"On the Loose" - Saga

I should re-state that my turntable is believed to run a little bit fast, not slow. I keep forgetting that shorter run times result from faster speed, not slower!

can the 45 be extracted from the lp version??

Well, I learn new things every day on this forum!

It turns out that the 45 can't be extracted from the LP due to a teeny tiny mix difference in the break.

I have the LP version on Worlds Apart (Polydor 821 479-2, "CD is manufactured by PolyGram in Hanover, West Germany", runs 4:10). This is probably one of the first batch of CDs pressed - it has the same smooth-top jewel case as the so-called "target" pressings from Europe. FYI - the sound is fantastic from this CD, and in the unlikely case that you find one of these, you should grab it.

I used to have the US CD version of Worlds Apart, on Portrait, but I don't remember how it sounded.

Apparently, it's not listed in the database, but the 45 version is available on Rock On 1983 Vol. 2 (Madacy/Sony BMG A93764 ROK 2 51373, rel. 2005, runs 3:35) - details on this CD below...

There's an edit in the first chorus at about 0:50. If you start counting beats in the first chorus, starting with #1 being the downbeat that finishes the short drum fill" (check - beat #11 is the word "on"), then edit at the snare on beat #14, and cut out 32 beats.

You're good until the break around 2:09. What I had always thought was a shortening of the break to eliminate the super-cool-sounding organ sound isn't quite right. If you starting counting beats on the hi-hat-only portion of the break, with beat #1 falling on the logical downbeat, then the true 45 has a kick drum on beats #10, 12 and 14. The only place in the LP version that has such a kick drum on the off-beats has the cool-sounding organ over it, so the 45 is indeed a different mix, in addition to a few edits.

Love the song, though - it's one of my absolute favorites from the early '80s. Never been another song that sounded like it, before or since!

As for the recent Rock On CDs:

It appears that BMG got the rights to Madacy's Rock On series from the mid-'90s, and have recently (2005-ish) added a "Vol. 2" to various years in the series. Where the older Rock Ons were Cema Special Products and were mostly usually very good-sounding digital clones of tracks from other CDs, all the Vol. 2's exclusively use Sony/BMG tracks, with about 90% from the old CBS labels, and the others including Hall & Oates, Rick Springfield, Alan Parsons, and a few others that look out of place to old timers like me. The sound quality on these recent Vol. 2 additions is completely hit-and-miss, with some tracks being completely compressed/maximized, others having great dynamic range but sounding like they were severely noise-reduced (see Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" on another of the Vol. 2 editions, and Kenny Loggins' "Heart To Heart" on this one), and still others sounding just fine. A hodge-podge, to be sure. Interestingly, they used single versions on many tracks - on 1983 Vol. 2 alone, I see single versions of "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" (4:30 edit), "Africa", "Cum On Feel The Noise", "Der Kommissar", and "On The Loose".

If you're going to go hunting online for the Rock Ons, here's what you should keep in mind:

Original series - released in 1996 by Madacy, and often teamed up with Cema Special Markets/MCA/EMI or some other partner. A few (all?) were rereleased in 2004 with no changes to the mastering. Overall, excellent sound quality on these original releases - no tracks are compressed/maximized, and many borrow masterings from the comparable Time-Life collections. Highly recommended - I own most of these covering the '70s and '80s.

Later releases in 1998, which have titles of a year + a song, like Rock On 1981 Bette Davis Eyes or Rock On 1989 Miss You Like Crazy. Overall, sound quality is spotty on some tracks. On the few I have, I'll usually 2 or 3 out of the 12 tracks that are compressed/maximized. Buy if you find them cheap.

"Recent" releases from 2005 - the Vol. 2s for many years. Spotty sound, overall, but a pleasant surprise or two in finding many single edits from the CBS vaults.

Todd - if your turntable is telling you that the song runs 3:28, your turntable is WAY too fast, and you should probably look into a new turntable. Don't know how much $ you have to kick around, but if you want to buy one turntable that will outlive you, I'd consider a Technics 1200 - virtually unchanged in design since it was introduced around 1978, and the only electric device I know that has lasted 30 years without any redesigns. The $300-400 investment is well worth it, even just for the incredibly precise pitch control. I wouldn't trade mine for anything.

Edited by crapfromthepast

todd...did you try and use the vinyl 45's unique parts and splice them onto the edited cd version to see if we can come up with a 45 replica?

Can someone post a link to a retailer who has the Rock On 1983: Vol. 2 CD for sale? Can't find anything on Google.

I've got a stock 45 for this song on order now, but a CD copy as well would be very nice!