The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

[Durium]

The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

A very special issue of Yazoo -not only because of the selected recordings, also because of the great design.

The cover was made by R. Crumb and the recordings are 46 super rarities - classic performances of early blues and country music from the 1920s and '30s. Stuff, real collectors dream of ...... ..........

The ultimate (record) collector is subject in the extensive booklet and it feels a bit uncomfortable that I seems as it I know that guy ....

Even the drawing on the front reminds me of somebody I saw this morning in the mirror ......

Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

One year online....... | Keep swinging

Durium

Edited February 18, 2007 by Durium

[John L]

They made this 2-disc set the only way to obtain the newly discovered Son House 78.

The collection is nice. But the liner notes leave a lot to be desired. Given the rarity of the music and many of the artists in question, it would have been nice to have some information about them. Instead, we get a long extremely anal essay about the joys of record collecting, especially the extreme pleasure of finding a rare 78 (regardless of the music on it).

[kh1958]

I enjoyed the set. Elsewhere, I've read that the set is the end of Yazoo's early blues reissue program.

[Lush Life]

  John L said:

They made this 2-disc set the only way to obtain the newly discovered Son House 78.

While this Yazoo set was the first to release the Son House 78 of "Clarksdale Moan" and "Mississippi County Farm Blues", the man who actually OWNS that 78 is famed collector John Tefteller, and he issued his own CD containing rare old blues, including the recently found House songs.

http://www.bluesimages.com/

His calendar contains fantastic, rare old blues advertising artwork from the 1920s and 1930s.

[Alexander]

I reviewed this set for All About Jazz. I think the selection is wonderful, despite a few repeats from other CD sets I own (I want to say that I have at least four or five tracks elsewhere), but I agree with the comment about the notes. While the essay on the pathology of collecting is very charming (the Crumb cartoon is great), the set needed something more to balance it out. There is no mention of recording or release dates, no personnel, and nothing about the record labels on which these tracks were originally released. This seems odd, considering the audience for such a set. I may not be as into this stuff as a Joe Bussard, say, but I would like to have a bit more information than they're giving us here!

[Durium]

  Alexander said:

I reviewed this set for All About Jazz. I think the selection is wonderful, despite a few repeats from other CD sets I own (I want to say that I have at least four or five tracks elsewhere), but I agree with the comment about the notes. While the essay on the pathology of collecting is very charming (the Crumb cartoon is great), the set needed something more to balance it out. There is no mention of recording or release dates, no personnel, and nothing about the record labels on which these tracks were originally released. This seems odd, considering the audience for such a set. I may not be as into this stuff as a Joe Bussard, say, but I would like to have a bit more information than they're giving us here!

Has someone searched for the recording dates? The blues itrems might be in Dixon's but the country songs are unknown to me.

Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

One year online | Keep swinging

Durium

[J.A.W.]

  kh1958 said:

Elsewhere, I've read that the set is the end of Yazoo's early blues reissue program.

Correct. I've read it too, on various websites:

Steve Hoffman Forum (see post #12 and following posts)

Blindman's Blues Forum

[kh1958]

Yazoo news source:

http://blindman.forumhoster.com/index.php?...ams+are+made+of

[J.A.W.]

  kh1958 said:

Yazoo news source:

http://blindman.forumhoster.com/index.php?...ams+are+made+of

That's a link to the same Blindman's Blues Forum thread I posted above (post #8).

[Alexander]

I'm a big fan of the Dust-to-Digital and Old Hat releases, but I am sorry to see Yazoo stop issuing blues reissues. The first time I ever heard Charley Patton (back in the early '90s) was on a Yazoo release. They've been doing it for a long time.

[Adam]

There must be no more blues records to be reissued.

[Big Beat Steve]

  Adam said:

There must be no more blues records to be reissued.

There's still a ENOOOORMOUS amount of blues and R&B recordings from the first post-war (WWII, that is) decade that has never ever been reissued or resurrected from the vaults of unissued masters. But I guess that's much too lowly and sophisticated for those Paramount and Gennett lovers.

Ace, Classics Blues & Rhythm and Blue Moon are trying to rectify this situation but still there is much too much for them to handle it all ...

[John L]

  Adam said:

There must be no more blues records to be reissued.

The loss here does not so much concern unissued blues records. Yazoo is one company that has really invested in improving sound quality of older blues recordings. When they released the newly remastered Blind Lemon Jefferson recordings several years back, that was a revelation relative to what came earlier. Even after Revenant's superb job in cleaning up the Charlie Patton digital releases on their boxed set, Yazoo even topped that with their last two Patton reissues.

The problem is that seeking out the very best 78s and providing the best possible remasters takes time and money, all of which will be stolen immediately by the European pirates.

Edited February 20, 2007 by John L

[paul secor]

Yazoo did what they did the right way, and that's why it's sad for me that there may not be any more. I never say never - well hardly ever, anyway.

Just wish they could have done another Ma Rainey and maybe a Memphis Minnie or two.

[Big Beat Steve]

  John L said:

[... all of which will be stolen immediately by the European pirates.

Don't you believe it!

In the vinyl days anyway, this clearly was not an issue. Document and those other Austrian and Dutch pre-war blues reissue labels went to GREAT lengths in trying to avoid duplications and expressly listed "other recommended listening" (i.e. other company's LP's that completed the total output) on their sleeves.

And this is a policy I would have LOVED to see among LOTS of jazz reissue labels where the same stuff is regurgitated over and over again in ever so slightly different combinations.

And you certainly can't fault the (Dutch) AGRAM label for the booklets they included with many of their releases. Not something they could have ripped off somewhere else.

I admit I haven't seen that much of the CD's of these labels but the "complete recorded works" CD releases by Document on many pre-war blues artists certainly went well beyond what other labels (including Yazoo) did so a lot of their own work must have gone into all that.

Edited February 20, 2007 by Big Beat Steve

[Adam]

  Adam said:

There must be no more blues records to be reissued.

I guess I forgot to add a smiley.

But seriously, it is tragic if it's the end of the program.

Edited February 20, 2007 by Adam

[Big Beat Steve]

  Adam said:

  Adam said:

There must be no more blues records to be reissued.

I guess I forgot to add a smiley.

But seriously, it is tragic if it's the end of the program.

Even without a smiley you weren't that far off the mark. Somewhere (and quite a while ago) I read that it was the proclaimed final goal of the DOCUMENT label to make EVERY pre-war blues recording available again in reissue form.

Edited February 20, 2007 by Big Beat Steve

[Lush Life]

  paul secor said:

Yazoo did what they did the right way, and that's why it's sad for me that there may not be any more. I never say never - well hardly ever, anyway.

Just wish they could have done another Ma Rainey and maybe a Memphis Minnie or two.

Amen.

Yazoo's liner notes generally missed the mark and weren't especially informative, but then, that's a characteristic that dates back to their earliest vinyl days in the 1960s.

OTOH, Yazoo's sound mastering was the model for how it should be done. They eschewed all the no-noise/sonic cleaning nonsense that removed half the music in favor of something that sounded "clean" by today's standards....but the Yazoo enthusiast gets to hear notes and voices that are lost on other labels' efforts.

I will miss them immensely if their retirement from the blues biz is true.

[J.A.W.]

  Lush Life said:

  paul secor said:

Yazoo did what they did the right way, and that's why it's sad for me that there may not be any more. I never say never - well hardly ever, anyway.

Just wish they could have done another Ma Rainey and maybe a Memphis Minnie or two.

Amen.

Yazoo's liner notes generally missed the mark and weren't especially informative, but then, that's a characteristic that dates back to their earliest vinyl days in the 1960s.

OTOH, Yazoo's sound mastering was the model for how it should be done. They eschewed all the no-noise/sonic cleaning nonsense that removed half the music in favor of something that sounded "clean" by today's standards....but the Yazoo enthusiast gets to hear notes and voices that are lost on other labels' efforts.

I will miss them immensely if their retirement from the blues biz is true.

Hear hear!

[paul secor]

  clementine said:

whatever happened to steven calt?!?!? hah... paul, you know there's some Ma on some of the thematic compilations of the last ten years or so, right? I Can't Be Satisfied etc etc etc... all of 'em are pretty good to great tho' it's prob NOT my fave way to pick up that stuff after a certain point... did ya'll ever pick up the Kentucky box? it's def. shame abt their cessation-- i think i've had every Yazoo lp at one point or another (so those of ya'll trying to "interpret" me, figure that in somewhere.)

edc

Don't know what happened to Calt. I do know that I gave up reading his liner notes long ago - could never figure out whether he wrote them as a put on to piss people off or whether his mind/sensibilities just worked that way. Whatever the deal was with him, I never heard anyone make a positive comment about his writing. I did buy and read his Skip James bio, but he had an axe to grind there and I ended up selling it.

Yeah - there were a couple/few Ma Rainey cuts scattered on the later comps. I just would have liked another full CD by her, and Yazoo would have done it the right way.

Never got the Kentucky comp - one to look forward to down the line.

[mjzee]

As a reminder, these can be purchased directly from Yazoo:

http://www.yazoorecords.com/order.htm

"Web Special: For every 4 items purchased — receive a 5th item free!"

No mention on the website that they're ceasing production.