HWright Posted January 23, 2006 Report Posted January 23, 2006 Recently in Washington DC (where I live) I found German Import copies of remasters of Van Morrison's "Into the Music" and "Common One." Since these are two favorites of mine and as far as I know remasters of these albums have not been released in the USA, I bought them. That got me to thinking about the Polydor/Mercury/Universal Remastering program of Van's catalogue, both from when he was with Warner Brothers and when he was with Polydor after that. The main set of reissues came out around 1997 in the USA, although I don't think I discovered them until 2-3 years later because they weren't very well publicized either in the media or in stores. I just found them in a Borders one day, as I recall. (The same thing happened with the Joni Mitchell remasters that came out around the same time.) Based on an ad I found inside one of the reissues, the initial series seems to have included Tupelo Honey Saint Dominic's Preview Hardnose the Highway Veedon Fleece Too Late to Stop Now Period of Transition Wavelength These CDs could be distinguished by the gold sticker on the case indicating the new remastering and subtle differences in typography on the spine and back tray card. (The European versions seem to also have a fully clear tray, which makes them easier to distinguish from the original CD editions). Recently, I discovered that additional titles from the 1980's had been remastered and I found new editions of the following titles Sense of Wonder No Guru No Teacher No Method Poetic Champions Compose I thought I saw remasters of the following albums, but I may have imagined it Avalon Sunset Enlightenment Even more recently, in addition to the German editions of "Into the Music" and "Common One," I've also seen a German edition of "Inarticulate Speech of the Heart and no doubt a German edition of "Beautiful Vision" exists, although I haven't seen it yet. Since I find these remasters to be a distinct improvement, I think it's unfortunate that they weren't better promoted and that all of the series haven't been released directly in the USA. Three albums, however, are noticeably absent from both the USA and European series: "Astral Weeks," "Moon Dance" and "His Band and Street Choir." Does anyone know why these albums haven't been remastered? Considering that they are among his most popular and well known titles, the only explanation that I can think of is that Polydor doesn't have the rights. However, they were included in the late '80's/Early '90's CD catalogue. Perhaps at some point, due to some buy out or renegociation, the rights were lost? Or is this perhaps connected to American v.s. European distribution rights.... Anyone have any idea about this? Quote
HWright Posted January 24, 2006 Author Report Posted January 24, 2006 (edited) I managed to find the Universal Germany site: http://www.universal-music.de/html/index.html Although they don't talk up the reissue program much, they do provide release dates for all of Van's albums in their catalogue. It looks like the remasters came out in two batchs, in 1997 and 1998. "Avalon Sunset" and "Enlightenment" are not listed as remastered, so I must have just imagined that I saw new versions of them, as I said. There is a remaster of "Beautiful Vision," as I thought, so I'm going to keep a look out for that. No mention at all of Van's first three Warner Brothers albums, either in old or new remastering, which seems to support my theory that they don't have the rights... Also of interest is that they have the track listing for what appears to be Van's Next Album "Pay the Devil," with a (tentative) release date of March 3, 2006: 1 There Stands The Glass 2 Half As Much 3 Things Have Gone To Pieces 4 Big Blue Diamonds 5 Playhouse 6 Your Cheatin Heart 7 My Bucket's Got A Hole In It 8 Back Street Affair 9 Pay The Devil 10 What Am I Living For 11 This Has Got To Stop 12 Once A Day 13 More And More 14 Till I Gain Control Again Edited January 24, 2006 by HWright Quote
BruceM Posted April 23, 2008 Report Posted April 23, 2008 Finally We may be getting a remastered "Astral Weeks". Warner Music Japan have scheduled it for 25 June 2008. Quote
WorldB3 Posted April 23, 2008 Report Posted April 23, 2008 ^ any bonus stuff? tracks, new liner notes? that would be my 3rd copy of that record but... I would probably buy it the day it comes out. Quote
_forumlogo.png.a607ef20a6e0c299ab2aa6443aa1f32e.png)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.