Hi @slaw. my LRS was selling the boxset at full price, and Amazon was discounting it only 10%, so I dug deep and found it for $117 on the Walmart website (of all places!). But I knew I would get an Amazon giftcard or two for Christmas (I did), so waited. Amazon is now selling it for $105, and my copy is on it’s way.
It has long been said that the master tapes for the brown album went missing years ago. So when Audio Fidelity released the Steve Hoffman-mastered gold disc version and claimed Steve’s source was the "Original Master tapes", the question was, what was meant by "master"? The 4-track 1" tapes producer/engineer John Simon had recorded? The 2-track 1/4" final mixes used for mastering? Or as is commonplace, a production master---a copy of the final mix tape?
Capitol is saying Bob Clearmountain created new mixes (Uh oh. I LOVE the mixes John Simon and The Band created) from "The Original Master Tapes." You can’t create new mixes without having the multitrack tapes. By the way, can you believe The Band recorded the album doing both instruments and vocals live (with additional parts added after an acceptable master take had been captured)?! By 1969, NOBODY was doing that, or perhaps even could. Except Dylan and the Nashville studio musicians he started recording with in ’65, of course.
The boxset includes the album split onto two 45RPM discs, along with a CD containing their Woodstock set, and another with unreleased tracks and alternate versions of released tracks (plus a book with essays and pics, their original 45RPM single, and some prints of pics by the guy who did those for the original album, which were SO perfect for the sound of the record. I love sepia.). By the way, Robbie Robertson’s book Testimony will make great reading while you listen to the album. It is really, really good. Barnes & Noble has remaindered hard cover copies left for about seven bucks.