Tupelo Honey

by

Van Morrison

Edit

This is a classic and very popular effort by a young Van Morrison at the apex of his earlier phase in the late sixties and early seventies. There are a number of timeless songs here, including the title cut of "Tupelo Honey", the original version of "Wild Night", later covered quite well by John Cougar Mellencamp, and also "Like A Cannonball". My own personal favorites include both "I Want To Roo You", a lovely traditional Irish love song, and "Old Woodstock", referring to his time spent living in the small and now very touristy Woodstock, Vermont, while he lived here in the states for a number of years. It is an elegiac, evocative, and haunting recollection of life lived on the outskirts of conventional life, a man flirting with a countercultural lifestyle, and lovingly extolling the virtues of a simple life well lived. For all his fabled success and uncounted millions, Morrison has never forgotten his humble origins or the ordinary life most people live. This is a terrific album, and one that is most representative of his early work and unforgettable voice and musicianship. Enjoy this one

Polygram ceased production of its portion of Van-The-Man's catalog, resulting in 29 titles, two-thirds of his entire recorded output, remaining frustratingly unavailable for the past several years. Even more regrettably, sixteen of those OOP titles had been fabulously remastered and re-released in 1998. Accordingly, prices for these had soared, especially for the remastered titles.

Then, in late 2007, The Announcement! All 29 OOP titles would be re-released in 2008! With new remastering! Extra tracks! Even mini-sleeve editions from Japan!

Well, fellow audiophiles and mini-sleeve aficionados, the hyperbole is unfortunately only half-true: Those 16 1998 remastered titles? Except for the bonus tracks, the 2008 re-releases are the EXACT same remasters, right down to the `98 silkscreen scheme on each disc, and the `98 booklets, with only minimally text-modified for the bonus material and production credits.

The `98 mastering work was performed by Ian Cooper at Metropolis Mastering in London. The `08 booklets credit another Metropolis engineer, Tim Young, for the new editions. However, the only effort Mr. Young expended on the sixteen 1998 titles was to sonically match the minute bonus content to the pre-existing `98 mastering.

So, in this first 7-CD set (Tupelo Honey, It's Too Late To Stop Now, Wavelength, Into The Music, A Sense Of Wonder, Avalon Sunset and Back On Top) of four 2008 scheduled catalog re-releases, only Avalon Sunset and Back On Top have been newly-remastered. As the Japan `sleeve version of Back On Top was delayed until April, I haven't had the opportunity to A/B that disc. The result of remastering the 20-year-old Avalon Sunset could certainly be more pronounced than redoing 1999's Back On Top, so that remains to be quantified. The Japanese also floated something called "high-quality SHM-CD format" on the mini-sleeve versions (which are always my CD's of choice), but I can't discern any audible improvement in that department, either.

(Although I have referred to my A/B set-up in other Amazon reviews, due to the subject matter herein, I should probably reiterate that my comparisons are made on two Sony XA7 transports, simultaneously running into a Camelot Uther DAC via matching Acoustic Zen coax cables, and monitored thru Sennheiser 590's).

This same existing-remaster+bonus-tracks scenario will apply for the other 1998-remastered titles to be released later this year: Saint Dominic's Preview, Hard Nose Down The Highway, Veedon Fleece, Period Of Transition, Beautiful Vision, Inarticulate Speech, Common One, Live/Belfast, No Guru, Poetic Champions Compose and Irish Heartbeat.

Don't get me wrong, these all sound glorious. Yes, it is wonderful to have these fantastic recordings readily available once more, and again, yes, it's great to finally have a newly-remastered Avalon Sunset. By the end of 2008, it will also be especially joyous to own the other 13 never-before remastered titles.

However, speaking for myself, who already owned all the remastered `98's, the mastering sleight-of-hand was NOT appreciated, especially at mini-sleeve premium prices. There is also Polygram's deplorable Enron-like tactic of taking the entire series out of production for an extended period of time to create demand, years longer than just the clearing of the older releases in the retail channel via sell-off would have required. As a retailer acquaintance once sagely observed: "Nobody wants to buy anything until it's deleted", a lesson the financially-struggling Universal Music Group (Polygram's odious parent) is obviously applying in spades here. The record labels bemoan the loss of CD sales, but it is exactly this kind of manipulative marketing ka-ka that provides impetus to consumer alienation.

So, if like me, you already owned the `98's, the only decision in reinvesting in the `08's are the a.) meager-two-tracks-per-disc "bonus" material, and b.) to-buy-or-not-to-buy the more expensive Japan `sleeve editions. The bonus tracks could have been released as a separate set (A "Philosopher's Stone Volume 2", perhaps?), but then, of course, Polygram wouldn't net the possible re-sale of 16 additional CD's per VanFan.

As for the desirability of the bonus tracks themselves, I'll leave it to others to opine on whether the return on such a substantial reinvestment is either a worthwhile, or foolhardy, expense.

WHAT IS A JAPAN "MINI-LP-SLEEVE" CD?

Have you ever lamented the loss of one of the 20th Century's great art forms, the 12" vinyl LP jacket? Then "mini-LP-sleeve" CD's may be for you.

Mini-sleeve CDs are manufactured in Japan under license. The disc is packaged inside a 135MM X 135MM cardboard precision-miniature replica of the original classic vinyl-LP album. Also, anything contained in the original LP, such as gatefolds, booklets, lyric sheets, posters, printed LP sleeves, stickers, embosses, special LP cover paper/inks/textures and/or die cuts, are precisely replicated and included. An English-language lyric sheet is always included, even if the original LP did not have printed lyrics.

Then, there's the sonic quality: Often (but not always), mini-sleeves have dedicated remastering (20-Bit, 24-Bit, DSD, K2/K2HD, and/or HDCD), and can often (but not always) be superior to the audio on the same title anywhere else in the world. There also may be bonus tracks unavailable elsewhere.

Each Japan mini-sleeve has an "obi" ("oh-bee"), a removable Japan-language promotional strip. The obi lists the Japan street date of that particular release, the catalog number, the mastering info, and often the original album's release date. Bonus tracks are only listed on the obi, maintaining the integrity of the original LP artwork. The obi's are collectable, and should not be discarded.

All mini-sleeve releases are limited edition, but re-pressings/re-issues are becoming more common (again, not always). The enthusiasm of mini-sleeve collecting must be tempered, however, with avoiding fake mini-sleeves manufactured in Russia and distributed throughout the world, primarily on eBay. They are inferior in quality, worthless in collectable value, a total waste of money, and should be avoided at all costs.