Decca Records' 1930s-50s master tapes (in the Universal Studios fire in June)
King Daevid MacKenzie
________________________________
According to a well-known mastering engineer I'm acquainted with, who
frequently works on compilations covering the 50s and 60s for labels
such as Varese and Collector's Choice, the entire Decca masters from the
'30s through the '50s were destroyed in the Universal fire. He says
anything that was not previously issued on LP or CD is gone. That goes
for Bing, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, many others.
Here is what he said:
quote:
"Valuable" is an interesting word when used by record companies. "White
Christmas" is a valuable song by Bing Crosby since it has made
mega-money for Universal. But what about a rare single by Crosby that
was only out briefly on a 78RPM record? That may not be valuable in the
same sense, but it is a part of history that is lost forever. Anyone
ever wishing to do a rarities collection by a well-known artist using
songs previously unreleased would have a hard time doing such a project
now. In the past, however, all these tapes were pretty much there. I
think over the years, my success in finding tapes at Universal was
probably 98%. That's pretty good.
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This guy knows a lot of people in the business, especially people who
work in the tape libraries at the various labels, whom he has frequent
contact with in the course of his job. This apparently is what they have
told him.
So we can all forget about any new-to-CD Bing Crosby material from
Universal -- from tape sources, anyway. Better buy those new
"Chronological" CDs from Sepia, because that's the only way we're ever
going to get those '50s Decca songs now. The master tapes no longer exist.
--
kdm
http://kingdaevid.podbean.com/
http://amp.az/home/User/KingDaevid
peace 'n oranges...
King Daevid MacKenzie
http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/bsnpubs/vpost?id=2968320 from
Marty Wekser. Turns out that even more than just the material on Decca
was lost -- tapes from Chess (including early Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters
and Howlin' Wolf sessions), ABC-Paramount, Dot and Brunswick (the
20s-'30s era label Duke Ellington and others recorded for, not the
'60s-'70s soul label). Damn...
---------------------------------------------
I'll tell you what was lost... for starters, all the Coral and Decca
material from the 40's and 50's that was never released on LP or CD.
"Valuable" is an interesting word when used by record companies. "White
Christmas" is a valuable song by Bing Crosby since it has made
mega-money for Universal. But what about a rare single by Crosby that
was only out briefly on a 78RPM record? That may not be valuable in the
same sense, but it is a part of history that is lost forever. Anyone
ever wishing to do a rarities collection by a well-known artist using
songs previously unreleased would have a hard time doing such a project
now. In the past, however, all these tapes were pretty much there. I
think over the years, my success in finding tapes at Universal was
probably 98%. That's pretty good.
A lot of tapes on ABC-Paramount, Dot, Chess and Kapp, etc. were also
destroyed. In some cases, copies may have been stored elsewhere but
many original tapes were burned up. Since we're dealing with tapes and
acetates that go back to the 1930's, there's really no practical way to
check every single title in the database to try and see what was
destroyed. I suspect the only way anyone will know if a tape exists is
when some producer is doing a project and wants to use a fairly obscure
song by, say, Ella Fitzgerald. Or maybe a "b" side by the McGuire
Sisters or Brenda Lee that has never shown up anywhere on CD. The vault
will then be able to tell if it still exists or not. Some tapes may
exist overseas, but then again, those would probably not be those really
rare tracks.
The other point is this. Every mastering engineer has his own way of
mastering. This is why you always want to order up the original tapes
from the vault so that you can be the one to do whatever subtle things
need to be done as you create a CD. You really do not want to have to
use someone else's mastered version especially if you don't like what
they have done. While most repertoire that has been issued on CD in the
past can probably be found (even it's a CD that the record label has as
a "file" copy), it is not the original analog source. I think right
after the fire, and to save face, Universal tried to make the point that
anything anyone could possibly want has already come out on CD, so
nothing of importance was really lost. That sentence should be amended
to read "nothing of COMMERCIAL importance..."
Some tapes were in the process of being moved to Iron Mountain before
the fire and so a lot of valuable items are safe. It is really a
tragedy, especially since there have been fires on the lot before (one
came almost up to the door of the same storage area several years ago
but it was extinguished just in time). That should have served as a
warning that Universal Music (now no longer part of Universal Studios)
should have thought real seriously about moving all their valuable
assets to Iron Mountain right after that incident.
And why didn't they? The truth? Budgets. The budget for vault staff
and maintenance was cut drastically over the last few years. And to
actually move all those tapes to the east coast would have cost a lot of
money and a lot of part-time staff would need to have been hired to
facilitate the move. Universal Music probably felt it was not worth the
money since the tapes were safe and sound on the Universal lot. Or so
they thought.
By the way, the building where the tapes were stored on the lot was not
really a vault in the way Iron Mountain is. It had an inadequate
sprinkler system (as we have read) that depended on a system that
supplied water pressure to the entire lot.
---------------------------------------------------
Matthew Kruk
... However, according to Peter Lofrumento, Universal Music Group's Senior
Vice President of Corporate Communications, none of the company's archived
music was permanently lost to the blaze. While the fire indeed destroyed
some recordings in storage on the Universal lot, everything has been
accounted for. In a statement issued today to this writer, Lofrumento said:
"We moved most of what was formerly stored there earlier this year to our
other facilities. Of the small amount that was still there.it had already
been digitized.We also had physical back up copies of what was still left at
that location. So we were covered."
...
From http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/06/02/142255.php
King Daevid MacKenzie
...most likely, that was a statement intended to soothe any jittery
Universal Music stockholders. Further down on the Both Sides Now
chatboard page, there's a poster wondering aloud about where the A&M
'60s masters were stored. My all-time favourite album is a 1967 A&M
item, Phil Ochs' PLEASURES OF THE HARBOR, and the idea that any material
from those sessions may possibly have went up in that fire is making for
one gloomy Friday night...
darrellw...@gmail.com
Bryan Styble
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida