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Volume #0262 May 12, 1999
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In Your Home...In Your Car...or Wherever You Roam
Subject: Re: 5th Dimension
Received: 05/12/99 6:56 am
>From: A Cross-eyed Puppet Named Igor, wuxxxet.se
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com
Thank you *so much* for the info on 5D, David Feldman, Ian
Chapman and Paul Urbahns! I went to the website that
Jeffrey Thames mentioned, and was surprised to read that
none of 5D's original LPs probably won't be reissued. Now,
this I don't understand...I'm sure you could compile the
group's entire backcatalog as 3-4 twofers...would that *
really* be *that* much more expensive than to release a 30
song "Definitive Collection"??? The 5th Dimension are
probably more influental today (on everything from
Stereolab and High Llamas to Pizzicato Five) than they've
ever been so it just seems...stupid to hold the LPs back.
So for this reason...could someone perhaps make me a tape
of 5D's "Up Up And Away" and "Magic Garden" LPs...??
Please? :)
Tobias
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Subject: Bones on the 5th
Received: 05/12/99 6:55 am
>From: Doc Rock, docxxx.com
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com
Bones Howe talking about the 5th Dimension in "Liberty
Records:"
Again it seems that all of the roles, that of songwriter,
producer, engineer, drummer, were frequently co-mingled in
the L.A. music scene. "This happened a lot. We all worked
on things together." This created some problems, though.
"I got into a very embarrassing situation when Phil
Spector, in front of a lot of people, said, 'You really
produced the Mamas and Papas. Now it can be told.' But I
didn't produce them. Louie was the producer, he called me
and John into the room. That is what a producer does: He
didn't have to actually tell everyone what to play. Some
producers do, some don't. Lou Adler always had great ideas
about background vocals. We all made our contributions but
it was always understood that Lou was the producer. I felt
sorry for Lou when John started to take over during the
second Mama's and Papas album, because Lou taught everyone
how to do it. Lou was my mentor, for sure. I still quote
him whenever I can.
"Johnny Rivers, a Liberty/Imperial artists, discovered a
group called the Versatiles and he renamed them the 5th
Dimension [for his Liberty subsidiary label, Soul City].
John always was a mystical guy. He had this idea that they
could be the black Mamas and Papas. Lou was producing both
the Mamas and Papas and Johnny, so he was around the
sessions. The first Mamas and Papas record was going to be
'Go Where You Wanna Go,' but all of a sudden everyone
decided that 'California Dreamin'' was a better record.
"So 'Go Where You Wanna Go' was put on the back burner. In
typical record biz fashion of those days, Johnny decided to
cover that with the 5th Dimension. He called me and said, '
Look, I want you to get for me everyone who played on that
session, because I want to duplicate that record.' So that
was what we did, we went in and duplicated the record with
the 5th Dimension. That was the launch of that group. In
those days they did not put engineers' names on records.
But on the Up Up and Away album with that song, you'll see
my picture on the back."
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Subject: Re: Missing vocals
Received: 05/12/99 6:55 am
>From: WILLIAM STOS, xxxet.com
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com
>>I have a question which occured to me today while I was
>>listening to my local oldies station--they were playing
>>The Mamas and the Papas "California Dreamin" and the
>>vocals had somehow all but been wiped off the track, along
>>with some of the backing. This is not the first time I've
>>heard this oddity over the years and I've also noticed it
>>on some Lovin' Spoonful tracks. Does this have something
>>to do with the equipment they recorded on? I sure hope
>>someone else has noticed this from time to time as well...
The station which plays my show has a problem where
sometimes, if a song is recorded in stereo one of the
speakers is completely wiped clean. Often I've played a
song which sounds perfectly fine to me, only to find from
some of my listeners that sound was only coming from one
of their speakers.
Other times, I play someting and I can only hear the
instrumental track, or the vocal track. I end up playing a
lot of vocal records in acapella form. This usually has to
do with the station's equipment. The better the equipment,
the less likely this is to occur.
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Subject: Re: Mamas and Papas Missing Vocals
Received: 05/12/99 6:55 am
>From: Doc Rock, docxxx.com
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com
I don't recall which hit it was, but when I was DJ-ing in
Toledo, Ohio, there was one track on my CD of their hits
that always came out over the air with missing vocals (but
it played fine at home). The station engineer said that the
label had mastered the track of the CD out of phase on that
song. And thus it was not compatible with the station's
equipment.
It was a mono AM station. I assume that the board was
wired out of phase, and he did not want to admit it.
Taking an out-of-phase stereo mix and making it mono will
eliminate everything in the middle of the mix. Anyway, I
feel that is the source of the problem we've been taking
and reading about.
Doc
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Subject: THE CASE OF THE MISSING VOCALS
Received: 05/12/99 6:55 am
>From: Warren Cosford, xxx.Net
To: Spectropop, Spectxxxities.com
Whenever you hear missing vocals or instruments on the
radio it is often because the station has dubbed the song
to a broadcast cartridge "out of phase". It's one of the
reasons why, in the 70's, promo copies of 45RPM singles
intended for airplay on AM radio usually had a "stereo"
side and a "mono" side.
I've also heard the problem on many of the "electronically
reproduced for stereo" recordings that were popular in the
70's. RCA's treatment of the early Elvis catalogue is
notorious for this.
Cheers
WC
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