I'm not only a Grass Roots fan, but I'm also a fan of vintage quadraphonic LP's and tapes. I have in my collection The Grass Roots 16 Greatest Hits Quadraphonic LP and two copies of the same album on Quad 8-track. The interesting part is that one of the tapes is either a misprint album, or was an early attempt at doing something different. Visually, the cartridges are identical with the only real evidence that something is different is that one catalog number has a "C" prefix, the other has an "H" suffix. The interesting part about the "misprint" album is that it contains alternate mixes of the songs. Some examples are:

Sooner Or Later - Background "soul shouting" vocals near the end of the song are double tracked. There are two Dennis Provisors yelling and they are both singing different words. He's not overdubbing, he's doing two complete, differing takes of the soul shouting. The sample is a snippet of the front right channel of the quad mix so you can really hear the vocals.  SAMPLE

Things I Should Have Said – This is either an early attempt or an alternate take altogether. Not only are they playing the song slightly slower, the key is much lower than the stereo version. Also, Rob forgets the words, Warren laughs, and Rob picks right back up. The sample is a down mix of all four channels and I left a few seconds on either side of the "blooper" so you can figure out exactly where in the song it goes. SAMPLE

Temptation Eyes – This is the single mix of the song with Rob's lead vocals double tracked, but there is an alternate break near the middle of the song. Rather than the rocking guitar lick (which is buried down low in the mix) it is an organ/synthesizer solo that plays along to the tune of the song. The sample is from the rear channels as that is where the synthesizer solo emanates best from. It's mixed a little lower in the fronts. SAMPLE

I Can Turn Off The Rain - Has double tracked vocals that are delayed to the rear speakers so it creates a very thick, vocal atmosphere. Has a very nice, natural echo sound. The sample is a down mix to stereo from the full four channel mix and you can really get a feeling for the echoed vocals. SAMPLE

As far as I can tell, the remaining songs are all pretty much the standard takes of the songs with few exceptions. The takes may be the same, but the mixes differ in that you might be able to hear the organ better, or a lead guitar is mixed a little higher or the tambourine is mixed to all four channels.

Darrin Konkin