Oh, how they dig into our pockets

[Yesspaz]

Well, I knew those Rhino reprobates where up to something. I've been putting off buying the new Yes boxed set for this very reason.

Rhino is re-releasing Yes' entire catalog, super-remastered, with bonus tracks, four discs at the time. These bonus tracks, for now, consist of earlier versions and demos of Yes classics, including the demo of Roundabout, etc. I'm sure that some other "previously unreleased" tracks that SHOULD HAVE BEEN on the box set will pop up on these re-releases. So, the rebuying will begin. Now, I've got to go sell all my Yes albums and buy the new ones - not exactly a profitable thing. Yes, I am excited about the demos. Yes, I am ticked that the record business knows how to pick our pockets, and that we let them. They should just release a four disc set of demos and stuff, and I'd buy it the day it came out.

Anyway, here's the official annoucement:

http://www.yesworld.com/

second link

[byzantium]

I'm not impressed. They throw in some outtakes to make people buy the same things all over again with - presumably - no perceivable improvement of the sound quality? What's the physical condition of those 30+years old tapes in the first place?

[Yesspaz]

It's the same thing as the KCCC - Let's release yet another live version of the same setlists over and over...

[byzantium]

I was primarily thinking the reissues of the recordings over and over again. What does it add?

DVD-Audio could make sense though, especially live recordings.

[Avian(Admin)]

There have been reviews of Yes' Fragile DVD-A on rec.music.progressive. The reviews were interesting. Apparantly, they've ADDED some parts to the original recording that pan around and to enhance the experience. The reviews have been generally positive.

[Yesspaz]

As far as I can tell, these will not be DVD-A. They're (I think) 30 bit remastering instead of the sixteen or whatever we have right now, with extras. The extras, at least for the first four albums, are earlier versions, demos, b-sides, etc.

[Powerslave]

In my experience, there has always been a great reason for leaving unreleased/different version tracks off of albums when they are originally recorded. That reason being: those tracks suck! They weren't considered good enough or fit well enough into the original recording sessions for a release, so chances are they're not worth hearing.

I recently bought both of the Genesis Archive box sets and listened to all of the first one. I was pretty happy I picked it up cheap, because it's not altogether great stuff. It's nice to have some live stuff that doesn't appear on the other live Genesis albums, but the 4th disc of unreleased demos and singles was pretty much crap, IMO.

I'd rather have an original CD of a recording instead of a re-issue with bonus tracks that don't fit with the rest of the album and sound like crap. If a band wants to release a collection of b-sides and rare live stuff, I might buy it. But I'll never fork over money to replace a CD for the same CD with crap tacked onto it. I still have cassettes I need to replace with CD's, for cryin' out loud.

Chances are, there will never be a release from a band made up solely of unreleased demos of songs that already appear on other albums. They just wouldn't sell, except to rabid fans and audiophiles (but why would either wish to hear an inferior version?). I don't really have any advice for you, Yesspaz, since you are excited about the bonus tracks and are probably going to by the re-releases regardless of my or anyone else's post. I just wanted to discuss my opinions about the crappy quality of most bonus tracks. It's just not worth it, IMO.

[Bob Lentil]

I agree. I lunge at the stop button on my CD player before it gets to the "bonus" tracks everytime I listen to my remastered Aqualung.

[clactdj]

Or how about the solo versions of group tracks, like Rick Wakeman's Greatest Hits?

I was infuriated to see that "Lightning Strikes" didn't make it on that new box set. Instead, they have that lame song about Jon's hero, Bob Marley. For Jon's sake, I hope he doesn't die the way BM did....

As for bonus tracks, there's always the program function to eliminate them from playing.

[gregorio alfaro]

friends:

don´t waste you money if you don´t like to.

instead get the tracks via Winmx or Soulseek or dc++. Most of this unreleased track are available there.

i have recently get the "live at Summit Studios"complete cd by King Crimson, that costs at least $50 here in Mexico i only spent one night cccccccccconnected!!!

so...........

[Avian(Admin)]

Uhhh.. I would completely discourage any form of piracy using WinMX or other programs, even in the case of the Yes reissues. Especially in the case of Yes, these folks work for a living, and taking record sales away from what little they sell in the first place is no way to support their efforts.

Avian

[gregorio alfaro]

oops!!!

Sorry to read that!

ok i agree with you, but there are such quantity of good stuff there that just a little taken wouldn´t be, imo, a great loss for them.

well, it was just a suggestion, but man you just make me feel a lot embarrased.

thanks for this back to ground answer friend.