1970s Record Labels' Questionable Quad Release Program

[Q-Eight]

Which Walter Murphy?

A Fifth of Beethoven.

 

[gvl_guy]

A Fifth of Beethoven.

Wow. That album came out in 1976. Late for quad. I'm going to try to find it and listen.

 

[Q-Eight]

Wow. That album came out in 1976. Late for quad. I'm going to try to find it and listen.

It was never available commercially. It was initially available on Private Stock Records, which had it's tape duplication done by GRT. What's curious is that
even in '76, GRT was still doing Quad duplication! Several of the Arista Q8's are dated 1976. So, why this never appeared on a blue GRT cart in '76 is anybody's guess.

It was offered through the Ford Quad program in 1979! Ed Bishop years back figured it must've been a case where, when Mr. Murphy changed over to RCA records in 1979, it must've just been a case of a Quad Master transferring ownership and RCA figured.... what the hell???

 

[gvl_guy]

It was never available commercially. It was initially available on Private Stock Records, which had it's tape duplication done by GRT. What's curious is that
even in '76, GRT was still doing Quad duplication! Several of the Arista Q8's are dated 1976. So, why this never appeared on a blue GRT cart in '76 is anybody's guess.

It was offered through the Ford Quad program in 1979! Ed Bishop years back figured it must've been a case where, when Mr. Murphy changed over to RCA records in 1979, it must've just been a case of a Quad Master transferring ownership and RCA figured.... what the hell???


View attachment 67356

Wow. That's cool. Might be one of the final produced Q8's in existence! But I wonder if they encoded the LP.

 

[gvl_guy]

Wow. That's cool. Might be one of the final produced Q8's in existence! But I wonder if they encoded the LP.

Upon further reflection, I highly doubt the LP is matrix encoded. Murphy was on RCA, and while it seems there is an 8track quad, RCA was absolutely in the CD-4 corner. So it's unlikely it was matrix encoded. It's possible it just happens to sound great in a decoder mode, but not likely on purpose.

 

[Q-Eight]

But it really does make one curious as to what happened behind the scenes. Was the Walter Murphy title mixed to Quad back in '76 when it was fresh or was in mixed in 1979?
I honestly can't believe RCA would do that only to print a small run of 100 tapes. It had to come to them already mixed. (that's my guess, anyway!) The mix also doesn't jive with anything RCA was doing at the time as there's a lot of "side" information going on.

I don't have the original "Private Stock Records" pressing so I'm no help there.

 

[Q-Eight]

Returning to the topic of this thread....

We have discussed in the past how it seems that there are far too many instances in the Quad world where the record labels either kept unreleased or simply did not issue album (A) which had a hit; and then would go on to issue album (B) which contained no hit material. The albums off the top of my head that I can think of (and I believe there's a whole thread dedicated to this somewhere...)

Johnny Nash:
"I can see clearly now" - containing two hit singles *UNISSUED in Quad*
"My Merry-go-Round" - Issued in Quad. Never entered the Hot 100.

Redbone:
"Message from a Drum" - issued in Quad. Minor hits.
"Wovoka" - contained TWO of their biggest hits ("Wovoka, Come and get your love) UNISSUED in Quad
"Beaded Dreams, etc...." - issued in Quad. No Hits. Never entered the Hot 100.

The O'Jays:
"Backstabbers" - UNISSUED IN QUAD. Two Monster Hits. Multi-platinum Album.
and then virtually every album following issued in Quad either discrete or SQ.

The Raiders:
"Hard und Heavy mit Marshmallow" - at least, prepared for Quad release. Strange choice. Limited amount of tracks. Curious Quad Mix.
"Collage" - in my mind with the heavy instrumentation, the pseudo-experimental nature of the album and a couple of REALLY hot songs would've seemed a natural.... Unissued.
"Indian Reservation" - 1,000 monkeys at 1,000 typewriters will eventually get something right.

Over in the Atlantic Camp, had I been in control, I'd have been pushing their heavy hitters. Ray Charles always sold. I would have loved some AC/DC in Quad but they weren't very big in America in '73/'74. So that might've been pushing rope. I was just perusing a list of their artists and.... damn.... maybe they were trying. Atlantic really did not have a whole lot of "Big" name artists on their roster and what they did, did get a Quad release. J. Geils, Bette Midler, Spinners, James Gang, Average White Band.... beyond that there really wasn't a whole lot there for them to push.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Returning to the topic of this thread

Over in the Atlantic Camp, had I been in control, I'd have been pushing their heavy hitters. Ray Charles always sold. I would have loved some AC/DC in Quad but they weren't very big in America in '73/'74. So that might've been pushing rope. I was just perusing a list of their artists and.... damn.... maybe they were trying. Atlantic really did not have a whole lot of "Big" name artists on their roster and what they did, did get a Quad release. J. Geils, Bette Midler, Spinners, James Gang, Average White Band.... beyond that there really wasn't a whole lot there for them to push.

Really ???

Back in the Quad era , Atlantic had on their roster , the following huge sellers :

Led Zeppelin
Yes
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
King Crimson
Genesis
and
The Rolling Stones


-I don't know how that statement of yours got by me, Q-eight ?

Now of course they did release one ELP , in Q8 , and 2 very good albums in quad by Eric Clapton.
And if your not aware , there is a quad album by Ray Charles , but on Bluesway.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Really ???

Back in the Quad era , Atlantic had on their roster , the following huge sellers :

Led Zeppelin
Yes
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
King Crimson
Genesis
and
The Rolling Stones


-I don't know how that statement of yours got by me, Q-eight ?

Now of course they did release one ELP , in Q8 , and 2 very good albums in quad by Eric Clapton.
And if your not aware , there is a quad album by Ray Charles , but on Bluesway.

.And a few more Atlantic wonders I forgot......

Crosby, Stills , Nash
Crosby, Stills , Nash and Young
Stephen Stills
Graham Nash
David Crosby
Buffalo Springfield
Roxy Music (from Stranded to Flesh And Blood)
Bryan Ferry

 

[key_wiz]

Atlantic wasn't the only label that focused more on non-rock titles for quad releases, although they may have been the worst offenders?

My take was always that they probably figured those with quad systems were likely to be a bit older, therefore they were more likely to issue Bette Midler or Duke Ellington in quad and not the Led Zeppelin titles the 'kids' were buying up like hotcakes.

I would imagine they must have had some market research at the time to support this?

 

[fizzywiggs41]

It's obvious to me that those in charge were not in favour of promoting rock, and prog rock titles , and most definitely were stuck in the past.
You can see that by simply checking out what they considered for quad, which seems to be they're own favoured tastes.
The market research was probably ignored , they were in charge and what you get is them dictating what we should be listening to , and a younger demographic of who's complaints would not have mattered.

We've only need to compare this 2000 year (and current) release titles in surround with those selected from the past on Atlantic Records.

 

[4-earredwonder]

But think about it. If the labels had pushed A+ list artists like Led Zeppelin, The Stones, The Fab Four during the QUAD era it might've catapulted the format to more mainstream recognition. Who wouldn't want to hear their favorite artists in discrete four channel QUAD? But not even releasing them in Q4 Open Reel which did offer the BEST separation at the time [and dolby b NR] was an egregious omission!

Finally in 2024 we do have the Beatles and the Stones in 5.1/ATMOS but still no LED ZEP.

Wake up Page and Plant: you ain't gonna live FOREVER!

 

[key_wiz]

It's obvious to me that those in charge were not in favour of promoting rock, and prog rock titles , and most definitely were stuck in the past.
You can see that by simply checking out what they considered for quad, which seems to be they're own favoured tastes.
The market research was probably ignored , they were in charge and what you get is them dictating what we should be listening to , and a younger demographic of who's complaints would not have mattered.

We've only need to compare this 2000 year (and current) release titles in surround with those selected from the past on Atlantic Records.

I've never met any record execs from the 70s, so I have no idea what their own favored titles may have been.

Were younger people complaining about what was or wasn't released in quad at the time? When I was a teen in the 70s, I didn't know a single person with a quad system.

current music being mixed to Atmos is primarily done with those listening on earbuds in mind. Which is likely to skew much younger than did those with quad systems back in the 70s.

Also, today when new music is being mixed in Atmos, I presume it is usually being done at the same time they are mixing to stereo. It's probably cheaper to create an Atmos mix of the, say, new Olivia Rodrigo album while they are also doing the stereo than it is to drag out old tapes of a classic title and hire someone to specifically create an Atmos mix of that.

I have no data to back this up, but I do believe that then and now they were/are targeting those with the playback systems.