HiRez Poll Guess Who, The - ROCKIN' & THE BEST OF THE GUESS WHO VOLUME 2 [SACD]

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Rate the SACD of The Guess Who - ROCKIN & THE BEST OF THE GUESS WHO VOLUME 2

  • 7

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1: Terrible Content, Surround Mix, and Fidelity

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    34

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Please post your thoughts and comments on this 2019 reissue on Multichannel SACD from Dutton Vocalion of two classic albums by the Guess Who, "Rockin" and "The Best of the Guess Who Volume 2".
This Multichannel SACD release contains the original Quadraphonic mixes of both albums, available commercially for the first time in over 40 years! 🤯

Rockin'
LP LSP-4602 (1972) STEREO/PQ8-1828 QUADRAPHONIC
1: HEARTBROKEN BOPPER (Cummings; Winter)
2: GET YOUR RIBBONS ON (Cummings; Winter)
3: SMOKE BIG FACTORY (Cummings; Winter; Kale)
4: ARRIVEDERCI GIRL (Cummings)
5: GUNS, GUNS, GUNS (Cummings)
6: RUNNING BEAR (J. P. Richardson)
7: BACK TO THE CITY (Cummings; Winter)
8: YOUR NASHVILLE SNEAKERS (Cummings)
9: HERBERT’S A LOSER (Leskiw; Winter)
10: HI ROCKERS!: SEA OF LOVE (Phillips; Khoury)
– HEAVEN ONLY MOVED ONCE YESTERDAY (Winter)
– DON’T YOU WANT ME (Cummings)

Arranger: The Guess Who

The Best of The Guess Who - Volume 2
LP APL1-0269 (1973) STEREO/APD1-0269 QUADRAPHONIC
11: BROKEN (Cummings; Winter)
12: ALBERT FLASHER (Cummings)
13: RAIN DANCE (Cummings; Winter)
14: SOUR SUITE (Cummings)
15: LIFE IN THE BLOODSTREAM (Cummings)
16: GUNS, GUNS, GUNS (Cummings)
17: HEARTBROKEN BOPPER (Cummings; Winter)
18: RUNNIN’ BACK TO SASKATOON (Cummings; Winter)
19: FOLLOW YOUR DAUGHTER HOME (Cummings; McDougall; Peterson; Wallace; Winter)
20: ORLY (Cummings)
21: GLAMOUR BOY (Cummings)

Arranger (strings): Ben McPeek [14]
Arranger: The Guess Who [16-17], Allan Macmillan and Burton Cummings [21]

Remastered from the original analogue tapes by Michael J. Dutton

Multi-ch Stereo
All tracks available in stereo and multi-channel

SA-CD
This hybrid CD can be played on any standard CD players

CDSML8562

81xTcuhgqUL._SL1429_.jpg
 
so i've got a bit of an internal squabble going on over this one.. based on sound quality (mainly Rockin'), some mix wonkiness (mainly Rockin') and a feeling of maybe too much of a good thing in one go (what with the track replication) just the Guess Who as a group was weirdly starting to get on my nerves about 2/3 the way through Best Of Volume 2!

so should this be in "7" territory? maybe an "8"? hmm.. 🤔

well i just had a good strong word with myself! what am i thinking!?

Rockin' sounds so much better here than on my old Q8 (a very scarce tape, no less!), you get two distinct surround mixes of those duplicated tracks, the liner notes are excellent (as always from our man steelydave ), its an insanely good package from a value point of view, how can i not overlook the wee niggles, stop beating myself over the head with them and not give it a 10!?

that's it! its a big fat number (#) "10"!:rocks
 
I'm glad to have this on SACD (I hope DV makes all of my Q4s/Q8s obsolete!) but I just don't enjoy the songs as much as from the volume 1 era. Of course the obvious reason is volume 2 is post Randy Bachman; as he left to form BTO. I'm a big Randy Bachman fan and I think he and Burton Cummings were a great songwriting team; which is why I think Guess Who didn't have the same sound after Randy left. It's a 6 or 7 from me, but I'll listen a bit more to see which way it goes.

Hmm, just read Adam's post and he makes some good points about the package and it is really a miracle we are getting these at all. I just can't bring it up to the same level and Bachman/Cummings material. OK, it's an 8.
 
It's an interesting conundrum with the Guess Who's quads. The earlier material with Bachman is much stronger (as stated above), but the quad mixes are kinda 'meh'. Early RCA quad experiments with very limited front/back separation and lots of gimmicky around-the-room pans. The later material is - to put it kindly - not as strong, but the quad mixes are much better.

Rockin’ in quad has a bit of an unusual arrangement: drums are mostly in the front, vocals in all four, with different guitars isolated in the left channels and Burton’s piano panned in stereo across the right channels. It’s more discrete than the early Guess Who quads, but it can sound a bit lopsided with hard separation between the lefts and a narrower stereo image between the rights.

Best Of Vol. II is a very discrete quad mix, at times even approaching the CBS style. Lead vocal and stereo drums across the front, with backing vocals, piano, and guitars in the rears. There’s even a few guitar solos that bounce around the room (“Broken”, “Albert Flasher”), and a fun front/back call-and-response effect with the vocals on "Rain Dance". “Runnin’ Back To Saskatoon” is a bit less discrete than the other tracks - the drums are sort of everywhere - but it’s still pretty impressive considering the live source.

"Guns, Guns, Guns" (Rockin'):
guns_rockin.jpg

"Guns, Guns, Guns" (Best Of Vol. II):
guns_v2.jpg

"Broken":
broken.jpg

For me, this is either a high "7" or a low "8". I certainly applaud its existence (it's a huge upgrade from my Best Of Vol. II CD-4 LP), and I have no doubt that Mr. Dutton brought the best possible sound out of these old tapes, but there are a few issues with the quad mix that bug me (the buried lead vocals on "Broken" in particular). I'm also kinda surprised at the relatively high hiss levels throughout (Rockin' has less hiss than Best Of Vol. II). I guess it took a hefty treble boost to bring out more clarity from the master tapes.

Ultimately, I think I'll end up reaching for the Road Food & #10 two-fer over this one when I want to hear some later-era Guess Who.
 
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I still don’t have the Guess Who D/V Road Food/#10 SACD as I never really heard much from that late stage of the band and I loved the iconic early hits so much. For Jonathan to state that Vol. 2 doesn’t quite measure up is a bit disappointing. That said, I will be purchasing both titles because Burton is one of the best rock vocalists of all time.
 
I still don’t have the Guess Who D/V Road Food/#10 SACD as I never really heard much from that late stage of the band and I loved the iconic early hits so much. For Jonathan to state that Vol. 2 doesn’t quite measure up is a bit disappointing. That said, I will be purchasing both titles because Burton is one of the best rock vocalists of all time.

How about the Burton Cummings quad next!
 
I still don’t have the Guess Who D/V Road Food/#10 SACD as I never really heard much from that late stage of the band and I loved the iconic early hits so much. For Jonathan to state that Vol. 2 doesn’t quite measure up is a bit disappointing. That said, I will be purchasing both titles because Burton is one of the best rock vocalists of all time.

I hope people will go in to GH Vol. II with an open mind - I know Vol. I is chock-full-o-AM-radio-hits, but there is some great music on Vol. II and it might pass you by if you're judging Guess Who circa '71-'73 on how much it sounds like Guess Who Circa '70/'71. The band shows a real maturity and sophistication in those later years, both in terms of songwriting and arranging and the songs really suit quad mixing in my opinion. The pace of their evolution is staggering to me actually, when you listen to Share the Land for example, and Burton's blowing his voice out on every single track (listen to him shouting FREEDOM! and PAINT ME A PICTURE! on Three More Days for example) and it's amazing that it's the same guy that turns in a ballad like Sour Suite barely a year later, and Follow Your Daughter Home the year after that.

So I may be in the minority here, but I'll take Greatest Hits Vol. II over Vol I all day long and all night strong.
 
I'm going to make a comment at the risk of being the Social Pariah around here again.

You guys are all nuts.

Best of Volume 2 is the best of both worlds. You get some GREAT fuckin' tunes and an amazing, discrete, PLAYFUL mix. Oh boo-frickitty-who there's no Randy Bachman. You know who you've got instead? KURT WINTER who, arguably, helped write some songs that charted even better than some of Randy's co-written stuff. The Cummings/Winter team brought us what could be the second-coming of the Guess Who. Dare I even go further to say that I think Kurt was a better guitar player? (Or perhaps it was just the difference between Randy being more of a 60's guy and Kurt having his finger on the pulse of the 1970's.) Let's call it irrelevant at best. lol

I've had my Tab Patterson conversion of Best of #2 in the car for the past two weeks in anticipation of the arrival of my Dutton SACD's. I'm still not tired of it.

It's a great album, with some great tunes and it's ever so much a product of it's time.
And man have I had some funny looks the past week when I'm sitting in traffic screaming my lungs out along with either "Guns, Guns, Guns", "Heartbroken Bopper", or "Rain Dance".

But like I give a crap what any of the people here in downtown Hickton think.
 
I'm going to make a comment at the risk of being the Social Pariah around here again.

You guys are all nuts.

Best of Volume 2 is the best of both worlds. You get some GREAT fuckin' tunes and an amazing, discrete, PLAYFUL mix. Oh boo-frickitty-who there's no Randy Bachman. You know who you've got instead? KURT WINTER who, arguably, helped write some songs that charted even better than some of Randy's co-written stuff. The Cummings/Winter team brought us what could be the second-coming of the Guess Who. Dare I even go further to say that I think Kurt was a better guitar player? (Or perhaps it was just the difference between Randy being more of a 60's guy and Kurt having his finger on the pulse of the 1970's.) Let's call it irrelevant at best. lol

I've had my Tab Patterson conversion of Best of #2 in the car for the past two weeks in anticipation of the arrival of my Dutton SACD's. I'm still not tired of it.

It's a great album, with some great tunes and it's ever so much a product of it's time.
And man have I had some funny looks the past week when I'm sitting in traffic screaming my lungs out along with either "Guns, Guns, Guns", "Heartbroken Bopper", or "Rain Dance".

But like I give a crap what any of the people here in downtown Hickton think.
God, I love this album too, but can anyone please explain to me what the hell Albert Flasher is about?
 
God, I love this album too, but can anyone please explain to me what the hell Albert Flasher is about?

This was found on Yahoo Answers.


One song that has regained a lot of attention is The Guess Who classic "Albert Flasher," which appeared in the film Almost Famous. Although it's one of Burton Cummings's songs, Bachman puts a captivating spin on it.

"He had a party one night that went all night long and he didn't get any sleep. He went to a radio station the next morning for an interview and was a little bit [out of] form before going on. He could hardly see straight. They said to him, 'When the flashing light comes on, that means you're on the air.' The thing flashed 'Alert Flasher,' and he thought it was 'Albert Flasher' and he said 'What is this thing that says 'Albert Flasher?' over the air!"
 
Well IMHO this version of the Guess Who were almost as good as they were with Randy . I always loved "Heartbroken Bopper" and "Guns Guns Guns" from Rockin", even though they didn't chart as well as some of the earlier stuff. At least now I don't have to try to fix the Rockin" Q8 that I have sitting mostly unspooled in a box on the shelf. The mix with full centre vocals is sounds good in a vehicle or in a smaller room with a square shaped speaker arrangement, otherwise I prefer the Vol.2 versions. The other notable track (or sub track) is "Heaven Only Moved Once Yesterday". I suppose that the addition of the fifties stuff is some sort of an attempt to make Rockin' into a concept album?

Best of Volume 2 contains hits such as Raindance that were not otherwise released in Quad. I don't know why the album "So Long Bannatyne" wasn't released in Quad while almost everything else was, but I wonder if unreleased tapes might exist? As expected the disc sounds a lot better than my CD-4 conversion. "Live at the Paramount" would also of been a great album in Quad; based on the sound of "Runnin' Back to Saskatoon", an in the middle of the band style recording not an in the audience recording!

Somewhere I have a cassette recording taken off AM radio of CKRC Winnipeg in which DJ Tom Kelly relates a conversation that he had with Burton Cummings about "Albert Flasher". Burton was doing an interview at a Vancouver radio station (CKVN to be exact) , when a light (News) "Alert Flasher" starts flashing on the control panel, Well "Alert Flasher" became "Albert Flasher" and the idea for a song. You don't usually hear stories like that on radio much anymore, except possibly from Randy Bachman on CBC's Vinyl Tap.
 
Song titles sometimes come out of nowhere. There was an interview with Chicago once and someone asked about the song 25 or 6 to 4. The reply was that they were coming back from a gig late one night in their limo and someone asked does anybody really know what time it is. Someone looked at their watch in the dark and said that it's 25 or 6 to 4. Presto.
 
First of all, i'm considering here only TBO v.2 - not familiar with Rockin, both stereo and quad.
My perspective, being not in USA, is different; while TBO vol.1 may have a lot of USA AM-Radio staples, it didn't shake the chart here and the few one known were These Eyes and Hand Me Down World (single songs). TBO vol. 2 did follow the same path, so Heatbroken Bopper and Rain Dance had a release, but TGW were for the most part an acquired taste. Few albums were released, not all (and not both Best Of)
Anyway, from back in the days i went backward from V.2 to V.1 with a couple of UK LP found on separate times on import cutout bins, and enjoyed both. So, at least in my case, there is no over-exposure to TGW songs.
Fast forward to early DTS-CD days (It was twenty years ago... sounds familiar? :) ) two of the first i tried to get my hands on were both v.1 and v.2, especially v.2 since it was the first i had my ears on. Lately got both a sealed CD4 and cursed enough for at least two life and half about Dynaflex while converting it to 24/96, then a Q8 which was a breeze compared to the CD4. Never understood why the Q8 was so rare...
Anyway, there's no doubt i like the mix of V.2, i've spend good $ on both analog quads for it, so a killer SACD is a welcomed media that dust away all the analog problems and leave the Sound at best.
When AF folded their quad-SACD program i was certain that the V2 would not see anytime the light of the day as a SACD, and instead it is here.

So, i'm totally biased on that release, and i'm proud of it.
 
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