City To City / Night Owl (2-CD)

Gerry Rafferty | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 30, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Collectables Records
• ASIN: B000M53GQS
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,045 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #21 in Music > World Music > Europe > British Isles > Scotland

Editorial Reviews

Import only two CD set containing a pair of hit albums by one of Rock music's finest artists: CIty To City (1978) and Night Owl (1979). EMI. 2011. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nearly identical to the DCC CD..., August 3, 2009

By 

Jamie Tate (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: City To City / Night Owl (2-CD) (Audio CD)

I just bought a copy of the Collectables 2 CD set of Gerry Rafferty's City to City and Night Owl albums. Both CDs sounded great but City to City was amazing... just like I remembered the DCC sounding (an out of print gold CD mastered by Steve Hoffman that now sells for several hundred dollars). Hmmm, I grabbed my DCC disc and played it. Yep, sounded the same. Quite a compliment as I often use song one (The Ark) as one of my reference tracks when auditioning audio gear and speakers.

I loaded both CDs into Pro Tools to see what was going on. It was obvious EMI/Collectables sourced this CD from the much sought DCC release. The two files didn't stay *exactly* in sync but they were so close and the waveforms were so similar I assume they made an analog copy of the DCC. One thing I noticed was the Collectables CD had a reversed polarity. If you don't know what any of this means don't spend another second thinking about it. It's more trivial than audible.

Again, I assume EMI made an analog transfer of the DCC CD. That would explain the slight sync variations.

Switching between the two I could only detect *minor* differences and most of that was probably my imagination. For all practical purposes these two CDs sound identical so unless you're into minutia this is an inexpensive way to get the sound of the wonderful DCC CD without having to spend a couple hundred dollars.

Night Owl sounds great too. The transfer is from a great source and it sounds like little to no mastering has been done (that's a GOOD thing). It has great clarity/fidelity and dynamics and I don't hear any hint of compression. As was the style of the era the mixes are slightly on the lean side. I'd rather it be presented as is than have some mastering engineer artificially pump up the bass into a bloated mess.

These two CDs were a pleasant surprise. Well done EMI/Collectables!

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor dubbing, September 10, 2008

By 

ken fogelman (Sullivan, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: City To City / Night Owl (2-CD) (Audio CD)

Was initially happy to purchase this disc,mostly because it was the first time that "Night Owl" was avaliable on CD. The recordings on "Night Owl" seemed different than the original (vinyl), not as crisp, and slower. I actually timed the title song and compared it to the original. Not surprisingly, it took about 20 seconds longer to play. The dubbing of this disc is not what it should be. If you really want "Night Owl" on CD and don't want to wait, then purchase. Otherwise I would secure an avaliable copy of "City to City" and wait for future releases of "Owl".

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Muy Sabrosa (Very Tasty), May 22, 2007

By 

HIS BRUSH ENTERPRISEWARREN TIBBS, Jr. "Open D... (Ashburn Va.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: City To City / Night Owl (2-CD) (Audio CD)

I like most people first heard Gerry Rafferty on the Stateside of the Pond when he was with Steelers Wheel,

I have always liked his basic use of Acoustic Guitar/Bass/Drums/Keyboards & Sax, as well as his double tracked vocals ,Gerry has a great sense of Harmony & Melody ,something that is sorely lacking in the Rock Music scene today .These are Gerry's first 2 Albums and are Dynamite well worth the purchase. Drummer Henri Spinnetti is on these disc's and he has done work with Paul McCartney and others .