The Byrds - The Columbia Singles '65-'67 (Sundazed 2LP - Not available on CD)
01. Mr. Tambourine Man
02. I Knew I’d Want You
03. All I Really Want To Do
04. I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better
05. The Bells Of Rhymney
06. Chimes Of Freedom
07. She Don’t Care About Time (Version 1)
08. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
09. The Times They Are A-Changin’
10. Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)
11. She Don’t Care About Time (Version 2)
12. Set You Free This Time
13. It Won’t Be Wrong
14. He Was A Friend Of Mine
15. Eight Miles High
16. Why
17. 5D (Fifth Dimension)
18. Captain Soul
19. Mr. Spaceman
20. What’s Happening?!?!
21. So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star
22. Everybody’s Been Burned
23. My Back Pages
24. Renaissance Fair
25. Have You Seen Her Face
26. Don’t Make Waves
27. Lady Friend
28. Old John Robertson
29. Goin’ Back
30. Change Is Now
Time: 1:18:53.732
The Complete, Vault-Emptying Columbia Singles Collection
30 tracks on 180 gram Vinyl
All isssued single mixes, cancelled titles and rarities, from the chiming original mono masters
Source: Orginal Mono 2-track Mixdown Master Reels >
Analog Mastering > Sundazed LP 5130 180gr ->
Technics 1210mk2 with AT-440 MLa stylus
-> M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 (A-D conversion 24 bit, 96kHz) ->
Adobe Audition 1.5 -> Traders Little Helper (Flac 8)
(NB: Audition 1.5 was used for adjusting DC bias, editing
(incl. manual removal of clicks and pops), adding gain & collapsion
of the right and left channel to mono.)
Transfer & Torrent produced by Prof. Stoned
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"When “Mr. Tambourine Man” first rumbled out of car radio speakers in 1965,
it was a pivotal moment in pop history.
With its jangling 12-string and epic sweep, it was the dawn of a new day:
the birth of folk-rock. And the Byrds were just getting started.
The next two years saw one hit after another, from the Biblical prophesies
of “Turn, Turn, Turn” to the raga-rock of “Eight Miles High,”
from the exotic orchestration of “So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star”
to the Byrds bringing it all back home with “My Back Pages.”
Here they are again, 30 landmark recordings in their perfectly constructed,
radio-friendly mono mixes: the forgotten rarities, withdrawn singles and,
of course, all the original A and B-sides.
No one has ever had a stronger run of singles than did the Byrds in their prime.
No one."
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Prof sez:
Another terrific Sundazed compilation that was released on vinyl only.
All the early Byrds singles in mono -of course- including three withdrawn ones.
But be warned that fidelitywise this is not always a stunner,
despite the fact the producers of this compilation went back to
the original Holywood mono mixdown masters.
This has to do with the poor fidelity of the original recordings.
As Terry Melcher (R.I.P.) points out in his linernotes, these recordings where
made to good sound on (car) radio's only.
Because of that, the recordings sound compressed and somewhat
pinchy because of the hi-mid boost.
I think it's a good thing that remastering engineer Bob Irwin took those
recordings as they where and did not attempt to make them sound
more suitable for today's standards.
I have to admit I prefer the sound of the MFSL disc of Mr. Tambourine Man above this,
but I'm pretty sure that's because these tracks where polished up for that release,
while they appear here in their raw -pretty much- unmastered form.
Naturally, I left the sound as is, no EQ-ing or anything.
Another reason that makes some tracks sound not-so-good, is the obvious
bad condition some of the tapes are in which can be heard on -amongst others-
'Mr Tambourine man' (can be heard on the MFSL as well)
and especially 'Eight Miles high'.
The damage on that track is actually so severe that is hard to enjoy it.
Columbia tended to use their mixdown mastertapes for many a vinyl cutting
(a highly unusual practice), and as a result many of those wore out.
This is the reason why some Byrds album where remixed in the nineties; simply
because the LP masters where in a poor condition.
It is a pity though that Sundazed did not went back to the original vinyl in those few cases,
rather than settling with the wretched mastertapes.
The drop itself is pretty good, I think.
I realise I'm lucky w/ my copy because I've read many complaints about this pressing being very noisy.
But there is some sibilance in the vocals that didn't disappear after the channel folding,
and it may be in the source material.
Then again, I can't hear it on the MTM MFSL CD, and I have heard this kind of
vocal sibilance more often on other mono Sundazed pressings...
As good a job as Sundazed does, their pressings are their weak link.
The 2nd Lp is also a bit warped which seems to be the case with most copies out there.
But there are no hearable artifacts because of that.
(N.B. : I discovered that the manually declicked masterwave file
(on which I worked for weeks) had an error in the RIFF file -the file within the wave
that contains information any other than audio)-, therefore making it impossible
to generate a cue file or even split up the files into 30 tracks.
Luckily I managed to find a solution in the end, after trying everything, by
cutting/pasting up the masterwave in adobe audition into 30 parts.
I know this is not the most desirable way of trackindexing, but it was either that or
one big wave file without a cuesheet.
The flacs de-convert fine to wave, and they are fully tested so no worries.
Another thing was losing most of the complete scans of the LP cover from my HD.
I re-did all of them except the inner sleeve which had been a real hastle the first time.
The only part from the inner sleeve I included is the part with the recording details,
which was too important to omit.)
Enjoy this fine piece of forgotten history!
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