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Someone on Cowabunga had talked about this a year or 2 ago.
Saying that they were definetly differnet recordings on some songs,
and different mixes on others. John Blairs book shows both pictures
in it, but says it's just a re-release.
Jeff(bigtikidude)
--- In , "ipongrac" <ipongrac@g...>
wrote:
> All this talk of Jim Messina made me pull out his CD and his
album.
> I thought it would be interesting to share something with you that
I
> have noticed.
>
> The original Jesters LP was released sometime in '64 and was
credited
> to "Jim Messina and his Jesters" (notice the copy of "Dick Dale and
> HIS Del-tones") and it was called The Dragsters. This is the LP
that
> was reissued on CD on the semi-legit Euro label Surf in the '90s.
> It's great stuff, 14 songs, 11 of them written my Messina. The
> covers are: an uptempo version of the Breeze and I, and surf-guitar-
> led versions of fifties instro hits Honky Tonk and Raunchy.
> Messina's guitar work is truly exceptional, sounding like DD's
> flashier doppleganger, with a lot of nimble fingerwork full of fast
> hammer-ons and pull-offs, and not as much double-picking as you may
> expect. I HIGHLY recommend this CD. The highlights for me
are "The
> Jester", which is as good as any surf song I think, "The
> Cossack", "High Voltage" (an apt title!), and "Yang Bu". If there
is
> one criticism I would have of the material is that it's a bit light
> on melody, instead relying on groove, energy and improvisation.
But
> it works most of the time. There's a really nice jazz and even
blues
> influence throughout, especially evident on "Suspense Run"
> and "Hollywood Sound" (both very jazzy in rhythm and featuring some
> tasty surf-blues guitar playing, with the latter obviously
influenced
> by Mel Torme's "I'm Comin' Home Baby"). And as Messina mentioned
in
> his interview, almost every song has a bunch of engine revving and
> tires skidding noises overdubbed. A lot of songs also have the
> noises of the band shouting along with the music, as if they're
> really into it. I suspect these were overdubbed later, along with
> the car-related noises.
>
> So far, so good. But here's where it gets interesting. This album
> was rereleased in '73, when NOBODY had any interest in surf music!
> Why? Probably cause Messina was becoming a well-known name, and
> somebody wanted to capitalize on it. Did Messina have any
> involvement? Who knows? I have this LP, and the packaging looks
> like it was from the sixties, with nothing giving it away as a
> seventies record or a reissue. The liner notes all speak in the
> present tense, and the photos are all from '64, though at least the
> front cover is different than the original one. Big deal, you
say.
> Well, OK, yes, if that's all it was, who cares. But then let's
take
> a look at the track listing: only twelve songs this time ("Strange
> Man" and "Suspense Run" were omitted). Again, big deal. But
wait!
> Here's where it gets interesting! Take a listen, side by side with
> the original tracks, and you come to the shocking conclusion that
> these are DIFFERENT versions of the tracks! The only song that
> appears to be the same version on both albums is "Hollywood
Sound".
> The others vary from very subtle differences ("Chihiuahua", for
> example - that one required very careful listening to tell they're
> different) to completely different arrangements ("The Breeze and
> I"). And "Tamale Wagon" is a completely different song on the '73
> album! Most of the other songs are different in more subtle ways,
> different tempos (with the original album tending to feature faster
> versions), different licks, chord progression going up at some
point
> rather than down, different endings. And there are no shouting or
> racing noises. So what the hell is going on here? Nobody seems to
> know.
>
> I've discussed this with John Blair a few years ago and he never
> noticed the different versions of the songs - he thought it was
just
> a straight-forward reissue with a different cover, and two songs
left
> out (and of course with all the noises left out). But for any of
you
> that care and have both releases, compare them back to back.
They're
> clearly different, sometimes very obviously so. John suggested
that
> maybe Messina rerecorded the tracks in the seventies. I really
doubt
> that. I suspect that Messina couldn't give a crap about surf music
> by '73, and anyway, the sound quality and the recording is very
> authentic: it SOUNDS like a cheap early- to mid-sixties recording,
> for better or worse. I can't imagine they would have struggled to
> get such an authentic sound in '73. They probably would have
wanted
> to "improve" it! So, I'm pretty much 100% sure that's not it.
>
> My conclusion is that whoever rereleased the album got a hold of a
> bunch of master tapes which were not marked very clearly. These
> master tapes probably spanned several months or more of recording
> dates, thus featuring evolving arrangements of the songs. And the
> tapes had a whole bunch of different takes of the same songs.
Rather
> than going back to the earlier album and trying to recreate it
> perfectly, they probably just tried to listen for the best
> performances and released those only. This is my best explanation
of
> what happened.
>
> God, it would be really nice if somebody took the effort to find
> those master tapes, and release all of the different songs, plus
> their alternative '73 versions, in a cleaned-up sound, cause it
> doesn't really sound very good. It took a while but it happened
for
> Eddie & the Showman, maybe one day it'll happen for the Jesters,
> too. They DEFINITELY deserve it! This is among the best of
sixties
> surf music.
>
> Anyway, just thought I'd share this with you.
>
> (BTW, looking at the front cover of the album, where I could see
> Messina's white Strat in a great deal of detail, you can see that
> Messina left off the volume and tone knobs on his Strat - again,
just
> like DD!! Man, this kid had a BAD case of hero-worship! Good for
> us, though, he created some awesome music as a result.)
>
> Iven
