Questions for Ron Furmanek

Should be cool & a lot of fun for sure!!..&,.by the way,.I'm pointing the folks releasing this on DVD to the proper master 35mm elements!,..should look great!


Ron F

 

I gotcha!

 

Oh, I've seen it, it's not that bad! Kind of fun in a Joel, Crow and Servo way.

Now as far as Nilsson flicks go, there's Skidoo...now that was bad!

 

Yeah. My friend Charlie has had a 80th generation VHS copy for years. Totally unwatchable (and I'm not talking about the VHS quality). Skidoo was better (and it features Groucho playing God). Never exhibited because it sucked big time.

 

Thanks Ron...it seems many here would not agree about the US stuff being put out by Capitol/Apple.

See Larry!!!

 

What do you mean playing God?

 

Ron, A friend of mine wants to know, on the Bob Lind cd, is Elusive Butterfly remixed so that it sounds almost mono, with the strings off in one channel when they come into the song? Also, what tapes were available for that song?

 

Coincidentally, I watched him perform it on the Hullabaloo DVD last night!

 

Howdy Bradley

I used the 3 track master,..the 60's stereo mix is one of those typical "lazy" mix's that just makes the song fall apart,...the original wide and poor stereo mix is available everywhere anyway!,..I couldn't issue it the old way,..because that mix just doesnt do the song justice,..the music track is all on one channel,..so,..centering it was best,..along with the vocal track,..this way the song is a loud & powerfull wall of sound just like the original mono mix!,....Bob was involved with this CD & was very pleased the way it turned out!,..especially the mix's.

play it loud!!

Ron F

 

Howdy Larry!

Thats cool,..did you know I Produced all of the Hullabaloo DVD's?

Enjoy!

Ron F

 

I have your mix of Elusive Butterfly on the Rock Is Dead... CD, Ron and you did a great job.

 

Howdy Bradley

thankyou sir!

play it loud!

Ron F

 

It's interesting that Irwin chose to use the "reverb up" mix of KMIR on both the Sundazed disc AND the remastered Sony Greatest Hits package, yet went with the "dry" version on his earlier Epic Anthology disc. Personally, the reverb (as it's utilized here) doesn't bother me on this particular track.

In fact, I'd say that it's the somewhat haphazard choices made in the Hollies catalog that make it fun (and frustrating) to collect the band. EMI, themselves, have made some strange choices in some of their budget Hollies comps (i.e. originals mix vs. remixes, stereo vs. mono) when pulling tapes.

Furthermore, check out some of the overseas mixes (e.g. Germany) to make things even more complicated. For example, the German stereo mix of "Dear Eloise" is the longest version out there (3:14). Not only using the full "droop" before the coda, but also adding back the song's opening organ line before that same coda!

 

Dude! Regarding the butchered "Hard Days Night" DVD sound, can I just "mono" my amp and get the full effect of your restored soundtrack? Or will the mock/5.1 artifacts still distract?

 

Hi David

Yeah,..Germany sure had some very unique versions of some songs out there!,..mostly on the "Hansa" label,....the Butterfly lp especially!,...also,..Hansa had some rare stereo,..when the same songs were in mono for the rest of the world.

Collecting Hollies quality material has always been a problem,...I started in the early 70's,..& had to have so many differant lp's to collect every version out there!,..thats why when I produced the 3 CD set, I tried to get as much rare & unusual stuff all in one place for a change!

Ron F

 

Hey Olsen!

I don't think so,..the "mock 5.1 artifacts" would probably ruin it for sure,.....I don't have the DVD,..can anyone here help out with this question?,......can the pure mono version be found on the DVD somewhere?


Ron F

 

Luckily, the German stereo mix of "Butterfly" was also issued on the West German Polydor CD from the late 80's. As far as I know, it's the only place on CD to get the unique mixes that appear on the German "Butterfly" LP (save for "Dear Eloise" which can also be found on some other German CD comps). Most interesting, is the "double length" mix of "Elevated Observations" which repeats twice. First with the "sped-up ending," and then without it (as it appeared on the US Epic B-side single). A lack of certain sound-effects too and shorter intros, on some of the tracks, that appear on the traditional album mix.

Also, I'd LOVE to know why EMI always, steadfastly refuses to license any of the German Hansa "Out On The Road" tracks for their bazillion Hollies comps they issue? Is it simply a rights issue? Only stuff like "Born A Man," which *was* a B-side here, has appeared on an EMI CD comp and, of course, "Pick Up The Pieces Again". (I'm not including the tracks that were re-recorded with Allan Clarke for the latter "Hollies" LP).

 

"Oh, I've seen it, it's not that bad! Kind of fun in a Joel, Crow and Servo way."

As a Joel, I'm really curious what that refers to.

 

This thread has been extremely popular. Thanks to Ron for answering all the questions he’s been asked. We’ve had issues with large threads and server maintenance so I’m opening a “Part 2” thread and closing this one.

Part 2 is located here:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?p=555867#post555867


If there are any unanswered questions in this thread let me know and I'll move them to the new thread.

Thanks,
mud-