billythev wrote:Hi There
I'm new to the forum so apologies if this has been covered before.
I 'discovered' Rory in 1977, after my elder brother had been to see Irish Tour 74 (double bill with a Quo film), and was so impressed he went out and bought a live album (he couldn't find Irish Tour so he got Live in Europe instead). As a 14 year old just picking up a guitar for the first time, I was blown away - it was clearly what had been missing in my life.
I then went out and got hold of as much Rory music and info as I could. Then the great news came that a new album was on its way - Photo Finish. When it came out, I wore the vinyl out. I absolutely loved that record, and still do - it's 'my' Rory album.
So the years went by, I had to buy another copy. Then the CD's versions of Rory albums started to appear - but no Photo Finish (or Deuce). So I had to wait another few years before the remastered versions came along. Eventually they did, and again Photo Finish blew me away; the depth of the sound now was much more intense.
However, I was disappointed with 2 things; Overnight Bag and (particularly) Fuel to the Fire were different. The remix of OB had put another verse in, and F2TF had the harmony guitar on the into riff as well as the outro. And while it's interesting to have these remixes, I don't half miss the originals.
Similar things happened on Deuce (tremelo on solo on Crest of a Wave), Against the Grain (sorry but All Around Man sounds like a jammed version) and Jinx (Bourbon suffers from different levels of various instruments).
Please don't think this is a complaint; I thought it was fantastic that someone had the time and inclination to put the effort into to remix those albums and get them back on the shelves. And like I wore out the vinyl, I actually wore out the CD's on a couple of those remasters. But some of those songs were part of my youth, and the memory of them is almost sacred for me.
I did manage to get pre-remix versions of Against the Grain and Jinx (from Germany I think), so I still managed to get the 'original' song (now preserved on my hard drive). Did anyone get a Photo Finish? If not, has anyone heard whether the original mix will be available anywhere anytime?
==================================================================================================================================================
Photo Finish is my favorite Rory album, the first of his LP's that I bought. I listened to it so much I could hear it in my sleep. When the CD version came out, I got a copy and was throughly confused and disappointed when I heard it. The extra verse on Overnight Bag was interesting -- apparently it was written that way originally because it appears that way on Notes From San Francisco. All of the tracks are different from the LP versions to some degree, but most obvious are Fuel to the Fire and The Mississippi Sheiks -- they both have exaggerated, muddy bass mixed in. In my opinion, the remix ruins the feeling of Fuel to the Fire.
Don't get me wrong, an artist has every right to remix his own work, but Rory did not do these remixes -- engineers Tony Arnold and Colin Fairley are responsible for them, and they were done long after Rory's death. Altering Rory's original recordings was not only a disservice to music fans by misrepresenting Rory's work, it is in effect rewriting musical history -- and it is an insult to Rory's musical legacy. I'm getting down from my soapbox now. The original Photo Finish rocks!!
==================================================================================================================================================
