Prefab Sprout - Has All The Best Tunes (1992)

In 1977 brothers Paddy and Martin McAloon formed The Dick Diver Band, but by 1978 the name had changed to Prefab Sprout, a name McAloon had created years earlier, when band names were supposed to be profound and have hidden meaning, and so he just joined two random words together. After drummer Michael Salmon joined the brothers, they began playing live, and in 1982 they recorded their first single 'Lions in My Own Garden: Exit Someone' / 'Radio Love', which was self-released on their own Candle Records. Paddy McAloon later said that he wanted a song title where the first letters of the words spelled out Limoges, the French city where his former girlfriend was studying at the time. Music journalist Stuart Maconie praised the track as "enigmatic, melancholy, and tuneful", and shortly after its release their lineup expanded to incorporate vocalist Wendy Smith, and this new configuration recorded their second single 'The Devil Has All the Best Tunes' / 'Walk On' in September 1982. In March 1983 they were signed to Keith Armstrong's Kitchenware Records, and their two singles were reissued by Kitchenware and attracted notice including adulation from Elvis Costello, as well as making original copies instantly collectable. Following the departure of Michael Salmon as drummer, the band recorded their debut album with session drummer Graham Lant in a 24-track studio in Edinburgh on a budget of £5,000, and 'Swoon' (an acronym for Songs Written Out Of Necessity), was released in March 1984. It was critically acclaimed, with several reviewers highlighting its unorthodox musical style and unconventional lyrics, and it reached No. 22 on the UK Albums Chart, attracting the attention of musician Thomas Dolby along the way, who began producing new material with the band. Graham Lant's relationship with Prefab Sprout ended soon after the recording of 'Swoon', so Neil Conti joined the band as a permanent drummer, and the band's second album 'Steve McQueen' was released in 1985, (issued in America as 'Two Wheels Good' in anticipation of displeasure from McQueen's estate), and was highly praised by critics, as well as giving the band its first hit UK single with 'When Love Breaks Down'. The band's next project was 'Protest Songs', a sparsely-produced and quickly recorded album intended for a limited release in late 1985, but it was put on hold by CBS so as not to affect sales of 'Steve McQueen', and languished in the vaults for four years before finally seeing the light of day in 1989. 

Before that the band issued the  follow-up to 'Steve McQueen', 'From Langley Park To Memphis', in 1988, and this record gave the band their biggest commercial success in the UK, with the single 'The King Of Rock 'n' Roll' reaching No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart, their only single to reach the Top 10. The album was also notable for including guest appearances from Stevie Wonder and Pete Townshend, as well as using multiple producers, including Thomas Dolby, who could not commit to working on the entire album. Two years later, the ironically titled 'Jordan: The Comeback', was nominated for a BRIT Award, and although Thomas Dolby was on board to give the music a more accessible appeal than their earlier material, the lyrics and subject matter remained characteristically oblique and suggestive. In 1992 the band took a five year hiatus, returning in 1997 with their first new studio material in the form of the album 'Andromeda Heights', but this was also a time of change for the group, with Wendy Smith leaving to pursue a new career as a voice instructor. In 2001 the band, now reduced to Paddy and Martin McAloon, released 'The Gunman And Other Stories', a concept album based around the American Wild West, and produced by Tony Visconti, but although the opening track 'Cowboy Dreams' was a hit for the British actor-singer Jimmy Nail, the parent album did not enjoy commercial success. In 2003 Paddy McAloon was diagnosed with a medical disorder that seriously impaired his vision, but he still released his first solo album that year, with 'I Trawl The Megahertz' coming out on the EMI Liberty label. Fifteen years later, in autumn 2018, the album was reissued on Sony Music as a Prefab Sprout record, as it had originally been intended. In 2006, McAloon suffered another medical setback, where due to the onset of Ménière's disease his hearing had deteriorated. 

Prefab Sprout's first album of new material since 2001, 'Let's Change The World With Music', emerged in 2009, but this was actually a collection of McAloon solo demos, originally recorded in the early 1990's and intended for an unmade full band Prefab Sprout album. Despite this, reviews in the UK press were favourable, and in 2013 a leak of ten previously unreleased songs on SoundCloud led to speculation that a new Prefab Sprout album was being recorded, but when it did appear, once again 'Crimson/Red' consisted of developed versions of tracks from the vaults. It also confirmed that Prefab Sprout was now in effect a solo project, with Paddy McAloon singing, playing and programming all of the music on the album on his own, as the deterioration of his hearing and eyesight made it impractical for any other musicians to be involved. Throughout the band's career, McAloon has been an extremely prolific songwriter, and there are rumours of hundreds of unreleased songs stored away in plastic boxes, and even several concept albums, such as ones based on the life of Michael Jackson, the history of the world ('Earth: The Story So Far') and even a fictional superhero ('Zorro The Fox'), but he also made sure that most of the band's singles included new songs on the flips, and so this album collects all the non-album singles and b-sides, from that very first cryptic ode to his girl-friend, right up to the band's hiatus in 1992. When you listen to these songs alongside their albums, you can hear just why McAloon is regarded as one of the great songwriters of his time, and why the band have been credited with producing some of the most beloved pop music of the 1980's and 1990's.

Track listing 

01 Lions In My Own Garden: Exit Someone (single 1982)
02 Radio Love (b-side of 'Lions In My Own Garden: Exit Someone')
03 The Devil Has All The Best Tunes (single 1983)
04 Walk On (b-side of 'The Devil Has All The Best Tunes')
05 Spinning Belinda (b-side of 'Couldn't Bear To Be Special' 1984)
06 Diana (b-side of 'When Love Breaks Down' 1984)
07 The Yearning Loins (b-side of 'When Love Breaks Down' 1984)
08 Donna Summer (b-side of 'When Love Breaks Down' 1984)
09 Heaven Can Wait (b-side of 'When Love Breaks Down' reissue 1985)
10 He'll Have To Go (b-side of 'When Love Breaks Down' 12" 1985)
11 Silhouettes (b-side of 'Faron Young' 1985)
12 Oh! The Swiss (b-side of 'Appetite' 12" 1985)
13 Wigs (b-side of 'Johnny Johnny' 1986)      
14 Dandy Of The Danube (b-side of 'Johnny, Johnny' 12" 1986)
15 Old Spoonface Is back (b-side of 'Johnny, Johnny' 12" 1986)
16 The Guest Who Stayed Forever (b-side of 'Johnny, Johnny' 12" 1986)  
17 Vendetta (b-side of 'Cars And Girls' 1988)
18 Nero The Zero (b-side of 'Cars And Girls' 12" 1988)
19 Real Life (Just Around The Corner (b-side of 'Cars And Girls' CD single 1988)
20 Tornado (b-side of 'Hey Manhattan!' 1988)
21 Bearpark (b-side of 'Nightingales' 1988)
22 The Sound Of Crying (single 1992)
23 If You Don't Love Me (single 1992)

Various Artists - Can I Get To Know You Better? (The Songs Of P. F. Sloan & Steve Barri 1966 - 1967) (1967)

In the mid-60's P. F. Sloan joined the group of L.A. session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew as a guitarist, working with such well-known backing musicians as drummer Hal Blaine, guitarist Tommy Tedesco, bassist Joe Osborn, and bassist/keyboardist Larry Knechtel. While working with Barry McGuire, Sloan created and played a guitar introduction as a hook to a new song by John Phillips entitled 'California Dreamin'', and the same backing track was used for the hit version by Phillips' group The Mamas & the Papas, which led to Sloan being a regular in their recording sessions. Sloan and Steve Barri also were performers while on Dunhill, and released a collection of surf instrumentals as the Rincon Surfside Band, while Sloan's successful folk-influenced songwriting prompted Dunhill to offer to record two solo albums by him. His single 'Sins Of A Family' reached the Billboard top 100 in late 1965, in the wake of the huge success of 'Eve Of Destruction'. During this time, Sloan & Barri continued to do session work with Jan Berry of Jan & Dean, until Berry's near-fatal car wreck in April 1966, which basically ended Jan & Dean's career. They also produced a number of other acts, including Ann-Margret, The Robbs, Terry Black and Patrician-Anne McKinnon, but the the main Sloan/Barri recording efforts for Dunhill were done as The Grass Roots, where they wrote and recorded their material under that name. However, after The Grass Roots enjoyed a Billboard Top 30 single with 'Where Were You When I Needed You', Dunhill forced the pair to recruit a real band to perform as The Grass Roots to promote their album, with Sloan and Barri continuing as producers for the band. However, despite having an accomplished songwriter on board, the new Grass Roots wanted to write their own material, and this, plus the fact that Sloan still wanted to have his own recording career, alienated him from both Barri and Dunhill management. During this period, Sloan's growing experience and reputation also attracted the attention of other young and aspiring musical artists, seeking both musical and business advice, and as a favor to a friend, he first met the relatively unknown Jimmy Webb at his home in 1968. Webb played him his songs 'Wichita Lineman', 'Up, Up And Away', an early version of 'MacArthur Park, and lastly 'By the Time I Get To Phoenix"', and Sloan has said that it changed his view of the 'singer/songwriter' forever. 

According to Barri, Sloan changed after the success of 'Eve Of Destruction', following McGuire to England and coming back a different person. Sloan himself described a change at this time: "I wanted to be loved. I wanted to be Elvis. . . . But P.F. Sloan? He wanted honesty and truth." During the Summer of Love, Sloan played as a solo artist on the final day of the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival in 1967, being a precursor to the more famous Monterey Pop Festival held the following weekend. Sloan's final Dunhill release was a solo single, 'I Can't Help But Wonder, Elizabeth' b/w 'Karma (A Study of Divinations)', released under the name Philip Sloan in 1967, before he moved to ATCO Records for further releases. After the falling out with Barri, Sloan wrote on his own, but the songs didn't seem to have the same hit potential are their collaborations, although they were still recorded by a variety of successful artists. After leaving Dunhill, Sloan recorded an album in 1968 titled 'Measure Of Pleasure', but in 1969 he left the music scene due to numerous business and legal problems, repeatedly reporting that Dunhill made threatening advances to force him to sign away the rights to his valuable compositions, and also blaming his absence from the music scene on an illness. It was not until the new millennium that he finally found relief from his long illness, with help from Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba. In 2005, Sloan made a series of recordings with producer Jon Tiven in Nashville, Tennessee, and the resulting album 'Sailover' was released in August 2006, followed by his final recording 'My Beethoven' in 2014. Sloan died of pancreatic cancer on November 15, 2015 at his home in Los Angeles, aged 70. After Dunhill was acquired by ABC Records, Barri stayed on in the 1970's as head of Artists & Repertoire (A&R) where he focused on signing and producing new artists. He collaborated with songwriters Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter on three albums for the Four Tops, which included the million-selling single 'Ain't No Woman (Like The One I've Got)', and after ABC Records reorganized in 1975, Barri departed to become A&R chief at Warner Brothers Records, leaving in 1986. This second post of the duo's songs includes many of my very favourite 60's singles, from The Turtles, The Mamas And The Papas, and The Grass Roots, and is a fitting tribute to two of the best songwriters of the 60's. 

Track listing

01 Secret Agent Man (Sloan, Barri) Johnny Rivers 1966
02 I Don't Wanna Say Goodnight (Sloan, Barri) Gary Lewis And The Playboys 1966
03 Let Me Be (Sloan, Barri) The Turtles 1966
04 Hold On (Sloan) Herman's Hermits 1966
05 What Am I Doin' Here with You (Sloan, Barri) Twinkle 1966
06 The Man Behind The Red Balloon (Sloan) Noel Harrison 1966
07 Can I Get To Know You Better (Sloan, Barri) The Turtles 1966
08 Autumn (Sloan, Barri) Gary Lewis And The Playboys 1966
09 You Baby (Sloan, Barri) The Mamas And The Papas 1966
10 I Know You'll Be There (Sloan, Barri) The Turtles 1966
11 See Ya 'Round On The Rebound (Sloan) Sandy Posey 1966
12 Things I Should Have Said (Sloan, Barri) The Grass Roots 1967
13 This Precious Time (Sloan, Barri) Terry Knight And The Pack 1967
14 My First Day Alone (Sloan, Barri) Peter And Gordon 1967
15 Another Day, Another Heartache (Sloan, Barri) The 5th Dimension 1967
16 Cling To Me (Sloan) Johnny Tillotson 1967
17 On A Quiet Night (Sloan, Barri) The Association 1967

Aaries - Always Remember (2002)

Aaries are a nu-soul duo made up of twins Ayanna & Ayinka Hipps, and throughout their teens and early twenties they worked steadily on Philadelphia’s 'new jack' circuit, finding themselves becoming fast musical soulmates with the likes of fellow Philly artists Jill Scott, The Roots and Musiq. By the time Musiq released his debut album 'Aijuswanaseing', AAries had already been touring with him as back-up singers, and were subsequently featured on his hit single 'Girl Next Door'. This opened a door which led to both the start of work on the duo's official debut album 'Always Remember', and also the subsequent signing of a deal for the album with Atlantic Records. A single was chosen to promote the record, and 'Strangers To Lovers' was their first release under their own name, with the vocals sashaying their way through the jazzy track, complete with warm background vocals. Similarly appealing, with its focus on each sister's individual vocal part, is the ballad 'So Nice', while the title track is an emotional song about never forgetting where you came from, and keeping the important things in life alive. The girls mix it up as well, with the up-tempo 'Waiting', as well as the powerhouse 'Even Though', which bursts with edgy, funk-ridden vocals, and hip-swaying bass. Alongside the original material is a fine rendition of the late Minnie Ripperton classic 'Baby, This Love I Have', featuring some beautiful vocal stylings. Unfortunately Atlantic didn't really know what to do with the girls, and so just cancelled the release, which is a shame as it is a fine nu-soul record. One of the songs did eventually surface, with 'Come Inside' appearing on the soundtrack to the 2004 film 'Johnson Family Vacation', but really the whole album deserves to be heard. 

Track listing

01 Always Remember 
02 Baby This Love I Have
03 Come Inside
04 Cool Like That
05 Even Though
06 So Nice
07 Strangers To Lovers
08 Time Will Reveal
09 Tonight
10 Truly Yours
11 Untrue
12 Your Woman

Madonna - Revenge (1998)

Following the release of her compilation album 'Something To Remember' in 1995, Madonna started taking vocal lessons in preparation for her role in the film of 'Evita', and later that year she gave birth to her daughter, Lourdes, and both of these events inspired a period of introspection for her. This was also around the time that she embraced Kabbalah and started studying Hinduism and yoga, and so all of this which was going on in her life helped her see the world from a different perspective. By May 1997 she had started writing songs for her next album, collaborating with Babyface, who had first worked with her on her previous album, 1994's 'Bedtime Stories', and the two wrote a couple of songs together before Madonna decided the collaborations were not going in the musical direction she wanted for the album. She instead turned to musician Rick Nowels, who had previously co-written songs with Stevie Nicks and Celine Dion, and this collaboration produced seven songs in nine days, although one of these displayed the album's future electronic musical direction. Madonna then began writing songs with Patrick Leonard, who had produced many songs for her in the late 1980's, but she felt that Leonard's production would have lent the songs more of a 'Peter Gabriel' vibe, which was a sound that she did not want for the album. Guy Oseary, chairman of Maverick Records, then phoned British electronic musician William Orbit, and suggested that he send some songs to Madonna, and a 13-track digital audio tape duly arrived for her to listen to. With Orbit on board, recording began in early June 1997, with Madonna listening to musical snippets that Orbit was working on over and over until she was inspired to write lyrics, and once she had an idea about the lyrical direction of the song, she would take her ideas back to Orbit, and they would expand on them. The album was recorded over four and a half months at Larrabee North Studio in North Hollywood, California, beginning in mid-June 1997, and was the longest that Madonna had ever worked on an album, as Orbit preferred to work with samples and synth sounds, rather than live musicians, and his computers were constantly breaking down, delaying recording until they were repaired. 

The finished album was a stylistic and aesthetic departure from her previous work, being an electronica and techno-pop record which incorporated multiple genres, including ambient, trip hop, psychedelia, and Middle Eastern music, while also seeing Madonna singing with greater breadth and a fuller tone. Having gone through so many collaborators before settling on Orbit, it's no surprise that there are a number of songs floating around that didn't make the album, particularly those written with Babyface, Leonard, and Nowels, as well as some with Orbit himself. 'Gone, Gone, Gone' is a pre-Orbit recording, sometimes referred to as 'Gone Gone Gone (This Love Affair Is Over)', while 'Like A Flower' was written around this time, but only leaked online in 2003, with it later being given to Italian singer Laura Pausini for her 2004 album 'Resta In Ascolto'. 'Revenge' was one of the early demos from 1997, produced by Greg Fitzgerald and Rick Nowels, and when it leaked in 2002 it was rumored to be a newly recorded song for the James Bond movie 'Die Another Day'. 'Be Careful' was written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard, and is possibly an early version of the song 'Be Careful (Cuidado Con Mi Corazon)', recorded with Ricky Martin and William Orbit, although Leonard is not credited on the released Madonna/Orbit version with Ricky Martin. 'No Substitute For Love' was the original name for what became 'Drowned World/Substitute For Love' on the album, where it was re-recorded with different lyrics, vocal melody and instrumentation, while 'You'll Stay' is a variation of 'Like A Flower' with different lyrics, and with a lovely stripped-back Latin flavour to it. 'I'll Be Gone' and 'Never Love A Stranger' are two of the songs produced by Babyface before that collaboration broke down, and so once again there are enough out-takes from the 'Ray Of Light' sessions to put together a companion record that could have come out some time in the three years before 'Music' appeared in 2000. Obviously it doesn't have the cohesion of 'Ray Of Light', as the songs were written with a number of different producers, and each had their own style, but there are still some fine pieces on here, in particular 'Like A Flower'/'You'll Stay', and so it's definitely worth hearing.  

Track listing
 
01 Be Careful  
02 Has To Be #1      
03 No Substitute For Love 
04 You'll Stay
05 Revenge
06 Never Love A Stranger
07 I'll Be Gone  
08 Has To Be #2  
09 Like A Flower
10 Gone Gone Gone

Ultimate Painting - Up! (2018)

Ultimate Painting were formed in London in 2014, by co-frontmen Jack Cooper and James Hoare, with a revolving cast of rhythm sections. Blackpool-born singer-guitarist Jack Cooper, who previously fronted Mazes and co-fronted Beep Seals with ex-Alfie guitarist Ian Smith, and Torbay-born singer-guitarist James Hoare, who co-fronts Proper Ornaments and also co-fronted Veronica Falls, joined forces to write and record together, and after signing to Trouble in Mind, they released their self-titled debut album in 2014. Follow-up album 'Green Lanes' came out in 2015, and third album 'Dusk' followed in September 2016. In October 2017, the band signed to UK label Bella Union, and it was confirmed that they were working on their next album at James Hoare's home studio. On 29 January 2018 the band released 'Not Gonna Burn Myself Anymore' as a digital single, and revealed the release date of fourth album 'Up!' was to be April 2018. On 12 February 2018, Jack Cooper announced that the band were splitting up, adding that "the partnership at the core of this band has always been a very fragile thing, but due to an irreconcilable breakdown we will no longer be working with each other". Despite having an album in the can, Cooper asked Ultimate Painting's label not to release it, and they agreed. 'Up!' was not slated for release until 06 April 2018, but barring any last-minute changes Cooper or Hoare might have made, the album was totally finished, with completed artwork, and advance digital downloads of the album had been sent out to journalists for review. One of these reviews claimed that it was a good record, filled with the same sort of Kinks-inspired understated hooks and quietly propulsive guitar lines that powered their previous releases. In retrospect, the press release that was sent out with the album reads like a foreshadowing, citing a "burned out" feeling amongst the band members, and "pain and indecision" that plagued their writing process. Given the number of digital copies that had already been sent out to journalists, it's no surprise that 'Up!' soon found its way to dedicated fans, whether through official channels or otherwise, and so here it is so that you can hear the swansong of this tragically short-lived and under-rated band.  

Track listing 

01 Needles In My Eyes
02 Not Gonna Burn Myself Anymore
03 I Am Your Gun
04 Foul & Fair
05 Someone's Out To Get You
06 Take Shelter
07 My Procedure
08 Lying In Charles Street
09 Darkness In His Eyes
10 Snake Pass

Dr. Dre - Detox (2010)

The period from mid 1999 to 2002 was the most successful of Dr. Dre's career, as after struggling to establish his new Aftermath Entertainment label, he struck gold with Eminem's debut, 'The Slim Shady LP', and then his own second album '2001'. As the latter moved more than 7 million copies, it dominated urban radio throughout 2000 with singles like 'Still D.R.E.', 'Forget About Dre', 'The Next Episode', 'Xxxplosive' and 'Fuck You', while Aftermath issued Eminem’s diamond-certified classic 'The Marshall Mathers LP' and Xzibit's platinum 'Restless', and became one of the hottest rap labels in the industry. As Dre was already considered one of the greatest producers of the past 25 years, a third solo record would have cemented his reputation in the rap hierarchy, and so he embarked on creating 'Detox', which he often called his 'final album'. During the next 10 years or so, he reportedly worked on tracks with more than two dozen rappers, producers and vocalists, from Aftermath stars like Eminem, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes and Kendrick Lamar, to T.I., Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Skylar Grey and Mary J. Blige. For nearly a decade, he publicly vacillated on whether or not 'Detox' would ever be released, and then just as he seemed primed to deliver the album the world was waiting for, he apparently decided not to put it out after all, leaving us with only Internet leaks and rumors of what might have been. The album was originally intended to be a concept album about the life of a hitman, possibly inspired by his impressive cameo in the 2001 film 'Training Day', but by the end of the year that idea had been ditched, and in November Ice Cube told MTV News that Dre had postponed 'Detox' to work on Cube's Aftermath debut, although that project never appeared, and Cube eventually left the label. By 2004 his time was being completely taken up with running Aftermath, as it was one of the hottest labels around, thanks to a roster that included 50 Cent, Eminem, Busta Rhymes and others. In 2006 Scratch magazine published a 'Detox' cover story, re-igniting the rumours of an imminent release, but 2007 came and went with no record, and Dre gave an extensive interview to the LA Times, where he admitted he was "really hoping to have it out this year, but i's going to have to be pushed back a while because of some other things I’ve got to work on". In 2008 Snoop Dogg claimed that the long-gestating album was finished, but that seemed premature when Dre announced in November that he was going back into the studio in a couple of months. 

In 2009 leaks from the seemingly never-ending sessions began to appear online, with tracks like 'I Am Hip-Hop (Detox)', 'Topless' and 'Shit Popped Off' surfacing, and in 2010 things finally seemed to be happening, with a collaboration with Jay Z, 'Under Pressure', being announced as the album's first single. However, when an unfinished version of 'Under Pressure' leaked, Dre posted a message saying that it was an incomplete song and that he was still working on it, and an official version has yet to appear. The end of the year finally brought the first official 'Detox' music, with 'Kush', featuring Snoop Dogg and Akon, earning mixed reviews, and peaking at Number 34 on the pop charts, while 'I Need A Doctor' proved to be the bigger hit, thanks to soaring pop production by Alex Da Kid. One theory about the album is that 'Detox' is a catch-all name for everything Dr. Dre has worked on for the past 15 years, with material from it being released when he felt the time was right. The album therefore became more mythic in the hip-hop community, and it served, whether Dre intended to or not, as a useful publicity tease even as the hype proved impossible to live up to. Between 2009 and 2011, the best of the hundreds of song snippets he worked on were leaked, and there are numerous CDs of supposed 'Detox' tracks doing the rounds, including a 10 volume CD set of 'The Detox Chroniclez', but still a definitive track listing proves elusive. By checking out the various fan-made albums, and seeing which tracks they agree should be included, I've complied my own version, mostly based on the one by Longtou Edits, but including some different versions and some of my own edits. Given an unlimited budget and no deadline, you could spend the rest of your life locked in a perfectionist's prison, constantly terrified that the music you'll make next will be better than the music you've made so far, but with each passing day you only become further away from the finish line. Until Dre realises this and releases the album, all we can do is collect what's leaked so far and tell him that it sounds perfectly fine to us.   

Track listing

01 Intro 
02 Die Hard (feat. Eminem) 
03 Coming Back (feat. T.I.)
04 Mr. Prescription (feat. Nikki Grier & Slim The Mobster) 
05 This Is Detox (I Am Hip-Hop) (feat. T.I.) 
06 Topless (feat. Eminem & Nas)  
07 Kush (feat. Snoop Dogg & Akon)  
08 Say Dr. Dre (feat. Crooked I) 
09 Popped Off (feat. T.I.) 
10 Under Pressure (feat. Jay-Z) 
11 The Doctor  
12 OG's Theme (feat. Ludacris)  
13 Westcoast Party (feat. Young Knox & O.G. Rhymez)  
14 Underdog (feat. Nate Dogg) 
15 I Need A Doctor (feat. Eminem & Skylar Grey)  
16 Hey Young World (feat. The Game & Snoop Dogg)
17 Turn Me On  
18 Good Things (Interlude) 
19 Chillin' (feat. Swizz Beatz) 
20 The Next Episode 2006 (feat. Snoop Dogg & Nate Dogg)  
21 Topless (Reprise) (feat. T.I & Nas) 
22 Kush (Remix) (feat. Snoop Dogg, The Game & Slim The Mobster) 
23 Doggisodes (Outro) 

Various Artists - Take Me For What I'm Worth (The Songs Of P. F. Sloan & Steve Barri 1964 - 1965) (1965)

Philip Gary Schlein (known professionally as Philip Gary "Flip" (P. F.) Sloan) was born on 18 September 1945 in New York City, to an American father and a Romanian-born mother. His family moved to West Hollywood, California in 1957, where his father, a pharmacist, changed the family name from "Schlein" to "Sloan" after repeatedly being denied a liquor license for his store. When Sloan was 13 his father bought him a guitar, and while at the music store in Hollywood he met Elvis Presley, who gave him an impromptu music lesson. In 1959, the 14-year old "Flip" Sloan recorded a single, 'All I Want Is Loving' / 'Little Girl In The Cabin' for the Aladdin Records label in LA, but the label folded soon after its release. At 16 he became part of the burgeoning Los Angeles music scene, landing a job on the songwriting staff at music publisher Screen Gems, which was then the largest publisher on the West Coast. While there he formed a partnership with Steve Barri (Steven Barry Lipkin), and the duo made several attempts at recording a hit single under names such as Philip and Stephan, The Rally-Packs, The Wildcats, The Street Cleaners, Themes Inc., and The Lifeguards. In 1963, they came to the attention of Screen Gems executive Lou Adler, who decided to use them as backing singers and musicians (Sloan on lead guitar and Barri on percussion) for Jan and Dean, whom he managed. Sloan and Barri wrote the theme song for the T.A.M.I. Show (Teen Age Music International Show) and were credited on all Jan and Dean albums from throughout 1964 and 1965, and Jan Berry used Sloan as the lead falsetto voice instead of Dean Torrence on the band's top 10 hit 'The Little Old Lady From Pasadena'. Around that time, Sloan and Barri also wrote their first U.S. Billboard Top 100 hit, 'Kick That Little Foot Sally Ann', arranged by Jack Nitzsche and performed by a Watts, California-born artist named Round Robin. They also appeared on surf records by Bruce & Terry (Bruce Johnson and Terry Melcher pre-involvement with The Beach Boys) and the Rip Chords, and they recorded their own surf singles and an album as The Fantastic Baggys. Adler then doubled their salaries to hire them for his startup companies, publisher Trousdale Music and label Dunhill Records, and while under contract he wrote or co-wrote hits for many performers, including Barry McGuire, The Turtles, Herman's Hermits, The Searchers, and Johnny Rivers, for whom they wrote the theme tune for Danger Man, a British TV series that had been given a new title (Secret Agent) and theme for the US market. In the first of two posts, here are some of the best songs that Sloan and Barri wrote which were recorded in 1964 and 1965, covering garage-rock, surf tunes, R&B belters, songs for UK pop groups, including the pre-Procol Harum r'n'b group The Paramounts, and possibly Sloan's most famous song 'Eve Of Destruction'.  

Track listing 

01 That's Cool, That's Trash (Sloan, Barri) The Kingsmen 1964
02 Summer Means Fun (Sloan, Barri) Bruce & Terry 1964
03 Please Don't Go (Sloan, Barri) Yvonne Carroll 1964
04 Meet Me Tonight Little Girl Sloan, Barri) Philip & Stephan 1964
05 Kick That Little Foot Sally Ann (Sloan, Barri) Round Robin 1964
06 You Say Pretty Words (Sloan, Barri) Ramona King 1964
07 (Here They Come) From All Over The World (Sloan, Barri) Jan & Dean 1965
08 Upon A Painted Ocean (Sloan) Barry McGuire 1965
09 These Are Bad Times (Sloan, Barri) Paul Revere & The Raiders 1965
10 I Wonder Who The Lucky Guy Will Be (Sloan, Barri) Freddie And The Dreamers 1965
11 Eve Of Destruction (Sloan) Barry McGuire 1965
12 The Sins Of A Family (Sloan) Murray The "K" 1965
13 Goes To Show (Just How Wrong You Can Be) (Sloan, Barri) Joey Paige 1965
14 Take Me For What I'm Worth (Sloan, Barri) The Searchers 1965
15 Where Were You When I Needed You (Sloan, Barri) Del Shannon 1965
16 A Must To Avoid (Sloan, Barri) Herman's Hermits 1965
17 You Never Had It So Good (Sloan, Barri) The Paramounts 1965

Michael Jackson - Nite Line (1982)

Michael Jackson's 1979 album 'Off The Wall' received huge critical acclaim and was a commercial success, having sold 10 million copies at the time, but the years between 'Off The Wall' and 'Thriller' were a transitional period for him, which saw him become increasingly independent. It also saw him become deeply unhappy, in particular about what he perceived as the under-performance of 'Off The Wall', which he felt deserved the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. He also felt undervalued by the music industry, and so for his next album he wanted to create a record where "every song was a killer", as he was frustrated by albums that would have "one good song, and the rest were like b-sides ... Why can't every one be like a hit song? Why can't every song be so great that people would want to buy it if you could release it as a single? ... That was my purpose for the next album." He reunited with 'Off The Wall' producer Quincy Jones to record his sixth studio album, and they worked together on 30 songs, nine of which were included on the album. The recordings commenced on 14 April 1982, with Jackson and Paul McCartney recording 'The Girl Is Mine', and it was completed five months later in November 1982. Jackson wrote four songs for the record - 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'', 'The Girl Is Mine', 'Beat It' and 'Billie Jean', with the others being provided by Rod Temperton, James Ingram/Quincy Jones and John Bettis and Steve Procaro of Toto, who also played on the record with his band. 

'Billie Jean' was very personal to Jackson, who struggled with obsessed fans, but Jones wanted to shorten the long introduction, but was over-ruled by Jackson, who insisted that it remain because it made him want to dance. The ongoing backlash against disco also made it necessary to move in a different musical direction from the disco-heavy 'Off The Wall', and so Jones and Jackson were determined to make a rock song that would appeal to all tastes, and spent weeks looking for a suitable guitarist for the song 'Beat It', eventually settling on Steve Lukather of Toto to play the rhythm guitar parts and Eddie Van Halen to play the solo. When Rod Temperton wrote the song 'Thriller', he wanted to call it 'Starlight' or 'Midnight Man', and demos of 'Starlight' do exist, but he settled on 'Thriller' because he felt the name had merchandising potential. While it's probably a foregone conclusion that the best tracks were chosen for 'Thriller', of the 30 songs worked on with Jones, there are a number which deserve a hearing, and these include 'Nite Line', 'She's Trouble', 'Can't Get Outta The Rain', and 'Hot Street', all of which have a great 80's dance feel to them, although Jones felt that they just weren't up to the standard of some of the other recordings. 'Scared Of The Moon' is a lovely piano ballad, which might not have fitted in with the rest of the high-energy songs, and another ballad, 'Someone In The Dark', was recorded in 1982 for the film 'E.T.', and so while not strictly a 'Thriller' out-take, it does fit the timeline of these other songs. 'There Must Be More To Life Than This' is known as a duet between Jackson and Freddie Mercury, but here we have Jackson's solo take on the song, with muffled encouragements from Mercury, and lastly we have two co-writes with Paul Anka, which weren't without their own issues. 

In 1983 Jackson worked with Anka on demos for the songs 'Love Never Felt So Good' and 'I Never Heard'. The original versions only featured Jackson's vocals, finger snaps and a piano, played by Anka, and in 1984 Anka sent 'Love Never Felt So Good' to Johnny Mathis, who recorded a new version with revised lyrics by Anka and Kathleen Wakefield, and added it to his 1984 album 'A Special Part Of Me'. In 2006 Jackson's demo leaked online, and then during the 2013/2014 recording sessions for the 'Xscape' album it was given a revision as a disco-infused track. The other song fared no better, as 'I Never Heard' was written by Anka and Jackson, and a demo was recorded at Anka's California recording studio, with the intention of adding it as a track on Anka's 1983 duets album 'Walk A Fine Line'. However, later in the 80s, Anka accused Jackson of stealing the tapes, and threatened to take legal action if the recordings were not returned. Jackson's version of the song was reportedly found in a box of tapes with only Jackson's voice and a piano accompaniment, and although he subsequently returned the tapes, Anka insisted that Jackson had made a copy of the recording of 'I Never Heard', and had re-recorded and re-titled the track to 'This Is It', later giving its name to his documentary film. The cover for this post is what would have graced the original release had the title track remained 'Starlight', but when it was renamed 'Thriller' the cover was re-shot to the one we know and love today. 

Track listing

01 Nite Line

02 Carousel

03 Got The Hots

04 Scared Of The Moon

05 Can't Get Outta The Rain

06 There Must Be More To Life Than This

07 Hot Street

08 This Is It

09 Somewhere In The Dark

10 She's Trouble

11 Love Never Felt So Good

2Pac - Troublesome 21 (1992)

Following the release of his debut album '2Pacalypse Now' in November 1991, Tupak Shakur started to prepare his second official album, which was originally supposed to be called 'Black Starry Night', but as the recording process went on over the next few months, he decided to change the name to 'Troublesome 21'. Although it was pretty much finished, Time Warner scrapped it due to the outcry in the media and political legislatures over the lyrics on albums such as '2Pacalypse Now', and many of the songs from the album remain officially unreleased, although some of them did turn up on b-sides in 1993, while a few of them appeared on his official second album 'Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z...', either in slightly reworded form, or taken from the 'Troublesome 21' master tapes. The album stands as a truly historical piece in 2Pac's discography due to the fact these are unreleased or rarely heard songs because of the controversial lyrics at the time. The album was produced by Stretch, Big D the Impossible, Truman Jefferson, Laylaw, and the D-Flow Production Squad, and while there are various track listings online for this album, I've taken it directly from Shakur's handwritten notes for it, which is also included in the folder. 

Track listing

01 Intro
02 Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... 
03 The Streetz R Deathrow 
04 I Get Around (feat. Digital Underground)
05 Holler If Ya Hear Me (feat. Live Squad)
06 Don't Call Me Bitch (feat. Shock G)
07 Papa'z Song (feat. The Wycked & Poppi)
08 Crooked Nigga Too (feat. Stretch)
09 Souljah's Revenge (When I Get Free)

10 What Goes On (feat. The Wycked & Mouse Man)

11 Still Don't Give A Fuck
12 I Wonda If Heaven Got A Ghetto
13 Nothin' But Love (feat. Dave Hollister)
14 Troublesome
15 Keep Ya Head Up (feat. Dave Hollister)

Starsailor - Let It Shine (2008)

Bassist James Stelfox and drummer Ben Byrne had been playing together in Warrington, Cheshire for a number of years, having met whilst studying on a music course at Wigan and Leigh College, and they formed a band together in 2000. When their regular singer fell ill, they recruited young Chorley singer and songwriter James Walsh from a school choir, being impressed by his Jeff Buckley-influenced singing style. The band, then named Waterface, had tried a number of guitarists before they asked long-time friend Barry Westhead to join on keyboards, with his arrival being heralded as the most significant event in the band's formation. Walsh also took up the guitar, following frustration over not finding a musician right for the group, and the band started to build up a reputation, changing their name to Starsailor, after the 1970 album by Tim Buckley. A journalist from NME saw a gig in 2000 and gave the band a glowing review, and their performance at the Glastonbury Festival added to the band's reputation, leading to a bidding war among UK record companies, and as a relative of one band member worked for EMI, the band signed to them in 2000. Their first single 'Fever' was released in early 2001, and the song plus its two b-sides 'Love Is Here' and 'Coming Down' were cut from a demo recording session in mid-2000, and all three tracks went on to feature on Starsailor's first album 'Love Is Here', albeit in re-recorded form. Their second single 'Good Souls' was released in April 2001 and featured a cover of Van Morrison's 'The Way Young Lovers Do' on the flip, and at the same time the band were recording their debut album in Rockfield Studios in Wales. The album came out in August 2001, and an extended version of 'Alcoholic' appeared as the third single to be taken from it, with its number ten chart position remaining the band's second highest placing to date. 'Love Is Here' reached number 2 in the UK album charts in October 2001, and the band ended the year by winning the "Brightest New Hope" award at the NME Awards. 

For their second album 'Silence Is Easy' the band teamed up with Phil Spector ,in what ended up being his final production work before his conviction of murder in 2009 and his death in 2021. However, the collaboration was short-lived, with sessions at London's Abbey Road proving that Spector was just as difficult to work with he was reputed to be, and only the tracks 'Silence Is Easy' and 'White Dove' made it to the album. The band co-produced seven of the other tracks with Danton Supple, while former Radiohead and The Stone Roses producer John Leckie was brought in to oversee the recording of 'Shark Food'. The first single was 'Silence Is Easy', which achieved the band's highest UK chart position at number 9, and three more singles from the record followed, the second of which 'Born Again' had evolved from a b-side to 2002's 'Poor Misguided Fool'. The album charted well, but sales were sluggish in comparison to the band's first album. EMI allowed the band plenty of time to record their follow-up, having targeted producer Rob Schnapf to produce it, and the group relocated to Los Angeles to record. Six possible titles were mooted ('Faith, Hope, Love'/'Here I Go'/'Ashes' or 'In the Crossfire'/'I Do Not Know'/'Counterfeit Life'), but the band eventually settled for 'On The Outside', a statement of their feeling of their position in the music industry. The sound was different from the previous two releases, being far heavier than its predecessors, and the recording was all done to tape, with no use being made of editing software such as Pro Tools to perfect the recordings. The album was released in October 2005, and the first single taken from it was 'In the Crossfire', released by Artists Addiction Records in the USA on 22 August. Critics raved about the release, with many citing it as a return to form, but despite this the album only charted at number 13. Two more singles were taken from the album, with 'This Time' and 'Keep Us Together' following 'In The Crossfire', but sales were disappointing, and 'Keep Us Together' became their first single not to reach the UK Top 40. 

The band played numerous festivals in the summer of 2006, including the V Festival, and they also supported the Rolling Stones on their 'Bigger Bang' Tour in 2006 and 2007. In the autumn of 2006 they toured North America, playing both headlining shows and supporting James Blunt, and in January 2007 they undertook their first trip to Russia, playing in the B2 Club of Moscow. Starsailor started to play various gigs during the months while they were recording their fourth album, appearing with The Killers in November 2007, and playing at the Isle of Wight Festival on the last day, with The Police headlining. On 16 October 2008 it was officially confirmed that the new album would be called 'All The Plans' and was to be released in March 2009, and in December the 'Boy In Waiting EP' was released as a free digital download for those who pre-ordered the deluxe edition of 'All the Plans', containing three tracks that didn't make the album. 'All The Plans' debuted at Number 26 in the UK Album Charts on 14 March 2009, while 'Tell Me It's Not Over' spent one week in the UK Singles Chart, reaching No. 73. Towards the end of 2009 Walsh began to work on a solo project, and in November 2009 it was officially announced by The Lancashire Evening Post that Starsailor was on hold, and that Walsh was concentrating on his solo career. Starsailor did reform in 2014, playing support slots at the Summer In The City festival on 10 and 11 July at Castlefield Bowl, headlined by Pixies and James, and touring throughout 2015 and 2016, while in 2017 they released 'Listen To Your Heart', their first new music in almost two years. Their fifth album 'All This Life' was released in September 2017 through the band's new record label, Cooking Vinyl, and in December 2021 they announced that they were to release an expanded 20th anniversary edition of their album 'Love Is Here', as well as going out on tour to support it, so this is the perfect time to collect together all their non-album b-sides, including a Live Lounge cover of a Sugababes classic, and the 'Boy In Waiting' EP, to remind us of one of the best bands to appear on the indie scene in the early 2000's.   

Track listing
  
01 The Way Young Lovers Do (b-side of 'Goodsouls' 2001)
02 From A Whisper To A Scream (b-side of 'Lullaby' 2001)
03 Let It Shine (b-side of 'Alcoholic' 2001)
04 Grandma's Hands (b-side of 'Alcoholic' 2001)
05 Hot Burrito #2 (b-side of 'Poor Misguided Fool' 2002)
06 At The End Of A Show (b-side of 'Born Again' 2003)
07 She Understands (b-side of 'Silence Is Easy' 2003)
08 Could You Be Mine (b-side of 'Silence Is Easy' 2003)
09 A Message (b-side of 'Four To The Floor' 2003)
10 Always (b-side of 'In The Crossfire' 2005)
11 Rise Up (b-side of 'Keep Us Together' 2006)
12 Believe Me (b-side of 'This Time' 2006)
13 Push The Button (Live Lounge version) (b-side of 'This Time' 2006)
14 In Their World (b-side of 'Tell Me It's Not Over' 2008)
15 Do You Believe In Love (from the 'Boy In Waiting' EP 2008)
16 Darling Be Home Soon (from the 'Boy In Waiting' EP 2008)

17 Black Limousine (from the 'Boy In Waiting' EP 2008)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - All Lights Fucked On the Hairy Amp Drooling (1994)

A year or so ago I posted a compilation from Godspeed You! Black Emperor which got some fans quite excited, as the post was titled after part of the name of their legendary cassette release from 1994, where they dubbed 33 copies and then discarded it from their catalogue. Those excited fans thought that I'd managed to locate one of those tapes, and I had to disappoint them by admitting that the post was just a collection of rarities that I'd put together, and that it was unlikely that the tape would ever see the light of day. How wrong I was, as early this year a copy was leaked on 4Chan, and in response to that the band themselves have made the whole tape available on Bandcamp! They are only asking $6Canadian for a download, and you can also hear the whole thing on the site, but as it is supposed to be nothing like their later work you might want to sample it first, and so give it a listen here, where all the tracks have been split out rather than just being two side-long pieces as it is on Bandcamp, and if you like it then spare $6Canadian to support the band. For an in depth analysis of the tape, this site has everything you could possibly want to know about it.

Track listing

Side A

01 Drifting Intro Open 

02 Shot Thru Tubes

03 Three Three Three (Pt. I)

04 Three Three Three (Pt. II)

05 Three Three Three (Pt. III)

06 When All The Furnaces Exploded

07 When All The Furnaces Exploded (cont.)

08 Beep

09 Hush

10 Son Of A Diplomat, Daughter Of A Politician

11 Glencairn 14 / $13.13

12 Loose The Idiot Dogs

13 Diminishing Shine 

14 Diminishing Shine (cont.)

15 Random Luvly Moncton Blue(s)

16 Dadmomdaddy

17 Untitled (Dadmomdaddy cont.)

Side B

18 333 Frames Per Second Intro

19 333 Frames Per Second

20 Revisionist Alternatif Wounds To The Hairkut Hit Head 

21 Ditty For Moya

22 Buried Ton 

23 And The Hairy Guts Shine

24 And The Hairy Guts Shine (cont.) / Hoarding

25 Deterior 23

26 All Angels Gone

27 Deterior 17

28 Deterior Three

29 Devil's In The Church

30 No Job / Dress Like Shit

31 Perfumed Pink Corpses From The Lips Of Ms. Celine Dion

Lady Gaga - Team Love Child (2007)

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was born on 28 March 1986 in Manhattan, New York City, to an upper middle class Catholic family of Italian ancestry. From the age of eleven she attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school, where she considered herself a misfit, and was mocked for "being either too provocative or too eccentric". She began playing the piano at age four, taking piano lessons and practicing through her childhood, and the lessons taught her to create music by ear, which she preferred over reading sheet music. As a teenager she played at open mic nights, and also enjoyed acting, playing the lead roles of Adelaide in the play Guys and Dolls, and Philia in the play A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Regis High School, and this led to her studying method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute for ten years. In 2003, at age 17, she gained early admission to Collaborative Arts Project 21, a music school at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied music, and improved her songwriting skills by writing essays on art, religion, social issues and politics, including a thesis on pop artists Spencer Tunick and Damien Hirst. In 2005 she withdrew from school during the second semester of her second year to focus on her music career, and recorded two songs with hip-hop artist Melle Mel for an audio book accompanying Cricket Casey's children's novel 'The Portal In The Park', and she also formed a band called the SGBand with some friends from NYU, playing  gigs around New York and becoming a fixture of the downtown Lower East Side club scene. After the 2006 Songwriters Hall of Fame New Songwriters Showcase at The Cutting Room in June, talent scout Wendy Starland recommended her to music producer Rob Fusari, who collaborated with her and helped her to develop her songs and compose new material. Fusari and Gaga established a company called Team Love Child LLC to promote her career, with the name coming from Gaga's description of herself as being the hypothetical lovechild of David Bowie and Jerry Lee Lewis. The duo recorded and produced electropop tracks, and posted many of them to her MySpace or PureVolume pages for a couple of months at a time, as well as sending them to music industry executives. Joshua Sarubin, the head of A&R at Def Jam Recordings, responded positively, and after approval from his boss, Gaga was signed to Def Jam in September 2006, although she was dropped from the label three months later. Having initially focused on avant-garde electronic dance music, Gaga began to incorporate pop melodies and the glam rock style of David Bowie and Queen into her songs, and despite splitting up, Fusari continued to develop the songs he had created with her, sending them to the producer and record executive Vincent Herbert, and in November 2007 Herbert signed her to his Streamline Records label, which was an imprint of the newly established Interscope Records. Gaga later credited Herbert as the man who discovered her, but that was certainly helped in no small part by Fusari's efforts on her behalf, and so this album celebrates their collaboration as Team Love Child, with seventeen of the songs that they wrote and recorded together in 2006 and 2007. 

Track listing

01 Dirty Ice Cream 
02 Oh Well
03 Glitter And Grease
04 Fancy Pants
05 Reel Cool
06 Shake Ur Kitty
07 Musicland (interlude)
08 Sexy Ugly
09 Blueberry Kisses
10 RetroPhysical
11 Fooled Me Again
12 Kandy Life
13 Love Sick Girl
14 We Are Plastic
15 Let Love Down
16 Filthy Pop
17 Rockshow

Slash - ...and on guitar (2008)

Saul Hudson was born in Stoke-on-Trent on July 23, 1965, and was immersed in music from the outset. His father, Anthony Hudson, was an artist who created album covers for musicians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, while his mother Ola J. Hudson was an African-American fashion designer and costumier from the United States, whose clients included David Bowie (whom she also dated), Ringo Starr, and Janis Joplin. During his early years, he was raised by his father and paternal grandparents in Stoke-on-Trent while his mother moved back to her native United States to work in Los Angeles, and when he was around five years old, they both joined his mother in Los Angeles. Following his parents' separation in 1974, Hudson became a self-described "problem child", living with his mother, but often being sent to live with his beloved maternal grandmother whenever she had to travel for her job. He sometimes accompanied his mother to work, where he met several film and music stars, and was given the nickname "Slash" by actor Seymour Cassel, because he was "always in a hurry, zipping around from one thing to another". In 1979, Slash decided to form a band with his friend Steven Adler, and although the band never materialized, it prompted him to take up an instrument, and since Adler had designated himself the role of guitarist, Slash decided to learn how to play bass. Equipped with a one-string flamenco guitar given to him by his grandmother, he began taking classes with guitar teacher Robert Wolin, but during his first lesson he decided to switch from bass to guitar after hearing Wolin play 'Brown Sugar' by the Rolling Stones. In 1981 he joined his first band Tidus Sloan, and a couple of years later he reunited with Alder and formed Road Crew, named after the Motörhead song '(We Are) The Road Crew'. He placed an advertisement in a newspaper looking for a bassist, and received a response from Duff McKagan. They auditioned a number of singers, including one-time Black Flag vocalist Ron Reyes, but they couldn't find one that suited them and so the band broke up the following year. Slash and Adler then joined  local group Hollywood Rose, which featured singer Axl Rose and guitarist Izzy Stradlin, and after that he played with Black Sheep, and also unsuccessfully auditioned for glam-metallers Poison. 

In June 1985, Slash was asked by Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin to join their new band Guns N' Roses, along with Duff McKagan and Steven Adler, replacing founding members Tracii Guns, Ole Beich and Rob Gardner, respectively, and they began playing Los Angeles-area nightclubs‍ ‌such as the Whisky a Go Go, The Roxy, and The Troubadour‍. Before one of the shows in 1985, Slash shoplifted a black felt top hat and a Native American-style silver concho belt from two stores on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, combining them to create a piece of custom headwear which would become his trademark. After being scouted by several major record labels, the band signed with Geffen Records in March 1986, and they released their debut album 'Appetite For Destruction' in 1987, eventually selling over 28 million copies worldwide. However, as their success grew, so did interpersonal tensions within the band, and in 1989, during a show as opening act for the Rolling Stones, Axl Rose threatened to leave the band if certain members didn't stop "dancing with Mr. Brownstone," a reference to their song of the same name about heroin use. Slash was among those who promised to clean up, but the following year Adler was fired from the band because of his heroin addiction, being replaced by Matt Sorum of The Cult. In May 1991, the band embarked on the two-and-a-half-year-long Use Your Illusion Tour, and the following September they released the long-awaited albums 'Use Your Illusion I' and 'Use Your Illusion II', which debuted at No. 2 and No. 1 respectively on the U.S. chart. In the four years since the release of 'Appetite For Destruction', Slash had gained an enviable reputation as a guitarist, and so it was no surprise that he was asked to guest on albums from other artists, and one of the first that he accepted was an invitation from Iggy Pop, adding his guitar to Pop's 1990 'Brick By Brick' album, followed swiftly with a guest appearance on Bob Dylan's 'Under The Red Sky' album (even though Dylan later cut his solo), and collaborations with Alice Cooper, Motörhead, Michael Jackson, and Spinal Tap, and even though Spinal Tap don't take themselves too seriously, Slash pulled out all the stops for his contribution to their 'Break Like The Wind'. In November 1991 Izzy Stradlin abruptly left the band, and was replaced by Gilby Clarke of Candy and Kill for Thrills, and after the Use Your Illusion Tour had ended in 1993, the band released 'The Spaghetti Incident?', a cover album of mostly punk songs, which proved less successful than its predecessors. Slash then wrote several songs for what would have become the follow-up album to the 'Use Your Illusion' double set, but they were rejected by Rose and McKagan, and so with the band's failure to collaborate resulting in no album being recorded, Slash announced in October 1996 that he was no longer a part of Guns N' Roses. 

In 1994 he added his guitar to band-mates Gilby Clarke's solo album, and then formed Slash's Snakepit, a side project that featured his Guns N' Roses bandmates Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarke on drums and rhythm guitar respectively, as well as Alice in Chains' Mike Inez on bass and Jellyfish's Eric Dover on vocals. Their 1995 album 'It's Five O'Clock Somewhere' included Slash's rejected material that was intended for Guns N' Roses, and was critically praised for ignoring the then-popular conventions of alternative music. Faring well on the charts, the band toured in support of the album, before disbanding in 1996. Slash then toured for two years with the blues rock cover band Slash's Blues Ball, as well as adding his guitar to albums from Sammy Hagar and Insane Clown Posse, before deciding to regroup Slash's Snakepit in 1999, with Rod Jackson on vocals, Ryan Roxie on rhythm guitar, Johnny Griparic on bass, and Matt Laug on drums. Their second album 'Ain't Life Grand' was released in October 2000 through Koch Records, but it didn't sell as well as the band's previous release, and its critical reception was mixed. In 2002 Slash reunited with Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum for a Randy Castillo tribute concert, and realizing that they still had the chemistry of their days in Guns N' Roses, they decided to form a new band together. Izzy Stradlin was initially involved, but left after the others decided to find a lead singer; a task that took many months listening to demo tapes, before former Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland got the Velvet Revolver gig. In 2003 they released their first single 'Set Me Free' followed by their debut album 'Contraband' in June 2004, which crashed in at No. 1 on the U.S. chart, eventually selling two million copies. In July 2007 Velvet Revolver released their second album 'Libertad', and embarked on a second tour, but during a show in March 2008 Weiland announced to the audience that it would be the band's final tour, following which he was fired from the band, with Slash insisting "chemical issues" had led to his departure. Despite the loss of their singer, the band did not officially disband, and in early 2010 they began writing new songs and auditioning new singers. By January 2011 they'd recorded nine demos, and was reportedly due to make a decision on their singer, but Slash eventually admitted that they had been unable to find a suitable vocalist and that Velvet Revolver would go on hiatus for the next few years while its members focused on other projects. So that's the perfect place to end this collection of Slash's extra-curricular work between 1990 and 2008, so settle down and listen to some superb rock guitar on a wide variety of genres from a stellar group of artists. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Home (from 'Brick By Brick' by Iggy Pop 1990)
02 Wiggle Wiggle (from 'Under The Red Sky by Bob Dylan 1990)
03 Always On The Run (from 'Mama Said' by' Lenny Kravitz 1991)
04 Hey Stoopid (from 'Hey Stoopid' by Alice Cooper 1991)

05 Give In To Me (from 'Dangerous' by Michael Jackson 1991)

06 Break Like The Wind (from 'Break Like The Wind' by Spinal Tap 1992)

07 You Better Run  (from 'March Ör Die' by Motörhead 1992)

08 I Don't Live Today (from 'Stone Free: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix' by Various Artists 1993)

09 Tie Your Mother Down (from 'Resurrection' by Brian May & Cozy Powell 1993)

10 Hold Out For Love (from 'Colour Of Your Dreams' by Carole King 1993)

11 Believe In Me (from 'Believe In Me' by Duff McKagan 1993)

Disc Two

01 Cure Me...Or Kill Me... (from 'Pawnshop Guitars' by Gilby Clarke 1994)

02 Where You Belong (from 'Carmine Appice's Guitar Zeus' by Carmine Appice 1995)

03 Communication Breakdown (from 'Stairway To Heaven' by Various Artists 1997)

04 Moja Mi Corazón (from 'Azabache' by Marta Sánchez 1997) 

05 Little White Lie (from 'Marching To Mars' by Sammy Hagar 1997)

06 Hall Of Illusions (from 'The Great Milenko' by Insane Clown Posse 1997)

07 Human (from 'Human' by Rod Stewart 2001)

08 Over, Under, Sideways, Down (from 'Birdland' by The Yardbirds 2003) 

09 The Blame Game (from 'Hollywood Zen' by Matt Sorum 2003)

08 Street Child (from 'Street Child' by Elan 2003)
09 Mustang Nismo (from the soundtrack to the film 'The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift' 2006)
10 Gioca Con Me (from 'Il Mondo Che Vorrei' by Vasco 2008)

Chris Rainbow - The Drum Drops (1982)

Christopher James Harley was born on 18 November 1946, and before he embarked on a career as a musician he worked in a variety of occupations, including doing promotional work for the band Dream Police, contributing cartoons to Glasgow underground paper The Word, and studying at the Society for Psychic Research. In 1972 and 1973, he was involved in a band called Hopestreet, recording two singles, 'Iron Sky' and 'Wait Until Tomorrow', and following this he recorded his first music as Christopher Rainbow with the singles 'Give Me What I Cry For' and 'Solid State Brain' in 1974, and 'Mr. Man' and 'Gimme Just A Little Beat Of Your Heart' in 1975. He adopted the stage name Christopher Rainbow to avoid confusion with Steve Harley, who was at the peak of his fame at the time, taking the name from a television reporter that he saw on TV. Under that name he released three solo albums, with the debut 'Home Of The Brave' coming out in 1975, followed by 'Looking Over My Shoulder' in 1977, and 'White Trails' in 1979. In his early days he received wide recognition for his music through the support of Kenny Everett, then on Capital Radio in London, and who featured his music extensively, and in return Rainbow made jingles for Capital, some of which have since surfaced on archive releases. In 1979 he began his long association with The Alan Parsons Project, recording on many of their albums from 'Eve' through to Parsons' 1999 solo album 'The Time Machine', and he also appeared on other associated works of Parsons, such as Panarama's 'Can This Be Paradise' in 1982, and Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons' 'Freudiana' in 1990. He also aided Jon Anderson with vocal work on his 'Song Of Seven' album in 1980 and on 'Animation' in 1983. In the early 1980's, Rainbow joined Camel, appearing on the albums 'The Single Factor' and 'Stationary Traveller', and performing with them on their 1984 tour, recordings of which were released as the album 'Pressure Points'. 

Throughout his career he contributed vocal work on a large variety of albums, from artists like Blonde On Blonde, Max Middleton, Killdozer, Elaine Page, Culture Club, and Toyah Willcox. He also worked as a producer under his birth name of Chris Harley, in particular with the Scottish Gaelic rock group Runrig, starting with the single 'Loch Lomond' in 1982, and then on their albums, from 'Heartland' in 1985, through to 'In Search Of Angels' in 1999. He built and ran the Vital Spark Music Studio on the Isle of Skye, where several artists including Donnie Munro, Blair Douglas, and KT Tunstall recorded albums. Considering his long and hugely varied career in music, Rainbow is a criminally under-rated artist, and it wasn't until his death of Parkinson's Disease on 22 February 2015 that his career was belatedly lauded in the music press. Tributes appeared from Alan Parsons, Runrig, and Andy Latimer of Camel, but I think the respect with which he was held in the music industry was brought home by the fact that on hearing of Rainbow's death, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys posted on his official website, "I felt really bad to hear about Chris Rainbow passing away, he was too young. I remember in the late 1970's, a friend played 'Dear Brian' for me and I was touched and honored by it. It was a beautiful track. I wish the best for Chris's family and friends. Love & Mercy, Brian." In the early 80's Rainbow recorded many demo's for what could have been a come-back album, but they remained unreleased until an archive release in 2000, which also included early demos for his first album, and one of those Capital Radio jingles. For this album I've just taken the songs that were recorded between 1980 and 1982, some of which were labelled as 'demo for 4th album', and others as being 'demo for 'The Drum Drops'', but as I can find no information at all what this refers to, I'm going to assume it was the title of that fourth album, which you can now hear in all its glory. 

Track listing

01 Run Away 
02 Where Are You
03 Summer! 
04 Television 
05 Give A Little More 
06 Looking In Your Window 
07 Giving It Up 
08 Kaleidoscope

09 Young Love
10 Fly Away 
11 Who Cares

Nicki Minaj - Go Get 'Em Girl (2010)

When Nicki Minaj started out in the music business she rapped in a quartet called The Hoodstars composed of Lou$tar (son of "Bowlegged Lou"), Safaree Samuels (Scaff Beezy) and 7even Up, and in 2004 the group recorded the entrance song for WWE Diva Victoria, 'Don't Mess With', which was featured on the compilation album 'ThemeAddict: WWE The Music, Vol.6'. After she left the group she uploaded songs on her Myspace profile, sending several of them to people in the music industry, and she was signed to a 180-day contract with Brooklyn label Dirty Money Entertainment. Her first mixtape 'Playtime Is Over' came out in  July 5, 2007, followed by 'Sucka Free' in April 2008, and lastly 'Beam Me Up Scotty' appeared in April 2009. One of its tracks 'I Get Crazy' reached number 20 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart, and that helped her to be signed to Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment, with her debut album 'Pink Friday' being released on Cash Money Records in 2010. Over those early years of recording and releasing mixtapes, Minaj had taped a lot of extra songs which weren't used, with 2009 and 2010 being a particularly prolific time for her, and she could easily have released one last mixtape in 2010 before 'Pink Friday' came out, so as she didn't, I've taken the best of those songs from 2009/2010 and put it together for her. 

Track listing

01 Chocolate Legs (feat. Eric Benet) 

02 That's What's Up

03 Fuck U Silly (feat. Cassie)

04 New York Minute (feat. French Montana) 

05 Girlfriend 

06 Bring It Back

07 Go Get 'Em Girl        

08 Gettin' Paid 

09 Saxon

10 Everywhere We Go (feat. Lil Kim) 

11 Here And There (Girl You Bad)

12 Make A Baby  

13 I Love My Range Rover

14 Zonin' 

15 Love Me

16 We Miss You

17 Top Of The World  

The Mixers - Speed, Madness, Flying Saucers... (1985)

I've been going through my old cassette collection again, and found this tape that I used to play all the time back in the 80's. The Mixers were a Glasgow neo-psyche band who had a nice line in 60's influenced psychedelic indie pop, and actually had their 'Never Find Time' appear on Dan Treacy's Whaam! Records compilation 'All For Art... And Art For All' in 1984, before it was re-issued by Vinyl Japan as a single in 1998. They were formed in 1980 when 15-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarists Dannie Vallely and Ulric Kennedy replaced departing lead guitarist Jim Bell in a group comprising Grant Morrison on rhythm guitar and Ron Bookless on bass. They were eventually joined by Mikel Angus on drums, and adopting their name from Anthony Burgess' novel 'A Clockwork Orange', the band set about creating melodic pop cross-fertilised with the supercharged delivery of the punk era. This tape was issued by Acid Tapes in 1985, and I added a couple of extra songs to my copy, by The Cloud Merchants and The Ochre 5, who began life as a bedroom project by Dannie Vallely, and employed the vocal talents of his sister Joanne Vallely. The tape was sent to Alan McGee who, predictably, loved it, and weeks later The Jesus and Mary Chain turned up on Joanne's doorstep in East Kilbride demanding the band join them for a Creation Records launch night in Glasgow. A band was formed for the event featuring Dannie Vallely (guitar/keyboards), with ex-Mixers Grant Morrison (rhythm guitar) and Ulric Kennedy (bass), and with Pete Haggerty on drums, but they only stayed together long enough for that one gig. Ochre 5's 'Virtual Sham' is a stunning song which deserves to be included here, and to round off the album we have those two tracks from the Whaam! Records compilation. 

Track listing

01 No One Loves You At All 

02 Now

03 Pictures Of You

04 Dear Sister, Love

05 Big Store

06 The Greenroom

07 Whisper Soft

08 Strangest Play

09 Bitter Sun

10 Closer

11 Virtual Sham (Ochre 5)

12 Things We Used To Say (The Cloud Merchants)

13 Never Find Time

14 Love Hurts

The Bee Gees - Acoustic Hits Live (2001)

Mike is back from a well-deserved break in the good ole US of A, and his latest effort is a collection from a band that very rarely let you down, The Bee Gees. Over to Mike... 

I'm back. and this time around I have an acoustic concert that I created of the Bee Gees Greatest Hits - Live. Who'da thunk it but it turns out that there have been a ton of acoustic performances made available of the group playing acoustically since they formed back in 1960. And I listened to everyone! But before I could start I had to set up strict guidelines to pick which of the many versions out there that I would include. My criteria was very, very strict! I based it on one single note. If they hit that note strong then the whole show was a keeper. If not, and their voices cracked or wavered even the tiniest bit, I ditched the whole show! We all know the note… it's the one everybody uses when they are “attempting“ to demonstrate what makes the Bee Gees, well…the Bee Gees. I said “attempting to hit”, as no one ever hits that note, it's just too damn high! The note is in 'How Do You Mend A Broken Heart' and it happens just after the first verse and before the chorus. Trust me, it's high! With that said, this acoustic concert has a bunch of great soundboard sources including the VH1 Storytellers concert from 1990, two fantastic unplugged shows from 1981 and 1983, a couple of performances from Las Vegas in 1997 and a wonderful A&E Live By Request presentation from 2001. Their harmonies during each are stellar and their performances are almost flawless. I say almost because in one place... well, youʼll hear on track 24. Besides that one rare live flub (always fun to see people are human), I've also added as bonus cuts two incredible extras. One is a writing session where the guys are just sitting around a piano working out the details of one of their classics 'How Deep Is Your Love?', and the other is well, just indescribable...at least in the presence of ladies and all the good folk who are my fans. So here it is. I hope you enjoy my version of an Album I Wish Existed: The Bee Gees Acoustic Greatest Hits - Live!

Track listing

01 I've Got To Get A Message To You
02 To Love Somebody
03 I Started A Joke
04 Lonely Days
05 How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?
06 Jive Talkin'
07 Stayin' Alive
08 How Deep Is Your Love?
09 Islands In The Stream
10 Heartbreaker
11 Still Waters
12 I Could Not Love You More
13 Words
14 Holiday
15 Guilty
16 Nights On Broadway
17 Too Much Heaven
18 You Should Be Dancing
19 Massachusetts
20 New York Mining Disaster 
21 Paradise
22 Blue Island
23 Three Kisses Of Love 

Bonus tracks
24 How Can You Mend A Broken Heart (false start)
25 How Deep Is Your Love (writing session)
26 To Lose Your Penis - (For The National Addadicktome Foundation)

Sources:
Tracks 1-13 VH1 Storytellers 1990 
Tracks 19-21, 23-24 Capital Radio Studios 1981
Track 22 MTV's Most Wanted 1993
Tracks 16-17 One Night Only MGM Grand Las Vegas 1997
Track 14-15, 18 A&E Live By Request 2001
Tracks 25-26 Unknown

PS. Thanks go out to pj for all his help arranging, editing and general overall tinkering this collection! What started as a Mike Solof production ended up much more a co-project

and I thank him tons and tons for his help!

Madonna - Set The Right (2004)

In 2002 Madonna was offered the job of supplying the theme song to the 20th James Bond film 'Die Another Day', but when it was delivered the producers asked her to change the song to fit the movie's title into it, like all other Bond movies have done. She did as requested, and around the same time another title was rumoured to have been recorded with producers M and Mirwais Ahmadzai for the soundtrack, but it was later decided that it was just the early version of 'Die Another Day'. As it turns out it was in fact a completely new track, and 'Can't You See My Mind' was leaked online some time later. After the single of 'Die Another Day' was released, Madonna began work on the follow-up album to 'Music, which was to be called 'American Life', and as with the 'Music' sessions, more material was recorded than could fit onto the album. One of these leftovers was another collaboration with Mirwais and Monte Pittman, and 'Cool Song' was taped as both an acoustic track and also a dance remix by Paul Oakenfold, re-titled 'It's So Cool', with the latter appearing as an iTunes-only bonus track on Madonna's greatest hits compilation 'Celebration'. The original recording from 2002 features a stripped-down, acoustic performance, and includes a children's choir during the final chorus, while a Mirwais dance remix demo has also surfaced. 'The Game' and 'Miss You' are more Mirwais co-writes, and they both have a stripped-down acoustic folk feel, but neither made the cut for the album. 'Set The Right' is a more upbeat Mirwais co-write, and had an number of titles through it's recording, including 'To The Left, To The Right' or 'Set To Right', but when it leaked online it was titled 'Set The Right'. After 'American Life' was released in 2003, Madonna embarked on the Re-Invention World Tour, and with Mirwais and Pittman in tow, more songs were written and recorded, including 'I'm In Love With Love' and 'I Love New York', both of which were supposed to be indicative of the sound originally conceptualised for the next album, before the project evolved into what eventually became 'Confessions On A Dance Floor'. 'Miss You', 'If You Go Away', 'How High', 'Boum', 'Curtain', 'The Devil Wouldn't Recognize You' and 'Is This Love (Bon D'Accord)' were written for a planned musical called 'Hello Suckers', which would have been a 1920's-style stage show loosely based on the life of 'Texas Guinan'. Songs were written with a number of co-writers including Patrick Leonard and Mirwais Ahmadzaï, and lyrics from some of them were later reworked and included on tracks for 'Confessions On A Dance Floor' and 'Hard Candy'. With the addition of lovely acoustic take of 'Love Profusion', we therefore have enough new material to produce another album that could have come out during the Re-Invention tour of 2004, before 'Confessions...' appeared in 2005.    

Track listing

01 Set The Right
02 It's So Cool
03 The Game
04 If You Go Away
05 Can't You See My Mind
06 Is This Love? (Bon D'Accord)
07 I Love New York
08 Miss You
09 In Love With Love
10 Love Profusion (demo)
11 Boum
12 Cool Song