Teenbeat XXVIII - Hang on Loosley

Today on this return visit to the Teen Beat series of post I am talking about a series of re-issues that upon hearing of them piqued my fancy.
A big thing with me was what tends to bracketed under the phrase 'Southern Rock' which pretty much got a hold of me in my mid teens and never really left and one band I had a fondness for was 38 Special formed in Jacksonville, Fl, by friends Don Barnes and Donnie Van Zant in 1974 around the time the Allman Blues Band were massive who released a good many albums.
Stylistic this form of rock has a high level of blues and country in the mix and whilst still performing with a different line up to day, the albums issued  from 1977 through 1988 are the ones I cherish, having vinyl copies bought very much at the time.

Now when I said there was no mention of any other formats so when I want to get my fill of such tracks as Chained Lightning, Rocking Into The Night, Travelin' Man, Caught Up In You and If I'd Been The One I'd need to put the record deck on or put the copy on cassette in a cassette tape walkman.
Thus when it was announced at the beginning of the year Universal Japan, the label that acquired A&M Records which these albums had been issued by they were being re-issued   I was interested in getting cd versions.

First of like many of Japan's limited editions, these are packed differently in that they are exact replicas of the original lps -'Mini Lp's' is the term that's used - so you get a card outer sleeve, an inner holding the cd and any inserts included.
The other thing is they use a special type of plastic 'sandwich' to make these cds from that allows the pits that hold the data to be more accurately pressed and also more reflective for less errors  than standard cds.

An example of that is with the Tour De Force album of the fall of 1983  with it's three singles where the cover shows the cover art in all its glory being taken around the video shoot of the lead of 45, If I'd Been The One that was played on Much Music and MTV that year.

The rear of the lp is reproduced as is with no attempt to remove reference to lp sides and as with all japanese issues, there's the folded paper OBI that tells people in Japan all about the disc.

1986's Strength In Numbers was issued on lp in a two sided die cut sleeve and in this cd re-issue, that has been reproduced which is good example of the attention to detail the  Japanese take on these issues.

Each disc is wrapped in a archive quality see through resealable pouch with a strict 6 month sales period.

A good number of these discs were freshly mastered from the original tapes and compare favourably with the original lp issues so personally I am very impressed with the series.