![]() ![]() On the CD front, I barely spun the 1994 A&M Redbook CD more than a few times since I already had Mobile Fidelity's 1993 Ultradisc in hand. While the 2CD Deluxe Edition is certainly worth having, the 3LP set is the better bet, as Scott really brings out the breadth of live performances of Crime tracks like "Rudy" (a 7-minute showcase for the storytelling vocalist/keyboardist Richard Davies) and "Hide in Your Shell" (Hodgson's whisper to scream treatise on summoning the wherewithal to overcome personal fears). ![]() For his part, Scott mixed the 13 bonus live tracks from the original tapes of the band's gig at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on March 9, 1975. Mobile Fidelity's 1978 Original Master Recording LP was indeed something to behold-but I've also come to appreciate the nuances of the remastering job done for vinyl and cut by Ray Staff at Air Studios in London that was used with A&M's multi-format reissues that honored the album's 40th anniversary in 2014. The Mobile Fidelity version was indeed good, but still not as good as the original CBS version." "That was done through the CBS classical division, so it was the best vinyl you could get-and it was absolutely phenomenal. "The best pressing of anything I'd ever worked on was the initial pressing of Crime of the Century," Crime's original producer Ken Scott confirms. I wore out my original 1974 A&M LP before the '70s wound down-and then I discovered better Crime wax existed in Europe. ![]() ![]() "What you don't play is just as important as what you do play." "The art of space in our recordings can't be over- looked," he tells me. No one knows it better than Supertramp vocalist/guitarist/pianist Roger Hodgson. The band's uncluttered arrangements let each Crime song truly breathe-and that was no accident. Over the course of eight songs, Supertramp took full advantage of the dynamic range of tracks like "School" (punctuated by multiple piano bursts and yelping schoolchildren), "Bloody Well Right" (its razor-sharp guitar line wafting from back- ground to foreground and back like a talkbox in a tsunami), and the ascendant, power-packed rage of the title track (with a final lyrical twist worthy of the last episode of The Prisoner). After two middling misfires, the British quintet's third LP, September 1974's Crime of the Century, vaulted them into the big leagues where progressive-leaning tendencies met not-so-subversive pop sensibilities head-on. The third time was truly the charm for Supertramp. ![]()
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