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I was just looking on eBay, and one seller who was selling quite a few albums was kind enough to take pictures of the backs. The ones I haven’t seen before were A-1-A, Coconut Telegraph, You Had to Be There, and Riddles In The Sand (yeah, that cowboy hat is scary on the back just as it is on the front). Every time I see a new back cover on eBay, I grow more and more angry at MCA for that “Compact Price” crud. Lets not forget what they did to the front covers. Every CD before SYKBH has that number at the bottom that only belongs on the side panel. The covers of CILCIA, Living and Dying in ¾ Time and One Particular Harbor are messed up even further. Each one of those has the ugly, stupid, senseless “Compact” icon in the lower right hand corner. I really don’t see why they had to do this. Each CD that has this ugly icon is the same price as the ones that don’t. Did they just pick at random which ones to mess up even further? Why, MCA, did you do this? WHY! WHY! ARGGGGGGGHHH!!! I really wish Jimmy could rip these recordings right out of MCA’s hands, put them on Mailboat and give the albums what they deserve.

Getting so many JB CDs for Christmas has tempted me to bring this thread back.

I also got other artist’s CDs for Christmas: Elton John’s Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player and Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy (those are some long titles) plus John Lennon’s Walls and Bridges and Rock and Roll. All four of those albums were originally released on vinyl record in the 70’s and replicate the original artwork, liner notes and lyrics perfectly on the backs and inside the booklets. If they did it, why can’t Jimmy’s CDs have the same? What is so stinkin’ hard MCA?

Another thing, my dad owns The Beatles’ Rubber Soul on both vinyl and CD, so I compared the art. The record has a series of pictures on the back while the CD has all the same pictures inside the booklet and a simple track listing on the back. Since the pics do appear in the book, I guess it’s alright, but they could have easily included them in the original spot. Something similar has been done with another Beatles classic: Revolver.

Parrot Monkey wrote: If they did it, why can’t Jimmy’s CDs have the same? What is so stinkin’ hard MCA?

It's not hard, just more costly to produce. MCA doesn't operate out of some obligation to show JB respect, they operate to make a profit.

You’re most likely right, Key Lime. Money, Money, Money. It’s quite obvious that the “Compact Price” thing was the excuse. You pay about 3 dollars less than other CDs that have the artwork. I would be willing to shell out 3-5 extra bucks (or even more in this case) to get the art with it.

And why does Living and Dying, Changes and OPH have that ugly icon in the bottom right corners? All the ones that don’t have it are obviously part of the series. Why those albums?

Another thing, I remember looking through Tower Record’s site and I saw that those two Elton John CDs I mentioned above that I got for Christmas had the “Compact Disc, Compact Price” icons on the covers in their pictures. The ones I got for Christmas are obviously reissues, as they do not have that horrible icon on the covers and lots of art, photos, liner notes and lyrics are included. My dad owns the first CD issue of Steely Dan’s The Royal Scam, and it is too, is a part of MCA’s “Compact” series. But just yesterday I saw a reissue at Wal-Mart that had back cover with artwork!

Is Jimmy the only artist whose CD’s haven’t recovered from MCA’s “Compact Disc, Compact Price” disease? Reissue seems to be the cure, and it probably could happen if another MCA/Mailboat deal could be arranged like what was done with MMIM. Although at this point I would get quite angry if they decided to do that because I’m just finishing my JB CD collection.

I’ve been doing some thinking about the whole re-issue possibility. While I don’t own any myself (or the correct hardware), I have only heard good things about SACDs. While it’s highly unlikely as the only artist the got the honor to have his whole catalogue re-issued on SACDs is Dylan (at least to my knowledge), you have to hope.

What would happen is White Sport Coat-Floridays would be issued on dual layered discs. One layer’s audio program would a re-mastered stereo program (which would automatically play when you play the disc in a standard CD player) and the other would be a 5 channel mix for those that have the correct hardware to take advantage of.

The packaging would be not done in standard jewel cases, but rather in cardboard slipcases ala vinyl LP packages, similar of the Elton John Japan discs I started an off-topic thread on awhile back. These would mimic the vinyl packages right to the detail, meaning no enlarged print, no removal of the “side 1” “side 2” text etc. Albums that had gatefolds will still have them, with all the material contained within intact. Even the inner sleeves would remain the same (and house the discs), unless the album had a generic sleeve, it would then be changed to a plain white sleeve. The print on the discs would feature the same print on the vinyl’s label, unless (like the sleeves) the label was generic instead of custom.

There would also be a booklet the same size as a CD insert with each CD. The front would feature the front cover image and the back will contain a large easy to read track listing that’s done true to the album’s art scheme (like what’s done on tray liners of jewel cases releases). Inside the booklet would be any additional liner notes, an explanation of what SACDs are and information about the album (release date, original label, chart results etc.) In the second part of the booklet, all the original liner notes, credits, lyrics and anything else text-wise would be reprinted in the booklet, in the case that the original print on the slipcase becomes unreadable. A message like this would be printed in the front pages of the booklet:

This disc is packaged in a slipcase to replicate the original album package. However, in the case of the size difference of vinyl records and compact discs, some print may become unreadable. Because of this, all text from the album’s package has been reprinted in this booklet.

This would all be packaged in a clear plastic bag, with the booklet behind the slipcase so the easy-to-read track listing printed on the back of the booklet would be visible for those browsing.

Of course this would be costly and record companies would laugh in my face, but if you see past the $, it’s really a good idea (at least in my opinion).

It may even get more complicated. MCA went bankrupt around a year ago. I heard about it on the local classic rock station down here. They even played "workin for MCA" after they broke the story. So some foreign company probably owns the rights to those oldies now and they may not even know who Jimmy is...After I heard the the news I figured Jimmy might buy the rights back to those CDs, since he had started Mailboat.

Captain Joe wrote:It may even get more complicated. MCA went bankrupt around a year ago. I heard about it on the local classic rock station down here. They even played "workin for MCA" after they broke the story. So some foreign company probably owns the rights to those oldies now and they may not even know who Jimmy is...After I heard the the news I figured Jimmy might buy the rights back to those CDs, since he had started Mailboat.

No kidding.

Jimmy's catalogue in the hands of some foreign company? Should we take this as a good or bad thing? I would say it's a good thing as Japan (assuming here) invests more in quality products than material printed in the USA (they got those neato slip-case CD issues I mentioned!). But like you said, I doubt they know who Jimmy even is.

Parrot Monkey wrote:

Captain Joe wrote:It may even get more complicated. MCA went bankrupt around a year ago. I heard about it on the local classic rock station down here. They even played "workin for MCA" after they broke the story. So some foreign company probably owns the rights to those oldies now and they may not even know who Jimmy is...After I heard the the news I figured Jimmy might buy the rights back to those CDs, since he had started Mailboat.

No kidding.

Jimmy's catalogue in the hands of some foreign company? Should we take this as a good or bad thing? I would say it's a good thing as Japan (assuming here) invests more in quality products than material printed in the USA (they got those neato slip-case CD issues I mentioned!). But like you said, I doubt they know who Jimmy even is.

Seeing that your a big fan of the old albums too. My all time favorite is the classic "70's foldout painting of Key West on the inside of "living and Dying in 3/4 time". Man, you can almost feel the warmth of the sun.

Yes, I would say that painting done by Richard Bibby (same artist who painted the Volcano cover art) is the biggest "loss" of all the printed material. I like how it displays a Sunset Key of 74' without any structure development. Intresting...

(lets hope Ivan dosen't put it back that way! "

I can't find that painting or anything on Richard Bibby anywhere online. I would call the removeal of that painting from that album a criminal act. To me album art is part of the album and not a supplimental thing to make it look nice. It's no different than cutting a song.

Parrot Monkey wrote:

Captain Joe wrote:It may even get more complicated. MCA went bankrupt around a year ago. I heard about it on the local classic rock station down here. They even played "workin for MCA" after they broke the story. So some foreign company probably owns the rights to those oldies now and they may not even know who Jimmy is...After I heard the the news I figured Jimmy might buy the rights back to those CDs, since he had started Mailboat.

No kidding.

Jimmy's catalogue in the hands of some foreign company?

Every major label is already owned by an international conglomerate and has been for several years, so in that respect the horse left the stable back in 1991 when MCA was purchased by Matsushita before Seagrams bought controlling interest. Since then Seagrams made MCA into UMG, merged it with Polygram and then finally got bought out by Vivendi.

If you think MCA is just a little American label, you haven't done your homework.

Regardless, I don't recall MCA filing for bankruptcy recently and can't find any info on it. Even if they did, most likely it would be for restructuring and as such the assets wouldn't be up for auction anyway.

Key Lime Lee wrote:If you think MCA is just a little American label, you haven't done your homework.

Never said that. I knew they were under the umbrella of Universal Records, all the details just aren't clear to me.

Parrot Monkey wrote:

Key Lime Lee wrote:If you think MCA is just a little American label, you haven't done your homework.

Never said that. I knew they were under the umbrella of Universal Records, all the details just aren't clear to me.

Well, they're owned by an international conglomerate. Have been for many years.

I’ve been looking at my CD collection and on eBay at vinyl records and doing some packaging comparisons. It’s amazing how much carelessness art directors perform just because of some size constraint old wives’ tale.

Billy Joel: 52nd Street: 5 inner sleeve photos of band members.

Carloe King: Tapestry: Right side of inner gatefold.

Elton John: Empty Sky: 2 Critic reviews, handwritten liner notes by Elton and sketches of the two critics, all from the back cover. Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy: An overwhelming amount of material from the inner gatefold, “lyrics” and “songs”.

Bruce Springsteen: The River: All pictures form both inner sleeves and insert. Born in the USA: All pictures from inner sleeve.

Van Morrison: Moondance: Fable by Van’s then wife (Janet Planet), several b/w photographs.

James Taylor: Sweet Baby James: Back cover photo, inner poster photo, handwritten lyrics.

I’m sure I could dig up much more, but all that alone above is disgraceful. Even with all the omissions above, all those releases remained consistent text wise, including most liner notes from the LPs. Only MCA went so low as to remove all the notes and not even bother with back cover images.

I know the music itself is what it’s all about, but really, in my honest opinion, I believe omitting album art and notes is just like editing a song and hurts the keepsake value of CDs.

I made a page that displays proof of a few of the above omissons: http://www.geocities.com/parrotmonkey87 ... umart.html

Hell YEAH!! I would double up too!!

I e-mailed Mailboat a second time recently:

Parrot Monkey wrote: Hello Mailboat Records,

I'm writing in concern to the back catalogue of Jimmy Buffett. From what
I gather, MCA, the owners of Jimmy's 73-96 material, went out of
business last year. To my understanding Universal Records took over and
now owns the rights to all MCA recordings.

My main concern is the need of reissue for the albums starting with A
White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean on up to Floridays. All 14 of those recordings (perhaps Hot Water and Off to See the Lizard in
addition) I believe could use a remaster treatment, as Buffett is one of
the few remaining artists (to my knowledge) to get a fresh coat of paint
on their back catalogue. Not just that, but please be aware that there
are major "flaws" in the packaging. 12 of those releases fail to include
any artwork or liner notes beyond the front covers and the other two
(You Had to Be There and Floridays) have skimpy packaging and omit
material from the original vinyl releases.

I just wanted to ask if Mailboat has any plans to acquire the rights to these old recordings and do reissues in the future. It would be
wonderful if Jimmy's back catalogue was done justice on the Compact Disc
format. If not, perhaps you know of the current status of these
recordings.

Thank you for your time in reading my message.

I got a response just today, and in the true nature of Mailboat e-mail responses, it was very brief and only a single sentence:

Mailboat wrote:Universal has the rights, and the decisions are theirs

Well, I knew that. They didn't even answer my question about if there were any plans to purchase the rights. I guess no answer means no. There goes that venue to get the CDs re-issued...

Parrot Monkey wrote:Hello fellow parrotheads! I’m a newbie and this is my first post.

Wow how time flies..........

Fool Button wrote:

Parrot Monkey wrote:Hello fellow parrotheads! I’m a newbie and this is my first post.

Wow how time flies..........

Hey, you're right, this was the first thread I ever posted in! Can't believe it's been almost a year on BN and a year fighting the artwork/liner note "battle"!

Something I just noticed: The prices for the A-1-A and CILCIA CDs have dropped to $7.99 on Amazon! I wounder why those two...

jimmy's got more money than davy crockett. make mca an offer, buy back his own catalogue and rights. everything has its price. i'm sure paul mccartney would like to have a do over on the advise he gave michael jackson about buying catalogues. then again we all know what a shrewd businessman bubba is. if was feasible i'm sure he would of done it by now.