Ugo
Group: Members
Posts: 5495
Joined: April 2000 |
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Posted: June 14 2012, 17:17 |
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Okay, this is meant as a sort-of reply to mostly everyone here.
1. I don't like "Sally" within Platinum. I love it as a standalone song, but I don't see how it fits within the album - the way it sounds is totally different from all of the other tracks. Yes, I know, the Sally theme and its drum pattern are within Platinum (the track) and a bit of it is also in the short piece which precedes "Punkadiddle". But Platinum, the album, to me sounds like it is this big, glossy, shiny thing - it sounds exactly like it looks on the cover. "Sally", instead, sounds very deliberately rough, edgy and unrefined, and to me it's no wonder Richard Branson didn't want it on the finished product: I guess his main concern was its complete sonical diversity from the other tracks, rather than its inspired silliness. Also, the album sounds very USA - it sounds like the place in which it was recorded. "Sally" sounds very UK. I'm afraid I can't explain this any better, to me it just sounds like that. In other words, although I am firmly convinced that Mike did write and record "Sally" for the album and that he did want "Sally" to be in it, I am equally firmly convinced that it doesn't fit. (And neither does "Into Wonderland", for that matter. )
2. When the deluxe edition of Incantations came out, Mike said that he couldn't make a 5.1 mix because the masters for the entire album were bad and/or damaged and/or missing. So I guess that "Sally" isn't here for the very same reason: because the album master which includes "Sally" is gone for good ever since it was pulled off the album. It may be that the Platinum + "Sally" master suffered the same disgraceful fate as the original 1974 master of the original mix of HR, which disappeared as soon as the mix was replaced - indeed, the original mix on CD 2 of the HR deluxe edition (which is not really the original mix, by the way) is very evidently a needle-drop - a very good, digitally-cleaned-up needle-drop, but still a needle-drop. [I've read somewhere that someone's remastered bootleg Beatles CDs, created from needle-drops, sound much better than the 2009 stereo remasters. I've no idea whether this is true or not.] For this Platinum reissue, Mike could've very well done a needle-drop of "Woodhenge" + "Sally" + "Punkadiddle" (or whatever), digitalize it, clean it up and include it in the deluxe edition, but evidently he didn't want to bother about it - he's too caught up in his "project of a lifetime".
That said, I have just placed an order for the two just-released deluxe editions, and for the two vinyl albums (yes, I'm a fanatic), and I'm happy with this. If I want to listen to "Sally", I just play it alone, as a FLAC file from my MOSaR collection
May I rectify my very first statement in this very post? This is not meant as a reply to anyone. This is meant as a statement of my personal opinions. Now go ahead and shoot me.
-------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian
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