The Nearest Faraway Place on 20/20- I hear some distortion

[Joel Goldenberg]

I first heard the distortion on some parts of this Bruce Johnston song on a 1980s green label Capitol reissue, which I attributed to being the last song on Side 1, but then I also heard it on the 1990 CD, especially when the keyboards and strings swell up. Has anybody else heard this distortion? Was there a problem with the song? Are there any CD pressings without the distortion

[Sam_BFC]

Haven't noticed...
But on a similar note, I recently noticed distortion on the Time To Get Alone "deep and wide"s.

[Micha]

A little distortion is good!

[Joel Goldenberg]

Someone wrote this a while ago on this board about a vinyl 20/20 pressing:

"Yeah me too, but not even EX records are trouble free. The one that bugs me is inner groove distortion. I bought 20/20 recently at a record fair. It looked fantastic and plays really quietly but get to the end of side 1 and Nearest faraway Place has that subtle distortion on the high notes. It drives me nuts. I guess that's vinyl for you."

In the case of the CD, maybe it's a matter of the combination of the heavy bass on many late '60s BB recordings (like Cabinessence) and the subwoofer on my car stereo.

[Jon Stebbins]

I always liked the "crunchy" sonic quality of this track, especially on the original vinyl. There are elements of Sunflower that are similarly overdriven, again especially on first press vinyl...All I Wanna Do comes to mind.

[c-man]

I think it's the Fender Rhodes cranked up through its amplifier...if memory serves, a similar sound is there on "Endless Harmony".
And I agree, a little distortion is a good thing!