I’ve had some enquiries about whether there’s a vinyl version of the recently remastered Bat Chain Puller.
As far as I can make out the Zappa Family Trust will not be releasing one … many Zappa fans have already been upset by the absence of vinyl versions of Mothers and Frank titles so it’s nothing personal towards us Beefheart followers.
Inevitably though, bootleggers have stepped in to fill the gap. So, there is now a (white) vinyl version of Bat Chain Puller available. It’s dubbed from the remastered CD and sporting artwork based on it too. It’s even claiming to be a zappa.com Vaulternative release … presumably as a single digit salute to Gail.
This vinyl version only has the original 12 tracks and doesn’t include any of the bonus material from the CD.
It’s out there … but I can’t vouch for the quality of the pressing as I’ve not heard it.
i know someone who spoke with Gail about it, and she said a vinyl version was in development. but now that there’s a bootleg out there that purports to be authentic, the incentive to release it now into a confusing marketplace is probably reduced to zero. i’m guessing the Zappa folks would have used a CD source too, but they should have at least had the chance to do it right.
If they did, I could see it being a special vinyl mix. One thing about the ZFT, they can be pretty anal… look at the recent Zappa reissues, they even re-remastered them for itunes.
Which is a bit naive, IMHO, if you have ear buds in, you cant really be worried about sonic quality.
But yeah, a bootleg vinyl would definitely discourage Gail from putting one out. Then again, that was the same argument re: Ozit’s DUST SUCKER. So it could still happen. It may take another 36 years, but it could still happen.
Why would anyone knowingly buy an album knowingly mastered from a CD? Why not just play scratchy noise while simultaneously playing the CD? Because playing from vinyl digital master is plainly idiotic and adds nothing exept object fetishism.
The ZFT would have zero reason to master from CD, seeing as they own the analogue masters.
BTW anonymous — the point of remastering for iTunes to compensate for what’s lost via earbuds. Not naive.
I think the vinyl thing from the digital master is more the pleasurable sensation of playing vinyl itself… sonically it is at best equivalent and at worst scratchy and inferior.
However vinyl does add a certain sound just by its nature and can produce some overtones that can be deemed more pleasurable to the ear. of course this is an artifact, but can affect ones perception.
This is no great surprise as all the FZ posthumous releases have received the same treatment, on white vinyl, no less, so same culprits here I wd imagine. Think they press about 200 and if you are not part of the network they are hard to secure. I wd think the folks who press these are hardcore enough to buy an official vinyl if ever released.
Love, the beep