Question re: Jim Croce

[guy incognito]

I have the the 2-CD 50th Anniversary Collection on the Saja imprint, which Steve mastered. Sounds terrific, but I was wondering if the the two DCC gold discs of Croce's hits represent a significant enough improvement, sonically speaking, for me to seek them out.

[Bruce Johnson]

I could be wrong but perhaps there's no fence-sitting concerning Jim Croce. If there are those who like him, and those who don't, I certainly fall into the catagory of the former.

I've owned the Anniversary set since it came out and it can't be faulted for the scope of it's content and it's excellent sonics, all things considered.

However, with all due respect to Juan, I'd opinion that you'd find the addition of both Words and Music and Gold In A Bottle a worthy acquisition.

Certainly Gold has a wide breadth in content consisting of his most familiar compositions.

In my mind, the big surprise will be when you audition Words after listening to Gold. Compare Top Hat Bar and Grille with that same title on the Anniversary collection. That will clean your ears out! You get the original single of Operator which is certainly the real deal and Next Time, This Time which might have seemed more appropriate on Gold. There is some less familiar material on the disc that affords one the opportunity for rediscovering some titles you might have otherwise missed.

It closes with the original demo of Hey Tomorrow that will make it's acquisition justifiable alone.

Another way of looking at it is that it doesn't take much to be a completist on Jim Croce's recorded work (though I've never heard his Final Tour disc) and you simply can't go wrong with these DCC's.

[Dave]

I seem to be the only one so far to have a Jim Croce' DCC Gold and The Saja version. If you really like Croce', like I seem to, then get the DCC Golds. I own Words And Music and the difference between the 2 is a bit more than you might think.

Steve himself, told me that the Saja release was done through transistor mastering as opposed to the usual SH tube mastering, like on the DCC version.;)