Rock: well recorded bass...60s/70s

A lot has to do with the particular mastering and pressing. A couple of young friends came over yesterday with a pile of vinyl they just acquired; one was a lime green Capitol of The Band's "brown" album which they thought was an "RL" cut. I cleaned it for them, and cued it up; couldn't see his initials in the deadwax. We played part of the first track. I then pulled out my copy, which is an RL. Vast difference- bass galore. And this happens so frequently with so many older pressings- not just in the bass region, either. Makes you much more selective about which copies you are looking for.....

Bill, if you happen to hear of (or acquire yourself!) a clean copy of an RL cut lime green brown album, let me know, ay? Thanks---E

andy fraser on free's "fire and water" lp was a bass player's wet dream--he played more lead than anything else. the songs were great, too.
a guiltier pleasure was chris squire on yes's "fragile;" yes was very uncool but i still listened to this record a thousand times.

Hey Loomis - Why was Yes very uncool? Have never before heard that directed at them. Guessing that was something you associated with all of prog rock?

All of those records mentioned- the Yes stuff, the early Free, sound pretty great! For Free, I have early Island pink labels and pink rims, for Yes, some not so hard to find good US pressings, and a couple UK plums. Terrific records, terrific music. I didn't focus much on "prog" at the time- but came back to it with a vengeance a few years ago- mainly as a result of buying a lot of ye olde English pressings from the late '60s and early '70s. Got turned on to a lot of music I never heard, that never made a dent in the U.S.
Some amazingly inventive stuff, at the time, the attempt to get out of the 3 minute radio hit formula and explore different genres, mix them together, long form, more formal compositional elements, etc, was interesting. Some of it doesn't hold up, or is dated or a tad pretentious, but it is still worth exploring. One of my favorites is Gracious! on Vertigo, and the Cressida self titled album, also on Vertigo. There is a cheap way to get some of these...
Buy the 1970 Vertigo Annual, a double record sampler issued in the UK in 1970.