Bee Gees lps from the 1960s

[AudioEnz]

I'm a bit of a Bee Gees fan and I partcularly like their 1960s output.

A couple of questions:

Are there any sonic advantages of the lps over the CD versions?

Were there ever mono versions of these albums with different mixes?

Thanking ye,

[pdenny]

I had a mono BEE GEES 1st US pressing that sounded fab. Of course, like a moron I sold it when CD's started coming out. And no mono CD ever showed....

[AudioEnz]

Is it correct that there were mono mixes that were considerably different than the stereo mixes?

[pdenny]

Originally posted by AudioEnz
Is it correct that there were mono mixes that were considerably different than the stereo mixes?

Joe Brennan has an AMAZING Bee Gees site . Here's a snippet from his BEE GEES 1st page:

"As was normally done at this time, two versions of the LP were originally marketed, mono and stereo, and as was sometimes done, separate mono and stereo mixes were made for each song from the four-track masters. The mono and stereo versions differ in ways intentional and unintentional. In mono for example, "I close my eyes" has more echo on the vocal, and intriguingly "New York mining disaster 1941" has an extra sung note at the end that was edited out for stereo. These mono mixes may be found on vinyl singles and mono LPs, and additionally the mono "New York mining disaster 1941" is on Rhino's CD History of British Rock volume 8 and box set.

"These are the earliest Bee Gees recordings available in stereo. Unfortunately the LP releases did not sound good. The stereo LPs all sound muffled, with lack of bass on the Atco issue and a boomy bass on Polydor (Polydor possibly trying to improve the missing bottom end). The mono LPs actually sound somewhat more alive, and songs from this album sounded progressively better in stereo as they appeared on best-of albums over the years. The Polydor CD of First is better than any LP issue even though it is made from the album master, and the songs that appear on the Tales box are even better since they were copied directly from the stereo masters of each song (but still the 1967 stereo mixes not new ones)."

[audio]

I am a HUGE fan of the Bee Gees '60s output. There were indeed mono mixes of some of the albums, if not all of them. I know there is a mono "Idea" and a mono "Odessa" floating around on bootleg cd and I assume on original lp. I don't know about comparing the original lps to the cds because I've never done a direct comparison, but I would assume the lps would sound better, maybe with the exception of the MFSL "Trafalgar" cd.


If you get desperate:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...&category=1593

[Mark H]

I was wondering if the Polydor cd of their 60's stuff was worth getting? I still see it from time to time on the racks. It has a yellow cover. Seems kind of an older looking release to still be out and about these days.