Back in April 2018 I posted an album that I'd reconstructed after reading an article about the proposed psychedelic debut album that was being prepared for release by Elton John in 1968. The album was mixed and sequenced, and cut to an acetate, but then it was shelved, and the following year 'Empty Sky' became his official debut release. For my original post I managed to track down 10 of the 12 songs, but two of them eluded me and so I replaced them with contemporaneous recordings from the same time-frame. The big news now is that Elton has issued the retrospective box set 'Jewel', which includes 60 previously unreleased songs, including those two that I couldn't find in 2018. It's also come to light that the album was to have been named after one of the tracks, 'Regimental Sgt. Zippo', so I've completely updated the post so that it now includes all 12 songs which were originally intended for it, it has the correct title, and I've given it some new, suitably psychedelic artwork. I'll leave the old post up, as it does include three extra tracks that are no longer on this one.
Track listing
01 When I Was Tealby Abbey
02 And The Clocks Go Round
03 Sitting Doing Nothing
04 Turn To Me
05 The Angel Tree
06 Regimental Sgt. Zippo
07 A Dandelion Dies In The Wind
08 You'll Be Sorry To See Me Go
09 You're My Woman
10 Tartan Coloured Lady
10 Tartan Coloured Lady
11 Hour Glass
12 Watching The Planes Go By
I see that Paul over at albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.co.uk has just beat me to this by taking all the demos from the 'Jewel' box set and adding in the missing tracks from bootlegs, but I was quite surprised to hear that a lot of the tracks from 'Jewel' are only piano demos, with just a couple of songs being the full band versions. I've therefore mostly kept the versions from my original post, and cleaned them up to match the missing songs from 'Jewel'. Despite the 'Jewel' version of the title track being a band version, I have kept my original post of that, as it is actually a different mix, with some suitably psychedelic effects added to it.
Thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteWonderful, thank you!
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned, I posted a different version on my blog, which you can find here:
ReplyDeletehttps://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/11/elton-john-regimental-sgt-zippo-1968.html
I'm glad you posted this, since you take a different approach with the song versions you included.
The weirdest thing is that when I first saw that 'Jewel' was coming out, I found a track-listing online which said that piano and full band demos of all 12 tracks were to be included, and then when it arrived a lot of the band versions were missing. This is still online, https://ultimateclassicrock.com/elton-john-jewel-box/saying that '71/75 New Oxford Street' is on CD4, which I really wanted to hear in good quality, but where is it?
DeleteYeah, it seems a bunch of songs were on initial song track lists, but got left off at the last minute. It's not just that one, it's a whole bunch. Hopefully they'll come out in some other way, like as bonus tracks or something.
DeleteAlong those lines, the 50th Anniversary of the "Elton John" album came out a couple of months ago, and it has one previously unreleased demo on it: "Bad Side of the Moon."
'Bad Side Of The Moon' must have been around somewhere before appearing on that re-issue as I included it on my 'Young Man's Blues' b-sides compilation in August 2019, although I can't remember where I found it.
DeleteLooks like I was wrong about the missing bonus tracks. I haven't actually laid my hands on the physical product yet, I've just been going from what I've seen online. But turns out the early versions that are floating around the Internet are missing some tracks, but they actually are part of the box set. I'm listening to "Oxford Street" right now, and it sounds great. :)
DeleteFYI, here are all the missing tracks. I want to reiterate that all of these ARE on the box set, but some initial copies floating on the Internet didn't have these.
DeleteCD3:
3. SCARECROW – Piano/Tambourine Demo
20. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR LOVING – Band Version
CD4:
1. HOURGLASS – Arranged Band Version
2. 71-75 NEW OXFORD STREET – Band Demo
4. REMINDS ME OF YOU – Piano Demo
16. TWO OF A KIND – Arranged Band Version
17. THE GIRL ON ANGEL PAVEMENT Arranged Band Version
18. SMOKESTACK CHILDREN – Arranged Band Version
19. BABY I MISS YOU – Band Demo
CD5:
3. BREAKDOWN BLUES – Bread And Beer Band
7. THE FLOWERS WILL NEVER DIE – Piano Demo
10. ONE TIME, SOMETIME OR NEVER – Band Demo
11. SLOW FADE TO BLUE – Piano/Guitar Demo
18. HOLIDAY INN – Piano Demo
CD6:
2. CONQUER THE SUN
10. J’VEUX D’LA TENDRESSE
16. WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD TIMES GONE? Alternate Mix
18. CHOC ICE GOES MENTAL
CD7:
8. BIG MAN IN A LITTLE SUIT
12. SO SAD THE RENEGADE
14. KEEP IT A MYSTERY
This holds up very, very well as an album and has some tracks that deserve regular airplay: Turn To Me and Watching The Planes Go By are of a high standard indeed and very enjoyable. Clever old bugger that Reg Dwight!
ReplyDeleteWow !.....what a great album...many thanks for this ...hope you are keeping well pj ....best wishes ....Stu
ReplyDelete