Lou Reed: Master Reimagineer

Just heard Lou Reed's new version of "Peggy Sue" for that new Rave On, Buddy Holly record. It reminded me of Reed's "December Song" contribution to "Lost In The Stars", a similar take on Kurt Weill. That both reinterpreted the song and kept true to the number - no mean feat!
This ability to translate his style to different genres makes the Metallica collaboration even more exciting!

My Stones Collection

Anyway, here is my SACD Stones collection as it stands now:
The Rolling Stones
12x5
December's Children
Out of Our Heads
Out of Our Heads (UK)
Got Live If You Want It
Aftermath
Aftermath (UK)
Between the Buttons
Between the Buttons (UK)
Their Satanic Majesties Request
Beggars Banquet
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out
Let It Bleed
Flowers
Hot Rocks
More Hot Rocks
Metamorphosis
Singles Collection

Gathering Rolling Stones SACDs

This weekend was a nice boost for the other large catalog of SACDs I'm collecting: The Rolling Stones.
But unlike the Bob Dylan collection, the Stones SACDs are not just getting hard to find. They are, and have been, hard to keep track of.
The early Rolling Stones catalog was released by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and London Records in the United States (see here for an explanation of the unique licensing agreement). As was the practice with other transatlantic releases by British Invasion bands, the two labels did not offer identical releases. For example, according to the website "Stones on Decca," that label made the decision not to release any singles on its LPs. This practice of releasing different LPs in each market continued until 1967, with the release of Their Satanic Majesties Request.
In that four-year period, 12 Rolling Stones albums released. In three cases, Out of Our Heads, Aftermath, and Between The Buttons, both the U.S. and U.K. releases had the same name but subtly different lineups. For example, the two versions of Between The Buttons feature 10 identical songs, but two songs unique to each release. Telling the two apart visually is also difficult: both have the same cover photo, but the U.K. version has a pinstripe around the edge.
For me, it gets even more confusing when different albums feature the same artwork. For example, the cover photograph is nearly identical for the U.K. release of Out of Our Heads and December's Children (And Everybody's):

 

while the U.S. release of Out of Our Heads featured a photo that reminds me of the release 12x5:

When ABKCO released the SACD versions of these albums in 2002, they could have made one country's releases standard (like The Beatles did when their albums were converted to CD). But for whatever reason, both catalogs were released. In fact, if one wants "everything" the Stones did, these get even more difficult to keep track of because one version of the album will have a mono version of the song, another will have the stereo version.

Just to add to the confusion, ABKCO stopped producing the catalog in SACD when the United States pressing plant closed. But unlike Columbia, which generated new stock numbers for the subsequent non-SACD releases, ABKCO continued using the same catalog numbers and UPC after SACD production ended. For that reason, there is no way to tell a standard "redbook" CD from an SACD version without seeing the paper "digipak" sleeve or the SACD logo printed directly on the disc. While this can keep the price of SACDs lower (if a CD shop doesn't have a knowledgable staff, they will price each version identically), it makes buying the SACDs from larger sites online almost impossible.

The result is that I'm not only unsure which SACDs I need to complete my collection, but that I'm not entirely sure which albums were released as SACDs in the first place. I think that my set is almost complete, and this week I added two titles to my collection.

First was England's Newest Hit Makers, the Stones first album, second was More Hot Rocks (Big Hits and Fazed Cookies). 

Turntable.fm admission?

Does anyone have a membership to the website turntable.fm and would like to offer up Facebook friendship?

My Guitar "To-Do" list

Ignorance by Paramore

Maggot Brain by Funkadelic

When Doves Cry by Prince

War Pigs by Black Sabbath

Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2

Best Of Both Worlds by Van Halen

Black Magic Woman by Santana
Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen

Argus

How did I go all this time without hearing this record?

Pop Market makes good!

Wow, I did not expect that! I wrote to Popmarket.com and told them that two of the CD cases in my 3-CD Sam Cooke set were broken, and that day they told me they were sending me replacements! How awesome is that? I'm really happy I wrote to them, and overjoyed with their response.

Another hiccup...

My PopMarket shippment arrived two broken CD cases, and all three were cracked in some way. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but if the CDs aren't pristine, you could just get them from iTunes, right? Sigh.

Too good to be true

Shoot! The Dylan CD arrived today... and it was the redbook CD version. I'm hoping the eBayer just sent me the wrong disc, but I may be back to looking for a version of "Street Legal" again.

Yay, one to go!

I'm the proud-to-be owner-to-be of a "Brand New" copy of Dylan's Street Legal on SACD! Ebay says it's on the way - can't wait to compare it to the others in this series!
Now, if I get "Infidels" my collection will be complete. "Jokerman" here I come!