Postby Xenu » Wed May 10, 2006 1:17 am
Aww hell. Another weird variation to report...and this one actually doesn't have to do with the London CDs.
We've known for a while that there are two versions of the old ABKCO "Hot Rocks" out there: one version has the "organ intro" version of "Time is On My Side" (this is the one I have), while the other has the "guitar intro" version of "Time is On My Side" (it's this disc that accidentally gets cloned for the French "Hot Rocks 1"). I am, of course, loathe to buy any more old ABKCO discs, but today I struck library gold by coming across a copy of the guitar-intro version in the stacks. Sweet. I guess.
OK. Firstly, the discs themselves look different. My copy (organ) has a London logo as well as an ABKCO logo on the disc. The other one has just an ABKCO logo. Intriguingly, the printed track times differ as well, although they're probably not accurate. The library copy is missing the booklet, unfortunately, so I can't note any differences in that department.
Secondly, while I've just done a cursory examination, it appears as if the two discs are completely different mastering passes, using what sounds like two totally different sources for some tracks. The fuck? This from ABKCO, of all people?
Now, there's some indication that the "guitar intro" version of the set is the earlier version. For one, it has those stupid hybrid stereo-intro-mono-body takes that I heard about for years but never actually had to endure. Additionally, some of its audio is suspiciously close to the London Hot Rocks 1 ("Play with Fire" comes very close to synching, in fact).
Other than that...fuck, I'm clueless. Here's the rundown, folks. Nothing thus far has synched between the two copies. "Play with Fire" runs *way* faster on the guitar-intro edition (matching the stereo mix speed), and may actually be the mono mix on the organ-intro version. "Satisfaction" is the other way around, though: it's faster on the organ-intro copy (close to the speed of the stereo mix), while it's at the normal "hit" speed on the guitar-intro copy.
Any thoughts?
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