Steely Dan Surround (?)

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I remember seeing those SNL shows and reading the John interview too. If those two guys had showed up we would all know about that famous broadcast.....
Amen about Japan. Aside from the sad loss of life, if any collectors lived in the affected region, their tapes, decoders, and cd4 lps were washed out to sea... maybe they will drift onto the coast of Washington state.
 
Phillip
there was a fellow who was buying a number of tapes from me, and he was located in the town that got hit very hard(can't remember now) remembered then, it was all so fresh. Anyway, he has never purchased since, maybe if i head down to the ocean (60 miles from here) i can get a few back this year! Wonder if he lost everything?
If the master from Aja did wind up in Japan it may be forever lost due to the Tsunami. Hope I'm wrong.
Phil
 
I got to meet May a couple times when she was married to Tony Visconti. I thought she was a very straightforward lady. Ya know how when ya meet folks ya can tell whether they blow shit all the time, she was not one of those, bright and enjoyable to chat, she would talk about anything you asked.

According to May Pang, John's girlfriend when he was estranged from Yoko, John and Paul WERE talking about a reunion. When Yoko reunited with John, Pang claims Yoko said "you don't need them." Pang made these remarks on a BBC special, which aired on A&E in the US. Upon reuniting with Yoko, John entered his house husband phase.

How do you sleep at night?
 
Phillip
there was a fellow who was buying a number of tapes from me, and he was located in the town that got hit very hard(can't remember now) remembered then, it was all so fresh. Anyway, he has never purchased since, maybe if i head down to the ocean (60 miles from here) i can get a few back this year! Wonder if he lost everything?

My 25 year old Nikon camera recently broke. The film will no longer wind back into the cannister. I took it to the camera shop for repair and he said it can't be. Any Nikon camera older than 10 years or so can no longer be repaired because all the parts were washed out to sea during the tsunami. Guess it's time to go digital.
Phil.
 
thinking on about the Steely Dan missing multi's situation, makes me wonder if Universal Records didn't miss a trick here back in the day.

they had Gaucho and apparently Pretzel Logic at least in the bag remixed in 5.1, why not take the hits and highlights from the rest of the classic albums they had the rights to, get Elliot Scheiner remix them into 5.1 and compile a Greatest Hits compilation in 5.1..??

Universal did just that with the likes of Marvin Gaye, Nick Drake, The Police, etc and released hits compilations in surround sound.

in fact, UMG/Geffen have done just that right now, with the Walmart Lynyrd Skynyrd set.
Elliot Scheiner remixed a handful of hits UMG held the multitracks for and stuck it on a DVD-A in a lovely little hits set with great extras, cheapo too.. and whaddyaknow it sold out. (well, you see, there's no market for this surround sound music.. don't make me laugh!).

why not do the same as the Lynyrd DVDA hits set for Steely Dan? they already have a bigger following for surround, plus they are much more popular here in the UK than Lynyrd.

that way UMG could have just omitted any songs they didn't hold the multi's for. simple as.

Aja and Black Cow (great as they are and I love them) could be left off a Steely Dan hits set and I doubt anyone would grumble.

so long as all the agreed big hits/familiar tunes, like "Reelin in the years", Rikki, Haitian Divorce, Peg, My Old School, Bodhisattva, Do it again, Doctor Wu, Deacon Blues.. that kind of thing.. were on it, it would have been amazing.

at this point I have 6 different Steely Dan Hits compilation sets on CD alone!

Greatest Hits (MCAD 6008),
The Very Best Of Steely Dan (2 CDs) (MCLD 19147),
A Decade of Steely Dan (MCAD 5570),
Steely Dan Gold (Expanded Edition) (MCAD 10387),
Remastered - The Best of Steely Dan (MCD 10967),
Showbiz Kids - The Steely Dan Story 1972-1980 (Cat. No. 9811741).

the track "Aja" is only on one of those six compilations and "Black Cow" is on two. the other 5 and 4 compilations, respectively, did good business and were deemed worthy hits sets without those two.

just a case of record companies not thinking on their feet and making good business decisions.

a bit like Peter Gabriel saying that his new Super Deluxe box won't have surround in it because they couldn't decide on a disc format for the 5.1, so they just didn't do it at all. Just plain DUMB. Oh and lazy. Oh and lacking imagination. Oh and with no thought or care for the fans.

surely Universal Music could have produced just ONE hits compilation of the Dildo's in 5.1 surround, when they've issued at least 8 or 9 Hits CDs in the last 15 years or so. I only need six, so I've not bothered with the others! Ha!

maybe somebody could suggest to Steven Wilson, if it might be his kind of thing, that he approach Universal with a view to doing the Steely Dan classics in 5.1..!?

they would be the proverbial "hot cake", i reckon!
 
Out of curiosity does anyone know exactly how well that Lynyrd Skynyrd DVD sold? I have heard it is sold out of stores but as CDs and the like aren't exactly selling like hotcakes I wouldn't be too surprised to find a particular album OOS. I don't suppose something like this would show up on Billboard...just really curious how well this really did...I'd think if they did anything over 1/4 million copies they'd be very happy with the way sales are these days.
 
Out of curiosity does anyone know exactly how well that Lynyrd Skynyrd DVD sold? I have heard it is sold out of stores but as CDs and the like aren't exactly selling like hotcakes I wouldn't be too surprised to find a particular album OOS. I don't suppose something like this would show up on Billboard...just really curious how well this really did...I'd think if they did anything over 1/4 million copies they'd be very happy with the way sales are these days.

My wally has several yet, I bought three. The idiots have a little semi-circle display, with holders for the cd's, and it's filled with another bands cd's, the LS set is over to the left of the display, on racks. I had to look for it.
 
Aja and Black Cow (great as they are and I love them) could be left off a Steely Dan hits set and I doubt anyone would grumble.
I would grumble, but they could also just include stereo versions. The LS was done really well. I put it in last nite.
 
I would grumble, but they could also just include stereo versions. The LS was done really well. I put it in last nite.

fair enough, I respect your opinion :)

I'd say maybe there'd be grounds for serious complaint on a 5.1 disc of the "Aja" album itself it those two were omitted or in stereo only.. but are they really justified on a "Hits" compilation?

I've listed most of what I feel are amongst the accepted biggies by SD.. but personally I'd add..
Josie, Kid Charlemagne, Bad Sneakers, Change of the Guard, Night by Night, Any Major Dude, Green Earrings, The Fez and FM.. and make it a real mega 5.1 package...!!

in truth any classic Steely Dan in surround would be a dream come true for me.
if UMG were to issue 5.1 mixes of CBAT, CTE, PL, KL, TRS.. I'd imagine they'd garner a fair bit of interest, equal to if not more so than the recent Lynyrd set.

I'm convinced a set of classic Steely Dan (and the remaining classic 70's Elton surround mixes that are all ready and raring to go, while they're at it!) would all do good business for Universal, even at this stage of the game with the state of physical media music sales.

as for Aja, perhaps a DVDA, compiled with a bit of imagination/daring, clearly advertised as such, with upmixes of Black Cow & the title track, plus a couple of bonuses in 5.1 (like Here at the Western World and FM?) to go a wee way to make up for the lack of true mixes for the 2 missing multi songs, may have been/could still be a solution to getting it done in 5.1..?

as I've mentioned previously however, I have info from someone with access to Universals' tapes that The Who's "Who's Next" multi's are not in fact missing (as was cited for the reason behind there being a no-show for it in 5.1 at the time).

Now, who's to say its not a similar situation for Aja!? ..and that it's release (and the rumoured Pretzel Logic, etc) was shelved after Gaucho didn't sell as well as hoped!? ..and that the old story of why DTS didn't release Aja (which i believe to have been true at the time but things change in days/months/years and the multis may have been found subsequently) was then just rehashed as an excuse, to put the whole thing to bed once and for all..?!?

but then maybe "Only A Fool Would Say That"..!? ;) :eek:
 
Out of curiosity does anyone know exactly how well that Lynyrd Skynyrd DVD sold? I have heard it is sold out of stores but as CDs and the like aren't exactly selling like hotcakes I wouldn't be too surprised to find a particular album OOS. I don't suppose something like this would show up on Billboard...just really curious how well this really did...I'd think if they did anything over 1/4 million copies they'd be very happy with the way sales are these days.

If that sold 250,000, I'd eat my shoe. I doubt they even produced that many.
 
If that sold 250,000, I'd eat my shoe. I doubt they even produced that many.

10's of 1,000's maybe but could be as low as 5,000-7,500.

special markets releases, like the Hip-O Select Limited Edition 2 & 3 cd sets, are numbered anywhere from 2,000 to 7,500 copies and the label are obviously happy enough with those figures to continue to release them, going from classic Motown artist to artist, among other labels & artists.

In the last 5 or so years Hip-O have issued expanded editions of many Motown acts, including a couple of Marvin Gaye albums, the entire Smokey Robinson back catalogue, The Miracles, Temptations, Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin and now Diana Ross, all sold out, or in the case of the Diana Ross sets, still in the process of selling but pretty healthily from what I can gather (her Last Time I Saw Him set has already sold out as its the first time it's been released on CD).

as I mentioned on here about a few weeks ago, the latest Elton album only had to shift 14,000 copies to get to the UK Number 1 spot, so the whole situation regards sales of mainstream releases is a complete mess, whereas niche/boutique sales are thriving.

surely this should encourage the labels to get more surround out there now..?!?

all we have to go on with the Lynyrd set is that it seemingly sold out online. is this the norm for Walmart or Best Buy exclusives? if so, it's just another normal performing exclusive release. if not, this has been something special.

I'd be curious to know, out of the total sales of the LS set to date, what percentage bought it for what reasons?

how many bought it for the surround, who bought it for the video material, who bought it as hardcore fans, how many just bought it casually cos it was cheap, how many bought it to sell on realising that it would be sought after by people in other countries and by those who never shop in a Walmart..??

I guess we'll never know but I guess there have been hundreds of copies, possibly approaching 1,000 sold just to members of QuadraphonicQuad, of which I believe there are approx 6,000 members - from what i can gather about 10% of whom are active, of which about 20% are regularly active.

that's pretty high levels of interest from a forum where it's ordinarily the same 100 people browsing daily and seemingly the same smaller group of people posting very regularly!
 

Maybe Audio Fidelity can release some of those old quad mixes now - write them!
 
Besides Gaucho.

I need more information on why my second favorite album of all time (Aja) is not being released in surround (besides the fact that the multis have been stolen). In other words :) why haven't they at least released the other tracks, or put more effort into their search for the multis?

Secondly, what's this I hear about Pretzel Logic being released in surround? Has it? If so, what formats?

This then brings up the question, have other albums been released in surround?

You can find answers to any question about what has or has not been released in quad or surround on Mark Anderson's Surround Discography. Everything you would ever need to know about what's been released is there. http://www.surrounddiscography.com/
 
Yes, so I know about the later SD albums (Everything, Two Against), but I didn't know that Can't Buy A Thrill and Countdown were released.

In regards to the Aja Surround, I have heard the story mentioned in the first post about the multis being stolen, but what is the 5.1 flac, or DTS CD? Where can you get those?



EDIT:
Where could one get these Quad mixes, and what equipment would I need to play them?
My DVD-As of Can't Buy A Thrill & Countdown To Ecstacy never leave my car changer - both quad mixes are amazing. I only wish someone would get around to transfering Pretzel Logic also---Bob?
 
My DVD-As of Can't Buy A Thrill & Countdown To Ecstacy never leave my car changer - both quad mixes are amazing. I only wish someone would get around to transfering Pretzel Logic also---Bob?

I've been thinking about picking these up - the reviews here of CBAT are great, CTE not so good, mainly my favorite track, King Of The World, is mixed so poorly. The reviews here of PL aren't too good, either. I still may pick up all 3 anyway and decide for myself.

Sorry for going off-topic.
 
True! It's from QS.
And it's crap. Seriously compromised separation. I still await Bob finishing the job he started with the first two LPs, & do a conversion from the Q8. His Q8 transfers of the first two totally blow away OD's QS transfers of those same LPs.
 
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