[78-L] California Ramblers Edison mystery

[David Lennick]

For what it's worth, I've noticed some misidentified takes on other Biograph lps. Easy enough to do (and they probably thought nobody'd catch the mistakes).

dl

> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 23:08:56 -0600
> From: rjh334578 at gmail.com.invalid
> Subject: [78-L] California Ramblers Edison mystery
> 
> 
> All that chat about flanging a couple days ago reminded me of a story I've
> been intending to share with the Board of Experts for a while.
> 
>  
> 
> I guess it was last spring when 78-Listmember Dave Blue Pages Diehl paid me
> a visit here in West TN on his way to ARSC.  He pulled a box from the trunk
> and said they were just some souvenirs of Arkansas.  Indeed.  One was a
> Diamond Disc of Sweet Man by the Golden Gate Orchestra.  This has been a
> favorite of ours since we heard Bill Givens play it on WHAM in Rochester, NY
> on April 4, 1965.  We taped that and wore the tape out.  Fast forward to
> 1970 and it showed up on Biograph BLP-12020 as Miss Annabelle Lee - The
> California Ramblers on Edison, Vol 1.  We put that on cassette and enjoyed
> it in the walkman or the Buick until the cassettes croaked.  Fast forward to
> 2007 when I got my first computer that allowed me to burn my own CDs and
> that track was among the first 100 CDs I burned.
> 
>  
> 
> We knew this record well - very well, and count it among the best of its age
> by any band.  But when confronted with an original Edison, we did what we
> would have done as teenagers - washed it and played it, regardless of the
> fact we had it on CD.
> 
>  
> 
> Well..as it played, we noticed minor differences and chalked it up to EQ
> settings, for it all sounded so "right" - the solos were all familiar, note
> for note, lick for lick, the attacks the same - until we got to the clarinet
> passage at the 2:30 mark and that sent us looking for the CD.  Marked
> differences.  The old DD says it is take C, and the liner notes to Biograph
> BLP-12020 says it, too is take C.  So we slapped 'em both into a digital
> file to get a "stereo" version, the LP transfer in one channel and the old
> DD in the other.  (It sounds a bit "flanged" and that's what prompted my
> memory of this to pass on.)  
> 
>  
> 
> Easier said than done.  The LP version was brighter, played faster, and
> consequently, shorter.  The assumption here is the LP transfer may have been
> a tad fast, my original dub of the Lp to digital may have been too fast,
> etc., before I got the nice turntable I have now.  So, anything's possible.
> The DD transferred at a flat 78.26 and we used the software to perk it up
> appropriately and that helped to even the score, but not completely.  Not
> wishing to waste all night on this project, we got it pretty close by
> dumping the first two minutes or so and centering it around the middle of
> the clarinet passage, and there you can really hear the difference.  One
> break is ascending notes, the other is descending.  No amount of EQ
> difference is going to produce that.
> 
>  
> 
> Take a listen.  I've put the LP and DD files in Dropbox as mp3 files and our
> crude composite of the final 1:20 or so is also there, marked "sample
> 2-edit."   Every other solo is exactly the same.
> 
>  
> 
> It amazed us that such a group as this would ever be able to play the same
> arrangement note for note twice and make a near carbon-copy performance -
> especially Adrian Rollini on bass sax.  He could be counted on for fresh
> stuff on every take.  The DD has the complete title, the Lp is obviously a
> rip from the CD and marked with "LP" as part of the file name.
> 
>  
> 
> Could the LP be mismarked as -C?  Could there be more than one -C?  The DD
> wax is pretty clear.
> 
>  
> 
> Here's the link:
> 
> https://www.dropbox.com/sh/btnr2p84qpwg6z5/AABSUvIRSflT2GLXtJiMrmBya?dl=0
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Footnotes:
> 
> 1-At first I thought the clarinet passage was a solo, but now I believe it's
> two guys trading off, one takes 16 bars of the refrain as a subtone and then
> trades 8s for the last half with a guy playing alto in a higher register.
> My son the band director thinks they trade positions for the two takes!
> 
> 2-Also noted that the LP liner notes said "Original sound qualities have
> been retained and no artificial echoing or rechanneling has been
> introduced."  But I think I hear a little echo here on the LP transfer, and
> I had no way to add any.
> 
>  
> 
> Rodger
> 
>  
> 
> For best results use Victor Needles
> 
>  
> 
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