More of the Music of Andrew Gold
Hot Stamper Pressings on the Asylum Label
Andrew Gold’s debut is a good example of a record most audiophiles have never heard. The more open-minded among you — especially those who love a well-crafted pop song with Demo Disc sonics — might really benefit from giving it a chance, the way I did all the way back in 1975. I read the Rolling Stone review and went right down to my Tower Records and picked up a copy, and boy am I glad I did. I’ve played this album many hundreds of times and never tired of it.
If you know the “Asylum Sound” — think of the Tubey Magical analog of The Eagles’ first album and you won’t be far off — you can be sure the best copies of Andrew Gold’s first three albums on Asylum have plenty of it.
Tubey Magical acoustic guitar reproduction is superb on the better copies of this recording. Simply phenomenal amounts of Tubey Magic can be heard on every strum, along with richness, body and harmonic coherency that have all but disappeared from modern recordings (and especially from modern remasterings).
The guitars on this record are a true test of reproduction quality. Most of the pressings of this record do not get the guitars to sound right. And when the guitars are perfection, the voices and all the other instruments tend to be right as well.
Let’s face it: they just don’t know how to make acoustic guitars sound like this anymore. You have to go back to nearly 50-year-old records like this one to find that sound.
Sound and Music
As audiophiles we all know that sound and music are inseparable. My comments for this copy note how spacious and present and full of energy it is. After dropping the needle on a dozen or so copies, all originals by the way, you KNOW when the music is working its magic and when it’s not.
As with any pop album there are always some tracks that sound better than others, but when you find yourself marveling at how well-written and well-produced a song is, you know that the sound is doing what it needs to do. It’s communicating the Musical Values of the material. This Hot Stamper copy brings Andrew Gold’s music to LIFE.
The bass is especially meaty and well-defined here. Val Garay puts plenty on his recordings, one of the reasons we love listening to them. The vocals are present and clear, the studio is huge, and the snare is FAT the way it always is on Val’s recordings.
Andrew Gold Is Fab
I remember the title of the Rolling Stone review for this first album from decades ago: “Andrew Gold Is Fab.”
If you like The Beatles, Badfinger, The Hollies and all the other melodic pop bands from the ’60s (and who doesn’t?), you have to like this guy.
For Heart Like a Wheel we noted: “Pay special attention to Andrew Gold’s Abbey Road-ish guitars heard throughout the album. His sound is all over this record. If anybody deserves credit besides Linda for the success of HLAW, it’s Andrew Gold.”
We are big fans of Heart Like a Wheel. If you like that one you should find much to like here.
Val Garay Is The Man
Kudos once again must go to Val Garay, the man behind so many of our favorite recordings:
- James Taylor’s JT (a Top 100 title),
- Simple Dreams (formerly a Top 100 title),
- Prisoner In Disguise, etc.
They all share his trademark super-punchy, jump-out-the-speakers, rich and smooth ANALOG sound.
With big drums — can’t forget those. To be clear, only the best copies share it. Most copies only hint at it.