Whenever I think that I'm knowledgable, someone like Q-Eight shows me how dumb I am! I have a QS and a Q8 of this, as well as two volumes of Greatest on MCA CD's. I guess I need to do some A/B'ing! In '86, I saw Rob Grill as an opening act for the Monkees. RIP This is a GREAT collection, and, yes, the mixes are odd. I had no idea there are five mixes of Sooner or Later! I was aware of a couple. Q-Eight, you are a God!!
Bella Linda
Bella Linda
Breathing life back into an old post, I can also add along with the new mixes of "Let's Live for Today" and "Bella Linda", there are also at LEAST FIVE different mixes of "Sooner or Later". I love this song, been a fave of mine since I was a kid. There's the original stereo mix easiest to point it out would be horns in the Left channel with the guitar part mixed up high in the mix and the organ part potted down. Piano hard right. This version HAS Dennis Provisor's "soul shouting" in the background and also has his long, drawn out "yeeeaaaaa-eee---eeehh--eh" from about 2:03 through 2:10. There are two Quad mixes. There's the modern stereo re-mix found on the 20th Century Masters album which has the horns mixed into the right channel, yet the guitar and organ stay in the left. This time, organ is potted up, guitar buried. Piano hard right. Drums are also given a much more "open" mix to them as well. Percussion is not mixed very high and Dennis' soul shouting has been omitted. The "alternate" Quad-mix has at least two or three tracks of his shouting open.
I also have a mono version of this song that I have on an mp3 and I cannot for the life of me recall where it came from. The fidelity isn't all that great so I must've recorded it off an 8-track tape or something. This version completely omits the horns and the background vocals are mixed really low. This version has Dennis' soul shouting and seems to be a comp of the tracks. Some parts are double-tracked, some parts aren't. It's like they were picking out the best parts of however many takes exist on the multitrack.
Anyway, because of all this, I would tend to agree that somehow, the Grass Roots multitracks do still exist.
Oh, another thing is that the modern mix has a really nasty flutter at 1:57-1:58.