The "Ram" Remaster Thread
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Since I didn't get any bootlegs and all my McCartney stuff was on cassettes for decades, I'm grateful to buy the stuff on remastered CDs. (and I MEAN CDS AND NOT MP3'S!!! THERE BETTER NOT BE ANY MP3 ONLY BS LIKE THERE WAS WITH KOTB!!!) I'm reading the book Apple to the Core and I just got to the part where Ram was released and that book just slammed it! I'm glad Ram is finally getting it's due. I also loved Paul's official statement about going back to another time when he was a hippie. I love me some hippie Paul. That's the Paul I fell in love with.
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oobu24:
I wish there was more on the DVD.
I found the last few DVDs a bit lacking though there were good moments on them. but the commentary of Coming up from the McCartney Years, that was pushing it a bit....
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The only thing that will frustrate me about the deluxe edition is if it's in a box, and I'm not able to line them up with the other 3 books. Otherwise the extras look really cool.
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BOYCIE:
cfergoid:
I have to say it! My name's Chris and I'm a Ramaholic!
Ewe'll have to get over it.
ur too funny... not baaaad
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BOYCIE:
cfergoid:
I have to say it! My name's Chris and I'm a Ramaholic!
Ewe'll have to get over it.
Very Good!
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This album had better not disappoint me!! I've been kind of saving the best for last (except I do still have V&M, London Town and WATSOS left to hear) so am expecting great things when I finally hear it in May (especially since the last album I got was the comparatively dismal Press To Play). See how my financial situation is then for whether I'll go for the Deluxe or just the special edition.
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Michelley:
Well of course it's a money making exercise. Even if it had everything on it that everyone wanted it would still be a money making exercise.
thats what i said I wish he would have released all these remasters as 3 disc deluxe version at a price everyone can afford, even though RAM still sounds fresh, its a recording from 41 years ago! these remasters have been all over the place, whoever thought up these release dates for them doesn't seem to be the brightest spark around, all the albums should have been released in order over a shorter period of time. The thing is, the remasters so far haven't given us anything new, old music at modern day prices does seem like a bit of a rip-off, I would guess many of us already have the stereo/mono & Thrillington versions of RAM, all we are really getting here is some half baked video, I guess i'd better start saving the pennies
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oobu24:
Macsback:
Kestrel:
Regarding the rare unissued recordings,from what I understand with this whole archive series is that priority has been given to the previously bootlegged tracks. It seems that MPL want them out officially in best sound quality. But all the other material which has never been bootlegged is to be held back for an 'anthology' styled project further down the line. Thats all very well but for those keen collectors amongst us who have had the bootlegs (which tend to be in excellent sound quality anyway) for a number of years, it makes this archive series rather dull and uninteresting.
its all just another money making exercise..
They are probably buying them from the bootleggers!
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Macsback:
these remasters have been all over the place, whoever thought up these release dates for them doesn't seem to be the brightest spark around, all the albums should have been released in order over a shorter period of time.
As a fan, I would like them released faster. But marketing wise, I think the once-a-year release schedule he's doing is smart. This way, he keeps his solo work in the public eye with lots of attention from music writers and bloggers. Contrast that with Lennon's reissues, which Yoko released all at once in October 2010 and three months later, they were forgotten about. There were so many albums released at once that none of Lennon's albums got a lot of attention. With Paul's approach, each of his solo albums gets in the spotlight.
Macsback:
The thing is, the remasters so far haven't given us anything new, old music at modern day prices does seem like a bit of a rip-off, I would guess many of us already have the stereo/mono & Thrillington versions of RAM, all we are really getting here is some half baked video, I guess i'd better start saving the pennies
I don't have any of that so it's not a rip-off to me. And plenty of fans -- especially younger, newer fans -- don't have the mono mix of Ram, or Percy Thrillington, or any of the extra tracks on the second CD. And if the Ram book is as terrific as the previous books on the other 3 reissues, I'll be a happy camper.
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I'm starting to think no on the Mono Vinyl....it just won't be worth it...and this book isn't gonna be cheap...I can feel it...this is gonna be the largest one yet!
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Michelley:
Macsback:
these remasters have been all over the place, whoever thought up these release dates for them doesn't seem to be the brightest spark around, all the albums should have been released in order over a shorter period of time.
As a fan, I would like them released faster. But marketing wise, I think the once-a-year release schedule he's doing is smart. This way, he keeps his solo work in the public eye with lots of attention from music writers and bloggers. Contrast that with Lennon's reissues, which Yoko released all at once in October 2010 and three months later, they were forgotten about. There were so many albums released at once that none of Lennon's albums got a lot of attention. With Paul's approach, each of his solo albums gets in the spotlight.
Macsback:
The thing is, the remasters so far haven't given us anything new, old music at modern day prices does seem like a bit of a rip-off, I would guess many of us already have the stereo/mono & Thrillington versions of RAM, all we are really getting here is some half baked video, I guess i'd better start saving the pennies
I don't have any of that so it's not a rip-off to me. And plenty of fans -- especially younger, newer fans -- don't have the mono mix of Ram, or Percy Thrillington, or any of the extra tracks on the second CD. And if the Ram book is as terrific as the previous books on the other 3 reissues, I'll be a happy camper.
it may not be a rip-off to you but its a rip-off to the larger percentage of fans who have followed him for years and bought RAM in its many different formats. the question was, why weren't the reissues released in order and why not sell a deluxe package at a reduced price? that would make me and many others happy campers to
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I think all of these re-issues regardless who the artist is should be aimed fairly and sqaurely at fans and priced as such too i was thinking of buying my husband The Wall reissue by Pink Floyd there's a big box set just come out,its the best part of £90 and frankly when you look at it it just isnt worth the cash as most of the items on it he already has,be it in bootleg form or the official cd's. I just wish artists,and this isnt aimed solely at Paul either would price reissues realisitcally they'd sell more surely?
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Michelley:
Macsback:
these remasters have been all over the place, whoever thought up these release dates for them doesn't seem to be the brightest spark around, all the albums should have been released in order over a shorter period of time.
As a fan, I would like them released faster. But marketing wise, I think the once-a-year release schedule he's doing is smart. This way, he keeps his solo work in the public eye with lots of attention from music writers and bloggers. Contrast that with Lennon's reissues, which Yoko released all at once in October 2010 and three months later, they were forgotten about. There were so many albums released at once that none of Lennon's albums got a lot of attention. With Paul's approach, each of his solo albums gets in the spotlight.
Macsback:
The thing is, the remasters so far haven't given us anything new, old music at modern day prices does seem like a bit of a rip-off, I would guess many of us already have the stereo/mono & Thrillington versions of RAM, all we are really getting here is some half baked video, I guess i'd better start saving the pennies
I don't have any of that so it's not a rip-off to me. And plenty of fans -- especially younger, newer fans -- don't have the mono mix of Ram, or Percy Thrillington, or any of the extra tracks on the second CD. And if the Ram book is as terrific as the previous books on the other 3 reissues, I'll be a happy camper.
Interesting conversation and good points made by both of you, so cheers for that! My two cents: 1. John's reissues being put at all on the same date wasn't a particularly smart idea because of the reasons Michelley mentioned. They've been long forgotten. However, Paul's "one or two a year" method isn't much better. Each reissue gets a nice write-up and attention is given to each album, which is good, but this could also be done on an "every few months" schedule, as well. My guess is that the deluxe edition books and DVD's are what is holding up the releases, as each take a bit to create and produce. 2. The deluxe editions don't contain any music the majority of Paul fans don't already have/haven't heard before. The only reason to buy them are for the short DVD's and the book. If I'm going for a deluxe edition of an album, I'd prefer more MUSIC, not gift store items.
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walliebaby:
Interesting conversation and good points made by both of you, so cheers for that! My two cents: 1. John's reissues being put at all on the same date wasn't a particularly smart idea because of the reasons Michelley mentioned. They've been long forgotten. However, Paul's "one or two a year" method isn't much better. Each reissue gets a nice write-up and attention is given to each album, which is good, but this could also be done on an "every few months" schedule, as well. My guess is that the deluxe edition books and DVD's are what is holding up the releases, as each take a bit to create and produce. 2. The deluxe editions don't contain any music the majority of Paul fans don't already have/haven't heard before. The only reason to buy them are for the short DVD's and the book. If I'm going for a deluxe edition of an album, I'd prefer more MUSIC, not gift store items.
On your first point, I'm not sure. I think with a reissue "every few months" you risk overexposure. I've worked for newspapers for 25 years and when the same person keeps sending us press releases to promote something else every few months, after awhile our reaction is, "Oh, no, not him again." And we stop writing about that person's stuff after awhile because it doesn't seem new anymore. IMO it's far better to spread them out a bit and make each release special. That said, I think Paul released BOTR and Ram on their own because they're both special and deserve the solo spotlight. I would guess that after this, he starts reissuing the albums in groups (Venus & Mars, WOA, and ?). If he's going to stick to a once a year release, I think it would be smart to start releasing 2-4 albums at once. As for your second point, that's just a personal preference that each of us will decide differently. For instance, I thought the extra music on the McCartney II deluxe edition was fantastic but I liked the book just as much. I don't think Paul's included enough extra tracks either. But then the Beatles' reissues had nothing extra on them at all. And then I read about Bowie's new reissue -- coming out in June -- of his classic Ziggy Stardust. He's reissuing the remastered album on CD with its original 11 tracks and that's it -- no extras, nothing new on the CD at all!! There's also a vinyl version that comes with an audio-only DVD with unreleased remixes of the songs. No new tracks, no demos, nothing, just a few remixes and only if you buy the vinyl version. So in comparison to the Beatles and to Bowie, Paul's reissues have been much more generous but not as generous as some other artists.
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Michelley:
walliebaby:
Interesting conversation and good points made by both of you, so cheers for that! My two cents: 1. John's reissues being put at all on the same date wasn't a particularly smart idea because of the reasons Michelley mentioned. They've been long forgotten. However, Paul's "one or two a year" method isn't much better. Each reissue gets a nice write-up and attention is given to each album, which is good, but this could also be done on an "every few months" schedule, as well. My guess is that the deluxe edition books and DVD's are what is holding up the releases, as each take a bit to create and produce. 2. The deluxe editions don't contain any music the majority of Paul fans don't already have/haven't heard before. The only reason to buy them are for the short DVD's and the book. If I'm going for a deluxe edition of an album, I'd prefer more MUSIC, not gift store items.
On your first point, I'm not sure. I think with a reissue "every few months" you risk overexposure. I've worked for newspapers for 25 years and when the same person keeps sending us press releases to promote something else every few months, after awhile our reaction is, "Oh, no, not him again." And we stop writing about that person's stuff after awhile because it doesn't seem new anymore. IMO it's far better to spread them out a bit and make each release special. That said, I think Paul released BOTR and Ram on their own because they're both special and deserve the solo spotlight. I would guess that after this, he starts reissuing the albums in groups (Venus & Mars, WOA, and ?). If he's going to stick to a once a year release, I think it would be smart to start releasing 2-4 albums at once. As for your second point, that's just a personal preference that each of us will decide differently. For instance, I thought the extra music on the McCartney II deluxe edition was fantastic but I liked the book just as much. I don't think Paul's included enough extra tracks either. But then the Beatles' reissues had nothing extra on them at all. And then I read about Bowie's new reissue -- coming out in June -- of his classic Ziggy Stardust. He's reissuing the remastered album on CD with its original 11 tracks and that's it -- no extras, nothing new on the CD at all!! There's also a vinyl version that comes with an audio-only DVD with unreleased remixes of the songs. No new tracks, no demos, nothing, just a few remixes and only if you buy the vinyl version. So in comparison to the Beatles and to Bowie, Paul's reissues have been much more generous but not as generous as some other artists.
I would agree that Paul's been generous to a point, but for the price being paid for the deluxe edition, not generous enough. As I already said, I'd like more unreleased songs, etc., not versions of songs we already have (The live tracks as "extra music" were songs from a concert that is easily obtained on the 'net.). I don't like paying so much extra for a book and a short DVD. The Beatles remasters didn't include deluxe packages for the reason that they didn't release any extra tracks. Paul is offering those packages, though. That's the difference for me. Don't offer the package if you're not prepared to offer more than two or three songs that so many people already have. As for the schedule of one or two a year, let's face it, dragging it out this long is keeping him in the news and making sure each album is getting special attention, but he has over 20 albums in his solo/Wings career. I'm in my mid 30's, and I don't want to turn 60 to finally have the full collection. I agree that it makes sense to bundle the releases like he did with McCartneys I and II, especially given the remaining albums, but if he wants the other albums to be listened to and paid attention to like the already re-released albums, to possibly find the warm critical appreciation and reception they may not have received when first released, he'll stick to this current "one or two a year" schedule.
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Michelley:
I think he's charging about $20-$30 too much for the deluxe editions. But I haven't paid the full retail price for any of my copies. I've been able to get the first 3 deluxe editions for $50 or $60 each. I think that's a fair price. And I think the price on the Ram deluxe edition will come down too. Right now the deluxe version of Ram is listed on Amazon for $100. That's way too much.
Agreed on all points. Can I ask how you're been able to pay less for the deluxe editions?
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I think he's charging about $20-$30 too much for the deluxe editions. But I haven't paid the full retail price for any of my copies. I've been able to get the first 3 deluxe editions for $50 or $60 each. I think that's a fair price. And I think the price on the Ram deluxe edition will come down too. Right now the deluxe version of Ram is listed on Amazon for $100. That's way too much.
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walliebaby:
Michelley:
I think he's charging about $20-$30 too much for the deluxe editions. But I haven't paid the full retail price for any of my copies. I've been able to get the first 3 deluxe editions for $50 or $60 each. I think that's a fair price. And I think the price on the Ram deluxe edition will come down too. Right now the deluxe version of Ram is listed on Amazon for $100. That's way too much.
Agreed on all points. Can I ask how you're been able to pay less for the deluxe editions?
I pre-ordered them all off Amazon and got a "locked-in" price. The price ALWAYS came down -- as they competed with other sellers. And Amazon has a stipulation if you pre-order where they have to sell it to you for the lowest price they've offered.
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Michelley:
walliebaby:
Michelley:
I think he's charging about $20-$30 too much for the deluxe editions. But I haven't paid the full retail price for any of my copies. I've been able to get the first 3 deluxe editions for $50 or $60 each. I think that's a fair price. And I think the price on the Ram deluxe edition will come down too. Right now the deluxe version of Ram is listed on Amazon for $100. That's way too much.
Agreed on all points. Can I ask how you're been able to pay less for the deluxe editions?
I pre-ordered them all off Amazon and got a "locked-in" price. The price ALWAYS came down -- as they competed with other sellers. And Amazon has a stipulation if you pre-order where they have to sell it to you for the lowest price they've offered.
Gotcha. I've done that for the remasters, as well. Just didn't know if there was a better site. I'm mildly afraid to pre-order Ram at the current price, but I guess I'd better get over there and bite the bullet...err...credit card.
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walliebaby:
Gotcha. I've done that for the remasters, as well. Just didn't know if there was a better site. I'm mildly afraid to pre-order Ram at the current price, but I guess I'd better get over there and bite the bullet...err...credit card.
I've been watching the Amazon price daily. Right now, though, they don't have much incentive to lower the deluxe edition price as its No. 60 on the top 100!!! That's all the Ram fans jumping in early. I'm hoping the price will come down in a few weeks. If it doesn't, I'll be looking elsewhere.