Hello.
Matt has asked me to do a column where I mention music releases that slip by him and also about speculation and rumors that have been popping up online and in print media. I will be citing the sources of my information. Matt and I wanted to put this together for the readers of MusicTAP because not everybody has the time to scour music sites and pick up information. There are two music boards I get a ton of my information from. They are invaluable to me. Realistically speaking though, not everybody has the patience to sift through the many threads at these boards.
I am distilling this down into a one-stop place for you to find out the information. I am also doing this because I am a firm believer that there should be no such thing as having a monopoly on music release information and speculation. A lot of huge music fans don’t get to visit music sites. This is for you so that you can save time. Please note that what I report is just me cherry-picking based on my interests. It is not meant to be definitive or all-encompassing. Mistakes inevitably get made from time to time.
–Steve Talia
Jimi Hendrix – As I mentioned over at the comments section of MusicTAP, Experience Hendrix/Sony via the official bootleg label, Dagger, will be releasing the previously vinyl/bonus download-only Jimi Hendrix-Live In Cologne 1969 on CD for an expected July 9th release. It is available at AuthenticHendrix.com This came courtesy of an Experience Hendrix e-mail.
Also for Hendrix fans who missed out on it the first time around and having since gone out of print, Experience Hendrix/Sony is reissuing the 4-CD box set commonly referred to as The Purple Box on August 20.
In the rumored source department, courtesy of the Hoffman Board, the future game plan for Hendrix releases may be as follows: two live shows of which both were recorded and filmed (my speculation is Miami Pop ’68 and Royal Albert Hall ’69). The old Stages box set (which is long out of print) of four individual shows will be reissued as individual releases. Whether these come out as widely distributed general Sony releases or on the Dagger label remains to be seen. After that, more unspecified live shows will be released.
The Kinks – In Kinks news, Muswell Hillbillies: Deluxe Edition will be available from Ume (U.K.) for release on July 15th. This news is courtesy of both the Hoffman Board and IMWAN.
Elton John – Elton John‘s latest work, The Diving Board, will be available in multiple formats which include vinyl and Super Deluxe Editions will be available on September 16 in the U.K. and on September 24 in the United States on Capitol. For those of you who can’t wait, pre-orders are already being taken at Elton John’s official website.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer – In Emerson Lake & Palmer speculation, a Tweet from Chris Welch indicates that we should expect to hear an announcement in the near future for a (my speculation) 2-CD/1-DVD disc of audio of the Trilogy album. This news comes from IMWAN.
Led Zeppelin – In high anticipation of the upcoming Led Zeppelin individual album box sets, one tiny bit of word has slipped out that Jimmy Page has been keeping his sound engineer very busy with all of the unreleased live material being included in these sets. One early round of speculation was that these box sets of each individual album were to likely contain a CD of the re-mastered album, another CD of unreleased studio material appropriate to each album and live tracks and then a potential disc of a 5.1 mix of the album and unreleased film. No date has been set in stone for these boxes. The last word was that a chunk of the albums would come out this year, but not all of them. This news comes from Rolling Stone, the Hoffman Board and IMWAN.
The Beatles – There will also be an upcoming reissue of The Beatles-Live At The BBC on Capitol which is being targeted for September. It will be a straight reissue. There will be no new re-mastering. This comes from the Hoffman Board and IMWAN.
Fleetwood Mac – As it concerns the upcoming Fleetwood Mac–Then Play On reissue coming from Rhino that Matt reported on first, there is speculation on whether two different versions will be released or not. The one up for pre-order at Amazon U.K. is the English track lineup with (“Oh Well Parts 1 & 2”) put together. If it gets put up for pre-order at the domestic U.S., people are wondering if it will be the same track lineup as the one for the one at Amazon U.K. or if the U.S. will get the original U.S. track order. My guess is that if it does come out in the U.S. as well, it will likely retain the U.K. running order and songs. This speculation comes from the Hoffman Board.
Steve,
Let me be the first to say, thanks for making this information available to the rest of us lazy folks. Also thanks for providing your sources because you are “teaching the rest of us how to fish instead of just feeding us”.
Re Hendrix. I have over 30 cds of Hendrix stuff (including the purple box). After the last release People Hell and Angels, I think I am done with Hendrix releases. That was the first release that I realized that they have scraped the bottom of the barrel and there isn’t much left. Of course there are lots of live performances of various quality but I have so many of them already I think I have them covered as well. We’ll see. I love Hendrix and I’ve been known to impulse buy so I wouldn’t bet against it.
We’ve all been waiting for concrete news of those Zep deluxe releases. Page has been talking about them since the reunion fell through. So far the only purpose they’ve served is an excuse as to why Page isn’t putting out new music or playing live. A 5.1 release of each album would be beyond awesome (hopefully blu-ray). Still, if there isn’t a concrete release date announced by the end of August a 2013 release looks dubious. Assuming they are going to be pricey, I’d think they’d stagger the release each album and not release them all at once. However, if there is no 5.1 mix and it’s basically a remastered album and one disc of extras then maybe they will be released in mass.
Thanks for the hendrix news ,also the zep news sounds interesting just hope when these are released I won’t have to get a second job to buy them.Being that lately a lot of these individual album special editions are outrageously high
Steve and Matt – this is an awesome idea and greatly appreciated. Keep up the great work and I look forward to all the news that’s fit to hear. I see that a lot of people comment on the price of these special additions, and rightly so – they can be ridiculous. I wanted to mention that music buyers should check Amazon.ca and Amazon.uk also for some great deals. If you are in the States, then of course your dollar is a bit stronger in Canada, and if you are ordering from Amazon.uk, keep in mind that at checkout your price reduces by 20% (VAT is not applied to overseas sales) so postage is essentially free. If you don’t know, your single Amazon password does duty for all three sites and then some.
Hi Guys,
As it concerns the Led Zeppelin boxes. My first thoughts at this very early stage is to wonder if they will be designed in the same vein as last years’s Celebration Day release. I bought the one with the 2-CD/1-DVD version and and wondering if the upcoming boxes might resemble them? If Page amp; WB/Atlantic goes the massive box set route, then I guess we’ll be shelling out potentially big money for all of them.
I thought that it would be very important to name where I’m getting the information from. For starters, if people want to join those forums, they can (as they get the time). I also hope that naming my sources will foster encouragement for people to dig for more information on potential releases. It’s a good way of giving credit where credit is due without making any value judgments about any of them. Given that we get only tiny bits of information with what’s left of the record companies, a wider net needs to be cast so that people can save up for things in these tight times.
Matt, thank you so much for getting the ball rolling. I love the graphics for my column. Now we’ve got to figure out if you want this to be a once a week thing or whatever.
Also, I am encouraging all of you readers to contribute your thoughts. The more you do, the more we all end up helping each other.
Thanks for the heads up Steve. I am sure that many of us will enjoy your new column, especially if it brings more concrete news on sets like the Zeppelin boxes and potential 5.1 mixes that have been anticipated (or at least dreamed about) for nearly a decade in some circles. Hope that they come true and are not strictly ‘limited edition,’ and thus ridiculously priced (my pocketbook is still hurting from the Floyd and Tull boxes).
It would also be nice to have news solely dedicated to Blu-ray audio releases. I think that format may be the way to go from here on out, if it gains any traction. There are a lot of listeners that never adopted the hi-res formats due to their arcane hardware requirements (some of us audiophiles excluded). But, to be able to cater to the average ‘couch’ audiophile who might just pick these up and realize the huge improvement in sound, with formats like ‘DTS Master Audio’, available on almost all blu-ray players, might just get the multichannel ball rolling again. Although, there were a lot of sub-standards mixes along the way…
The problem will be if they price themselves out of the market again trying to cater to a small audience that will pay almost anything for the product instead of trying to capture a larger audience through greater sales of a cheaper product (quality of listener vs. quantity of product sold). Then again, this is becoming a rather moot point in the digital download age…
I will be following your column to see if the rumours have any weight and will be looking for more exciting news in the future. Post them whenever you get a few leads or when an announcement is good enough to warrant a post.
Looking forward to the ELP release. Steven Wilson is an exemplary mixer and I hope that he does more than Close to the Edge from the Yes catalogue.
PS: Any rumours on what the next RUSH album to get the 5.1 treatment might be?
For the more adventurous music lovers out there, I’ve come across an interesting website and concept: https://feedbands.com/. Unsigned bands, colored vinyl and first pressings.
A great resource. I love it. In fact, I’ve been looking for such, not only for music, but also for books.
I hope you guys won’t downgrade me if I admit here that I don’t have a Blu-ray player yet. Matt will still cover stuff that I won’t be able to get to. It’s all about moolah and I only have so much.
Never!
Regarding the Hendrix release speculation…Miami ’68 is a definite as EH has already stated this CD/DVD is on the release slate. Royal Albert Hall (24-Feb-69) is once again held up in legal wrangling between Goldstein (the film owner) and Experience Hendrix, so don’t expect this any time soon. As far as re-releases of the Stages shows, I’m not so sure. Paris ’68 has already been re-released (and upgraded) as a Dagger release. It is known that EH is preparing Atlanta for an audio/video release, so that will see the light of day at some point. The Stockholm and San Diego shows have been cherry picked for compilations (such as the Purple Box and the new version of In The West) so I doubt those full shows will get a release.