Back in 1986 I didn't immediately buy the LP as I was [hah!] waiting for the CD! When it became apparent that I was not getting one after a year, I finally relented and bought the LP [a used copy] in April of 1988. It was an incredible album but it remained until I got the Sonoluxe CD with the revised cover to finally have it on the silver disc of choice.
But that one remained until 2014 until I managed to get one. Maybe others remember the tale of Mr. Nelson licensing the album from CBS and affording to pay fees that saw only a modest number of copies made. I recall hearing that it was coming out in 2006 and later that year looking it up online when I remembered to and discovered that it was now OOP and selling for more than I could afford in the same year of its issue! Those copies were gone with the wind and it was not until 2014, after the Esoteric 2xCD issue happened that someone probably sold off their earlier single disc Sonoluxe copy. I bought it in Amoeba San Francisco for $19.95. Good thing too since I've never seen the Esoteric copy. I'm happy to have the Sonoluxe CD and the original LP with the beautiful white cover.
I was always non-plussed as to why the cassette version of the album wasn't used for the CD version. By this I mean that the cassette version must have had a decent master tape to be replicated from.The running order of the tracks is fantastic (and perhaps "as the Artist intended"?) and it is this version of the album that contains the longer version of "Because of You." The 2CD set is fabulous but there's always that nagging thought in my mind - was the master tape for the cassette version returned to Bill or do Sony/Portrait still have it in their archives?
I'm afraid I've long forgotten about why a cassette version would differ from the vinyl version. It might be because there was more space available on the cassette?
Nothing has been returned to me as far as master tapes go. I'm presuming they're still owned by Sony who inherited them from CBS/Portrait.
As for a double CD set, hmmm...I can't recall when such a thing came out. But, you know, I never pay much attention to old albums and often forget about them altogether. I seem to recall designing a new cover for a re-issue of 'Holy Ghost' but can't remember if it was a double CD or not.
With well over a hundred albums to my name, it's hard to keep track of the why's and when's. I just keep my mind on the next project. That's always the focus of my attention. The past, as they say, is a foreign country...😉
Thank you for the reply, Mr. Nelson. The double CD set is the Cocteau Discs / Esoteric Recordings version from 2013. Disc 2 contains the Wildest Dreams 12" and the Living for the Spangled Moment set. Your redesigned cover was for the 2006 Sonoluxe CD.
The original cassette issued on Portrait has the following track list:
A
Suvasini
Contemplation
Theology
Wildest Dreams
Lost in Your Mystery
Rise Like a Fountain
Age of Reason
Living for the Spangled Moment
B
The Hidden Flame
Word for Word
Illusions of You
Heart and Soul
Finks and Stooges of the Spirit
Because of You (longer version)
Pansophia
The cassette has roughly 39 minutes on each side, with around 8 minutes blank at the end of side B.
What did you use?"The AHB Inpulse One drum machine."Really?"Yes. I like it very much, but I don't think I'm being unfair when I say that it's been incredibly unreliable. I ordered a version of it before it was ever available in the shops, after it had been widely advertised in the music press. But the company had technical difficulties putting it into production so it was quite a while before I received mine. It's just been fitted with MIDI, and the sound library for it is all on cassette which takes a little while to load. It's slower than putting chips in but it's a damn sight cheaper than having to have chips of your own 'blown'. And you can send them a tape of any sound and they'll digitize it for you, send you a cassette back and you just load it up.As I say, mine's been unreliable but it was one of the very early ones. I still like it, basically because it has drum pads which you can actually play in a natural way like conventional drums. On this album, I used it to play all the basic snare/bass drum patterns, which I stored as short sequences in the computer part of it. Then I played those back repeatedly and embroidered things over the top during fills.Preston Heyman actually came in at a later stage to add acoustic percussion to several of the tracks and also a bit of Simmons kit.As for the other musicians - I used Iain Denby on bass who has his own band in Leeds called Secret People. He's very talented and young and worked with me on the last tour I did of the States. Andy Davis played some additional keyboards on the album and he was with Stackridge originally, then The Korgis, and also did some stuff with Tears For Fears. I met Andy when I auditioned keyboard players for the American tour.Actually, I find auditioning musicians for a band is a nightmare, which is why I try and find every possible excuse not to put a band together! Particularly because when I play things on keyboards at home, I haven't got a clue what I'm doing. And when you have to explain it to somebody who's actually a keyboard player, it gets very embarrassing because they ask you what chord it is and you don't know! So Andy had the unenviable task of trying to figure out what I had played, but he was very good and his personality was right." Source: http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/getting-the-holy-ghost-across/1614
I think I was using an obscure, (and now extremely rare,) drum machine made by AHB, but after all this time I can't remember for sure. Anyway, it's the one in that old p[hoto' of me sittimng in my 'Echo Observatory' studio in Haddlesey House, holding the drumsticks over the pads of the drum machine, (which was a sort of metal briefcase looking thing.) Gosh, way back in the 1980s! So much music under my guitar's bridge since then!
I was about 16 when I got that album and was 'Living for the Spangled Moment'. What drum machine were you using on that one, Bill? Good Mick Karnish bass lines on some of those cuts too.
I seem to remember that Hidden Flame was in heavy rotation within my circle of friends back in the day. The band I was working with did a pretty good cover, but dropped it from the play list as the club owners wanted dance songs that were on the radio.
My first BN album. Not a bad place to start. Bought from Boots, (yes, Boots), in York back in the days. I bought it principally on account of the 'what in the hell is going on here' cover.
Engineer : John Leckie, Leon Phillips, Steve Nye (tracks: A2 to B1, B3, B4)
Forgot about the great John Leckie.
Leon Phillips I may not be familiar with outside of Getting The Holy Ghost Across but I like the name of his website:
http://www.harmonicsonics.uk/
GTHGA is masterpiece and very different from anything that had happened previously, to my way of thinking, anyway. I always think of it as the beginning of something new.
Keyboards [Additional]: Andy Davis.
Says Andy played on John Lennon's Imagine album as well.
What was Preston Heyman like to work with on those tracks?
I get this one-take-and-it's great sense from him.
Preston's got a unique touch to percussion and it's sort of similar to your unique touch to percussion, actually.
Photography [of Bill Nelson]: Sheila Rock.
The great Sheila Rock.
Sheila can rock a camera just like Mick Rock can but in a completely different way.
Always liked that photograph.
Had assumed it was a moment captured from a dimly lit Rosicrucian ceremony that was underway.
The photo' also reminds me of a Jean Cocteau drawing or painting.
Cool. Thanks. And included is the great bass playing from the great Iain Denby and Bill, sax from the great Ian Nelson, percussion from great Preston Heyman ... production from great Steve Nye. What happened to Steve Nye? Where'd he go to?
Back in 1986 I didn't immediately buy the LP as I was [hah!] waiting for the CD! When it became apparent that I was not getting one after a year, I finally relented and bought the LP [a used copy] in April of 1988. It was an incredible album but it remained until I got the Sonoluxe CD with the revised cover to finally have it on the silver disc of choice.
But that one remained until 2014 until I managed to get one. Maybe others remember the tale of Mr. Nelson licensing the album from CBS and affording to pay fees that saw only a modest number of copies made. I recall hearing that it was coming out in 2006 and later that year looking it up online when I remembered to and discovered that it was now OOP and selling for more than I could afford in the same year of its issue! Those copies were gone with the wind and it was not until 2014, after the Esoteric 2xCD issue happened that someone probably sold off their earlier single disc Sonoluxe copy. I bought it in Amoeba San Francisco for $19.95. Good thing too since I've never seen the Esoteric copy. I'm happy to have the Sonoluxe CD and the original LP with the beautiful white cover.
Thanks, @wadcorp, as always, and it should be noted that the great Iain Denby who contributed such beguiling bass to this album is on this forum.
You know, it just doesn’t get any better than this album for me. Astounding.
And it is anniversary time, again.
.
I was always non-plussed as to why the cassette version of the album wasn't used for the CD version. By this I mean that the cassette version must have had a decent master tape to be replicated from. The running order of the tracks is fantastic (and perhaps "as the Artist intended"?) and it is this version of the album that contains the longer version of "Because of You." The 2CD set is fabulous but there's always that nagging thought in my mind - was the master tape for the cassette version returned to Bill or do Sony/Portrait still have it in their archives?
Actually, I neglected to post about this yesterday.
.
What did you use? "The AHB Inpulse One drum machine." Really? "Yes. I like it very much, but I don't think I'm being unfair when I say that it's been incredibly unreliable. I ordered a version of it before it was ever available in the shops, after it had been widely advertised in the music press. But the company had technical difficulties putting it into production so it was quite a while before I received mine. It's just been fitted with MIDI, and the sound library for it is all on cassette which takes a little while to load. It's slower than putting chips in but it's a damn sight cheaper than having to have chips of your own 'blown'. And you can send them a tape of any sound and they'll digitize it for you, send you a cassette back and you just load it up. As I say, mine's been unreliable but it was one of the very early ones. I still like it, basically because it has drum pads which you can actually play in a natural way like conventional drums. On this album, I used it to play all the basic snare/bass drum patterns, which I stored as short sequences in the computer part of it. Then I played those back repeatedly and embroidered things over the top during fills. Preston Heyman actually came in at a later stage to add acoustic percussion to several of the tracks and also a bit of Simmons kit. As for the other musicians - I used Iain Denby on bass who has his own band in Leeds called Secret People. He's very talented and young and worked with me on the last tour I did of the States. Andy Davis played some additional keyboards on the album and he was with Stackridge originally, then The Korgis, and also did some stuff with Tears For Fears. I met Andy when I auditioned keyboard players for the American tour. Actually, I find auditioning musicians for a band is a nightmare, which is why I try and find every possible excuse not to put a band together! Particularly because when I play things on keyboards at home, I haven't got a clue what I'm doing. And when you have to explain it to somebody who's actually a keyboard player, it gets very embarrassing because they ask you what chord it is and you don't know! So Andy had the unenviable task of trying to figure out what I had played, but he was very good and his personality was right." Source: http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/getting-the-holy-ghost-across/1614
I think I was using an obscure, (and now extremely rare,) drum machine made by AHB, but after all this time I can't remember for sure. Anyway, it's the one in that old p[hoto' of me sittimng in my 'Echo Observatory' studio in Haddlesey House, holding the drumsticks over the pads of the drum machine, (which was a sort of metal briefcase looking thing.) Gosh, way back in the 1980s! So much music under my guitar's bridge since then!
One of my favorite albums. Flows wonderfully.
I was about 16 when I got that album and was 'Living for the Spangled Moment'. What drum machine were you using on that one, Bill? Good Mick Karnish bass lines on some of those cuts too.
I seem to remember that Hidden Flame was in heavy rotation within my circle of friends back in the day. The band I was working with did a pretty good cover, but dropped it from the play list as the club owners wanted dance songs that were on the radio.
My first BN album. Not a bad place to start. Bought from Boots, (yes, Boots), in York back in the days. I bought it principally on account of the 'what in the hell is going on here' cover.
Yet another Bill Nelson album that will stand the test of time. A fabulous masterpiece 👍👍
Ah, yes.
Engineer : John Leckie, Leon Phillips, Steve Nye (tracks: A2 to B1, B3, B4)
Forgot about the great John Leckie.
Leon Phillips I may not be familiar with outside of Getting The Holy Ghost Across but I like the name of his website:
http://www.harmonicsonics.uk/
GTHGA is masterpiece and very different from anything that had happened previously, to my way of thinking, anyway. I always think of it as the beginning of something new.
Keyboards [Additional]: Andy Davis.
Says Andy played on John Lennon's Imagine album as well.
What was Preston Heyman like to work with on those tracks?
I get this one-take-and-it's great sense from him.
Preston's got a unique touch to percussion and it's sort of similar to your unique touch to percussion, actually.
Photography [of Bill Nelson]: Sheila Rock.
The great Sheila Rock.
Sheila can rock a camera just like Mick Rock can but in a completely different way.
Always liked that photograph.
Had assumed it was a moment captured from a dimly lit Rosicrucian ceremony that was underway.
The photo' also reminds me of a Jean Cocteau drawing or painting.
Cool. Thanks. And included is the great bass playing from the great Iain Denby and Bill, sax from the great Ian Nelson, percussion from great Preston Heyman ... production from great Steve Nye. What happened to Steve Nye? Where'd he go to?