Elevators Contact sessions and what Powell St John said

[J Hill]

Greetings my friends.  Has anybody heard about the Elevators practicing and recording for Contact for a good 6 weeks before they really came out?  This is according to his interview on a movie called Dirt Road to Psychedelia with Powell St John.  In the movie, you hear Roky go, "first he comes in, then i come in, then we all come in" and then You're Gonna Miss Me starts.  The sound quality is great.  I think this is where some of the "alternate takes" from the Texas Archives label stuff comes from.  Can you imagine if like miles of tape exists somewhere?   Does anybody here know of any such way cool stuff?  This is pre IA, of course.  Its from the Contact label days.  I've been so busy I can't come to the group that much so I apologize if this has been addressed before.  Also, the pitch/speed is a little bit slower than I'm used to.  Hell, I thought it sounded great playing on an original mono at about 34rpm (if not a bit more).  John Ike has a '65 Sylvania record player that is heavy as shit (I think because the weights in the great speakers are so heavy) and sounds great and the tempo (speed) is a bit higher than the 33 1/3 on his rig but he likes the way it sounds and I did, too.  Man, the way it sounded on Dirt Road was awesome.  They don't play it till the end of the song though!  Dammit!   Any input anybody?  Thanks.     -Jeff

[J Hill]

Dangit I got computer trouble and didn't know if this posted.  Sorry about the probable repost y'all. 

[Baragon63]

On 4/30/09 5:31 AM, "J Hill" <jeffhi...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Dangit I got computer trouble and didn't know if this posted. Sorry about
> the probable repost y'all.

Don't worry about it, Jeff.

This list doesn't get a huge volume of daily traffic, and nobody here who
reads your messages is going to consider them spam.

Thanks for the enthusiastic posts, they put a smile on my face, and I think
you opened up a few topics for other group members to talk about with you.

Best regards,

Clay

PS - You definitely aren't a "nobody" here.

[J Hill]

Thank you so much, Clay.  Hell, I'm supposed to have weekends off and dammit they aren't gonna call me in no matter what!  Am at the bottom of a half gallon of cheap vodka now.  Not only am I shocked that the sun is up, but its 2pm!   Man, when I'm a little depressed I do indeed call myself a nobody.  Thanks for your kind words, my friend.

[J Hill]

Oh, btw, I'm listening to Bo Diddley on 78rpm right now!

[oatstao]

I'm surprised no one has filled you in on this, especially since you posted this after the 'sign of the 3 eyed men' was released in 2008.
The FULL Contact album from the original source tapes (before Walt Andrus passed away) was packaged by Charly UK
as the album called HEADSTONE (name dubbed by Tommy Hall)
It's the highlight of the 10 discs in  the 3 eyed men box set (for me)

I'm now looking to get the Headstone on vinyl. Does anyone know if the Vinyl is in full frequency range ? Or has it been squashed
like the CD - into 16 bits?

[oatstao]

Actually - I must clarify what I overlooked -I would suggest over HEADSTONE the club release  called 'PARADISE FOUND' here
 ROKCDR 035 -
and it is the one to choose over Headstone
as the CD version by Charly while clean sounding and punchy has been overcompressed. The typical new age
mastering job.

While PARADISE FOUND is missing 'tried to hide'  from what I  recall it's simply the Flip side of the first 45
so not hard to track down - and whatever take they used of 'you're gonna miss me' for the official release
which is substituted for Take 6 - and you get the cool countdown which is missing on Headstone.

This is where it's good to have whatever you need as a collector - each release has it's little gems - like the fade outs
on some of the HEADSTONE tracks go on longer than PARADISE - yada yada.

The opposite of the mastering of HEADSTONE , PARADISE is the way music should be heard with breathing room
and proper dynamics. Hats off to keeping the music listenable.

Wish list - one day hope to hear this stuff in 24bit. ;)