Except it isn't that simple. Mal implies, for instance, that he has a Japanese "Lodger" without any of the problems plaguing my copy. Fantastic! Except is his copy a clone of the German version?
Moreover, relying on country of origin seems like folly: there are rumblings that the Japan-for-Japan discs are different, for example. Why? Also, I have two copies of ChangesTwoBowie--both of which claim to originate in Japan, although one is the disc for the European market--that differ, although not notably so.
And then there's the problem of tonality. Given the variation in approaches taken throughout Bowie's catalog, it's occasionally difficult to tell what something SHOULD sound like...although when things depart from a standard norm, it simplifies things somewhat--for example, the "Station to Station" tracks are that trebly on the Japanese RCA and nowhere else, leading me to believe that it's the odd one out.
And fuck, what about "Golden Years?" And double fuck, what about things like the German RCA of "Alladin Sane" (if it exists)?
And what's going on with "Hunky Dory?" The German disc corrects the big dropouts in the first few songs, but otherwise--gasp--may use the same transfer (does someone else feel like investigating this? I don't. I just recall that the B. Bros lined up, although the EQ was slightly different).
And heck, speaking about these things as if they're a monolithic set also seems misguided, as I sincerely doubt they were all done at once...or even based off of the same methodology. For example, the guys responsible for transferring most of the program left tons of headroom...yet Pin-Ups is pretty freakin' loud by comparison. Why? And that's a Japanese disc, albeit one with a grey label.
At this stage, if I had to make a gross generalization: the Japanese RCAs seem to be transferred without proper Dolby settings or *something*, as they tend to have a lot more treble than do the German versions...and some sundry investigation seems to paint the Japanese ones as the odd-ones-out. Usually. But not always...for example, the Japan "Alladin Sane" doesn't really sound like anything else.
(speaking of Alladin Sane: give
http://www.sendspace.com/file/u0bc03 a gander. Three versions of Jean Genie: Alladin Sane Japanese RCA, Changesbowie German RCA, and Virgin reissue. Many refer to the Virgins as "unlistenable," which I think vastly overstates the case. True, Peter Mew does
process things, but I don't think his efforts are "unlistenable" by far. The extent to which his approach alters things, though, is really evident on this clip. I don't recall any of the Ryko iterations sounding quite like that)
), but there was only one version of Station to Station on the RCA disc, the very wonky sounding Japan version.
