Delightful. Too bad they didn't record any extra material. I would love to have a good recording of the Bolero (better than the soundboard), played at the right tempo. That Paper Mill version is funereal.
I almost crapped myself when I opened my email this morning! Thank you Bruce! This is amazing. It's been my dream to have a remastered Follies for years. A billion thanks!!!
I've never heard the orchestrations of "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs" like that before! The flutes over Dorothy and Alexis are positively pristine. I just ordered one.
I admit, I was kinda dodgy over the Promises Promises "remix" release (just with auto-tunning the flat notes, which I found kinda endaering actually), but the samples for this sound stupendous. Can't wait.
Well, you're the only one I know who found the half-tone flat singing on Promises endearing, so that's good. Auto tune is not a bad word, save for when it's used horribly, as on Glee and elsewhere. Any tool is bad if it's used incorrectly. As you state, we ONLY fixed the flat notes - sometimes syllables - and were very careful to never compromise the integrity of his voice - in fact, had you never heard the album before you would never have known we did anything, because we used the tool correctly and my engineer also has the best auto tune tool available - you can't just turn it on and leave it on.
Follies was a joy to do - I was unsure how much help we could be with only eight tracks to work with, but the original mix was done so hurriedly that I knew we could improve it no matter what. But when I heard the Prologue/Beautiful Girls I knew it was going to be spectacular and fairly major. Surprise of surprises - who knew Follies was actually recorded well, because you'd have never known that from the original mix. And, of course, the album masters for the previous two CD issues were a generation away from the eight-track session masters - these are first generation. The album masters had to be EQd a certain way because of the length - it was very long for an LP in that era. We had none of those constraints.
bk, no offence was intended. Actually I was going to buy Promises, Promises when it had the original album mix as well, but I missed out and it was sold out. I know auto-tune gets bad rap because of how badly it's misused now--it just isn't my thing with the release with only it. I *did* think the Sugar release was spectacular and a huge improvement on a cast album that I found literally unlistenable due to all the headache inducing reverb, before. (and you're probably right that if I never knew it had been auto-tuned or had heard it before, it probably would have just thought how good PP sounded).
I'm not surprised that Follies was originally recorded well--from everything I've heard Dick Jones *did* want to do good by the material when he produced it, even if he doesn't have the rep of Shepherd or Lieberson, and appreciated the score, but was under fierce constraints.
Considering how good it sounds even just playing on my laptop with those samples, I can't wait to hear it on my actual sound system--it actually sounds like a vivid, modern recording. It's too bad nothing else was in the vaults (thank God Jones and/or Sondheim got them to record One Last Kiss even if it didn't make the initial vinyl release--I can't imagine the score without that key song).
Oh, one last kiss, Oh, gimme one last kiss, It never felt like this, No, baby, not like this. You know I need your love, Oh-oh-oh! Gimme one last kiss.
For collectors of intellectual trivia, when the first batch of FOLLIES LP's appeared in 1971, the inner insert DID include the listing for "One More Kiss", even though it was not on the LP. Recognizing a (worthless) collectors item, I was able to acquire one more such insert before they disappeared. Yes, I know, who cares? But it's fun to have, nonetheless.
And One More Kiss - that was suspense up to the last second and it's still suspense in a way even though it will have a happy ending. That song was not on the eight-track edited session masters because they knew it wasn't going to be on the album originally. I'd already had Capitol combing their vaults to see if there was anything else, but they swore to me that the inventory list I got was it and that list did not include One More Kiss. I thought we were going to have to use it from the second CD release, but that mix was just so appalling to me - worse than anything else. I called Capitol and asked them to please do one more search, this time for just that song. And they found it, thank heaven, mislabeled as a soundtrack. They're transferring it now and we'll probably mix it on Monday or Tuesday, then it goes right to the pressing plant. Whew!
In the previously mentioned interview, Bruce talks about "One More Kiss" not making an appearance before the second CD release on the Broadway Angel "Broadway Classics" series. It was, in fact, released on the initial Capitol CD release- CDP 7 92094 2, in 1989.
In any case, the recordings of those Angel releases never sounded as good as their respective original CD releases, such as THE MUSIC MAN and THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN, or especially the Capitol R&H soundtrack releases. They always had a slightly darker "veiled" sound to my ear.
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joined:6/29/05
Posted: 7/12/12 at 06:05am