Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Chile Blues (1970)

Just when you think that there can't be any more unheard Jimi Hendrix recordings, a 5CD box set turns up from Midnight Beat, containing a treasure trove of recordings made between 1967 and 1970. As usual with Hendrix bootlegs, it contains a lot of multiple takes of the same tracks, and also unfinished snippets which just stop when they fall apart, and so to save you trawling through the whole thing I've extracted the very best of the recordings into one album. The comprehensive notes in the booklet give a background of when and where the music was recorded, so here is the lowdown on the recordings. 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return) had 15 takes recorded at The Record Plant in May 1968, and I've used the best complete recording, although it did have a very prominent tambourine all the way through, which I've toned down considerably. 'Midnight, Valleys Of Neptune' was recorded at Olmstead Studios in April 1969, and this version is the last of seven takes of the song. An instrumental version of 'Sending My Love To Linda' is another Record Plant recording from April 1969, and is the second of three takes of the track. 'Mannish Boy' is from January 1970 at the Record Plant, and the best of the seven takes was take 3, so that's what we have here, with some outstanding playing as the Gypsies try to cut this tune. 'Closer To The Truth' is an alternate 'Roomful Of Mirrors', and is a home recording from March 1969 at Hendrix's Brook Street, London address. It's an unusual take of the track, with talking and chanting to the accompaniment of taped music of others, which he is controlling on his cassette deck or record player. Vocals were on one channel, while the music was on the other, so I've done a stereo mix to make it easier to listen to. 'I Was Made To Love Her' was recorded in a medley with 'Ain't Too Proud To Beg' at the Playhouse Theatre in October 1967, with Stevie Wonder on drums. Sound quality is excellent, and Jimi lets rip on some great riffs, although there are no vocals. The first half is better than the second, so I've only included the 'I Was Made To Love Her' section. 'Had To Cry Today' is from July 1970 at Electric Ladyland Studios, and is a particularly percussive take on the songs, with conga, drums, and cowbells dominating at the beginning. 'Voodoo Chile Blues' is a May 1968 recording from the Record Plant, and is the last and best of the five takes, although it did include a lot of chatter throughout the recording, most of which I've removed. Experienced collectors might want to consider this since it brings together a lot of favourite booted tracks in one place, and for someone like me, who has quite a number of bootlegs but would not consider myself a fanatic, there was stuff on here that I hadn't heard before, and once the fat was trimmed then it left a really nice hour-long collection. 

Track listing

01 Voodoo Child (Slight Return) (Take 15)
02 Midnight, Valleys Of Neptune (Take 7)
03 Sending My Heart To Linda (Take 2)
04 Mannish Boy (Take 3)
05 Closer To The Truth (Take 1)
06 I Was Made To Love Her (Take 1)
07 Had To Cry Today (Take 2)
08 Voodoo Chile Blues (Take 5)

Guadalcanal Diary - Always Saturday: The Best Of Guadalcanal Diary (1989)

Murray Attaway and Jeff Walls became friends in high school, and had played together in a punk band called Strictly American, which also included Curtis Crowe, the future drummer of Pylon. The two decided to form a new band under the name Emergency Broadcast System, and as Attaway's close friend Rhett Crowe, the sister of Curtis, was learning to play bass with guidance from Walls, he joined the new band. They named themselves Guadalcanal Diary, referencing the 1943 war memoir of that same name, and after auditioning several drummers, Walls enlisted multi-instrumentalist John Poe who agreed to play drums "temporarily", but stayed permanently. Guadalcanal Diary quickly attracted attention with its frequent live shows in the Athens and Atlanta music scenes, and in 1983 they recorded and released a four-song EP called 'Watusi Rodeo' on the small Atlanta indie label Entertainment On Disc. Despite the title of the EP, the song 'Watusi Rodeo' (one of their most famous songs) was not included on this release as Attaway hadn't written it yet. In 1984 the band signed with DB Records and began recording with Don Dixon, releasing their first full-length record, 'Walking In The Shadow Of The Big Man', which was well received by critics, and enjoyed significant airplay on US college radio stations, drawing comparisons to fellow Georgia band R.E.M. After touring heavily across the US in support of the album, the band was signed by Elektra Records in 1985, who wanted to immediately record and release new material, but the band convinced the label to first re-release 'Walking In The Shadow Of The Big Man' due to the feeling that the initial DB release had not had wide enough distribution. 

In 1986 the group released their second album, 'Jamboree', produced by Rodney Mills and Steve Nye, and although initial reception was not as enthusiastic as their debut effort, with some critics noting a weaker production, the album eventually gained retrospective appreciation among fans. They decided to work again with producer Don Dixon for their next album, '2 X 4', and when it was released in 1987 it featured a harder-hitting sound and greater diversity among the songs, becoming the band's most successful album up to that time. In 1988, Jeff Walls and Rhett Crowe married, and Rhett gave birth to a daughter, Lillian, the following year, after which they recorded again with Don Dixon, and 1989 saw the release of the band's fourth and final studio album, 'Flip-Flop'. While the music video for 'Always Saturday' saw rotation on MTV, critics noted that the album lacked some of the consistency of their previous albums, perhaps due to the band's busy touring schedule. However, with all members contributing to the song-writing, it took on a more diverse and upbeat sound, compared to darker themes of their previous works. Due to new family commitments and exhaustion from heavy touring, the band began to drift apart, and so they chose to break up in order to preserve their friendships. In the early fall of 1989, they played their collective final show in a free performance at Legion Field on the University of Georgia campus, and organized by the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity's Nu Chapter. Despite initial comparisons to R.E.M., Guadalcanal Diary never achieved the same success as their fellow Georgians, although they certainly deserved it, and they retain a loyal following to this day. I hope that this collection of some of their best work will extend that fanbase.  

Track listing

01 Watusi Rodeo (from 'Walking In The Shadow Of The Big Man' 1984)
02 Always Saturday (from 'Flip Flop' 1989)
03 Jamboree (from 'Jamboree' 1986)
04 Litany (Life Goes On) (from '2 X 4' 1987)
05 Trail of Tears (from 'Walking In The Shadow Of The Big Man' 1984)
06 Cattle Prod (from 'Jamboree' 1986)

07 Under the Yoke (from '2 X 4' 1987)

08 John Wayne (from the 'Watusi Rodeo' EP 1985) 

09 Sleepers Awake (from 'Walking In The Shadow Of The Big Man' 1984)

10 I See Moe (from 'Jamboree' 1986)
11 Pretty Is As Pretty Does (from '2 X 4' 1987)
12 Why Do the Heathen Rage? (from 'Walking In The Shadow Of The Big Man' 1984)
13 ...Vista (from 'Flip Flop' 1989)
14 Where Angels Fear To Tread (from '2 X 4' 1987)
15 Pray For Rain (from 'Jamboree' 1986)

GTR - Nerotrend (1987)

After Steve Howe left Asia in 1984, he and former Yes manager Brian Lane discussed forming a new group, and Lane approached former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. Hackett's last few solo albums had sold disappointingly, and he hoped being part of a new band would sustain his prominence as a guitarist and finance future solo work. They recruited American drummer Jonathan Mover (ex-Marillion), bass guitarist Phil Spalding, and singer Max Bacon, named themselves GTR, and sought to create a contemporary band sound without using keyboards, which Howe felt had become too dominant in Asia. Hackett and Howe's guitars were outfitted with Roland guitar synthesizer pickups, which operated rack synthesizers. While Lane pursued record deals, the band set about recording songs with Howe’s former Asia and Yes colleague Geoff Downes as producer. Howe and Hackett disagreed on method: whereas Howe favoured investment in high-quality studio time, Hackett preferred a relatively low-budget recording approach but greater investment in instruments and technology. Howe's approach prevailed and proved expensive, leaving the group uncomfortably in debt, but the result was released by Arista Records in April 1986, and in the U.S. the album went gold, hit No. 11 on the album charts, and spawned a hit single, 'When The Heart Rules The Mind'. 

While the album was a chart success, it was (and has remained) a work with a mixed and highly debated reputation among rock fans, especially supporters of Genesis and Yes, with accusations of the album containing substandard filler material beyond the two singles, and criticism directed at Max Bacon's strident tenor seeming to be the main issues. GTR toured North America and Europe in 1986, but live rehearsals revealed that the band's "no keyboards" method did not work in concert due to the poor tracking qualities of the guitar synthesizers, and therefore the tour featured keyboard player Matt Clifford in the GTR line-up in order to recreate the studio sound. By the end of the tour the band was falling apart, and his dissatisfaction with both the music and financial management of GTR (as well as a failure to see eye-to-eye with Howe) led to his beginning to question the project. He saw GTR as becoming more of a project than a band, with perhaps the idea of a number of guitarists all getting together, and with this in mind he approached guitarist Brian May of Queen with the suggestion that he join the project. Despite May's initial enthusiasm, the potential collaboration only extended to three tracks demoed with Hackett, and it is unclear whether Hackett ultimately intended May to replace himself or replace Howe. 

The band's debt situation had not improved, and in 1987 Hackett called time on the group, leaving the band and resuming his solo career. Unwilling to give up on the band, Howe tried to continue GTR with Bacon, Spalding, ex-Saxon drummer Nigel Glockler, and a second singer/guitarist, former Hush member Robert Berry. Initial sessions featured both Bacon and Berry as vocalists, but ultimately they were abandoned, with some of the material later resurrected or reused on future albums by group members. Post-GTR, Howe resumed his solo career and rejoined the Yes line-up (initially as part of Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe) while Berry became part of the partial Emerson, Lake & Palmer reunion project 3. Spalding returned to a session career and Glockler returned to Saxon, while Bacon's 1996 solo album 'The Higher You Climb' included some GTR material. The abandoned album was to be called Nerotrend, which was also mooted to be the new name for the band, but nothing ever came of it and so the tapes were locked away, until now. So here is the unreleased second album by GTR, recorded after they fell apart, but before they totally imploded. 

 

Track listing

01 Young Heart
02 Away
03 These Eyes
04 Loneliness
05 Listen To The People
06 Young Blood
07 Running The Human Race
08 Sharp On Attack
09 Endless Nights
10 This World's Big Enough
11 Hungry Warrior
12 You Can't Do That

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 276 (2024)

I think it's about time for another episode of the Mike Solof radio show 'Off The Beatle Track', and this one looks at the influence of the Fab Four on hip-hop and rap in the 80's and 90's. The most obvious example, of course, is the classic 'Grey Album' from Dangermouse (on the site if you want it), but whereas that was a mash-up of Beatles tunes and lyrics from Jay-Z, other hip-hop and rap artists had been sampling the Beatles on their tracks for a while, and Mike digs them out and plays them for your education and entertainment.

Track listing 

01 Episode 276 - HipHoppin' Beatles

Squeeze - East Side Story (1981)

Squeeze's 1981 album 'East Side Story' was conceived as a double album, with four sides of vinyl each produced by some of British pop/rock’s greatest names at the time: Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds. Ultimately, McCartney had to bow out, and sessions with Lowe and Edmunds produced very little of value outside the superb Edmunds-produced opener, 'In Quintessence', but Costello, who according to legend gave The Attractions copies of 'Argybargy' to emulate, was enthusiastic to work with Squeeze. He would produce nearly the entire album with his engineer Roger Bechirian, and while many of Squeeze's prior sessions were punctuated by frequent trips to the pub – all the better to draw inspiration for Difford’s lyrics – Costello in fact proved to be a stern taskmaster during the sessions, even suggesting changes in diet. He also pushed the band outside their comfort levels, urging them to record tracks like the country-tinged ballad 'Labelled With Love', and he was proved right when this was the album’s biggest hit, reaching No. 4 in the U.K. Costello also made the crucial decision to give Carrack lead vocals on 'Tempted', a soulful tale inspired by unfaithful feelings while on tour. Carrack's lead and organ, all these years later, still make this the go-to song to jog someone's memory when discussing Squeeze, but it's just one of more than a dozen keepers on the album, with Difford and Tilbrook crafting little musical slices of life on 'Is That Love', 'Piccadilly', 'Woman’s World', 'Mumbo Jumbo', and 'Someone Else's Heart'. The album became a landmark of its time, with devout Squeeze fans across the world hailing it as the band’s crowning achievement: singable, iconic, diverse pop/rock helmed by a band in full control of their powers, and a famous producer willing to coax the absolute best from them. Though key track 'Tempted' was never a hit on either side of the Atlantic, it stands as one of the band’s signature songs, although that's hardly scratching the surface with two other singles and a host of key tracks at play. Although we can do nothing about that fact that Costello produced the majority of the released version of the album, we can add various out-takes and Tilbrook demos recorded at the same time but which never made the cut, plus the Smash Hits freebie 'Wrong Way', which was recorded just a few months earlier, to stretch the record out to double-album length. I've slotted the new tracks into a revised running order, and housed the whole thing in a variation of the original sleeve.   

Track listing

Disc I
01 In Quintessence
02 Someone Else's Heart
03 Depression
04 Tempted
05 Piccadilly
06 I Don't Like Love
07 The Axe Has Now Fallen
08 There's No Tomorrow
09 Holiday Makers
10 Heaven
11 Mumbo Jumbo

Disc II
01 Is That Love?
02 Trust
03 Woman's World
04 Wrong Way
05 Misunderstood
06 Looking For A Love
07 Someone Else's Bell
08 Yap, Yap, Yap
09 F-Hole
10 Labelled With Love
11 Vanity Fair
12 Messed Around

Various Artists - Television Time Machine (2025)

I recently came across a 15CD set of classic TV and film themes, and realising that I would never sit down and listen to the whole thing more than once, I've extracted my very favourite TV theme tunes from the 60's and 70's and compiled them into one album. I recognised every one of these from watching the original TV shows while growing up, and so this is a real nostalgia fest for me. I've deliberately not gone for the most obvious choices, so no 'Tales Of The Unexpected', 'The Avengers' or 'Van Der Valk', but a lot of kid's TV and action shows. If you too are of a certain age then give this a listen and relive your childhood, or try not reading the track listing and see if you can guess the show! 

Track listing

01 Theme from 'Joe 90'
02 Left Bank Two (Theme from 'Vision On: The Gallery')
03 Marching There And Back (Theme from 'Screen Test') 
04 Theme from 'Midweek'
05 Theme from 'The Strange World Of Gurney Slade'
06 Theme from 'Captain Scarlet'
07 Theme from 'Animal Magic'
08 At The Sign Of The Swinging Cymbal (Theme from 'Pick Of The Pops')
09 Theme from 'The Champions'
10 The Good Word (Theme from 'Nationwide')
11 Theme from 'Department S'
12 Hit And Miss (Theme from 'Juke Box Jury')
13 Marching Strings (Theme from 'Top Of The Form')
14 Theme from 'The Strange Report'
15 Theme from 'Thunderbirds'
16 Theme from 'Danger Man'
17 Funky Fanfare (Theme from 'The National Screen Service's Feature Presentation')
18 Theme from 'Man Alive'
19 Theme from 'Jason King'
20 Theme from 'Please Sir'
21 Closing theme from 'The Sweeney'
22 Theme from 'Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased)' 
23 Theme from 'Terry And June'

Grateful Dead - Jack Straw From Wichita (1972)

Back in 2015, the ManRoy Music blog published an article about an early 70's "missing" album from the Grateful Dead, which has prompted this post. He wrote:
Whereas the Grateful Dead's previous four albums from 1967 to 1969 were the very definition of psychedelia, in 1970 they released two albums that redefined their musical careers. On 'Workingman's Dead' and 'American Beauty' the band's sound shifted from electric 'space' music to more acoustic textures and songcraft, while the songs themselves reflected an innovative mix of rock with folk, bluegrass and country music. Jerry Garcia has commented that much of the sound of those albums came both from his pairing with lyricist Robert Hunter, as well as the band's friendship with Crosby, Stills and Nash. Garcia said, "Hearing those guys sing and how nice they sounded together, we thought, We can try that. Let's work on it a little". However, after putting out two remarkable records in one year, the Dead didn't release another studio record until 1973's 'Wake Of The Flood', although they were far from dormant during that time span, with 1971/72 being a period of high artistic achievements. They carried on writing, and spent those two years touring extensively, and so many of the songs that were written in that time frame were never recorded in the studio, but instead were released as part of their two live albums, 'Skull & Roses' (officially titled 'Grateful Dead' after Warner Brothers refused to release it with the name the band wanted: 'Skull Fuck') and 'Europe '72'. The new songs featured on these two live albums extended and further explored the world that we were first shown in 'Workingman's Dead' and 'American Beauty'. 

Dead lyricist Robert Hunter has said that he wished that the songs from this period could have gotten the studio treatment as it would have made a great follow up album to the two 1970 releases, and would have been the final record of the 'American Beauty Trilogy'. This hypothetical studio album would include 'Jack Straw', 'Brown Eyed Women', 'He's Gone', 'Ramble On Rose', 'Tennessee Jed',' Mr. Charlie', 'Bertha', 'Wharf Rat', and 'Playing In The Band'. Additionally, this very strong collection of tunes could have been easily supplemented by other new songs that the Dead were regularly playing live but subsequently appeared on the solo records of Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, in particular, 'Loser' and 'Sugaree' from 'Garcia' and 'Mexicali Blues' from 'Ace' would have worked especially. All of these songs highlight the amazing lyrical talents of Robert Hunter, and the collaboration with Garcia produced a group of amazing songs that told the stories of cowboys, gamblers, outlaws, drifters, and other disreputable characters that took place in an America that seemed to be on the cusp of modernity, but wasn't quite there yet, and wasn't so sure that it wanted to be there either. In fact, the music genre we refer to today as Americana can be traced back to many of these songs, as while being highly evocative of a time and a place, they also exhibit a timelessness that is characteristic of the best of music and art. 

In order to make the album that he wanted to hear, I've selected the most concise versions of the songs, as we don't need 10-minute versions on a "studio" album, and I've removed any crowd noise, but the recordings themselves were so good that I didn't need to do any more work to them. I stuck to the original nine selections, as that resulted in a 52-minute album, which was the perfect length, and so I didn't need to include the tracks from 'Garcia' and 'Ace'. I titled it after the first track, and so was able to use some superb artwork by Luke Martin, which is actually called 'Jack Straw', and was done in the form of a Grateful Dead poster.   

Track listing

01 Jack Straw
02 Brown Eyed Women
03 He's Gone
04 Bertha
05 Mr. Charlie
06 Wharf Rat
07 Ramble On Rose
09 Tennessee Jed
09 Playing In The Band

Chris Forsyth - Robot Energy Machine: The Best Of Chris Forsyth (2022)

Chris Forsyth was born in 1973 and grew up in New Jersey in the '80's, listening to classic-rock radio, then got into underground/punk in his teens and college years. He taught himself to play guitar, and moved to Brooklyn in 1996, figuring New York would be a good place to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. He started to lose interest in contemporary rock music in the late '90's and started to appreciate improvised music, avant-rock, free-jazz, and experimental/outsider music of all stripes. He studied with Richard Lloyd of Television for 18 months, and had a group called Peeesseye in the 2000's that played drones, feedback, and very noisy high strung improvisations. In 2009 he relocated to Philadelphia, and became friends with the late guitarist Jack Rose, who inspired him to play more lyrically and expose the latent/dormant Richard Thompson/Jerry Garcia tendencies in his playing. In 1998 he released a limited edition album with Ethan Sklar, and followed this in 2001 with another collaboration, this time with guitarist Ernesto Diaz-Infante on 'Wires And Wooden Boxes'. Since then he has released a number of collaborative albums, with artists such as Chris Heenan, Nate Wooley and Shawn Edward Hansen, every one being released by a different label. In 2009 he released his first solo album in 'Dreams', with 'Paranoid Cat' following in 2011, and 'Kenzo Deluxe' the next year. 2013 saw the appearance of 'Solar Motel', named after a real place on Route 1 in Central Jersey, and which was his first full 'rock band' record. He put together a band to play it live, which he christened The Solar Motel Band, and this loose collective of various musicians has recorded three studio albums under that name between 2014 and 2017, as well as numerous live albums, both official and bootleg. They also recorded a live album with Garcia Peoples in 2020, under the name Peoples Motel Band, and yet to most people he remains an unknown artist, with his fans revelling in his status as their best-kept secret. Hopefully this sampler of some of his best work will introduce this superb guitarist to a wider audience, and he will start to get the recognition that he deserves. 

Track listing

01 History & Science Fiction (from 'Dreaming In The Non-Dream' 2017) 
02 Anthem I (from 'The Rarity Of Experience' 2016) 
03 Anthem II (from 'The Rarity Of Experience' 2016)
04 (Livin' On) Cubist Time (from 'All Time Present' 2019)
05 Bad Moon Risen (from 'Evolution Here We Come' 2022)
06 New Paranoid Cat (from 'All Time Present' 2019)
07 Boston Street Lullaby No. 1 (from 'Kenzo Deluxe' 2012)
08 Have We Mistaken The Bottle For The Whiskey Inside? (from 'Dreaming In The Non-Dream' 2017)
09 Paris Song (from 'Intensity Ghost' 2014)
10 Tomorrow Might As Well Be Today (from 'All Time Present' 2019)
11 Robot Energy Machine (from 'Evolution Here We Come' 2022)

Tracks 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9 are by Chris Forsyth And The Solar Motel Band.

The Jam - Session (1976)

The Jam formed at Sheerwater Secondary School in Woking, Surrey, England, in 1972, with a line-up consisting of Paul Weller on bass and lead vocals, along with various friends. The name 'The Jam' was reportedly suggested by Weller's sister, Nicky, and the band played their first gigs at Michael's, a local club. The line-up began to solidify in the mid-1970's with Weller, guitarist/vocalist Steve Brookes and drummer Rick Buckler, and in their early years their sets consisted of covers of early American rock and roll songs by the likes of Chuck Berry and Little Richard. They continued in this vein until Weller discovered the Who's debut album 'My Generation' and became fascinated with mod music, thinking that becoming a mod would give him a base and an angle to write from. Their set list changed from rock'n'roll to Motown, Stax and Atlantic covers, and Weller bought a Rickenbacker guitar, a Lambretta GP 150, and tried to style his hair like Steve Marriott's circa '66. Eventually Brookes left the band, but although they advertised for a new guitarist, he was not replaced, and Weller persuaded the band's second guitarist Bruce Foxton to take over bass duties so that he could swap from bass to lead guitar, and this line-up of Weller, Foxton, and Buckler would persist until the end of The Jam's career. In March 1975 the group decamped to TW studios in Fulham and laid down four demo tracks, and over the rest of the year they recorded a couple of tracks at Bob Potter's Studio in May, and a further four songs in December. In September 1976 they visited Bob Potter again and recorded three more tracks, and with their manager John Weller, Paul's father, hawking around the demos, by February 1977 Chris Parry had signed the band to Polydor Records. In April 1977 Polydor released the Jam's debut single, 'In the City', which charted in the Top 40 in the UK, and in May the band released their debut album of the same name, with their career taking off from that point, to become one of the best and most admired outfits of the punk era. To hear what they sounded like before they hit the big time, give this "Jam session" a listen, and see if you can hear the burgeoning sound of what was to come. 

Track listing

01 100 Ways 
02 Forever And Always
03 I Will Be There
04 Walking The Dog
05 Non-Stop Dancing
06 Takin' My Love
07 Left, Right & Centre
08 Again
09 When I Needed You
10 Please Don't Treat Me Bad
11 Soul Dance
12 I Got By In Time
13 Back In My Arms Again

Monty The Moron - Acorn Beer And Chestnut Wine (1984)

Here's another early offering from Monty The Moron, a decade before he changed his name and joined The Damned. It was recorded two years before the previous post, and rather oddly I think it shows a more mature side of him, with songs like 'Little House By The Sea' and 'Falling Rose' being heartfelt ballads, somewhat at odds with his more off-beat offerings like 'The Dentist Song' and 'Collecting Plastic Monsters'. However, there is much to enjoy on this album, although the distortion on 'The Dentist Song' does seem to be on all copies of the tape, but to make up for it I somehow have a rather lovely untitled extra song at the end of my copy, which might make it a unique item. If that isn't enough I've also enhanced and coloured the picture of a young Monty sitting on a motorcycle in his garden, which makes this version of the album a one-of-a-kind. It's just a shame that this is the only other tape that I own.  

Original full cassette cover

Track listing

01 The Dentist Song
02 Monty's Lament
03 Rocking Horse
04 Little House By The Sea
05 Piano Concerto No. 3
06 Collecting Plastic Monsters
07 Sometimes You Just Can't Win
08 Living My Life Backwards
09 Falling Rose
10 A Gentle Robot (Dedicated To The Soft Machine But You Weren't Listening)

11 Untitled Bonus Track 

Kanye West - In A Perfect World (2025) **UPDATE**

I must admit that I'm not listening to this album as much as some of his others that I've posted, and so I didn't notice the radio station ident at the end of 'Uncle' until today, so that's now been removed and files are updated on Soulseek and Mega.

Track listing

01 WW3
02 Cosby
03 Diddy Free
04 Dirty Magazines
05 Jesus
06 Bianca
07 Cousins
08 Virgil
09 Uncle
10 Free My Kids
11 Heil Hitler
12 Gas Chambers
13 Hitler Ye Jesus
14 Jared
15 Nitrous
16 Bulletproof

17 All The Love

18 Hallelujah

U2 - Salome (1991)

After U2's 1987 album 'The Joshua Tree' and the supporting Joshua Tree Tour brought them critical acclaim and commercial success, their 1988 double album and documentary film 'Rattle And Hum' precipitated a critical backlash. Although the record sold 14 million copies and performed well on music charts, critics were dismissive of it and the film, labelling the band's exploration of early American music as "pretentious" and "misguided and bombastic". Despite their commercial popularity, the group were dissatisfied creatively, and reacting to their own sense of musical stagnation, U2 searched for new musical ground. During this period, Bono and the Edge began increasingly writing songs together without Larry Mullen or bassist Adam Clayton, and the group recorded demos at STS Studios in Dublin, which later evolved into the songs 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses', 'Until The End Of The World', 'Even Better Than The Real Thing', and 'Mysterious Ways'. U2 hired Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno to produce the album, based on the duo's prior work with the band on 'The Unforgettable Fire' and 'The Joshua Tree'. They chose to record at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, near the recently opened Berlin Wall, where several acclaimed records had been made, including two from David Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy" with Eno, and Iggy Pop's 'Lust For Life'. The initial recording sessions took place at Hansa Studios in late 1990 in the Meistersaal, a former SS ballroom, but morale worsened once the sessions commenced, as the band worked long days, but could not agree on a musical direction. 

The Edge had been listening to electronic dance music and to industrial bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Nine Inch Nails, the Young Gods, and KMFDM, and he and Bono advocated new musical directions along these lines. In contrast, Mullen was listening to classic rock acts such as Blind Faith, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix, and he was learning how to "play around the beat". U2 returned to Dublin for Christmas, where they discussed their future together and all recommitted to the group. Listening to the tapes, they agreed their material sounded better than they originally thought, and they briefly returned to Berlin in January 1991 to finish their work at Hansa. In February 1991, U2 moved the album's recording sessions to the seaside manor Elsinore in the Dublin suburb of Dalkey, renting the house for £10,000 per month. Although the sessions there were more relaxed and productive, the band did struggle with one particular song, which was later released as the b-side 'Lady With The Spinning Head', although three separate tracks, 'The Fly', 'Ultraviolet (Light My Way)' and 'Zoo Station', were derived from it. In April, tapes from the earlier Berlin sessions were stolen after the band reportedly left them in a hotel room, and they were subsequently leaked before the album was finished. The recordings were bootlegged into a three-disc collection dubbed 'Salome: The [Axtung Beibi] Outtakes', named after the song 'Salome' that was prominently featured in the collection but which didn't make the album's final cut. The bootleg was mastered directly from the DAT's that U2 produced as working tapes during the recording sessions, and consequently the recording quality is outstanding. 

Many of these songs are early versions of 'Achtung Baby' tracks, while others are unique and unreleased songs, or musical ideas, as the band at that time were writing primarily through jam sessions. The final album represents a deviation from the sound of their past work, with the songs being less anthemic in nature, and their musical style demonstrates a more European aesthetic, introducing influences from alternative rock, industrial music, and electronic dance music. The album's first single, 'The Fly', was released in October 1991, a month before the album, and although sounding nothing like U2's typical style, it was a critical and chart success, reaching number 1 in the UK. When 'Achtung Baby' appeared in November 1991, it received acclaim from critics and fans alike, re-establishing U2 as one of the most popular and critically acclaimed musical acts in the world. For this look behind the scenes of the making of the album, I've picked the best versions of the multiple takes of some of the songs, and although many of them later appeared officially on the actual record or on b-sides, these are all radically different versions, with alternate titles and lyrics. 'I Feel Free' later morphed in 'Until The End Of The World', 'Don't Turn Around' became 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses', 'Back Mask U2' was used for 'So Cruel', and 'Take You Down' was an early version of 'Lady With The Spinning Head'. I've made some subtle edits, removing Bono's stammer on the beginning to 'Sweet Baby Jane', fixing the drop-out in 'Doctor Doctor, and toning down the distracting vocalisations on the bridge of 'I Feel Free', but the rest of the music is as it was recorded at the time. 

Track listing

01 Where Did It All Go Wrong
02 Doctor Doctor
03 I Feel Free
04 If You Want To Take Tomorrow
05 She's Gonna Blow Your House Down
06 Sweet Baby Jane
07 Take You Down
08 Heaven And Hell
09 Don't Turn Around
10 Back Mask U2
11 Salome

Lyric - Episode (2002)

Lyric was an American R&B girl group, which comprised Brooklyn native, Farrah "Fendi" Fleurimond, Jackie (a.k.a. Baby J) from Los Angeles, and Thema "Tayma Loren" McKinney from Detroit, and they would later be recognized as the first female trio to be signed by Clive Davis to his J Records imprint. They released their first single, 'Young And Sexy', in 2002, which was the lead single from their debut album 'Episode', which was scheduled for a November 2002 release, and this was followed by 'Episode' and then 'Hot & Tipsy' in 2003. The album was to have featured production from Hennessy, Kenny Whitehead, Steve Estiverne, Jack Knight and Thema's brother Carlos "Pryceless" McKinney. However, the album was cancelled and has been locked away in the vaults since 2002, and although the trio attended the Grammy Week Songwriters luncheon with Patti LaBelle in 2003, they disbanded shortly afterwards after leaving J Records. Advance sampler copies were issued to the press before the record was cancelled, and so we are able to hear what the album would have sounded like if the record company had allowed it to be released. 

Track listing

01 Afterparty (Hot 'n' Tipsy Remix)
02 Episode (deat. Shells)
03 Somebody
04 Young & Sexy (feat. Loon)
05 Love 101 (Part 1)
06 Hot 'n' Tipsy
07 Sunny Days
08 I Like
09 Little Did You Know
10 Bananas
11 Love 101 (Part 2)

Neil Young - New Ways (1985)

'Old Ways' was Neil Young's fifteenth solo album, and for this one he wanted to record a country record, which had been his intention for some time. His first attempt at a country album was in January 1983, when he recorded several songs at producer David Briggs' Nashville recording studio, with long-time collaborators Ben Keith, Tim Drummond, Karl T. Himmel, Spooner Oldham and Rufus Thibodeaux, who had all previously backed Young on 'Comes A Time' from 1978. The songs 'Old Ways', 'Depression Blues', 'California Sunset', 'My Boy', 'Are There Any More Real Cowboys?' and 'Silver And Gold' all date from these sessions, but after turning in 'Trans' and the unreleased 'Island In The Sun' in 1982, Young's record label, Geffen, objected to a country album, asking Young for a "rock 'n roll" record, which he gave them in the form of 1983's 'Everybody's Rockin''. His label were so against Young recording a country album that they even sued him for playing that type of music, but that just made him more determined to do it. He saw country music and his adopted country music persona as a respite from his then-waning career in rock music, the demands of his record company, and his struggles to record the rock album that would become 'Landing On Water', and so in 1984 he toured with the band from the 1983 sessions. In Spring 1985 he returned to the studio to record his country music album, and during sessions at various Nashville studios over a dozen new songs were recorded with both his long-time collaborators and local studio musicians, along with special guest Waylon Jennings. The sessions featured many of the musicians from the earlier 'Harvest' and 'Comes A Time' albums, while Willie Nelson added vocals and guitar to the 1983 recording of 'Are There Any More Real Cowboys?'. Many of the songs on the album reflect a sense of contentment with family life, with 'Once An Angel' being a tribute to his wife, Pegi, while 'My Boy' is an ode to his son, Zeke, and 'Amber Jean' celebrates the birth of his new-born daughter. Despite the label's reluctance, most reviews were favourable, and fans appreciated the relaxed set of songs, full of good feelings and superb playing. Most of the 1983 recordings were tucked away in the vaults, and so they are resurrected here, along with some 1985 outtakes, in a companion record that I've titled 'New Ways'. 

Track listing

01 Time Off For Good Behaviour
02 Your Love Again

03 Depression Blues
04 This Old House
05 Your Love Is Good To Me
06 California Sunset
07 Leavin' The Top 40 Behind
08 Interstate
09 Amber Jean
10 My Boy
11 Let Your Fingers Do The Walking
12 Hillbilly Band

Various Artists - The Drugs DO Work (2018)

The concept of this album is pretty obvious, and it came about because I was listening to J. J. Cale's 'Cocaine', closely followed by The Velvet Underground's debut, including the classic 'Heroin', and I realised that both songs had something in common, and before long I'd recalled over a dozen more songs celebrating a wide variety of illegal substances, and this album was born. There isn't much else to say about it, so enjoy this varied collection of drug-inspired songs, which is closed by The Verve's assertion that none of them actually work anyway.    

Track listing

01 Cocaine - J. J. Cale
02 Heroin - The Velvet Underground
03 Weed Party - Band Of Horses
04 In The Opium Den - Paul Roland
05 Novocaine For The Soul - Eels
06 Crack Rock - Frank Ocean
07 Ketamine - Mark Lanegan
08 Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow - The Strawberry Alarm Clock

09 Golden Brown - The Stranglers
10 Codine - The Charlatans
11 You And Your Crystal Meth - Drive-By Truckers
12 Amphetamine Annie - Canned Heat
13 Mother I've Taken LSD - The Flaming Lips

14 Sister Morphine - Marianne Faithful
15 Spice - Sam Fender
16 Animal Nitrate - Suede
17 Take Ecstasy With Me - The Magnetic Fields
18 Hippy Crack - Beans On Toast
19 The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve

Grateful Dead - Days Between (1995) **UPGRADE**

While putting together the Dylan And The Dead post, it reminded me of a previous Grateful Dead album that I'd posted, which was the reconstruction of what would have been their final album in 1995. I used live and rehearsal takes of the songs, but at the time I didn't have the MVSEP programme to remove the crowd noise from the recordings, so I listened to it again to see if there was any noticeable noise that needed removing. As it happens, I must have been lucky with the chosen tracks as I couldn't hear any distractions on the songs, but what I did find was that the album seemed to drag on a bit, and on checking I found that the version that I'd posted was an hour and 11 minutes long. As well as that there were a couple of tracks that didn't seem to be up to the quality of the others, and so I wondered if I could trim a few minutes here and there to make it easier to listen to. I had a look online for suggestions or alternate recordings, and found a review of the proposed songs on the ManRoy Music blog, which chimed very much with what I had just heard. He said of the following songs: 
Easy Answers first appeared on the Rob Wasserman record 'Trios' where it featured Wasserman, Weir and Neil Young. The Dead’s version replaces Neil Young’s distorted guitar with Garcia’s auto-wah sound and Vince Welnick’s synth horns. I would have the Dead version more closely follow the Trio’s version with Garcia dialing up his distorted sound and losing the faux horns (and don’t try overdubbing a real horn section either, didn’t you learn anything from 'Terrapin Station').
Wave To The Wind is another Lesh song that features instrumental sections reminiscent of 'Eyes Of The World' but a vocal melody that just seems to meander. This would definitely fall into the filler category of the album.
Samba In The Rain is one of the two Vince Welnick songs in this collection. How do I put this kindly? It sucks. Enough said. (I never included this track anyway).
If The Shoe Fits is the third Phil Lesh song in the group. Lesh was never the most prolific of song writers so it’s ironic that he had three songs in the final years of the Dead. Sadly, none of these song are comparable to 'Unbroken Chain' or 'Box Of Rain'. At best, their quality level is more akin to something like 'Passenger' from the album 'Terrapin Station'. Not necessarily bad but let’s face it, no serious Deadhead thinks of 'Passenger' when discussing their favourite Lesh tune. 

After reading this critique I realised that he was talking about exactly the tracks that I felt let down the album, and so I decided to remove them completely. 'Childhood's End' seemed to me to be the least worst of Phil Lesh's contributions, although the vocals do still detract from it, so I decided to keep that but to re-jig the running order so that the album no longer ends on that track. As most of the remaining songs are fairly lengthy, including the lovely title track which clocks in at nearly eleven minutes, then we are still left with a perfectly acceptable and concise 54-minute record, so see what you think of this drastic revamp of an earlier post.

Track listing

01 Liberty
02 Corinna
03 Lazy River Road
04 Eternity
05 So Many Roads

06 Childhood's End
07 Days Between
08 Way To Go Home

Dylan And The Dead - Dead Man, Dead Man (1987)

Towards the tail end of the 1980's, Bob Dylan was somewhat disillusioned with the direction of his own music, and so began trying to regain it through his fandom for the Grateful Dead. To him, they represented a clear exit door for this growing world of artistic commercialism, which began to subtly taint his work in the latter part of the decade. Both intrigued and fearful of this necessary change, Dylan decided to join the band on tour in 1987 as a third guitarist, before putting his name to an immortal project with the band. That spirit of live show magic that had clearly struck a rod of lightning in Dylan’s career was captured on their 1989 live album 'Dylan & The Dead', which consisted of seven songs written and sung by Dylan, with the Grateful Dead providing accompaniment. Rattling through a string of Dylan hits, the album showcases the unlikely synergy between these two artists, unshackled by the expectations of artistic commercialism, they indulge themselves as they descended into spiralling renditions of 'All Along The Watchtower' and 'Slow Train'. A clear, unspoken agreement existed between both Dylan and The Dead on this record, that ensured the songs they played would be nothing more than loose blueprints for a plan of musical spontaneity. But while the Grateful Dead might have, on paper at least, seemed like a rather bizarre and esoteric choice to return Dylan to a state of glory, there is a transcendental crossover that exists between the two artists that is showcased on the album. It was recorded during a successful stadium tour known as the Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead 1987 Tour, featuring the two artists performing separately and together, but although it achieved strong initial sales, the album was poorly received by critics, although they did have some kind words for several of the tracks. Despite this, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 37 on the Billboard charts in the U.S., No. 38 in the UK, and earning a Gold certification in the U.S. Prior to embarking on the tour the two artists rehearsed nearly fifty different songs together, mostly Dylan compositions, but also including Buddy Holly's 'Oh Boy', Paul Simon's 'The Boy In The Bubble', and Kris Kristofferson's 'They Killed Him'. I've taken the very best of these recordings and compiled a double-disc set of nineteen of those rehearsals, of which only three eventually appeared on the live album. 

Track listing

Disc I

01 When I Paint My Masterpiece

02 Man Of Peace

03 I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

04 I Want You

05 Dead Man, Dead Man

06 Queen Jane Approximately

07 In The Summertime

08 If Not For You

09 Gotta Serve Somebody

10 Tomorrow Is A Long Time

Disc II

01 John Brown

02 The Wicked Messenger

03 Watching The River Flow

04 They Killed Him

05 All I Really Want To Do

06 John Hardy

07 Pledging My Time

08 The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest

09 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Rapid Eye Movement - δ Waves (1981)

In 1981 Rapid Eye Movement were still touring, despite not having released any records to promote, and 16 May 1981 saw them play at the Théâtre Victor Hugo, Bagneux, near Paris in France. Like some of their previous gigs, their performance was recorded, and much of the material was new, making this a very different set list to their concert in France a year earlier. With a little subtle editing, we therefore have enough unique material to make up a second "studio" album from the band, which geofmcm has titled 'δ Waves'. 

Track listing

01 Let's Get The Day Underway
02 This Is Not What I Want
03 I'll Stand On My Own
04 Ingmar Bergman On The Window Sill  
05 Straining Our Eyes 
06 Delta Waves
07 'Ullo Darling, I Work On The Fair
08 Waking Up Is Hard To Do 

Thanks to geofmcm for the music and to AI for the cover. 

Three Friends - Three Friends (2026)

In October 2008, Gary Green, one of the founders of Gentle Giant, and later member of the band Malcolm Mortimore planned to form a new group called Rentle Giant, consisting of five members, and with the intention of performing a repertoire dedicated to the mighty Gentle Giant. They where soon joined by one of the other founders of GG, Kerry Minnear, and that resulted in a change of name, to what else but Three Friends. Since 2009 they have toured the world, bringing the music of one of the most important groups in the history of prog to a wider audience, and in particular playing songs that the original band didn't tend to include in their concerts. The arrangements of the songs respect the originals, and the playing showcases the excellent musicianship of all the members. In late 2009 Minnear left the band for personal reasons, and was replaced by keyboardist Gary Sanctuary, and with the addition of Lee Pomeroy on bass, Mick Wilson on vocals and Charlotte Glasson on violin, they have played a series of well-received concerts around the world, some of which have been recorded for posterity. What better way to introduce the band to a wider audience than with a recording of the complete 'Three Friends' album as performed by Three Friends, the band.  

Track listing

01 Prologue
02 Schooldays
03 Working All Day
04 Peel The Paint
05 Mr Class And Quality
06 Three Friends

Thanks to geofmcm for the idea and the music, and AI for the cover.

Melissa Lefton - Melicious (2001)

Melissa Janis Lefton was born on 13 August 1975, and began playing keyboards at the age of 10. After finishing high-school she moved to New York to study communications at New York University, though decided to also focus on a career in music while studying. She joined the punk rock band Product after answering an ad in The Village Voice seeking a "theatrical female frontperson" who "wanted to be a star." Product played at venues including CBGB, and were signed and recorded an album, although its release was cancelled. In 2001 she signed to Jive Records and recorded her debut solo album 'Melicious', which was slated for release on 21 August 2001. 'Melicious' took on topics like pollution, date-rape, occultism and murder, with tongue in cheek, with her once being referred to as the "anti-Britney". It was slated for release in Spring 2002, and a couple of songs from the it were commercially released, with 'I Love Life' appearing on the soundtrack to 'The Princess Diaries', and 'My Hit Song' being featured on the soundtrack to 'On The Line', while her cover of 'He Blinded Me With Science' appeared on the soundtrack to 'Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius'. The month before it was due for release, the Seattle Weekly gave a favourable review of the album, as did the Autumn 2001 edition of Elle Girl, but first it was delayed, and then cancelled completely. In an attempt to salvage her career, the label set her up with a manager who sent her to Los Angeles to become an actress, but discouraged with the roles she was offered she returned to New York City, and spent several years working professionally as a commercial jingle writer. By 2006, Lefton was in a sunshine pop band named Hello, who released a self-titled album on the Frisbie Records label. So that 'Melicious' isn't lost forever, here it is for us to enjoy. 

Track listing

01 My Hit Song  
02 ...Now I Got Punk Rock Fever 
03 Radio Rainbow  
04 Ozone  
05 Last Summer  
06 Sugar Daddy  
07 Bionic Man  
08 Sunnyville  
09 I Love Life 
10 Who Shot Jennifer  
11 I Know You Want Me (How Can I Blame You)