jimi hendrix all along the watchtower

my commercial 45 for the jimi hendrix experience song "all
along the watchtower" issued as reprise 0767 states the run
time on the label as 4:01 but actually runs 3:58 like most
of the db entries....this 45 info s/b added to the db....

Ohhhhh Wait a minute. Hold the phone. I was using a re-
issue single as my reference. Since the mixes didn't
match, I naturally assumed it was the mono 45 mix!

But then I noticed something about the way the guitar
fading in and out on the 45 sounded a lot like ONE
channel of the stereo mix. Just for kicks, I sync'd only
the right channel of the stereo mix with the 45, and I
got a perfect match. Of all the bizarre things.

So this mono re-issue is nothing but the right channel of
the stereo mix. WEIRD!
So assume my above report is *false* until I can hear a
real dub of the original 45.
MM

Mark, I found a quote from John McDermott, in an Examiner.com article.
He was in charge of the early 2014 mono vinyl reissues of the 1st 2 JHE
LPs, which were both mixed and released in mono and stereo as currents.
But the 3rd and final JHE LP, "Electric Ladyland", which included
".....Watchtower" on it, was never mixed to mono by Hendrix.

I believe McDermott makes a poor judgement call when he says, "there
was a fold down mix done for it, but it was not done by Jimi. So it doesn't
have any real historical value; it's more a curiosity than anything else."

To me, his last statement sounds like they are trying to justify their own
decision to not make any "Ladyland" legit 1968 mono mixes (done by
Hendrix or not) available - and how, by the way, does McDermott know
for 100% sure the mono singles from it were fold downs - sounds to me
like he doesn't even know for sure who actually *did* mix any songs to
mono from "...Ladyland".

And while Hendrix already had several big UK hits, Reprise USA had held
off on issuing the "Smash Hits" LP already out in England, since he really
hadn't had any big Top 40 hits here yet. So wouldn't that "red herring" be
even more reason for the powers-that-be at Reprise US to at least
consider doing some "mono mix tinkering", to try and help Hendrix finally
break through at US Top 40 with "....Watchtower?" Now I'm not saying that
they actually did do a dedicated mix - it surely could be a fold-down -
but to me, McDermott's comments left me with more questions after
reading it than I had before - never a good thing. Like Aaron just said,
Mark, please let us know what you find after hearing an original 45 dub.

Edited by jimct

Ok, finally had a chance to do a proper sync for this,
and Aaron is 100% correct. The 45 is merely a fold-down
of the stereo. There's no additional compression either.
I did need to pitch the CD source down a little, my CD
source was "Smash Hits".
Other than that they are identical. So sorry for
stirring up a big ruckus over nothing! :-D

At least now we know for sure. Like Jim, I'm kind of
surprised they didn't choose to do a dedicated "AM ready"
mono mix. But then, I wonder did they plan on getting ANY
AM radio play. This genre of "acid rock" was still
shockingly new.

Speaking of acid, I assume the engineer who mastered a
re-issue single using one channel of the stereo mix
dropped something before work that day.   
MM

Edited by MMathews