Chet wrote:I just don't understand why he had to re-record the voice. It was perfect as it was.
Ghosts (the original) stopped me in my tracks at the time of its release, and turned my perception of popular music on its head. I would go as far as to say that it encouraged me to create music, and in some way shaped my approach to sound design for a number of years.
However... 20 odd years on David's voice had matured, and found its, erm, "voice". The young Ferry-esque vocals that graced the original are barely recognisable in the context of David's solo output, and this was a "David Sylvian" collection after all.
Personally I now prefer this vocal, and despite Japan's huge influence on my (then) young ears I struggle to listen to David's pre-Gone To Earth era vocals.
Besides, as others have stated, the original is widely available in shiny remastered form.
The Nightporter wrote:More to the point, why did he re-record the vocals for 'Some Kind Of Fool' when all of the 'old-school' Japan fans have been waiting (in vain?) to hear the original before it was dropped from the 'Gentlemen Take Polaroids' album?
Once again, this was not a Japan retrospective. I'm certain that "old-school Japan fans" were furthest from his mind when putting this album together
I think the only chance you'll ever have of hearing the original 'SKOF' is on a future update to the 'Polaroids' album. However, that's pretty unlikely.