It's time for me to get lost in the weeds and bore you senseless with the minutia and minor details of pressing vinyl. At least when it comes to one record in particular and when the listener benefits from something going wrong.
In 2018, Sony decided to repress Rage Against The Machine's Evil Empire. The label went to a number of pressing plants throughout Europe to have the records made, slapped a new hype sticker on the shrink wrap and off to distributors the records went.
Things got interesting when a few people played their new records and discovered that there was a different version of the song “Roll Right” on side B that no one had ever heard before. This alternate version shows up on some but not all of the copies from this pressing of Evil Empire. Musically it was pretty much the same song but ten seconds shorter. The lyrics were different and included a verse from the song “Down Rodeo” in this newly discovered version. Personally, I'm grateful for whatever decision led to that verse being moved to "Down Rodeo" because that song is one of the heaviest things I've ever heard.
From what internet record sleuths were able to track down, the wrong master was somehow sent to one pressing plant in Germany. Some have posited that maybe it was an employee on their way out the door somewhere along the production line that decided to thumb their nose at Sony by putting this alternate version on one master before sending it out into the world.
I tend to lean toward it being an honest mistake. A file name somewhere was probably mislabeled or the wrong file was grabbed when that particular master was put together. As someone that has worked with audio files, I don't think it would be too difficult for the incorrect track to have been used. If I don't use files and subfiles with very specific names, my desktop quickly becomes a mess and things get lost. But then again, I'm just a guy with a computer and not an employee at an oversized media conglomerate.
From what I've read about the making of Evil Empire, Zack de la Rocha was having a difficulty writing lyrics. At the time he was grappling with the pressures of having to provide a new record to the corporate overlords while wanting get to work on the ground with various organizations to make the world a better place. The band went on the back burner while he was out in the world and absorbing what he saw. This was during the Zapatista uprising that began on January 1st, 1994 in Chiapas, Mexico. de la Rocha made multiple trips to the area and would be gone for weeks at a time while the rest of the band would be in the practice space putting the music together for the new album.
This alternate version of “Roll Right” was an early attempt at the song and it's surprising that it was recorded at all. Its existence makes me wonder what else may be lurking in the darkest corners of the Rage Against The Machine vault. There was no 20th or 25th anniversary deluxe reissue for Evil Empire and, according to Tom Morello, the band put everything they thought they had laying around in the self-titled XX boxset with no intentions of releasing another deluxe type boxset for the other albums.
Rage Against The Machine is very deliberate in what they put out in the world. From music to interviews and any other type of media, the band keeps a tight hold on how they're perceived in the public. So if there is unheard music on a shelf somewhere we are probably not going to hear it which makes this alternate version of “Roll Right” even more of a rare find.
The difficult part is actually locating a copy Evil Empire with this alternate version. There are no differences between the barcodes or catalog numbers on the covers or center labels so it is very much trying to find a needle in a haystack. Outside of listening to the record, the only differences can be found in the matrix/runout numbers that are etched into the records themselves. And, yes, I am a big enough nerd to provide that useless information below:
Evil Empire with the original version of “Roll Right:”
Side A: 18-0233NL-19075851201-RE1-A-20174825-SSTSide B: 18-0233NL-19075851201-RE1-B-20174824-SST
Evil Empire with the alternate version of “Roll Right:”
Side B: 18-0233NL-19075851201-RE1-B-1839572-SST
When I first heard that Evil Empire was going to be repressed, I didn't think much of it since I have a my original copy from 1996. Sonically, that record sounded so good that I didn't think there was much room for improvement from the original version so I decided to pass on the 2018 pressing and keep my money.
Then I heard that there was an error in the pressing with the alternate version of “Roll Right” and decided to buy a copy. From what I was able to find out at the time, it looked like all of the records were mispressed. I couldn't find it in any local stores so off to the Discogs I went. When it came in the mail I was disappointed to find out that I bought a plain old regular version of the record so the search continued with a new strategy involved.
Every time I saw a copy listed on Discogs that wasn't sealed I would send the seller a message and ask if the record they were selling was in fact the record they were selling. In this age of record flipping, a lot of Discogs sellers are lazy and don't bother putting the records they are selling under the correct listing. The price of their laziness is that they end up with a record nerd like myself in their inbox asking questions about matrix numbers before I hand over a pile of money.
From time to time I would hear back from the seller but the copy they were selling was the standard pressing. Most of the time I wouldn't hear back at all which was really bothersome. The easiest way to find out which is which is to listen to side B of Evil Empire and I could think of worse things to do for money than listen to side B of Evil Empire.
It took me about a year to track down a copy but I finally did it. Unfortunately, the person I bought it off of more than likely played sports as a child instead of learning how to handle records and comics. The cover was beat to hell and the record had several scratches on it. And of course the scratches affected playback of “Roll Right.” So I will continue to hunt this white whale until I can find a copy that actually plays through.
I would say that I should get a hobby but this sad corner is where my hobby has led me.
No comments:
Post a Comment