Sing It Again Rod #1 Versions of Stewarts CD's Over the weekend I was lucky enough to receive a CDR in the mail from Michael's (Separate tracks) "Sing It Again Rod" - This disk just sounds incredilble!!! One of the best sounding disks I think I've ever heard (Audiophile or otherwise!) - it truly sounds phenomenal - Much more natural sounding than the new remaster Mercury Anthology!!! Around the same time I also received Gardo's Dennis Drake versions of NADM and GA which also are very, very natural and earthy sounding!! A Big Thanks again going out to Michael and Gardo!!
Just received a sealed copy of the DCC "Never a Dull Moment". All I can say is WOW. I love the CCR remasters, and Paul Simon's DCC solo debut, but this one really shows just how good a 1970's vintage recording can sound. Waller's drums are incredible, and the acoustic guitar souds as if its in the room with you. True Blue has always been one of my favorite Rod Stewart tunes. Steve, please do "Every Picture Tells a Story" some day.
I picked up the mfsl of "Every Picture Tells a Story after reading Steve's recommendation. The mfls sounds great! Steve was right on!
It's probably cheaper to track down the individual Drake CD's, which also sound better than Reason to Believe. If you really dig the sound of that box, though, I think you can get all the albums on Columbia House and few from BMG. Stewart's first four albums are the classics; "Smiler" isn't quite up there with those.
He also did the last round of Eric Clapton remasters, the current Cream CDs and the ELP Victory remasters (which are mostly just reissued on Rhino, with the exception of the current US Brain Salad Surgery - 5 versions available at last count - and Welcome Back ......) IMHO, Dennid Drake's version of Eric Clapton's Just One Night is a shocker. MoFi got its sound back to original vinyl quality.
Mr. P. must of had a ton of wax in his ears as his work on The 2 Cee Dee set "The Mercury Anthology" is poor. I'd stay far away from that compilation and search out the very early 80's Drake first edition Rod Stewart CD's. You won't be sorry. They are fantastic!
OK Michael - but now the next question - How does one tell the early 80's Drake (Stewart) Mercury CD's vs. the later ones also remastered by Drake? I agree 100% if these sound anywhere near the SIAR CDR you burned for me - I'm in! I 'll have to track em down!! Thanks!
Well if your looking for The "Best" sounding "Every Picture Tells A Story" grab the Original 10 track CD that's Made In West Germany...Fantastic! As I stated in one of the previous Rod threads...Most of the original issue Rods were Pressed In West Germany and re-released at least 4+ times. SIAR was redone due to tracks being unbanded (The One You Have)...EPTAS was redune due to the splitting of a few songs making a total of 10 tracks instead of the proper 8 tracks, confusing HUH?
Have to disagree with you on that one, Michael. I've got that "Kong" issue and to my ears it sounds bright, thin, and not nearly as good as the MFSL that a kind friend was good enough to loan me . The added digital reverb is kind of exciting at first, but after awhile it starts to sound to me like a mess, especially in the "big drum" section of "I'm Losing You." I haven't heard the Drake EPTAS, but it's on my wish list. The Drake NADM sounds quite fine to me.
On my copy of SIAR there is no digital reverb? Mine says Dennis Drake? You are referring to SIAR...No?
I'm sorry, Michael. I thought you were referring to the album of EPTAS, not the song. I understand now that you meant the song on the collection Sing It Again Rod. So please ignore my above comment, one and all. And I'm sorry to have given you a headache, Steve.
Has anyone heard the 3cd collection that came out in 2001 simply called "The Collection"? It's a Universal/Mercury release on a German subsidiary (I guess) called "Music line.de" and it sounds pretty good to me (I don't have any original LPs or CDs to compare it too). There is a natural amount of hiss (eg the beginning of "Twistin' The Night Away") which is reassuring. Oh, and the drums don't sound "big", if that helps! Here's the track listing: Rod Stewart - The Collection The packaging is pretty minimal - no booklet and uninspired coverart: However, this all helps to keep the price down - I picked it up for £8 recently
If you do a forum search you'll see I've been mentioning SIAR as "Amazing" in the early day's of the forum...I guess it took this long to "Catch On"? Aren't ya glad you grabbed that one up? How did ya find it so cheap? Cool! I'm happy for ya.
