RZA - The Cure (1999)

Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (born July 5, 1969), better known by his stage name RZA, was born on 5 July 1969, and first became interested in making his own hip-hop music in 1979 when a friend of his introduced him to 'Rapper's Delight' by The Sugarhill Gang. In 1981, Diggs formed a rap group with his cousins Russell Jones, then known as The Specialist, and Gary Grice, then known as Allah Justice, called "Force of the Imperial Master", which they soon renamed as "All In Together Now" in 1984. Around this time Diggs formed the DMD Posse which consisted of RZA, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, U-God, Inspectah Deck, 4th Disciple and Method Man. Diggs and Grice then signed with Jamaica Records for management purposes and Jamaica convinced Tommy Boy Records to sign Diggs as a solo artist in 1989 under the name Prince Rakeem. He released the original 'Ooh I Love You Rakeem' promotion version of his EP, but was forced to remix and rerelease the single when Tommy Boy failed to acquire the rights to the original sample. In 1992, Diggs formed a new group with his two cousins and five other childhood friends, and they named the group Wu-Tang Clan, after the 1983 kung fu film 'Shaolin And Wu Tang'. As part of the group's formation, each member chose a new nickname for themselves. Diggs chose "RZA", based on a nickname he had been given by fans of his music, "Rza Rza Rakeem", which in turn was based on a song by All in Together Now, "Pza Pza Pumpin", as well as Diggs' graffiti tag, "Razor". 

Wu-Tang Clan released its first single, 'Protect Ya Neck', in December 1992, after which Masta Killa joined the group, becoming its ninth member. They released their debut album, 'Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)' in November 1993, with RZA operating as Wu-Tang Clan's de facto leader, producing the group's songs and deciding who would get placed on which tracks. As each of the group's members embarked on solo careers, RZA continued to produce nearly everything Wu-Tang released during the period 1994–1996, which included both composing and arranging the instrumental tracks as well as overseeing and directing the creative process. He released a hit single of his own, in the form of 'Wu-Wear: The Garment Renaissance', which was featured on the 'High School High' soundtrack, and was released to promote the Wu-Tang clothing brand, also called "Wu-Wear". 1997 saw the release of 'Wu-Tang Forever', the Wu-Tang Clan's highly anticipated second album, with the album for the first time seeing RZA delegating a small number of beat-making duties to other producers in the Wu-Tang camp, such as his protégés Mathematics, True Master and 4th Disciple. His first solo album was to be 'The Cure', but he considered that his actual lifestyle at the time did not match the positive, enlightened themes in his lyric books. 

Instead of dropping 'The Cure', he shifted gears and created his alter-ego project, Bobby Digital, stating that "I had to put out 'Bobby Digital' instead of 'The Cure', because if I didn't do that I would've suffered two things. First, I would have revealed where I was musically too soon. Wu-Tang is the perfect medium to expose anything new because I got the most people coming together to buy it. For me to expose it for my own self, I don't think that would've been a wise thing for me to do. I might've caught more people than 'Bobby Digital' caught, but I still wouldn't catch the magnitude of what the Wu-Tang could catch. Maybe this year or next year the game may be different". In 1999, RZA moved into composing film scores, with his first work being Jim Jarmusch's 'Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai' in 1999, and which earned him some praise. By 2004 he was ready to release 'The Cure', but instead of the actual album, a fan-made mixtape titled 'The Formula For The Cure' leaked in the December, which was intended to be a prelude to the long-awaited album itself. It included classic tracks and unreleased material, but was premature as a prelude, as 'The Cure' has yet to appear some two decades later. To put fans out of their misery, here is the album that should have been released around 1999, after the palate-cleanser that was 'Bobby Digital In Stereo'. 

Track listing 

01 Intro (I'm Back)
02 Get Familiar
03 Martial Monks (feat. Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Raekwon and U‐God)
04 Money 1st (feat. Masta Killa)
05 Deadly Dartz (feat. Ghostface Killah, Method Man, and Street Life)
06 Never
07 Back To The Temple (feat. Masta Killa)
08 Shaolin Rooftop Talk (feat. Masta Killa)
09 Terrorist Revisited (feat. Black Knights and Killarmy)
10 U Used 2 Be
11 Who's The Champion (feat. Ghostface Killah)
12 Outro

The Doobie Brothers - Introducing The Doobie Brothers (1970)

The Doobie Brothers formed in San Jose, California, in 1970, and known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres, and for their vocal harmonies. Drummer John Hartman had arrived in California in 1969 determined to meet Skip Spence of Moby Grape, and join an aborted Grape reunion, but instead Spence introduced Hartman to singer, guitarist, and songwriter Tom Johnston and the two proceeded to form the nucleus of what would become the Doobie Brothers. Johnston and Hartman called their fledgling group "Pud" and experimented with line-ups (occasionally including Spence) and styles as they performed in and around San Jose. They were mostly a power trio, along with bassist Greg Murphy, but also briefly worked with a horn section. In 1970 they teamed up with singer, guitarist, and songwriter Patrick Simmons and bassist Dave Shogren, and while playing locally around San Jose, the group adopted the name "Doobie Brothers", which was suggested by their friend Keith Rosen, after the band had difficulty coming up with one on their own. According to Tom Johnston, Rosen said, "Why don't you call yourself the Doobie Brothers because you're always smoking pot?" Everyone in the band agreed that "Doobie Brothers" was a dumb name, and they intended to use it only for a few early performances until they came up with something better, but they never did. The Doobie Brothers improved their playing by performing live all over Northern California, and in 1970 they stopped off at Pacific Recording Studios in San Mateo, California to record a clutch of their songs. These went unheard until 1980, when they were issued as the album 'Introducing The Doobie Brothers' by Pickwick Records, but following a lawsuit from the band the album was quickly withdrawn from sale. The material was later re-issued in an expanded version in France, Germany and Greece, but has never appeared in the U.S., and so consequently is very hard to locate. Fans of the band rate some of this material as even better than tracks on their first album, and so it's worth giving this a try if you too are a fan of the group. 

Track listing

01 By Yourself
02 Coke Can Changes
03 Blue Jay
04 Make It Easy
05 Quicksilver Princess
06 Runaround Ways
07 Pauper's Diary
08 I'll Keep On Giving

Bonus tracks on the 1994 French re-issue
09 Excitement
10 Another Way
11 On Our Way Up
12 Tilted Park Crud Hunchery

Sounds Incorporated - Top Gear (1970)

Sounds Incorporated formed in early 1961, in Dartford, Kent, and gained a reputation in nearby South London for the fullness of their saxophone-led instrumental sound. Their line-up consisted of Alan "Boots" Holmes on baritone and tenor saxophones and flute, "Major" Griff West on tenor saxophone and flute, Barrie Cameron on organ and baritone saxophone, John St. John on lead guitar, Wes Hunter on bass, and Tony Newman on drums. In August 1961, after Gene Vincent's band, The Blue Caps, had been denied permission to work in the UK, Sounds Incorporated won the opportunity to back Vincent on his British tour and on recordings in London. This led to further opportunities to back other visiting American artists, including Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Brenda Lee and Sam Cooke. In August 1961 the group released their first single, 'Mogambo', on Parlophone, but it failed to achieve significant sales, so they moved to Decca Records, where they released a trio of singles, the last of which was recorded with producer Joe Meek, again with little success. However, while performing in Hamburg in Germany, they met and befriended the Beatles, and in 1963 signed to Brian Epstein's management company, NEMS. The band's first two singles on new label Columbia, 'The Spartans' and 'Spanish Harlem', made the UK Singles Chart in 1964, but these were the only successes that Sounds Incorporated enjoyed in their home country. That same year they became Cilla Black's backing band, and they also released their self-titled album , which contained many stage favourites, but not their recent chart successes. One thing that stood them apart from other instrumental groups was their use of unusual musical instruments, such as the the battery-operated Clavioline keyboard (as used by the Tornados) that is heard on 'Keep Movin'' and 'Sounds Like Locomotion', while Al Holmes played the lead melody on flute throughout 'The Spartans'. 

The group's third Columbia single, a version of the 'William Tell Overture', was included and turned out to be their greatest success in Australia, where it reached number 2. The group toured the world as the Beatles' opening act, including the July 1964 concert in Hong Kong and the August 1965 concert at New York City's Shea Stadium, and their continuing popularity ensured a stream of work, including backing duties at the televised NME awards. 1966 was the first year the group released no singles in their home country, although they recorded a second album, again simply titled 'Sounds Incorporated', and this was released on EMI's fledgling Studio 2 label, primarily to show off EMI's mid-1960's advances and developments in stereo recording techniques. By 1967 the band's name had been truncated to "Sounds Inc.", and The Beatles invited Cameron, Holmes and West to be the saxophone section on their track 'Good Morning Good Morning', from the album 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. After this guest appearance, Sounds Inc. left EMI and released a solitary single on the Polydor label titled 'How Do You Feel', which was their first single release to feature vocals. The group began to disintegrate in the late 1960's, with drummer Newman leaving to work as a session musician, and at one stage joined the Jeff Beck Group. For the remaining members of Sounds Inc., Cameron's departure for a career in A&R left a gap, which was filled by percussionist and drummer Terry Fogg, while Trevor White became the band's first true vocalist. The group soldiered on, moving to and mainly playing in Australia for their final years together. Their act became more middle-of-the-road, exemplified in their final album, which was released in many territories but not the UK, and which contained more vocals than instrumentals, and the band eventually broke up in 1971.

Track listing

01 Mogambo (single 1961)
02 Emily (b-side of 'Mogambo')
03 Sounds Like Locomotion (single 1962)
04 Taboo (b-side of 'Sounds Like Locomotion')
05 Go (single 1963)
06 Stop (b-side of 'Go')
07 Keep Moving (single 1963)
08 Order Of The Keys (b-side of 'Keep Moving')
09 The Spartans (single 1964)
10 Detroit (b-side of 'The Spartans')
11 Spanish Harlem (single 1964)
12 Top Gear (single 1964)
13 Time For You (single 1965)
14 Hall Of The Mountain Kings (single 1965) 
15 Justice Neddi (single 1965)
16 My Little Red Book (single 1965) 
17 I'm Comin' Through (single 1965)
18 On The Brink (single 1966)
19 Michelle (from the French 'Succes De La Danse' EP 1966)
20 L'amitie (from the French 'Succes De La Danse' EP 1966)
21 Yesterday Man (from the French 'Succes De La Danse' EP 1966)
22 Treat Her Right (from the French 'Succes De La Danse' EP 1966)
23 How Do You Feel (single 1967)
24 Dead As A Go-Go (b-side of 'How Do You Feel')
25 Apollo (b-side of 'Warmth Of The Sun' 1970)

Thanks to geofmcm for the suggestion.

Richie Havens - Electric Havens (1968)

I've already given the background to the existence of this record in the post to the first of these two albums released by producer Alan Douglas in 1968. As Richie Havens rose to stardom, Douglas took the original solo demos that Havens had recorded for him in 1965 and overdubbed them with electric instruments, but after objections from Havens, the albums were pulled from circulation and today are very hard to find. One would understand why Havens might have disapproved of their release, but 'Electric Havens' isn't actually that bad, with the eight-song set being oriented toward the kind of traditional material that he was likely doing in clubs around that time, such as 'Oxford Town', 'C.C. Rider', and '900 Miles From Home', as well as an early Dylan cover, 'Boots Of Spanish Leather'. Havens sings with his usual spontaneous conviction, and although the electric backing sounds a bit awkward -  not surprising considering the circumstances - it's not overdone, or completed in such a fashion that it's difficult to enjoy the performances. If you tried 'Richie Havens' Record' and found it enjoyable then this one is more of the same, so give it a listen.

Track listing

01 Oxford Town
02 900 Miles
03 I'm A Stranger Here
04 My Own Way
05 Boots Of Spanish Leather
06 C.C. Rider
07 3:10 To Yuma
08 Shadow Town

Jeff Lynne - The Prodigal Songs (2013)

I've already posted one compilation of hard to find tracks by the Electric Light Orchestra, with the 'When Time Stood Still' album taking us up to 1983. Jeff Lynne and the band have continued to record and release albums since then, under both the ELO name and as a solo artist, and once again there have been songs here and there that have been hidden away on b-sides, or added as bonus tracks to foreign re-issues of his albums, and so this second collection takes us from 1990 to 2013. It's posted under Lynne's name as most of the tracks are from his later solo career, with three tracks being songs that he wrote for the soundtracks to the films 'American Hustle' and 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves', while two of the ELO tracks were actually studio recordings which were added to the re-issue of the live album from the band. Despite it being felt that these tracks were not worthy enough to appear on the albums that were recorded at the same time, they are all well worth hearing for any fans of Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra. 

Track listing

01 One Day (bonus track from the re-issue of 'Zoom' 2001)
02 Lucky Motel (bonus track from the re-issue of 'Zoom' 2001)
03 Forecast (bonus track from the re-issue of 'Armchair Theatre' 1990)
04 Stream Of Stars (from the soundtrack of 'American Hustle' 2013)
05 Borderline (b-side of 'Lift Me Up' 1990)
06 Point Of No Return (new song included on the 'Mr. Blue Sky' compilation)
07 Cold Feet (bonus track from the reissue of 'Live' 2013) 
08 Out Of Luck (bonus track from the reissue of 'Live' 2013) 
09 Jody (bonus track from the re-issue of 'Long Wave' 2012)
10 Wild Times (from the soundtrack of 'Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves' 1991)
11 Long Black Road (from the soundtrack of 'American Hustle' 2013)
12 Sirens (b-side of 'Lift Me Up' 1990)
13 I'm Gone (b-side of 'Every Little Thing' 1990)

Raye - Dark Doors (2018)

Here is the companion album that I mentioned in my re-post of Raye's 'Scorpio' album, and its made up of the nine songs that I originally used to flesh out 'Scorpio', plus four new songs to make the 42-minute album. As before, this is a fine collection of tracks which have never seen the light of day, and now that it seems that Raye's management have cleansed the internet of all of her leaked songs, it makes this series of albums even more important for her fans. 

Track listing

01 All I See
02 Dreamin'
03 Sorry Too
04 Twice My Age
05 I Can't Deal With This
06 Too Nice
07 Home With You
08 Jealous
09 Right Side
10 Dark Doors
11 All We Ever Do Is Fight
12 Way Too Young
13 Let You Know

Raye - Scorpio (2018) **UPDATE**

When I posted this album in May I mentioned in the notes that only four of the fifteen tracks that were intended for the album had surfaced, and so I completed the track listings with other songs taken from the same year. My source for the songs at the time was a mega-post on Soundcloud, which was made up of 137 unreleased tracks from the singer, and I downloaded enough to make up the four albums that I've posted so far. However, when I went back to grab some more files a few weeks ago I found that all of the playlists had been taken down, and I couldn't locate any unreleased material at all elsewhere on the net. After some searching I did locate one file that I'd missed earlier, and luckily it contained a large number of songs that were not in the Soundcloud playlist, including eleven of the fifteen proposed tracks from the 'Scorpio' album. I'm therefore now able to post a record that is closer to what it should have sounded like had it come out in 2018, while the songs that I used to fill out the earlier post can now be the basis of the next one. 

Track listing

01 Scorpio
02 Messed Up
03 Who's Gonna Stop Me
04 Proud
05 Hurt You Back
06 Hide & Seek
07 Bad Boy Riddim
08 Enough About Me
09 Msg To The Man
10 Getting Over You
11 Capital Letters
12 My Disco
13 Undercover
14 Fucked
15 Told You So

David Crosby - Might As Well Have A Good Time (1980)

In 1977, Crosby, Stills and Nash released their third album, with 'CSN' being a return to form for the trio after divergent yet successful solo careers that followed their 1969 debut and 1970 follow up as CSNY with Neil Young. Personality clashes were common between the triad, and even more so when Young’s heavy presence got involved. After a successful 1977/1978 tour in support of the 'CSN' album, they failed to get a follow up record together, but instead they spent time bouncing around and working on various solo projects, while reuniting once for a loose performance at 1979's No Nukes concert. By the dawning of 1980 Stills had put together his California Blues Band and Nash released his 'Earth And Sky' record to unreasonably tepid reviews, and so what was originally planned as a Crosby and Nash project became a solo effort when Crosby just couldn't get his shit together. The trio reunited briefly for a benefit at the Hollywood Bowl in June, where Crosby looked and sounded a bit rough for wear, and so shortly afterwards he convalesced in Los Angeles, while Stills and Nash embarked on a duo project in Hawaii. Tensions were high in the group and Crosby took his being left out of the Stills and Nash sessions personally, although the truth was that Crosby was just not dependable at this point in his life, and so Stills and Nash brought in Art Garfunkel and Timothy B. Schmidt to cover for his missing harmonies. 

Additionally, the reality was that the music industry seemed to be passing them all by, as no record label wanted to deal with CSN as solo artists, and getting the band together was not optimal or easy, so the only way for Crosby to keep going was to book studio time and try to put something together himself. In spring of 1980 he booked time at Rudy Records and Brittania Studios, and compiled a group of musician friends and collaborators including keyboardist Craig Doergre, bass player Lee Sklar, and guitarist Larry Carlton as his band. Crosby later said that making a solo record was one of the strangest experiences of his life. The sessions were successful enough that Crosby ended up recording five new songs, and he also retrieved 'Drive My Car' from the failed CSN sessions, and included an unreleased song he wrote with Jerry Garcia for his 1971 solo debut 'If I Could Only Remember My Name', called 'Kids And Dogs'. He also planned to include one of his earlier compositions 'Samurai', plus a live version of his unreleased song 'King Of The Mountain', which was played on dates during the 1976 Crosby/Nash tour. When the finished album was presented to his record company, Atlantic, it was roundly rejected for both musical and non-musical reasons, and it was consigned to their vaults.  the Crosby’s prospective album would languish in the vaults for perpetuity. Thankfully, four songs resurfaced for Crosby's 1989 post sobriety record 'Oh Yes I Can', on his new label, A&M Records. A bootleg rough mix of the entire proposed album, tentatively titled 'Might As Well Have A Good Time', has circulated for several years, and it was analysed in depth a couple of years ago by the 'Talk From The Rock Room' blog: 

'Melody' is beautifully self-aware song that shows Crosby at his most fallible, yet acutely aware of his frailties, and is one of the songs rescued for 'Oh Yes I Can'. The original 1980 version has a shady kinetic edge that may be because of the fidelity of the recording, whereas the 1989 re-recording contemporizes the song with current production, and has a clarity that rescues it from delaminating on a lost reel in a Los Angeles vault. 

'Drive My Car' is another song Crosby revisited for 'Oh Yes I Can', and it ended up opening the record. The original recording was for an ill-fated CSN session in late 1978 with the CSN touring band backing Crosby. The 1989 version is full throttle and spotlights large, gated drums and phased slide guitar by David Lindley. The track would become an in-concert favourite for Crosby.
'Delta' is a stunning and underrated song that Crosby composed stoned out of his mind on his schooner, the 'Mayan'. He later finished it on Warren Zevon’s piano with stern encouragement from Jackson Browne who told Crosby, "Finish it or I’ll break your arms". The song would eventually get the full Crosby, Stills and Nash treatment and end up with a place on 1982's 'Daylight Again'. 
'Kids & Dogs' is a legendary song from the vaults, recorded during the fruitful sessions for Crosby's first solo album, and featured Jerry Garcia and Crosby on acoustic guitars, ending up a playful musical love fest between two like-minded geniuses. 
'Flying Man' is another one of those strange wordless Crosby melodies that lie just below the surface of the breakers. The song was composed around the same time as another Crosby/Doerge collaboration, 'Shadow Captain', and the original version cut in 1980 has low fidelity but sounds like it transposed to the 1989 version seamlessly. The tune cruses just inches above the water with trademark Crosby changes and breeze through the hair keyboard washes.
'Might As Well Have A Good Time' was written by Craig Doegre and Judy Henske, and was planned to be the title track of the album. Doegre encouraged Crosby to cover the song originally, and its lyric of an old rocker standing on a jagged shoreline wondering whether to sink or swim fitted him perfectly. The sparse piano based number cut close to the bone and found a place on 1982's 'Daylight Again', outfitted with soaring Stills and Nash harmonies. 
'Distances' has a delicate descending guitar line, and begs for intimacy both mentally and physically. The re-recording a decade later stayed tight to this original arrangement, but the 'Oh Yes I Can' version has to be considered the definitive one, with both conversational and sweetly sung Crosby vocals. 
'King Of The Mountain' is a song he demoed and played in concert in 1974 but never released officially on a record, and so he wanted to include a live version on his 1980 record. The song is believed to be a commentary on his bandmate Stephen Stills, with Crosby's original demo sounding spectral, with only Crosby's voice and his 12-string guitar carrying the melody.
'Samurai' was a song that Crosby carried around for years just like his subject's sword. A solo performance was recorded on 26 May 1980, at Rudy Records, with only Crosby’s soulful vocals as the instrumentation. A disorienting multitracked version believed to be from the same session circulates in collector's circles, and can be found on a 1980's bootleg called 'Best Two Of Three', although Crosby and Nash would record the definitive version of the song almost 25 years later for their self-titled 2004 duo record, replete with stacked and orchestrated Crosby/Nash harmonies.
While Crosby's 1980 solo album never came to fruition, its musical riches were later dispersed across years of musical projects, and it's a shame that he never managed to consolidate these songs into the cohesive vision that he was unable to see clearly at the time. 

Track listing

01 Melody
02 Drive My Car
03 Delta
04 Kids & Dogs
05 Flying Man
06 Might As Well Have A Good Time
07 Distances
08 King Of The Mountain
09 Samurai

Neil Young - One Man Workin' (1988)

Following on from my two recent posts of imagined albums that Neil Young could have released just before 1989's return-to-rock 'Freedom' in 1989, after his dalliance with The Bluenotes as a backing band, Mike Solof pondered what 'This Note's For You' might have sounded like if it only had a rock band behind him. He's therefore done what I did to the live tracks that I used, and removed the horn section from the studio recordings for the album, leaving a less bluesy version of the songs. To be honest, I'd never bothered with 'This Note's For You' as I never fancied the concept, for much the same reason that I've never heard 'Everybody's Rockin'', as I like my Young in a hard rock format, so for me, listening to this is like having a brand new Neil Young rock album. Fans who already know 'This Note's For You' might find it stranger to listen to, as they'll be expecting the horns to come in now and then, and where there would otherwise have been a gap in the music I've brought the organ more to the fore, so I'm sure they'll be intrigued enough to give it at least one listen. Mike decided to call it 'One Man Workin'', as the other nine can now take the day off, so I made him a cover based on the 'Ten Men Workin'' single sleeve.  

Track listing   

01 Ten Men Workin'
02 This Note's For You
03 Coupe De Ville
04 Life In The City
05 Twilight
06 Married Man
07 Sunny Inside
08 Can't Believe Your Lyin'
09 Hey Hey
10 One Thing

Brian Appleton - The History Of Rock 'n' Roll (2002)

This won't mean much to people living outside of the UK, but the BBC have just announced that in a money-saving exercise they have decided to close Radio 4Extra. It mostly broadcasts archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes, and is the sister station of Radio 4, while it is also the principal broadcaster of the BBC's spoken-word archive. I must admit that I don't listen to it that much, but it was nice to know that it was there to dip into if I couldn't find any comedy to listen to on Radio 4, and as an example of the kind of programmes that you could find there, last week's schedule included episodes of 'The Goon Show' from 1954, 'Whacko!' with Jimmy Edwards, 'The Clitheroe Kid, and 'The Eric Morcambe and Ernie Wise Show' from the 1960's, 'The Inexplicable World of Lionel Nimrod' from 1992, which was an early outing from Stewart Lee and Richard Herring, and various panel shows and sitcoms from the 1980's. Tucked away in there was a programme that I fondly remembered from 2001, and this was 'Brian Appleton's History Of Rock 'n' Roll', which was a series of rock music lectures by the musicologist and part-time media studies tutor, Brian Appleton, written by and starring Graham Fellows. 

If you're really into your music-based comedy, then you'll recognise that name as being the person behind the hit single 'Jilted John' in 1978, and then latterly the character John Shuttleworth, who has had his own Radio 4 comedy show since 1992. In the late 1990's, with John Shuttleworth's popularity still growing, Fellows decided to create a new character; Birmingham-born multi-media lecturer and embittered rock performer, Brian Appleton. In preparation, he began studying rock 'n' roll history books, and soon saw the dramatic possibilities of weaving Brian's own fictional history into the true life stories of famous rock musicians. 'Brian Appleton's History Of Rock 'n' Roll' made its debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival of 1999, and over the next decade led to three more UK tours, two Radio 4 series and a Christmas special. Despite full houses and encouraging press reviews, however, comparisons were inevitably made between the life affirming, fully rounded character of John Shuttleworth and Brian Appleton's bitter demeanour and less developed persona, and so Brian Appleton never reached the dizzy heights Fellows had hoped for, and the sheer time and effort involved in researching his shows made him decide to bring the experiment to an end. Having listened to a couple of the episodes and really enjoyed them, I sought out the whole of the two series so that I can share them here for any other aficionados of Fellows' work, or just for fans of a well-made spoof musical documentary. 

Track listing

01 Eight Miles Low
02 Consider Yourself Dumped Upon
03 Come Up And See Me
04 Kajaboohoo
05 My Turn To Be Poorly
06 A Lot Of Knowledge
07 Christmas Single
08 From Cliff To Dale
09 Elvis Lives
10 Let's Look At Sound
11 Now Let's Listen To Light
12 King Steve
13 It's Not What You Know, It's The Who

Barbra Streisand - Life Cycle Of A Woman (2003)

For fans of Barbra Streisand the holy grail of unreleased albums is a project which began in 1973 but was never completed. Michel Legrand wrote the music and Alan and Marilyn Bergman contributed lyrics to a concept album tentatively titled 'Life Cycle Of A Woman', described by the composer as "an oratorio for one voice and a symphonic orchestra". They began writing it sometime in early 1970 and it took three years to get Streisand into the recording studio. The album was to cover a lifetime, with the first song dealing with birth, and the last with death. In between are songs about childhood, adolescence, a first love at age 16, marriage, and motherhood. Recording sessions took place at TTG Studios in Hollywood, California in April 1973, as Streisand was also laying down tracks for 'Classical Barbra' with Claus Ogerman. Michel Legrand conducted the day-long 'Life Cycle...' session, which also included two Legrand movie theme songs that the Bergmans had written lyrics for but were not part of the 'Life Cycle...' album. Those songs were 'Once You've Been In Love' from the film 'One Is A Lonely Number' and 'The Smile I've Never Smiled' from 'Portnoy’s Complaint'. Streisand tried something new at that 1973 recording session, standing in the middle of the studio surrounded by the orchestra, and she found it thrilling being enveloped by the music, as opposed to standing in an isolated vocal booth with the musicians playing on the other side of the glass. However, it did make the record very difficult to mix, as if the vocal needed to be raised or lowered, it raised or lowered all the music around it. Later, the Bergmans and Legrand reworked the ending on another song written for the 'Life Cycle Of A Woman' album, and Streisand recorded 'Wait' for her 1999 album 'A Love Like Ours'. At the time of the original recording sessions, Streisand wasn't of the opinion that Legrand and his lyricists had fully mapped out their concept, except for the basic 'womb to tomb' idea, and she didn't relate either musically or lyrically with the birth and death songs. 

As Legrand didn't want to change them, the idea lost momentum, and they all became involved in other projects. Ultimately, over the years, Streisand, the Bergmans and Legrand recorded only four songs for this project, and my original idea for this album was to start off with those songs and then add some more Streisand/Legrand recordings, for an album that would basically be 'Streisand Sings Legrand'. But as I was deciding which tracks to include, I realised that Legrand and the Bergman's writing style was very much based on life experiences, and some of their other songs could replace the missing ones from the 'Life Cycle...' album. I've therefore come up with a track listing which loosely follows the original concept, starting with the birth, then 'Mother And Child', followed by 'Can You Tell The Moment?', which would have been the third song on the album, then the questioning childhood years with 'Ask Yourself Why'. By the time she is a teenager she is looking for 'Something New In My Life', and she finds it after falling in love, and asking her lover 'What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life?'. Motherhood soon follows, but they later start to drift apart, and after trying to save the marriage with 'How Do You Keep The Music Playing?', her feelings are summed up in 'Once You've Been In Love'. As she reaches her twilight years she reflects on the summer and winter periods of her life, before 'Between Yesterday And Tomorrow' closes the original album. OK, some of the tracks don't stand up to scrutiny of the lyrics, but because the songs are all written by the same people, I think this hangs together very well as a reconstruction of the 'Life Cycle...' album, or as just a collection of Legrand/Bergman songs as sung by Streisand in her prime. 

Track listing

01 Birth (Intro)

02 Mother And Child
03 Can You Tell The Moment?
04 Ask Yourself Why
05 Pieces Of Dreams
06 Something New In My Life
07 Look
08 What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life?
09 Mother And Child Duo

10 How Do You Keep The Music Playing?
11 Once You've Been In Love
12 Wait
13 Summer Me, Winter Me
14 Between Yesterday And Tomorrow

15 Last Breath (Outro)

The Tubes - Suffer For Sound (1980)

The Tubes formed in March 1972 in San Francisco, and featured members from two Phoenix bands who had moved to San Francisco in 1969. One, The Beans (alternately billing themselves as the Radar Men from Uranus), included Bill Spooner, Rick Anderson, Vince Welnick, and Bob McIntosh. The other, the Red White and Blues Band, featured Prairie Prince, Roger Steen, and David Killingsworth. After performing at Expo '70 in Japan, Killingsworth left the Red, White and Blues Band, leaving Steen and Prince to audition new bass players, albeit unsuccessfully. Before moving to San Francisco the Beans had been a local favorite in Phoenix, selling out shows with a tongue-in-cheek concept rock show called "The Mother of Ascension" featuring costumes and props. The Beans' manager and former Alice Cooper Group drummer, John Speer, suggested they add Prince and Steen along with their roadie John Waybill to one of these shows. Waybill's nickname among the band was "Fee," short for "Fiji," thanks to his copious head of hippie hair. After securing the opening slot for Led Zeppelin at Kezar Stadium by winning a bet with Bill Graham that they could sell out three local shows, the band pulled out the stops, including Waybill dressed as an early version of "Quay Lewd" throwing "Cocaine" (flour) and "Pills" (candy) at the crowd, who threw it back. Graham threatened that the band would never play in San Francisco again. but calmed down and eventually fell in love with the band, booking them at Winterland and other California venues for New Year's shows and Halloween. 

After the 1973 Led Zeppelin show, Herbert wanted to manage the band, but Spooner and the group went with local management team Mort Moriarty and Gary Peterson, also known as "Bag O' Bucks", and after unsuccessfully pitching the group to Columbia Records, they managed to secure a deal with A&M Records. The Tubes' first album, the Al Kooper-produced 'The Tubes', was released in 1975, and included the track 'White Punks On Dope', which was an "absurd anthem of wretched excess" and ridiculed the Hollywood kids of the rich and famous. By late 1975 the had band created a stage show unlike any other, after hiring Kenny Ortega to direct and choreograph, and event support/video pioneer T.J. McHose to run a live video feed with films for each song. The show was critically acclaimed and broke them into show business in Los Angeles during sold-out runs at the Roxy Theater, David Allen's Boarding House and Bimbo's in San Francisco. The Tubes' second album, 'Young And Rich' came out in 1976 on A&M Records, and was produced by Ken Scott. It featured 'Don't Touch Me There', a suggestive duet between Waybill and Styles, which was arranged in classic "Wall of Sound" style by Jack Nitzsche. The band toured America with a new stage show, including new numbers 'Slipped My Disco', 'Madam, I'm Adam' and 'Pimp', and in 1977 they released their third album, 'Now', which was an attempt to write less satirical songs, with the band sharing song-writing duties with Bill Spooner. 

They played a small American tour of the west coast and a month-long run at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, featuring the band's most elaborate stage show to date. Their fourth outing was 1978's live album 'What Do You Want from Live', which was recorded during their record-breaking run at the Hammersmith Odeon, London. They followed this with a tour of America, and they played a sold-out run at The Pantages Theater in Hollywood, which attracted celebrities such as the cast of Laverne and Shirley, Cher, Kate Jackson, and Gene Simmons. The band went back to Europe to follow up this success, but it was canceled after Waybill fell off stage and broke his leg at a Leicester, England show. The band's fifth album, 1979's 'Remote Control', was a concept album produced by Todd Rundgren, about a television-addicted idiot-savant, inspired by the Jerzy Kosinski novel 'Being There', which was later made into a movie starring Peter Sellers. Much of the new music was rewritten by Rundgren and the band in the studio, and synth player and visual stylist Michael Cotten designed an innovative multimedia stage show for the 'Remote Control' tour, which employed multiple TV monitors and a 35 mm film projector, However, after a disastrous gig at UCLA's Royce Hall, which was beset by multiple technical problems, including poor visibility of the small TV screens, the show was scrapped and was replaced with a stripped-down tour in the U.S., Japan, and Europe, with Squeeze as the support act. 

The band's fifth studio album, the self-produced 'Suffer For Sound', was meant to complete the group's contract with A&M, but the recession had affected the music industry, and many other bands were cut from A&M at the end of the 1970's. The Tubes owed A&M a large amount of money, and after playing the new record for Jerry Moss, their manager Rikki Farr insulted Moss' taste in music to ensure that the band was let go and were able to sign with a new label. Tubes friend Matt Leach compiled the outtakes, b-sides, and oddities collection 'T.R.A.S.H. (Tubes Rarities And Smash Hits)' for a 1981 release on A&M, after which the band was signed to Capitol Records, toning down the X-rated sketches for the live shows, and redesigning itself as a leaner ensemble with a view to release more accessible hits. They worked with Bobby Colomby to find a new musical direction, and then met with possible producers, including Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, before deciding on David Foster. In 1981 they recorded 'The Completion Backward Principle' with him as their first album for Capitol, and so 'Suffer For Sound' was quietly forgotten. If you are interested to hear what the follow-up to 'Remote Control' would have sounded like then here is that very album. 

Track listing

01 Drivin' All Night
02 Dreams Come True
03 Dangerous
04 Don't Ask Me
05 Holy War
06 Rat Race
07 Train Of Pictures
08 Don't Slow Down
09 Suffer For Sound
10 Color Me Wild
11 Satellite

Guided By Voices - Pissing In The Canal (1984) **UPGRADE**

Many thanks to Guy for pointing me in the direction of the original demo of 'Quality Of Armor' that I was after, so the file is now updated to include the version which matches the lyric sheet, which I have also now included in the post. Just '6 Feet Down' to find now.  

Track listing

01 Angry Pillows (Gone Away)
02 Lockets of the Empress
03 The Quality Of Armor
04 Tell Me
05 Walls and Windows
06 Echoland
07 Before My Eyes
08 Together/Apart
09 Amnesia
10 A Kind Of Love
11 Try To Find You
12 Old Friend
13 I'd Choose You
14 Groundwork
15 Shake It Out