Remastered Albums

[louietheweaselfaceddogboy]

Wasn't Scotti Bros. going to release "Al Unplugged" hich would have remixes of his songs as if it was performed live, complete with audience sounds - but decided "hey, let's to an all-R album!".

(Actually, they did The TV Album...but you get the picture).

[anthontherun]

Does Rhino Records force their artists to release an album every single year?

Well, no, but they don't completely ignore the back catalog either. I'm sure they'd work their butts off to get PATW out there too.

I always thought the unplugged album would've been preferable to The Food Album. At least it's different versions, even if they're just remixes.

[Well, Well, Well]

A mod must've split this into its own topic back in the day, because (a) I don't remember creating this, and (b) the topic title said "Remastered ALbums" and I know regular members couldn't do that.

Anyway, I changed it...because I could.

[TheLazenby]

Al's other albums sound okay to my ears, but "Bad Hair Day" is awful. Too loud and too distorted. (Maybe it's just my copy... I have a reissue.)

But yes I agree, Rhino (preferrably) should re-release everything with bonus tracks. They're not always reliable with that though - they were supposed to reissue the entire Bee Gees catalog with bonus tracks, and put out their first three albums... and quit. No explanation.

So I wouldn't rely on Rhino too much.

[anthontherun]

Yeah, their Monkees reissues seem to be dead in the water too. You'd think they would at least do them (and the Bee Gees albums) as Rhino Handmade releases.

[Trebor]

Yeah, their Monkees reissues seem to be dead in the water too. You'd think they would at least do them (and the Bee Gees albums) as Rhino Handmade releases.

It's about the money. If Rhino didn't finish releasing the BeeGees, or whoever, it's because the first release didn't sell enough to justify another release.

Same goes for Al's work. Whoever owns the rights is going to look at how many units they sell and how much they make and how much they think they'll make if they do a remaster or release. If the figures don't add up, in their mind, they won't do it. And, if they did remaster one of Al's early abulms, and it didn't sell well, they won't do another one. Guess wrong enough times and loose enough money releasing things that don't sell well and you go out of business.

[Alucard]

A lot of it also has to do with licensing. Entire albums and projects have been shelved before for indeterminate lengths due to licensing disagreements in the past.
I know nothing of the Bee Gees reissues (nor do I care), but I can tell you now that they did do reissues of the Monkees catalogues as double CD sets containing numerous bonus tracks.
Now, if they were to do something for Al's albums, that would be neat, but somewhat superfluous. Just look at it this way: every single album is still in print (Peter & the Wolf not withstanding) and still under contract to whatever company (I think it's Volcano). This means that they have the rights to Al's entire catalogue. For Rhino to be able to get ahold of those rights, it would cost them a fortune.
However, Rhino Handmade could still make a special Al package containing live stuff, unreleased demos, outtakes and b-sides. They would need to work with Al very closeley on it, but it could be done. Simply contact them and ask about the feasibility of doing such a thing. That's how Tiny Tim, Loudon Wainwright III, Allan Sherman and Wildman Fischer all receieved the handmade treatement; people simply asked.
So...reissues would be great. Unfortunately, it probably won't happen anytime soon.
Now, regarding the sound issues on Bad Hair Day; The gain is very high on my copies, but fortunately no distortion. I have both the original issue and the later issue. The original has the high gain problem. The later issue sounds a bit rough on the low end. This very likely was the result of a phasing or mastering problem. It happens.
On the earlier discs (WAY through to Alapalooza), I've noticed various issues. The compression is MASSIVE on DTBS. WAY has very poor mastering and actually sounds like it was recorded by amateurs on Tascam 2 & 4 track cassette recorders. In 3-D sounds muddy compared to it's vinyl and cassette releases. My copies of Polka Party and Even Worse, despite poor mastering sound pretty good as well. UHF is probably the worst culprit though. There is muddy sound all over the place, bad phasing in a couple of tracks and even some drop out on a few tracks. Is it just me, or does OTDE sound terrible? I was listening to it the other day and it just didn't sound good at all on CD. Alapalooza sounds pretty good, as do RWS, PH and SOL. SOL and PH sound the best out of all of them, which is no surprise considering that the latter 3 -5 releases were originally sourced on digital technology. The stuff that was sourced on analog technology will almost always sound better in its original format (LP or Cassette). Of course, some new mastering would be great. The missing artwork is also a bone of contention amongst many of us fans, myself included.
Now, here's an idea. Perhaps we could print out some CD sized artwork/lyrics sheets from the original albums on card stock and put them in the albums. Then we can remaster the albums ourselves with new mastering software or hardware. Finally, we can burn them to CD-Rs and have our own remastered versions for our own collections. Or, we can email Al, the Band, his producers and managers, Rhino, Volcano and everyone else involved to petition for said re-releases. It's worth a shot.
Have a nice day!

[Way_Moby]

Or, we can email Al, the Band, his producers and managers, Rhino, Volcano and everyone else involved to petition for said re-releases. It's worth a shot.
Have a nice day!

Hey! That's a really great idea! I'd be willing to start an e-mail if we wanted to get some sort of petition thing going (We'd probably need real names though, which I don't mind giving as long as its private). Anybody interested?

[anthontherun]

From his AMA:

What are the chances of a reissue campaign featuring your early albums happening? It would be great to have those albums with all original artwork, comprehensive liner notes, and (perhaps?) bonus tracks.
Given the state of the music industry, I wouldn't hold my breath. But I'd love to see that too!

Kinda cool to see that Al would be on board with this--I've always thought he'd more of a "Look to the future" guy when it comes to revisiting the back catalog, so to hear that he likes the idea of reissuing albums (and hopefully opening the vaults, warts and all) is pretty cool. Maybe if he gets ownership of his catalog?

Rhino is in kind of an odd place at the moment, and even their Handmade releases have taken a hit (although they're still doing a Monkees box set this month), so does anyone know of any other good reissue labels that really put forth the effort to make a quality, definitive product? There's Now Sounds but they tend to concentrate on stuff from the 60s.

[minnick27]

Even with reissues I doubt Al would put any unreleased tracks out