Astounding Paramount Records reissue - $400.oo

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Eyeball
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Astounding Paramount Records reissue - $400.oo

#1 Post by Eyeball » Wed Nov 06, 2013 10:11 pm

http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=vinyl&m=1064579

For blues fans - this is an amazing "box" set.

It's what I want for Christmas and it is one of us should own, even you. :)

http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=vinyl&m=1064579

Unprecedented.

Before I read further, I thought that it was an original Paramount sales box from the 20s.
Will big bands ever come back?

lipi
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Re: Astounding Paramount Records reissue - $400.oo

#2 Post by lipi » Fri Nov 08, 2013 3:03 pm

This set both delights and annoys.

It's nice that all this music will be available again.
It's terrible that the only way of obtaining it is to buy a big wooden box with some LP's and a flash drive with 800 MP3's. (That's right. MP3's. Not FLAC, not ALAC, not WAV, not audio CD's; MP3's.)

I want this music badly, and had they tried to sell me 800 lossless tracks without box, book, or LP for $400 I would have seriously considered it. Now I'm not sure.

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Re: Astounding Paramount Records reissue - $400.oo

#3 Post by Eyeball » Fri Nov 08, 2013 5:03 pm

lipi wrote:This set both delights and annoys.

It's nice that all this music will be available again.
It's terrible that the only way of obtaining it is to buy a big wooden box with some LP's and a flash drive with 800 MP3's. (That's right. MP3's. Not FLAC, not ALAC, not WAV, not audio CD's; MP3's.)

I want this music badly, and had they tried to sell me 800 lossless tracks without box, book, or LP for $400 I would have seriously considered it. Now I'm not sure.
Here's a thoughtful post off the ToNY list by a man who has something to say. OK - if I copy your post here and send it over to them?

Re: REAL photos of contents of Paramount Set
Posted by: "Rob Bamberger"
Date: Wed Nov 6, 2013 12:00 pm ((PST))

What's so dumbfounding about the email string that you've shared here,
Steve, is that the purchaser is completely mesmerized by the physical, and
makes no comment about the music. I'm glad that, as a trophy piece of
furniture, books with superior production values, and vinyl suitable for
framing, this is an elegant box worth $400, because it certainly
establishes the worth conferred upon hundreds of titles in the mp3 format
on a flash drive.

After all, the press release lays out that the set is "crafted as an object
to keep and cherish for a lifetime, its form is designed to reveal evidence
of the hand at work, to bring out the tactile richness of hand-sculpted
woods and metals, and to meld the rough-hewn with the earliest burblings of
American modernism in the 1920s."

WTF?

I was wary from the start when the promotional notices said nothing about
the format used for the tracks on the flash drive. Additionally, I have
seen NOTHING about the provenance of those transfers. Where have they come
from? Prior releases on LP and CD? Were these procured, in whole or in
part, from collectors with originals in reasonable shape and who knew how
to make decent transfers of these if they were unwilling to ship them for
professional preservation? Unlikely. If these were new transfers from rare
copies, wouldn't that be trumpeted as a selling point? A HUGE selling
point? Do ya' think? [Sure, tell me that you're perfectly happy with mp3s.
But, don't forget: if It's garbage in, it will be garbage out.]

Seems to me that this is a product shrewdly targeted to a younger
population of "collectors" who are captive to the idea of Paramount and
roots music, and think a tribute lies in a wooden box and not in the
substance of Paramount, which is the music...presented here, a corruption
on a flash drive, the metaphorical equivalent of a footnote. "Vinyl Asylum"
is appropriate because these are collectors who worship at the throne of
format. They have the same contempt for .wav as they do .mp3s. It's
digital, so it is all the same to them. And, who could afford a set with
nearly 60 visually mesmerizing LPs?

People have lost their minds. They understand the price of the superficial
and nothing of the value of presentation worthy of legacy.

I suppose it's a matter of time before someone designs a display case to
display the display case. Then, let's all meet outside Grafton at the ruins
of the Paramount factory and fling the flash drives into the river.

But, let me be fair about this. After all, how many CDs would it take to
package 800 tracks? Maybe 35? Now, who would be certifiably crazy enough to
scour for 800 recordings, painstaking transfer them, and issue a box set
with 35 CDs?

Oh, yeah. Bear Family, whose Black Europe set includes 1244 tracks on 44
CDs with two 300-page hardbound books. Available for about $700 U.S.

Yes, people have lost their minds. But, some should be blessed for it. For,
in their loss of all sensible bearings, they have brought their passion
for, and commitment to the music, the individuals, the cultures and
institutions that created it and left it behind, and have created a true
monument to it...compiled, rediscovered and presented commensurate with its
timeless worth.
Will big bands ever come back?

lipi
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Re: Astounding Paramount Records reissue - $400.oo

#4 Post by lipi » Fri Nov 08, 2013 5:35 pm

Go for it.

Incidentally, as far as I know, some of these sides were never released on CD before, and some not even on LP. I agree that it's insanity that the press release doesn't mention this.

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Re: Astounding Paramount Records reissue - $400.oo

#5 Post by Eyeball » Fri Nov 08, 2013 9:55 pm

lipi wrote:Go for it.

Incidentally, as far as I know, some of these sides were never released on CD before, and some not even on LP. I agree that it's insanity that the press release doesn't mention this.
From Steve Ramm, another poster on the ToNY list-

REAL photos of contents of Paramount Set - MORE INFO
Posted by: stevenramm@aol.com stevenramm
Date: Thu Nov 7, 2013 7:02 am ((PST))

Okay guys - especially Rob! All add a bit more info here. (and I'll cross
post on the ARSClist discussion)
First off - there is no source info in the notes. That's fine.
Next was the question of why earlier material is not included and what
MIGHT be in Volume 2.
That question is answered by in the "Introduction to the set that appears
near the end of the Field Guide. I know it's copyrighted material but since
it's important to understand SOME of the thinking behind the project, I
have copied the text of the Intro into Word. It runs FOUR pages so I'm not
going to copy it here and I can't send attachments. So I've sent to Rob and
David Lennick and Malcolm Rockwell and anyone else who wants to read it can
email me off list.

Most of you are concentrating on the recordings and that they are MP3s. I'm
fine with that since - as a private collector - of at least "middle age"
you will not be listening to the 800 songs (espeically since you MIGHT have
ordered the 1244 tracks on BE). What makes the set useful is that you can
sort and search by artist, title, release date or even matrix #s. The
"novelty IMHO is that you get the Lps. The Books - Art Book and the Field Guides
are newly created and no one seems to comment on them.

There were 5000 made. Who knows if they will sell. The ones shipped were
ordered direct from Third Man site, The Amazon sales are still on pre-order.
If they don't sell the 5,000 they may show up on relale. Already there are
some on Ebay at $700. Remember that Black Europe run is ONE-TENTH the
Paramount run and is nearly twice the price. And there is lots of material
there that is there "because it is", not that you'll listen. And, imagine if
BFR decided to issue the VIDEO that Rainer wanted to include on a DVD! (he
showed a sample at ARSC Conference). THAT is what I'd like to see but fit
probably won't happen.

Sorry to go on so long. You guys are more knowledgeable about the label
than me. and I'm a "graphics" collector even more than sound. Anyway, I hope
the Intro info will add to some clarification.

Steve Ramm
Will big bands ever come back?

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Re: Astounding Paramount Records reissue - $400.oo

#6 Post by Eyeball » Wed Jan 01, 2014 9:04 pm

Great interview on Charlie Rose with Jack White and Dean Blackwood, producers of the Paramount box box set.

http://consequenceofsound.net/2013/12/w ... rlie-rose/
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Re: Astounding Paramount Records reissue - $400.oo

#7 Post by Eyeball » Wed Jan 01, 2014 9:19 pm

http://www.charliegillett.com/bb/viewto ... 34&t=11087

Lengthy write up on the original producer of many of the Paramount sides, Mayo "Ink" Williams.

A look into the past.
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