Was Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline Quad album delayed?

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Q-Eight

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
Since 2002/2003
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Washing some records tonight, I was looking at this SQ jacket that came in my stereo copy of Hard & Heavy with Marshmallow by the Raiders. It had two interesting listings. One was that it mentions no tape version of Kris Kristofferson`s album The Silver Tongue Devil and I (I suppose this jacket predates the notion of popping out a Q8 of that title?)

But after that it also shows Bob Dylan's album as being CAQ 31007. Interesting as there is no 31007, but the album came out much later as 32872. (Once again, making me wonder what was going on during the very brief 31xxx series of albums and tapes)

Just another Quaddity that I've noticed and thought I should share.

SQLP_Dylan.jpg
 
Yes, it was delayed. All of the other titles came out as original, wide gold border releases. NS didn't come out until CBS's 4th cover type (1st=wide gold border--Abraxas; 2nd=narrow gold border--Loggins & Messina; 3rd=full cover with huge SQ logo and information on top--Full Sail; 4th=full cover with small SQ logo and information on top--Nashville Skyline; 5th=SQ info on back cover only--My Fair Lady).
 
The 30000 C/KC series had to be created because once the old (8000-9000) stereo numbers were exhausted, Columbia briefly went to the CS 1000 series as a stop gap measure until a new numbering system was finalized. There was, of course, a 1000 monaural numbering system in the 1950's, so duplication of these numbers was problematic, though the CS prefix was used to differentiate between the old releases (which were out of print by this time) and new.

Any quad album issued in the 30000 series that also had a regular stereo number was issued with that number, just with a CQ/EQ/ZQ prefix of some such. But any older titles under the 8/9000 series was given a new 30000 number. Since the 30000 series was used for all labels and not just Columbia, this led to some interesting situations. It should also be noted that, as a rule, any multi-disc title--two records or more--had not only a 30000 main numbers, but each record had its own number too. So if the catalog number was 31000, normally the two records would have been designated 31001/31002, with the next main catalog number being 31003. Obviously, the separate disc numbers didn't turn up on release or order/inventory listings.

Some of the 30000 series albums that were given a new number include: Bloomfield/Kooper/Stills SUPER SESSION; Blood, Sweat & Tears (2nd album); S&G's BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER; SANTANA's debut; NASHVILLE SKYLINE; BITCHES BREW; SWITCHED-ON BACH (and some of the Greatest Hits classical titles), etc.

To get to the thread question, the answer is yes to Skyline and 'maybe' to SANTANA. The former, since it seems to have been assigned a number, must have been scheduled but left unreleased for a time, but the 'why' we may never know, but certainly not because it didn't have sales potential. Why Santana's '69 debut took so long to make it out, given its popularity and that of ABRAXAS, III and CARAVANSERAI--all issued in quad early on--is baffling (though it sure was worth the wait!)

ED :)
 
The 30000 C/KC series had to be created because once the old (8000-9000) stereo numbers were exhausted, Columbia briefly went to the CS 1000 series as a stop gap measure until a new numbering system was finalized. There was, of course, a 1000 monaural numbering system in the 1950's, so duplication of these numbers was problematic, though the CS prefix was used to differentiate between the old releases (which were out of print by this time) and new.

Any quad album issued in the 30000 series that also had a regular stereo number was issued with that number, just with a CQ/EQ/ZQ prefix of some such. But any older titles under the 8/9000 series was given a new 30000 number. Since the 30000 series was used for all labels and not just Columbia, this led to some interesting situations. It should also be noted that, as a rule, any multi-disc title--two records or more--had not only a 30000 main numbers, but each record had its own number too. So if the catalog number was 31000, normally the two records would have been designated 31001/31002, with the next main catalog number being 31003. Obviously, the separate disc numbers didn't turn up on release or order/inventory listings.

Some of the 30000 series albums that were given a new number include: Bloomfield/Kooper/Stills SUPER SESSION; Blood, Sweat & Tears (2nd album); S&G's BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER; SANTANA's debut; NASHVILLE SKYLINE; BITCHES BREW; SWITCHED-ON BACH (and some of the Greatest Hits classical titles), etc.

To get to the thread question, the answer is yes to Skyline and 'maybe' to SANTANA. The former, since it seems to have been assigned a number, must have been scheduled but left unreleased for a time, but the 'why' we may never know, but certainly not because it didn't have sales potential. Why Santana's '69 debut took so long to make it out, given its popularity and that of ABRAXAS, III and CARAVANSERAI--all issued in quad early on--is baffling (though it sure was worth the wait!)

ED :)

Santana came out even later than Nashville Skyline. Also a type 4 cover. Also much rarer than NS.
 
Santana came out even later than Nashville Skyline. Also a type 4 cover. Also much rarer than NS.

Santana and Musicmagic were the hardest SQ pressings for me to find- though a lot of the 1976/77 Columbia stuff is hard to come by.

They are among the best from Columbia IMO.
 
Santana and Musicmagic were the hardest SQ pressings for me to find- though a lot of the 1976/77 Columbia stuff is hard to come by.

They are among the best from Columbia IMO.

Really?? I can understand MusicMagic (I honestly wasn't even aware of that title until the Audio/Fidelity discussions) but I've had Santana I for.... oh god.... years! I don't even really like or collect SQ records - I was given it in a pile of Quad LP's years ago. I had no idea it was a rarity. lol :D

I still get the feeling that there was much more to the 31xxx series of Quad LP's and tapes. There are a number of very popular titles that fall within that range - I'm talking like Platinum sellers - that were obvious sales hits and should easily have been mixed to Quad. But (and I'm just speculating here) that 1972 being the debut of Quad on Columbia; they used the first months of the year to mix what they could in their back catalog of successes to have enough ready in time for the launch.

By which point it was probably very late in 1972, and while they'd mixed much of their 1969/1970/1971 big hitters, there simply wasn't enough time left to mix the heavies from '72. It probably made more sense just to start fresh in '73 with the most recent sellers.

And I'm also going to assume that some of those titles may have been mixed, with plans to release at a later date (like Santana, Chicago III, Nashville Skyline, Silver Tongue Devil & I). But by the time that came to pass, the bloom was off (so to speak) and they may not have had the production capacity nor the sales expectations to make their money back.

All of which makes perfect sense to me. It's just a shame that 1972 was such a pivotal year in music. A lot of very popular titles came out that year.



I often wonder if it came down to the mix. The Laura Nyro title was mixed at least three times. Edgar Winter's White Trash mixed at least twice. Even Sly's Greatest Hits was mixed at least twice. Some of the "Greatest Hits" version differ from the album proper versions: vis a vis: Lynn Anderson, Santana and B,S&T. So things got remixed YET AGAIN in those cases. So, did the artists have to sign off on the "approved" mix? (Which is what we were told in regards to Laura Nyro - the AF mix is the "artist approved" mix) Or was there more legal BS to deal with behind the scenes? We may never know without getting to kibbitz with the folks who were there. But this is the stuff that fascinates me to no end!
 
Yes, it was delayed. All of the other titles came out as original, wide gold border releases. NS didn't come out until CBS's 4th cover type (1st=wide gold border--Abraxas; 2nd=narrow gold border--Loggins & Messina; 3rd=full cover with huge SQ logo and information on top--Full Sail; 4th=full cover with small SQ logo and information on top--Nashville Skyline; 5th=SQ info on back cover only--My Fair Lady).

Yep. Good job Larry!

Columbia Album Covers.jpg
 
Really?? I can understand MusicMagic (I honestly wasn't even aware of that title until the Audio/Fidelity discussions) but I've had Santana I for.... oh god.... years! I don't even really like or collect SQ records - I was given it in a pile of Quad LP's years ago. I had no idea it was a rarity. lol :D

I guess you got lucky- Maybe it just seems rare in comparison to the other Santana quad titles, which are so common (especially the early ones with the gold borders). I also found that the 3 Aerosmith titles and BoC's Secret Treaties were tougher finds than the average SQ disc.

I have the Santana Q8 as well which remains uber-rare. I've never even seen a listing for the Musicmagic Q8...though now that the D-V reissue exists who would want one?

But this is the stuff that fascinates me to no end!

Me too! And I've learned a lot from all the research/info you've contributed to the forum over the years.
 
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