Quad LP/Tape Poll Three Dog Night: Hard Labor [QS/Q8]

[EMB]

Too bad this ain't the album with "Shambala" on it, huh? But at least we got this one in Quad!

Side 1:
1. Prelude/Sure As I'm Sittin' Here
2. Anytime Babe
3. Interlude/Put Out The Light
4. Sitting In Limbo

Side 2:

1. I'd Be So Happy
2. Interlude/Play Something Sweet(Brickyard Blues)
3. On The Way Back Home
4. The Show Must Go On

 

[Q-Eight]

Just a simple Question.... why does my Album art (Q8) have a big band aid over it? It differs a little from the album art posted.


As for the music, it's a mild mix - gives a nice surround feeling but it doesn't have a very good feeling of instrument placement. I guess a good description would be it's "smeared" ? The mix concentrates more on the vocals than the music. It sounds like different combos/overdubs front versus rear.

I gave it a 7. Could've been better, but I've heard worse. (Tommy James and the Shondells anyone?? @: ) What helps this album out is it has two of my fave Three Dog Night songs.

 

[EMB]

I guess there was some concern over the 'giving birth to a record' angle--heh--so the censored cover was substituted and that's the more common(on vinyl and tape)version. CD reissues used the uncensored cover, IIRC.

ED

 

[Dylan Berichon]

There is quite a story behind several of the Three Dog Night record covers. I'll post some more info in a moment once I track it down.

 

[Dylan Berichon]

Two of Three Dog Night's record covers had to be recalled. It Ain't Easy [DS-50078] started life with a picture of the entire septet in the nude on the cover, but was quickly replaced by a photo of the three vocalists sitting around a piano, thankfully with their clothes on. And in what ranks as possibly one of the all-time winners in bad taste cover art, Hard Labor [DS-50168] originally had a grotesque female creature giving birth to a record album, but this was quickly revised so that the "birth" was covered over by a huge band-aid (first by affixing the band-aid over the artwork, then as part of the artwork itself.)

Info found at: http://www.bsnpubs.com/abc/dunhill.html

 

[Dylan Berichon]

More:

DSD 50168 - Hard Labor - Three Dog Night [1974] (4-74, #20) Original cover shows a female creature giving birth to a record album, covered for record store display purposes by a large file folder covering about two-thirds of the cover. Later covers have the file folder, but have a huge band-aid over about a quarter of the cover underneath.

http://www.bsnpubs.com/abc/dunhill/dunhill.html

 

[jaybird100]

ABC/Command was usually somewhat conservative on their surround mixes, but they did a good job on this one. I played it recently through a Dolby PLII processor in the cinema mode, and it extraced every bit of separation there was in the mix. I hate to say it, but Dolby Pro Logic II does a better job of decoding QS than anything else I've heard.

 

[EMB]

Yes, a good mix for a QS tape...an '8' here...

ED

 

[callmez]

I completely agree with "smeared" for most of it, which is OK, but the intro and closing with the calliope are kind of interesting...

Mark Z
(Listening to the QS version through PLIIx.)

 

[RustyM]