The Band-"Don’t Do It"

has anyone been able to reproduce the vinyl 45 version from
the cd components?

It was covered on the Rock of Ages string. You can make the single edits but you don't have access to the applause sound effect they added to the intro.

There is applause Ed, but not until the three minute mark
of the LP version and of course the tail end when the song
ends. I think the issue is the LP version has no applause
at the start but the 45 does (must've been added later when
the edits took place).

Edited by Santi Paradoa

Thanks for the compliment on the edit Ed, if I do say so
I agree it came out great. Except for one little
difference I discovered about the re-issue 45 I used as
my source.

I used a pristine Capitol re-issue. It had the correct 45
edit. It also had the audience over the intro all the way
til the vocals start. All great so far.
I used the LP version from CD for the rest of the song
after the opening audience was finished.

I then noticed my edit came out to be 3:35 not 3:39. So
Ed sent me a dub of his ORIGINAL 45. I expected to find
that the re-issue was missing some audience at the fade
.. but no, while the pitch on the re-issue is the same as
the album .. (that's the speed I'm familiar with) the
commercial 45 was slowed down ... really slow, sounds
like tape drag but all the way thru. So that makes the
original single 4 seconds longer.

Other issue: the stock 45 is mono where my re-issue is
stereo. Hmm. Odd. But no problem, i found when you fold
it to mono and slow it down and EQ it like the 45 the
music mix matches just fine.

BUT now I hear another issue when I synchronized it with
Ed's 45, I found that the audience overdub on the intro
of the re-issue is not the SAME audience overdub found in
the mono stock 45. (are you kidding me??) Sigh.

So my question now is .. was there a stereo / mono promo
45? I suspect this stereo edit is what's on it if it
exists.

MM

MMathews wrote: So my question now is .. was there a stereo / mono promo 45? I suspect this stereo edit is what's on it if it exists. MM

Mark, although I don't have a DJ copy of Capitol 3433, there's one pictured on discogs, and it has the same, both-sides-state-stereo "Don't Do It"/"Rag Mama Rag" pairing as my Los Angeles-pressed stock copy (which was where all Capitol promo 45s were pressed during those years.)

The deadwax markings listed for the discogs promo 45's A side are "S-45-X 78631 A-Z-3 [stamped] STERLING RL," which match my stock copy, except that the discogs listing omits the asterisk symbol between the hand-etched numbers and the machine-stamped "STERLING" and hand-etched "RL". I'll chalk that up to an oversight on the discogs entry, since the "*" signifies Capitol's Los Angeles plant.

Both sides of my stock copy state "stereo," but, as the others have already stated upthread, the A-side plays mono. The "Rag Mama Rag" B-side does, however, play stereo.

Generally, I've found that a Capitol matrix number beginning with a "45-X" prefix signifies a mono master, and "S-45" (with no "X" following it) is a stereo master. Although the printed matrix numbers on the labels of this particular 45 both have an "S45" prefix ahead of the master numbers, the deadwax matrix numbers on both the A and B sides have "S-45-X" prefixes ahead of those same numbers. That runs counter to the usual Capitol deadwax protocol, and in this case, one turned out to be mono and the other stereo.

I'm speculating here, but given that the crowd SFX during the intro appears to have been flown in from elsewhere, and that the "B" side deadwax shows no STERLING / Robert Ludwig mastering involvement, it's possible that the A-side's "stereo" labels had already been printed prior to a last-minute mono crowd-sweetening decision.

I can just picture the scene at the Capitol A&R meeting:

"You call that the way to kick off a "live" hit? They sound like The Bland, for cryin' out loud! Show me some excitement! Light a fire under that crowd!" ;)

My guess is that when they went to re-cut the 45 in stereo for the Star Line reissue, they realized that they'd have to re-do the crowd effects from scratch. I'd imagine they weren't about to pay overtime for someone to find that exact crowd sequence in stereo.