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Does the FAME disc have the same mastering as the Paul McCartney collection remaster? What about the other FAME discs? Are they really unique masterings? I see in the archives here that McCartney II has been determined to be identical to the '93 PMC disc...

Chris,

I was the one who did the Macca II comparison, and it wasn't to the '93 PMC disc, but to the stock Capitol: they were exactly the same. The PMC '93 versions are differently. The real question is whether there's any pattern between the harder-to-find FAME discs and the easier-to-find Capitol discs, i.e. if the stock Capitol plus-bonus-tracks disc of Wild Life is the same as the fAME disc.

Actually, the FAME discs of "Wild Life" and "II" turn up a lot more often on eBay than the standard US discs do. It's the EMI "London Town" and "Back To The Egg" that seem to be impossible to find. I'm still looking. I would like to know if those are clones of the US discs.

Xenu wrote:Chris,

I was the one who did the Macca II comparison, and it wasn't to the '93 PMC disc, but to the stock Capitol: they were exactly the same. The PMC '93 versions are differently. The real question is whether there's any pattern between the harder-to-find FAME discs and the easier-to-find Capitol discs, i.e. if the stock Capitol plus-bonus-tracks disc of Wild Life is the same as the fAME disc.

OK, that makes sense. Does anyone know if the other FAME discs are the same as the Capitol discs? BTW, what is the best version of Macca II? What about London Town and Back to the Egg?

I've heard ALL the FAME and Capitol CD's are the same. Haven't confirmed this myself, but it's supposed to be the same deal as the Beatles CD's, where they were handled in a similar fashion: EMI make one mastering, ship clones to all other EMI-related labels (i.e. Capitol).

I heard the same thing.

So why does everybody on SHTV cream over the Fame discs then? I bought them because they drilled it into my head that they were the best. Now it seems to be common knowledge that the standard Capitol's were the same all along? WTF!

Probably the same reason every creams over the DJM Elton discs (when most of the Polydors are the same).

There are Polydor Elton discs too? Would that be 3 CD versions in the UK?

Some posts there say the Capitols have NoNoise. Is this true? I don't recognize the posters, so I'm not sure how reliable they are.

JWB wrote:There are Polydor Elton discs too? Would that be 3 CD versions in the UK?

Nope.

After MCA lost the catalog in the US, the titles were reissued by Polydor. Early '90s, as Rare Masters was part of the Chronicles series. Mr. Hunte could give the rundown of what MCA/DJM/Polydor titles are identical, assuming he lives another day.

A few years later they were remastered and released by Island.

MK wrote:Some posts there say the Capitols have NoNoise. Is this true? I don't recognize the posters, so I'm not sure how reliable they are.

Some might. Look, it's possible that there're multiple variations of these, and that I happened to grab a Capitol McCartney II that matched my EMI-Fame Macca II.

That said, one would have to wonder why Capitol would bother doing anything to the masters of these low-cost issues. As I haven't done AB comparisons of *any other FAME/Capitol disc*, I can't speak outside of my Macca II experience. It's up to others with multiple copies to examine this. I'm too busy attempting to rationalize the $8 I'm about to spend on a pre-Compact Disc/Compact Price issue of the MCA Who Are You on CD....(which, for those counting, would mean I own the MoFi, MCA old CD, Polydor old CD, MCA new CD, Polydor new CD...I don't know whether this is good for my mental health)

Nah, I'll just settle with what I have: DCC Band on the Run, a single CD-R comp made from Capitol CD's, and Run Devil Run. All the Wings/solo Paul I need.