Early Classic Rock: Why So Many Bad Recordings?

[Wombat]

In 1967 we have also have "The End" by The Doors, on Elektra.

FWIW: The Doors 50th anniversary CD releases have MQA. "When the music's over, turn on the MQA".

 

[jsrtheta]

There was also a very dismissive attitude that "this stuff won't last", "it's trash", to the extent that masters for gold records were erased and reused.

Really.

Until, roughly, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, "rock" music was basically a 45 rpm medium. Many teenagers had record players that only played 45s, and I rarely heard a 45 that was made with fidelity in mind. This changed with the move to albums. (Yes, you could buy a lot of rock stuff on album, but teenagers didn't have that kind of money, usually.) And what albums there were featured the hit single, and then 11 tracks of filler. (Was there anyone who didn't cover "Louie Louie"?) After Sgt. Pepper, the critics started to take rock seriously, and it became an album-oriented medium, and 45s began their fade.