Quad LP/Tape Poll Murphy, Walter, Band: A Fifth Of Beethoven [Q8]

[EMB]

Released as an RCA Record Club Q8 only, DAT1-0393. Originally released on stereo vinyl as Private Stock PS 2015, in 1976.

Program 1:

1. Flight '76 (Based on Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumble Bee")
2. (You've Got To) Be Your Own Best Friend
3. California Strut
4. A Fifth Of Beethoven (Based on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony)
5. Night Fall (Based on Chopin's Prelude No. 4 in E Minor)

Program 2:

1. Russian Dressing (Based on Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat Minor)
2. Suite Love Symphony
3. Midnight Express
4. Get A Little Lovin'
5. Just A Love Song


ED

 

[Q-Eight]

I like this album. Had two songs on a Ford comp. Q8, so I'd heard 1/5 of Beethoven before.

I like the seperation with drums almost always up front and horns & strings spread out. What is curious is that if there's a secondary instrument such as a guitar or organ, it's situated in both left or both right channels, emphasis to the front. It's a very nice "surrounding" mix that doesn't depend on gimmicks or wild panning. I'm curious to know when it was mixed - but I'm sure like most Quads, it was 2-3 years after the stereo cuts.

It also strikes me odd that a DISCO title made the quad cut when both disco and quad were definitely on the way out by 1979.

It's a shame though that more disco titles didn't get the Quad treatment. With 16 or 24 track being available by that time, and the lush instrumentation that most Disco songs had, could have made for some very nice albums!

 

[EMB]

First of all, my thanks to those responsible for the recent availability of this title... This is one I'd never heard in quad, and must say, although I don't like much of the music (the vocal cuts are particularly grating and onerous to my ears), the mix fits the music very well (My overall rating is a 5, for while the mix is very good, the music is fairly bad). I'll echo Q's sentiments that it's unfortunate that quad died before we could hear much disco, a genre that, regardless of its merits (or lack thereof) would have been very amenable to quad treatment (Donna Summer's, very obviously!).

I'm not sure when the mix was made for this one, although the album, issued in stereo in July 1976, did Ok (but not exceptional) business, unlike the best-selling title hit. "Flight '76" was the followup, which didn't do much. Inclusion of the big one in the SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER soundtrack pushed its profile further, though over a year and a half after it had first charted. The vocal tracks, though, are treacle, the kind of crap David Foster would (ahem) foster in the '80s and beyond; really bad stuff. At least the more uptempo instros move a bit, pretentious as it all is. But one big hit's better than none, right? And this quad curio is one of the more interesting titles out there, if only for what it is, and how hard it's been for Q8 collectors to track down.




ED

 

[winopener]

My opinion on this title follows the Bishop's one : nice mix on a half-baked album. IMHO the mix has been done in 1976 or 1977 then stored somewhere and licensed in 1980 to RCA. Seems odd that, with all quad things faded out from the radar, they did a new mix for a Ford-only release: seems easier to "resurrect" for cheap a old mix already made and not been released at all.
Anyone remember a loooooong time ago (may be 5/6 years at least) of a 4track master reel for Bee Gees with 5 songs and marked 1977? Probably there was plan for a quad release of SNF - if they did, it would had been a quad smash. At least we do have a glimpse of what it could had been. "Disco inferno" in quad would had been a double killer track.

 

[Q-Eight]

Now that you mention that Winopener, I'd have to agree. It probably was a mix that was sitting "in the can" that never made a release. Why would RCA pay to license and then pay an engineer to mix a Disco title when both disco and Quad were on their way out? Makes you wonder if RCA was trying to revive Quad in a last ditch attempt to try and put out some popular music in 4channel?

It just baffles me as this is such an odd release at an even stranger time!

I'm also going to say that I like disco. I quite enjoy this album, mostly the first four tracks. Am I the only one who sings it as "California Slut" ? I get odd looks from other people when I'm on the road in my Tiburon with this kinda music just cranked up and me boppin' along.

 

[surroundme33]

I hope to one day hear this in Quad.. I especially love the title track and "Flight of '76" - I can only imagine how cool this would sound in Quad. I agree with the above mention that more disco recordings should have received the royal Quad treatment. Particularly 'From Here to Eternity' from Giorgio Moroder , everything ever released by Cerrone and Alec Costandinos (in all his aliases particularly 'Love and Kisses'). Oddly though, there were alot of philly pre-disco music that was being released at the height of the Quad years, and saw very little (if any at all) QUad release like Teddy Pendergrass, Herold Melvin and the Blue Notes, O'jays etc etc... Seems like the engineers and record labels were just too busy releasing yet another classical music record instead.. Like the world really needed to hear another rendition of Tychovski or another common beethoven tune in quad.. C'mon Really??!!

 

[Q8]

I have to admit that I am a fan of disco as well and that I can't wait to hear this.

Could you imagine if they had given the quad treatment to the whole Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack?

 

[surroundme33]

I have to admit that I am a fan of disco as well and that I can't wait to hear this.

Could you imagine if they had given the quad treatment to the whole Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack?

Why SNF?? That's so mainstream! So many better disco LPs then that. How about TGIF soundtrack, Sylvester, Giorgio Moroder, Cerrone to name a few..

 

[Q8]

I will admit that SNF is a bit mainstream, but having that album in quad may have assisted quad in "Staying Alive" as popular as it was.