Complains & Dis-satisfaction from LP Manufacturers

[Saket]

Hello Friends,

We all love vinyls, thats quite apparent and the reason we are here together. Lot of threads have been dedicated to this wonderful medium but may I just go a little off the track so that we explore the other side of this goodie.
The objective of starting this thread is to share our 'not-so-good' experiences with particular LPs. So any complains/dis-satisfaction with any this medium, please share here. Objective is not to de-mean or derogate any manufacturer or company, but just curiosity and knowledge sharing.
I would like to share my part....

If you guys have the LP of Anand, you would have noticed one thing thats very bad on part of HMV.
Anand movie had only 4 songs. An LP would be normally more than sufficient and infact massively sufficient for those 4 songs. So what HMV did was they put dialogues from the movie in between the songs. So far so good....but wait, what the hell...in the process, they cut the songs short!!!
Songs like Maine tere liye hi...has one stanza short than the movie & the prelude in song Kahin Door jab din dhal jaye (the into part sung in slow tempo by Mukeshji) was also cut short. Same with the audio tapes. I mean is this justified? All CDs, tapes that I have listened to has this problem. Probably they have destroyed the master even. Now what the listener can do if they do not get the full songs even on an LP from a barely 4 song album??? Okay, dialogues ae fine but at the cost of songs themsleves? Feel like 'breaking the records' on their heads. What you guys say about it?
Please share if you have any such experience from any LP.

Regards,
Saket

 

[arj]

I guess those were the days no DVD/ VCDs/VHS and the only time you could see the movie was in the theater or a re run on TV. many folks re-lived the movie via the LP. I remember listening to Sholay so many times that the songs were not that important.

Maybe thats what the reason for the above is

But today, since we have everything from BDs to AVI/s and You tube, the context of the LP has changed !

 

[Saket]

I guess those were the days no DVD/ VCDs/VHS and the only time you could see the movie was in the theater or a re run on TV. many folks re-lived the movie via the LP. I remember listening to Sholay so many times that the songs were not that important.

Maybe thats what the reason for the above is

But today, since we have everything from BDs to AVI/s and You tube, the context of the LP has changed !

Yes Dear arj,
I can imagine the situation at that time as you stated. Sholay probably had a separate dialogue LP (correct me if i am wrong). I have a 3LP set of complete Mughal-e-Azam movie along with FULL songs. But still I am not in the favour of sacrificing songs for dialogues because the LP was primarily a soundtrack for songs. They could have adjusted those extra minutes by cutting some dialogues short. Imagine the other side of this situation now when even in this age, you have to watch the movie or the music video on youtube so as to listen to the full song..not on audio tapes/cd or LP.
Hope you also get my point.
Saket

 

[shailenderb]

Yes Dear arj,
I can imagine the situation at that time as you stated. Sholay probably had a separate dialogue LP (correct me if i am wrong). I have a 3LP set of complete Mughal-e-Azam movie along with FULL songs. But still I am not in the favour of sacrificing songs for dialogues because the LP was primarily a soundtrack for songs. They could have adjusted those extra minutes by cutting some dialogues short. Imagine the other side of this situation now when even in this age, you have to watch the movie or the music video on youtube so as to listen to the full song..not on audio tapes/cd or LP.
Hope you also get my point.
Saket

When music of Ananad was released around 1970, HMV were yet to come out with LP-45, else, an LP-45 with 4 songs (full versions) would have been ideal. Yes, I agree with you. It is unpardonable that HMV sacrifices the songs for the dialogues.

In some cases, Polydor was worse. They used to repeat a song on both sides of the LP just to fill in the space. Check Bhola Bhala. Jhuk Gayee Aankhen is inlcuded on both Side A and B. There are many such instances.

I think entry of T-Series changed all these and made both HMV and Polydor (their entire collection is with HMV now) change their business tactics.

Regds

 

[john_k_antony]

One thing I noticed is that, the sound quality of T-Series records are not in the same league as HMV/Polydor

 

[Saket]

When music of Ananad was released around 1970, HMV were yet to come out with LP-45, else, an LP-45 with 4 songs (full versions) would have been ideal. Yes, I agree with you. It is unpardonable that HMV sacrifices the songs for the dialogues.

In some cases, Polydor was worse. They used to repeat a song on both sides of the LP just to fill in the space. Check Bhola Bhala. Jhuk Gayee Aankhen is inlcuded on both Side A and B. There are many such instances.

I think entry of T-Series changed all these and made both HMV and Polydor (their entire collection is with HMV now) change their business tactics.

Regds

Couldn't agree with Shailender more on this. A 45 RPM Lp in this case would definitely be ideal and that would be a better sounding LP too.

 

[reubensm]

I remember from my childhood, a lot of these Hindi LPs used to skip and jump. I remember when my dad bought Hum Kisee Se Kum Nahi in the late 70s or 80, I think, we had to return the LP and get another one. The first one was damaged.

Agree that there should be separate disks for songs and dialogue. Sholay had a separate dialogue LP. I remember LP of the movie Trishul had a separate 7 inch disc with dialogues.

I have some original first cut demo discs from Polydor (white label) who originally belonged to a General Manager at Polydor. These LPs are perfect and sound really good.

 

[Saket]

@John: Some T-series recordings are really a pain, I have an LP of Dil which I never play because of the faint pressing. On the other hand, QSQT on T-series was wonderful pressing. Dil hai ki manta nahi & aashiqui, around the same period, have a typical feature...instruments that are played sound perfect but vocals are bad..sibilance is also an issue. Probably they had not good vocal recording facilities at that time. Surprisingly, QSQT was much better.

@ Reuben: It would be nice if you could post a pic of those polydor LPs so that we can also have a look.

 

[shailenderb]

Polydor used to do some innovative (as compared to HMV) marketing. A sampler of Dharam Veer was released on a standard play pvc record (foldable) in blue color and this was distributed free with Stardust magazine - with Amin Sayani talking more about the stereophonic sound than the actual music. This was just before the release of the actual LP.

Regds

 

[Saket]

Polydor used to do some innovative (as compared to HMV) marketing. A sampler of Dharam Veer was released on a standard play pvc record (foldable) in blue color and this was distributed free with Stardust magazine - with Amin Sayani talking more about the stereophonic sound than the actual music. This was just before the release of the actual LP.

Regds

I have a pink colour translucent LP of Amar,Akbar Anthony by Polydor. Probably was some special edition as I have seen plenty of normal black LPs of this album around.

 

[shailenderb]

I have a pink colour translucent LP of Amar,Akbar Anthony by Polydor. Probably was some special edition as I have seen plenty of normal black LPs of this album around.

And then HMV copied the idea by releasing a Red color viny (LP) of Namak Halal.

Regds