Cher Disco 12"?

[EricHG23]

OK Cher's Vegas "comeback" and the fact she's performing Take Me Home on Oprah on Thursday had me gettign out my Cher disco stuff (the two Casablanca albums--Take Me Home and Prisoner and her ace Moroder track, Bad Love). I also have the great 12" of Take Me Home which has more instrumentation, is a minute longer and is slightly pitched up which gives it more ennergy--I much prefer it to the already classic album mix...

(Yeah as a whole Cher's disco output feels rushed but there are still some classic Bob Esty moments there and for me Take Me Home is brilliant)

but I don't have any other 12" mixes. What else was done off those albums? I'm thinking Wouldn't It Be Good, Get Down (Guitar Groupie) and Hell on Wheels all musta had extended mixes as the 4 minute length of them seems too short for a single...

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Originally Posted by EricHG23

I'm thinking Wouldn't It Be Good, Get Down (Guitar Groupie) and Hell on Wheels all musta had extended mixes as the 4 minute length of them seems too short for a single...

Actualy, those are the other 3 songs that received 12" releases.
The 2nd promo 12" of Take Me Home, had Wasn't It Good on the b-side.
And Hell On Wheels had Get Down (Guitar Groupie) on the flip.

[kdavid13]

Hey Eric

As Stephen mentioned [Hugs to you ! You're a legend !!!]
HELL ON WHEELS and GIT DOWN [GUITAR GROUPIE] were issued on a promo Casablanca 12in in 1979.
Cher - Hell On Wheels / Git Down (12")

WASN'T IT GOOD was also found on the flip side of the TAKE ME HOME [UK] 12in.
Cher - Wasn't It Good / Take Me Home

But on iTunes Canada you can find an album called POP MASTERS : HOLDIN' OUT FOR LOVE which offers all the tracks off Cher's Prisoner Lp in longer versions [all tracks are 5 to 6 minutes long].
They don't sound that much different from the originals but the drum beats have been altered a bit and sound a little less disco-ish which bugs me but...

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Originally Posted by kdavid13

But on iTunes Canada you can find an album called POP MASTERS : HOLDIN' OUT FOR LOVE which offers all the tracks off Cher's Prisoner Lp in longer versions [all tracks are 5 to 6 minutes long].
They don't sound that much different from the originals but the drum beats have been altered a bit and sound a little less disco-ish which bugs me but...

GULP!
It's quite possible you just answered one of my few remaining Disco-mysteries for me...

When I bought a copy of the "Prisoner" LP, at a used record store, the owner looked it up in the Schwann Catalogue and it said "(2nd cover)" in the description for NBLP 7184 (K-1). (The dead-wax catalogue number on my copy is followed by a "K-1", which apparently means it's a re-master, the same as "RE-1" would mean.)

The lyrics, on the inner sleeve, don't match the actual record (ie: missing verse at the end of "Outrageous") and the tracks are in different order. Side 1, track 1 is listed as "Hell On Wheels", and "Prisoner" is listed as Side 2, track 2. The opposite of the actual vinyl.
Also, the 1979 Casablanca press poster for the LP, is of Cher in a white butterfly outfit, with the same background as the cover of "Prisoner".

Anyway... I'd given-up, years ago, on finding the original formatted LP, that contained the full version of "Outrageous". Looking at the track list on the Canadian iTunes, I think this is it!

Being the jaded record collector that I've become over the years (seriously...I can count on 1 hand, the records that I don't have, but still want...), I RARELY get this excited over new information.

Thanks-a-BIG bunch, Kd13!

[EricHG23]

Stephen I believe that Itunes extended edition you'll find is base don one of the cheapo "remixes" of Prisonder (Take Me Home had some too) that have been done years after the album... Let me knwo though if you do find the answer to yoru mystery--I'm intrigued. I did hear that the Butterfly picture (which has been used elsewhere--it's in Cher's Farewell Tour souvenir Program) was used because some groups complained that the image of Cher chained up was degrading to women.

I have the 12" of Wasn't it Good--since posting this I actually found it at a Value Village in Vancouver lol. Still no luck with Guitar or Hell on Wheels--my question is are the 12" much different? Are they simply looped or are their new elements added--Wasn't it Good has more verses for example and Take Me Home was both sped up (which despite pitching up Cher's voice makes it work better IMHO) and added a bit of percussion and length--I can't play the album mix anymore, I prefer the 12' so much more.

E

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Originally Posted by EricHG23

I did hear that the Butterfly picture was used because some groups complained that the image of Cher chained up was degrading to women.

Yes! I do remember that going around. It was all "much ado about nothing" But I'm wondering if the original cover was the butterfly pic? And the original title,"Holdin' Out For Love"?

I've found that Canadian releases have been the original formats of records released in the US. (ie: Saint Tropez' "Belle De Jour" LP, and Costandinos' "Trocadero Bleu Citron" soundtrack.)

Originally Posted by EricHG23

Still no luck with Guitar or Hell on Wheels--my question is are the 12" much different? Are they simply looped or are their new elements added?

They're both remixes by Larry Emerine. "Hell..." @ 7'13" and "Git Down..." @ 7'14". It's not that it's a particularly "valuable" record (outside of Cher fanatics), so much as there just weren't that many copies pressed. Keep looking. The Mexican, coloured-vinyl copy shows up, now and then. The sound quality sucks. But their not great tracks to begin with. So, you're not sacrificing much by getting that pressing, instead of holding out for the US promo.

Originally Posted by EricHG23

Wasn't it Good has more verses for example and Take Me Home was both sped up (which despite pitching up Cher's voice makes it work better IMHO) and added a bit of percussion and length--I can't play the album mix anymore, I prefer the 12' so much more.

I'll admit, I've never listened to the "Take Me Home" LP. (WHACK! Bad, BAD Gay Man!!!) My copy is one of the picture discs, so I've never opened it. I've only ever listened to my copy of the remixes. I've always meant to pick-up a used black vinyl copy, but never got around to it.


Now for the really BAD news... GRRRRR!!! My iTunes account won't work in the Canadian iTunes Store. AND, iTunes won't let me open a Canadian account! (Anybody know a way around that?)

[EricHG23]

Hah thanks I'll keep looking. I actually kinda love both tracks--Hell oN Wheels (I know, I know...) especially, but then I have a soft spot for both Bob Esty and for Cher, tacky Cher especially. Holdin' Out For Love, really is a better song though and shoulda been a single... The whole Prisoner album sounds like it was written and recorded in a week (did I mention I love it?) And maybe they shoulda just waited and released Bad Love instead...

(Cher's Vegas show, has basically the same setlist as her tours since th eBelieve tour--including a short Take Me Home in a dress based on that Butterfly outfit--but in Vegas she added a cover of Don't Leave Me This Way as a medley--a song she recorded but wasn't released for Living Proof... But I was hoping she'd come out on roller skates singing Hell on Wheels instead...)

You really should listen to the Take Me Home LP though. It's a more polished, if eclectic effort (a lot more ballads). It has one of my fave Cher ballads, Too Far Gone (which she wrote about her drug addicted bf at the time--that rocker wqho's name I'm blanking on--yes WROTE, one of the few songs not from noncom.mercial that she actually wrote) and the disco stuff is probably mroe polished and classier than Prisoner even though Bob Esty was responsible for most of it. Like I said Take Me Home works better forme in its beefed up, speeded up 12" mix but I do love the disco song Say the Word which was never a single...

I'm sure if you PMed one of us Canadians we might be able to help with the itunes thing. I really have never found anyway to trick iTunes into thinking you're from another country--they can tell as well from your credit card digits.

[kdavid13]

The HELL ON WHEELS 12in works so much better than the album version.Very non-showy extended mix but I also love the song a lot.

I agree that HOLDIN' OUT FOR LOVE is a solid song and the lilting electro groove behind Cher's version is a grabber. You should listen to the POINTER SISTERS' 1981 version [It was the flipside to SLOW HAND] and ANGELA BOFILL's version was produced by Narada Michael Walden in 1982.

I've always loved PRISONER more than TAKE ME HOME.That said I was happy with CHER : THE CASABLANCA YEARS which combined both albums on one CD.When you hit the random play button they sound great together.

I've also always loved TOO FAR GONE about her troubled marriage to Gregg Allman. The song was co-written by Mark Hudson [from the HUDSON BROTHERS and KATE HUDSON's uncle BTW].

One of the other ballads that grabbed me was her cover of RICHARD T BEAR's LOVE & PAIN.


.

[Graham_Start]

If the album is iTunes Plus/non-DRM'd, someone here can buy it and just yousend the files to you.

However, if it's only available as DRM files, it's a bit trickier. Someone will have to buy the album, burn an audio CD of it, and then either rip that or send it to you.

[EricHG23]

Kris you shoudl contact me about the Hell on Wheels 12"

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Originally Posted by Graham_Start

If the album is iTunes Plus/non-DRM'd, someone here can buy it and just yousend the files to you.

However, if it's only available as DRM files, it's a bit trickier. Someone will have to buy the album, burn an audio CD of it, and then either rip that or send it to you.

Thanks for the info, Graham. (Er... Um... Uh... What's a DRM file?)

You really are the Tech-God here.