Sweet Fire of Love/Testimony Remastered

[Brad]

Since this release is over a year old, I didn't think it was appropriate to put it on the front page...

Remastered versions of Sweet Fire of Love and Testimony, the two tracks on which U2 collaborated with Robbie Robertson on his 1987 eponymous album, appear on 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best Of Robbie Robertson.

The CD was released in March 2006 in Canada, and as far as I know has not been released elsewhere.

I ordered a copy from Amazon and I can definitely hear greater dynamic range in the remastered tracks.

These tracks also appeared on the MFSL Original Master Recording version of "Robbie Robertson," but I unfortunately don't have that CD to compare the sound quality.

BTW, I seem to remember reading about an expanded, remastered version of "Robbie Robertson" in the works a couple of years ago, but I've never heard anything about it since.  Anyone run across any updates on that release?

[morgan1098]

The 2-CD Robbie Robertson set came out in January 06.  It was an EXTREMELY limited (and very expensive) release available only on the Hip-O Select record label web site, not in stores:

http://www.hip-oselect.com/scr.public.product.asp?product_id=5e6d569b-04c5-2bd9-61e8-0cf0a8019918

In addition to having "Sweet Fire of Love" and "Testimony" remastered, it also has a new edit of "Testimony (12" Mix).

If anyone has heard this, I'd be curious to hear a review.  I haven't picked this up because, as much as I love both Robbie Robertson albums, $40 US is too much.  I hope to find it on ebay at some point, although it's only a limited edition of 5,000.

[Brad]

Excellent!  Thanks for the info.  Not sure how I missed out on that one.

Actually, my daughter was born in December 2005 and then I moved half way across the country in January 2006, so that's probably how it slipped my notice.

[Brad]

Well, I couldn't resist and ordered the limited edition Robbie Robertson set.

I figured that "Sweet Fire of Love" and "Testimony" would be identical to the tracks on the 20th Century Masters CD, especially since they were released at about the same time.

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong.  The limited edition CD is a huge sonic improvement over the 20th Century Masters, which itself was an improvement over the original 1987 release.  The Hip-O release has much more depth and dynamic range than the other releases.  I still wish I had the MFSL version to compare to.

The new mix of "Testimony" is indeed a brand new mix, very different from the remix from the "Fallen Angel" single.  I like the new mix; especially the bigger, fatter bassline compared to the original.

Thanks again, Morgan, for the tip.