Round the Dial
Wednesday 04 September @ 10:57:26 |
 by Tom Hallett
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “All my new songs were recorded down here in the basement. Most of them were cut one thing at a time, live, one take. I’m a fan of that school. %@!#$&. I’m the head of the class. Jerry Lee’s the professor. If you mean it, you do it once.”
--Paul Westerberg
SONG OF THE WEEK: “Don’t Try To Lay No Boogie Woogie (On The King Of Rock N’ Roll)” by Crow
So what up with re-issues, anyway? I mean, I guess it’s cool if a record company re-issues an old album that’s never been on CD before with new packaging, superb liner notes, and a couple of rare outtakes and demos, but to just re-issue an album for %@!#$&s and giggles, that kinda logic really escapes me. I’m talking specifically about Rykodisc’s recent, typical corporate spew-out of our own beloved Replacements’ first four Twin/Tone albums. When I first spotted the e-mail from Ryko’s PR firm squawkin’ about the label’s plans to re-introduce the world to some of the ’80s most ground-breaking, breath-taking, rockin%@!#$&in’ rollin’ albums, I was thrilled beyond words. “%@!#$&,” I thought to myself, “Peter Jesperson (former ‘Mats guru/producer/Twin Tone honcho) must’ve finally got down to business with those liner notes and bonus tracks he’d always dreamed of one day unleashing upon the public.”
Alas, no such luck. Though it’s always nice to see worthy music reclaimed from the ululating maw of corporate-run entertainment complexes, it’s a damn shame when the material is haphazardly (or “Careless”-ly, to quote the subjects of this here rant) slapped together and thrust onto record store shelves with no real reason, rhyme, or improvement on said matter. In this case, The Replacements and their highly influential first set of albums are shown all the respect of—%@!#$&, less respect than—one-offs like The Electric Prunes or The Seeds.
Lousy art reproduction, stupid yellow faux stickers (including the one on Stink that gives the wrong date for the album’s release) touting the fact that the albums have been “digitally remastered,” and not one iota of new liner notes or even a hidden goodie all add up to a less-than-smart buy for the consumer. If you already own the ‘Mats albums, you’ll find nothing new here. If you don’t, for God’s sake try to find ‘em on vinyl, cassette, or CD in their original incarnations. You’ll thank me later, I promise. Sorry, Ryko, it’s a no-go from Round The Dial on this batch. Well-intentioned though you may have been, this package smacks of lust for the ol’ lettuce, and I, for one, will wait for Jesperson’s dream box set sometime down the line.
Speaking of Jesperson, I called the former ‘Mats manager to suss out his opinion on the recent re-issues, and here’s what he had to say on the matter: “When they talked about putting these out last summer, I thought, these don’t sound much, if any, different than the originals. And those weren’t exactly hi-fi records in the first place! And it’s especially silly because they didn’t go back to the analog masters, they just went back to another old CD and re-mastered that. It’s been available on CD ever since ’87, ’88. There’ve been patches where they haven’t been readily available, but they’ve never been officially out of print.
“I know that for a fact, because if they’d ever been out of print, I’d have regained the rights to them. Restless has the license on all those titles, and they were distributed by BMG, which used to be RCA. Ryko bought Restless, and I don’t really know what their plan is, to tell you the truth. Paul Westerberg wasn’t oppposed to them remastering the albums, although he told them he wouldn’t get involved with bonus tracks or any kind of alterations in the artwork, but if they wanted to remaster them, they had to use this guy Greg Calbi. He’s a guy we’ve all known and liked for years. I really don’t know what the point of this was, but I would say it was financially driven. It certainly wasn’t done with any style. As for something more substantial in the future, everybody involved is doing something current right now. Those guys, to their credit, aren’t the kind of guys who like to sit around and listen to themselves. It’s not the time to do a Replacements anthology, and I don’t know when it will be time, but it’ll happen eventually, no question that that’s going to happen.”
So there ya go. Another slice of rock ’n’ roll (local, even) history, chewed up an’ spit out by a giant, money-hungry corporation. Sheesh. I’m grabbin’ my colored vinyl copies of the ‘Mats albums an’ crankin’ ‘em up. I suggest you do the same, and wait for the real deal. Until next week—make yer own damn news.
If you have local music news/gigs/events that you’d like to see listed in this column, or you’d just like to bitch about your own favorite records that suffer from miserable re-issue status, send replies to: TMygunn777@aol.com.
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