Search - Billy Joel :: The Harbor Sessions

Avoid this CD!!!

Jamie | Franklin, Tunisia | 09/13/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Billy Joel's first album, Cold Spring Harbor, has quite a history. The tapes were somehow mastered at the wrong speed and the album was put in the chipmunk bin until it was "fixed" in 1983 when the tracks were re-evaluated and additional production work was done. They replaced some horrible, incompetently played drum tracks, muted a few steel guitars and background vocals and generally tidied things up. They may have made it a better album in the process, a music industry first.



Well, I have a couple copies of this Joel Holy Grail on vinyl and were always disappointed with the sound quality. One was even a sealed Promo copy, played only once by me. The LP was noisy and distorted. A big kick in the cherries.



Well, I saw this CD labeled The Harbor Sessions (and even Harbour on the CD spine!?) and thought I'd finally found the ultimate version of this collectable. Well, IT SUCKS!! Fear this CD! Throw stones, rocks, and even large fraternity boys at it. This is quite possibly the worst sounding CD I own.



What's wrong with the CD? First of all it's a needle drop. What's worse is that it's a needle drop poorly recorded to a bad cassette. The top end is missing (I guess to get rid of the record pops) but it's drastically filtered. There's no top end left. The funny thing is the tape hiss extends to higher frequencies than the top end of the music which tells me it was recorded to analog tape (cassette judging by the number of dropouts). The tape drop outs take the hiss with it.



They also tried to adjust the speed to make up for the original VSO problem. Unfortunately they didn't do a very good job. Sounds like the cassette deck they played the tape on was running low on battery juice. The keys are still off. Turn Around, which I always thought was the only song that sounded like the speed was okay, is so slow it'll make the dead impatient.



The beginnings of Why Judy and several other songs have been conveniently chopped off.



If you do have the displeasure of listening to this CD and think the first track sounds bad just remember that is as good as it gets. Things get bad (or worse) quickly. By the third track (Everybody Loves You Now) there's enough 6kHz to stroke out an elephant. By the time you get to track 5 there's so much distortion over the piano you can hardly distinguish it from a direct hit to the skull by a sledge hammer.



Please people, take Uncle Jamie's advice and don't give this disc the chance to pollute the air around you. It's total crap. If you're that curious to hear this album go out and buy the best version available, the remastered CD. The album, in its original form, isn't worth searching out, especially on this CD."

Retitle this the Horrible Sessions!

J. A. Crabb | Nashville, TN USA | 07/12/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I must admit-- I am more or less a completist when it comes to certain artists. I agree with the other reviewers about this album, but was surprised at just HOW bad it sounded. The liner notes state that the so called "master" tapes were found in poor condition. What master tapes? It is obvious somebody had the bright idea of dusting off their 1971 LP of the album, taping a few pennies to the needle, and transfer the worst LP copy they could find. I don't know how this import made it though licensing without being classified as a bootleg. It was nice to be able to hear the pre-Phil Ramone edits to the original album, but the entire album is not equalized, and you get a lot of midrange that just does wonders to the ears. And the whole album is about a whole step down in pitch to the correct LP speed. Very amateur. I am sure the masters are sitting in CBS' vaults underground in great shape. Billy prefers this to be left in the attic because of the circumstances under which it was recorded. I can't blame him. From one completist to another, please save your money. If you haven't bought the 1998 remaster of the real album, do so. I bought this the same day I bought the cd She's Got A Way. Avoid that one too. It sounds like a second generation of this cd."

Don't be fooled by this package

A. Mandabee Reckonwidth | Phoenixville, PA United States | 06/17/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is not "outtakes" and "alternate versions" per se. What it really is is the original Family Prodcutions 1971 release. Someone came up with the bright idea of digging up an old record, dusting it off, and transfering it to CD. Obviously, someone was leaning on the turntable slightly to slow down the record in order to "fix" Billy's chipmunked voice. These are not the master tapes whatsoever. You are better off hitting an old record store that stocks vinyl and finding an original copy of the 1971 album that proved to be a disaster event for its composer. True, the album was edited and cleaned up when acquired by Columbia records and subsequently rereleased, but some things were changed. "She's Got a Way" had a drum track, "You Can Make Me Free" was twice as long, consisting of a guitar jam, and "Everybody Loves You Now" used to sound more like its SONGS IN THE ATTIC counterpart. The rest of the tracks are exactly identical to those currently available. Beware."