Search - Hassles, Billy Joel :: Early Demos

Review Of The New Hassles Feat Billy Joel Early Demos Cd

joelfan | 08/27/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"As a long time fan of Mr.Joel's Work i've always prided my self on the collections of his work and from the pre-solo to the classical to the now broadway play "movin out'"i've always loved what i've herd from Billy But that was before I bought this CDI'm goin to break down This Review into two half's being that there are 2 Differnt albums featured on this discThe frist half of the Cd are tracks From The hassles 2nd Lp (Hour of the wolf)This Cd Clames To contain "Early Demos" by The Hassles
But none are contained in this Cd however this cd does contain a track that was not featured on the "Razor & Tie" Release (1999)The qualty of the frist half of the cd is not that of a major buget label the songs sounded as thay were taken directly off the Lp there are "hisses & pops" on a few of the songs some of the songs are louder then other when played & are in need of some modern day re-mastering I guess thats to be expected due to the history of recording methodits however thay could have taken the some of the tracks from the afomentioned Cd insted of "ripping" them off the Lp
however it's still much better then what is on The 2nd half of the Cd (witch will be coverd later) now for the good news A few of the Songs are longer then "razor & tie's" release back in 1999
such songs that comes to mind are "hour of the wolf" witch plays at 11:45 where as razor and tie's release was edited by 15 secnow onto the 2nd half of the cdwitch features tracks from Joel's Frist album Cold Spring Harbor (FPS 2700)(witch is labled as The Hassles's work on this Cd)
Wile Most Pepole may think this is a rare treat to me it's a head akeThe prob isn't the songs BUT how the songs are presented on this cd as most Fans Of Billy joel know That the org sufferd from being masterd at a "high speed" this cd does not do justice to it
The muisc suffers yet again from being masterd too slow sounding like a cassette player thats batteries are dieing thay also misprint the run time on track 10 (you can make me free) as 3:57 when in fact the run time is 5:57 This presentation of Joel's frist album will Give him a new reason to dis-own itNow The Good news songs on the 2nd half of this cd are from the org release of cold spring harbor (FPS 2700) witch means that thay have not been overdubed / remixed as thay were when sony re-released the album back in 1983Closing CommentsThis Cd is not for the avrage / casual Billy Joel Fan but rather a novelty Cd For The Die Hards / Collectors of mr.Joel's Work
If You Can Find a copy of The Razor & Tie's Release of "The Best Of The Hassles" "You Got Me hummin'"(7930182204-2) it will be well worth the money you spend Being that Razor & Tie goes the extra mile to remaster the songs and thay also include accual demos From The Hassles as oposed to this release witch fasley claims to contain DemosJ.Fillow-"