@Lee Wrecker
Hi Lee,
Taking time to look at this particular CD again using Discogs,it appears that this one is listed as the first time it was issued on CD?,i.e,1987?,there are,of course,always the ones at the bottom of Discogs lists that don't yet have dates allocated to them,so,of course,there may well have been an earlier release,but i wonder now that we can see the longbox pictures,which use the 1051-2 US cat,and have the same barcode,whether this CD may have been out of a longbox?.
It would normally follow that a US and European release would be around the same date,only the next US release according to Discogs is 1990,and that was for a club edition and a remaster.
Unsure to be honest,but if pushed i would assume this was issued in the US also,as theoretically it was perhaps the initial/first release.
(Anyhow Lee,it's only one among hundreds of CD's,so not worth falling out over,no worries;)
(Apologies to both you and Phil by the way,i have to admit that i often do not express myself correctly/fully in words,and have a habit of leaving some people in the dark about what i'm actually on about;)
(PS I know that you and i both want simplification of the International category,it's just getting others on-board,and coming to some kind of agreement on how it should actually be put into practice (easier said than done;)(one day,hopefully;)
It's not easy, isn't it? Lee, the one you're referring to on discogs is a HDCD so I wonder if the date for that issue is correct. I got these when they were first issued and I imported a lot of cd's for my shop from the US (cheaper!!) so it's even possible it came from there. There is a vague rememberance of a long box for this one, but I'm not really sure. Trade magazines, ICE newsletter and other publications maybe will sort this out in the future. In the meantime I think this is listed correctly as it is.
Well, let's get down to tin tacks. What was the USA release date for this CD? I don't think you'll find one. What I think you'll find is that for some reason Warner Communications in Europe were attaching the US cat#s as a secondary more as an indicator of the source or master used rather than because it was actually for sale in the US.
What makes me think that? Well, we'll need to look at Leonard's other Joni Mitchell Hejira to untangle this one. Although it was released 3 years later in 1990 Warner Communications Europe were still using the same system to catalogue CDs. That on the inlay looks like EU Cat# above the US Cat# which is above WE 851. So, same system, different album but the 1990 USA issue of Hejira is not the same as the EU issue and carries no EU cat#s at all. So I'm putting forward the view that both Leonard's Joni Mitchell CDs are EU releases and were never released in the USA at all. Unless you actually have some proof that these CDs were released in the US with the EU cat# on them I'd leave them as is.
You can also be fairly certain that one or the other of the EU or USA releases was also released officially in Australia. At the time Warners seemed to favour sending EU product to our shores such as this and this. I didn't list these as international because like you I see it as stripping identity and any meaning from the listing.
However, the purpose of me pointing these things is primarily to get to the facts and not to offend other site users such as yourself. My comments should never be taken personally am I'm sorry that you wish hadn't tried to help me out because I'm glad you did. What I am sorry about is that we both have wasted so much time nit-picking on these international or not issues when essentially we're on the same page. Unfortunately though this part of the site is a train wreck and I can't look away or leave it alone until something is done.
????
This product has two Cat No's,one for UK/European market,one for the US,there is no doubt this is therefore truly International,am i missing something?,can you not see the difference between a European product that might have been put on sale in Australia at a regular price and this?.
Lee,i was trying to help you out with regard to Australian releases,with a couple of suggestions that might have made it less stressful,i wish i hadn't bothered frankly.
I suggested that adding a note may have been the way forward,instead of making what is,quite clearly,a European entry International,and thereby losing it's identity,once you make things International when you are searching for albums,all you see is a thumbnail and International,you only find out that it's European by clicking on it,and hoping someone has bothered to write it in the notes,otherwise it's confusing for new members to see a European CD designated as International.
I still stand by my suggestion that we get rid of International,i would,instead much prefer to see a list of countries/flags that it was issued in,so,in the Joni Mitchell case,three "country's"
listed UK/EUROPE and US,with three little flags,i have said this many times in the past,but nothing has been done about it yet,this way,it is immediately obvious which countries it was released in,not simply under the catchall "International",the other CD would have Europe/Australia and two flags.This way,whilst searching/browsing CD's,you wouldn't have to keep clicking on the International ones to see where they were from/issued.
With regard to all other International entries,and probably the bulk of all International entries,we have simply combined two or more CD's that happen to share the same Cat.No/barcode/label.What is the point?????,i see no purpose in this at all,and it was this i was really meaning when i said get rid of International,the practice of combing two or more CD's together is surely a mistake?.When the site first started i suspect it was thought this would be a good idea,as it was probably thought that many world-wide releases would all have identical details,and we would save space/time by combining them together on one page,whereas,we know now this is not the case,slight differences in Cat.No's,spaces/hyphens/secndary Cat.No's etc. actually identify it as a specific country's release.and so now,we are in the position of combing two CD's that have matching details,from two different countries,and call Them "International",where in reality,and in all likeleyhood,neither CD would have been issued in the country they have been "joint" with.
So,IMHO,it's pointless,and doesn't tell us anything but "look,here's two CD's with the same details"!
I stand by what i've said,and want no more to do with it,i tired of this International discussion years ago,and we keep going over the same stuff,you guys over in Aus can continue to do as you see fit,and i'll do as i see fit;)
Greg, Phil is right look at your comment here and explain the difference between that and this entry. Oh, there's one slight difference we actually have the Australian release date supplied by Phil. How much evidence do we need? So your position here should be list as EU add released in USA to notes if you were to be consistent.
Phil and I understand the peculiarities of the Australian market and I might say are also among the most meticulous catters on this part of the site. We both flagged that there would be problems due the way our CD market operates and these were generally ignored. Both Phil and I research each CD we enter and actually look for corresponding cat#, label and barcode combinations. We don't wait for other versions to show up that match but now that most people (MODS/site users) are saying that is not the way to go and that made in and released in trumps those details but that is not how it was explained to us when this part of the site opened up or what is in the guidelines.
I personally spent a long time pointing out these problems and offering solutions ages ago which coincidentally seem to match yours and Leonard's current stance. One year ago in the forum I started titled "CD Albums: Time To Bite The Bullet Pt. 1 The Problem" I put forward this idea.
"The guide to choosing a country link would look something like this:
1. Made In Country/Region + Marketed in the same Country/Region = Listed as from that Country/Region
2. Made In Country/Region + Marketed in a different Country/Region = Listed as from a different Country/Region (ie. EU made UK releases) This would include what MM calls Alpha (early) and Omega (late) releases and hopefully deal with that problem.
If you know your CD was
3. Made In Country/Region + Marketed in multiple Countries/Regions = Listed as from Country/Region of original release (should perhaps be changed to country/region of manufacture) but available in other countries/regions by selecting from an international list of countries contained in a drop down menu on the listing page or added to the notes if that's not possible.
4. If you are still unsure of Country/Region select Unknown Country
If a member selects Unknown Country a Mod could enter it while the entry is being checked if there is enough data entered to determine it. This would hopefully get round the problem of having too many CDs listed from Unknown Country."
Now all of this was put to the Admins on the site and no changes were made but site users and MODS seem to have moved in this direction mainly, I suspect, because it just seems to be an easier and more logical approach. However, these are not the guidelines as yet and those of us that try to follow the current guidelines have ended up frequently being told we're wrong. A lot of my Australian made CDs have been made international by MODS on the strength of matching cat#, label and barcode and a lot my EU made Australian releases have not been made international (in spite of evidence).
From an Australian site users perspective it appears to be a one way street with a lot of our stuff being made international and then on the other hand when we put forward the notion EU and USA CDS are international (even the very same identical CD) the reaction is usually confrontational or complete disbelief. Then all of a sudden a raft of other microscopic details such as secondary cat#s, local publishing and distribution companies seem to be extremely important. None of this is in the guidelines but the hypocrisy of how we currently interpret them is not pleasant and very real from this end of the planet.
@PhilMH
This is different Phil,this is a truly international item,the same CD being issued in UK/Europe/US.
(my apologies though,obviously there are real "International" candidates,and this one would be included,but there are many,many more that aren't)
What we are doing at the moment is calling any CD that uses the same Cat.No./label/barcode "International",so,forinstance,if an Argentinian CD and an European CD happen to have identical No's.,we are grouping it together on one page and calling it "International",even though the Argentinian CD would never have been issued in Europe,and the European CD never had been issued in Argentina!.
I'm just trying to get people to see the futility of it all,it's just confusing the hell out of this world.
Now hang on a minute, earlier you suggested that Lee should enter European CD's sold in Australia as just Europe, and add the sold in Australia information to the notes; you also said "let's get rid of the totally useless "International" once and for all" (your exact words, so don't accuse me of misquoting). Why is it OK for a Euro CD distributed in the US to be International, and a Euro Cd distributed in Australia not OK? Why are you asking for something to be made International when you want to get rid of that designation? Decide what your position is, and be consistent with it!