Here’s a tale of old-school quality control. Neil Young, the Godfather of Grunge, recorded an album called Comes a Time in 1978. Getting it out was a battle. He kept rearranging track orders, fiddling with masters, swapping out album covers, and so on.
When it came time for final pressing, Neil realized he had overlooked a critical detail: he had accidentally approved a version of the record produced with damaged master tapes. Some of the high frequencies were missing from the album.
By the time he alerted the record company, 200,000 copies of Comes A Time had already been manufactured and shipped around the world. Acknowledging his error, Neil Young paid out of pocket, to the tune of $160,000, to have the album recalled. If you’re wondering, that’s almost 600 grand in 2017 dollars.
And to make sure the recalled records never saw the light of day, Young brought the cases to his ranch and shot them up with a rifle. Who among today’s artists would do the same?
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