83 How many versions of Gentle Giant's Free Hand have been on CD, and what are the differences? (Progressive music)
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This article is from the Progressive Music FAQ, by Phil Kime(Philip@kime.org.uk) with numerous contributions by others.
83 How many versions of Gentle Giant's Free Hand have been on CD, and what are the differences? (Progressive music)
From barrett@cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett): There have been 4
versions on CD: two from One Way Records in the USA, and two from
Terrapin Trucking, a.k.a. Road Goes On Forever (RGOF), in Great
Britain. Summary: there are large differences between the first
three versions, and the Terrapin/RGOF versions are acknowledged by
fans to be the best.
Now for the longer answer. The first CD came from One Way Records,
number CDL 57338. This disc was mastered from inferior American
master tapes and sounds very muffled. If you turn up your treble
control, the disc sounds almost normal, but overall the sound is
mediocre.
In response to complaints from fans, One Way recalled all the old
CD's from stores, sought out better master tapes, and rereleased
*Free Hand* with the SAME identification number, CDL 57338. It is
not possible to distinguish between the first and second *Free Hand*
CD's from the packaging. The only way to tell by eye is to open
the package and examine the code number stamped on the disc rim.
The old disc says "AM6/CDL 57338", and the new disc says "ESK 1 <010>
CDL 57338".
The second One Way disc has much better sound. The master tape that
One Way used, however, is a very strange one. It is not the same
tape that was used for any previous release of the album, and the
music is actually different from the original! In "Time To Kill",
Derek Schulman sings some of the lines instead of Ray Schulman;
for example, `And with no questions then, he finds his way'. In
"On Reflection", the drums come in half a verse earlier than in the
original. And worst of all, at the climax of "On Reflection", when
the full band comes crashing in, the drums are barely audible! This
CD is worth owning because it is different from any previous release,
but it is notrepresentative version of the album.
Next, Terrapin/RGOF released their first *Free Hand* disc,
identification number RGF CD 1004. It uses the correct master tapes
and has very good sound quality. I find it a little bit bass-heavy,
but it is much better than the other versions. Some fans complained
that the disc had too much hiss, and Terrapin/RGOF remastered it to
remove hiss, giving the disc a new identification number, TRUCKCD
004. Reportedly, the differences between the two Terrapin/RGOF
discs are minor. If you own only 1 *Free Hand* CD, get this one.
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