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aaronk
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| Posted: 26 June 2005 at 1:10pm | IP Logged
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In the 8th Edition, Tone Loc's "Funky Cold Medina" is listed in many cases with the notation "with :04 previously unreleased introduction." It should be noted that this is the version that was used for the cassette single and 12" single (and most likely the 45, but I don't own a copy to verify).
Not only does it have the introduction, but it is a completely different vocal take. The lyrics are even slightly altered in some spots. For example, in the last verse:
LP Version---
Instead she started talking 'bout plans for a wedding
I said, "Wait, slow down love, not so fast, I'll be seein' ya."
45 Version---
Instead she started talking 'bout plans for a wedding
So I grabbed my coat and hit the door
I said, "Baby I'll be seein' ya."
I think it's safe to say that all CDs listed as having the :04 introduction should be listed as "45 Version."
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| Posted: 26 June 2005 at 4:43pm | IP Logged
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The commercial 45 has this :04 introduction but I do not remember hearing this introduction on the radio - does anyone have the dj copy to add to this discussion?
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aaronk
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| Posted: 27 June 2005 at 3:34am | IP Logged
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Although I don't have a DJ copy, I also remember the song when it was played on the radio. My local top 40 station actually played the LP Version, which doesn't have the intro. Also, TM Century's Gold Disc library contains the LP Version. It is quite possible that either promo copies contained the LP Version, or the only mix that was available on CD at the time was the LP Version, so stations chose to play it from CD in that version.
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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 31 December 2014 at 10:29am | IP Logged
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25 years after the song was a hit, and nearly ten years after this thread appeared, I finally discovered that the 45 and LP versions have different vocal takes and slightly different mixes. I played the song to death in the late '80s on the air and at live DJ gigs, and still, I never noticed until a thread on the Steve Hoffman forum mentioned the differences.
At the time, I played the track off PolyTel Canada's Big Hits '89 (1989), which I bought in Canada. (I used to make routine trips to Toronto to buy Canadian compilation CDs.) The PolyTel disc used the LP version (no spoken intro), and I'd just assumed that there was only one version of the song, much like Tone-Loc's "Wild Thing". I'd bet a dollar that the TM Century people made the same assumption, and used the no-intro LP version on GoldDisc 4804.
Discogs tells me that there was a promo CD single (Delicious Vinyl CCD 104, one track, designated as 7" Version, printed time 4:11), but I've never seen one with my own eyes. This 7" Version appears on the promo disc TuneUp Rock #31 March 13 1989, and (I assume) on the commercial 45 (which I bought but never played).
Years later, the song has appeared on a few compilations, and, to my surprise, all of the compilations I have use the 7" Version, complete with spoken intro:- Priority's Eighties Greatest Rock Hits Vol. 8 Dance Party (1993)
- Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 13 1989 (1995; differently EQ'd digital clone of Priority disc)
- Time-Life's 2-CD Ultra Mix (1999; differently EQ'd digital clone of Priority disc)
- Rhino's Millennium Hip-Hop Party (1999; uses same source material that Priority disc uses, but cuts off end of the last drumbeat - avoid)
All of the above sound just fine, except where noted.
I was curious about the mastering techniques, so I played with the tracks a bit more. The song is in very narrow stereo, so I did an "out of phase sum" ("OOPS"), where you invert one channel and sum them to get a left-minus-right signal.
The TuneUp disc did what I expected. The vocals nearly completely cancelled, since they're centered in the mix. The guitar samples and cowbell, which are panned slightly, showed up in the OOPS signal, but down around -24 dB. Overall, it just looks like a very narrow stereo mix.
The Rhino disc did the same thing, but about 3 dB louder.
The Priority disc (and its digital clones) did something strange in the OOPS test. The high frequencies appear, then disappear, every few seconds. This tells me that Priority used an analog step somewhere in the mastering chain, and re-digitized using their own A-to-D converter. The new digitization allowed the left and right channels to drift out of synch by a sample or two, then re-synchronize, every few seconds. I noticed this effect on some of the early-'90s Hot Hits and/or Spotlight On Hits jukebox collections (can't tell which because I compared them to each other), but never got a chance to explore it fully with such a narrow stereo mix.
In any case, realistically, all of the above should sound just fine to your ears, since you're not listening with an oscilloscope. At worst, the periodic de-synching of left and right channels may slightly distort the soundstage to the most discerning of listeners, but "Funky Cold Medina" tends not to attract those types of listeners! (Still, I try to avoid the Priority discs, and their digital clones, when I can...)
Edited by crapfromthepast on 02 January 2015 at 12:22pm
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aaronk
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| Posted: 01 January 2015 at 2:28am | IP Logged
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Ron, I own the promo, and it definitely does contain the single version with the spoken intro.
CCD 104
1. 7" Version (listed & actual 4:11)
I also have a stock CD single (16244 1004-2) with the following tracks:
1. Vocal (4:11)
2. Funky Beats (2:46)
3. Instrumental (4:08)
4. Funky Acappella (1:18)
I didn't check the actual times, but I can if anyone is interested. The "Vocal" version is, indeed, the one with the spoken intro. And BTW, I've always noticed the slightly out of phase sound of the single, even without doing a OOPS test. It's the same way on the promo and stock CD single, so it must appear on the master tape that way.
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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 19 August 2020 at 9:37pm | IP Logged
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Six years later, and I came to basically the same conclusion as my earlier post! Dang it! Why didn't I check the board first?
Ah, nuts. May as well post my findings, since it's already formatted nicely. (I compose these monster posts in Notepad.)
LP version
Starts with drumbeats. This is the original recording of the song, which was an album track while the first single, "Wild Thing", was riding high on the charts. The LP version isn't completely mono, but is in extremely narrow stereo.
It sounds nice on the full-length CD Loc'ed After Dark (1989). The same analog transfer is used on:- PolyTel Canada's Big Hits '89 (1989)
The LP version turns out to be a lot less common than the 45 version among the CDs I own.
45 version
Starts with the spoken line "And we go a little something like this. Hit it." before the drumbeats.
The entire vocal track was rerecorded for the 45! A bit of the instrumentation was spruced up as well, including some real stereo panning. The drumbeats during the verses are pretty much in true mono, so that inverting the left or right channel and summing to mono get just about complete cancellation of the main drum track. The accent percussion, drum fills, and guitar licks are in stereo. The vocals are mono, with a little stereo reverb.
It turned up first on the promo CD single Delicious Vinyl CCD 104 (copyright 1989, labeled as 7" Version, printed 4:11), where it sounds excellent.
There's a digital clone on the promo CD TuneUp Rock #31 Mar 13 1989 (1989), which is digitally exactly 0.312 dB quieter than the promo CD single.
The same analog transfer as the promo CD single is used on Rhino's Millennium Hip-Hop Party (1999), which unfortunately cuts off 0.06 seconds of the last beat, but otherwise sounds nice. Same mono stuff as the promo CD single.
The same analog transfer as the promo CD single is used on Priority's Eighties Greatest Rock Hits Vol. 8 Dance Party (1993), except that the mastering must have involved an analog step at which the left and right channels move in and out of synch by a sample or two every few seconds. You can hear it if you invert the left or right channel and sum to mono; the cancellation comes and goes every few seconds. Now, this isn't an effect that one would really care about since you can't hear it under normal listening conditions, but it gives me a little insight into how Priority did their mastering back then. They likely played a CD through an analog mixing deck and re-encoded to digital using a D-to-A converter, where the A-to-D converter in their CD player or the D-to-A converter had a little jitter that got the left/right channels slightly out of synch. I've noticed the left/right synch issue in one of the other Priority discs, so I wonder how widespread this technique was for the label.
There are two other discs that are differently-EQ'd digital clones of Priority's Eighties Greatest Rock Hits Vol. 8 Dance Party (1993):- Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 13 1989 (1995)
- Time-Life's 2-CD Ultra Mix (1999)
The database lists fifteen CDs with the 45 version, but I only have four of them.
My recommendations
For the LP version, all I have is Loc'ed After Dark (1989). The LP version doesn't turn up on any of the compilations that I own, but the database shows about 20 discs that do have the LP version.
For the 45 version, I assume that you won't have the promo CD single or the TuneUp CD, so I recommend doing a little surgery to restore the full last drumbeat of Rhino's Millennium Hip-Hop Party (1999).
Edited by crapfromthepast on 20 August 2020 at 10:15am
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Topic: Tone Loc - Funky Cold Medina
