The Sisters Of Mercy - Eyes Of Caligula (2024)

I mentioned in my recent post of rarities from The Sisters Of Mercy that the band are still touring, and also writing new material, but Andrew Eldritch has cited both time constraints and lack of available material as reasons for the band not venturing into the studio to record some of their new songs. I guess I understand the lack of material excuse, as having trawled through their live sets of the last few years there are only about 13 new songs that are being played, but that does make up just enough music for an album, as proven by this post. I've taken twelve of their best live recordings and re-mastered them to sound like a studio album, so here is the first "new" album from The Sisters Of Mercy since 1990. 

Track listing

01 Don't Drive On Ice   
02 Summer
03 I Will Call You
04 We Are The Same, Susanne
05 Quantum Baby
06 Eyes Of Caligula
07 Romeo Down
08 But Genevieve
09 Black Sail
10 Here
11 When I'm On Fire
12 On The Beach

Simple Minds - The Early Years 1977-1978 (1998)

In 1977 friends Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill formed a band called Johnny And The Self Abusers in Glasgow, and after gigging around the city, their reputation reached London, and they attracted some record company attention, finally signing to the indie label Chiswick, run by ex-record store boss Ted Caroll. By now their line-up was Kerr on vocals , Burchill on guitar, John Milarky on vocals/saxophone , Tony Donald on bass, Alan McNeil on guitar and Brian McGee on drums. In November 1977, they released their debut single 'Saints And Sinners'/'Dead Vandals', but on the day it hit record shops, the group split up. Next Kerr and Burchill formed Simple Minds, with the band name taken from a lyric in the David Bowie song 'Jean Genie', and although they were seen as punks, they had a host of influences which included Bowie, The New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, Genesis, Eno and The Velvet Underground, and so they possessed a more experimental approach to music. On 17 January 1978 Simple Minds played their first ever gig at Satellite City, supporting reggae band Steel Pulse, and also on the bill was The Nu Sonics, who later became Orange Juice. On 11 & 12 May the band recorded their first demo at Ca Va Studios in St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, where they laid down six tracks. They hawked the demo around London's major labels, and support slots followed with Siouxsie And The Banshees, Generation X and The Pleasers, bringing more attention across Scotland. Within the group there were line-up changes, with Donald dropping out, and second guitarist Barnwell moved on after just four months, so with the band's nucleus now Kerr, Burchill and McGee they recruited Derek Forbes from punk band The Subs, and in April they added keyboards player Mick MacNeil. 

During their string of gigs at The Mars Bar, the group were watched by Bruce Findlay, who ran a chain of independent record stores called Bruces', and he had formed his own record label, Zoom, in 1977. Findlay was hooked by their dark, haunting songs and striking, almost glam image, and he became the group's driver, then manager, and after touting the band's demo around London, he found interest from Arista Records. After a gig at Pollock Halls in Glasgow, Simple Minds signed to Zoom Records, in a special licensing deal through Arista. In December 1978 the band went back into Ca Va Studios to lay down demos for what would evolve into their first album, and in the new year they began to make plans for their debut record. Impressed by his work with Magazine, the group approached John Leckie to see if the was interested in working with them, and after catching a show at Dundee University, Leckie agreed to produce the band. The early sessions produced a new song called 'Life In A Day', which quickly stood out and became the record's title track, and when the album was released in March 1979, it sold well, despite critical opinion in the music press being mixed. The title track was released as Simple Minds' first single and reached No. 62 in the UK singles chart, with the album reaching No. 30 in the UK Albums Chart, and in June 1979 'Chelsea Girl' was released as the second single, this time failing to reach the charts. In 1998 MindMood Records put together a compilation of demos from this period of the band's career, titled 'The Early Years 1977-1978', and comprising the Johnny And The Self Abusers recordings from Ca Va Studios in 1977, and Simple Minds first demos at the same studio in 1978. However, after only a week it was withdrawn from sale, as nobody could remember who financed the original recordings, and therefore who had ownership of the rights. Until that issue is resolved, this album will remain unreleased.  

Track listing

01 18-18
02 Tonight
03 Little Bitch
04 Pablo Picasso
05 Subway Sex
06 Lies
07 Wasteland
08 Act Of Love
09 European Son
10 Cocteau Twins
11 Chelsea Girl
12 Did You Ever?
13 Pleasantly Disturbed

Pet Shop Boys - A Man From The Future (2014)

During 2012 and 2013 Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys wrote songs with Andew Hodges about the life and legacy of Alan Turing. Hodges was Turing's biographer, and the original concept was for an electronic/orchestral piece that celebrated the life of the man who cracked the Enigma code, and it was given it's world premiere at the BBC Proms in 2014. Each of the eight parts focused on a different area of Turing's life, from his entry into Sherborne ('a moderately distinguished public school') and his close friendship with Christopher Morcom, his dreaming of the Universal Machine, and his sexual encounters with Arnold Murray, the pair's subsequent prosecution, and Turing's undergoing chemical castration. 'A Man From The Future' is not the first piece to combine music and narrative, but the Pet Shop Boys appear nonetheless to have created a new fusion genre of 80's synthpop and classical music, in which the 18 superb BBC Singers plus Tennant are treated sometimes as instruments, sometimes as narrators, and other times as singers in their own right. The music is impressive and impressionistic, swiftly adapting to fit the tone of the narrative, edited from Hodges's biography of Turing, which was expertly mastered by actress Juliet Stevenson, who acted as the narrator. The concert was a huge success, and possibly showed the Pet Shop Boys in a new light to a classical music audience. Now, 12 years later, the duo have decided to revise the piece to "give it more of an electronic emphasis", and Sven Helbig, the original orchestrator, suggested reworking his orchestrations in a more intimate arrangement for eight string players. The album features string arrangements composed by Helbig and performed by the Manchester Camerata Octet, while once again Juliet Stevenson provides spoken word narration adapted from Hodges' book 'Alan Turing: The Enigma'. Four of the eight songs additionally feature children from Manchester Grammar School choir, and the title track includes an excerpt from a 2009 statement made by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, acknowledging Turing's work and apologizing for the inhumane treatment he received, which is followed by the posthumous royal pardon granted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013. The album version of 'The Man From The Future' was released on 9 October 2026, and I'm sure it will be snapped up by fans of the band, but if you are curious to hear the original recording from the BBC Proms in 2014, then here it is for you to compare and contrast.  

Track listing

01 Natural Wonders Every Child Should Know
02 He Dreamed Of Machines
03 The Enigma
04 Other Ranks
05 The Memory And The Control
06 The Trial
07 Only In His Death
08 A Man From The Future

The Cyrkle - Penny Arcade (1968)

The Cyrkle was formed by guitarists and lead singers Don Dannemann and Tom Dawes (who also played bass guitar), and original drummer Jim Maiella, who all met while studying at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. With the addition of Earle Pickens on keyboards and Marty Fried on drums, they started out as a "frat rock" band called the Rhondells, but were later discovered and managed by Brian Epstein, who was best known as manager of the Beatles. Epstein found out about the band when his business partner, New York attorney Nathan Weiss, heard them in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Labor Day of 1965, and on his recommendation Epstein became their manager and renamed them, as a reference to the circular roundabout known as Centre Square, located in downtown Easton, and John Lennon provided the unique spelling of their new name. In mid-1966, they opened on 14 dates for the Beatles during their US tour, and in August they were one of the opening acts prior to the Beatles performing at Dodger Stadium. The band are best known for their 1966 song 'Red Rubber Ball', which went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, selling over one million copies, and being awarded a gold disc. The song was co-written by Paul Simon, with Bruce Woodley of the Seekers, and was released by Columbia Records. Later in 1966, the band had one more Top 20 hit, 'Turn-Down Day', which reached No. 16 in the pop charts. After the release of their debut album, 'Red Rubber Ball', they recorded a second album, 'Neon', in late 1966, and then they recorded the soundtrack to the film 'The Minx', although the film and its soundtrack were not released until 1969. 

Instead of recording a third album, they spent the rest of 1967 and 1968 releasing various singles on Columbia Records, while CBS re-released 'Red Rubber Ball' to cash in. The band disbanded in mid-1968, and both Dawes and Dannemann became professional jingle writers, with Dawes writing the "plop plop fizz fizz" jingle for Alka-Seltzer, and Dannemann wrote jingles for Continental Airlines and Swanson Foods. Dawes produced two albums for the band Foghat, 'Rock & Roll' in 1973 and 'Energized' in 1974, and he co-wrote the song 'Wild Cherry' on the latter. Marty Fried left the music business to attend law school, and Earle Pickens became a surgeon in Gainesville, Florida. In the spring of 2014, the keyboardist of The Cyrkle, Mike Losekamp, joined a Columbus, Ohio-based band called The Gas Pump Jockeys, a regionally popular classic rock act performing in the Ohio region and neighbouring states. Following positive audience reaction to the inclusion of the two Cyrkle singles in the set, Losekamp contacted Dannemann, and together with Pat McLoughlin, Mike Rousculp , Don White, Scott Langley, and later Mike Shoaf, they reformed The Cyrkle, and recorded and released the band's third album 'Revival', which was released on the Big Stir label in 2024. However, what fans really wanted to hear was a third album by the 60's incarnation of the group, and so here is all the music that they recorded after the 'Neon' album and before 'The Minx' soundtrack, to make the third album that they should have released in 1968. 

Track listing

01 Where Are You Going?
02 Red Chair Fade Away
03 Reading Her Paper
04 Penny Arcade
05 Turn Of The Century
06 Straighten Out My Messed Up Life
07 We Had A Good Thing Goin'
08 The Words
09 You Can't Go Home Again
10 Canaro
11 Friends
12 Downtown Blues
13 We Said Goodbye

Prince - The Second Coming (1981)

Following the release of the 'Controversy' album in 1981, Prince's next project was to be a film and accompanying live album, both called 'The Second Coming'. The album is believed to have been made up of tracks recorded during the 7 March 1982 show at the Met Center, Bloomington, and may have also included the studio version of the track 'The Second Coming', which was played over the PA as the introduction to all shows on the tour. The film part of the project was initially conceived as a professionally filmed concert movie, but it later evolved into a more ambitious "drama-documentary", combining live footage, backstage material and staged dramatic vignettes between songs. The title 'The Second Coming' carries a biblical connotation, and Prince had already explored this theme musically through the short, gospel-styled a cappella introduction used to open the Controversy Tour, but the film itself was not overtly religious, with its storyline remaining loosely defined throughout production. Prior to 'The Second Coming', Prince had already filmed some live performances for personal or internal use, with one or two cameras positioned near the stage, and with Morris Day sometimes acting as cameraman. However, unlike these earlier recordings, 'The Second Coming' was conceived from the outset as a professional production intended for commercial or public release. The project was directed by Chuck Statler, a Minneapolis-based music video pioneer known for his work with artists including Devo, The Cars and Elvis Costello, and according to Statler, the original intention was to create a filmed promotional vehicle for Prince, possibly for television or home video distribution. 

After reviewing the raw footage from the Met Center concert, Prince reportedly became enthusiastic about expanding the project beyond a standard concert movie, and began developing ideas for dramatic vignettes intended to connect the live performances, as well as including backstage scenes, audience interviews and staged sequences filmed after the end of the Controversy Tour. According to Statler, the dramatic filming sessions quickly became difficult and chaotic, with Prince repeatedly requesting scenes to be reshot without clearly communicating what he wanted, or how the material would ultimately fit together. Although portions of the concert footage had already been edited, the relationship between Prince and Statler reportedly deteriorated during production, and Prince ultimately decided that he no longer liked the material, and the project was abandoned before completion. Once that project was no longer on the cards, he started working on his next studio album, which would be released in 1982 as the double album '1999'. During 1981 Prince was still recording demos at his Kiowa Trail Home Studio in Chanhassen, and many of these songs were not used for the '1999' album, so as both the film and the live album versions of 'The Second Coming' were scrapped, here is a studio album that could have existed in 1981.

Track listing

01 The Second Coming
02 She's Just A Baby (Version 1)
03 Hard To Get
04 Strange Way Of Saying I Love U
05 Lisa
06 Tick, Tick, Bang
07 Gotta Stop Messin' Around
08 Broken
09 Kiss Me Quick
10 Rough
11 She's Just A Baby (Version 2)

Various Artists - In Another Time (2026)

It's a bit late, but I thought it was time for a review of the best TV from 2025 and the first half of 2026, and to compile an album of some of their best theme tunes. 'Slow Horses' was one of the biggest hits of the year, and in something of a scoop, it featured a theme song sung by Mick Jagger. The fourth series of 'The White Lotus' promised much, but was generally a disappointment, but it did remind me that I hadn't included the theme in previous volumes of the series. 'Professor T' was another hit series, based on a Belgian TV show of the same name, and featuring a lovely piano theme by Hannes De Maeyer. I really enjoyed 'Pluribus' which was a sci-fi TV show from 'Breaking Bad' creator Vince Gilligan, and Mark Gattis produced another great crime series with 'Bookish'. US medical drama 'Pitt' carried on a fine tradition of the genre which started with the classic 'ER', and it used the song 'Fail Forward' by Taji as its theme. The re-boot of the 1980's Jersey-based cop show 'Bergerac' was a bit of a surprise, but it was good that they kept the original theme tune, and left it to Adiescar Chase to update it for the new show. There were also a number of spin-off series from, and shows influenced by, fantasy and sci-fi, including 'A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms', 'The Wheel Of Time', 'House Of The Dragon', 'Dune: Prophecy' and 'Andor', and as they seem to out-number the crime series for this volume, I've gone for that theme for the cover.       

Track listing

01 Bookish (Sarah Warne)
02 Vortex (Kamasi Washington) [from 'Lazarus'] 
03 Fail Forward (Taji) [from 'Pitt']
04 Strange Game (Mick Jagger) [from 'Slow Horses'] 
05 Dark Matter (Jason Hill)
06 Professor T (Hannes De Maeyer)
07 The White Lotus (Cristobal Tapia de Veer)
08 The Last Of Us (Gustavo Santaolalla)
09 Your Friends & Neighbours (Hamilton Leithauser and Dominic Lewis)
10 A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms (Dan Romer)
11 American Gods (Brian Reitzell)
12 Dune: Prophecy (Volker Bertelmann)
13 Pluribus (Dave Porter)
14 Bergerac (George Fenton arr. Adiescar Chase)
15 His Dark Materials (Lorne Balfe)
16 Andor (Nicholas Britell)

17 Marble Hall Murders (Murray Gold)
18 The Wheel Of Time (Lorne Balfe)
19 The Rapture (Dominik Scherrer)

Pentangle - Anniversary (1992)

The Pentangle compilation album 'Anniversary' was released in 1992, and was intended to celebrate the British folk-jazz combo's milestone legacy. It came out on the German record label Hypertension Music, but was withdrawn almost immediately, and although neither the band nor the label have ever published an official press release detailing the removal, the withdrawal of 'Anniversary' is widely understood in collector communities to be due to licensing issues and unauthorized track clearances. Because the band members frequently performed in varied iterations and solo configurations throughout the late 1980's and early 1990's, unauthorized live packages frequently ran into sharp legal opposition from the artists or their primary publishing representation, forcing the CD to be pulled from store shelves almost instantly. Because of its abrupt withdrawal, the physical disc has become a rare collector's item sought out on secondary music marketplaces. As the album contains recordings from Pentangle itself, plus others from various combinations of Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Jacqui McShee, Danny Thompson and Peter Kirtley, as well as solo tracks from Jansch and Kirtley, this is in no way a "best of" the group, but is certainly a collection a rare recordings which any fan would love to hear.

Track listing

01 Play The Game (Pentangle)
02 Reynardine (Pentangle)
03 Dragonfly (Pentangle)
04 Share A Dream (Pentangle)
05 So Early In The Spring (Pentangle)
06 Can't Hide Love (Jansch)
07 Mother Earth (Pentangle)
08 Colour My Paintbook (Jansch, Kirtley)
09 Ever Yes, Ever No (Jansch)
10 Bonny Portmore (Jansch)
11 The Trees They Grow So High (Renbourn, McShee)
12 Willie O'Winsbury (Renbourn, McShee)
13 Sally Free And Easy (Jansch, McShee, Renbourn, Thompson)
14 Tell Me What Is True Love (Jansch, McShee, Renbourn, Thompson)
15 I've Got A Feeling (Jansch, McShee, Renbourn, Thompson)
16 Come Sing Me A Happy Song (Jansch, Kirtley, Thompson)
17 She Moved Through The Fair (Pentangle)
18 Straight Ahead (Pentangle)
19 I Won't Ask You Anymore (Peter Kirtley)

The live recordings on tracks 9 to 15 come from American folk musician Derroll Adam's 65th birthday party. 

Drake - One Night In Ibiza (2025)

On 16 July 2022, rapper Drake made an unannounced appearance in Ibiza, showing up onstage during Black Coffee’s gig at the Hï Ibiza nightclub. Black Coffee had been performing at Hï Ibiza weekly since mid-May, DJing in the club’s main theatre every Saturday as part of a residency spanning four and a half months, when Drake made a surprise drop-in at the gig, joining Black Coffee onstage when the latter spun the 'Honestly, Nevermind' track 'Massive'. Though he didn’t actually perform the track with Black Coffee, Drake could be seen vibing out to the song and partying with the Grammy-winning DJ. He had released 'Honestly, Nevermind' the previous June to an NME review that described it as "an unexpected elevation from the bland trap" of its predecessor, 'Certified Lover Boy', and with this news story as an inspiration, TheDrZhark and his mate Shug Lane have put together an album to celebrate that night in Ibiza, using Drake's vocals over their own music, in a similar vein to my previous post of Drake's 'Honestly, Nevermind 2' album. 

Track listing

01 Intro 
02 Greedy (feat. PARTYNEXTDOOR)
03 Shut It Down
04 Liability 
05 CN Tower (feat. PARTYNEXTDOOR)
06 Sound42 (Interlude) 
07 Bahamas Promises 
08 TSU 
09 Don't Matter To Me (feat. Michael Jackson) 
10 Sideways 
11 Polar Opposites 

George Harrison - Somewhere In England (1981)

George Harrison began recording 'Somewhere In England' in March 1980 and continued sporadically, finally delivering the album to Warner Bros. Records, the distributor of his Dark Horse record label, in late September that year. However, the executives at Warner Bros. rejected the album, feeling it was "too laid back" and not sufficiently commercial, and so Harrison agreed to rework the album, and to record new material. The original cover art, featuring his profile against a map of Great Britain, was also vetoed by Warner Bros., and so he also agreed to commission a new design for that as well. Returning to the project in November 1980, Harrison was joined in his FPSHOT studio in Henley-on-Thames by Ringo Starr, who arrived specifically to have Harrison produce some songs for him. They recorded two Harrison originals – 'Wrack My Brain' and 'All Those Years Ago' – plus a cover version of Paul Weston's 'You Belong to Me', for Starr's eighth studio album 'Can't Fight Lightning', which was later released as 'Stop And Smell The Roses'. The two other songs were completed, but 'All Those Years Ago' was left unfinished, with Starr later admitting that the key was too high for him to sing. On 8 December 1980, John Lennon was shot dead outside his apartment building, the Dakota, and after the shock and devastation of Lennon's murder, Harrison decided to utilise the unfinished recording of 'All Those Years Ago' as a tribute to him, and so he changed the lyrics of the song to reflect the Lennon tragedy. With Starr's pre-recorded drum track in place, Harrison invited Paul and Linda McCartney, and their Wings bandmate Denny Laine, to record backing vocals in early 1981. Along with 'All Those Years Ago', three more songs were added to the album: 'Blood From A Clone" (a criticism of the WB executives who had rejected his original album), 'Teardrops' and 'That Which I Have Lost'. To make room for the new songs, Harrison elected to drop four tracks from the original line-up: 'Tears Of The World', 'Sat Singing', 'Lay His Head' and 'Flying Hour'. 

A new cover was then shot in the Tate Gallery in London, and 'Somewhere In England' was resubmitted and accepted. 'All Those Years Ago' was released as the lead single in May 1981 to a strong response, reaching number 13 in the United Kingdom and number 2 in the United States. It was Harrison's biggest hit since 'Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)' in 1973, and the sales of 'Somewhere In England' benefited from the song's popularity. The album was released on 1 June in the US and 5 June in the UK, and it peaked at number 11 in the US, and at number 13 in the UK, giving Harrison his highest-charting album there since 1973. The record's chart run was relatively brief in America, however, and it became Harrison's first album since the Beatles' break-up not to reach gold status there, while the second single, 'Teardrops', peaked at only number 102 on Billboard's singles listings. Reviewing the album favourably in 1981, People magazine called it one of Harrison's best and highlighted the "moving" tribute to Lennon. Fans tend to agree that it is some of his best work, but those who have heard the rejected version have commented that this was the better record, with generally superior songs, and with the whole thing having a better flow. This was emphasised by the fact that in 2006, a survey was conducted on the GeorgeHarrison.com message boards to find the artist's 50 most popular songs. The results featured only one track from 'Somewhere In England', which was 'Life Itself', at number 29, whereas three of the four rejected songs made an appearance, with 'Flying Hour' at number 14, 'Lay His Head' at number 27, and 'Sat Singing' at number 41. If you want to hear the original album that Harrison submitted to his label, then here it is, including the original mixes of 'Unconsciousness Rules' and 'Lay His Head', an alternative mix of 'Tears Of The World', and housed in an updated version of the original sleeve design.

Track listing

01 Hong Kong Blues
02 Writing's On The Wall
03 Flying Hour
04 Lay His Head
05 Unconsciousness Rules
06 Sat Singing
07 Life Itself
08 Tears Of The World
09 Baltimore Oriole
10 Save The World

Patsy Cline - Faded Love (1963)

Patsy Cline was born Virginia Patterson Hensley om 8 September 1932 in Winchester, Virginia, and her first professional performances began in 1948 at local radio station WINC when she was 15. In the early 1950s', she began appearing in a local band led by performer Bill Peer, and various local appearances led to featured performances on Connie B. Gay's 'Town And Country' television broadcasts. She signed her first recording contract with the 4 Star label in 1954, and had minor success with her earliest 4 Star singles, including 'A Church, A Courtroom, Then Goodbye' in 1955 and 'I've Loved And Lost Again' the following year. In 1957, she made her first national television appearance on 'Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts', and after performing 'Walkin' After Midnight', the single became her first major hit on both the country and pop charts. Cline's further singles with 4 Star Records were unsuccessful, although she continued performing and recording, and in 1958 she relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, to further her career. Working with new manager Randy Hughes, she became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and then moved to Decca Records in 1960, where under the direction of producer Owen Bradley, her musical sound shifted, and she achieved consistent success. The 1961 single 'I Fall to Pieces' became her first to top the Billboard country chart, but she was then severely injured in an automobile accident, which caused her to spend a month in the hospital. After she recovered, her next single, 'Crazy', also became a major hit, and more successes followed, with 'She's Got You', 'When I Get Through With You', and 'So Wrong' all charting. She also toured and headlined shows with more frequency, and was on the cusp of major stardom when, during a flight from Kansas City back to Nashville, she was killed in the 1963 Camden PA-24 airplane crash, along with country musicians Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins, and the pilot Randy Hughes. 

Cline's next Decca album, 'Faded Love', was slated for release in late March 1963, but it was cancelled due to her untimely death on 5th March. The photo shoot for the cover had already been completed, and it was later used for 'The Patsy Cline Story', the well-known double album that became her first posthumous LP release on 10 June 1963. The selections recorded at her final sessions are generally thought to have taken up the bulk of the material for 'Faded Love', although interestingly, hardly any of the selections from these sessions were included on 'The Patsy Cline Story'. Instead they were released scattershot on later Decca & MCA compilations, and as posthumous 45 singles. There's speculation that the (then) half-penned Roger Miller tune 'Lock, Stock And Teardrops' was also to have been recorded upon Cline's return to Nashvhille for inclusion on the album, but obviously that never happened, and Miller later recorded the tune himself. Don Hecht, who was the co-writer of 'Walkin' After Midnight', had just bought a plane ticket to Nashville, at Cline's own request, to collaborate on original material together for another new album, possibly her follow-up to 'Faded Love'. During their final visit together, in a Las Vegas hotel room in December 1962, she expressed fondness for her 1957 recording of Hecht's 'Cry Not For Me', a song which actually made #59 on Cashbox. To this day the song has never seen inclusion on any of her chart compilations, likely because it sounds too "pop", and so she wanted to re-record it, alongside other Hecht compositions. There was also talk of her and her producer, Owen Bradley, having made plans to record an album of showtunes and jazz standards, and so 1963 would surely have been the most prolific and successful year for Cline yet, had she lived. As most of the sessions for the album had been completed before she left for Nashville, then we have a rough idea of what would have been included on the record, and with the addition of a few contemporary recordings, we can have a reasonable guess at what the album would have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Love Letters In The Sand
02 That's How A Heartache Begins
03 Does Your Heart Beat For Me
04 Crazy Arms
05 Blue Moon Of Kentucky
06 Faded Love
07 Someday (You'll Want Me To Want You)
08 Your Kinda Love
09 Back In Baby's Arms
10 Always
11 Leavin' On Your Mind
12 Sweet Dreams (Of You)

13 You Took Him Off My Hands

Thanks to keoki82 from the Steve Hoffman Music Forums for the background, and for the suggested track listing for this album. 

Frank Zappa - Hunchentoot! (1972)

December 1971 is still remembered as the bleakest month in Zappa history. On 4 December a crazed fan fired a flare gun during the band's performance at the Montreux Casino in Geneva, Switzerland, causing the venue's heating system to explode, and starting a fire that left several fans injured, the band's equipment destroyed, and the venue itself burned to the ground. The fire inspired Deep Purple's classic 'Smoke On The Water'. Six days later, on 10 December, Zappa and his band were playing a concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London, when disgruntled fan Trevor Charles Howell pushed Zappa off the stage, inflicting multiple injuries and ultimately leaving him in a wheelchair. The "Rainbow Theatre Incident" took place during the band's encore, as Zappa (in a nod to his British surroundings) launched into a cover of the Beatles' 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'. That slightly sarcastic performance seemed to spark the rage of Howell, a 24-year-old manual worker, who raced to the stage, pushing Zappa into the venue's concrete orchestra pit, much to the horror of the band and audience. "The band thought I was dead," Zappa later recalled in his 1989 autobiography 'The Real Frank Zappa Book'. "My head was over on my shoulder, and my neck was bent like it was broken. I had a gash in my chin, a hole in the back of my head, a broken rib, and a fractured leg. One arm was paralyzed." As Howell attempted to flee, he was caught by enraged audience members, who passed him off to Zappa's roadies, who may or may not have roughed him up a little, and meanwhile, rumours of Zappa's allegedly fatal accident spread like wildfire throughout the crowd. The vicious attack forced the band to cancel the remaining dates of their tour, leaving Zappa wheelchair-bound for nearly a year. While recovering from his injuries in the summer of 1972, Zappa wrote a musical science-fiction script for a two-act Broadway stage production. He designed the costumes, wrote stage instructions, and composed the musical score for 'Hunchentoot!', which would have required a 42-member cast. 

The main character in 'Hunchentoot!' is Drakma (Queen of Cosmic Greed), an alien that wants to invade Earth, and other characters were the title character, who was a giant spider, Durk (a shifty Earthling con-man of the future), six Forceling players, a 22-piece orchestra and a 10-voice chorus, and a narrator. Renowned author William Burroughs, of 'The Naked Lunch' fame, expressed interest in playing the narrator of the show should it reach Broadway, and Taj Mahal read for the giant spider. However, Zappa had no one in mind for the role of the evil space girl. "I've looked and looked and looked," he complained with a touch of mischievous irony, "And it's such a difficult part to sing - besides which it's a comedy role - that it's hard to find somebody with a voice that can actually do the notes and still do the comedy stuff too. Actually, the only person who could probably do it with ease would be Barbra Streisand, but she's busy and she's having her hair done and so forth." 'Hunchentoot!' was never staged, although near the end of his life Zappa did try to find a director to film it, and he approached Terry Gilliam and the crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000, but nothing came of it. Some of the music later appeared on his 1979 album 'Sleep Dirt' in instrumental form, although the tracks did originally have vocals provided by Thana Harris during preparations for the stage show. 'Overture' was re-titled as 'Regyptian Strut' on 'Sleep Dirt', and while the track 'The Human Mind Is The Ultimate Power' has not yet surfaced, 'The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution' from 'Sleep Dirt' has such a similar title that they must be connected, and so I've used that track for this reconstructed version of the soundtrack of the abandoned stage show. 'Think It Over' would later become 'The Grand Wazoo', and I've used an alternate recording of that, which together with the Harris-sung songs, and a live take of 'Cheepnis' from when Zappa returned to touring, is as close as we'll get to hearing this mysterious production.   

   
Track listing

01 Overture
02 Time Is Money
03 The Human Mind Is The Ultimate Power
04 Think It Over
05 Flambay
06 Spider Of Destiny
07 Think It Over (Reprise)
08 The Planet Of My Dreams
09 Cheepnis
10 Epilogue

King Sunny Ade & His African Beats - The Master Guitarist Vol. 7 (1972)

We're up to Volume 7 of the Master Guitarist series, and Sunny Ade has stuck with his new band The African Beats for this one. They will now remain with him for the majority of his career, and become synonymous with the guitarist, playing on all of his best known albums. There is just one more volume in this original series, before we're treated to a special Anniversary album the year following the release of Volume 8.  

Track listing

01  01 Afai Bawon Ja / Igba Tode / Won Sq Wipe A Kere / Asese Bere
02  02 Omo Wumi / Jarinatu Seriki / Memudu Alabi / Danfo

Neil Young - Ain't It The Truth (1988)

Following the recent post of Neil Young's possible rock album that could have been released between his Bluenotes phase and his return to form on 'Freedom', Mike S wondered if there could have been another record released around the same time, as Young was playing a lot of songs on the Bluenotes tour of 1987/1988 which he never recorded in the studio. One of these was the track 'Sixty To Zero', which did eventually appear on 'Freedom' in a rewritten form as 'Crime In The City (Sixty To Zero Part 1)', but even though that is a lengthy track, earlier versions of the song, when it was still called 'Sixty To Zero', were even longer, going on as long as 11 verses and 20 minutes. Young would play both acoustic and electric versions of the song in concert, though the final released version was heavily acoustic, and so the centrepiece of any album from 1988 would have to be a seventeen-minute, electric version of 'Sixty To Zero'. Also played on that tour were more of his old Squires tracks, including 'Ain't It The Truth', and 'High Heels', which I had to leave off 'Welcome To The Big Room' purely for reasons of space, as well as a call-back to his old Buffalo Springfield days with a rendition of 'On The Way Home'. 'Don't Take Your Love Away From Me' is a superb blues track, of the sort that Young doesn't do nearly enough of, and so in answer to Mike's question, yes there is enough good quality material for a follow-up to 'Welcome To The Big Room'. Here, therefore, is 'Ain't It The Truth', another "studio" rock album from 1988 in an alternate universe. 

Track listing

01 High Heels
02 Fool For Your Love
03 Don't Take Your Love Away From Me
04 Sixty To Zero
05 On The Way Home
06 Ain't It The Truth