Bruce Springsteen - Electric Nebraska (1982)

Over the course of a few weeks in early 1982 Bruce Springsteen recorded demos for his new album at his home with a 4-track cassette recorder, using only acoustic guitar, electric guitar (on 'Open All Night'), harmonica, mandolin, glockenspiel, tambourine, organ, synthesizer (on 'My Father's House') and voice. Once the demos were complete, he brought the songs to sessions at the Power Station studios in late April 1982, and he attempted to record full-band arrangements of the songs with the E Street Band. However, it soon became apparent to him that a majority of these songs did not lend themselves well to these full-band arrangements, and he later said "I went into the studio, brought in the band, rerecorded, remixed, and succeeded in making the whole thing worse". Only Springsteen and Jon Landau had any decision-making power in this process, and they both felt that certain songs were too personal, and the raw, haunting folk essence present on the home tapes could not be duplicated or equaled in the band treatments. Once this decision had been made, Springsteen asked Toby Scott if it was possible to make the sound quality good enough to release some of the songs as a solo album. It took Scott a few weeks to get back to him with a definitive answer, and if that answer had been "no" then there is unlikely to have ever been a 'Nebraska' album. Eventually, Scott confirmed that he would be able to use the recordings, and so by late May it had been decided to issue the album in its acoustic form. Despite Scott's confirmation that the tape was usable, the task to produce the album was not an easy one, as some of the equipment needed was somewhat the worse for wear, and it wasn't helped by the fact that Springsteen had carried the only tape copy around in his jacket pocket for three months. Springsteen fans have long speculated whether the full-band recordings of the Nebraska session tracks that took place in the last week of April 1982 will ever surface, but bearing in mind that Springsteen didn't think they brought anything new to the songs, and in his opinion 'the right version of 'Nebraska' came out', then it's unlikely that they will ever now see the light of day. However, an enterprising fan has put together the next best thing, and has taken band recordings of all the songs from 'Nebraska' and sequencing them into the same order as the record, in effect making an electric version of the album. Considering that the recordings come from a number of different sources, they run together very well, although I felt that the take of 'My Father's Place' was a bit tinny, so I've replaced that with an alternate recording, and 'Reason To Believe' ended rather suddenly so I've grafted on some applause to fade it out. That just left a bit of trimming and cross-fading so that it sounds like one complete concert, and as this is probably the nearest that we'll ever get to hearing an electric 'Nebraska', enjoy an alternate version of one of Springsteen's most highly-regarded albums.   

Track listing

01 Nebraska (1984-08-06 East Rutherford, NJ)

02 Atlantic City (1984-08-06 East Rutherford, NJ)

03 Mansion On The Hill (2000-07-01 Madison Square Garden,NY)

04 Johnny 99 (2009-05-04 Uniondale,NY)

05 Highway Patrolman (1984-08-20 East Rutherford, NJ)

06 State Trooper (1984-10-21 Coliseum, Oakland, CA)

07 Used Cars (1984-08-06 East Rutherford, NJ)

08 Open All Night (1992-07-25 East Rutherford, NJ)

09 My Father's House (1984-10-31 Sport Arena, Los Angeles, CA)

10 Reason To Believe (2007-11-19 Boston, MA) 

Phil Manzanera - ...and on guitar (1992)

IT'S BACK!

Phillip Geoffrey Targett-Adams, a.k.a. Phil Manzanera, was born on 31 January 1951 in London to a Colombian mother (nee Manzanera) and an English father, who worked for BOAC. He spent most of his childhood in different parts of the Americas, including Hawaii, Venezuela, Colombia, and Cuba, and it was in Havana that the six-year old Manzanera encountered his first guitar, a Spanish guitar owned by his mother. His earliest musical accomplishments were Cuban folk songs inspired by the Cuban Revolution, but by the age of eight he started experimenting with the sounds of the electric guitar, and during his teenage years he was absorbing the twin influences of 1960's rock and roll and Latin American rhythms. In his late teens he formed a series of school bands with his friends Bill MacCormick, later a member of Matching Mole and Random Hold, MacCormick's brother Ian (better known as music writer Ian MacDonald) and drummer Charles Hayward, later of This Heat and Camberwell Now. The final incarnation of one of Manzanera's College bands was a psychedelic outfit dubbed Pooh & The Ostrich Feathers, who later evolved into the progressive rock quartet Quiet Sun, with the addition of keyboard player Dave Jarrett. They wrote a number of original songs and instrumental pieces, none of which were recorded until years later, and the band broke up when McCormick joined Matching Mole. 

During the making of his first solo album 'Diamond Head' in 1975, Manzanera briefly revived the group in order to record a full album of their original music, with 'Mainstream' being released later that year. Manzanera was determined to join a professional band, and in October 1971 he was one of about twenty players who auditioned as lead guitarist for the recently formed art rock band Roxy Music. He displayed a wide-ranging interest in music, influenced by his childhood sojourns in Latin America, and in 1972 he was invited to join Roxy Music, alongside Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Paul Thompson, Andy Mackay, and Graham Simpson. Roxy Music's rise was meteoric, with the band being hailed as a major stylistic influence of the early 1970's, and during the next 12 years they released a series of internationally best-selling albums. In parallel with Roxy Music, Manzanera has always pursued solo projects, both recording his own albums and producing for others, with his first major credit as producer being for the New Zealand group Split Enz in 1976, with their second LP 'Second Thoughts'. He also played guitar on three tracks on the first Brian Eno album 'Here Come the Warm Jets', as well as working with many of the luminaries of modern music, such as Steve Winwood, David Gilmour, John Cale, Godley & Creme, Nico and John Wetton, and he co-wrote songs with some of them, including Pink Floyd's single 'One Slip' from their 1987 'A Momentary Lapse Of Reason' album. 

In 1976 he assembled a band christened 801, and their 1976 London show was recorded for a live album, featuring contributions from Manzanera on guitar, Eno on vocals, synth and treatments, Quiet Sun bassist Bill MacCormick, Curved Air keyboardist Francis Monkman, 19-year-old drumming prodigy Simon Phillips, and slide guitarist Lloyd Watson, who had previously performed as a solo support act for Roxy Music. The success of the live album led to the creation of a more permanent incarnation of 801, without Lloyd Watson, while Manzanera's old schoolmate Simon Ainley took over from Eno as lead vocalist, but after recording the follow-up album 'Listen Now' and a short UK tour, they disbanded. In 1982 Ian Little, better known for his production of Duran Duran's third album '7 & The Ragged Tiger', started putting together his own album, and co-opted his old gaffer at Manzanera's Gallery Studio so contribute guitar to the tracks. From the mid-80's Manzanera added his guitar expertise to a number of albums by French artists, including Alain Bashung, Éric Charden and Carla Bissi, recording as Alice, and was also asked to gift a solo piece to the 'Guitar Speak' series of compilation albums, so enjoy this collection of some of his best collaborations with some well-known and some not so well-known artists from the first 20 years of his career. 

Track listing

01 You Won't See Me (from 'These Foolish Things' by Bryan Ferry 1973)
02 Cindy Tells Me (from 'Here Come The Warm Jets' by Eno 1974)
03 Momamma Scuba (from 'Fear' by John Cale 1974)
04 The End (from 'The End...' by Nico 1974)
05 The Inexorable Sequence (from 'Resolving Contradictions' by Andy Mackay 1978)
06 Clues (from 'Freeze Frame' by Godley & Creme 1979)
07 Caught In The Crossfire (from 'Caught In The Crossfire' by John Wetton 1980)
08 Extra-Ordinary (from 'Neuromantic' by Yukihiro Takahashi 1981)
09 Balance (from 'Gates' by New Asia 1982)
10 Breath Of Life (from 'Explorers' by The Explorers 1985)
11 Citta Chiusa (from 'Park Hotel' by Alice 1986)
12 Sphinx (from 'Guitar Speak' by Various Artists 1988)
13 Legere Eclaircie (from 'Novice' by Alain Bashung 1989)
14 Spellbound (from 'Abracadabra' by ABC 1991)
15 L'Amour Sourdine (from 'Je rocke ma vie' by Éric Charden 1992)

For MAC users

Press command+shift+period (to show hidden files) and a grayed out folder '...and on guitar" will appear and the mp3s will be inside. Either drag those to another folder OR rename the folder without any periods at the beginning. Press command+shift+period to once again hide the hidden files.

Aztec Camera - Green Jacket Grey (1981)

Following their appearance of the 'Urban Development' cassette compilation in 1980, playing their Cure/Joy Division-inspired post-punk, Aztec Camera signed to Postcard records and released 'Just Like Gold' in March 1981, followed by 'Mattress Of Wire' a few months later, and the next step for the band was to be their debut album for Postcard, titled 'Green Jacket Grey'. Before that could happen, however, the band left Postcard, signed to Rough Trade and started work on a 'new' debut album that would eventually become 'High Land, Hard Rain'. There were rumours that studio sessions had taken place and demos had been recorded for 'Green Jacket Grey', and eventually a poor quality tape of these sessions surfaced, but as would be expected from a 30-year old bootleg, they were hardly cutting edge quality-wise. However, someone has gone to great lengths to restore them to a position of being probably as good as they will ever sound, and so we can piece together what 'Green Jacket Grey might have sounded like. 'Remember The Docks' and 'Another Room' were briefly part of the band's early live set, but were soon dropped, while 'Orchid Girl' was rumoured to have been written about Una Baines of the Blue Orchids, and was eventually re-recorded and released as the b-side to 'Oblivious' in 1983. The title track of the album was originally intended to be the band's first single back in 1981, backed with one of their Cure/Joy Division rockers 'Real Tears', but in the end they went with 'Just Like Gold' for the debut 7". 'Release' goes back to Roddy Frame's pre Aztec Camera days, featuring in the sets of his first band Neutral Blue, and it was re-recorded for their actual debut album 'High Land, Hard Rain' in 1983. 'Pillar To Post' was the first song that Aztec Camera re-recorded following their move from Postcard to Rough Trade, and I've tried to clean up the first 60 seconds which were a bit muffled before the sound cleared during the first chorus, while 'Nothing In The Sky' had real issues, as the song was split into two parts with a big gap in between, presumably because the original tape ran out and, instead of recording the whole song again when it was flipped over, they decided to just carry on recording! An attempt had been made to repair this by editing in a 1981 performance of the song from Manchester, but I didn't feel it was totally successful, so I've patched in the first verse again and then tagged on the original ending. If you want to hear the original demo then it is up on Soundcloud. The band also recorded a demo of what was then called 'Send Letters', so by adding that and the rejected first single b-side we have what could have been Aztec Camera's debut album had they not left Postcard during the sessions. I've housed it in a cover featuring a painting by David Band, who did a lot of their artwork later in their career, so enjoy these early recordings by a much missed band. 

Track listing

01 Remember The Docks
02 Orchid Girl
03 Another Room
04 Green Jacket Grey
05 Release
06 The Spirit Grows
07 Real Tears
08 Pillar To Post
09 Nothing In The Sky
10 Send Letters

Frank Zappa - Crush All Boxes (1980)

In 1980 Frank Zappa started recording songs for a new album, which was to be titled 'Fred Zeplinnn', but shortly after it was completed Led Zeppelin's drummer John Bonham suddenly passed away, so the pun didn't seem that funny anymore, and at the last minute Zappa decided to change the title of the record to 'Crush All Boxes'. This refers to a long-time feud between him and his former record company Warner Bros., who were still trying to cash in on their long-terminated contract by releasing a couple of box sets of compilations of older material, which Zappa totally disagreed with. On 11 October 1980, Zappa rather naively took the completed album with him to KUNM Radio in Albuquerque and played the whole thing on air while being interviewed by the resident DJ. Not surprisingly, enterprising fans taped the radio shows and almost immediately bootleg copies of the album stated to appear, leading to Zappa cancelling its official release. The songs later appeared on 'Tinsel Town Rebellion' and 'You Are What You Is', but in different mixes, with the original versions having a noticeable clarity of the voices and instruments, while 'Easy Meat' has a completely different guitar solo, and you can actually hear the trumpet overdubs that Bob Harris played during the solo and at the end of the song. The artwork had already been commissioned from Cal Schenkel, so when 'Crush All Boxes ' was cancelled, he just used the original artwork for 'Tinseltown Rebellion' and over-painted the title, but you can actually still see some of the original writing underneath. There are currently two different bootlegs of this album doing the rounds, one which was taped from the radio broadcast and one taken from the original acetate, which runs noticeably slower on some of the songs. The albumsforgottenreconstructed site posted this album a few months ago, and by comparing the lengths of the songs I'd say that that version was taken from the radio broadcast, so I don't feel too bad about posting this version taken directly from the test pressing acetate, and you can pick which one you prefer. 

Track listing

01 Doreen
02 Fine Girl
03 Easy Meat
04 Goblin Girl
05 Society Pages
06 I'm A Beautiful Guy
07 Beauty Knows No Pain
08 Charlie's Enormous Mouth
09 Any Downers
10 Conehead

Keane - Tyderian (2008)

'Under The Iron Sea' had a worldwide release in June 2006 and was at number 1 in the UK Albums Chart for the first two weeks of its release. Before the album appeared, Keane had started their second world tour, but as a result of the extensive touring, Chaplin announced he had admitted himself to a clinic for drinking and drug problems, resulting in the cancellation of three gigs, and postponement of their September leg of the tour. Chaplin left the Priory Clinic on 6 October, but continued to receive treatment, and the tour was restarted, for the first time travelling to Argentina, Chile and Brazil. A couple of years after it was released, 'Under The Iron Sea' was voted the 8th best British album of all time by a poll conducted by Q Magazine and HMV, and because Keane had become such a massive band in a relatively short time, and also because of their penchant for adding rare songs to their singles, bootlegs started to appear online, one of the very best of which was 'The Theft Of Octo', which not only gathered up some rare songs, but also managed to find two that had not previously appeared anywhere else, and housed it all in a sleeve which complemented some of their early singles. The title track was actually just a backwards version of 'Iron Sea' from the album, but 'Maps' really was an unheard rarity. In 2007 the band released another stand-alone single 'The Night Sky' in aid of the War Child charity, with this song not appearing on any of their albums. The band's third album 'Perfect Symmetry' was released in 2008, and with Jesse Quin now a  permanent studio and live member, playing bass, percussion, guitar, synths and backing vocals, the more 'organic' approach that Chaplin and Hughes had spoken about could be heard in their music, with guitars more prominent that on any of their previous records. Once again it was voted Best Album Of The Year by the readers of Q Magazine, and they commenced a world tour to promote it in November 2008. On 10 May 2010, they released the 'Night Train' EP, which became their fourth number 1 in the UK, made up of songs recorded during the 'Perfect Symmetry' world tour, and at first it was called it a mini-album, then it changed to an EP, but in an interview, Tim Rice-Oxley said that 'Night Train' is "pretty much an album". Because of this I haven't included anything from 'Night Train' itself, but we do have those two exclusive tracks from 'The Theft Of Octo', both sides of 'The Night Sky' charity record, and some b-sides of singles from 'Under The Iron Sea' and 'Perfect Symmetry'. 

Track listing

01 He Used To Be A Lovely Boy (b-side of 'Is It Any Wonder?' 2006)

02 Let It Slide (b-side of 'Is It Any Wonder?' 2006)

03 Maybe I Can Change (b-side of 'Crystal Ball' 2006)

04 Thin Air (b-side of 'Nothing In My Way' 2006)

05 The Theft Of Octo (backwards version of 'Iron Sea' 2006) 

06 Tyderian (b-side of 'Nothing In My Way' 2006)

07 She Sells Sanctaury (b-side of 'A Bad Dream' 2007)

08 The Night Sky (single 2007)

09 Under Pressure (b-side of 'The Night Sky')

10 Time To Go (b-side of 'The Lovers Are Losing' 2008)

11 Staring At The Ceiling (b-side of 'Perfect Symmetry' 2008)

12 Maps (hidden track from 'The Theft Of Octo' compilation 2007)

Various Artists - Beck's Song Reader (2013)

In 2012 Beck Hansen released one of the most unusual modern albums - an illustrated collection of sheet music entitled 'Song Reader'. He'd been working on the idea since 2004, and when the artifact was released none of the twenty songs could be heard by anyone unless they could read music and play an instrument. Complete with full-colour art for each song and a lavishly produced hardcover carrying case, 'Song Reader' was an experiment in what an album could be at the end of 2012. The idea behind the release was that Beck hoped that enterprising musicians would record their own versions, and scores of them have done just that, uploading them to Youtube and Soundcloud, as well as to Beck's Song Reader website. In July 2014 the 'Warby Parker Presents Beck Song Reader' album was released, which featured studio recordings of the twenty tunes as interpreted by Jack White, Jack Black, Jeff Tweedy, Fun., Norah Jones, David Johansen and many more, as well as one song being performed by Beck himself. This followed a live concert the previous year at the Barbican Centre in London, which involved a huge cast of more than forty players, including Jarvis Cocker, Franz Ferdinand and Beth Orton, and the handsomely realised performances were regarded as a great success. Beck has performed a few of the songs himself over the years, and these have been collected together, alongside a few other live performances, by Paul over at albumsthatshouldexist in an attempt to construct a 'Song Reader' album by Beck that you could actually listen to, although he could only locate ten of the songs for his project. I've gone down a different route for this post, which is in line with Beck's original vision for the release, and I've trawled Youtube and Soundcloud to find what I think are the best rock versions of the songs. There are a few bands who have taken the project very seriously, with The Song Preservation Society, Jason Crosby and The Jehnny Dopps covering at least five or six of the songs, and The Portland Cello Project have recorded a whole album, while other Youtubers have picked just one song and made an outstanding job of it. I've tried to pick bands and artists that have performed the songs in a similar style, so that the album flows as if it's done by one band, and I'm sure that fans of Beck will appreciate the loving care that these artists have taken with his songs. I've also included a folder of the full-colour art which accompanied each piece of sheet music.  

Track listing

01 Don't Act Like Your Heart Isn't Hard (Song Preservation Society) 
02 I'm Down (Jerry Borge)
03 Saint Dude (Kurt Anderson & Studio 360)    
04 Do We? We Do (Benedikt Band) 
05 Eyes That Say I Love You (Milktooth)       
06 Now That Your Dollar Bills Have Sprouted Wings (Bigmedicinefilms) 
07 Please Leave A Light On When You Go (Song Preservation Society)
08 Sorry (Song Preservation Society)
09 Old Shanghai (Zoo Pilot)   
10 Rough On Rats (Jason Crosby And Friends)
11 Just Noise (Song Preservation Society)
12 We All Wear Cloaks (The Jehnny Dopps)   
13 Mutilation Rag (Jason Crosby)
14 Heaven's Ladder (Jason Crosby And Friends)  
15 Why Did You Make Me Care? (Jason Crosby And Friends)   
16 America, Here's My Boy (Paul Lambeek)
17 The Wolf Is On The Hill (Song Preservation Society) 
18 Title Of This Song (The Jehnny Dopps)  
19 The Last Polka (Discombobulator)
20 Last Night You Were A Dream (The School Of Rock)  

Bryan Ferry - Alphaville (1995)

 In 1995 Bryan Ferry went into the studio with Eurythmics Dave Stewart to record some songs for his next album. The sessions went well enough to tape twelve songs, but for whatever reason Ferry didn't feel happy enough with them to release them, and so the album was shelved. Instead, like the last time that sessions were abandoned, Ferry released his covers album 'As Time Goes By', although that didn't actually come out until 1999. It wasn't until 2002 that his next record of original material emerged, with 'Frantic' including re-arranged and re-recorded versions of 'Cruel', 'Nobody Loves Me', 'San Simeon' and 'Fool For Love'. Another long gap followed before 'Olympia' appeared in 2010, and once again the 'Alphaville' sessions were raided to provide alternate versions of 'You Can Dance' and the title track, and so as about half the songs have now appeared on his records it's unlikely that this album will ever see the light of day. As Ferry employed the services of Kate Moss for the covers of the 'Olympia' album and singles, I've kept that theme for the sleeve of this one. 

Track listing

01 Love War
02 Cruel
03 Alphaville
04 Nobody Loves Me
05 I Don't Want To
06 Sonnet #18
07 You Can Dance
08 One Way Love
09 Hiroshima
10 This Love
11 San Simeon
12 Fool For Love 

Aztec Camera - Aztec Gold (1990)

Aztec Camera was formed in 1980 by Roddy Frame, then just 16 years old and living in East Kilbride in Scotland, and the initial lineup of the band consisted of Frame on guitar and vocals, Campbell Owens on bass, and Dave Mulholland on drums. They made their recorded debut on 1980's 'Urban Development', a compilation cassette of local unsigned bands released by Pungent Records in association with Glasgow-based Fumes Magazine. In March 1981 the group released a single through the respected Scottish indie label Postcard Records, and 'Just Like Gold'/'We Could Send Letters' rose to number ten on the U.K. Independent charts, leading to British music journal New Musical Express giving Aztec Camera their seal of approval by licensing an alternate acoustic version of 'We Could Send Letters' for their 'C81' cassette compilation curated and released by the magazine. After releasing 'Mattress Of Wire'/'Lost Outside The Tunnel' on Postcard, they signed with Rough Trade Records in 1982, and released the single 'Pillar To Post'/'Queen's Tattoos', following which Dave Mulholland left the band, with John Hendry taking over as drummer. In 1983 the band released their debut album 'High Land, Hard Rain', which earned rave reviews (with many citing the fact Frame was just 18 when he wrote most of the songs) and respectable sales, especially in England. The band expanded their lineup by adding guitarist Craig Gannon and keyboardist Bernie Clark to the fold, and riding high on the success of their first long-player, they enlisted the services of Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits to produce their second. 

1984's 'Knife' was slicker and more ambitious, and I felt that it didn't have the rugged charm of their debut, and Frame was also becoming disenchanted with his band-mates, so by the time he went on tour in support of the 'Knife' album, Campbell Owens was the only other original member of the group, although it would in fact prove to be his last tour with Aztec Camera. After a stopgap EP of live tracks and B-sides was issued in the United States in 1985, their third album, the R&B-influenced 'Love', appeared in 1987. Though it was issued under the group's name, Frame recorded the material with a handful of session musicians, and from that point on, Aztec Camera would not have a consistent lineup on-stage or in the studio, with Frame assembling a different set of players for each project. 'Love' proved to be a commercial success in the U.K., rising to number 10 on the album charts, but it barely made the Top 200 in the United States, and the next two Aztec Camera albums, 1990's eclectic 'Stray', which included a collaboration with the Clash's Mick Jones on the song 'Good Morning Britain', and 1993's electronic experiment 'Dreamland', didn't even chart in America. After 1995's 'Frestonia', a low-key and primarily acoustic effort, failed to excite fans or critics, Frame retired the name Aztec Camera, and for his next project he released 'North Star' in 1998 under the name Roddy Frame. In their early days Frame was quite prolific, and so b-sides were often non-album, and the best are collected here, along with original versions of their singles where they differed from the album version, and their contribution to a 1990 split single with Kirsty McColl & The Pogues, taken from a Cole Porter tribute album. 

Track listing

01 Abbatoir (from the 'Urban Development' cassette 1980)

02 Stand Still (from the 'Urban Development' cassette 1980)

03 Real Tears (from the 'Urban Development' cassette 1980)

04 Token Friend (demo 1980)
05 Mattress Of Wire (single 1981)
06 Just Like Gold (single 1981)

07 We Could Send Letters ('C81' version 1981)
08 Pillar To Post (original single 1982)
09 Queen's Tattoos (b-side of 'Pillar To Post' 1982)
10 Walk Out To Winter (original single version 1983)
11 Set The Killing Free (b-side of 'Walk Out To Winter' 1983)
12 Orchid Girl (b-side of 'Oblivious' 1983)
13 Haywire (b-side of 'Oblivious' 1983)
14 Jump (b-side of 'All I Need Is Everything' 1984)
15 Bad Education (b-side of 'Deep & Wide & Tall' 1987)
16 The Red Flag (b-side of 'How Men Are' 1988)
17 Do I Love You? (split single 1990) 
18 Consolation Prize (b-side of 'Good Morning Britain' 1990)
19 True Colours (b-side of 'The Crying Scene' 1990)
20 Salvation (b-side of 'The Crying Scene' 1990)

The Pooh Sticks - Think Bubble (2014)

The Pooh Sticks were rock's most inside joke, a monumental yet affectionate prank on the very mythology of pop music itself. Cloaked behind ridiculously overblown marketing schemes, made-up histories, and cartoon-character images, the Welsh group punctured the industry's myriad excesses, freely pilfering from the entirety of pop's past by shoplifting titles, lyrics, and melodies at will. The Pooh Sticks were ostensibly led by frontman Hue Pooh (born Hue Williams), who in October 1987 teamed with Swansea-area schoolmates Paul, (guitar), Alison (bass), Trudi Tangerine (keyboards), and Stephanie (drums), but in fact these last three members didn't actually exist. Their 1988 debut single 'On Tape' was a witty jab at indie rock fan boy mentality released on manager/svengali Steve Gregory's Fierce label, and of course I bought it straight away, and it's still a prized possession. The real mastermind behind the Pooh Sticks was Gregory, writing, arranging, and producing their records, designing their cover artwork, and even choreographing their live performances.Their next release was an ironically lavish box set comprised entirely of one-sided singles. including the infamous 'I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well', a nod to the Creation Records chief. Their first album was a live recording called 'Orgasm', and was "recorded live...in Trudi Tangerine's basement". The 1989 mock-bootleg 'Trademark Of Quality' was next, compiling live material from a pair of recent club dates, including a cover of the Vaselines' 'Dying for It', as well as an early rendition of the group's semi-original 'Young People'. In 1990 they finally recorded a proper studio album, 'Formula One Generation', and the following year the band added Talulah Gosh and Heavenly vocalist Amelia Fletcher to their ranks, and recorded their second studio album 'The Great White Wonder'. For this release they changed direction, eschewing their 'twee' British indie pop for a more American-styled power pop sound, akin to bands like Jellyfish and Redd Kross. The next record 'Million Seller', released on 11 January 1993, is considered by some power pop fans to be the band's best work, and 1995's 'Optimistic Fool', followed the same path, but was to be their final release for some time. In 1995 they claimed to have cut no less than 30 demos for a follow up to 'Optimistic Fool', but this never happened, and so in 2014 they hosted a website where they gave out free downloads of 10 of those demos under the follow up album's working title 'Think Bubble'. Despite being demos, they are all great indie-pop songs, and an album of polished versions of these tracks would have been most welcome. 

Track listing

01 Stereo Love
02 My Amp
03 You Said A Bad Word
04 Jimmy Webb's Horse
05 The Hardest Working Man In Showbiz
06 Call Me Carnival
07 International Language
08 Five O'Clock Shadow
09 Stars Fall Like Dominoes
10 Out Here In The Night

Keane - Let It Slide (2005)

In 2005 Keane were nominated in a number of categories at the BRIT Awards, taking away Best British album and the British breakthrough act award as voted for by listeners of BBC Radio 1. The band are also patrons of the charity War Child, and in 2005 they recorded a cover of the Walker Brothers' 'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore' and gave it to the War Child foundation website for download, as well as pressing up one thousand vinyl copies and giving them as a gift to some of their fans. Later that year they recorded a cover version of Elton John's 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' for the charity album 'Help: A Day In The Life', and they also gave a cover of 'What A Wonderful World' to Comic Relief. In April 2005, in the middle of the 'Hopes And Fears' tour, the band began recording their next record, titled 'Under The Iron Sea', at Helioscentric Studios, with some additional recording done at The Magic Shop Studios in New York. They were also regulars on British radio, recording a session for Jo Whiley, and playing 'White Christmas' on the Steve Lamacq show. With their second album on the horizon, we gather up the b-sides from the last couple of singles from 'Hopes And Fears', alongside all their charity recordings and radio sessions from 2004 and 2005. 

Track listing

01 She Opens Her Eyes (b-side of 'This Is The Last Time' 2004)

02 A Heart To Hold You (Jo Whiley session 2004

03 To The End Of The Earth (b-side of re-recorded 'Everybody's Changing' 2004)

04 White Christmas (Steve Lamacq show 2004)

05 Fly To Me (b-side of re-recorded 'Everybody's Changing' 2004)

06 With Or Without You (Jo Whiley session 2004)

07 Something In Me Was Dying (b-side of 'Bedshaped' 2004)

08 Untitled 2 (b-side of 'Bedshaped' 2004)

09 The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore (recorded for War Child 2005)

10 What A Wonderful World (recorded for Comic Relief 2005)

11 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (from the 'Help! A Day In The Life' charity album 2005)

Jackson Browne - The Birds Of St. Marks (1970)

In late 1969 Jackson Browne signed a contact with Hollywood music pubishers Criteriom Music, and was employed to write songs to be hawked around the circuit in the hope of being picked up by record companies for their artists. On 6th April 1970 he recorded nearly two dozen solo demos of songs that he'd written, some of which were later reworked for his first album on Asylum Records. It was in fact the demo of 'Jamaica Say You Will' which secured his record deal after he sent a copy of it to label owner David Geffen, who was so taken with the song that he signed Browne to his label in late 1970, and his debut album was released in 1971. The original bootleg of this album included demo versions of many songs that would later appear on the 1971 record, but to make it a more manageable 40-minute album I've just picked the songs which didn't make it, with the addition of demos of just a couple of his most famous songs from the album, with 'Jamaica Say You Will' as it was the track that first attracted Geffen, and 'Doctor My Eyes', because The Jackson Five did pick up on it and had a UK top 10 hit with it, but as that was in 1972 it's more likely that they heard the song from Browne's album rather than the demo. These recordings are superb quality for their age, and Browne sounds relaxed and confident in his delivery, making this is a real treat for all his fans.

     

Track listing

01 Last Time I Was Home
02 Low Road
03 Door Into The Morning
04 Another Place
05 Doctor My Eyes
06 The Birds Of St. Marks
07 Mae Jean Goes To Hollywood
08 Gone To Sorrow
09 Hot Like Today
10 Jamaica Say You Will
11 The Top
12 The Times You've Come
13 There Came A Question

Peter Gabriel - Before The Flood (1979) UPDATE

If you're a regular visitor to Paul's albumsthatshouldexist blog, you'll know that he's just discovered an amazing new programme called Spleeter, that can isolate individual tracks from a recording, so that you can remove or manipulate the vocals, guitar, drums or bass from a song. I wanted to try it, but it turns out that it is incompatible with the CPU on my laptop, and there was one particular song from a recent post that I was going to try it out on, and that was 'You Get What You Want' from the Peter Gabriel post from a few weeks ago. About a third of the way in someone starts clapping along, and considering that we can be pretty sure that it's Phil Collins, as the other musicians would have their hands occupied, it is very unco-ordinated and distracting from someone who is supposed to be a drummer! I therefore asked Paul if he could run the song through Spleeter and see if he could remove it, and you'll amazed at the result. If there is a slight loss of quality in the rest of the track then that's a small price to pay for being able to listen to the song without the annoying clapping, so open the album folder in Soulseek and you'll find the edited track 03 which you can download separately, but I'll leave the original 'clapping' version in the folder so that you can hear exactly what this programme can do.      

The Mothers - Just Another Band From L.A. (1972)

When Frank Zappa started to put together the live tapes that the Mothers Of Invention had recorded in 1971 for their proposed live release, he originally envisioned it as a vinyl double album, and acetates were even pressed and given to the band members, with a track listing of:
Side One:
Call Any Vegetable 
Eddie, Are You Kidding? 
Magdalena
Dog Breath
Side Two:
Billy The Mountain (Part 1)
     - Introduction
     - Phase I (The Royalties Arrive)
     - Phase II And Newscast
     - The Legendary Low Budget Hero
     - The Flies
Side Three:
Billy The Mountain (Part 2) 
     - Studebacher Hoch
     - The Conclusion
The Subcutaneous Peril 
Side Four:
An Easy Substitute For Eternity Itself
     - Don's Solo
     - Ian's Solo
     - Aynsley's Solo
     - Frank's Solo

For unknown reasons, plans for the double set were abandoned and the album was released in the single record format that we know today. Originally 'Billy The Mountain' was much longer, and was on two sides of the record, but in order to fit it onto one side of the single album version Zappa removed an 8'51 min section from the second half of the track, reducing it down to a more manageable 24 minutes. For this reconstruction I've located the missing section and I've slotted it back into the original recording, restoring it to the full 33 minutes take. Two of the other tracks that were originally earmarked for the record were collages that Zappa cut and pasted from the 'A Pound For A Brown On The Bus' and 'King Kong' solos from a 1971 concert at Carnegie Hall, and Zappa aficionado br1tag has re-composed the original sequences, including Don Preston's full solo which was abbreviated to fit onto a single side of the vinyl album. So for fans who love the original record and want hear more, here is the reconstructed double album version for your enjoyment. 

Track listing 

01 Call Any Vegetable
02 Eddie, Are You Kidding?
03 Magdalena
04 Dog Breath
05 Billy The Mountain
06 The Subcutaneous Peril
07 An Easy Substitute For Eternity Itself

Josie And The Pussycats - Tabby Road (1970)

During the 1968-69 television season, the first Archie-based Saturday morning cartoon 'The Archie Show' was a huge success, not only in the ratings on CBS, but also on the Billboard charts. The fictitious band had a massive hit with 'Sugar Sugar', reaching No. 1 on the UK and US charts in September 1969, and Hanna-Barbera Productions wanted to duplicate the success their competitors Filmation were having with 'The Archie Show'. After a failed attempt at developing a teenage-music-band show of their own called 'Mysteries Five' (which eventually became 'Scooby-Doo, Where are You!'), they decided to go to the source and contacted Archie Comics about possibly adapting one of their remaining properties into a show similar to 'The Archie Show'. Archie and Hanna-Barbera collaborated to adapt Archie's Josie comic book into a music-based property about a teenage music band, adding new characters while dismissing others. The group was to consist of level-headed lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Josie, intelligent bassist Valerie, and air-headed blonde drummer Melody, while other characters included their cowardly manager Alexander Cabot III, his conniving sister Alexandra, her cat Sebastian, and muscular roadie Alan. In preparation for the upcoming cartoon series, Hanna-Barbera began working on putting together a real-life girl group, who would provide the singing voices of the girls in the cartoons, and also record an album of songs to be used both as radio singles and in the TV series. 

The Josie and the Pussycats recordings were produced by La La Productions, run by Danny Janssen and Bobby Young (a pseudonym for Bob Engemann of The Lettermen vocal group), and they held a talent search to find three girls who would match the three girls in the comic book in both looks and singing ability. After interviewing over 500 finalists, they settled on casting Kathleen Dougherty (Cathy Dougher) as Josie, Cherie Moor (later to find fame in 'Charlie's Angels' as Cheryl Ladd) as Melody, and Patrice Holloway (sister of Motown star Brenda Holloway) as Valerie. Janssen presented the newly formed band to Hanna-Barbera to finalize the production deal, but they wanted Janssen to recast Holloway, because they had decided to portray Josie And The Pussycats as an all-white trio and had altered Valerie, who had been conceived as black and was already appearing as such the revamped Josie and the Pussycats comic book, to make her white. Janssen refused and threatened to walk away from the project, and after a three-week-long stand-off between Janssen and Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera finally relented, allowed Janssen to keep Holloway, and changed Valerie back to being black, making her the first black female character on a regular Saturday morning cartoon series. Of the songs that were broadcast, lead vocals were split pretty much 50/50 between Holloway and Moor, as Dougherty felt she was stronger on harmony than lead, and ceded her spotlight to Moor, so although Josie was the group leader, it was Valerie and Melody who provided the trio with its singing voices. 

Each episode found the Pussycats and crew en route to perform a gig or record a song in some exotic location where, somehow, often due to something Alexandra did, they became mixed up in an adventure. The antagonist was always a diabolical mad scientist, spy, or criminal who wanted to take over the world using some high-tech device, and The Pussycats usually found themselves in possession of the plans for an invention, an item of interest to the villains, a secret spy message, etc., and the villains chased them to retrieve it. Eventually, the Pussycats would ruin the villain's plans, resulting in a final chase sequence set to a Pussycats song. With the villain captured, the Pussycats would return to their gig or recording session, and the final gag was always one of Alexandra's failed attempts to interfere with the Pussycats' performance or steal Alan away from Josie, and while early plans were to be for a live-action Pussycats segment at the end of each episode, this idea did not make it to the final cut. To cash in on the show Hanna-Barbera released an album of the songs featured in the series, plus a few choice covers, and extracted two singles from it in the form of 'Every Beat Of My Heart' and 'You've Come A Long Way Baby'. Sales were nowhere near as good as they'd hoped, and so further singles were licensed to Creative Products, to be exchanged for sending in box tops from Kelloggs cereals. These four promotional singles are now extremely rare, and so it was good to finally get to hear them on a recent Rhino records collection, although only 5,000 copies of the compilation were pressed and that's now as hard to find as the original singles. So for anyone with fond memories of watching Josie And The Pussycats on Saturday morning TV, here are all their singles, along with a couple of previously unreleased tracks, and that classic theme tune. And sorry about the title, but I just couldn't resist.    

Track listing

01 Every Beat Of My Heart (single version 1970)
02 It's All Right With Me (b-side of 'With Every Beat Of My Heart' 1970)
03 You've Come A Long Way Baby (single version 1970)
04 Stop, Look And Listen (b-side of 'You've Come A Long Way Baby')
05 Letter To Mama (single 1970)
06 Inside, Outside, Upside Down (b-side of 'Letter To Mama')
07 Josie (single 1970)
08 Voodoo (single 1970)
09 If That Isn't Love (b-side of 'Voodoo')
10 I Wanna Make You Happy (single 1970)
11 It's Gotta Be Him (b-side of 'I Wanna Make You Happy')
12 Together (previously unreleased)
13 Dreammaker (previously unreleased)
14 The Time To Love (previously unreleased)
15 Josie And The Pussycats Theme

If you're now hankering to relive your childhood then the whole first series is here to watch, as long as you're prepared to put up with some pesky ads. 

Various Artists - Never Mind The Ballads (2010)

The current court case involving John Lydon and his former band-mates Steve Jones and Paul Cook, over whether the band's music can be used in a forthcoming biopic, reminded me just what a unique band The Sex Pistols were when they first appeared in 1976. This is borne out by the fact that I can't recall ever having heard a cover version of one of their songs - and although I know that there are loads out there, it's just that they aren't by any bands that I've ever been that interested in hearing. There are perhaps two exceptions, with Galaxie 500 covering 'Submission' for a John Peel session, and Bananarama attempting 'No Feelings' for the soundtrack to the 1982 film 'Party Party', but the rest have generally passed me by. I though that in the ensuing 40-odd years there must be some intriguing covers out there, so I attempted to put together an album along the lines of my earlier 'A Slow And Quiet Sabbath' post, with covers that almost verged on easy listening. It wasn't easy to find ballad versions of these most raucous punk songs, but mostly I managed it, and to my ears it sounds pretty good. The Bad Shepherds is the band led by former Young Ones star Adrian Edmundson, and adding pipes to 'Anarchy In The UK' was inspired. Hayseed Dixie can always be relied on to provide a yee-ha country twang to any song that they cover, while Nouvelle Vague and Sofia Allard & Carl-Michael Herlofsson really pull off the easy listening vibe. Hotrats were a band formed as a side project by former Supergrass members Danny Goffey and Gaz Coombes, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star make albums full of lullabye versions of punk classics, and in the end I found a subdued version of every track from the 'Never Mind The Bollocks' album, now retitled as 'Never Mind The Ballads' (and I know they're not all strictly speaking ballads, but the title was too good not to use).      

Track listing

01 Holidays In The Sun (Hayseed Dixie)
02 Bodies (Veruca Salt)
03 No Feelings (Bananarama)
04 Liar (Micro Grande)
05 God Save The Queen (Nouvelle Vague)
06 Problems (Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star)
07 Seventeen (Detune)
08 Anarchy In The UK (The Bad Shepherds)
09 Submission (Galaxie 500)
10 Pretty Vacant (Sofia Allard & Carl-Michael Herlofsson)
11 New York (Opium Jukebox)
12 E.M.I. (The Hotrats)

Keane - Wolf At The Door (2004)

Tom Chaplin and Tim Rice-Oxley became friends when they met at Vinehall School in Robertsbridge, East Sussex when they were young. The school was owned by Chaplin's family, and his father was the headmaster there, and when they left and moved on to Tonbridge School in Kent at the age of 13, they met Dominic Scott, and discovered their liking for music. Although Chaplin had learned to play the flute, he never considered music as a proper career at the time, but while Rice-Oxley was studying at University College London in 1995 he formed a rock band with Scott and invited another Tonbridge schoolfriend Richard Hughes to play drums. The band were named The Lotus Eaters, and started as a cover band, playing songs by U2, Oasis, and The Beatles, and rehearsing at home. After listening to Rice-Oxley's piano playing during a weekend in 1997, Chris Martin invited him to join his newly formed band Coldplay, but he declined because he didn't want to leave The Lotus Eaters, and because of Martin's offer, and although Hughes and Scott were originally opposed to it, Chaplin joined the band in 1997, taking Rice-Oxley's place as vocalist and adding himself as the acoustic guitarist. It was at this point that they band opted for a new name, choosing Cherry Keane after a friend of Chaplin's mother, whom Rice-Oxley and Chaplin knew when they were young, and which was later shortened to Keane. Chaplin departed for South Africa in Summer 1997 to work as a volunteer during his gap year, and when he returned in July 1998, he was picked up at the airport by the band, who announced that they had a gig booked in 10 days! Keane made their live debut at the Hope & Anchor pub on 13 July 1998, playing original material, and although Chaplin later went to Edinburgh University to study for a degree in art history, he quit his degree and moved to London to pursue a full-time musical career. In late 1999, and without a record deal, Keane recorded their first promotional single 'Call Me What You Like', which they released on their own Zoomorphic label, selling it at live gigs in early 2000. Only 500 copies were pressed, and so it was re-recorded in February 2001 and added as a b-side to their 'Wolf At The Door' single, but this was even rarer as only 50 CD-R copies were made. 

Because of the limited success Keane had at this time, Scott decided to leave the group a month after the single was released to continue his studies at the LSE, and the band decamped to James Sanger's recording studio at Les Essarts, France, where they taped a number of tracks in late 2001, including 'Bedshaped' and 'This Is the Last Time', and it was during these sessions that the idea of using a piano as lead instrument began to emerge. After they returned to the UK in November, they signed to BMG to publish their music, but still did not have a recording contract, and for most of 2002 all recording or live performances were stopped, with the band starting to agree with the departed Scott that they were going nowhere. In December 2002 they started playing live again, and one gig was attended by Simon Williams of Fierce Panda Records, who offered to release 'Everybody's Changing' as the first commercial single by the band. As a result of the attention garnered by the single, and because of the strong live reputation they had built up, a bidding war for the band ensued among major record labels, with Island Records eventually winning out, but they were allowed to issue 'This Is The Last Time' on Fierce Panda in October 2003 as the final release on that label. In January 2004 Keane was named the band most likely to achieve success in the coming year in the BBC's Sound of 2004 poll, and a month later their first single release on Island reached number three on the UK singles Chart. A re-release of 'Everybody's Changing' followed 'Somewhere Only We Know', featuring a new cover and b-sides, and that reached number four in the UK Singles Chart. Their debut album 'Hopes And Fears' was released on 10 May 2004 in the UK, and debuted at number one in the UK Albums Chart, becoming the second best-selling British album of the year. Despite their disjointed discography in the early days, the eight singles they released on Zoomorphic, Fierce Panda and Island included eleven new songs on the b-sides, and this was to continue for the rest of their career, with the band treating their fans to new songs or choice covers on nearly all of their subsequent singles. In what will be a multiple post from the band, we start with those first two singles, some early demos, and some exclusives b-sides, to hear how the band started out, from their formation in 1997 to their multi-million selling debut album some seven years later.  

Track listing

01 Emily (previously unreleased 1999)
02 More Matey (previously unreleased 1996)
03 New One (previously unreleased 2000)
04 Call Me What You Like (single 2000)
05 Rubbernecking (b-side of 'Call Me What You Like')
06 Closer Now (b-side of 'Call Me What You Like')
07 Wolf At The Door (single 2001)
08 The Way You Want It (b-side of 'Everybody's Changing' 2003)
09 Snowed Under (b-side of 'Somewhere Only We Know' 2004)
10 Allemande (b-side of 'This Is The Last Time' 2004)
11 Walnut Tree (b-side of 'Somewhere Only We Know' 2004)

The B-52's - Mesopotamia (1981)

When The B-52's burst onto the music scene in 1978 with 'Rock Lobster' they epitomized the retro dayglo orange fun of the late seventies. With that single and 'Planet Claire' they had mixed twangy guitar lines, kooky organs and beehive hairdos into a sweet and frothy confection, filling college dance floors and even making inroads onto mainstream radio. As the eighties dawned, they went looking for ways to expand their musical range, and assert their willingness to take artistic risks without abandoning their abiding commitment to the groove that moves. To help them make the transition from New Wave to Post Punk they enlisted the help of David Byrne, hoping he might do for them what Brian Eno had done for The Talking Heads, securing their place as critical darlings while paving the way for further commercial success. By the time that Byrne came to work with the band in 1982, he had fully absorbed Eno's interest in African polyrythms and analogue synthesizers, and was already beginning work on his first solo effort, a score for Twyla Tharp's dance company that he would call 'The Catherine Wheel'. He soon stripped the band's sound down to a dancey, primitive beat, with the kitschy guitar lines making way for sleek synthesized bass lines, brass arrangements, and inventive percussion effects of the kind that were beginning to emerge from the nascent hip hop scene in New York. The resulting sound was considerably darker and more atonal than the band's earlier efforts, full of angular, abstract grooves that stood in stark contrast to the increasingly earthy and distinctly southern sensuality of Kate Pierson's and Cindy Wilson's vocals. It was adventurous, challenging music, but perhaps more reflective of Byrne's private preoccupations of the time than the interests of the band or its record company. 

At some point, the band and the producer fell out with one another and the sessions were abandoned, and to recoup some of the costs, six of the most fully developed tracks were released as the 'Mesopotamia' EP in 1981. In general it has been regarded as a misstep by the band's fans, and when it came for a CD reissue it was completely remixed to remove any sign of Bryne's involvement, and it is this sanitized version which is today most readily available. However, back in 1982 initial copies of the EP were released on the Island Record label in the UK and parts of Europe that included Byrne's longer, dubbier, and altogether more interesting mixes of several tracks, offering a brief glimpse of what The B-52's' third album might well have sounded like had Bryne been allowed to complete the project. Some of the tracks are noticeably longer, with the title track adding an extra three and a half minutes, while 'Cake' gains nearly two minutes more music. By adding in the 'Queen Of Las Vegas' out-take from the sessions we have the full album that Byrne would have made with the B-52's, and whether you're an avid fan of the band or just a casual listener, this is definitely worth hearing to see how the band had initially tried to progress their career to a new level. 

Track listing

01 Loveland 
02 Deep Sleep 
03 Mesopotamia 
04 Cake
05 Throw That Beat In the Garbage Can
06 Nip it In the Bud
07 Queen Of Las Vegas

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The Moody Blues - Look Out (1966)

The Moody Blues formed in 1964 in Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham, and started as a trio called El Riot And The Rebels, consisting of Ray Thomas, a young John Lodge and (occasionally) Mike Pinder. They disbanded when Lodge went to technical college and Pinder joined the army, but after his spell in the forces, Pinder rejoined Thomas to form the Krew Cats, who played the Hamburg circuit, not altogether successfully. Back from this disappointing spell in Hamburg, the pair recruited guitarist/vocalist Denny Laine and band manager-turned-drummer Graeme Edge, with John Lodge being approached to be the bassist, which he declined as he was still in college. They instead recruited bassist Clint Warwick, and this five-piece appeared as The Moody Blues for the first time in Birmingham in 1964. The band soon obtained a London-based management company, 'Ridgepride', formed by Alex Murray (Alex Wharton), who had been in the A&R division of Decca Records, and they signed a recording contract in the spring of 1964 with Ridgepride, which then leased their recordings to Decca. They released 'Steal Your Heart Away' as a single, and appeared on the cult TV programme 'Ready Steady Go!' singing the uptempo b-side 'Lose Your Money (But Don't Lose your Mind)'. It was their second single, however, that launched their career, with 'Go Now' becoming a hit in Britain, where it remains their only No. 1 single, and also in the United States, where it reached No. 10. The band encountered management problems after the chart-topping hit and subsequently signed to Decca Records in the UK (London Records in the US) directly as recording artists, and a four-track EP was released which featured both sides of their first two Decca singles. 

Their debut album 'The Magnificent Moodies', produced by Denny Cordell, was released on Decca in mono only in 1965, and contained the hit single together with one side of classic R&B covers, and a second side that including four Laine-Pinder originals. The band followed the album with a series of relatively unsuccessful singles, although they did enjoy a minor British hit with a cover of 'I Don't Want To Go On Without You' in February 1965, while the Pinder/Laine original 'From the Bottom Of My Heart (I Love You)' was issued as a UK single in May 1965 and did a little better at No. 22. In June 1966, Warwick retired from the group and the music business, and was briefly replaced by Rod Clark, but in early October Denny Laine also left the band, prompting Decca to release 'Boulevard de la Madeleine' a few days later, as The Moody Blues seemed to be disintegrating. In the November 1966 issue of Hit Week, Dutch interviewers Hans van Rij and Emie Havers reported that The Moody Blues had been in the process of recording their second album 'Look Out', and under the direction of their producer Denny Cordell at least ten tracks were completed before the sessions were abandoned and the album was shelved, never to be released. The band's contract with Decca required them to record enough songs for a minimum number of singles and albums, and despite unpredictable changes taking place within the group by the summer of 1966, they were still bound by this contract. 

Obviously hoping to get some return from their investment, Decca issued a few of the Cordell recordings as singles between 1966 and 1967, with others on the flips. Mike Pinder and Denny Laine could be considered the "Lennon and McCartney" of the group by this time with all the original titles composed by them, with a track like 'Sad Song' being a wonderful composition featuring Laine's characteristic mournful lead vocal and tasteful flute playing from Ray Thomas. The band recorded one cover, of Tim Hardin's 'How Can We Hang On To A Dream', making two attempts to get it right, and another great Pinder/Laine recording from the summer 1966 sessions is 'Jago & Jilly', which is based around a waltz tempo - seemingly popular with the group at the time. Lyrically, it's a love song sung by Laine who does a fine job on the vocal as well as supplying intricate guitar work. 'We're Broken' is distinctive for its distorted 'fuzz' guitar sound similar to what The Spencer Davis Group used for 'Keep On Running', and two of the songs recorded at the final recording session became the single 'Lfe's Not Life'/'He Can Win'. Mike Pinder takes the lead on his own composition 'I Really Haven't Got The Time', and the version here is the first known recording, and pre-dates the one most fans will be familiar with. The songs from these sessions have finally been unearthed and added to a recent re-issue of 'The Magnificent Moodies', and so with the addition of the non-album single 'Leave This Man Alone' / 'Love And Beauty', we can finally hear what their actual second album could have sounded like if Decca hadn't shelved it for what they no doubt considered a valid reason at the time.    

Track listing

01 Sad Song
02 This Is My House (But Nobody Calls)
03 How Can We Hang On To A Dream
04 Jago & Jilly
05 We're Broken
06 Send The People Away (People Gotta Go)
07 Life's Not Life
08 He Can Win
09 Boulevard de la Madeleine
10 Red Wine
11 I Really Haven't Got The Time
12 Love And Beauty
13 Leave This Man Alone 

Gordon Lightfoot - Day Before Yesterday (1967)

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. was born on November 17, 1938 in Orillia, Ontario, and his musical talent was recognised by his mother at an early age, and she schooled him into a successful child performer. His first public performance was 'Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral' (an Irish lullaby) in grade four, which was broadcast over his school's public address system on a parents' day event, and as a youth he sang under the direction of choirmaster Ray Williams in the choir of Orillia's St. Paul's United Church, which he had credited with teaching him how to sing with emotion, and to have confidence in his voice. Lightfoot was a boy soprano, and at the age of twelve, after winning a competition for boys whose voices had not yet broken, he made his first appearance at Massey Hall in Toronto. He performed extensively throughout high school, and taught himself to play folk guitar, with a formative influence on his music at this time being 19th-century master American songwriter Stephen Foster. In 1958 he moved to California to study jazz composition and orchestration for two years at Hollywood's Westlake College of Music, which had many Canadian students, and to support himself while there he sang on demonstration records and wrote, arranged, and produced commercial jingles. He returned to Toronto in 1960, as he was missing home, and has lived in Canada ever since, although he has done much work in the United States. After his return to Canada, Lightfoot performed with The Singin’ Swingin' Eight, and with the Gino Silvi Singers, and he soon became known at Toronto folk music oriented coffee houses. In 1962 he released two singles, both recorded at RCA in Nashville and produced by Chet Atkins, that were local hits in Toronto and received some airplay elsewhere in Canada, with '(Remember Me) I'm the One' reaching No. 3 on CHUM radio in Toronto in July 1962. 

In 1963 he traveled around Europe and the United Kingdom, and for one year he hosted BBC TV's Country and Western Show, returning to Canada in 1964, where he began to develop a reputation as a songwriter. Ian and Sylvia Tyson recorded 'Early Mornin' Rain' and 'For Lovin' Me', and a year later both songs were recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, while other performers who recorded his songs included Elvis Presley, Chad & Jeremy, George Hamilton IV, The Clancy Brothers, Marty Robbins, Judy Collins, and The Kingston Trio. In 1965 Lightfoot signed a management contract with Albert Grossman, who also represented many prominent American folk performers, and after signing to United Artists he released his version of 'I'm Not Sayin'' as a single, and appearances at the Newport Folk Festival and on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson increased his following and bolstered his reputation. His debut album 'Lightfoot!' was released in 1966, bringing him greater exposure as both a singer and a songwriter, and it featured many now-famous songs, including 'For Lovin' Me', 'Early Mornin' Rain', 'Steel Rail Blues', and 'Ribbon of Darkness'. He consistently placed singles in the Canadian top 40, including 'Go-Go Round', 'Spin, Spin', and 'The Way I Feel', but his biggest hit of the era was a rendition of Bob Dylan's 'Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues', which peaked at No. 3 on the Canadian charts in December 1965, and to kick off Canada's Centennial year, the CBC commissioned him to write the 'Canadian Railroad Trilogy' for a special broadcast on January 1, 1967. Between 1966 and 1969 Lightfoot recorded four more albums for United Artists, and established himself as one of the best singer/songwriters of his generation, but this album concentrates on his rise to that success, collecting all his early singles from 1962 to 1966, plus the 'Canadian Railroad Trilogy' EP from 1967. It also includes one previously unreleased song which eventually turned up on the 'Early Lightfoot' album in 1969, and the version of 'Spin, Spin' on here is the original 45 recording and not the later remake which appears on most compilations.  

Track listing

01 (Remember Me) I'm The One (single 1961)
02 Daisy-Doo (b-side of '(Remember Me) I'm The One')
03 Negotiations (single 1962) 
04 It's Too Late, He Wins (b-side of 'Negotiations')
05 Adios Adios (single 1962)
06 Is My Baby Blue Tonight (b-side of 'Adios Adios')
07 Day Before Yesterday (single 1963)
08 Take Care Of Yourself (b-side of 'Day Before Yesterday') 
09 I'm Not Sayin' (single 1965)
10 For Lovin' Me (b-side of 'I'm Not Sayin')
11 Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (single 1965) 
12 Ribbon Of Darkness (b-side of 'Just Like Tom's Thumbs Blues')
13 Early Morning Rain (single 1966)
14 Spin, Spin (single 1966) 
15 Long Haired Woman (previously unreleased, only available on 'Early Lightfoot' 1969) 
16 Movin' (from the 'CN Freight Film' EP with Jean-Pierre Ferland 1967)
17 Talkin' Freight (from the 'CN Freight Film' EP with Jean-Pierre Ferland 1967)

Peter Gabriel - Before The Flood (1979)

Peter Gabriel had been working on new music with lyricist/poet Martin Hall, whom he’d known since they both contributed to the 'Colin Scott' album back in 1974, even before he left Genesis the following year, and had recorded demos of some of these new songs during 1974 and 1975. The first three tracks on this album were recorded at Send Barns in the summer of 1974, with Anthony Phillips and Phil Collins, and includes Gabriel's demo of 'You Never Know', which was released as a single by the comedian Charlie Drake. More songs were taped in 1975 after he'd left Genesis, and these recordings are a fascinating glimpse at several raw versions of songs which would later become established Gabriel classics, including an early version of 'Excuse Me' without the barbershop harmonies, and a drastically different take of 'Here Comes The Flood'. 'Get The Guns' was recorded by Alan Ross before Gabriel himself disemboweled it for the backbone of 'Down The Dolce Vita', 'No More Mickey' is a wry tribute to Genesis' long standing friend and early sound engineer Richard MacPhail, which was unsuccessfully offered to Charisma as a single in 1975, and 'Funny Man' is an insightful look at the price of being in the public spotlight. None of these latter songs ever made it to Gabriel's studio albums, but that's not due to a lack of quality, as any one of these would have enhanced the record on which it appeared. They were found in a waterlogged tape box in a closet, which says much about the lack of care with which the musicians, and indeed the record company, sometimes treated this material, but it's been cleaned up to remove as much background noise, clunks and clicks as possible, and now sounds pretty good for its age. To make it up to 40 minutes I've added a couple of demos from 1979, with an instrumental version of 'Walk Through Fire', which, with added lyrics, later appeared on the soundtrack of the 1984 film 'Against All Odds', and the otherwise unheard 'We Don't Need No Aggravation'. 

Track listing

01 You Never Know

02 Firebirds
03 You Get What You Want
04 Howling At The Moon
05 Excuse Me
06 Funny Man
07 No More Mickey

08 Here Comes The Flood
09 Get The Guns
10 God Knows
11 Walk Through Fire
12 We Don't Need No Aggravation

Tracks 1 - 3 performed by: Peter Gabriel (vocals/flute), Martin Hall (guitar), Anthony Phillips (piano), Phil Collins (backing vocals) 

The Boo Radleys - Skywalker (1998)

I originally intended to end this series of Boo Radley's rarities at 1995, as they only released one album and one more single after that, with the 'Kingsize' single being cancelled, and so I thought there wouldn't be much esle to add, but a comment by jman prompted me to investigate a bit further, and possibly round things off with an EP from 1998. That EP has now turned into a full-blown album, as despite the fact that a break-up was on the cards, with Sice saying in 1998 "It was such a relief when Martin phoned me and said he didn't want to make any more records. We’d been wanting it to stop for quite a long time, but I couldn't do it – I didn't want to leave. I wanted the band to end and only Martin could have done that", the band were still recording loads of extra songs in the studio, and so from just the singles released from 1996's 'C'mon Kids' and 1998's 'Kingsize' we have one final 20-track album of rare b-sides and freebies from the band.

Track listing

01 Bloke In A Dress (b-side of 'What's In The Box' 1996)
02 Atlantic (b-side of 'What's In The Box' 1996)
03 Absent Boy (b-side of 'What's In The Box' 1996)
04 Annie & Mamie (b-side of 'What's In The Box' 1996)
05 Flakes (b-side of 'What's In The Box' 1996)
06 Skywalker (free 7" single with 'C'Mon Kids' 1996)
07 French Canadian Bean Soup (free 7" single with 'C'Mon Kids' 1996)
08 Spion Kop (b-side of 'C'Mon Kids' 1996)
09 To Beautiful (b-side of 'C'Mon Kids' 1996)
10 Nothing To Do But Scare Myself (b-side of 'C'Mon Kids' 1996)
11 Vote You (b-side of 'Ride The Tiger' 1997)
12 Roadie (b-side of 'Ride The Tiger' 1997)
13 Safe At Home (b-side of 'Ride The Tiger' 1997)
14 A Part I Know So Well (b-side of 'Ride The Tiger' 1997)
15 Last Night I Dreamt Of God (b-side of Everything Is Sorrow' 1997)
16 Everything Falls Away (b-side of 'Free Huey' 1998)
17 In A Galaxy Far, Far Away (b-side of 'Free Huey' 1998)
18 Spanish Lizards (b-side of 'Free Huey' 1998)
19 Superindependent (b-side of cancelled 'Kingsize' 1998)
20 Tomorrow (b-side of cancelled 'Kingsize' 1998)

The cover uses a photo by Elena Jo Melanson

Bryan Ferry - Horoscope (1991)

In 1991 Bryan Ferry started recording songs for his first album of original material for four years, and the sessions yielded enough material for the 'Horoscope' album to be released. However, Ferry did not feel that the songs were good enough, as he'd become self-conscious about bringing out a new album, feeling that he had to write his masterpiece, and as the technology got more sophisticated, his opportunities expanded and the possibilities became endless. Initially he was upbeat about the prospect of releasing it quite quickly after the relative failure of 'Bete Noire', but by 1992 he found himself without either a manager or a producer, and with no one there to call a halt to his increasingly grandiose designs, the recording sessions just went on and on. The situation only stabilized when he hooked up again with his original manager, David Enthoven, who had come out of a ten-year retirement. Listening to the tracks intended for 'Horoscope,' Ferry, Enthoven, and the record company decided that even after all the years of work, they were still not ready, and while some reports claim that Virgin Records simply rejected the album out of hand, this is rigorously denied by Ferry himself, although he does admit that Warner Brothers in America didn’t like it as much. The consensus of opinion was that the main problem was the lack of anything commercial enough to be released as a single, and so the solution was to simply put the album on hold and try something else, releasing a covers album instead, in the form of 1992's 'Taxi'. Two years passed and a new album of original material was once again on the cards, so some of the songs from 'Horoscope' were revisited, with 'N.Y.C.', 'The 39 Steps', 'Gemini Moon', and 'The Only Face' being exhumed and included on 1994's 'Mamouna'. The rest of the songs have remained locked away, and apart from a much shorter version of 'Midnight Train' appearing on 'Avonmore' in 2014, they have not subsequently turned up on later albums, so this is definitely worth hearing as an idea of Ferry's vision in the early 90's. 

Track listing

01 The 39 Steps
02 The Only Face
03 N.Y.C
04 Midnight Train
05 Your Love Has Died
06 Gemini Moon
07 Blinded By The Life I'm Living
08 Mother Of Pearl 

Following a comment by Geof McM I've speed-corrected the album to slow it down by 5% and it does now match the available re-recordings, so I've replaced the original album in the folder.