"Quadrophenia: The Director's Cut"--Reviews

Every time I hear "5:15" without the train whistle, it startles me. I always expect it to be there. The odd mix on 'Hooligans' was a disappointment.

 

Wait...is it *hard* left or just left of center?

The '79 single mix has that guitar part *hard* left. The '73 single mix has it just left of center (in fact, the whole mix is pretty narrow).

Did they use the '79 mix again?

 

Already put it back in the sleeve. But I'm quite certain it was hard left. Hence the reason why it was so "noticeable" to my ear.

 

Sounds like the soundtrack remix, then.

 

Mastering credited to Jon Astley. A quick compare to Scoop 3 reveals a similar sound albeit slightly less heavy handed on this set.

 

re: the art. I was looking at the proofs for the booklet art and made a comment to the folks in Production that they looked bad.

Got a lot of shrugging shoulders.

They rushed this thing out, so I'm not surprised there are issues.

 

Well, I've read enough and it's been settled for me. Even with as big a Who fan as I am and with as much as this album means to me, there is no way that I am shelling out $120 for the whoe shebang. I'll get just the Deluxe Edition and be done with it.

Shame, that, as I was really looking forward to this.

 

Overdubbed PT vocals on "Cut My Hair" demo.

 

Trust me, you are not the only one.

 

Really? Where? I am listening to "Cut my Hair" right now (from a tape I've had for 30 years). Vox sound good/fitting to me.

I hate that PT tampered with the demos.

 

I haven't heard it yet either, but I know that Roger Daltrey doesn't have issues when it comes to singing in time with music, so that leaves engineer error.

 

It is especially disappointing since they had perfectly good blueprints to follow (i.e. the previous Deluxe Editions - well except for the Sell Out and Quick One brickwalled POSes.)

But, no, no no... gotta pretend to be George Lucas. Futzing around with things always seems to go over so well for him... It's not like people are making documentary films complaining about it...

 

If you're referring to the images in the book that came with the original LP, I read an interview with the original photographer some years ago and he stated that his negatives were lost by the record company and that all subsequent re-issues have simply used a scanned copy of an original book. That's why they look so crappy. It's sad, since this is probably the single greatest photo essay in the history of rock and roll.

 

A different take could have slightly different timing and inflection. It wouldn't necessarily be "wrong", but different enough to notice.

 

That's a good question. I went back to the boot and listened to that familiar version. It appears I misjudged as the double tracked vocals are so much clearer on the box. My apologies ..

 

Someone please listen to the demo for "Is It Me". If thats not old Pete in the right channel and young Pete in the left....then I'll cut me ears off

 

I apologize to everyone: the badly syncopated verse is verse 3, the one with just the drums and bass ("The cracks beneath the paving stones" etc). I was writing my reflections back at work, in a hurry between appointments, and misremembered.

 

Bump. Anybody else get it and want to weigh in? How are people finding this compared to the '96 after a few listens?

 

For those of you who are wondering why the photography in the book of the original photo montage looks so bad, here is the reason, as stated by the original photographer, Ethan Russell:

"After Quadrophenia I slowly backed away from photography. I proposed a television film of it, and it almost got made. I became a writer and, working on my first book, went to England to find the Quadropehnia negatives. They were gone. I put together this montage - scanned from the book - as my exhibit piece. Because it is scanned, it is less expensive and in a smaller edition than others."

Sad to lose such a key piece of rock and roll photographic history.

 

You mean the Pete that can't hit notes on the left and the one that can hit notes on the right? Sure sounds like it.

 

I think the mastering of the original CDs *is* the '96, same.

Tim

 

However, if you look at Ethan's website you'll see that his scans of the photos are much better than the ones in the box.

Hell, even the previous CD reissues are better.

Clearly they just couldn't be bothered to do them properly.

Are they in the Deluxe Edition? What do they look like there?

And don't get me started on how difficult it is to get on the Q Cloud; I gave up after an hour of "please wait while the software installs"

Clearly they just couldn't be bothered to do it properly...

 

I've been listening some more the 5.1 mix, and I'm finding errors. As stated, Roger's vocal on verse 3 of "The Real Me" is "off" by a slight beat, particularly near the end of the verse and during the chorus.

And on "The Rock" there's a major screw up about half way through. After you get to the "Love Reign Over Me" part, listen as the guitars and rhythm section give way to the string synths. Moon comes in too late, which means that when the little glockenspiel synth starts playing "Helpless Dancer" it is out of synch with the horn synthesizer playing "The Bell Boy" Theme.

Finally, Roger's vocals on both "I've Had Enough" and "Love Reign O'er Me" are so heavily reverbed as to seem like they're coming from a different room. It's very annoying. As I speculated, the reverb might be there on the original tape such that the ambient echo was buried in the stereo mix and is now set free owing to the isolation of the vocal track. Still, it's another disappointment in what is increasingly sounding like a sloppy mix. Although Pridden did the mixes, you have to wonder how much Townshend's bad hearing accounts for these errors.

 

I'd also like to know: how is the mastering on this one? How does it compare to the 96?

 

It's a slight improvement, I would say. It's still the 96 remix in terms of content--that is, it has the same missing bits, like the "seal" sound on "Dirty Jobs" and so on--with one interesting addition, namely a new sound replacing the lost train whistle on "5:15." But overall it's slightly less loud, and somewhat warmer. There's less shrill treble on the high end and more punch and bounce in the mid-range. And the acoustic guitars have been brought out much more, particularly on "The Punk and the Godfather," "Bell Boy," and the two instrumentals. Though the differences are subtle to be sure, the new master marks a nice balance between the murky thunder of the original vinyl mix and the cold digitized sheen of the 96 remix.