Saturday, December 26, 2015

Psychobabble’s 2015 Wish List Score Card!


Around time last year I posted my wish list for 2015 reissues and releases. Now that the year is coming to a close, let’s review to see how many of my wishes have come true, therefore determining whether or not I’m psychic or have recently come into contact with a Leprechaun. So without further introductory babble you’re just skipping anyway, here’s Psychobabble’s 2015 Wish List Score Card!

Score Chart

  • 10 points for a hit.
  • 5 points for a wish that didn’t come true, but there was some sort of consolation prize.
  • 0 points for a miss.

1. The Wish: E.C. Horror Comics Reprints by a Publisher Other than Dark Horse

Did It Come True?: Dark Horse comics recently inherited the E.C. Comics back catalogue and has been re-printing them in bastardized, digitized versions. As of today, Dark Horse remains in control with more reprints of the “E.C. Archives” series in store for 2016. However, this wish technically came true with the re-publication of IDW’s WallyWood’s EC Stories Artisan Edition, which not only wasn’t grotesquely digitized but it was devoid of color altogether. Granted, this wasn’t exactly the complete anthology of non-digitized, color, horror comics I unrealistically wished for, but it is a technical hit.

Score: 10 (looking pretty psychic so far)

2. The Wish: Beatles Singles Box

Did It Come True?: My wish for a vinyl box set of Beatles singles did not come true.

Consolation Prize? Beatles Inc. would not let a holiday season pass without a major release, and we got one that’s actually better than rereleases of audio that has already been re-released a bunch of times: the video collection Beatles 1+. It’s kind of nice when a consolation prize turns out to be the prize I should have wished for in the first place.

Score: 5 (Less psychic, more lucky. The leprechaun is still ahead)

3. The Wish: Rolling Stones in Mono

Did It Come True?: Mono editions of the Stones’ Aftermath, Between the Buttons, and Their Satanic Majesties Request remain unavailable in the digital age.

Consolation Prize? Nope.

Score: 0 (The slide continues)

4. The Wish: Stones Sixties Outtakes Anthology

Did It Come True?: Yet another year without non-bootleg releases of “Get Yourself Together (I Can See It)”, “Highway Chile”, “Looking Tired”, that version of “Gimme Shelter” with Keith singing lead, that version of “You Got the Silver” with Mick singing lead, and all the other groovy sixties tracks that inexplicably remain in the vaults. Abkco is just sitting on money.

Consolation Prize? Nope again.

Score: 0 (Neither psychic nor lucky)

5. The Wish: Who Reissues Campaign

Did It Come True?: Bonus-tracks loaded, remastered but not remixed CD editions of The Who’s original ten albums remain unreleased in the U.S.

Consolation Prize? Geffen rereleased all of The Who’s LPs on vinyl this year, though I’m not sure if these are the original mixes, and UMe has been putting out box sets of their singles (at no small cost). No bonus tracks, though.

Score: 5 (My psychic powers are slowly returning)

6. The Wish: “The Monkees” Blu-Ray

Did It Come True?: A set that will gather the entire “Monkees” TV series and the feature film Head in hi-def was announced this year, though it won’t actually appear until early 2016. But since I suggested it would make sense to synchronize such a release with the band’s official 50th anniversary, this is a pretty accurate hit.

Score: 10

7. The Wish: Damned Biography

Did It Come True?: For some reason, no one wants to write the complete story of one of the most important and best bands of the original punk era.

Consolation Prize? Well, maybe no one wanted to tell that story in print, but film is a different matter, as this year saw the release of The Damned: Don’t You Wish We Were Dead. I still have not seen it, so a home video release Wes Orshoski’s documentary is among my most highly anticipated releases of 2016.

Score: 5 (Damned right)

8. The Wish: Star Wars Original Trilogy Blu-Rays

Did It Come True?: We still need to consult our old limited edition bonus DVDs and VHS tapes to avoid seeing a laser blast out of Greedo’s gun at a 90 degree angle, Han Solo step on the tail of the love child of Jabba the Hutt and Porky Pig, and the vomit-inducing “Jedi Rocks” song and dance number.

Consolation Prize? Another goose egg.

Score: 0 (Greedo 1; Han Solo 0)

9. The Wish: “The X-Files” Blu Ray

Did It Come True?: Yep. The entire “X-Files” series on Blu-ray is just squeaking into the 2016 release schedule.

Score: 10 (You will meet a tall, dark stranger. Named Fox.)

10. The Wish: More David Lynch Blu-Rays

Did It Come True?: Well, that plural (blu-rays) makes this a questionable hit, but we did get a fab blu-ray release of Mulholland Dr., the very best Lynch film that had yet to be released on blu-ray.

Consolation Prize? Not only did the original wish (basically) come true, but a wish I didn’t even know I wished for was fulfilled when Lynch and Mark Frost announced that they are working on a new season of “Twin Peaks”.

Score: 10/5 (Wishes and consolation prizes galore)

Final score: 60 out of 100 possible points.

Verdict: More than 50%? Fuck it. I’m psychic. See you on the boardwalk, suckers.
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