In 1961, as we all know, Cindy Walker was presented with a demo of "Distant Drums" by Jim which was (allegedly) disregarded by Chet Atkins. Jim then told her to pitch the demo to someone else.
But in 1966, Cindy was asked to go to the RCA studios and upon entering there she witnessed the overdub session of "Distant Drums".
Where did this other copy come from? I wonder if Jim had made two copies of this tape and Mary had secretly kept one?
As Cindy explains in my book, when she and her Mama dined with Jim and Mary at the Reeves home in Madison, after dinner Reeves told her he had a surprise for her. He escorted everyone downstairs to his basement studio and played the demo of "Distant Drums" for her.
But Cindy told him, "Jim, that's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard, but Jim Reeves making a demo [for me]? I can't do it. Listen. I can't thank you enough and you know that nobody in the world appreciates it more. But you keep it.' And I said 'every time I come to town I get to listen to it.'"
(There is much more to this story that I tell in my book, on page 646).
So Cindy did NOT have a copy of this song. Jim kept it, and hence it was available to Mary when she decided to overdub it in 1966.
The released overdubbed version appears to have scratches in places. Was the copy available at the time from disc? I know that the 16 CD Bear set has a clearer stripped down version.
I'm not sure what "released overdubbed version" you're referring to (perhaps the RCA overdub of 1966) but I assure you we IMPROVED the audio fidelity of the original tape considerably (ours comes from tape, not disk), as it had tape hiss on it, etc. There are zero scratches on ours (VoiceMasters). It is pristine, as is the new orchestral backing which includes quite an assemblage, I might add, of top-notch musicians who have played for big-league artists.
Sorry, I was not thinking clearly when wrote my post (it was a little late in the night shift at work). For some reason I was thinking about another RCA overdubbed song, 'But you love me daddy'.
I have nothing but praise for those excellent VM recordings. Sorry if I confused you.
on April 7, 2014, 1:12 pm