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Post by 4th Chord on Jun 4, 2021 12:20:20 GMT
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Jun 4, 2021 12:29:52 GMT
A really interesting insight into the workings behind the song. Over and above what we already know that is. Good one
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quodec
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Favourite Quo Album: Blue For You
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Post by quodec on Jun 4, 2021 22:08:29 GMT
As we know the production for the album RAOTW was for a clean smooth sound that would come across well on the US AM/FM radio stations, as Pip alluded to in the article. Get the initial airplay, get the record out, tour like f**k and see if they could break the US. One last time. I presume that was the plan at some stage in early 77. But where was the joined up thinking? Several months of 1977 were spent in Sweden recording the album for that very audience but did no one think of maybe arranging a tour to coincide with the release? They went to the bother of US production values and yet didn't tour it!!! No blue sky thinking at all... just the rain and clouds of another European tour! You would have to despair at the rationale...or lack of it!!!
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ant
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Post by ant on Jun 5, 2021 8:30:51 GMT
The\ 1988 version is the definitive version for me. Fuller sound. The Riffs version wasn't bad either.
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Post by railroad007 on Jun 5, 2021 12:16:53 GMT
Pip Williams? The very name has a similar effect to this on a lot of Quo fans.
"We'd been there just a day or two in order to get acclimatised, and then, on the very first day of recording, Bob Young woke me up and said, 'Good morning, Pip, it's nine o'clock and Elvis is dead. To mark the occasion I embarked on my mission to totally fcuk up this album"
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matt
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Post by matt on Jun 5, 2021 16:03:44 GMT
I don’t get the excuse “it’s for the American msrket”. RAOTW sounds unlike anything I’ve ever heard before or since in terms of production
News of the world by queen Rumours by fleetwood Mac Eagles Pink floyd Aerosmith AC/DC
No one who cracked the American market has anything approaching the ants fart depths of sound that plagues the original release.
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Post by unspokenwords on Jun 5, 2021 16:23:50 GMT
I don’t get the excuse “it’s for the American msrket”. RAOTW sounds unlike anything I’ve ever heard before or since in terms of production News of the world by queen Rumours by fleetwood Mac Eagles Pink floyd Aerosmith AC/DC No one who cracked the American market has anything approaching the ants fart depths of sound that plagues the original release. Agree, On release my friend and I settled down to listen to it. We could not believe what we were hearing and set about checking the needle of the record player, speakers etc., and eventually took it back to the record shop as we concluded and thought there was something seriously wrong with the pressing. The record shop owner played it on his expensive deck and checked his needle and speakers etc., but concluded the product did not seem faulty, it was the way it was. It was and remains one of the biggest disappointments after eagerly awaiting the release. It was so flat, thin and hollow sounding. I know both my friend and I virtually put it in the bin. It was put way and not played. Most other fans I knew had a similar outlook on the album. Quo had become lightweight and Punk and new wave now seemed to have the sound and energy. In reality it ended Quo on the recording front and things never were the same again. Classic Quo had been killed off by awful production that removed what they had developed and become famous for. What plonkers the band, management and producer were!
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matt
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Post by matt on Jun 5, 2021 20:15:54 GMT
Excellent article by the way thanks for that
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Post by freewilly on Jun 6, 2021 15:04:51 GMT
Great article but...
Pip Williams and the band made a balls of it. There is some great material on the album but, as already stated, I've never heard an album sound as bad as that. I have no idea what they thought they were achieving with it.
He seems touchy about the criticism he got over it but, that goes with the territory and he knows it. If he didn't, why did he and the band do a 180 with the sound on the Whatever You Want album?
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Post by fretbuzzzzz on Jun 7, 2021 11:45:43 GMT
A parallax of views (as nobody says) of the album from within the Quo camp. To add to the confusion, Rossi had described the album as both immaculate and poxy (que?)
I suppose Pip felt that the single and the album's commercial success outweighed any need to confess any serious song-writing or production sins.
John Eden felt differently and perhaps as the album mixing engineer at the time he felt a greater responsibility for how things turned out but also knew that he could demonstrate that there was much more to this album if given the chance to re-mix.
I think he succeeded and stripped back the album. I suppose the album became cluttered and perhaps trying to get sophisticated for the American market with the additional instruments, arrangements and using the services of Frank Ricotti. Remarkable really that John Eden did eventually get the whole re-mix venture off the ground as clearly a certain amount of apathy or indifference within Quo circles and with promotion.
I'm sure some punters just didn't appreciate the songs in themselves with less focus on guitar breaks and longer tracks and the more traditional Quo hallmarks in general but the re-mix highlighted, if needed, that a more feisty album was in there and a wolf in sheep's clothing to some extent.
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matt
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Post by matt on Jun 8, 2021 7:15:29 GMT
I love what John Eden did and I really admire him for doing it. Can’t believe that’s 10 years ago!
That said when compared with On The Level 2 years before the performances and ambience just isn’t there. It feels sterile rather than a band.
Rock n roll is as much about the vibe in the room as perfection IMO
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Jun 8, 2021 8:00:46 GMT
We've sort of morphed from the track to the album here, although I appreciate they can seem inseparable when we look in retrospect. I get the impression that the title track was approached differently to the rest of the album but that it ended up in the whole limp sounding mess that came out. Just for the record (see what I did there? ), I liked the album, even when it first came out. In 1977, I didn't have a particularly great stereo - sorry, hi-fi . That came a few years later. So although the sound definitely wasn't great and guitar solos in particular ended up way down in the mix somewhere, especially on tracks like Rockers Rollin', I may even have preferred a lot of the material to the stuff that was on Blue For You. Well, at least on a par. Put it this way, I didn't rate the album any less. That disappointment came with a sudden jolt when If You Can't Stand The Heat pitched up a year later. The sound on that was better; the material and arrangements were not. John Eden's remix was like having a new Quo album. I've played that a lot since it came out. I think it brings out the strength of the material and the band. But, yes, the production on the original album was more layered than we were used to. But the weak sound issues did not lie at the hands of Pip Williams. Some of us may not like what he did with Quo's music, but he can't be blamed for how that album sounded on vinyl back in 1977.
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Post by Gaz on Jun 8, 2021 12:47:22 GMT
I don’t get the excuse “it’s for the American msrket”. RAOTW sounds unlike anything I’ve ever heard before or since in terms of production News of the world by queen Rumours by fleetwood Mac Eagles Pink floyd Aerosmith AC/DC No one who cracked the American market has anything approaching the ants fart depths of sound that plagues the original release. Very good post Matt and well pointed that no other band of note produced a thin tinny sound to suit American radio... to me it was a pure horse shit excuse from Pip to maybe bullshit his way to getting the gig to produce what was Britain’s hottest rock band. Why fix something that wasn’t broken? The RAOTW was the weakest link that broke the chain of success no doubt at all and, unfortunately a number of decades too late, was corrected with the release of John Edens remix where it all sounded great again.
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Post by fretbuzzzzz on Jun 8, 2021 19:21:48 GMT
I doubt Pip shoe-horned his way-in with Quo. The band were very much involved in his job interview as they were fan's of Pip's and John's work with Graham Bonnet and they had the Quarry connection. Graham went on to record '(I'm) Givin' Up My Worryin' on his 'No Bad Habits' album with Pip and John...and Frank Ricotti!
No dissenting voices at the time within the band during and immediately after the RAOTW sessions, Francis in particular wanted to use a Producer like Pip. No airs and graces and nobody flash but just a fairly impressive track record. Even JC said Pip should have joined the band as a guitarist! They obviously liked him and John E...fact.
Quo just didn't suit any attempts at sophistication or clever arrangements in the recording process back then as we loved the raw onslaught of previous albums. Though purely in terms of commercial success, it was business as usual for Quo, to anyone looking in on a more casual basis.
As musos the band's heads had been turned by other bands back then. Alan is said to have even considered a Pink Floyd route sonically for Quo as impressed by Floyd live especially.
Interesting to me that Bohus wasn't first choice or even possibly second choice, but they ended up there as a compromise and possibly rubbing shoulders with ABBA who were using Bohus in '77.
There are pictures out there of the red and black carpet and heavy curtains that adorned Bohus studios back in the late 70s. John Eden wasn't a fan or such soft furnishings and preferred hard floors for recording purposes as creates a difference sonic landscape. John held his hands up as to the album's resulting sound as very much involved in the original mixing of the album and why he wanted to get the re-mix out there.
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tqontq
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Post by tqontq on Jun 11, 2021 8:37:20 GMT
I guess, from a completely commercial standpoint, it was a great success. No matter our disdain for how it changed the band's sound for the worse, in the end, it made good money and increased the band's profile extensively, without even denting the American market - ironically where it was created for.
So yes, it is always going to be a love/hate relationship with this track and this album. It marked the end of an era for certain but it brought the band into the realm of greater commercial success, detrimental to what the fans at the time really wanted. They increased their fan base in general, but alienated their hardcore. Fast forward to 1982 and in particular BTB and the split and the same happened again.
Like others, I agree that John Eden finally brought this album alive and the quality of material is definitely there. Far more enjoyable to listen to nowadays but I still wish it had that Blue for You sound.
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