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In the past year I picked up a few magazines that put this compilation
I'm about to pick apart with a lice comb in a very positive light.
I am terribly disappointed with this set called 'GLIMPSES- the yardbirds - 1963-1968
It was released commercially 2011.
I bought my copy for almost $50.00 on ebay.
I see they sell this on their webshite,
easyaction.co.uk for almost $100 us funds.
There's your free advertising Easy Action.
Now you owe me.
A-side from big time hyping and absolute LIES or INFLATING
or STRETCHING of details of the songs included the sound
quality is horribly done. The publisher or whoever wrote the
copy forces the idea many times upon the purchaser of this set that
it's totally acceptable quality because for sure you will love it.
Talk about direct suggestions.
Not even subliminal.
This compilation pisses me off.
It was put out by the self proclaimed "THE LITTLE RECORD COMPANY"
They don't record anything.
The book didn't have a staple in the middle to keep the really thin low grade digitally copied booklet together. Some neat pictures but the resolution is dodgy. Disc 5's cover looks like it was done by a newbie fucking around on photoshop. That's not an acid trip. Acid trips are way more skilled.
Now on to the critique of the sound and claims.
My first question is, where are all the GREAT tracks by the Yardbirds?
Instead of all the crappy sounding fillers you can hear in same
resolution on youtube they could have put remastered
versions of let's say 75% of the REST of the tracks they
did not include here from even one album, roger the engineer,
or also known as Over Under Sideways down. How about the
amazing MONO versions of that album? Instead they have well
heard lo-fi interview clips and even LIPSYNCED echoey
versions from TV specials. That is low. 5 Discs. And it spans out.
And it's fucking boring.
The sound quality varies so wildly it makes you sick.
You get some interesting Live but low quality performances
under 12,000 cycles mono stuff and they boost the
bass so much in the remaster that it ruins any dynamics that
could be left from the tapes. Then you get some tracks that
the highs are boosted to such a degree it is just sizzle.
And this is STUDIO stuff.
I again note they try to say this is desireable with some heavily
convinced rhetoric. Labrats! One cannot listen to this in a car
because of they way the dynamics fly all over the place even volume levels.
I do not believe in normalizing volume to some brick level
but at least keep a reasonable constant when you release a
compilation. I cannot believe the hype in the mag-rags about
this now that I think about it.
Maybe they're just doin' the little company a favor or Jim McCarty.
Did you know the Yardbirds touring now is Jim McCarty's Yardbirds?
Ok so now onto the downright LIES I have found (so far).
Some would say stretching the truth. 3 Tracks in a row on Disc 3.
They are tracks from Roger Engineer. They note that
He's always there,
Turn into Earth and
I can't make your way
are Alternate mixes. I would say they are Remasters, nothing more.
They claim that now suddenly you can hear Jeff Becks erased guitar on 'Turn to Earth' but it's the same echoey reverbed reflection leaking sound as the original 1966 LP version I have. (Mono Canada press)
'I Can't make your way' is simply SHORTER than the LP version and then
'He's always there' is the Stereo mix but it's lopsided and missing the wood scratcher ( you can hear the reverb echo of it) and then suddenly @2:40 it becomes the original full LP mix, which it sounds like they simply cut it right into the print.
Too bad they don't mention this.
Do not waste your money on this. Just buy the original LPs or some of the good CD reissues which unfortunately are pretty rare. The Canadian Capitol 6000 LP versions of this are some of the best pressings. The UK are great too, and the USA pressings are sometimes pretty noisy. Epic sometimes had very noisy wax which Yardbirds were with in the States. More info on how to hear this entire set , in the comments section.
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