CD Tracklisting Hijinks

May 29, 2006 5:37 PM

A long long time ago in the year 2000 I bought a copy of the compilation album "Indie 2000 Volume 5". In the track listing on the second CD there was listed the BIS song "Action and Drama", but when I played the album the song that was on the CD was "Theme from Tokyo" from the same artist. To make things even more confusing I knew someone who bought the same album and their copy had the correctly listed song. My question to you, is how on earth is this possible?
posted by a. to media & arts (4 comments total)

It's a different pressing of the same album, your was probably an earlier one on which there was a mistake, whereas on your friend's it was fixed.
posted by fvw at 5:39 PM on May 29, 2006

fvw has it. Companies make (and, if you're lucky, discover) idiotic mastering mistakes like this all the time. I see from looking at a copy of the BIS album in question that "Action and Drama" and "Theme from Tokyo" are right next to each other, so whoever mastered the original compilation disc probably just grabbed (or was given) the wrong track.
posted by mykescipark at 3:28 AM on May 30, 2006

Anecdote:

Back when everyone in the whole world did, I bought Nirvana's Nevermind CD.

My sister told me, "If you let the last track keep playing, there's a secret song."

When I played that last track, the CD player just *ended* at the end of the last song, as you would expect.

It puzzled me to no end. I thought there was some weird trick you needed to do with the CD player or something. I tried every stupid unrealistic trick I could think of, all-the-while my sister insisting that there was additional music if you waited. Until I actually showed her the disc, and she confirmed that it wasn't doing what it was "supposed to do".

Alas, apparently it was from an early pressing of the disc, which didn't have the "hidden track" on it. Being the first CD (that I know of) to have this "hidden track" concept, it doesn't surprise me that this error was made.

I still have that copy of the CD, and for awhile I thought it might actually be a collector's item. But I doubt it :)
posted by jozxyqk at 3:32 AM on May 30, 2006

I thought it might actually be a collector's item.

Errors like this can turn a disc into a collectors item, though. I doubt Indie 2000 Volume 5 in any form is a collectors item, but you never know - if only a tiny run escaped the pressing plant before anyone noticed the error, it might be a rarity.

And, knowing Bis, if you mailed them via their site about this, if there's more of a story to the error, they'd doubtless fill you in.

*wonders what a complete collection of Bis 7" singles is worth nowadays, remembers to be embarrassed about liking them ;-)*
posted by jack_mo at 6:56 AM on May 30, 2006