blaahh
PAPER GOD
Still breathing
Posts: 2,582
|
Post by blaahh on Sept 19, 2023 9:04:42 GMT -5
I'm going through a Liberty phase and have been playing both the album and the Didn't Anyone Tell You demos 2CD which I got in a trade in the late 90s. Its a pretty well made CDR but does anyone know please,
A, what the original source was?
B, whether it was first released on a silver factory pressed CD? (ie an Italian/ Luxembourg bootleg label like Big Beat?)
It sounds to me like John and Simon trying out guide vocals over relatively well finished instrumental tracks.
Cheers!
|
|
gabby
PAPER GOD
Posts: 1,883
|
Post by gabby on Sept 19, 2023 15:26:08 GMT -5
I would love to know this too and wouldn’t it be great to have the source re-ripped without the noise removal that was applied to reduce hiss.
|
|
|
Post by bigbanggeneration on Sept 22, 2023 12:11:51 GMT -5
Hi,
Wow! This was a long time ago. 1990s. Yeah, I suspect the statute of limitations may have expired on this and along with the Anthology coming, it's probably safe to reveal some of the details. Also, a good friend wrote to me a little while back to tell me he had seen that JT said some kind words about the Didn't Anybody Tell You cd after he heard it. I think this was during the time that JT had left the band. Basically, he said the demos really captured the spirit of the sessions. I can't remember what else he said but someone here may know!
I had met a nice guy - a fellow brit - on one of the Duran boards (Lizard King?). He was a huge fan of the Big Thing, Liberty, and Wedding Album era. I don't think he follows the band as much anymore, but I did see him post when a story was posted on one of the sites about Liberty and the making of that album.
I complained to him one day that too bad the Liberty demos out there are shite! He then mentioned that he did have something, but he thinks its crap too as the tapes had eroded. So, I asked him if he could send it to me and he did!
The story goes that there was a copy made of whatever was the most current versions of tracks during the recording sessions and he somehow got hold of it and stored it in a box. The tapes deteriorated. He never mentioned where he obtained it, and I never asked. But he did say someone out there had even a better copy!
I went through the cassette tapes. Transferred the audio from a Sony cassette deck to a Sony cd recorder using optical cables to avoid any further loss in quality. The first thing that struck me was these recordings sounded better than what was out there when I listened to the CDs that I created based on these transfers. I then transferred the wav files from the CDs to computer and organized everything.
Then I sent them off to an audio engineer to see if there was anything that could be done with them. The engineer did an incredible job to my amazement! He took about a month.
Then it was - what to do now? I reached out to my friend that sent them to me and asked him did he care if I made a few CDs of this? Strictly small time. I think there were 100 made. He was fine with it. He came up with the cd title - "Didn't Anybody Tell You" - along with the write-up in the insert about the recording sessions. This was before detailed internet stories were available about those sessions. He was really passionate about the band and had no problem creating this! I created the track listing.
There was a mistake by me on one of the tracks. One of the songs was an instrumental demo. It was on the original tapes, and I thought it was a Duran track. I later found out it was a Warren collaboration with another artist(?). It was a great and moody instrumental!
The big disappointment to me was that there was a French remix of Violence of Summer which was the most amazing mix. But the quality was just not that good, even after the audio restoration. A couple years back, a cool Duran friend sent me this recording in perfect audio. Apparently, it is this super rare French remix of the track. So, Duran had to have had this version as it was on these tapes. Perhaps it will come out on the Anthology series. I mean all the remixes of Violence of Summer were shite compared to this version of the remix.
There was a video of Duran performing some Liberty tracks in a live setting but with no audience. I can't remember if I put the audio of this on this cd or not(?).
The cd's were CD-R and not the professionally manufactured silver backed CDs. What happened after this 2CD was released was it got copied and issued on newly named bootlegs. To this day, I always wondered did these people kill the quality when they reissued them under different titles. In other words, in their data transfers, did they mess with the quality. Were the audio files from these 2CDs that they transferred to their computers done in wav format? Or shite MP3 or any other inferior format.
Looking back on it - do you want to know what the real jewel of this 2CD was? A live recording of Ordinary World at Albert Hall in 1991(?). The first time it was ever played live. Think about it, Duran is this famous band and here is this gem on this cd. It was a cool version of it where the melody knocked you off your feet just like the actual version that they played beginning in 1993 did. Simon was singing it differently in parts. I think there was a 2nd (John Lennon) track as well from that performance on this 2CD as well.
I have not listened to it in a long time!
Thanks for a blast from the past folks!
|
|
|
Post by xxxxxxc on Sept 22, 2023 13:20:09 GMT -5
This is an amazing story. Thank you for sharing.
Simon also said to me the Demos were better than the finished album.
Do you still have the tracks that you worked on for that limited pressing of 100 copies?
Thanks.
|
|
blaahh
PAPER GOD
Still breathing
Posts: 2,582
|
Post by blaahh on Sept 22, 2023 13:38:28 GMT -5
Thank you, fascinating story!! It's still a great set and was worth your time and effort. I have the French promo cassette of Violence and it isn't a great sounding tape anyway. All questions answered and I'll go back to enjoying it as I do.
|
|
|
Post by bigbanggeneration on Sept 22, 2023 15:20:57 GMT -5
Yes, that's it. The instrumental demo is called liberty by Partrick O'hearn.
There is a post here titled "Patrick O’hearn Liberty with Warren’s superb guitar" as well.
I don't feel so bad now that the track was on the cd with Warren being on guitar! Interesting that this track would be on the source tape. I assume from the recording studio.
The person who recorded Ordinary World was the person who sent me the tape. Pretty good quality all things considered! He was using some type of analog recorder (I think). Pretty sure it wasn't a DAT recorder. My toy of choice during that period was the Sony TCD-D8 DAT recorder. I didn't use it as part of the cassette tape transfer for the Didn't Anybody Tell You CDs as I was able to go from cassette directly to cd without losing quality.
On the CDs, you can hear a weird sound at times. The story goes that I did receive these recordings on cassettes. My friend explained to me that originally the recordings were on cassette. Then they got transferred to VHS video tape. Then transferred back to cassette at some point. The deterioration was happening while the songs were on the VHS tapes. Those sounds you hear are distortions picked up while the songs were stored on VHS tape.
The other thing I forgot about was that John Jones reached out to me on the LK board after this cd came out. I couldn't send him the cd fast enough! He was very cool. He mentioned he didn't have many of these recordings. When I first saw his message, I thought the Duran Duran police were coming! (Mark Ronson used this term).
The whole thing was an eerie experience in a way. An amazing memory as well!
|
|
|
Post by Dr Of The Revolution on Oct 1, 2023 7:23:57 GMT -5
The inclusion of the Warren track makes me think he was the source of the leak of those tapes. I think many of DD's 90's demo output originates to Warren. If that's the case I thank him for that !
I aquiered the liberty demo's in 1993. Another fan had a cassette with the demo's which I copied. Quality was more hissy than what was later released on CDR.
As for the origin of the recordings : I strongly believe these were all rehearsal recordings. Not the result of actual recording sessions in the studio. The Big Thing tour was rehearsed in Stanbridge Farm Rehearsal Studios. In 1989 Duran returned there.
A quick look at the Duran Duran timeline - Year 1989 :
May 8 to May 25 1989 :
Duran rehearses songs for upcoming summer festivals (including "The Chauffeur" and a soul version of "Careless Memories"), and writes new music for the album to become Liberty, at Stanbridge Farm Rehearsal Studios.
July 5 to July 10 1989 :
More work on Liberty at Stanbridge rehearsal hall; John is heavily involved in writing and demoing tracks.
August 10 1989 More work on Liberty at Stanbridge Farm rehearsal hall; demos bootlegged (later distributed on bootleg CD Didn't Anybody Tell You?).
|
|
redmumba
PAPER GOD
Nonabuser of ellipsis
Posts: 3,536
|
Post by redmumba on Oct 1, 2023 9:11:50 GMT -5
I know the tracks on the CD have been restored to some effect and stuff truncated - i.e. the electronic "beeps" that must mean something in the recording process. A very valued member of this board sent me a copy of these demos on tape back in '92. I was TOTALLY blown away by them! Here was an album that didn't rate very highly with me, but listening to these versions was a whole new experience. I'd really like to see the band issue these officially - maybe with a SDE edition of the album?
|
|
gabby
PAPER GOD
Posts: 1,883
|
Post by gabby on Oct 6, 2023 15:35:14 GMT -5
I know the tracks on the CD have been restored to some effect and stuff truncated - i.e. the electronic "beeps" that must mean something in the recording process. A very valued member of this board sent me a copy of these demos on tape back in '92. I was TOTALLY blown away by them! Here was an album that didn't rate very highly with me, but listening to these versions was a whole new experience. I'd really like to see the band issue these officially - maybe with a SDE edition of the album? Do you still have the tape? It would be so interesting to hear the raw version.
|
|
redmumba
PAPER GOD
Nonabuser of ellipsis
Posts: 3,536
|
Post by redmumba on Oct 6, 2023 16:25:35 GMT -5
I know the tracks on the CD have been restored to some effect and stuff truncated - i.e. the electronic "beeps" that must mean something in the recording process. A very valued member of this board sent me a copy of these demos on tape back in '92. I was TOTALLY blown away by them! Here was an album that didn't rate very highly with me, but listening to these versions was a whole new experience. I'd really like to see the band issue these officially - maybe with a SDE edition of the album? Do you still have the tape? It would be so interesting to hear the raw version. Yep, still have it. I should transfer it to computer and not edit out anything.
|
|