Search - Five Blind Boys of Mississippi :: 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection

Nice packaging but shameful sound quality and running time

Tedham Porterhouse | 09/04/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Don't by this CD - it's a travesty to the memory of the late and oh, so very great Archie Brownlee and The Boys. The packaging is good with fine photographs but poorly written and inaccurate sleevenotes. Vague recording dates and original single catalogue numbers are a welcome bonus. That's the CD's good points; now the bad ones: only 12 tracks and a 36 minute running time and only 7 of these feature Archie And The Boys in their 1950's prime. But what is MOST UNFORGIVEABLE is the DIRE SOUND QUALITY. I have some of these tracks on 1970 vinyl reissues which sound better than this CD which must want to make you believe these recordings were made in an aircraft hangar. Even if the master tapes have been lost there are cleaner sounding versions available on vinyl which they could have made dubs from.
Archie Brownlee is quite correctly recognised as being one of the greatest singers of the last century and he deserves better than 7 dreadfully mastered tracks. You must try harder MCA - surely you can do better than this? The one star is for the great photos - nice packaging, shameful content."

Yes, BUT...this is much of what we have left of the great Ar

Hank n Tennessee | Virginia, USA | 03/01/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"What if Ray Charles had died in the 1950's, and all that we had left of his immense genius were a handful of precious recordings? Would you ignore them if MCA butchered the reissue? Unfortunately, that is the choice that we are faced with here.



The previous reviewer is absolutely right about the inexcusably poor job that MCA did with this reissue. The old vinyl album WAS better quality. But my copy of that is pretty worn, and there is a whole world of younger folks out there who have never heard of the Rev. Archie Brownlee, who was the young Ray Charles role model, but died in 1959, leaving only a handful of recordings. Yes, he was that good, good enough to inspire a Ray Charles. Tony Heilbut in his authoritative "The Gospel Sound" called him "the baddest man on the road", perhaps the most intensely emotional singer in the golden age of great gospel singers, with a raw scream that was echoed directly in Wilson Pickett and James Brown.



Here's my suggestion - listen hard to the recorded samples here. Don't turn them off at the first sound of that godawful cheesy reverb - leave it on till your ears start to make allowances for the bad remastering. See if the magic of this powerhouse group and their brilliant lead singer doesn't triumph over the pitiful transfer. In the end, I decided that Archie Brownlee, badly recorded and on only a few cuts, is better than no Archie Brownlee at all. Until MCA comes to its senses. 5 stars for the Five Blind Boys and Rev. Archie Brownlee - 0 for recording quality.

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