The Legend of Paul Revere

by

Paul Revere & The Raiders

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There is much debate over whether the remixed versions ruin the original sound or just enhance it. Both sides of the argument have some merit in my opinion, the remixes done here do add some clarity and are well crafted, but sometimes at the expense of altering the original "sound" that would be ingrained in your brain if you heard these songs hundreds or even thousands of times in your younger days. Its not quite as bad as some reviews here suggest - e.g.: the guitar in "Kicks" is not obliterated, it was moved to one channel, and the tambourine is, a bit over emphasized, on the other channel. But overall, if you grew up listening to this song repeatedly and were listening unaware to this remixed version, you would probably be wondering what sounded a little bit different about it at first. Some people may enjoy the extra sonic definition, others will not like the change in overall sound from the original.

What's worth the price for this set is the collection of early songs (1-23) on disc one, which are well worth having if you're a fan of early-mid 60s rock N Roll. This is a different sound than Kicks and Hungry, etc., but superb early garage band stuff. Even covers like "Don't You Just Know It," while not as good as Huey 'piano' Smith's hit version, are enjoyable. Most people will not "remember" (or have ever heard) these early songs, so the issue of the "remixed" sound differences won't matter much there. Plus you get the cool car songs SS 396, Corvair Baby and Judge GTO Breakaway in one place.

Note that the version of "Louie, Go Home" on this disc, CD 1, is an earlier and significantly different version than the one contained "Greatest Hits."

So make sure you have a copy of the original Columbia "Greatest Hits" CD for the "original sound" of the major hits, and if that's all you want, that's all you need. If you want to explore more and have some listening fun doing so, this is well worth it.

I purchased this CD thinking that it would be a clean-sounding CD version of the songs I remember coming from my AM radio in the Sixties and Seventies. Wrong! "Kicks" is one of my absolute favorite radio hits from the Sixties. In glorious mono, it comes out of the speakers like gangbusters, and has a sly anti-drug message to boot! The re-mix of this song on this compilation reduces the lead guitar to background noise, replacing it with a tamborine brought forward in the mix. It was all I could do to keep from making this CD a silver mini-Frisbee! Sony messed up this one....big time!