2. music
  3. 129115-81

The Band on MFSL

I stumbled upon "The Last Waltz" on PBS the other day and am falling in love all over again with The Band. I've got an early 80s MFSL "Big Pink" which I listened to end to end the other day--magnificent. I'm wondering if/when their self-titled sophomore effort will be released on MFSL. I've seen reference to it in TAS (reviewers using it at shows) and thought I saw a March 31 anticipated release BUT I called Acoustic Sounds today and they don't know anything about this title coming out on MoFi. Does anyone know anything about this release? Also, I'd be interested in hearing what people think about the MoFi "Rock of Ages" LP which captures The Band live. Fremer wrote a positive review but gave it an "8" for sound quality, which is pretty low for him. Anyone care to comment on the sound quality of this LP (and the performance too)?
dodgealum
slaw's avatar
slaw
20,401 posts
 
From my perspective, all of this confirms what I eluded to....

An early original copy, most likely will sound best.

A later original copy will be marginal in relationship to the former.

What is important, an evaluation by the end user, and what attributes from either version are more in tune to him/her personal preferences.

One can chime in saying, "I like the sound of the original, lime green, RL mastered copy...but has this same person had access to an early pressing of the same lp...even more, have they taken the time to evaluate the best original to the latest MFSL?

Personally, I despise the SF forums. I prefer to find things out for myself then report. To me, this is part of the (fun) in this hobby.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,411 posts
 
Something else that makes for no simple answer is that the MFSL vinyl and pressings are much, much better than the original Capitols. It may be that the relative quality of the vinyl and pressings may have more effect on the sound of the LP’s being compared than does the tape that was used to master with. And, the current MFSL playback machine, which has been rebuilt to audiophile standards by Paravicini, may actually allow the tape available to MFSL sound better than the original did on whatever machine Robert Ludwig had to use back in the late 60’s!
tostadosunidos's avatar
tostadosunidos
1,197 posts
 
I would have sworn that my original copy of Big Pink had the rainbow label.  But it's been many years, so...
tostadosunidos's avatar
tostadosunidos
1,197 posts
 
I just checked on "google images" and found several examples of Big Pink with rainbow, not lime green, label, FWIW.
minkwelder
255 posts
 
The 1st pressing of Big Pink in '68 had the black w/rainbow label. I have a 1969, 3-LP set from Capitol that has the odd combination of Steve Miller Band's 'Sailor", Quicksilver Messenger Service (S/T), and Music from Big Pink that has the lime green labels.  
More to discover