Category Archives: picture disc

Oct 19 2020
Leave a comment
picture disc, reissue, vinyl

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (45th Anniversary Soundtrack) [LP]

Anyone who’s experienced THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW has likely got a story or more about their experience with the titillating 1975 cult movie musical. I know I do. I worked at the Neptune Theater in Seattle’s U-District in the early ’80s as a janitor, cleaning the closed balcony on Friday and Saturday nights while the movie was shown to the patrons on the main floor. I say “shown” but, as you may already know, you don’t just watch Rocky Horror. You participate! In the case of Seattle fans at that time, you in the audience may have noticed the shadow of my broomstick or mop float across the screen here and there. Or maybe you heard someone joining in the fun from up in the balcony. That was probably me. In my year or two in that janitorial position I learned all of the audience partici-“say it!”-pation responses – and once the movie was over and the auditorium cleared out, I learned how to sweep rice, playing cards, raw hot dogs (i.e., frankfurters) and more from underneath theater seats. Oh, I got an education from Dr. Frank N. Furter & Company, alright.

For its 45th anniversary, Ode Records has reissued the soundtrack to Rocky Horror on a very cool picture disc. Yes, vinyl fans, you can now learn to do the Time Warp in the creature comfort of your very own home while gazing into the eyes of Tim Curry as the sweet transvestite he will always be associated with. Picture discs don’t lend themselves to high fidelity listening, of course, but it’s likely you’ll be cranking this baby up while dusting off your dance moves (“Say, do any of you guys know how to Madison?”) and not paying attention to the surface noise inherent in such vinyl pressings. You can always hunt down a proper vinyl or CD copy for critical listening; this pic disc was designed for fun!

The front of this Rocky Horror picture disc shows Curry-as-Furter in a pseudo-pscary pose which I guess is more exciting than the iconic red lips (at left) that have accompanied advertising and VHS/DVD covers over the years, while the back of the record is a collage of movie theater marquees where the film’s played countless times during its rise to being perhaps the (c)ultimate horror/sci-fi/comedy musical of our time. This release will certainly make a great gift for the Rocky Horror fan in your life (even if you’re buying it for yourself), and with Halloween coming right up it’ll make for some great listening, too. I mean, you’ll probably want to just go ahead and watch the movie, yes, but since you can’t do that 24/7 between now and 10/31, – or maybe you can! – you could at least toss this baby on the ’table and toucha, toucha, touch yourself while getting down with Frank, Riff Raff, Brad, Janet (yay, Janet!), Magenta, Columbia, Eddie and the rest. – Marsh Gooch

3.5/5 (Ode 000011, 2020)

Tagged
Sep 29 2019
1 Comment
Bluray, box set, CD, deluxe edition, picture disc, remix, vinyl

The Beatles • Abbey Road – Anniversary Edition [Multiple Formats]

It’s kind of wonderful, this worldwide wankfest over a 50 year old rock ’n’ roll album. All kinds of people, everywhere, getting all hot ’n’ bothered over THE BEATLES’ Abbey Road, the last album they recorded together but the penultimate release during their actual time together as The Fab Four. The cynical among us probably consider it another greedy cash grab, the romantic might think it’s a real sweet thing, and I’ve heard there are even those among us who don’t care! Whatever, I’m devoting some column inches to it (as they would’ve said in ’69), so I must care.

Once Giles Martin and his boys remixed Sgt. Pepper for its fifty year anniversary, all of us in Pepperland and beyond looked forward to the day when The Beatles’ other top-ranker would get its turn. Martin and co-conspirator Sam Okell have taken the highly lauded long player dad George Martin produced and given us another way to listen to Abbey Road. It was the last recording of the band’s career and the first in the modern multitrack era – you know, on a big whopping EIGHT TRACKS! – but was mixed the way they did back then, with exaggerated panning seemingly employed to prove it was in stereo. This time, the pans are much more nuanced, making more sense to our ears, and many of the instruments have been brought out in the mix. You can hear much more detail in the guitars (like on “Here Comes the Sun”), the organs (Billy Preston’s on “I Want You (She’s so heavy)”) and even the drums (listen for the actual hit of the snare or kick drum) in many of the songs. The vocals, especially the harmonies, are much sweeter, too. I’m not as impressed by any differences to the sound or prominence of the bass guitar, and as a matter of fact, find that sometimes McCartney’s playing (on “Something,” for instance) sounds more ad-libbed than is comfortable to me.

In terms of formats, well of course there are more than you can shake a stick at. You can get Abbey Road on single LP, double LP, picture disc LP, single CD (which is what I’m basing this post on), double CD, or the 3 LP and 3 CD/1 Bluray box sets (coming in the mail later this week!). As I’ve said in the past, what’s gonna work for you is largely a function of how big a fan you are. Take the guy on the left in the photo at left: he’s probably not going to get any of these, but was nice enough to play John Lennon to my McCartney (I couldn’t be bothered to take my shoes off, though) when we entered a Seattle area record store yesterday to pay our respects. But (his sister) Shirley there must be an edition that will work for you, so I suggest you get on down to Abbey Road at your earliest convenience and see what son Giles has done to dad George’s recording of The Beatles’s first or second greatest moment.  — Marsh Gooch

I’ll be diving into the bonus tracks (called Sessions on the discs) next time… Right here.

4/5 (Apple/Capitol/UMe B0030901-02, 2019)

Tagged , ,
Dec 07 2017
Leave a comment
picture disc, reissue, vinyl

Electric Light Orchestra • Out of the Blue [40th Anniversary Picture Disc]

Another anniversary, another reissue. Yet, ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA’s Out of the Blue is truly deserving of a celebration. The double album was first released in October 1977, amid all the hype about punk rock and the desecration of our beloved rock ’n’ roll. Forty years later the prophecy that punk would destroy all stands unfulfilled; rock ’n’ roll carries on as “classic” music, mostly of a bygone era, via countless repackages of the best it had to offer.

This here double picture disc of Out of the Blue is truly something to look at (I’m going by the photos I’ve seen), although it can’t be quite as awesome as the original issue. That was a 2LP album in a gatefold cover with printed inner sleeves, a mini poster of the band and – wait for it! – a cut-out space station/rocket ship just like the one on the record jacket! And YES, I did assemble mine as a 14 year old and hung the poster, too. Today’s picture disc release comes with none of those extras, just Jeff Lynne’s masterpiece carved into the grooves of records that can’t possibly show all the magic that is Blue. I mean, picture discs are naturally pressed with shallower grooves to accommodate the picture inside, thus making for a quieter and (likely) less expansive sound. The original pressing, as well as some of the many reissues over the last four decades, is really the one to have.

With five singles hitting the charts, Blue was ELO’s biggest bang, eventually selling some 10 million copies worldwide. You know many of them: “Turn to Stone,” “Sweet Talkin’ Woman,” and the nowadays ubiquitous (thanks to its inclusion in dozens of movies) “Mr. Blue Sky.” The band’s sound had evolved to a unique hybrid of rock, classical and pop. What started out as a great idea (their classicalized cover of “Roll Over Beethoven” was among their early singles, along with the epic “10538 Overture”) hit its zenith with this sprawling double album, which even included a side-long Concerto for a Rainy Day. Judging by the DVD of one of this era’s shows, the ELO of ’77 must have been something to see and hear in person.

Heavy on harmonies, stacked in layers thanks to 24-track recording and Jeff Lynne’s amazing ability to take melodies and turn them into major statements, Out of the Blue was like The Beatles smashed into The Beach Boys and The Everly Brothers while Phil Spector got the entire shebang on tape. My guess is Lynne was as focused on dense, dynamic arrangements as Brian Wilson was before him, though I don’t expect Jeff was wearing a fireman’s helmet in the booth… But I’ll bet it was really hot in there!

As for the strings, well, the Electric Light Orchestra at this point – lavish, grand – was six or seven band members plus the extra violins, cellos and what have you that accompanied them on record and on stage. Blue is ELO at its most magnificent. From this peak there was nowhere higher for Lynne & Co. to go, and so on the next LP, Discovery (cynically also known as Disco Very), the band shed most of the genuine strings and accomplished its orchestral manoeuvres mainly via synthesizers. It doesn’t matter that ELO’s biggest hit in America was “Don’t Let Me Down” (Bruuuuuuuuce!); Out of the Blue was the album that finally captured what was in the boss’s head and displayed it like a gigantic billboard for all to see. Hey you with the pretty face, welcome to the human race!

In 2007 a deluxe anniversary CD came out in a limited edition book-bound cover with the cutout space station (albeit in much smaller form) and 24-page booklet; that version and the standard jewelcase version included bonus tracks and new mastering. Sadly, one of the songs had a noticeable dropout thanks to the age of the stereo master tape and so this reissue loses a point. A vinyl reissue on Simply Vinyl was also issued (in 1999) and it suffered from over the top digital mastering (not usually a plus for vinyl reissues), and since then it had also been issued properly via Epic/Legacy (on clear vinyl, 2015). I’m not sure whether these vinyl versions – or the picture disc set that gave me reason to write this review now – include the aforementioned dropout, which is considerable but not a deal breaker since this album is such an essential piece of the ELO (and rock ’n’ roll in general) discography. You should give them a shot if they’re easily available. Otherwise, I’d try and hunt down an original on Jet/United Artists or even the slightly later Jet/CBS version (USA), or maybe even a UK import on Jet/UA. Hell, whatever version you get, Out of the Blue is something you must own.

5/5 (Epic 8898545616S1, 2017)

Tagged