{"id":17301,"date":"2021-04-09T16:46:25","date_gmt":"2021-04-10T00:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=17301"},"modified":"2021-04-09T16:46:25","modified_gmt":"2021-04-10T00:46:25","slug":"re-fearless-taylors-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2021\/04\/09\/re-fearless-taylors-version\/","title":{"rendered":"Re-Fearless-Taylor&#8217;s Version"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So completely spot on Bob! \u00c2\u00a0All of it!<\/p>\n<p>And yes, you can tell from the very first note!!! \u00c2\u00a0Hell, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m barely a fan and I can tell.<\/p>\n<p>Philip McDonald<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible to perfectly re-create a master&#8230; a fools errand<\/p>\n<p>Paul Layton<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Great as always<\/p>\n<p>Adam Shacknai<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Kinda like Sinatra when he re-recorded all the Capitol hits on his own Reprise label, eh pally?<\/p>\n<p>Cheers,<\/p>\n<p>Steve Weisberg<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Fuck-in-a right Bob.<br \/>\nColin\u00c2\u00a0Dutton<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>So true. Like Quincy said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When money enters the room, God leaves the room.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But I guess if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really care about art, it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter to you. But it matters to these 64-year-old-musical bones and it sounds like it does to yours too. Screw these re-mixes and re-recordings.<\/p>\n<p>Shepherd Stevenson<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Amen!<\/p>\n<p>Anders Hansson<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>I was originally sort of on board with Taylor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plight. Then, right around the same time the new version of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Love Story\u00e2\u20ac\u009d dropped, Dave Chappelle did his thing where he asked people not to stream Chappelle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Show because he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t getting paid. It worked. Comedy Central acquiesced. Taylor should have done the same thing. Her fans would absolutely have boycotted streaming her songs until the negotiations opened back up.<\/p>\n<p>Matt O&#8217;Donnell<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Nails<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Don Pedigo<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Spot on. The only artist I can think of who did a total remake of some of his classic music that I have respect for is Jeff Lynne. He was not playing some kind of a game to try to get more money or screw his old label. He simply believed that he had improved as an engineer over the years, and he wanted to go back and redo the songs so that they would sound better to HIM!<\/p>\n<p>Of course a lot of ELO fans like me bought it anyway&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1jNEIHx9O9tZDNeyWeH0M0?si=uFTxhjKlQ4--DRfYrNhvuw&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Bob Crain<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bear to listen to Jeff Lynne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ELO rerecorded work. Truly disrespectful to the original recordings. As you mention, you can tell from the very first note. Shameful.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Paciocco<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>I listen to a lot of music from the 50s and 60s, and I&#8217;ve never heard a remake that was indistinguishable from the original. The original is lightning in a bottle &#8211; it&#8217;s a confluence\u00c2\u00a0of musicians, instruments, engineers, producers, studios, equipment, and the times. It can&#8217;t ever be reproduced. Alternate takes from the same session can get close, but even those don&#8217;t capture the ephemeral magic of the master or the hit. And as you suggest, the worst part is that the distinction between the original and the remake blurs over time &#8211; particularly for those who haven&#8217;t indelibly marked the original in their musical consciousness.<\/p>\n<p>hyperbolium<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>I think you&#8217;re wrong on this.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sitting here going back and forth between the old and new versions of Fifteen and the new version sounds so much better. Her voice has matured, there&#8217;s more low end in the mix&#8230; it&#8217;s superior in every way. This might not be the case with every song, but FUCK IT &#8212; I&#8217;d rather she made the money, so I hope these become the standards. Fuck the business side of things, they&#8217;re all vampires.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Neely<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Bravo. The fans are usually ythe ones who get it in the ass, especially with big big acts.<\/p>\n<p>Rik Shafer<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Nice post.Thanks Bob.Hope you&#8217;re well.Have a great day,Ted Keane<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Bob,<br \/>\nThis piece is why I read you.<br \/>\nThank You,<br \/>\nJeff Garlin<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>This happens way too often. I was really enjoying your article on people taking original recordings and making money off bad re-masters that do actually, right-off-the-bat, sound different, which takes away from the song you loved. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disheartening.<\/p>\n<p>And then you inject \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no different from the ignorant following Trump\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n<p>A song I wrote is on a Grammy nominated album, my band backed Alice Cooper years ago, I know how to build a house, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve owned and operated a Life Coaching practice for 40 years, I have a wife, 3 kids and an IQ of 134. AND I voted for Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Just like hearing a bad remaster of a song, your bigoted, generalized, condescending and hateful remarks unfortunately take away from the original point your were communicating.<\/p>\n<p>When you do that, I just \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lift the needle off your blog\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t listen to it anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Rich Nisbet<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Hi Bob, my eldest daughter is 20 and has gone through love-hate career moments with Taylor. She hated the new Taylor up until Folk-More, and is now thrilled again with what she&#8217;s doing. Thought you&#8217;d like to see her response when I just asked her if she likes Fearless (Taylor&#8217;s Version):<\/p>\n<p>Hi dad so im having a listening party over zoom in a few hours with my friends so I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t heard it YET but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all dressing as different Taylor swifts. For example, Isabel is dressing as Taylor from the You Belong With Me music video and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m dressing as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153gold rush\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Taylor (I am wearing all gold helloooo) and Rehana (yes the boss of Overachiever who is a huge swift) is dressing up as Taylor from the Blank Space music video, etc. We are making it an EVENT it is not simply a listen on your own type deal \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>The love is there. Drum roll on the new recordings&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Colin Drummond<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s extremely difficult to capture the original magic and excitement in a re-record. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been asked many times to re-record hits for artists for licensing purposes etc.<br \/>\n9 times out of 10 the person asking for the license doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want the re-record.<br \/>\nHave you heard the dreadful Def Leppard re-records? Who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to recreate Mutt Lange and Mike Shipley? Absolutely no one.<\/p>\n<p>For example, Whitesnake\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Slide it In\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. The 1984 US version was masterfully mixed and augmented by Keith Olsen from the original UK version. It still sounds amazing, especially on big studio speakers.<br \/>\nDavid Coverdale decided to remix it recently. Sucked the soul right out of it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dry and over-compressed and lost the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153air\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<br \/>\nI won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t blame the mixer here, he was just doing what he was asked i\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Mark Lewis remixed Megadeth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Killing is my Business\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s miles better.<\/p>\n<p>Genesis strangely remixed all their classic hits for the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Platinum Collection\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. They totally lost the magic. Who remixes Hugh Padgham???<\/p>\n<p>Jay Ruston<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>I agree with a lot of what you said. And I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want my favourite artists to re-record their most classic albums either. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a difference. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a lot older than a Taylor Swift fan.<\/p>\n<p>First, Taylor\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcs fans are not hard-core audio files. A 22-year-old girl, listening to an Swift album on computer speakers or earbuds, genuinely cannot tell the difference between the original album and the re-recording. And a large percentage of music listeners today, especially Taylor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fans, are exactly the same. They are not listening to her music on vinyl, through expensive sound systems to catch every bit of fidelity in the recordings. They just aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n<p>Second, like you said, Taylor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fans are incredibly aware of everything that is going on in her life. They know exactly why she is re-recording everything, and they will be loyal to her and listen only to the re-recorded versions&#8230;to support her. Whether the versions are actually \u00e2\u20ac\u0153better\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is irrelevant. Taylor believes that they are, therefore her fans will believe that also. Plus I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure they are enjoying all the extra music. \u00c2\u00a0And if some hard-core fans are that attached to the original versions of the songs, they can go back and listen to them. They aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going anywhere. Most of them own the physical albums anyway, and can listen to them whenever they want. Plus, how exactly are the fans getting \u00e2\u20ac\u0153screwed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? They are streaming everything on Spotify or Apple Music anyway. What is the new out-of-pocket expense for a Taylor Swift fan, just because she re-recorded an album?<\/p>\n<p>Third, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure how much it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all about the money\u00e2\u20ac\u0153. Taylor is rich enough to live five lifetimes without worrying. What she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll make off these re-recordings won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t amount to much in terms of her overall wealth. Sure, it WOULD be all about the money for a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153normal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d person&#8230;.but not for one of the biggest and most successful artists on the planet Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Just a thought. All the best!!<\/p>\n<p>Randy Scott<\/p>\n<p>P.S. Loving the podcast.<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Hey Bob. NAME FUCKING NAMES PLEASE! Back it up. One egregious example is Foreigner. Mick Jones who you interviewed. Call that fucker out for it. Jeff Lynne. Def Leppard etc supposedly. I hate this shit also. Drives me nuts when encountered. The streaming services need to curate and monitor this? Or they are perpetuating the fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Derek Morris<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>You are correct, of course. \u00c2\u00a0And I am not as well-read as you are&#8230; and I was trying to get a sense of the positive writing. \u00c2\u00a0(I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve yet to see anyone else write so-called negative on the topic.)<\/p>\n<p>Seems to me there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an anti-establishment cheer in the writing. \u00c2\u00a0That is the lone artist doing it her way&#8230; And is she in fact doing something (re-record) in a way that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t completely lame?<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not invested, but I do sense she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tapping into a larger \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Age of Aquarius\u00e2\u20ac\u009d vibe&#8230; That is, integrity matters and cannot be bought or sold. \u00c2\u00a0And if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proving a point to an old establishment, perhaps we are seeing the ongoing development of new standards. \u00c2\u00a0(Which will always be abused by some, but the sentiment of being fair is what accountability is all about; something you write about often as needed in the industry.)<\/p>\n<p>Maybe my thoughts are disjointed, but I sense a cultural difference from a simple artist re-recording for a cash grab. \u00c2\u00a0Again, not that your point that the re-recording cannot re-capture the magic of the original is wrong. \u00c2\u00a0But people perhaps don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care about recordings (you say music doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t drive the culture anymore), as much as seeing a single person beat what they perceive as Goliath.<\/p>\n<p>I dunno; but I enjoy your Letter greatly!<\/p>\n<p>Joshua Hall<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;one of\u00c2\u00a0best albums of the century&#8221;? Who hurt you in Jr High Bob? While there are differences, this is a damn close facsimile. Some of the tones are a bit off, snare pitch overall eq and mix balance. But all tempos, grooves, parts are the exact same. I&#8217;m sure she got the same players back in. Even the tracks are the same length.<\/p>\n<p>In my\u00c2\u00a0opinion the biggest change is in the sound of the vocals, but the cadences and phrasing are the same. It just sounds like a singer aged 12 years down the road.<\/p>\n<p>This is not a record by a band or people playing together with one mind looking for magic (see Dan Penn!) This was a record made on the grid in parts, and there&#8217;s\u00c2\u00a0nothing wrong with that. So\u00c2\u00a0trying to capture lightning in a bottle is a lot less important or relevant. In re-recording I&#8217;m sure they used the same grid, and every effort was made\u00c2\u00a0to replicate it within an inch\u00c2\u00a0of its life. What we have here is the ultimate &#8220;spite house&#8221; and as you said I&#8217;m sure her fans will be very happy to support her. I don&#8217;t know<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Swift\u00c2\u00a0but\u00c2\u00a0hats off to her for going through what to me seems like a tedious effort of trying to recreate it down to a T.\u00c2\u00a0 Would she have been better served spending time making\u00c2\u00a0new music, absolutely. (Give me a ring Taylor) Anyhow I feel you should adopt the Zen wisdom of Don Corleone rregarding this release.\u00c2\u00a0&#8220;But anyway, Signora Swift, my no is final,\u00c2\u00a0and I wish to\u00c2\u00a0congratulate you on your new business, and I know you&#8217;ll do very well. Good luck\u00c2\u00a0to you as best as\u00c2\u00a0your interests don&#8217;t conflict with mine.&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0Now if in 1976 Led Zepplin\u00c2\u00a0tried to\u00c2\u00a0release thier &#8220;own&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0version\u00c2\u00a0of their second album I&#8217;d tell them go fuck themselves.<\/p>\n<p>George Drakoulias<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Okay, I feel you, but my son, Eric, plays drums on two of the cuts and it was a pretty big deal in our family.<br \/>\nRobin Slick<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So completely spot on Bob! \u00c2\u00a0All of it! And yes, you can tell from the very first note!!! \u00c2\u00a0Hell, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m barely a fan and I can tell. Philip McDonald _____________________________________________ It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible to perfectly re-create a master&#8230; a fools errand Paul Layton _____________________________________________ Great as always Adam Shacknai _____________________________________________ Kinda like Sinatra when he re-recorded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-4v3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17302,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17301\/revisions\/17302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}