Hold On Tight ha a pretty high profile airing on a Honda commerical under its belt. Now it has press as well. And while channel surfing, I stopped on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, where he said something to the effect of... "to invoke the words of a song that comes to mind, 'hold on tight to your dreams'..."
Not including box sets and special editions, Ticket To The Moon is the 36th compilation title in my (and probably many other's) private collection. With its companion CD, All Over The World, this would be the current definitive 2-disc retrospective of the band's works for the masses. In an overall sense, it'll do. But for my money, there is no career retrospective unless it starts with Fire On High and finishes with Hello My Old Friend. I still compile the ELO retrospectives for friends who want them... and they get it.
Ticket To The Moon had a lot going for it quality-wise since it was being companioned with All Over The World. But, it fell to the cheap side.
Right out the gate, Twilight barges in with no fade and ends with the intro to Yours Truly, just as it's indexed on the Time CD. To me, that says no effort was put into this. Can't Get It Out Of My Head still starts with a rough edit. I thought that's what Pro-Tools was for! These are easy fixes!
Secret Messages and Eldorado had fast (and rather thoughtless) fades at the end when a more prolonged fade could have made a better dramatic statement. Again, we're dealing with the masses, the hardcore fans already know what's going to happen next. I figured this would be a good time to smooth over the tape flaws on Calling America and It's Over. I figured incorrectly.
I try not to nickpick at the track list too much. It may be an ideal track list for someone out there. But Starlight? If we're going to highlight album tracks from Out Of The Blue, why not put something a little more daring and edgy, like Jungle or Birmingham Blues. Starlight is just more light pop.
Heaven Only Knows. Two words: alternate version.
Eldorado. Wonderful track, but very out of place here.
In My Own Time. Good. I'm glad this made it on here. Of all the songs on Zoom, this was the one that really brings out the qualities in Jeff's voice. And it's an airtight pop song. I've always loved this one.
Besides the sleeve notes which help, the bare minimum was done for the packaging as well. A dinky tri-fold computer graphics cover, with a spaceship (naturally) and a generic and rather artifical-looking backside and inlays.
How possible is it in the next go-around to have a dignified-looking career retrospective? I mean, Flashback is great, but come on. Come back to Earth once in a while and appear to try.
The Traveling Wilburys website is updated in antcipation of next month's Deluxe Edition re-release. They're confirming that the vinyl edition will be released December 4. And it looks like the new deluxe edition may be in a blue box.
But the website is also advertising something on the Sundance Channel, most likely an airing of the True History of the Traveling Wilburys. The dates are:
11/5 @ 10:15pm EST/PST
11/10 @ 6:30pm EST/PST
11/23 @ 1:50pm EST/PST
11/25 @ 11:35pm EST/PST
Here's a little red carpet stuff from Tom Petty's premiere screening of Running Down A Dream in LA. Jeff does his best to give this poor humorously clueless Hollywood reporter a soundbite. Regardless of how much she knows, this was an incredibly strange line of questioning.
A few opening thoughts on the new Tom Petty documentary just released to DVD by Best Buy. I'll keep to the Jeff Lynne-relevent parts.
The story of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers needed the four full hours to tell. The pace of the documentary is nice and even, but I can't imagine being in a theatre for that long regardless of the topic. Anyway, of course, my main interest in this documentary is when Jeff entered the picture.
I suppose I expected to see some new raw footage from the Roy Orbison, Wilburys, Full Moon Fever sessions because there seems to have a been a good deal of videotape rolled around this time.
Instead, they (and by they I mean Bagdanovich) lifted the exact part of recording You Got It from a previous documentary, Going Home. When it got to the Wilburys, all of the video was essentially lifted from the recently released True History of the Traveling Wilburys documentary... even down to the May 1988 date stamp used on the DVD! I shit you not.
The filmmakers apparently had nothing to b-roll the Highway Companion part of the documentary. They ended up using those horrendous music videos made for a few of the songs, plus some b-roll shot after Jeff gave his (recent) interview for the film.
One thing I was glad to see was Jeff's role as a producer put in perspective. Tom Petty draws the difference between making a record and playing live. Some people just can't separate the two, which may partially explain the visceral response Jeff Lynne gets by some critics.
More thoughts to follow...
In two places including Amazon, I've seen/read that the Traveling Wilburys Collection on LP may be pushed to the first week of December. Could mean nothing, could mean something.
My copy hasn't arrived yet, but from what I'm told, this comp is not impressing anyone... at all.
We knew it was going to happen eventually, just not so soon. Much of George Harrison's catalog (mainly the recently remastered stuff) has become available on iTunes. George is the last of the Fab Four to enter the digital realm, but sadly, nothing yet from the Fab Four.
One thing that may not sit well with fans: several of the new digitial editons contain an additional bonus track from their 2004 remastered editions, but only available if you buy the whole album. Further proof that there's a long way to go before record companies stop being clueless about how to deal with digital music.
Cloud Nine's bonus bonus track is Got My Mind Set On You (Extended Version) which was previously only available on vinyl. I wish I can purchase just that. Oh well, another lost sale for them.
I hope Radiohead blows the doors off the current digital music industry with their new album. I'm buying it and paying them for it, too.
