Masterpieces CD

Masterpieces

Masterpieces was originally released as a 3-album set (CBS/Sony 57 AP 875-7)
in March 1978 in Japan and later that year in Australia and New Zealand,
in conjuction with Dylan's 1978 Far East Tour. In 1987 a 2-CD version (462448 2)
was released in Australia which omitted four songs (Idiot Wind, I Want You, Song
To Woody and Love Minus Zero/No Limit). Then in 1991 a 3-CD version (462448 9)
was released by Sony Music Australia which restored the dropped songs.

Disc 1

1. Knockin' On Heavens's Door
2. Mr. Tambourine Man
3. Just Like A Woman
4. I Shall Be Released
5. Tears Of Rage
6. All Along The Watchtower
7. One More Cup Of Coffee
8. Like A Rolling Stone
9. Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)
10. Tomorrow Is A Long Time
11. Lay, Lady, Lay
12. Idiot Wind

Disc 2

1. Mixed Up Confusion
2. Positively 4th Street
3. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
4. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
5. Spanish Is The Loving Tongue
6. George Jackson (Big Band Version)
7. Rita May
8. Blowin' In The Wind
9. Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
10. The Times They Are A-Changin
11. Masters of War
12. Hurricane

Disc 3

1. Maggie's Farm
2. Subterranean Homesick Blues
3. Ballad Of A Thin Man
4. Mozambique
5. This Wheel's On Fire
6. I Want You
7. Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35
8. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
9. Song To Woody
10. It Ain't Me Babe
11. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
12. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
13. If Not For You
14. If You See Her, Say Hello
15. Sara

Four of the Masterpieces songs are from Dylan's Greatest Hits albums or Biograph:

1. I Shall Be Released - on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
2. Tomorrow Is A Long Time - on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
3. Positively 4th Street - on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits and Biograph
4. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window - on Biograph

Five of the song versions on Masterpieces are not on any Columbia/Sony album:

1. Mixed Up Confusion - different mix of Biograph version
2. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - live Liverpool 1966, B-side of 1966 I Want You single
3. Spanish Is The Loving Tongue - B-side of 1971 Watching the River Flow single
4. George Jackson - "Big Band" version released on 1971 George Jackson single
5. Rita May - Desire outtake, B-side of 1976 Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again single

Originally compiled: September 25, 1996
Last revised: January 5, 1997

From: howells@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (John Howells) Subject: Masterpieces Date: Thu, 19 Dec 91 14:07:27 GMT chr@datmuc.UUCP (Christian Lechner) writes: : Reading about Masterpieces I would like to submit : another question to the group: : How about this 3CD set. I once more think that this : one really is not worth having, if one has a fine : collection of Dylan albums. Is there anything : extraordinary on it? Is the sound quality so much : better that in previous records? Should one buy it : (it is not so cheap!) ? Very few things actually. Before the release of _Biograph_, this was the only place you could find "Crawl Out Your Window" and "Mixed Up Confusion" on an album. For the record, the original vinyl release featured one side only of rare stuff that you could only find on this collection: Mixed Up Confusion - same version that later appeared on _Biograph_, but this one is a different mix. Positively 4th Street - the single long available on _Greatest Hits_, but maybe that album isn't available in other countries, thus the inclusion here? Crawl Out Your Window - the single with the Hawks. Same as on _Biograph_. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - this is the reason I bought the album! Not the standard studio version, but an incredible live one from the 1966 tour with the Hawks. This was recorded in Liverpool and found its way to the b-side of the single "I Want You" back in '66 before the release of _Blonde On Blonde_. A real rarity and just fantastic! George Jackson - there were two different versions of this song on the single released in 1971. This was the "big band" version (the "big band" supposedly consisted of Leon Russel and a couple of other musicians plus backup singers). As noted previously, this song is highly distorted on this album. Spanish Is the Loving Tongue - an awful version of this same song appeared on the notorious _Dylan_ album released while he was appearing on Asylum records back in 1973, but the version here is really fine. It first appeared as the b-side of the single "Watching the River Flow". Dylan accompanies himself on piano and plays better than I've ever heard him play. Rita May - another b-side, this time for "Memphis Blues Again" (the live version, edited, from _Hard Rain_). This is an outtake from _Desire_. Very nice. John Howells From: apn205m@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au Subject: Masterpieces Collection Date: 5 Apr 91 06:54:19 GMT Dear netters, Some information which may be of interest. No doubt some of you know of the collection called "Masterpieces", which was released only in Australia to celebrate Dylan's 1978 tour. It is a 3 album set, with about 6 tracks which are not available elsewhere, such as a live 1966 "Tom Thumb's Blues", and a few others. Well, I was living in Canada and the US for a few years. When I arrived back home I bought a copy of "Masterpieces" on CD. I knew there were a few tracks deleted from the collection to make it fit onto 2 CDs. But these were nothing not already available on other CDs, so I wasn't too bothered. I did get bothered, however, when I played the CD and found some early fade-outs on some tracks. This butchery is inexcusable. So I wrote to CBS (Sony music) in Australia to complain. I duly received a letter saying that they had ``noted my complaint'', and were ``looking into the matter'', and I should rest assured that they are ``totally committed to customer satisfaction'', ``blah blah blah''. So imagine my surprise when I get a call on March~4, from the Quality Control Manager for CBS in Sydney. He says they had a meeting, and decided to remaster the "Masterpieces" CD, with NO edits, and with the missing tracks replaced ! I was stunned. I never expected them to do this. I figured that if they got enough complaints, then maybe they would. Well, it took only one written complaint. So never let it be said that big companies are NOT responsive to reasonable complaints. Remeber, all this remastering, and repackaging as 3CDs rather than 2, is quite a lot of work for a market of only 17 million people (plus a few export copies). I was really impressed. Incidentally, if anyone wants one of the new Masterpieces collections, it is scheduled for release (in Australia only) on May 3. I'd be pleased to send to anyone if they want one. If you want an old one, we'd better hurry ! John Lattanzio From: apn205m@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au Subject: New MASTERPIECES Available Date: 9 May 91 02:14:11 GMT Hi everyone. The new 3 CD version of Masterpieces is due out on Friday. So it's time to get our act together in buying them.... The bad news: they have removed the great picture from the cover and added an awful one (I think)....but the good picture is still included on the insert inside, with a couple of other good pictures. (One is from the unreleased Hard Rain TV special, I think). The sound of the CDs is MUCH better than the original Masterpieces. They really did start from scratch, not just fixing the edits. They have done a very good job ! A close listening to a few tracks reveals great care in detail: the voice has more presence, and the sound is wonderful. (Interestingly, the left and right tracks are reversed on both the new and old Masterpieces versions of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", compared to the "Pat Garrett" version....) * * * John L From: howells@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (John Howells) Subject: Problem with George Jackson on Masterpieces Date: Wed, 18 Dec 91 14:26:25 GMT lell@dec2.wu-wien.ac.at (Christoph Lell ) writes: : A friend sent me the 3 CD Masterpieces release from : Australia and I received it yesterday. First thing : I want to hear is George Jackson, so I pop in the : disc and to my dismay this song has bootleg quality. : A constant fuzzy sound, as if I were listening to a : radio station which hasn't been adjusted correctly. : The rest of all 3 discs is o.k. It's only a problem : with this song. Is this true for all releases or : just a problem with my disc? This happens on my vinyl copy as well. I thought I had a bad pressing, but it looks like I'm not the only one. The original single doesn't have this problem, btw. It's clear as a bell. John Howells From: howells@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (John Howells) Date: 6 Jan 92 14:02:52 GMT georger@utoday.com (George Rothe) writes: :Isn't the Mighty Quinn on Masterpieces from Isle of Wight? Yup. : I have a further question. aside from the 69 Isle of Wight, : has Dylan ever done this song in concert? Nope. John Howells From: rmura@world.std.com (Ron Mura) Subject: Re: Masterpieces question. Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1993 20:15:39 GMT In article <1993Mar24.114107.26295@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> alien@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Diego Barros) writes: >I have just purchased Bob Dylan - Masterpieces 3 CD set >and have a question: On 'Mr Tambourine Man' at about 3:05 >during the song there seems to be a small "glitch" in the >sound. It seems to fade from both the left and right sides >for a bit... is this supposed to be normal for the recording >or is my copy faulty? I don't know about this song but the _Masterpieces_ set has had problems. Even the remastered one that came out a couple of years ago has a few serious defects. "George Jackson" has a lot of distortion, for example. - Ron Mura, Boston, Massachusetts rmura@world.std.com From: maes@prl.philips.nl (Maurice Maes) Subject: Re: Masterpieces question. Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1993 13:52:53 GMT Speaking of Masterpieces, everytime I see it, I think it has one of the most beautiful Dylan album covers. Or is it just because I don't have it? If I ever buy this thing, it's for the cover only. maurice From: howells@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (John Howells) Subject: Masterpieces question. Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1993 14:30:44 GMT dispoto@hplabsz.hpl.hp.com (Gary Dispoto) writes: : Just curious, has anyone ever figured out what the : deal is with the Masterpieces "George Jackson?" : I had (still have, in fact) the original 2 CD : Masterpieces set when the 3 CD set was released. : Someone in this newsgroup from Australia, I don't : remember who, offered to take orders for the 3 CD : set when it came out. I almost went for it, just : to get a clean "George Jackson." Turned out the : new set had the same problem. If I remember : correctly, we had a discussion of this at the time. : John Howells (I think) confirmed that the original : b-side (?) release of the song was sans distortion. : Presumably there are still some clean copies out there. : What gives with the Masterpieces version? What was : the master taken from and why is it all crackly? : Did CBS/Sony just not care? I have the original single and can definitely confirm that there are *NO* sound problems at all and is clear as a bell. I think CBS/Sony just didn't care to remaster the album version. In fact, I think the entire Masterpieces album is pretty shoddy. There's no indication anywhere (on my original vinyl 3-lp set anyway) that many of the renditions are actually live tracks taken from Self Portrait and Hard Rain. I was sort of hoping that "The Mighty Quinn" and "I Shall Be Released" would be the original basement tracks left off of the official album, but they turned out to be the usual ones from Isle of Wight and the Happy Traum mini-session. I bought the album only for the rarities on side 3 (live "Tom Thumb", "Crawl Out Your Window", "Mixed-Up Confusion", etc.) :Finally, what's meant by "(Big Band Version)?" Just a joke to distinguish it from the A-side which was a solo acoustic version of the same song. The "big band" is really just Leon Russell (right?). John Howells From: John Lattanzio Subject: Masterpieces and George Jackson Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1993 22:33:03 GMT The master of George Jackson which SONY USA sent to Australia for the Masterpieces collection is distorted. There was nothing that SONY in Australia could do about it. They tried, but SONY sent a distorted copy, and there it ended....blame SONY USA>...... JL From: rcj10@cam.ac.uk (Craig Jamieson) Subject: Masterpieces Date: 9 Oct 1996 15:39:43 GMT Melanie Thomas (dlc2352@TIPTOE.FHDA.EDU) wrote: : I am confused about this CD. Is it an "official" : release or a bootleg? I assumed it was official : since it's on Columbia, but the only place it : seems to be available is in Japan (or those import : stores). What's up with that?! Will someone : please clarify for me? Welllll, no one else seems to want to help Melanie, so that leaves her to me... ;-) Masterpieces purchased in the United States are illegal. EDLIS recommends you encourage the authorities to prosecute everyone you can think of. It is not a bootleg, it is something far more sinister. This is the grey market, and we are not talking kind old grannies here. Now that Sony think the letter of the law should be adhered to it is your duty I think to make sure not just the black market bootleggers spend their time and money in the courts, the mainstream companies can also be a lawyer's third Cadillac for the maid to take shopping. The Beatles' estate takes Sony to court, everyone else can join in. Funny how Sony now have more cases against them than those they instigated? Craig [Craig may be teasing a bit here. Or even engaging in misinformation? Its believed that Sony has worked out the royalty arrangements, so U.S. imports of Masterpieces are legal.]