Two CD set containing all three of the band's albums recorded for the Arista label in the early 80's: Dregs Of The Earth, Unsung Heroes and Industry Standard. One of the top Jazz/Rock fusion ensembles ever, formed by guit... more »arist Steve Morse and a firm favorite with the whole southern Rock stable since the band were contemporaries of the likes of .38 Special and The Allman Brothers. After 1980's Dregs Of The Earth, the band shortened their name to The Dregs. Acadia. 2007.« less
Two CD set containing all three of the band's albums recorded for the Arista label in the early 80's: Dregs Of The Earth, Unsung Heroes and Industry Standard. One of the top Jazz/Rock fusion ensembles ever, formed by guitarist Steve Morse and a firm favorite with the whole southern Rock stable since the band were contemporaries of the likes of .38 Special and The Allman Brothers. After 1980's Dregs Of The Earth, the band shortened their name to The Dregs. Acadia. 2007.
CD Reviews
Screwed up...
Joe | Tewksbury, NJ | 08/10/2007
(1 out of 5 stars)
"Warning!
CD 2 - Track 10 ("Vitamin Q") is missing...all of the tracks from INDUSTRY STANDARD (CD 2 - Tracks 5-13) are incorrectly sequenced."
"Vitamin Q"--one of my favorite Dregs tunes--is missing!
Dime IV | 08/15/2007
(1 out of 5 stars)
"Just as Joe stated in his review, "Vitamin Q"--originally from the album, "Industry Standard," and listed as the tenth track on Disc 2--is missing. WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT?! Of course, "Vitamin Q" would have to be one of my all-time favorite Dregs tunes.
I am not happy, to put it mildly. If nothing else, I believe a recall of this compilation is in order."
Dodgy "Dregs": Dregs band = great / this compilation = defec
T. Thomas | Austin, TX *USA | 09/29/2007
(1 out of 5 stars)
"One positive comment:
The packaging is nicely done, combining all the artwork as well as could be reasonably expected. So, I was really impressed and excited to have it, ... But upon listening to the CD's, I have 1 minor and 2 major complaints:
Three negative comments:
1) The tracking order for the "Industry Standard" tracks is apparently taken from the outside of the original packaging for that album (which had all the tracks in apparent random order, or else they ended up changing the sequence before commmitting it to vinyl). Nonetheless, the tracks on this issue are not in the familiar order. The original release starts with "Assembly Line" and ends with "Vitamin Q", but this version starts with "Bloodsucking Leaches" and ends with "Assembly Line". I can only surmise that the Evangeline re-issue label apparently went by the erroneous track listing from the packaging for some reason, or else I suppose it's possible that they reverted to this new track listing because maybe it was what the band originally intended?... and perhaps it was Arista that got it wrong (or) overruled the band all those years ago? (This is a relatively minor complaint hardly worth griping about other than it's not in the familiar track order for this particular album, but read on for the more serious problems...)
2) One undeniable problem is the track "Vitamin Q" from "Industry Standard" (though listed on the package) is NOT on the CD! There are only 12 tracks on the 2nd CD when there should be 13. See below:
Evangeline version:
Label says final tracks are...
10. Vitamin Q
11. Conversation Piece
12. Ridin' High
13. Assembly Line
What the ACTUAL tracks on the CD are...
10. Conversation Piece (NOT Vitamin Q)
11. Ridin' High (NOT Conversation Piece)
12. Assembly Line (NOT Ridin' High - FYI: my Microsoft Media Center software identifies this track incorrectly as "Ridin' High/Assembly Line")
13. n/a (There is no track 13, contrary to what the packaging says.)
If they were going to leave off a track or two from Industry Standard, why couldn't it have been one of those misguided embarrassing "vocal" tracks? :)
3) Remastering: To my ears, only the tracks from "Unsung Heroes" sound appreciably improved from the original Arista CD releases. I have a good ear and I realize that it's not just increased volume that counts, but clarity. As with the early Bill Bruford "remasters" I hear no appreciable difference (much less any improvement) whatsoever regarding the tracks from "Dregs of the Earth" as compared to my Arista CD, nor for the tracks from "Industry Standard" as compared to my Japanese pressing Arista CD (I've not heard the new Wounded Bird version of Industry Standard).
I emailed Evangeline about these issues, urging them to recall the defective copies and provide replacements. No response from the label, but when I informed my retailer whom I purchased it from, he said that I could return it to him for credit or refund. He was not aware if it, but after inquiring to the label he did receive a response from them that acknowledged their awareness of at least some problems and said it occurred at the remastering stage, but wasn't caught. Yet they did not indicate any plans for a recall, but said it would be corrected, though did not offer any timetable to correct the problems, only a vague "it will be changed, but can't say when.". :(
"
Could have been great
a proghead | United States | 10/04/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"First off, these 3 CDs from the Arista label are probably the best that the band recorded, with the best audio quality. The original CDs are also some of their most expensive on the used market. I was pretty exstatic to see this 2 disk anthology. However it's already been mentioned here by others that one track that's listed on disk 2 is not present. I don't know how a blunder like this could have occured, but to me it's a disgrace considering professionalism and perfectionism of this band's music and career. That being said, I still think that this disk should be a first stop for new listeners, since most of their essential tracks are contained on these two disks. I would have given this 5 stars but have to knock one off for the screw-up. I was in contact with the label and they admitted the error and said that they were going to be reprinting the CDs, but no date has been specified (as of Oct '07). My other nit with this package is that the mastering on Industry Standard is not up to par with the other two CDs. It sounds more hollow and is lacking bottom end. I own a few tracks from Industry Standard on the band's 'Best Of' CD, and the audio quality is much better on there, so I'm not sure why there's such a difference between the same exact songs on two different CDs."
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1