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06 18 2013
Happy 71st Birthday Paul!
Today, June 18, 2013, Paul McCartney celebrates his 71st birthday. Still in great shape, he will be touring Eastern Canada in a few short weeks, playing venues like Ottawa's Scotiabank Place on July 7 (Ringo's Birthday!) and Québec City's Plains of Abraham on July 23rd (for the second time since 2008). Canada can't wait to see you again!
Image source: Huffington Post.
06 14 2013
New F.A.V.E. column
Today, we have the pleasure of introducing a new column designed especially for you, the readers! It is called F.A.V.E. (Feedback Alternative Viewpoints Expressed). More and more readers are joining the capitol6000.com community and we are receiving some very interesting feedback on the material we publish. This is always greatly appreciated and our members have some great ideas to contribute. We want to share them with you through the means of our new FAVE column.
FAVE is not only meant for technical articles, but also for ideas and view points that might trigger among our readers, a reflection or a debate on a subject specific to the material published on this website. We are happy to hear from you, and if you have an article to contribute, make sure to contact us with the proposed material and we will see if we can find a place for you in our monthly FAVE column! We would like to hear from both our English readers, et nos lecteurs francophones !
To start this new section, Fred Young has prepared a very interesting reflection on markings that may or may not add to the sentimental value of an item. This was in response to Piers' latest article on the CBC library records. This article will be stored in our archive section along with all new FAVE columns we will publish in the future. Enjoy this FAVE from Fred, and please keep new ones coming. We look forward to hearing from you.
Provenance or Perfection, what's your preference?
Written by Fred Young
After reading Piers' recent article about the CBC artifacts being sold off, I found myself questioning whether these types of markings actually do make a record more collectable or even desirable. For Piers, who has a keen interest in the history of the Canadian music scene as a whole, they represent an important part of history. They are an artifact of a bygone analog age, and therefore, museum worthy and worth preserving. For a person like myself, who's primary interest is t racking down the most pristine of copies for my collection, it's not such a big deal.
So just when does an alteration or embellishment add or detract from an object's value on the collecting market? It's my opinion that it can be broken down into four different categories.
A: An embellishment or alteration that in no doubt, would make the item more desirable to the majority of collectors.
B: An embellishment or alteration that neither enhances, nor reduces the desirability of the item to the majority of collectors.
C: An embellishment or alteration that in no doubt would make the item less desirable to the majority of collectors.
D: An embellishment or alteration that makes the item more desirable solely on personal preference.
Going through my collection, I tried to find items from each of these four categories.
Here are some items that I feel would fall into category A.
Here is a copy of the 1982 release of the 10" "Savage Young Beatles" disc. This item, even sealed, is not a highly prized item among collectors. The addition of signatures by Pete Best and Roy Young, musicians who actually played on the record, make this a very desirable item.
John Lennon's 1972 release "Sometime in New York City" is a fairly easy to find LP, and not worth a lot, but how many do you see autographed by John Sinclair over the lyrics of the song John wrote about him?
A final vinyl copy of the classic Canadian LP "Long Tall Sally" on the 80's retro rainbow label is hard enough to find, but try finding one signed by its Canadian producer, Paul White!
Category B usually involves point of purchase alterations, such as price tags or store promo stickers on LP shrink wrap or 45 sleeves that have been there since the item was newly purchased. Here are a few samples of these. Of particular interest to me, are the price stickers from Canadian store chains like Sayvette and Woolco.
As for category C, I think we can all agree that personal writing or stickers on labels, sleeves, jackets are a sure fire detriment to an item's value and desirability. These kinds of alterations usually make a collector cringe. Here are a few sorry examples. Particularly annoying are the markings on the extremely hard to find "Four By The Beatles" EP and the otherwise pristine 1967 "And I Lover Her" reissue. Arrrghhh!!
Category D involves alterations that make an item interesting and desirable in the eyes of the beholder. It is purely subjective. This is where I would place the CBC artifacts that Piers wrote about, and here are a few examples from my collection that I feel would also fit this category.
The first example is an item that I consider one of my most prized possessions. It is a very early copy of T-6054 that is missing the Parr's logo on the front slick. It is signed and personalized to me by Paul White. I would never consider parting with it, but if I were to, it would probably only appeal to someone named Fred!
Also shown are two early Canadian Beatles 45's purchased from their original owner, who was then a smitten young female fan. She had adorned the sleeves of her newly purchased copies of "She Loves You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" with hand written messages about them performing these songs on the February 9, 1964 Ed Sullivan appearance. To a vinyl historian like myself, there is valuable information here that makes these records very important.
For 72125, we can instantly tell that some early copies of this single were sold in the glossy black Capitol stock sleeve. Looking at the matrix numbers on the 45, the A side has a dash 2 at the end. This indicates that sometime between mid-September of 1963 and the first week of February 1964 that something happened to the original side A stamper. It is my experience that copies with the dash 2 on side A are quite common. Copies without the suffix on side A are few and far between.
For 5112, the first conclusion we can draw, is that early copies were distributed with the U.S. east coast straight cut picture sleeve. This was the first Canadian Beatles single to actually feature a picture sleeve. Looking at the label we see that initial copies had Walter Hofer as the B side publisher.
It's examples like these that enable us to extract certain details relating to the history of a particular record, and more importantly, make the hobby fun!
Carry on collecting!
06 11 2013
Recent Sales
It is this time of the month again! As the last recent sales column was published, some experimental coloured vinyl pressings were up for auction - the blue album had just sold for 400$ and Love Songs was still for sale. It turns out its price rocketed from 102$ to 1025$ in the last few moments of the auction; a very interesting price for a very special record! Another rare item sold around the same time: a very first pressing of Twist And Shout with the very scarce orange sticker promoting the insert picture, this, along with a few other first pressings of Beatles albums found a new home for 50$. Still in the Beatles department, another no dash Love Me Do sold for 98$, while a hard to find retro rainbow pressing of Beatlemania sold for 50 Euros and a beautiful copy of Do You Want To Know A Secret sold for 140$.
A very nice copy of Very Together sold for 33$, a CBC stamped Beatles 65 (see previous article) sold for 25$, and cool Dr Ebbetts CD version of Beatlemania sold for 23 UK pounds. An extremely nice copy of the Canadian EP Four By The Beatles, still in the original loose shrink wrap sold for 280$, while sealed copies of 70s pressing of Rubber Soul and Meet The Beatles sold for 15$ and 79$ respectively. Rare target singles of Lady Madonna (round logo) and Yesterday sold for 10$ each, and a complete Let It Be box set sold for 167$ while a rare first pressing Parr's cover stereo Meet The Beatles sold for 14.50$. Finally (for Beatles related records), the rare Canadian Thrillington album sold twice this month: a promo copy reached 78$, while a slightly damaged regular stock copy sold for 22.50$
Even though the Beatles are a very popular band in terms of sales, they are not the only band we are tracking for our column! An extremely hard to find Jack London And The Sparrows album was offered at 220$, but has not found a buyer the first time around. Being so rare, we will keep an eye to see if it is relisted, and hopefully, this collector's gem will find a new owner soon. The Yardbirds are also all time favorites, with their classic albums like Having A Rave Up selling for 15$ and 80$ in passable condition, or Heart Full Of Soul for 138$. Another classic: The Pink Floyd's Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn sold for an astounding 373$. Cliff Richard's 1967 Mod Mood also sold for 20 UK pounds, Chad & Jeremy's What Do You Want With Me reached 10$ while Freddie And The Dreamer's Reddy Freddie sold for 13$. Finally, the Canadian Apple pressing of Chris Hodge's Goodbye Sweet Lorraine 45 sold for a very decent 46$!
06 07 2013
The CBC Music Library
Written by Piers A. Hemmingsen, June 2013
(with a little help from Jamie Anstey, Scott Relf, Mark Alan, Fred Young, Serge Pelletier and various record dealers across Canada)
The CBC "Axes" The Beatles !
Well not really, but sort of. There is a catch to be explained, so please read on.
Way back in 1973, I made the pilgrimage to New York City's Greenwich Village and took an armload of what I thought were some of the rarer Canadian Beatles albums and 45s along with me for trade purposes. A well known record dealer on Bleecker Street howled with laughter when I showed him the heavy bag of vinyl treasures that I had lugged all the way from Ottawa. In a snarky Brooklyn accent, he told me that "Canadian Beatles records are not worth anything ...". Well I really did not want to carry them all the way back to Canada, so reluctantly and sadly, I handed them over to those Village oldies shops at ridiculously low prices. Gone were minty copies of some great and rare Beatles and Beatles solo discs like Life With The Lions, Very Together, This Is Where It Started, My Bonnie etc.
That Bleecker Street experience of loss has lingered with me over the years, and today I am very much an evangelical proponent of the original Canadian vinyl first pressings as being among the best sounding records ever manufactured in the world. Especially where The Beatles are concerned. Hence this web site. And now in the last few years, there has been some acknowledgement that the original Canadian pressed vinyl discs from the 1960s are indeed collectable - especially when they have the provenance of having once belonged to the mighty Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aka "the CBC" for those outside Canada.
Have Vinyl, Will Travel ... To Manitoba
Fast forward 40 years. Now last year I was in Winnipeg, Manitoba, one of our greatest Canadian cities, and visited a few of the terrific new and used record shops there. My good buddy Scott told me exactly where to go for the best vinyl. To my amazement, I saw a batch of rare 1960s jazz LP records with the stamp " Property Of CBC Record Library" adorning their jackets - front and back. Now that is "provenance", as these were the very records that the CBC played on air when they sampled tracks for their various CBC programs starting in the 1950s. Way Kool with a capital K.
So I asked the Winnipeg record shop owner about them, and he told me that the CBC in Winnipeg was disposing of its own record library, starting in early 2012. A few days later, I found out the added info that the CBC was in fact centralizing its record library in Toronto and was rationalizing it's libraries in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal and Halifax, with the idea of having one BIG library. Saving money. Going digital. That made sense to me. But it was sad at the same time to think that these vinyl artefacts were being divested by our national broadcaster.
Other record collectors have subsequently come across similar divestments in Vancouver, Toronto , Montreal and Halifax. Pop records, folk records, soundtracks, jazz records, spoken word, country and western, bird sounds, locomotive sounds, and on and on. And apparently the jazz album collection in Winnipeg was particularly impressive; the result of many years of diligent acquisitions by CBC during the best years of Blue Note and Columbia for example.
With Beatles in mind, we here at Capitol6000 have kept all eyes open and have spotted a few of these original CBC "Beatles" discs offered up for sale in recent months. These have been offered up for sale all across our great country, both far and wide, "as it happens" (a great CBC program by the way)…
For the albums, the letters CBC are heavily stamped / embossed right into the record labels. There are usually date stamps on both the labels and jackets. By examining the records themselves, we can pretty much determine to the month when they were acquired for their libraries. From what we have seen so far, the CBC took great care of their records.
Only The Tip Of The Iceberg ?
This is Canada's history on vinyl and it is being sold off, one disc at a time. Perhaps we have only seen a subset of their Beatles discs so far. With at least 5 record libraries being whittled down to one, it is possible that there are multiple copies of some discs.
So far we have seen an early 1970s stereo copy of Yesterday & Today from the Halifax library, a Graham Newton mastered early mono 1965 copy of Beatles 65 from the Toronto library dated from April 1967, and a post 1966 brackets copy of Long Tall Sally from the Toronto library dated July 1969. This last one was logged in to the CBC record library just as Apollo 11 was landing on the moon ! From the Vancouver library we have seen 72101 From Me To You, 72159 Do You Want To Know A Secret, and 72162 Sie Liebt Dich (2 copies). All of these were 1964 copies. Some of the dealers who bought these records have attempted to remove the stickers, and some have not. The Vancouver copy of 72101 had the sticker removed before the dealer realized that maybe the sticker added some value from it's heritage. Most of the Vancouver CBC Beatles singles appear to have been acquired in the summer of 1964 just after Beatlemania hit these shores.
The CBC Record Librarians, Past & Present
Well this is the twenty-first century last time we checked, and the CBC is moving ahead in the digital world in a very big way and I guess it has never been better. Surely the CBC has the entire Beatles catalogue in re-mastered digital format, so their old vinyl discs are no longer needed.
It is nice to remember all of the hard working folks at the CBC many years ago who maintained top-notch record libraries in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. Filing new releases, pulling out discs upon request for on-air programming, colour coding the metal racking and shelving, etc. CBC hosts like Glenn Gould were known to browse the grey-metal racks of records at the old CBC building at 354 Jarvis Street in Toronto. Gould wrote and produced many shows for CBC radio and television. Perhaps he popped in there frequently to check out the CBC's Petula Clark collection. Who knows. Oddly, Clyde Gilmour was never a client of the CBC record library back in the 60s, 70s, 80 and even 90s, although today the Toronto Public Library maintains Clyde's personal collection of vinyl records that he used as the source for his long running and very popular CBC weekly radio show Gilmour's Albums. That is a nice touch. Gilmour's Albums was an audio treat every week but now we have new shows like the Vinyl Tap and Saturday Night Blues to keep us musically happy. And we do very much appreciate those radio shows and they must have to access the consolidated CBC record library from time to time.
A Big Move - From Jarvis Street To Front Street West
Now a few years back I was told the story about the BIG MOVE of the record library from the old building at 354 Jarvis Street to the new building at 250 Front Street in Toronto. There were two "career record librarians" at the old building and they had to arrange to pack up and move all of the records. This at a time perhaps when they were retiring from the CBC. At the time of the move in the 1990s (circa 1992 and afterwards), many old records and tapes were discarded into containers (78s, 45s and open reels) and lots of those ended up at the Goodwill Store at Adelaide and Jarvis. Some of us lucky ducks found some real gems there, including a complete 1-hour taped episode of "The Action Set" from 1967 hosted by Al Maitland which featured a preview of the new Beatles album Sergeant Pepper in glorious MONO. Nice.
Bill Haley's Comet
This large-scale music divestiture that began in 2012, of at least 4 huge record collections from the CBC libraries across Canada, into the used record marketplace, was perhaps the "Haley's Comet" for record collectors in Canada. We can't wait to see what else will turn up. We will extend our vigil and would very much appreciate any updates or details on interesting finds. Of course, these will be noted in the Recent Sales postings.
We Salute You CBC !
But today we will take a few long overdue moments to salute all of those wonderful CBC record librarians who have worked, past and present, at the various CBC record libraries across Canada. Their legacy is a great stack of vinyl discs that are uniquely denoted by their CBC stamps, CBC labels, and their original CBC library dates. All filed properly, and neatly, and ready to be placed upon turntables at any time.
Happy collecting.
06 06 2013
Yardbirds Play Toronto's El Mocambo Tonight !
Jim McCarty, an original and founding member of The Yardbirds rocks and rolls into Toronto tonight, and along with him will be legendary British keyboardist John Hawken.
They will be playing tonight at 8 PM at Toronto's famous El Mocambo Club on Spadina Avenue, which is a great place to see live bands. The Rolling Stones, The Flaming Groovies, Willie Dixon, The Blues Band, Elvis Costello, and many others too numerous to mention have all played there.
Now fans of the Capitol6000 web site will be interested in tonight's show because the Yardbirds are one of the best bands on the famous Canadian record label from the 1960s.
Jim McCarty has drummed for Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page - all one time members of his group. McCarty co-wrote many of The Yardbirds great tracks along with his fellow band members. While he was with The Yardbirds, his group supported The Beatles as well.
If the name John Hawken is also familiar to you, then you may not realize that Hawken was a key member (keyboards) of the British Invasion group The Nashville Teens (think their great 1964 hit Tobacco Road !) and he was also in the progressive group Renaissance with Keith Relf and Jim McCarty, in the late 1960s, just after The Yardbirds splintered into Led Zeppelin and Renaissance.
If you can come on out tonight to the "El Mo" and support these Rock And Roll Pioneers, they have traveled here all the way from England to entertain their fans.
More information on "The Yardbirds in Canada" is right here:
The Yardbirds
05 25 2013
Salon Du Disque de Montréal
We will be present at this great event today in Montreal. A lot of music vendors, a lot of records for sale, and Serge will be there to chat, and promote our Beatles books. For those who dare to come, an exclusive preview of his new book "Variations 1: The Definitive Beatles Canadian LP Collector's Guide" will available for you to see and browse at our table. Be there or be square!
What and where
Salon Du Disque De Montréal
Saturday, May 25, 2013 - from 10am to 4pm
Église Saint-Enfant-Jésus du Mile-End
5039 Sainte-Dominique, near the Saint-Joseph and Saint-Laurent intersection.
05 21 2013
New Sections
Today, we have the pleasure to announce the addition of a brand new section that will surely interest many of our readers. As you can see, the main menu has changed quite a bit, regrouping and moving sections around for a better browsing experience, but mostly, a section called PAUL WHITE COLLECTION has been added. This tab will feature many vintage promotional items from Paul White's collection, unique Canadian treasures that very few have ever seen. Today we start with a promo poster of The Esquires (see entry below), and tomorrow we will add a Manfred Mann poster for their hit single "Do Wah Diddy Diddy". Stay tuned as we will periodically add new items from the Canadian Capitol roster.
As for the other changed sections, no pages have been removed; all the great content you were used to read is still fully available under the ARCHIVES tab of the menu. By clicking this button, you will be directed to an Archive browsing page where you can easily access all the previous articles and miscellaneous sections from a menu on the left, wile still remaining on the main website. Access to the core of the website remains available at all times from the top menu. So wait no longer and browse away through the articles and images of rare Canadian items we have stored in our vault!
05 21 2013
The Paul White Collection: The Esquires
The Esquires were the very first Canadian pop group to be signed by Paul White at Capitol Records Of Canada in the summer of 1963. Their very first single "Atlantis" (Capitol 72126) was issued in Canada on Monday, September 23rd, 1963, just one week after The Beatles' "She Loves You" (Capitol 72125).
The Esquires were heavily influenced by Cliff Richard And The Shadows, and lead guitarist Gary Comeau could cover Hank Marvin's guitar licks note for note, and Atlantis was a truly great cover. The group would develop their own unique sound through 1966. They issued one great album on Capitol and a string of great singles.
Capitol prepared a special in-store poster to promote their new LP in August 1964. The poster measures 10 inches high and 13 inches wide.
The photo of the band was taken in the summer of 1964 at the Gray Rocks Inn at Saint-Jovite in the Laurentians. Pictured from left to right are Paul Huot (guitar), Ricky Patterson (drums), Don Norman (vocals), Gary Comeau (lead guitar), and Client Hierlihy (bass).
The image of the colour poster appears here by courtesy of Paul White.
The colour video for Man From Adano by The Esquires. This was probably the very first rock video ever made in Canada and was filmed in late 1963. (Gary Comeau collection).
Esquires article update May 2013
It must be noted that the very first incarnation of the Juno Award in Canada was called the Gold Leaf Award, and these awards were first handed out by RPM Music Weekly magazine in late 1964.
The Esquires won the first Gold Leaf Award in late 1964 as the "Top Vocal Instrumental Group" of the year. The award was for the Capitol 45 "So Many Other Boys". The award and the photo seen below appear by courtesy of Gary Comeau. The Esquires beat out the an early incarnation of The Guess Who from Winnipeg (Chad Allen & The Expressions) that year.
According to The Esquires' Gary Comeau, "we were the first band to win a major award (Gold Leaf Award, the first "Juno"), and we were the first to create a music video in Canada". (see video above)
Above - The Esquires receive the very first Gold Leaf Award (Juno Award) from Walt Grealis (second right) in late 1964 (RPM Music Weekly).
Paul White also received a Gold Leaf award in that same year for "Top National Record Promoter".
The Esquires Discography
72126
The Esquires / Bob Harrington
Atlantis / I’ve Lost My Little Girl
72137
The Esquires / Bob Harrington
Man From Adano / Gee Whiz, It’s You
72193
The Esquires
So Many Other Boys / Oldest Story
72219
The Esquires
Cry Is All I Do / We’ve Got A Future
72277
The Esquires
Love’s Made A Fool Of You / Summertime
T-6075
The Esquires
Introducing The Esquires
05 14 2013
Yorktown / Yorkville label discography added
Today we have revamped our "Other Labels" discography pages. The labels now appear in Alpha sequence on the Other labels tab. While we do specialize in Beatles discographies for Canada, we also try hard to cover other notable areas of Canadian musical interest.
Recently, we added the Canadian Stax / Volt discographies and we have received some very positive feedback on those additions. We have also been busy continually updating the Stone, Sparton, Page One, Deram, Vee Jay and Polydor dicsogs that were already there.
Today, we are pleased to announce the addition of the uniquely Canadian Yorktown and Yorkville labels. These labels promoted and featured Canadian artists in the 1966-1968 period, a time when a whole new scene was developing in Toronto, and new artists like Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and David Clayton-Thomas were playing the small clubs and bars of Yorkville. Yorktown did not last long (1966-1967) even though the label was distributed by Capitol. Yorkville took over where Yorktown left off and was distributed by Arc Records. Arc and Yorkville would be the starting labels for a young Anne Murray who would later be signed by Capitol of Canada.
Both labels issued records by The Ugly Ducklings and some other great garage bands like The Stitch In Tyme. In the next few months we will be adding some more cool Canadian labels. These will include the "Sir John A." label from Ottawa. This label also featured a number of garage bands like Heart, Eastern Passage, and The Paper Dream.
View the Yorktown / Yorkville discography HERE.
We would also like to feature some of the Québec labels from the 1960s. Québec was the home to many unique labels during that time.
If you have a particular label that you would like to see added to our growing list of Canadian labels, please let us know.
05 06 2013
A Stereo Review by Fred Young
Making sense of the different stereo mixes found on Beatlemania,
Twist And Shout and Long Tall Sally
Special collaborator: Fred Young
Many people have asked me, "just what are the best sounding pressings of the three Canadian Capitol 6000 series LP's?"
For monophonic sound, the answer is simple and predictable. Get the finest original pressing you can find. This is especially true for "Beatlemania" T-6051. The original 1963 pressings will have XEX-447 (side 1) and XEX-448 (side 2) in the runouts. These original pressings of T-6051 have noticeably deeper grooves. You can actually feel them if you lightly rub your finger across the vinyl. These deeper groove pressings of T-6051 have a louder, and more dynamic sound.
For stereophonic sound, the answer is not so simple, and requires careful listening to all available versions. Well, I have the records, the headphones and the time, so I decided to try and seek out the answers.
Beatlemania! With The Beatles
Let us start with "Beatlemania" ST-6051 (ST prefix denoting stereo). The first copy to sport the ST prefix was the 3rd generation orange label Capitol of Canada pressing. The matrix numbers are XEX-447-1 and XEX-448- RE6. Though this record claims to be stereo, it certainly does not sound like it. It almost sounds monophonic to these ears.
The next copy I listened to was a 1st generation purple label copy, that appears to be an RCA dynaflex pressing. The matrix numbers on this version are ST 6051 A on side 1 and XEX-448 RE6 on side two. Side 1 of this record is a true stereo mix with good sound and very noticeable separation. This is what many collectors refer to as the "wide mix". Side 2, however reverts back to that mono sounding mix found on the orange label copy.
Next up was a 3rd generation purple label Capitol of Canada pressing. The matrix numbers are ST 6051 A on side one and ST.6051.2. on side two. Both sides of this vinyl have true stereo sound with noticeable separation.
Lastly, I checked out the final vinyl incarnation of this classic LP; the retro rainbow label. This LP appears to be a Cinram pressing because of the double impression rings left by the stamper. the matrix numbers are ST-6051-1- on side 1 and ST-6051-2- on side 2. Here's the kicker, folks. This final pressing has excellent sound and great separation throughout. This version is the clear winner, with a close second going to the 3rd generation purple Capitol pressing.
Twist And Shout
Now on to "Twist and Shout" ST-6054. I don't own a 3rd generation orange label copy, so I began with the 1st generation purple label that also appears to be an RCA Dynaflex pressing. The matrix numbers are ST-6054-A on side 1 and XEX 456 on side 2. All of side 1 is in true stereo, except for "Love Me Do" (track 6), which is a mono Andy White version. Side 2 is all in true stereo, except for "P.S. I Love You" (track 1) and "She Loves You" (track 7) which are mono. I'm not even sure if true stereo mixes for these three songs even exist.
The second version I listened to was the first retro rainbow label version, which is a Capitol of Canada pressing that features a larger title font. The matrix numbers are ST.6054.A. (side 1) and ST-6054-B (side 2). Well I'm not sure who prepared the master for side 1, but this version plays through entirely in mono! Side 2 is in true stereo, except for (again), tracks 1 and 7.
This leads us to the final vinyl version of this classic Canadian LP, a retro rainbow label that appears to be a Columbia pressing. The matrix numbers are ST-6054-A (Side 1) and ST-6054-B (side 2). This version has side 1 in true stereo, except for track 6. Side 2 is also in true stereo except for tracks 1 and 7. This pressing has excellent stereo sound throughout, except for the mentioned tracks, and surpasses the Capitol pressing in sound quality by quite a wide margin. The final pressing again is the clear winner.
Long Tall Sally
Lastly, we move to "Long Tall Sally" ST-6063. The first pressing to boast the ST prefix is the 3rd generation orange label Capitol of Canada pressing. The matrix numbers are ST-6063-A (side 1) and ST-6063-B (side 2). On the label of side one, an asterisk appears beside "I Want To Hold Your Hand" which denotes that track as being on mono. Funny thing is, the entire side is in mono! On the label of side two, asterisks appear beside tracks 1,2,4 and 5 denoting those tracks as being monophonic. Again, the entire side is in mono! I'm not sure who they thought they were fooling here.
Moving on to my third generation purple label Capitol of Canada pressing, I found it to be identical in every way to the orange label version that I just described, so I won't go any further on this pressing.
Finally, I played my retro rainbow Capitol of Canada pressing with the larger title font on the label. The matrix numbers are ST.6063.A. (side 1) and ST.6063.B. (side 2). The labels also indicate track 1, side 1 and tracks 1,2,4 and 5, side 2 as being in mono, which they are. The good news; the rest of the tracks are in glorious stereophonic sound! Capitol finally got it right on this one. This is the version to seek out.
So, in conclusion; if it's mono sound you're after, seek out pristine original pressings. If you want the best stereo versions, seek out the last ones produced.
Fred Young
- May 2nd, 2013
Piers's Note May 6 2013 - "Well I don't have the last retro label ST-6051 (arrgh!), but I do have in my collection an orange label, second generation ST-6051 pressing with a hand-written YEA matrix on both sides which sounds like true stereo to my ears. But we'll let Fred listen to this album stereo mix so he can compare to his other stereo-tagged albums (May 2013).
Fred's NOTE: I have since come upon a copy of the 2nd generation orange label copy of ST-6051 mentioned in Piers' note of May 6. I stand corrected about the 3rd generation orange version as being the first incarnation to bare the ST prefix, as this 2nd generation copy would now fit that description.
The record is one of those RCA Dynaflex pressings, and the matrix numbers are as follows:
Side 1: 2YEA XEX (scribbled out) -447-2
Side 2: 2YEA XEX (scribbled out) -448-2 EXE (crossed out)
Obviously a novice inscriber!
Upon listening, it turns out to be the same fake stereo mix as the later 3rd generation orange version on both sides. Even the groove patterns are identical.
So, my conclusion remains unchanged on this one. Seek out the 3rd generation purple, or better yet, the retro rainbow Cinram pressing, for true stereo mixes.
Fred Young
May 26, 2013If you are looking for a past news entry that has been removed from this column,
please take note that all our previous entries are stored in our archives,
easily accessible through the ARCHIVE tab in the main menu.
Copyright © 1999 - 2013
Piers A. Hemmingsen & Serge Pelletier. All Rights Reserved.