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Hey all,

I own absolutely nothing by Rod Stewart, but have heard great things over the years about his first few solo records. Thus, I was really happy to discover that my local library has in its holdings CDs of "Gasoline Alley" and "Every Picture Tells a Story." I merrily set about borrowing them. And with that comes the inevitable query...

For one, the library owns *two* copies of "Picture:" one on Mercury (with a red disc) and one on Polygram. Being utterly perverse, I elected to borrow both of them out of curiosity; I assumed, however, that the bare-bones packaging on each suggested that the discs were probably "pre-remaster" early pressings, likely identical and that their variations were merely due to regionalisms. Ideal for sampling, in other words.

Well, they're *not* the same, and I was wondering whether anybody here knew enough about the early Stewart catalog to offer me recommendations/explanations. A quick perusal of the sh forum implied much veneration in the direction of the MoFi disc of "Every Picture," but I probably won't find that. Other than that, which run of discs is supposed to be ideal? What about that Mercury "All of the Albums He Recorded for Us" collection? Better than individual discs?

(I ask, by the way, because while the Mercury CD was mastered louder, it also had some tape damage that the Polygram seemed to lack)

So yes. If we've figured out Elton, this is surely somewhere on the agenda, right?

Catalog #s?

Mercury: 3145580602
Polygram: 822385-2

The answer is very simple but some idiots at SH through in all this obscure "Gilbert Kong" credited shit into the mix that you should ignore.

It comes down to this: old CD's mastered by Dennis Drake, remasters by Suha Gur, and the one gold CD MFSL made for "Every Picture..." The old CD's are a plain 'silver' design, right? THOSE are the ones to get, PERFECT.

The remasters have the red/pink/orange/whatever-you-call-it label-side on the CD, right? AVOID those. The complete Mercury set released a few years later was also done by Gur, AVOID those. Hard-ass EQ and possibly compression. SUCKS ASS.

The gold CD for "Every Picture" has gotten great reviews, but I don't have it so I can't say how it sounds, but the old CD's sound great as is and many Drake CD's seem very competitive with their MFSL counterparts - think Allman Brothers, Verve jazz CD's, among others. Maybe not so much with Clapton related discs.

I thought I remembered a great big hairy thread regarding EPTAS on SHtv, and I managed to find it:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showt ... ge=1&pp=20

It's an old thread...even some of Luke's posts are on it. A few tidbits:

According to SH, the MFSL is a flat transfer. However, keep in mind that there are two MFSLs of this one -- UD1 and UD2.

"Gilbert Kong" had nothing to do with the CD.

The very first CD, mastered by Dennis Drake (?), had digital reverb added, according to Bill Levenson. Some have referred to this master as the one with the "big drums."

I have the Dennis Drake mastered CD's up to and including Smiler and they sound just fine. I agree that the Complete Mercury set is trash - to be avoided for sure. The MFSL Gold Every Picture is awesome but goes for big bucks these days and the Drake mastered CD is a close second. One CD to watch out for is the Dennis Drake West German"Sing It Again Rod" which has separate tracks (no fade-ins like the LP). It sounds better than the Drake mastered CD with the "fade-ins".

MK wrote:The remasters have the red/pink/orange/whatever-you-call-it label-side on the CD, right? AVOID those. The complete Mercury set released a few years later was also done by Gur, AVOID those. Hard-ass EQ and possibly compression. SUCKS ASS.

That's so odd. They really don't sound *that* different, 'cept the Mercury is louder. I also don't hear any digital reverb on the Polygram....but then again, I'm not too familiar with these discs.

-D

Digital reverb my ass, I compared the remaster and Drake CD's at one time and never found it. I think it was just some bullshit claim. Did Levenson really say that or was it filtered through Dave's ass, I mean, mouth?

I can't stomach going through that thread again, but wasn't the claim that Drake re-did things along the way, getting rid of the "big drums"?

There are two Polygram CDs of EPTAS. The first one has the 'atomic' paint scheme on it (the BIG DRUMS version); the pressing I had was made in West Germany. The second (good) one has the usual silver/black paint scheme, made in the USA. There's probably variations, but those are the two basic masterings (and very different they are).
Both have the same catalog number, however. I would also avoid the 1997-ish remasters.

But that Polygram series of discs is the way to go; I have his first four Mercury albums on that series and they sound great.

Do you not have the "big drums" version any more?

My mind is filled with bliss thinking back to that thread. Well, not really.

lukpac wrote:My mind is filled with bliss thinking back to that thread. Well, not really.

"Filled with bliss"...appropriate comment, seeing as how you and the oft-quoted M*****l got into a bit of a dust-up towards the end. I guess when you repeatedly ask an increasingly incoherent poster to explain himself, he's bound to retort that you're "boring and annoying."

I'll stop now before I venture into Snakepit territory.

Good idea.

lukpac wrote:Do you not have the "big drums" version any more?

My mind is filled with bliss thinking back to that thread. Well, not really.

Yeah, I don't, unfortunately...another good way to tell them apart is that the 'intros' to several of the tracks are indexed separately (don't have the album in front of me so I won't get into specific titles). The bottom line is 10 tracks = bad, 8 tracks = good, IIRC.