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.
I have always felt tthat the tape for this are running slighly fast. I slowed mine approx 5% and it sounds much more natural.
ReplyDeleteThis also matches the version of Mother of pearl from Ordinary Decent Criminals
ReplyDeleteYes, this version was used for the soundtrack for that film, but it's never appeared on an actual Ferry album.
DeleteI was meaning the Film version is slower than the Horoscope tape. Slowing that by 5% brings then both into line.
ReplyDeleteOh, I see what you mean. I'm currently playing around with doing that so that's a good base to use to check them.
DeleteI've added 'Horoscope 95%' to the folder so give it a listen and see if I've got it to sound roughly the same as yours.
DeleteI've also compared the four tracks that were redone for 'Mamouna' and they are noticeably slower than these versions, so I think the slower ones are the ones to go for.
DeleteStill too fast, For reference the original mother of pearl was 9:00.917, yours was 9:14.501 and Mine is 9:30.749.
ReplyDeleteIf you are using Adobe Audition, then in stretch and pitch set stretch to 105.55 for the original (not the 95 one) and that will stretch it.
Oh and the corrected should be called 105 not 95 as its 5% longer not 5% shorter.
My original track was 9.00, but there was 15 seconds of silence at the end (which I assume that yours had) that I removed, making my starting point 8.46, so if you add the 15 seconds back on the my 9.14 you get your 9.30, so they should now sound the same. The program that I used adjusts the speed, so I set it to 95% as fast rather than 95% as long. I've just run the 9.00 version through and it's now 9.29.40, so if I remove the 15 seconds of silence i'm back to 9.14. Can you email me at aiwe2@yahoo.com and I'll send you this one to see if it's now the same as yours. Thanks
ReplyDeleteNot only "Midnight Train" was re-recorded for "Avonmore", but also "Loop De Li" (correct title for "Your Love Has Died"; also called "Killing Time" on some bootlegs).
ReplyDeleteSome source claims that "Send in the Clowns" (from "Avonmore") is another one from the "Horoscope" period. "Which Way to Turn" might be a song from the initial sessions as well, but I don't know if the source for this is reliable.
"Elysium" (correct title for "Blinded by the Light I'm Living"; also called "The Death of Me" on some bootlegs) is one of the finest of these recordings, and I prefer the arrangement and mood of "Midnight Train" and "Loop De Li" to the later re-recordings.