Customer Reviews

Rockin / Flavours

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

To rehash the same criticism yet again, why pair an album released in 1972 with one incarnation of the Guess Who with an album released in 1974 that is very different in sound and has only two members of the band in common with the '72 album? Sure, it would be nitpicking if the two albums weren't so dissimilar, but ROCKIN' is both different from and also head, hands and feet way, way better than FLAVOURS overall! The underdog first: FLAVOURS sole redeeming feature is "Dancin' Fool," already available on umpty-ump "greatest hits" collections BMG has made of the band. The rest of the album is a hodge-podge of styles, which itself isn't all that different from the way the Guess Who put together previous recordings (look at the differences in musical styles throughout SO LONG, BANNATYNE and ARTIFICIAL PARADISE, for example). But this time out, it's as if Burton Cummings and crew just took half-realized ideas and stuck 'em together without much thought. The nadir is "Seems Like I Can't Live With You, But I Can't Live Without You," an UN-parody of George Jones-style country-and-western that cries out for a raspberry in the middle somewhere and gets none.

ROCKIN', on the other hand, is one of the G Who's best albums ever. "Heartbroken Bopper" and "Arrivederci Girl" should've been stable-mates with songs like "Mississippi Queen" on the radio of the '70s, and "Guns, Guns, Guns" is about the best anti-hunter (or, more accurately, anti-AMERICAN hunter) song ever. There's more, though; "Smoke Big Factory" features some of the most gorgeous harmonizing the band ever put to tape, while "Your Nashville Sneakers," "Running Bear" and "Get Your Ribbons On" show off the band's sense of humor and, in the case of the first song, their ability to swing as well as rock. If there's any one criticism I have, it's that ROCKIN' is much too short an album----so you gotta play it again!

I don't know what the reasons were for this peculiar pairing, but I suspect that whoever was serving as archivist/compiler surmised that ROCKIN' was a strong enough album to pull the less-compelling FLAVOURS with it and made the descision based on that. If I didn't already have ROCKIN' on CD, I probably would buy this two-fer using that logic. But I do, so I won't need to.

Yes, what you may have read about the sound quality of the 4 two-albums-on-one-CD reissues of Guess Who RCA-era albums is true. The sound is not quite up to the standard of original CD reissues. But, you can compensate fairly well with a graphic equalizer or bass and treble controls on your stereo system. (Of course, you probably can't do much about the sound when playing on a portable CD player these days, since some marketing genius decided that bass-boost was the only tone control that anyone needs anymore.) But what about the actual muusic offered here? Well, the first album is "Rockin'." Released in early 1972, it is the first RCA-era album by the band that did not contain any USA top 40 singles. Concert-goers will recognize the 2 singles that flopped ("Heartbroken Bopper" and "Guns Guns Guns"). But, those 2 songs really give you a pretty good pictue what else is here. Mostly plain and simple rock & roll--fun and wholly satisfying. Included are the only 2 cover versions ever included on an RCA album. Side 2 of the LP opened with an apparently alcohol-soaked version of "Running Bear" that shows the band getting silly in the studio. Side 2 closes with the 3 song medley beginning with the "Sea of Love" cover playing in the background as if it was coming from a jukebox, followed by the serious ballad "Heaven Only Moved Once Yesterday," and concluding with a truly fantastic rocker, the outrageous "Don't You Want Me" (probably one of the funniest jealousy songs ever written). 4 stars for "Rockin'." The other LP here is "Flavours." It was originally released at the beginning of 1975 as the follow-up to their suprise comback LP "Road Food" in 1974. Opening with the band's last top 40 hit "Dancin' Fool," it features some of the best songs they ever recorded. Catchy tunes with intriguing lyrics abound. "Nobody Knows His Name" describes Burton Cummings ancestor's immigration to Canada. It gives you a feel for how it was to tear yourself away from your roots and try to establish try a new identity in a foreign place. "Seems Like I Can't Live With You" was the band's tribute to country rock that actually worked well enough to appear on a top 100 countdown of popular songs on a country station I listened to at the end of 1975. "Long Gone" drips with venom, but obscures who is being attacked by lacking the necessary specific details. It could be Burton striking out at Randy Bachman's success with BTO at the time, or it could be directing rage at one of the music critics who dismissed the Guess Who as just a singles band without checking into the depth of quality of their RCA albums. Based on the songs alone, I would give "Flavours" 5 stars as being one of the band's best albums, but it is dragged down by one inescapable detail: Dom Troiano's jazzy guitar never meshed with the Guess Who for my taste. He is obviously a quality player and his songwriting collaberations with Burton here are great, but he was in the wrong band. I find it revealing to note that the various reunited versions of the band have always avoided performing any of the Troiano-era material. (I have always secretly wished for someone to radically remix the 2 Troiano LPs by removing Dom's guitar and substituting Randy's licks. Instead of endlessly repacking the same hits over and over, how about someone doing some serious work on the band's archive of material? Wishful thinking, I know...) Anyway, 4 stars for "Flavours." By the way, the CD offers the entire package of LP covers and inserts, a plus if you like those kinds of things.

As time goes on, I become more and more picky about sound quality in the recordings I buy. I realize some recordings are meant to be lo-fi (there's an entire genre dedicated to those), but professional/big budget/major label releases should never sound sub par (unless they're meant to). That includes re-issues. The band with the most botched back catalogue has to be the Guess Who. The first time their albums were issued on disc, they weren't available in the States, and some weren't available anywhere ('Flavours', for one). My CD copy of 'So Long, Bannatyne' (BMG, 1991) was clearly transfered to disc from vinyl! I suppose a label could redeem itself by issuing one or two pristine sounding anthologies, but the Guess Who have had tons, and none are spectacular. The best is probably 'The Ultimate Collection', released in the late '90s, but the bass in the mix is annoyingly high. Buddha's reissue of 'Live at the Paramount' is one of the best remasters in my entire music collection, so why can't a label do the same with the rest of the catalogue?

I thought BMG might get their stuff together with these re-issues, but I was wrong. After reading the reviews here, I was very reluctant to purchase any of them, since they're pretty expensive here in the States. I decided to buy this one, because I wanted to have one Troiano-era album on disc, and because 'Rockin'' is one of my favorite mid-period GW albums. As stated in other reviews, the sound is embarassing, period. If it were any worse, BMG would be taking back all of these discs in mass quanities and would be hard at work on the re-re-issues. It's just good enough to be listenable, but it's a frustrating listen. Certain elements in the mix sound strange: the cymbals are too loud, the S's in the vocals are hissy, everything is tinny and cheap sounding overall. A real dissapointment coming from a major record label and considering how badly the Guess Who's catalog has been butchered. The packaging is absurd, too. The booklet is reminiscent of those instruction manuals that are in English as well as Spanish if you flip and reverse it. An OK approach for instruction manuals, stupid for CD reissues.

The bottom line: if your vinyl is still in good shape and you have good audio equipment, transfer your records to disc. I guarantee they'll sound better than these. A solid 4 for the music and a low 2 for the sound quality equals a reluctant 3. This is the sound of a couple great albums being carelessly tossed aside.

My disappointment on mastering of this CD is the same that I wrote in my review of the 'Wheatfield Soul' / 'Artificial Paradise' CD.

In this case, I bought the CD in hopes of better mastering of 'Rockin' from the single CD already have--but NO! Of the BMG single CD releases, 'Rockin' had the worst mastering, particularly frustrating with a power song like 'Heartbrokin Bopper'. Unfortunately, I bought before the other reviews were posted. I haven't decided whether this new CD is actually worse than the single of 'Rockin', it's just too disappointing to carefully compare them.

My other reason was to hear 'Flavours' again and see if it hit me better than when originally released. As Cummings said in the liner notes of their 2-disc Anthology, 'Flavours' and 'Power In The Music' were not really the Guess Who. To me, it was closer to Cummings' upcoming solo work, but not quite that good. Obviously the mediocre mastering didn't help.

All in all, if this is the only way to get your hands on 'Rockin', buy it.

Well, I will have to echo the other reviewers as to how excited that I was when these essential Guess Who albums finally came out on CD. They were the best rock band ever from Canada, and I think that Burton Cummings has one of the most beautiful voices in the history of rock. Now, as far as these reissues go, I got 3 of the 4 all at once and I am not convinced that was such a good idea. The artwork is really nice, but nothing mind-blowing. Basically, you get pretty much all of the artwork from the original LP issues with song lyrics, but nothing more....no extended liner notes, interviews, or any sort of extra pictures (which is always kind of neat to get). That's ok though, because the booklets are laid out nicely. NOW, the issue of the mastering: I don't have super high-end equipment, but I don't exactly have garbage either and I can see where the other reviewers are coming from with the issue of the sound. I don't think that it is as horrible as the first reviewers wrote, but there is most certainly something not right with the low end here. You do have to crank up the bass or push in that loudness button to get the low end, and then is does sound like there could have been some more definition. The high end is pretty up there as well (maybe a little too much). I could see that if you do have really high-end audio gear, these would kinda sound like you know what. If you don't, you can probably live with it, seeing how long we all have waited for these. I would like to hear the old CD issues of these and compare the mastering with them. If anyone out there can do this, let us know what you think. All and all, it is a bit disappointing and I really wish they could have done a better job with the sound, but I think that it is still great to have these wonderful albums.

Rockin was one of the bands best albums and several members refer to it as their favourite. Flavours is probably the direct opposite in terms of material (aside from "Dancin' Fool" and maybe "Hoe Down Time"), but hey, they were in a jazz/experimental mode when they ditched McDougall & Winter (one of my personal favourite lineups). Nice cover too (not!). Anyways, no letdown in the packaging and personally, buddy with the hi-fi better clean his ears out 'cause the highs are crisp and the lows sound like bass to me (also consider tapes are from the '70s and not the new millenium, Lance).

When I first found out this & some other Guess Who albums that were never on cd before were finally coming out, I was thrilled. Although not commercially successful, I always thought these were some of the best of my boys from Canada. I was like a child at Christmas waiting for these to arrive in the mail. Well guess what !! I got a great big lump of coal in my stocking !! Usually with re-released & remastered stuff from the 70's or 80's, people associated with the band or some of the band members themselves are involved in the project. In past cd releases, names such as Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman & Jack Richardson were involved in remastering & liner notes with excellent results. The series of Guess Who remasters that came out a couple of year ago under "Buddha - BMG" were super. I don't know who these guys are (the 2 names involved in remastering these current 4 cd releases), but they better not quit their day jobs. Instead of letting them have a natural, clean sound that the buddha releases or the recently released "Guess Who Anthology" have, they thought they would get cute & play them through some sort of processor. The highs are way over emphasized & the cymbals almost sound distorted at times. What little low end is there is boomy with no definition. Dynamic range is non-existent. At times, I hear drop-outs. Other than that, it sounds great ! I'm surprised BMG Canada would put their names on something like this. The only positive thing I can say is the artwork is nice. I didn't think the previous cd release of "Rockin'" was very good, but this one is worse. If you want to hear these albums the way they should sound, get a good clean copy of the vinyl & have it transferred to cd. I do have high end audio equipment (Klipsch, B&K, Yamaha). Good recordings sound great & poor recordings sound terrible but this one doesn't sound much better in my car.

If you played straight rock and pop in the late 1960s, you landed in the mid-1970s in pretty good shape. The Guess Who did one very compelling psychedelic experiment, "Friend's Of Mine," onWheatfield Soul. Other than this they worked the continuum of rock and roll and high end pop--write good songs and sing and play them well.

Which is why Flavours works: the times may have changed between the Guess Who's start in 1968 and this 1974 album, but except for dropping some fuzz and wha wha on their guitars and a few trippy mannerisms, the Guess Who's sound didn't shift much.

Most of Flavours is well-written, piano based rock, with interesting turns and twists and Burton Cumming's amazing singing. The half spoken, hard rock "Dirty" is the one exception--good but it really doesn't fit the album.

There is no big hit like "American Woman," and no track with a killer hook like "Undone," but this is still brilliantly made, enjoyable work by one of the era's most underrated bands.

The record companies keep saying cd sales are way down . well this is prime example of a part of the problem . first you take a great album "Rockin" then when its remastered , they compress the audio and distort the recording by digitally mastering it to loud . the recording companies keep saying there is no limit to digital level , REALLY!!! . Please read all reviews before buying newer remastered products .
Also remember this cd and hundreds of others have few or no other choices
to purchase them this way .
I have the first generation of this cd master And it is flat an full of hiss . that one is worse than this one , this one should have been a lot better .
some of the best cd mastering happened between 1993 and 2003 If you are wondering why some remasters of the late 90's are selling at a large price , now you know.
do some research look up "rockin" Check on mastering dates and reviews.
also beware of import bootlegs , they are usually not as good as stated.

I am surprised by the other reviews comments. I thought that all 4 reissues have been remastered quite well. I also own the first generation cd's for rockin,10,road food, & wheatfield soul. These remastered CDs are certainly a dramatic improvement over the originals. More dynamics and far less noise!! I do agree that the buhdda packages are superior both sonically and in terms of overall packaging. But at $12.99 for each disc plus finally having the vastly underated Artificial Paradise, Flavors, & Power In the Music in your collection.......how can you complain?

Buy all 4 now!!