Pacific Gas & Electric - Are You Ready

I get that some people may want to re-create a totally
digital edit, but the short version was available in stereo
on some promo copies (I have one).

A bit off topic, but my hat is off to you guys who can pick
up on out-of-sequence edits so well.

I will leave it for another set of ears to make a final determination here, but like other Columbia DJ edits reviewed from this era, the mono and stereo side of the DJ 45 don't exactly match. Some of the edits are slightly tighter or looser when you synch up the mono and stereo version, as if it was edited twice, once for mono, and again for stereo. (instead of just summing the stereo edit to mono)Speed is pretty close on both sides, the fade is slightly different with the stereo side starting it's fade a little earlier and lasting longer. Both sides are gone at the same point.

There is one audio difference to my ears on the mono side verses the stereo side. During the first "Are You Ready To Sit By A Throne", there is a cymbal hit behind that phrase. On the mono side, that cymbal hit plays completely. On the stereo side, the cymbal hit is clipped very early, which sounds to me like the editor chose a different point.

I hear that same cymbal clip on the Collector's Essentials of the 70's".

So I believe that the Collector's Essentials CD matches the stereo DJ 45.

I was told at the time of the CD's issue that a clean stereo DJ 45 was used for that transfer, but that might not be the case.

Side note: The Canadian stock 45 that I have is labeled Stereo with a label time of 2:40. In reality, it is the mono DJ edit run through a bass/treble simulated stereo process, and it slows down then speeds up in various places, so it doesn't synch up well with either the DJ stereo or mono sides.

So we need to call in a judge on this one..

Edited by Bill Cahill

Bill,
Very good points. I too wondered if the stereo side was
indeed the edit that appears on the Bartley CD. I leaned
toward assuming that in 1970 they'd only want to do this
edit once and simply fold it down for the mono.

But I should know by now, with these details you can't
assume anything. So many DJ 45's have small differences
between the mono and stereo sides. And you've found good
evidence that is the case here.

I can make an easy final determination if I get a dub of
the vinyl stereo DJ side. It's the only version I lack.
MM

Thanks Jim! I'll check it out tonight.   MM

MMathews wrote: I've got to say I'm rather surprised that in 1970 they went to the extensive effort to make this edited version twice. It's not like the mixes are that different. In fact I folded the stereo edit to mono and compared them for mix differences and nothing stood out different between them at all mix-wise, just different edits. My theory is that they made the mono mix and edit, and and were all set to service it to radio, and then someone chimed in and said, "oh, we're sending this to FM stations too so we're gonna need you do the edit in stereo now".

I read somewhere that the union rules at CBS were extremely
restrictive in those days, to the point where a mono issue
had to be a dedicated mix, not a folddown. Could that have
been the reason for the differences?