Quad LP/Tape Poll Nash, Johnny - My Merry Go Round [SQ/Q8]

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Rate 'My Merry-Go-Round'

  • 9

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5: Mediocrity Central

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1: Sux

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    5

EMB

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
Since 2002/2003
Joined
Feb 8, 2004
Messages
4,101
Location
The Top 40 Radio of My Mind
Epic EQ 32158, from 1973.

Side 1:

1. My Merry-Go-Round
2. Nice Time
3. You Better Stop (Messing Around)
4. Gonna Open Up My Heart Again
5. Ooh What a Feeling

Side 2:

1. Love is Not a Game
2. Loving You
3. Yellow House
4. (Oh Jesus) We're Trying to Get Back to You
5. Salt Annie Ginger Tree

ED :)
 
I have the Q8 of this title, natch.

It's an interesting, if not unusual mix for Columbia. Most of their Q8's are relatively dry, or just generally lack echo or reverb. Not this album! Johnny's vocal has a really interesting echo applied to it that stretches all around the listening space. I've not heard another title that features an echo like this, especially one destined for SQ! I was under the impression that SQ and reverb don't get along and/or messes up the decoding.

My only qualm is that on some of the songs, the bass isn't front center. It's shoved off into back right or some silly-ass place where it shouldn't be. I suppose that's personal preference along with diagonal channel mixing. I dislike that as well. Biggest disappointment is that this isn't the album with "I Can See Clearly Now". None of the tracks on this album hold a candle to 'clearly'.

Music: good, but not great. Mix: unusual and at times, perplexing. Like Homer Simpson, a Solid "C" student. I give it a 6.
 
Johnny has had a long and interesting career. At the beginning it didn't seem that he would become a journeyman, moving from label to label, hoping for hits that usually never happened. He began with ABC-Paramount in the late '50s as a junior Johnny Mathis. But even before he left the label, he'd gotten restless, I guess, because one of his unsung best singles would be "Some Of Your Lovin'" (1960), which was produced by Phil Spector (!) and one of his best from that early period, though he has never remembered it enough to include it on a comp of any kind. Anyway, Johnny left ABC and moved here and there until he finally got another big one, with "Hold Me Tight" on Jad in 1968. Those Jamaica sessions brought some of the Wailers (and Bob Marley) to the charts, even though we probably missed that fact at the time. Johnny stayed in this bag for a few years, had a hit with a cover of Sam Cooke's "Cupid" and got forgotten again, but resurfaced with a great single, "I Can See Clearly Now"/"How Good It Is" in '72 (the B-side's great too, different side of the same coin), which was a deserved #1 pop and R&B hit. He covered the Wailers' "Stir It Up" as the sequel, but after that lost steam, as usual. This album's not bad, but no, there's nothing near the level of his best. It's good and, alas, his only quad.

ED :)
 
I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but two albums that REALLY should have gotten the Quad treatment, and quite easily could have were Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now" (Epic 31607) and The O'Jays "Backstabbers" (Philly Int'l 31712). Both albums had two Top 20 singles, and both albums had at least one #1 hit (in the case of the O'Jays album, two #1s and a #2).

However, I have noticed a dramatic lack of Columbia Q8's in the 31xxx series. Only 30 Popular titles in that entire series!! (There may have been more classical albums issued but I don't keep track of them) But only 30 titles??? What the heck was going on at Columbia in '72?? Were they concentrating more on the SQ side of things?
 
That's hard to say for sure, but the quad omissions for 1972 alone would make one wonder. I mean, how do you NOT issue hit albums like BACK STABBERS or I MISS YOU (Harold Melvin), or the Hollies Lp with "Long Cool Woman" or Johnny Nash, or even more--ahem--Bobby Vinton, perhaps? Or S&G's GREATEST HITS? Hard to figure, really.

ED :)
 
S&G's Greatest Hits - CAQ - 31350 ---- 8 and 16 track sources but I agree, should've been attempted. I think one song on there would've been from 4-track but I get the impression Columbia had an edict of 16-track or better for 95% of their Quad output. Very seldom did they dive into the 8-track multis. Now had Simon and Garfunkel been on RCA.....

Hollies - Distant Light was 30958, but I agree, would've been a great listen in Quad. Their next one, Romany, would've been in the thick of the mysteriously disappearing 31xxx series. Romany was 31992. Harold Melvin again, 31648. Starting to see a pattern?? :)
 
Gave this bad boy an 8.

I love the mix. The album itself offers up a mix of Pop, Soul & Reggae (tough it leans more towards Pop) and the mix serves every song very well. The fidelity of the Q8 is astounding. It would not have been a huge seller had Audio Fidelity have gotten the license for a Quad SACD, but I believe it would have brought new appreciation to Johnny's work.

The track "Loving You" is simply fabulous. The guitar track is really catchy and the whole rhythm section makes this a very groovy number. A very underrated song. You'd put that in a movie and it would be a hit. As a matter of fact, the guitar playing on the album is nothing short of stunning. Steve Cropper style, you just can't get enough of it.

I'm really happy to have this one in my collection. :)
 
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