Famous Blue Raincoat.

The Original released in 1988.

Every blue eyed audiophile must have this CD/LP by now. So no introduction to the music is required. But still one of my favorites after all these years. The CD has been with me more than 10 years now, but still worthy of the occasional listen. Now that's evergreen.

The last few years saw the LP versions of the Famous Blue Raincoat and The Hunter attract feverish high bids at e-bay auctions, with prices close to USD$500 for mint condition samples! I never quite understood the reason for the meteoric prices, other than there's a lot more demand that supply could ever cope.

The 20th Anniversary Edition released 2008.

I think Miss JW and her recording company must have pick up the buzz, and decided to cash their cheques one more time by releasing the 20th Anniversary of the Famous Blue Raincoat. Comparing to the original, music wise, there's only 4 new tracks. Actually only 2 new songs. The night Comes On at track 10 and If It Be Your Will at track 12. The other 2 so called new tracks are, The Ballad Of The Runaway Horse(first heard on Rob Wasserman's Duets album) on track 11 and Joan Of Arc (Live) on track 13. The new release is also sonically cleaned up and remastered.

Sonically, compared to the original release, the 20th Anniversary version sounded cleaner, with more resolution and higher clarity. But the original has a warm and fuzzy feeling to it, that makes it somewhat more natural sounding overall. But nothing could prepare me for when I had a chance recently to hear the 45rpm 3LP version of the 20th Anniversary, played on an extreme high end, "Big Boy" set up. I was awe struck by how at once a recording can sound so beautiful and yet, tick all the right audiophile boxes at once. It's like having your cake and eat it! Maggielurva tells me there's only 6000 copies of these 45rpms in the market! If you're an audiophile and want the best replay of the Famous Blue Raincoat, it's the ultimate one!

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