The Grand Listening Project
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Yeah, I think it’s cool if you walk through your collection. Any way you listen to music that enriches your life is a good way.
I find it hard to go through the CDs. I’m only about 7-8 in. But I’ve started!
A sad thing I’ve discovered already is that some of my CD-Rs have lost it since the last time I played them. I tried listening to my CD-R of WAGON TRAIN yesterday, for example, and it has that famous “digital flutter” towards the latter half of the disc. I suppose there’s nothing else to do than to buy the LP now. It has not had a commercial CD release. It’s available reasonably on Discogs, for sure, but the insane shipping kills it.
My guess is it’s not the first CD-R in my collection that will suffer from this, now that I play them for the first time in several years.
@Thor
A question came to my mind concerning you John Williams walk through. Are you also listening to all your files of Williams’ television work? Or just the albums?I’ve gone through all the John Williams “files-only” already (many albums where he was pianist or arranger, or those TV cuts I made….there’s very little of this I have on physical album, and of course very little that actually HAS been released on album). But now I’m only listening to physical CD albums. Gone through most of those early Williams TV things that have had a release (Irwin Allen box, M SQUAD, WAGON TRAIN, CHECKMATE, NIGHTWATCH…), NONE BUT THE BRAVE next up.
Cool.
Interestingly, when I was in the mood for listening to John I mostly pick either pick something from the last 15 years or some pre-Jaws score. Everything in between I seem to know too much inside out.And somehow I also prefer the sound Mix of these periods. In his high time I feel in the meantime Williams had a preference for a certain unnatural orchestral sound. I find it often sounds too mixed somehow. Anyone else experiences it that way?
Of course there are exceptions. The Lost World sounds great. But Hook and Harry Potter sound too mixed for my current taste.
Yes, me too. I’ve listened so much to the post-JAWS scores, I try to spread out my exposure to those as much as I can. But of course, a big project like this becomes an exception. For example, I’m looking forward to listening to JURASSIC PARK again, when I get to that. My favourite score of all time that I’ve listened to more than any other score in history (thousands, probably). But it’s been probably 5-6 years since I listened to it in full. So that will be an “occasion” in a few weeks.
Plus, I’ve always had a hangup on Williams’ early work, anyway, so it’s not a hard ask.
I don’t have any issue with any mix on any of my John Williams albums, even the early ones. It’s all good in my ears. Never been that into sound difference minutia, even before I got tinnitus.
A sad thing I’ve discovered already is that some of my CD-Rs have lost it since the last time I played them. I tried listening to my CD-R of WAGON TRAIN yesterday, for example, and it has that famous “digital flutter” towards the latter half of the disc.
That’s aweful! While I haven’t ripped all my original CDs yet the first thing I did was doing all the CD-Rs. Interesstingly the first CD-R i ever burnt worked great. There were some brands that basically all failed. And what really killed most is if you put labels on them…
You could try to rip it as computer drives are often more “forgiving” (= better error correction) than normal CD players have. Maybe you will be able to at least save the most of it.
Is that this Stanley Wilson album? That is at least on Youtube as a fallback:
At the few early scores of John Williams that I own, I am mostly struggling with NIGHTWATCH. I enjoy it for about 10 minutes, but then it becomes a little annoying.
Almost similar with TIME TUNNEL. Great main theme, but the pilot episode score is in the long run a little very Avantgarde and dissonant.Yup, that’s the album.
That’s aweful! While I haven’t ripped all my original CDs yet the first thing I did was doing all the CD-Rs. Interesstingly the first CD-R i ever burnt worked great. There were some brands that basically all failed. And what really killed most is if you put labels on them…
Yes, but they look so much better! 🙂 All my CD-Rs have labels on them, as well as booklets. But hey — I was well aware these had limited lifespans to begin with. At some point, they need to be replaced with originals in one form or another.
Yes, but they look so much better! 🙂
Indeed 😉 Replacing with original (or at least official downloads) is a way. If there are “originals” at all! 😉
I am mostly struggling with NIGHTWATCH.
Have to re-listen to that but don’t recall issues but it didn’t stick at all with me apparently.
NONE BUT THE BRAVE next up.
I don’t have the actual album but I listened to extensive samples that at some time were on Youtube. It was nice but didn’t really grab me. Not yet the WIlliams magic there.
At the few early scores of John Williams that I own, I am mostly struggling with NIGHTWATCH. I enjoy it for about 10 minutes, but then it becomes a little annoying.
Almost similar with TIME TUNNEL. Great main theme, but the pilot episode score is in the long run a little very Avantgarde and dissonant.It’s a bit rough and tough, yes. I find that certain bits of LOST IN SPACE are even tougher than TIME TUNNEL or NIGHTWATCH — there’s a lot of this.
But the toughest bits that Williams wrote for TV are not released commercially. Like the episode “The Machine That Played God” in KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATER, with its wild dissonance and even early synths. I play a clip from this in the webcast series, albeit in terrible sound quality.
A sad thing I’ve discovered already is that some of my CD-Rs have lost it since the last time I played them. I tried listening to my CD-R of WAGON TRAIN yesterday, for example, and it has that famous “digital flutter” towards the latter half of the disc
Dang, that sucks. I have been very fortunate… in all the decades, it has happened very rarely that a CD has been affected from “bit rot” (rarely, though it has happened). Even CD-Rs that I burned 25 years ago were still ok last time I checked. I had very few music CDs to begin with though, almost all of my collection was original CDs (except perhaps for a handful of rare specialty stuff). Of those I did have, I transferred them all to ALAC and they were just fine.
Nowadays, I have all my CDs transferred to lossless files, so I may not even know if any of the CDs I have would be affected since I ripped them, as I only play a CD once in a blue moon, maybe once or twice a years, just so that the CD drive part of my HiFi system gets moved now and then. There is no divide between my physical CD collection and my “digital files” collection, they are all “one”.
However, the oldest CDs I bought I have since 1987, and they still played fine last time I tried.I don’t have a lot of original CDs afflicted by this, thankfully. But I remember the old 80s pressing of Rozsa’s THE THIEF OF BAGDAD/THE JUNGLE BOOK CD having issues, especially towards the end in the JUNGLE BOOK suite, with a lot of skipping around. I can’t see it in my collection anymore, so I must have managed to unload it on someone who was fine with these issues. Or maybe I threw it in the bin. The almost-as-old pressing of MUSIC FROM ALFRED HITCHCOCK FILMS was fine, but that — too — seems to have disappeared from my collection.
But the CD-Rs are a another matter. I have at least 30-40 CD-Rs in my collection, I think, and I’m curious about what their status is now. I did play my CD-R of Williams’ THE KILLERS a few days ago, and that was okay. WAGON TRAIN wasn’t, as previously noted. It seems almost random.
I had sofar never any original CD being affected by “disc rot”. I have two that have “bronzing”, CASSANDRA CROSSING and Herrman’s PSYCHO on Unicorn Kanchana. Both have safety rips but still play fine. I have some CDS that have ttiny holes you see against light like Rozsas original QUO VADIS but that also plays still fine.
But I remember the old 80s pressing of Rozsa’s THE THIEF OF BAGDAD/THE JUNGLE BOOK CD having issues, especially towards the end in the JUNGLE BOOK suite,
I don’t have yours, but I have that from Collosseum and don’t know which pressing that is. Played fine the last time.
Reached THE REIVERS now, the old Sony release from the 90s, with a sticker that boasts “John Barry’s legendary score”, LOL. It plays absolutely fine, and the sound quality is good, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never had an issue with it.
That being said, I also have the digital files of the new release, and I might substitute my iTunes version of it with that. But would I also opt for the physical version at some point?
While everyone knows I’m hardcore anti-C&C, there are a few cases where I wouldn’t say “no” if someone offered to send them to me for free. One example is the new REIVERS, another is the HEIDI/JANE EYRE double disc from Quartet. I have the Label X of HEIDI (which I played a few days ago), and it’s okay, sound-wise. But could definitely use improvement. Too bad the new release includes the US version with the dialogue; a cleaned-up version of the dialogue-free Label X would have been preferred. JANE EYRE, I have on the Silva reissue from the 2000s, which is also fine. No need to replace it, but since it comes with the set, that’s okay too.
Another reason for why I wouldn’t mind having the new versions in my collection, is that they include the OST programs. So I’m not that militant on the issue. So….no immediate need for them, they’re not must-haves. But wouldn’t throw them in the bin either, if I got them for free or something. Otherwise, I’ll live perfectly fine with my old versions on CD (and maybe new versions inside iTunes).
Another landmark moment in this project: The removal of shrink wraps! 😀
Since I last played my CDs a few years ago, I’ve acquired maybe some 20 new CDs in shrink wrap that have just stood on the shelf, untouched. Since I already had the albums in digital file format, I saw no need to play the CDs. But now I do. First out is THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS, shrink wrap coming off as we speak. I’ll read the liner notes in bed tonight.
Thankfully, I’ve always had a very pragmatic relationship to my collection. I acquire them to play them, not as collector’s items. I’ve never been able to understand those who acquire CDs never to play them, but just have them as an “object”. That’s moth behaviour at its most extreme.
I wouldn’t say “no” if someone offered to send them to me for free.
Who wouldn’t? 😉
I also have the Sony release of THE REIVERS. Always found it great and didn’t consider to by the new one. But that’s mostly for budget reasons as usual…
HEIDI/JANE EYRE double disc from Quartet.
That I need have because I didn’t have both releases at all. Of HEIDI I had some files which might have been the Label X. Wasn’t there also a Tsunami of it? In any case it had some dialogue I think. THe Quartet is really great although HEIDI will never one of my top Williams. JANE EYRE I find superior and the theme is great.
I would say, it’s time for a reconstruction and re-recording of JANE EYRE.
Is there anything significant wrong with or missing from the Quartet release? It’s pretty monothematic and sounds great. I would rather prefer a re-recording of something that is not available respectively lost otherwise.
Nils, where did you get your LP copy of WAGON TRAIN?
Sorry, Thor – I didn’t see this post until now!
According to my records 😉 , I got it from U.S. dealer West Point Records in 1993. It’s one of the soundtrack shops I got catalogs from in the mail back in the day.
But this is probably of no use to you now…
Ah, I see, thanks. I thought maybe you’d found it here in Norway. Yes, these days, soundtrack shops and catalogues are no longer in operation very much.
I would say, it’s time for a reconstruction and re-recording of JANE EYRE.
Is there anything significant wrong with or missing from the Quartet release? It’s pretty monothematic and sounds great. I would rather prefer a re-recording of something that is not available respectively lost otherwise.
John Williams’ JANE EYRE is a beautiful score — Williams himself named it more than once his personal favorite of all his film scores — though I have no idea whether there is anything (substantial) missing form the released albums, as I have never seen the TV movie for which it was written. It remains a favorite film score of mine though.
And I have several releases of JANE EYRE, the original LP, the Silva Screen, the Quartet, and I can say that it basically does not matter which JANE EYRE version you have, they obviously all come from the same master and the sound quality of all of them leaves to be desired. So I’m all for a new recording, I’d buy it in an instant.Is there anything significant wrong with or missing from the Quartet release? It’s pretty monothematic and sounds great. I would rather prefer a re-recording of something that is not available respectively lost otherwise.
What Nick just said. Re-recording would just be for the sound improvement.
What Nick just said. Re-recording would just be for the sound improvement.
I guess I am not really having any issues with it even if there is a bit of “70s recording sound” there. It’s not really a CHAIRMAN/RANSOM sound issue here for me… Or my ears get old… But right one if anyone wants to do that. If I recall right there is a concert suite already, too?
Its kind of wild to hear the recording quality of classical music in the 60s and 70s, and then put on a soundtrack from the same era that sounds like it was recorded in a closet with cups tied to strings. Everything before 1978 should be re-recorded.
Well, it’s not true for all classic film scores. Some vintage scores sound great. HOUR OF THE GUN by Jerry Goldsmith was recorded in the 60s and sounds as if it was recorded yesterday. But of course, classical music recordings done by Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI etc. were not only done for best possible sound quality, the master tapes were then usually stored in temperature regulated vaults, so when they remaster the recordings, they have near perfect master tapes to begin with, unlike film scores, which are sometimes stored in rusty cans in someone’s damp garage.
Also, a re-recording is never first of all just a “sound upgrade”, that just doesn’t work. If you make a new recording of “Can’t help falling in love” even in the exact same room with the exact same instruments, not matter what, it won’t be Elvis. If you want Elvis, go with Elvis, it’s that simple. Same with any new orchestral recording. If you record a film score anew with 50 different musicians in a different room and a different conductor, it will be a different recording, and as such it has to be judged on its own terms. It may be a good new recording or a bad new recording, but to complain then that it doesn’t sound like “the original” is like complaining that Frank Sinatra doesn’t sound like Bing Crosby. No one would really confuse the Vienna Philharmonic with the Berlin Philharmonic (even though they are both top notch orchestras), so of course you cannot expect a different orchestra to sound like a completely different orchestra in a different recording venue 50 years ago.
But I would love a new recording of JANE EYRE, it may be the number one Williams score I would record anew if I would undertake such a project.If you record a film score anew with 50 different musicians in a different room and a different conductor, it will be a different recording, and as such it has to be judged on its own terms.
Absolutely and we had this before. But since JANE EYRE has good or better sound than others there are other candidates that are lost or have really bad sound I would like to see re-recorded first. Of course since it costs a lot of money something like JANE EYRE and Williams will likey better sell than others.
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