Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

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Charlie O.
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Charlie O. » 22 Jul 2022, 07:18

Quaco wrote:Speaking of "Dear Mr. Fantasy", I'm reading in an old Beat Instrumental magazine article about the recording of the Mr. Fantasy LP. They mention a few songs by name: "Dear Mr. Fantasy" (describing how it was recorded live in the studio), "House for Everyone", "Paper Sun", "Hole in My Shoe", "Mulberry Bush" ... and a track called "Imagination". I can't figure out what this is! They describe it as starting with just an acoustic guitar track, then adding organ and flute, so maybe it's another name for "No Face No Name No Number", but I can't say for sure. Any ideas??

Click here, then scroll down to pgs. 26-27:
https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Beat-I ... 12-OCR.pdf

It has to be "No Face," right? Either that or something left unissued - but with Miller citing it as a favorite, that seems unlikely. Maybe they changed the title and/or lyric at the last minute.
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Quaco » 22 Jul 2022, 07:25

Charlie O. wrote:
Quaco wrote:Speaking of "Dear Mr. Fantasy", I'm reading in an old Beat Instrumental magazine article about the recording of the Mr. Fantasy LP. They mention a few songs by name: "Dear Mr. Fantasy" (describing how it was recorded live in the studio), "House for Everyone", "Paper Sun", "Hole in My Shoe", "Mulberry Bush" ... and a track called "Imagination". I can't figure out what this is! They describe it as starting with just an acoustic guitar track, then adding organ and flute, so maybe it's another name for "No Face No Name No Number", but I can't say for sure. Any ideas??

Click here, then scroll down to pgs. 26-27:
https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Beat-I ... 12-OCR.pdf

It has to be "No Face," right? Either that or something left unissued - but with Miller citing it as a favorite, that seems unlikely. Maybe they changed the title and/or lyric at the last minute.

And it is a dreamy song about an imaginary woman.

Now, have a look at this one, in which we learn that the second Traffic album was originally planned as a double! They way they describe it, it sounds better than it eventually turned out...

Click here, then scroll down to pg. 10:
https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Beat-I ... 08-OCR.pdf
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Charlie O. » 22 Jul 2022, 08:10

So the Last Exit tracks would have been part of that, I guess. Wonder if anything else got recorded?
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Matt Wilson » 22 Jul 2022, 16:34

Still have never heard the mono US Heaven is in Your Mind CD, even though some claim it's superior to the UK Mr Fantasy - which I think is pretty perfect as is. Should I bother?

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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Charlie O. » 22 Jul 2022, 17:03

Neither is as perfect as the US stereo version! (There are some interesting differences in the mono, though.)
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Matt Wilson » 22 Jul 2022, 17:23

You'd think I'd have both mono/stereo of the US version after all this time. Some things just slip through the cracks I guess.

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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Quaco » 24 Jul 2022, 00:41

I agree with Charlie that US stereo is the best, but it's also the most trippy and shimmery. The UK sequence is of course the one they wanted, so there's that.

The biggest mono difference I can think of is the vocals they had for 'Giving to You':

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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Charlie O. » 24 Jul 2022, 01:10

Quaco wrote:The UK sequence is of course the one they wanted, so there's that.

Well... I wonder! As I noted in an even older Mr. Fantasy thread, the versions of the album that came out in Germany, Sweden, and Canada - all with different titles(!) - all have a tracklisting strikingly similar to the US one (but missing "Heaven Is In Your Mind", not splitting "Paper Sun" into two parts, and not having the links between songs), and all of them came out before the American one. So who determined that tracklisting? Who thought up the links idea for the US release? (Seems like an unlikely thing for United Artists to bother with.) Did the band and/or Jimmy Miller just keep tweaking the album after the UK version was sent to the printers?

These are things I wonder.

Quaco wrote:The biggest mono difference I can think of is the vocals they had for 'Giving to You'

Also a different guitar solo in "Heaven" (inferior, I'd say), and a pretty cool extended ending on "Dealer".

As long as I'm being anal, I'll note that the US CD of Heaven Is In Your Mind that was released in 2000 is a "reconstruction" of the US stereo album, rather than a transfer of the US master tape - some of the song fades and links are very slightly but nonetheless noticeably different...
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby fange » 24 Jul 2022, 03:26

Do you actually HAVE all those different versions of essentially the same album, Charlie, or have you just heard and remembered all these details?
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Charlie O. » 24 Jul 2022, 03:39

I checked them out on Discogs all those years ago. I did end up buying and listening to the Swedish one. (I'd love to have the Canadian one sometime, but I ain't paying no fifty+ bucks for it.)
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby fange » 24 Jul 2022, 04:10

Next road trip up to Canada to check out the thrift shops? :)
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Charlie O. » 24 Jul 2022, 04:17

:)
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Quaco » 25 Jul 2022, 03:47

Charlie O. wrote:
Quaco wrote:The UK sequence is of course the one they wanted, so there's that.

Well... I wonder! As I noted in an even older Mr. Fantasy thread, the versions of the album that came out in Germany, Sweden, and Canada - all with different titles(!) - all have a tracklisting strikingly similar to the US one (but missing "Heaven Is In Your Mind", not splitting "Paper Sun" into two parts, and not having the links between songs), and all of them came out before the American one. So who determined that tracklisting? Who thought up the links idea for the US release? (Seems like an unlikely thing for United Artists to bother with.) Did the band and/or Jimmy Miller just keep tweaking the album after the UK version was sent to the printers?

These are things I wonder.

Great questions!

And that was an awesome thread. What's this about a mono Traffic LP? Couldn't seem to find it on Discogs.
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Charlie O. » 25 Jul 2022, 05:50

Quaco wrote:What's this about a mono Traffic LP? Couldn't seem to find it on Discogs.

Where what huh?
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Quaco » 25 Jul 2022, 18:59

Charlie O. wrote:
Quaco wrote:What's this about a mono Traffic LP? Couldn't seem to find it on Discogs.

Where what huh?


Ah, I was misreading this quote:
soundchaser wrote:
JC wrote:I suppose I should listen to this one again. The second Traffic album is one of the most lacklustre things I've heard.

Make sure it's the US mono. This version omits two of the weaker Mason songs, and is all the better for it.

Soundchaser didn't like the second one, so you were recommending which version of the first one to get to improve his view of Traffic in general. But you can see how I might have thought you recommending a different, rarer version of the second one! I'd never heard of such a thing, but it made sense to me because that's surely the album that needs fewer Mason songs! (The two side-openers, I'd say.)
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Charlie O. » 25 Jul 2022, 19:12

I think you re-misread that quote - that was John Coan and soundchaser talking! (And anyway, I'm on record as wishing "Hope I Never Find Me There" had been squeezed into the US sequence - between "Smiling Phases" and the title track would work a treat - and preferring the stereo to the mono.)

That said... if there wasn't a mono version of the second album, that's surprising. Island was still doing mono at that time (Jethro Tull's This Was came out the same month). Maybe the band and/or producer just didn't want a mono version out?
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Quaco » 25 Jul 2022, 19:35

Charlie O. wrote:I think you re-misread that quote - that was John Coan and soundchaser talking! (And anyway, I'm on record as wishing "Hope I Never Find Me There" had been squeezed into the US sequence - between "Smiling Phases" and the title track would work a treat - and preferring the stereo to the mono.)

That said... if there wasn't a mono version of the second album, that's surprising. Island was still doing mono at that time (Jethro Tull's This Was came out the same month). Maybe the band and/or producer just didn't want a mono version out?

On the heels of my misreading, I did go looking for one. There is one, but I don't know if it's a unique mono mix or just a fold-down:

https://www.discogs.com/release/1147851 ... -Traffic-2
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Charlie O. » 25 Jul 2022, 19:39

Quaco wrote:On the heels of my misreading, I did go looking for one. There is one, but I don't know if it's a unique mono mix or just a fold-down:

https://www.discogs.com/release/1147851 ... -Traffic-2

If there isn't a UK one, I would bet that this is a fold-down.

Even so, it's interesting that Australia would be the only one listed - there were lots of other countries where mono was still pretty dominant in 1968/69 (particularly in South America).
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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby frimley_greener » 29 Jul 2022, 20:13

Tangential perhaps.....but has there been a better "all rounder" than Winwood to date from these shores?
You wanna be a big cop in a small town? Fuck off up the model village.

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Re: Dear Mr. Fantasy kickstarted The Stones 68 revival

Postby Quaco » 29 Jul 2022, 21:05

frimley_greener wrote:Tangential perhaps.....but has there been a better "all rounder" than Winwood to date from these shores?

There may be people who can play more instruments, but I think I would agree in terms of who can actually move me on three different instruments (voice, organ/piano, guitar).
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