Warner Music Japan “paper jacket” reissues – Five more Bee Gees albums coming out in July

Five more albums coming out in July

Due to technical troubles, we have been unable to update the site for over two months.  Thank you for all your emails expressing concern and support.  They are much appreciated.  The problems are being seen to, but the updates might still be (more than?) a bit erratic for a time.

On this First of May, we have something nice to tell, though.  Warner Music Japan is continuing with their "paper jacket" reissue project this year, and five more albums will be coming out in July.

The original albums approved this time by Barry are as follows:

Work has been on-going for some time. As with the ten original albums that were released in autumn 2013, the five will be coming out in the original "paper jackets" complete with "obi" and will have new liner notes (in Japanese) and bi-lingual lyrics sheets.

The project was launched with the conviction of Warner Music Japan that it is essential that Bee Gees albums should remain in the market in their original forms. Among the first lot of ten, "Odessa" is the consumers’ favorite probably because of its distinctive "velvety" cover. With neither "detailed specifications" nor "materials used for the original production process" available, they went to considerable trouble to find materials that could reproduce the feel of the original "Odessa."

Pic 2： The "flat" Japanese version on the left

According to Warner Japan, it was also hard to recreate the greenish brown color scheme of the original "Horizontal" sleeve. It was after dozens and dozens of trials that they finally felt that they got the colors right. So you can imagine all the hard work and attention to details that went into the producton of the first ten albums.

That "Living Eyes" is among the lot this time also merits particular mention. Because the album has long been out of print around the world, we have been receiving many inquiries if there is any plan to reissue "Living Eyes" in Japan. Since the plan was confidential as yet, we were obliged to only answer, "Please watch this sptace," that is, until now! 🙂

In the "looks" department, "Life In A Tin Can" might be worthy of note.  As seen in Pic 2, the original Japanese version of "Life In A Tin Can" presented the flat printed surface while the U.S. and U.K. releases showed the three brothers looking up from inside a three-dimentional(?) can.

Please also watch out for "To Whom It May Concern" with the pop-up paper figures of the three brothers. The original Japanese version included only a sheet of paper with the instruction on how to "cut them out yourself." Opening the sleeve of a U.S. copy recently, I was a bit disconcerted to find that the glue came off during the time that has passed (Don’t ask me why…) and the three paper figures lay there rather flat. The portraits by the way were based on one of their Japanese appearances from the 1972 Trafalgar Tour.

The work will continue throughout May for the early July release. We hope to keep you updated of its progress.

The DIY Japanese version at the bottom

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