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson stopped by to work with engineers Rob Fraboni and Rick Heenan on a 4 -channel mix for the band's "War Child" LP.

1975-12-06
LOS ANGELES -At the Village Recorder, ...
Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson has been working on a quad mix of the band's last LP with Rick Heenan at the con- soles, and Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds are producing themselves with Dallas Jordan and Neil Brody engineering.

 

[MoB1]

1975 optimism in 4- channel product availability (What happened)
1975-08-09

100% IN YEAR IT Disks/Tapes Show Chart Rise By STEPHEN TRAIMAN NEW YORK
-What a difference a year makes in 4- channel product availability of top chart albums. despite the fact that many top artists are still quad holdouts. In recent weeks more than 25 per - cent-52 of 200-of albums listed on Billboard's Top LPs & Tape chart are also released in "Q" disk or tape, double the total of a year ago (see Label By Label Chart Action in this week's 4- Channel Spotlight). More important, this week six of the top 10, 11 of the top 25, and 27 of the top 100 albums are available in uad. A year ago, only Cat Stevens' "Buddah & The Chocolate Factory" :It No. 22 was available in Q -8 tape (Contiued on page 47)
...
On the current charts, the Eagles No. 1 hit, "One Of These Nights", has three other of the group's Asylum Quadradiscs and Q8 tapes on the Top 200, followed by the Doobie Brothers with three Warner Bros. disks /tapes and Bachman -Turner Overdrive with three Q -8 cartridges on Mercury/Phonogram. ZZ Top has a pair of Q -8 London tapes and America has two WB Quadradiscs /tapes. (who knew )

 

[timbre4]

During my 1975 visit to the JVC CD-4 Cutting Center in Los Angeles, engineer Darrell Johnson recounted that Ian Anderson showed up himself with the quad master tapes (Aqualung & War Child) under his arm and hung around for some portion of the process of the creation of the CD-4 masters. [first name corrected]

 

[sjcorne]

@steelydave I went through the WarChild 40th book and disc looking for info on the quad mix, here's what I found:

Apparently it took about a month for them to mix the quad and stereo simultaneously.

The master tape picture seems to confirm that Robin Black did the quad mix.

I'll check the other titles that include quad mixes (Aqualung, Minstrel, Too Old, Songs From The Wood) when I get a chance.

 

[steelydave]

@sjcorne thanks so much for digging all that up, it's exactly what I was hoping for.

What a mystery though, I wonder what the Billboard articles are referring to in March 1975 if War Child was already mixed in quad by Robin Black nearly a year before? I'd be inclined to just say "well, they must've been mistaken" but there's two separate news items, and it's been my experience from writing liner notes and going through old issues of Billboard that these litte news bits were almost always accurate.

Looking forward to finding out what you dig up from the subsequent deluxe editions!

 

[Circular Vibes]

Yes, Minstrel in the Gallery Quad mix by Robin Black and Ian Anderson at Maison Rouge Studios in Fulham, London. (But when?)

And Too Old was recorded between 19 November 1975 - 27 January 1976, so it seems this must have happended before .... (but when?)

View attachment 51568
The first run promo quad pressing was only 200 discs

This isn't in the quad discography. Did it in fact exist? If so, maybe Mark Anderson should learn of this. Has anyone seen a copy out in the wild? I have never even seen that sticker before!

 

[MoB1]

During my 1975 visit to the JVC CD-4 Cutting Center in Los Angeles, engineer Darryl Johnson recounted that Ian Anderson showed up himself with the quad master tapes (Aqualung & War Child) under his arm and hung around for some portion of the process of the creation of the CD-4 masters.

On the promo quad page Darryl Johnson speaks... (or Darrell ?)

 

[timbre4]

During my 1975 visit to the JVC CD-4 Cutting Center in Los Angeles, engineer Darrell Johnson recounted that Ian Anderson showed up himself with the quad master tapes (Aqualung & War Child) under his arm and hung around for some portion of the process of the creation of the CD-4 masters.

It's Darrell for sure; the fog has lifted.

 

[timbre4]

This isn't in the quad discography. Did it in fact exist? If so, maybe Mark Anderson should learn of this. Has anyone seen a copy out in the wild? I have never even seen that sticker before!

Just the promo version discussed here (WOW!) and an entry in the Schwann Record & Tape catalog. It never made it to retail.

 

[Mark Anderson]

This isn't in the quad discography. Did it in fact exist? If so, maybe Mark Anderson should learn of this. Has anyone seen a copy out in the wild? I have never even seen that sticker before!

It has been listed in the discography's for years. It is an easter egg and you just need to know which key on the keyboard to hit to reveal it!

 

[sjcorne]

I'll check the other titles that include quad mixes (Aqualung, Minstrel, Too Old, Songs From The Wood) when I get a chance.

Looking forward to finding out what you dig up from the subsequent deluxe editions!

I'm looking through the Minstrel set right now and while there is an exhaustive amount of information about the Maison Rouge mobile studio designed for simultaneous quad/stereo mixing, there's no information about the quad mix itself or who did it. No picture of the master tape in the DVD menu either.

There's also a very cool bit by SW about the new stereo & 5.1 mixes at the end:

 

[Circular Vibes]

It has been listed in the discography's for years. It is an easter egg and you just need to know which key on the keyboard to hit to reveal it!

I found it in the Not Relesed page. Does this mean that even though 200 promo copies were made that none got out? Surely they got released to radio or at least top level execs and other VIPs.

 

[sjcorne]

Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll:

The only mention of the quad mix I found in the book is that the 4-channel master tapes were 'compiled' by Robin Black and Ian Anderson on February 5-6, 1976. Does that count as mixing credit? No master tape photo on the disc.

I posted some thoughts on the quad mix last year back when I first got the set - I found it to be rather strange and unlike the previous quad mixes included in these Tull sets.

Songs From The Wood:

No mention of the (partial) quad mix at all in the book, but we do get a master tape photo on the DVD menu. Mixed by Robin Black on November 21st, 1976.

What a mystery though, I wonder what the Billboard articles are referring to in March 1975 if War Child was already mixed in quad by Robin Black nearly a year before? I'd be inclined to just say "well, they must've been mistaken" but there's two separate news items, and it's been my experience from writing liner notes and going through old issues of Billboard that these litte news bits were almost always accurate.

Perhaps they could be referring to M.U. – The Best of Jethro Tull, the greatest hits compilation released in 1976. Mark Anderson's quad discography mentions an unreleased quad mix with the catalog # CH4-1078.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I'm guessing those War Child 75 quads could indeed be what S.J. Corne is suggesting.

It makes alot of sense S.J. (M.U. the best of , 2nd or alt quad mixes)

FWIW that's an excellent explanation , btw.

 

[kfbkfb]

The Jethro Tull (general release) CD-4 LPs were the only ones with the
(IMHO) weird advisory that stated (in so many words) that if the user
wanted to listen in Stereo, buy the Stereo LP. Setting aside the Stereo/
Mono phono cartridge issue, were there ever any Stereo LPs that stated
if you want to listen in Mono, buy the Mono LP?


Kirk Bayne

 

[sjcorne]

The Jethro Tull (general release) CD-4 LPs were the only ones with the
(IMHO) weird advisory that stated (in so many words) that if the user
wanted to listen in Stereo, buy the Stereo LP.

I don't think this has anything to do with CD-4 vinyl's ability to fold down to stereo - it's likely because the Jethro Tull quad mixes (Aqualung in particular) don't sound anything like their stereo counterparts. There are vastly different instrumental balances, alternates takes used ("Wind Up"), missing effects (the 'telephone call' vocal), and all kinds of other deviations. It's understandable that Ian Anderson and/or the band would want fans to experience the original stereo mixes as well.

 

[JohnN]