I know, it's one thing to see them issue some titles with no quad tapes available, and it's another thing when the tapes are there and we are not getting them.
I get the feeling that Marshall is not the only one who gets to choose which titles that they do. Some one else or more than one other person is choosing. A committee is picking the titles, as there is some inconsistency in the approach.
I just wish that there was someone with deep pockets who could come along and get some of the stuff out that is doable. Like sink a million into a five-year quad excavation project. Or fund the quad layer mastering licensing end of it for AF, so that they could concentrate on the stereo end of it.
I have a feeling that the market is shrinking for SACD regardless of quad, and that the choices they make in titles is going to make or break them.
But I really wish I knew if my personal favorites were money losers for AF? If Alice Cooper MoL was not a big sales hit, then I should quit making any suggestions. If Full Sail and Secret Treaties are not a full return to sales expectations, then I should shut up and let them continue with America, and Judy Collins albums.
Hmm.. but would it really take a million dollars and five years to get the rest of the more sought after Quads out now?
Not so sure about that to be honest.
Quads a finite thing of course and not a really huge amount of titles or long timeframe in which to choose from, for a Classic Rock kind of audience..
If we pause to consider whats left that might really appeal to such a mainstream rock/pop audience, even including titles for fans of Country, Folk, Fusion, etc (basically anything non-Classical) what do we really have?
I realise this is not the right thread, my apologies, so it should probably be moved but when the conversations flowing you just go with the flow don't you?
Anyway, over the years we've already had numerous Quad big hitters and other notable Quads whether from DTS, Sony, EMI, more recently AF have done many stunners too - credit where credit is due, they pulled off quite a coup, for a while, I don't want to seem ungrateful for AF's efforts but now the balls being dropped and its such a shame there isn't some way to work it out to Quad listeners advantage...
I'm thinking we can eliminate all the stuff that's already been done.. like;
2 released (of 2 in total) Deep Purple,
1 released (of 4 in total) Mike Oldfield,
3 (of 4) Jeff Beck,
2 (of 2) Gentle Giant,
1 (of 2) Nektar,
6 (of 6) Moody Blues,
1 (of 5) Isley Brothers,
1 (of 5) O'Jays,
1 (of 4) Edgar Winter,
2 (of 2) Eric Clapton,
2 (of 2) Paul McCartney/Wings,
ALL CHICAGO QUADS (!),
3 (of 4) Jethro Tull,
1 (of 2) Bread,
The Doors,
1 (of 4) Blood Sweat & Tears,
2 (of 4) EW&F,
2 (of 4) Herbie Hancock,
1 (of 2) Alice Cooper,
1 (of 2) America,
1 x Guess Who,
3 (of 3) Rick Wakeman,
1 x BTO,
2 (of 2) Ohio Players,
1 (of 1) Steve Miller,
1 (of 1) Allman Brothers,
1 (of 3) Billy Joel,
Sly & Family Stone,
1 (of 2) Mahavishnu Orchestra,
1 (of 2) BOC,
2 (of 3) Loggins & Messina..
and that Billy Cobham Quad = amazing!
..so that means the big sellers that we're left with are bands & artists like;
The Eagles (non-starter apparently, so forget their 2 x Quads),
Aerosmith (ditto, said to be off the table.. there we are, 3 more Quads down),
Edgar Winter and related (off the table too by the sounds of it.. so forget another 6 Quads!),
Simon & Garfunkel / Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel solo (that rules out yet a further 6 Quads!)
..then discount all the major MFSL Quadblocks, including..
Janis Joplin,
Miles Davis (2),
Bob Dylan (3),
Doobies (4),
Santana (11 in all)
..that's all I can recall off the top of my head but the list of Quads you can forget about on the basis MFSL have already pipped other labels to the post is quite considerable!..
..then you start to get into the arguably harder to sell things, either lower rung titles by popular artists
(Musicmagic for example! or the other 2 x Blood Sweat & Tears Quads)..
- or Soul/R&B (quite a lot of that in Quad never reissued to this day, seems kind of unlikely anytime soon),
- Vocalists (Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand = I make it 22 Quads just by those three acts!)
- other artists, more entrenched in the 70's or that I suspect may be a tough sell nowadays or to the audience labels like AF cater to (Janis Ian, Neil Diamond, Buddy Miles, Dave Mason, Dan Fogelberg, Lee Michaels.. that's another 10 you can probably discount)..
- and then think about 70's Country music, would that even sell much anymore? (Kris Kristofferson, Mac Davis, Lynn Anderson, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Charlie Rich, Johnny Cash = that's a further 19 Quads out the window and that's just Columbia/Epic & assoc label artists, many more Country Quads from RCA, etc!).
So, point I'm making, ultimately, is what Quads are there
really left still to be released in a modern day format that enough people would want to buy?
Would it require a million quids worth of licensing, remastering, production, distribution money costs to make it happen - and would it take a 5 year period to do so?
Unconvinced to be honest.. I reckon it could be done for less and in a short timeframe -- but that is just my 2 cents and I really am nothing and no-one, I'm just a customer.