Jump to content

Van Morrison Polydor Reissue Series


HWright

Recommended Posts

Recently in Washington DC (where I live) I found German Import copies of remasters of Van Morrison's "Into the Music" and "Common One." Since these are two favorites of mine and as far as I know remasters of these albums have not been released in the USA, I bought them. That got me to thinking about the Polydor/Mercury/Universal Remastering program of Van's catalogue, both from when he was with Warner Brothers and when he was with Polydor after that.

The main set of reissues came out around 1997 in the USA, although I don't think I discovered them until 2-3 years later because they weren't very well publicized either in the media or in stores. I just found them in a Borders one day, as I recall. (The same thing happened with the Joni Mitchell remasters that came out around the same time.) Based on an ad I found inside one of the reissues, the initial series seems to have included

Tupelo Honey

Saint Dominic's Preview

Hardnose the Highway

Veedon Fleece

Too Late to Stop Now

Period of Transition

Wavelength

These CDs could be distinguished by the gold sticker on the case indicating the new remastering and subtle differences in typography on the spine and back tray card. (The European versions seem to also have a fully clear tray, which makes them easier to distinguish from the original CD editions).

Recently, I discovered that additional titles from the 1980's had been remastered and I found new editions of the following titles

Sense of Wonder

No Guru No Teacher No Method

Poetic Champions Compose

I thought I saw remasters of the following albums, but I may have imagined it

Avalon Sunset

Enlightenment

Even more recently, in addition to the German editions of "Into the Music" and "Common One," I've also seen a German edition of "Inarticulate Speech of the Heart and no doubt a German edition of "Beautiful Vision" exists, although I haven't seen it yet.

Since I find these remasters to be a distinct improvement, I think it's unfortunate that they weren't better promoted and that all of the series haven't been released directly in the USA.

Three albums, however, are noticeably absent from both the USA and European series: "Astral Weeks," "Moon Dance" and "His Band and Street Choir." Does anyone know why these albums haven't been remastered? Considering that they are among his most popular and well known titles, the only explanation that I can think of is that Polydor doesn't have the rights. However, they were included in the late '80's/Early '90's CD catalogue. Perhaps at some point, due to some buy out or renegociation, the rights were lost? Or is this perhaps connected to American v.s. European distribution rights....

Anyone have any idea about this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I managed to find the Universal Germany site:

http://www.universal-music.de/html/index.html

Although they don't talk up the reissue program much, they do provide release dates for all of Van's albums in their catalogue. It looks like the remasters came out in two batchs, in 1997 and 1998.

"Avalon Sunset" and "Enlightenment" are not listed as remastered, so I must have just imagined that I saw new versions of them, as I said. There is a remaster of "Beautiful Vision," as I thought, so I'm going to keep a look out for that.

No mention at all of Van's first three Warner Brothers albums, either in old or new remastering, which seems to support my theory that they don't have the rights...

Also of interest is that they have the track listing for what appears to be Van's Next Album "Pay the Devil," with a (tentative) release date of March 3, 2006:

1 There Stands The Glass

2 Half As Much

3 Things Have Gone To Pieces

4 Big Blue Diamonds

5 Playhouse

6 Your Cheatin Heart

7 My Bucket's Got A Hole In It

8 Back Street Affair

9 Pay The Devil

10 What Am I Living For

11 This Has Got To Stop

12 Once A Day

13 More And More

14 Till I Gain Control Again

Edited by HWright
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...