AF to do Simon & Garfunkel's Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

Life is never that easy.

 

Not only did MFSL not use remixes for Bookends, it was never remixed to begin with. Old Friends and the Sony remaster use the original stereo mix.

 

Bookends wasn't remixed!

 

Of course they matter. Just because I very much prefer the original stereo to the original mono doesn't mean I don't care about differences in the mix. I guess I am wierd, I like imaging. Maybe imaging doesn't matter to you. to each his own.

 

Pity, as your missing out on the sixties decade, wonderful 45's which were basically
all mixed for mono and that's how I'm used to hearing classics songs from that time peroid.

 

Yikes! I was hoping for mono only.

I'd consider paying that much for a SACD, but not a gold CD.

 

I am missing out on the entire decade because I prefer the stereo PSR&T to the mono?

 

Why is there a need for a stereo remix when the recently unearthed original stereo is great sounding. I have heard the mono on a badly worn copy which I discarded. From memory it was nothing special as a listening experience. Surely the S & G / Roy Halee sound is stereo. Single mono 45's are another thing designed for radio, jukebox or mono record players. Many records up to 1968 have crude stereo or reprocessed stereo but PSR&T is not one of them.

 

Apparently you are, along with me, missing an entire decade. That is a fair question. But there seems to be some sort of call for the mono mix. If the recrently unearthed original stereo is great sounding, I see no need.

 

That's how I feel.

 

...an original S t e r e o mix with the SH treatment would be stupendous!

 

Well, the remix is less echoey and midrangey so a nice vinyl pressing of the remix
would be lovely. Mono vinyl was already issed by Sundazed, right? Mine is a 2-eye original.

 

Chip,
Sundazed is stereo, not mono. I've heard that Paul Simon vetoed Sundazed request to do mono.

 

Well that sucks! Glad I never had the need to hunt down the reissues
(I'm knee deep in originals except for the mono 'Bookends')

 

I have the old MFSL stereo 'Bookends' cd, which certainly sounds definitive enough for me.
The drums on "America" alone . . . .
yikes!

 

I also think you're wrong that they used a remix.
If you've heard it YOU KNOW it's not a remix. Can't be.

 

True, but, does anybody remember when Don Henley said that The Eagles would get back together after "Hell freezes over"? Artists say a lot of stuff, but they CAN and HAVE, changed their minds. It's truly apparent that Paul has not recently visited the MONO LP version of "Bookends", for if he had, he would have to agree, at least in some songs, that the MONO passes the STEREO versions, by a mile. I would also have to believe that Paul Simon saw, with wide open eyes, the recent interest with THE BEATLES MONO BOX. That alone, could sway his opinion of having "STEREO" only Simon & Garfunkel CD's out there.

F.Y.I., I'm with Steve Hoffman when he says that just because it's MONO, doesn't always mean it's the best mix. I believe that you have to take each song and the possible different mixes or remixes (LP, 45, CD) and come up with the best mix that represents the song. I have nothing against the STEREO "P, S, R & T", as I own it on original 360 Stereo vinyl, along with the Anesini remixed CD. I also own the MONO version of the original vinyl (it's sadly beat to near death), but I can hear enough of it to know, that I would welcome a MONO take of it, on CD.

This thread makes me wonder if when the "possibility" (pretty doubtful, but hopeful), that the upcoming A.P. could be MONO, that Steve isn't sitting back in his computer chair laughing his butt off at us, for striking up such a debate, as to whether it will be STEREO or MONO or better yet, whether it SHOULD be MONO or STEREO.

Chris C

 

The thing is though is that both versions should fit nicely on ONE CD!!!

 

He wouldn't have to agree with that at all.

At any rate, while I won't hold my breath, it would be great to have the UK stereo mix of Homeward Bound as a bonus track.

 

I'd like the original stereo mix from the recently discovered master tapes (assuming that's correct) and the mono mix. If it's just one mix, that is going to be one short CD - like some of the Beach Boys' pastmasters.

 

I would welcome either the original stereo or original mono mixes on AF. As long as they are mastered by Steve Hoffman from an actual original piece of tape, not a digital copy somebody made in the 90s or a safety copy or a west coast copy or a New Jersey copy or a cousin of the original master's copy. If Sundazed can do it, it shouldn't be too much to ask...

 

If it is stereo I will buy. If it's mono I'll pass. And if it were available in duophonic I'd prefer that to the mono too.

 

I was going to make a comment here but I don't know where to begin.

 

I've been wondering why I've always preferred the early S&G albums in mono, and I think I've hit on it. Paul Simon's early songs were mainly about melancholy, loneliness, wandering, self-doubt, loss, even suicide. Witness The Sound Of Silence, Homeward Bound, April Come She Will, Leaves That Are Green, I Am A Rock, Patterns, Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall. Even an upbeat sounding song like Cloudy had sort of a melancholy message. That bleak cover photo for Sounds Of Silence, and the references to snow and cold in I Am A Rock. Mono, for me, just suits all of this better, a lonely song sounds less lonely when spruced up by stereo. Of course, some folks might prefer their lonely sounding songs to be less lonely, and maybe that's why Paul Simon doesn't like the mono mixes, because he wants S&G to have more of a sunshiney sound for today's audience. But the fact remains, those were not sunshiney albums, they were pretty depressing, and for me, depressing works better in mono.