vHere's some food for thought regarding a trend that seems to be popping up here and there on the reissue front.
One can never expect Morrissey to shy away from expressing his opinion on anything, and he won't let anything - even the sake of his relationships on the catalogue side of things. The mercurial singer recently took to his beloved fan site True to You to vent about, among other things, the poor presence of his latest compilation, The Very Best of Morrissey. "To top off all the pageantry, 'Very best of Morrissey' (EMI/Major Minor) has yet to tunnel its way into what we older types refer to as Record Shops – six days after intended release," Moz wrote. "The gallant HMV has yet to stock it, and did not manage to stock the 'Glamorous glue' single until four days after its scheduled release. In fact, the CD of 'Glamorous glue' did not EVER make it to HMV. With 'Very best of' I face my first ever non-chart placing – which I shall bear with dignity, although I could never be unkind enough to express my views on EMI's failings. It was John Lennon who coined the phrase 'Every Mistake Imaginable'. I shall not repeat it here."
It's an awkward stance to make in public - there have been rumors of more early catalogue action from Moz on EMI that may very well be sabotaged by the artist's missive - but it brings into perspective the nature of artists even bothering to address their catalogue projects in public. Sure, sometimes an artist will engage in some sort of publicizing - check out our good friend Jeff Giles' interview with Loudon Wainwright III on the occasion of his new box set - but often times a musician will be indifferent or, at worst, nearly hostile over the decisions of a label with regards to their back catalogue.
For instance, Elvis Costello told Alan Light a few years ago that he was only "nominally involved" with Universal's reissues of his back catalogue - the third time his albums had been reissued since their original releases - and suggested that, "with these live albums, they've gotten off on the wrong foot." By opposite design, sometimes artists will complain about the lack of relations with their catalogue; both Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze have detailed their struggles with getting Universal to pay any attention to their albums.
Does an artist's involvement shape your opinion on the ever-expanding slate of reissues and box sets out there? Do you think an artist's participation improves a package in general? Your thoughts are, as always, greatly welcomed.
ward says
It's usually a good thing when the artist in question is involved. One would assume they have enthusiasm over the work they've done, though I suppose that could also lead to them censoring themselves, or vetoing something that a more partial compiler might include.
As for Moz, I think he should be more miffed about that cover photo. Yeesh.
Bill B says
Yep, it looks like there should be a roll of Bounty next to him.
Don says
That Morrissey album cover is pretty hideous. If Moz was involved in THAT decision, then how can that be a good thing? 🙂
I agree, though, that artist involvement is usually a good thing. The U2 reissues have been awesome, with liner notes by The Edge and even new vocals recorded for a few vintage tracks on the bonus discs. Comprehensive sets like these wouldn't have been possible if the record company was doing the reissues on their own. At the same time, U2 has way more control over their back catalog than most artists, so not every artist has the luxury of being intimately involved with the process.
JG says
Ditto on the artist's involvement *usually* being a good thing. However, just to be contrary, I gotta mention The Cure's recent Deluxe Editions. From what I've heard, Robert Smith's been very involved in the bonus material on these - digging through old tapes, listening to mountains of material, etc.
Which is great, except that 80-90% of it is a total waste of time. There's the occasional diamond in the rough, but for the most part, it's just been a slew of inferior, shoddy-sounding demos (or sludgy-sounding live cuts) of songs I already know and love. It's one of the worst examples I've ever seen of having literally nothing left to put out, and trying to justify the smallest scraps.
I'm assuming it's a case of either 1) "my music is awesome and every step of my creative process must be preserved for all time" or 2) the record label made it clear they were gonna release something regardless of his involvement, so he tried to make the best of it. (Or 3: I'm just deaf to the quality of this stuff!) I'd love to know the details.
Don says
No, you're right... all of the Robert Smith "demos" are dreadful. There is absolutely no reason to fill an 80-minute bonus disc with that stuff. It would have been better to pick out 4 or 5 of the best/most interesting demos and then fill the rest of the disc with remixes, b-sides, etc. There's a reason why a lot of the Cure's bonus material is "previously unreleased:" it sucks.
Marc says
The only defense I can give to the Cure bonus discs is that the majority is unreleased. The b-sides and remixes were comprehensively collected on the Join the Dots box set so at least you're not paying for them twice.
That being said, I also find the bonus discs boring to sit through.
JG says
Reply to Marc: Yeah, the JTD set came out a couple years before the albums started getting reissued, and sure it's "great" that they didn't double-dip us by putting the same b-sides on the expanded albums, but on the other hand, it just makes me even more suspicious that the whole thing was planned this way from the beginning.
"Sure, we could put the b-sides on these bonus discs, but why don't we release them as their own package *first* so they have to buy a box set AND all the reissued albums!" (Rather than consolidating the quality material onto fewer discs)
Exhibit A: Funnily enough, their debut single "Killing An Arab" (which didn't appear on any of their original albums proper) was left off both the JTD box and the reissue of their first album. Robert claimed a couple years ago that once the reissues are all out, there will be a new, 2CD greatest hits collection. How much you wanna bet "Arab" will be on there?
Don says
Plus the Join the Dots set didn't cover all the bases. For example, for Disintegration, there were 7" and 12" remixes of the singles that were dramatically different from the album versions. But those weren't on Join the Dots, and they weren't on the Disintegration bonus disc due to all those wacky demos taking up so much space. 🙁