The Stooges' "Fun House" à la Rhino High Fidelity
compared to what?
If you'd told me my original Artisan Sound mastered Pitman pressing was up on Discogs for around $700, I'd not believe you until I looked to confirm. But it is. Not that anyone will ever buy it for such a price, but still! After listening to the new KG mastered Rhino High Fidelity reissue, I have to ask "why"? Why would you pay that much for a record that sounds distant and from the wide open spaces when you could have this for $40 bucks and with Iggy's droll informative annotation? Actually, there is a reason, but it's not sufficiently compelling unless having the original artyfact is your goal.
You'd know from listening back in 1970 that these guys were well-prepped and ready for the studio when they first entered Elektra's posh La Cienega Boulevard recording venue built by audiophile and label founder Jac Holzman. Iggy's droll annotation confirms that and that he was tripping the entire time, which makes his performances that much more impressive.
Fun House has always sounded recorded "live in the studio" and it was, with a nice amount of microphone leakage obvious in the wide open spaces and that's a plus for hearing a well-oiled band performing live in the studio. Confirmation supplied by Henry Rollins in his notes for the big complete Fun House box set. Rollins' notes also confirm that these weren't "one-off" takes. Instead, the rock classic is the result of "...a punishing regimen of repetition". Yet the whole thing was completed in a two week span to 8 tracks. The producer, Don Gallucci notes that "..it was mixed almost when it was first taken down...".
That big box, which let me tell you I purchased like all of the other fans (and the money creeps who buy these limited editions as "financial instrument" investments), is a fitting monument to a rock record Mount Rushmore, musically and sonically.
In his postscript notes Rollins writes about Bill Inglot arriving with the master tapes then hearing the master tape playback and watching Bernie Grundman cut lacquers at 45rpm for the 3 sided box set version. Rollins was "...struck by how much more was happening in the midrange and that the snare drum had a dynamic (he) had never heard before". And how they started the process by referencing a first pressing.
So I'll get to the point: the absolute best sounding version of this iconic record is that 45rpm Bernie Grundman mastered record. Not even close. It has the "wide open spaces" of the original, Artisan mastering, but with added weight on bottom and far greater dynamic "oomph". What stood out most on that cut is Dave Alexander's bass lines. You can feel his fingers touching the strings unlike on any other version. That's among other great aspects of the original mix best revealed on the double 45rpm pressing.
Malachi and I spent some time comparing various Fun House editions previous to this Rhino High Fidelity release, and the young and old ears agreed that among those (and maybe I'm even missing one I can't remember I have), the Bernie box cut rules!
This new Kevin Gray cut has an inexplicably narrower and flatter soundstage and has an overall densely packed, somewhat congealed sound. Iggy's voice doesn't get as much room in the middle on Kevin's mastering. I don't know what causes that or why this version sounds so fundamentally different compared to the original and BG cuts—it doesn't sound like dynamic compression.
I also have an ERC (Electric Recording Company) edition. ERC cuts what's on the tape—no mastering—and while its all tube system gives the sound a warmer, fuller glow, and loses some of the edge, it too has the width and space found on the original and 45rpm box set cuts.
Still, in that shoot out, I think most rock fans would prefer this new Rhino cut for its edge, but be sure to never hear the box set version! No rock library is complete without a copy of Fun House. It's limited here to 5000 copies so don't miss out. However, if those 45rpm BG metal parts exist, the smart money says release that version.
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