Let me pose you a
question. What would be your reaction if
Van Gogh, assuming he was still alive, decided that his Sunflowers were all
wrong and painted them out to be repainted as Lilies? Or if Rodin were to hack off The Thinker’s
arm in order to re-site it by his side rather than cupping his chin? Established works of art should not really be
tampered with, should they? Although
painting out details in ‘finished’ pictures is nothing new, it feels wrong
somehow. So what about re-mixing Classic
Albums? Hmm.
Since the advent of digital music, engineers
have taken the opportunity to re-master old analogue tapes for the new
medium. Up until now most of these
efforts have been poor, in my opinion, but of late things have changed. Recent re-masters have improved significantly
and I cite The Beatles’ catalogue, Paul McCartney’s Archive series and Steve
Hackett’s early albums as evidence. But
progress has now reached the stage where artists are re-mixing as well as
re-mastering their old albums in a ‘this’ll fix what I didn’t do at the time’
sort of way. Can they do this? What about my memories?
I have three examples
of this desire to tinker; Deep Purple’s ‘Machine Head’, Mike Oldfield’s
‘Ommadawn’ and Jethro Tull’s ‘Aqualung’.
In each case, the original multi-track recording has been re-mixed using
today’s technology in an effort to improve on the original. In the case of ‘Aqualung’ I have to say that
this has been a spectacular success. The
re-mix doesn’t really change the musical emphasis very much from the original
but what it has done is breathe new life into what was a very stodgy final
master. Suddenly there is space around
the instruments and their tonality bursts out of the speakers at you. Drums sound like drums and less like wet
cardboard boxes – hurrah! Steven Wilson,
who is the engineer responsible, has a magic touch with old masters as his work
on the King Crimson and Caravan catalogues has shown. His re-mixed ‘Aqualung’ is fabulous and I’d
choose it over the original every time.
‘Mike Oldfield’s
‘Ommadawn’ also works well but to a lesser degree. The re-mix doesn’t really alter the sound of the
album too much but it does sound clearer and fresher. However, I understand that his re-mix of
‘Tubular Bells’ does sound significantly different but as I haven’t heard it, I
couldn’t possibly comment. My real gripe
is reserved for ‘Machine Head’ and that is because the modern re-mix uses
alternative instrumental takes, such as guitar solos, that were not used in the
original. This is a step too far as it
changes the music wholesale and I don’t like it – it has ceased to be ‘Machine
Head’ and is now something else.
Whilst I object to
the concept that once discarded music is now viewed as an improvement, I am
disconcertingly aware that my attitude has been conditioned by the last 100
years, or since music became recorded.
Prior to then, all music only existed in written form and every
performance of it was different, so there was no definitive version, just a
series of interpretations. Now that
music is cast in stone for all eternity by the recording process, we are led to
believe that there is only one interpretation, but perhaps that is wrong?
Re-mixing raises a
whole series of ethical questions about art and it will take more than this
post to get to the bottom of it. I’m
still unsure and will probably just take on a case by case line until someone
can convince me one way or the other.
