Various Artists - Rarities Row Vol. 4 (2026)

It's time for another dip into the vaults of Mike Solof, for volume 4 of his 'Rarities Row'.

It's been spotted that Mike sent two copies of the Tori Amos track and omitted the Jon Anderson one, so that's now been corrected, and anyone who has already grabbed this can download it again. 

 Track listing and info:

01 Underground (Demo)
Ben Folds - Fifty Five Vault

Fifty-Five Vault is a Ben Folds compilation album featuring 56 tracks, mostly 
unreleased live recordings and demos. It was released jointly with 'The Best 
Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective' as a digital-only album available via Folds' 
website. 

02 Wild West End (Demo)
Dire Straits - Originally published as The Honky Tonk Demos 2x7" Single 

Demos for Dire Straits' first album. Taken from the original silver pressed bootleg 
'Early demos' of demos for Dire Straits first album. On the 24 July 1977, Dire Straits recorded the now famous demo tapes of five songs: 'Wild West End', 'Sultans Of Swing', 'Down To The Waterline', 'Sacred Loving' (written by David Knopfler, never released afterwards) and 'Water Of Love'. In what was probably October 1977, they recorded 'Southbound Again', 'In The Gallery' and 'Six Blade Knife' for BBC Radio London. Finally, on the 9th of November 1977, demo tapes were made of 'Setting Me Up', 'Eastbound Train' and 'Real Girl'. Many of these songs reflected Mark's experiences in Newcastle, Leeds and London, and were to be 
featured on the first Dire Straits album the following year. The recordings on the
CD feature most of these demo songs, and a version of 'Setting Me Up' that is really different from the version that was later released on the first album. 

03 Girls just want to have fun (Demo)
Cyndi Lauper 1983

Robert Hazard never became a household name in the United States, but for a 
period there in the early 1980s, he was one of the biggest singers in all of 
Philadelphia. He sold 50,000 copies of his 1981 EP, 'Escalator Of Love', JUST IN 
PENNSYLVANIA ALONE. However, he never really broke out nationwide, although some 
guys that he was friends with did, with the band The Hooters having a moment there in the mid-1980s with their hit song 'And We Danced', and with a spot at Live Aid in the U.S. side concert of Live Aid (which was held, of course, in Philadelphia). The Hooters were formed by Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian, who met at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1970s. One of their classmates, who was in an early band with them, Baby Grand, was Rick Chertoff. Chertoff later became a record executive at Columbia Records where he signed The Hooters, but he also brought Hyman and Bazilian on board to work on the debut album of a young pop 
singer named Cyndi Lauper in 1983. Hyman co-wrote “Time After Time,” but Chertoff looked to Hazard for the main track off of the album. Hazard had recorded a tune called 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' in 1979, but never released it as a single, see here. Chertoff was a fan of the song at the time and when he was putting together songs for Lauper, he remembered the song and approached Hazard about it. 

Hazard recalled in 1986, “He knew about ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ for years. He always told me what a great song he thought it was. When he met Cyndi, it was a match made in heaven.” However, there was an early conflict when Lauper wanted a song-writing credit (and thus a cut of the publishing rights). Hazard recalled how he quickly shut that down, “I said, ‘Don’t do the song.’ It didn’t matter to me. She was an unknown.” Once that was settled, Hazard worked out the lyrics with Lauper, “I changed all the lyrics over the phone with her. Originally, it was from the guy’s point of view. We had to make a lot of gender changes. She took the first verse and second verse and switched them. Why, I have no idea. Melodically, it’s exactly the same.” He then complimented how Chertoff reworked the song, “It was straight rock ‘n’ roll. Rick Chertoff produced it and made it an ’80s kind of song, put in a lot of electronics. I love what he did with it.” 'Girls Just Want To Have Fun', of course, was a smash and became Lauper’s defining song for years.

04 The Way (Demo 2)
Ariana Grande - Yours Truly Sessions

'The Way' is a song by American singer Ariana Grande featuring American rapper Mac Miller. It was released on March 26, 2013 by Republic Records as the lead single from Grande's 2013 debut studio album, 'Yours Truly'. In January 2013, she met with producer Harmony Samuels, at which point he presented her with a demo of the song that featured the vocals of co-writer 
Jordin Sparks, whom the song was originally intended. The beat he had created for the single, samples Brenda Russell's 'A Little Bit of Love' either directly or indirectly, via Big Pun's 'Still Not A Player'. Grande immediately connected with the sound and asked Mac Miller to feature on the song with her, to which he responded, "Sounds like a hit to me". The song was recorded that same month, and caught the attention of Republic Records VP Charlie Walk when he heard it being played from Republic co-founder Monte Lipman's office. "It was 8:00 one night, and I heard a song coming from Monte's office through my wall. He called me down and I played a video, a DIY of Ariana Grande. We heard the song and I immediately made the 
decision to set it up and put the song out. 'The Way' received positive reviews from music critics for its 2000's R&B sound and Grande's vocals, which drew comparisons to those of 
Mariah Carey. The song became Grande's breakthrough hit and peaked at number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100, earning both Grande and Miller their first top-ten song on the chart. 

05 One (Demo Newly Remastered)
Metallica - 1987 And Justice For All… Super Deluxe Box Set and Limited gatefold 

 
'One' is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica, and released as the third and final single from the band's fourth studio album, '...And Justice For All' from 1988. Written by band members James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, the song portrays a World War I soldier who is severely wounded - arms, legs and jaw blown off by a landmine, blind, deaf, and unable to speak or move - begging God to take his life. In the music video, attempting to communicate with the hospital staff he jolts in his bed, spelling SOS in Morse code. 'One' was written in November 1987 by Metallica's principal composers Hetfield and Ulrich, who recalled “I had been fiddling around with that B-G modulation for a long time. The idea for the opening 
came from a Venom song called 'Buried Alive'. The kick drum machine-gun part near the end wasn't written with the war lyrics in mind, it just came out that way. We started that album with 
Mike Clink as producer. He didn't work out so well, so we got Flemming to come over and save our asses.”

06 River (with French Horn ending) Blue Sessions
Joni Mitchell - 1971 Joni Archives Volume 4 and Joni at 50 Demos and Outtakes

'River' is a song by Canadian singer songwriter Joni Mitchell, from her 1971 album 'Blue'. Written on piano, it has become a standard for artists in many music styles, and has become popular as Christmas music. Although never released as a single, 'River' holds second place among Mitchell's songs most recorded by other artists. In 2021, it was ranked at No. 247 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time". James Taylor, who knows the song better than just about anybody aside from Mitchell, said in a 2006 interview with The Post that “I don’t know why it’s suddenly getting picked up as a Christmas song. But some things just become identified as seasonal songs, and this is now one of them.” At the time, Taylor had just released 'James Taylor At Christmas', which included “River” — a song he’d first heard decades earlier, when Mitchell played it at her home in Los Angeles in 1970, shortly after it was written. “Most Christmas songs are light and shallow, but ‘River’ is a sad song,” Taylor told The Post. “It starts with a description of a commercially produced version of Christmas in Los Angeles, then juxtaposes it with this frozen river, which says, ‘Christmas here is bringing me down.’ It only mentions Christmas in the first verse. Then it’s, ‘Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on’ - wanting to fall into this landscape that she remembers. It’s such a beautiful thing, to turn away from the commercial mayhem that Christmas becomes and just breathe in some pine needles. It’s a really blue song.” 

For her part, Mitchell told NPR in 2014 that the song is about “taking personal responsibility for the failure of a relationship. And my generation - you know, the ‘Me Generation’ - is known to be a Peter Pan, narcissistic generation, right?” she said. “So it’s really that aspect of our inability - you know, ‘I’m selfish and I’m sad.’ Right? “People think that’s confessional, but I’d say, in my generation, you think that that’s a unique personal statement? You know what I mean? It’s like, no wonder there’s so many covers of it!” Taylor, who performed “River” in front of Mitchell last month at a tribute concert to celebrate her 75th birthday, said the song is most likely autobiographical, given that “it starts with a girl from Canada watching them try to make Christmas on La Brea in Los Angeles.” But he told The Post in 2006 that he’d never actually discussed the meaning with Mitchell, with whom he was romantically involved in the early 1970s. “Do I want to know who she made cry, who she made say goodbye? Well, I haven’t asked her that question,” Taylor said. “That’s the only mystery in it: Who was it whose heart she broke?” With a laugh, he added: “There were a lot of us.”

Watch Behind The Song Episode 32: Joni Mitchell "River" here

08 Beth (Acoustic)
Kiss - Destroyer 1980 Super Deluxe Box Set

With the 45th anniversary super deluxe edition box set of KISS' historic 'Destroyer' album coming in November, the band has served up one of the many rarities that are included with the set by way of an acoustic mix of their hit ballad, 'Beth'. The track features lead vocals by drummer Peter Criss, who worked with producer Bob Ezrin on the song-writing component and, for the first time ever, fans can hear a different version of 'Beth', led by an acoustic guitar amid a host of familiar elements. The biggest difference here is that the sweeping, cinematic 
orchestration has been removed, letting the piano melodies occupy most of the space with some gentle acoustic strumming throughout. "For the new acoustic mix of 'Beth,' the original recorded acoustic guitar track was taken from the analog multitracks and has now been fully restored and mixed with the original piano, vocal and synthesizer tracks, adding a fresh yet familiar feel to this iconic recording". 'Beth' was originally released as the B-side to 'Detroit Rock City' in July 1976, but after radio DJs began flipping over the single to play the 
Peter Criss-sung ballad, the track was released on its own and became a Top 10 hit. None of the Kiss members, besides Criss, perform on the original version of the song, which features Criss backed by producer Bob Ezrin on piano, Dick Wagner on acoustic guitar and the New York Philharmonic orchestra.

09 Soldier In The Rain (live)
England Dan & John Ford Coley - Live In The Studio 1979

'Dowdy Ferry Road' is the fifth studio album by the pop rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley. The album's single 'It's Sad To Belong' was a moderate pop hit and a #1 smash on the 
Adult Contemporary chart. A second hit from the LP, 'Gone Too Far', reached #23 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

10 The Friends Of Mr. Cairo (live)
Jon Anderson - (WNEW FM Broadcast The Convention Hall Asbury Park NJ 6th August 1982)

Jon and Vangelis made (more or less) four complete albums together, and this is arguably the standout. The title track is a marvellous love-letter to old Hollywood movies (most specifically, The Maltese Falcon) which nobody else could have written. Besides the wonderful voice-overs, Vangelis winds the music from mysterious thriller to out-and-out nostalgia, and Jon's vocals go right along with him. From the dramatic to the personal, and yet not so personal that the listener cannot go along. A mini-movie for the ears, and then the quiet reflection that follows.

11 Leather (Demo)
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes Demos

Tori Amos approached Atlantic Records in December 1990 with a 10-track demo tape. She recalled "Many of these songs are different from the released versions. Some are longer, some are mixed differently, many have different lyrics. Little did I know that ladies that work in the other entertainment industry would listen and dance to 'Leather' it around their poles. And people stop me all the time. Even very recently I was getting wine not far from here, and somebody said, “I teach pole dancing classes to your music, and 'Leather' was one of those songs". So I think there was a side to me that was trying to - in the shedding - to also really 
collect my shadow portions. And I would go visit them and take these sides that I had judged. And one side that had been very crucified was the sexual side that did not yet understand erotic spirituality, did not know how to bring this into being. Very far away - years away from this. Little did she know when she was writing 'Leather' that we would be years and years away from knowing how to integrate that.

12 Everybody’s World (live)
The Grays - 1993 Live Radio gig pre first (and only album)

The Grays were a short-lived rock band comprising singer/songwriters/multi-instrumentalists 
Jon Brion, Jason Falkner, Buddy Judge, and Dan McCarroll. They released only one album, the out-of-print but highly regarded 'Ro Sham Bo' in 1994 on Sony/Epic Records. The intention of the band was to be a democratic collective of musicians, rather than a hierarchical group with a leader and backing musicians. This was due in part to the group's dissatisfaction with being in a band - particularly Falkner who had just come out of a tumultuous period with the band Jellyfish. The band members would often swap instruments depending on the need of the individual song and would contribute to each other's songs. Despite glowing reviews from critics, 'Ro Sham Bo' was a commercial disappointment and was the only album released by the band. The album would later go out of print. In retrospect, Falkner reflects that the band was not truly a democratic collective as he felt he was the true leader of the group. This was due in part to the fact that the album's producer, Jack Joseph Puig, admitted to enjoying 
Falkner's tracks the most, giving him one more song than the others on the album. This created animosity amongst the members, specifically Brion, who was the first to leave the group. This coupled with the band's lack of commercial success led to their breakup shortly thereafter.

13 Tubular Bells Part One - Demo
Mike Oldfield - (Rough First Mix) (Original Demo Part One)

Tubular Bells is the debut studio album by the British musician Mike Oldfield, released on 25 May 1973 as the first album on Virgin Records. It comprises two mostly instrumental tracks. Oldfield, who was 19 years old when it was recorded, played almost all the instruments. In his 
flat in Tottenham in north London, Oldfield recorded demos of four tracks he had been composing in his head for some years, using the tape recorder, his guitar and bass, some toy percussion instruments, and a  Farfisa organ borrowed from  the Whole World keyboardist 

David Bedford. The demos had a longer piece he had provisionally titled 'Opus One'. Oldfield was inspired to write a long instrumental after hearing 'Septober Energy', the 1971 album by Centipede, He was also influenced by classical music, and by 'A Rainbow In Curved Air', the 1969 album by the experimental composer Terry Riley, on which Riley played all the instruments himself and used tape loops and overdubs to build up a long, repetitive piece of 
music. Late in 1971, Oldfield joined the band of Arthur Louis, who were recording demos at the Manor Studio. The studio was being constructed in the former squash court of an old manor house in Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire, which had recently been bought by the young entrepreneur Richard Branson and which was being turned into a residential recording facility run by his music production team of Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth. 

Oldfield was shy and socially awkward, but struck up a friendship with the producers after they heard his guitar playing. Oldfield asked Newman to listen to his demos, but they were in his Tottenham flat, so one of Louis' roadies drove Oldfield to London and back to retrieve them. Newman and Heyworth made a copy of the demos onto 4-track tape, and promised Oldfield that they would speak to Branson and his business partner Simon Draper about them. After the album was released, Newman said he preferred the demo versions: "They were complete melodies in themselves – with intros and fade-outs or ends. I liked them very much and was a little nonplussed when Mike strung them all together." Oldfield spent much of 1972 working with his old bandmates from the Whole World on their solo projects while trying to find a record label interested in his demos. Oldfield approached labels including EMI and CBS, but each rejected him, believing the piece was unmarketable without vocals. Increasingly frustrated and short of money, Oldfield heard that the Soviet Union paid musicians to give  public performances, and was at the point of looking through the telephone directory for the phone number of the Soviet embassy when Draper called him with an invitation to dinner with Branson on Branson's houseboat moored in London. 

Branson told Oldfield that he liked the demos, and wanted Oldfield to spend a week at the Manor recording 'Opus One'. 'Tubular Bells' was recorded on an Ampex 2-inch 16-track tape recorder with the Dolby noise-reduction system, which was the Manor's main recording equipment at the time. Oldfield had Virgin hire instruments including guitars, keyboards and percussion instruments, and has recounted differing stories over the years regarding the inclusion of the tubular bells; in 2001 he suggested that they were among the instruments he asked Branson to hire, but in 2013, he said that he saw them among the instruments being removed from the studios after John Cale had finished recording there, and asked for them to be left behind. Oldfield, Newman, and Heyworth spent their evenings drinking in a pub, after which they returned to the Manor and recorded through the night. Heyworth recalled several disasters, including one instance where half a day's work was accidentally erased. Final mixing was an involved process, with the faders operated by Oldfield, Newman, Heyworth, and two others simultaneously. 

They followed detailed tracking charts and the process was restarted if one person made even a slight mistake. Heyworth recalled difficulty in cutting the album due to vinyl's limited dynamic range, and insisted on heavy vinyl normally used for classical records. Oldfield played the majority of the instruments as a series of overdubs, which was an uncommon recording technique at the time. In total, 274 overdubs were made and an estimated two thousand "punch-ins", although Newman said "it was really only 70 or 80" in total. Despite various guitars being listed on the album sleeve, such as "speed guitars", "fuzz guitars" and "guitars sounding like bagpipes", the only electric guitar used on the album was a 1966 blonde Fender Telecaster which used to belong to Marc Bolan and to which Oldfield had added an extra Bill Lawrence pickup. The guitars were recorded via direct injection to the mixing desk. To create the "speed guitar" and "mandolin-like guitar" named in the sleeve notes, the tape was recorded at half speed. An actual mandolin was used only for the ending of 'Part Two'. Oldfield also used a custom effects unit, the Glorfindel box, to create the "fuzz guitars" and "bagpipe guitars" distortion. In 2011, Oldfield's Telecaster was sold for £6,500, and the money was donated to the mental health charity  SANE. 

According to the engineer Phil Newell, the bass guitar used on the album was one of his Fender Telecaster Basses. Oldfield recorded side one, known as 'Opus One' at the time, during his one allotted week at the Manor in November 1972. He was particularly interested in 

starting the piece with a repeating riff, and devised the opening piano sequence after experimenting with an idea for several minutes on Bedford's Farfisa organ. He wanted a slight variation on its 16/8 time signature by dropping the sixteenth beat, and chose the key of A minor as it was easy to play. Oldfield recorded the opening riff on a Steinway grand piano, but struggled to perform in time. Heyworth solved the problem by placing a microphone next to a 
metronome in another room and feeding it into Oldfield's headphones. The short honky-tonk piano section was included as a tribute to Oldfield's grandmother, who had played the  instrument in pubs before World War II. The staff and workers at the Manor made up the "nasal choir" that accompanies it. Oldfield had difficulty in producing a sound from the tubular bells, as he wanted a loud note from them but both the standard leather-covered and bare metal hammers did not produce the volume that he wanted. 

In the end, Newman obtained a heavier claw hammer and Oldfield used it to produce the desired sound intensity but cracked the bells in the process. The track closes with a segment featuring comedic rocker Vivian Stanshall, formerly of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, introducing each instrument being  played one by one. The idea originated when the band were due to use the Manor after Oldfield, and had arrived while he was still recording. Oldfield had liked the way Stanshall introduced the instruments one at a time on the Bonzos' song 'The Intro And The Outro' on 1967's Gorilla', and told Newman that he would like Stanshall to do the same. Newman agreed, but had to persuade the shy Oldfield to ask him if he would carry out the request. Stanshall readily agreed to the idea and is credited on the liner notes as "Master of Ceremonies", but Newman recalled that the job proved to be more difficult than anticipated, as Stanshall forgot the names of the instruments and introduced them at the wrong points. Oldfield wrote a list of the instruments in order, indicating where he should introduce them. The way in which he said "plus... tubular bells" inspired Oldfield to use it as the album's title.

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Joni Mitchell (2014)

Roberta Joan Anderson on 7 November 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada, and moved with her family to Saskatoon, which she considers her hometown, at age 11. She wanted to play the guitar, but as her mother associated the instrument with country music and disapproved of its hillbilly associations, she initially settled for the ukulele, although she eventually taught herself guitar from a Pete Seeger songbook. She started singing with her friends at bonfires around Waskesiu Lake, northwest of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and after dropping out of school after a year at age 20, she started to play gigs as a folk musician on weekends at her college and at a local hotel. In 1964, at the age of 20, she told her mother that she intended to be a folk singer in Toronto, and wrote her first song 'Day After Day' on the three-day train ride east to Ontario. In February 1965 she was playing gigs again around Yorkville, often with a friend, Vicky Taylor, and was beginning to sing original material for the first time, written with her unique open tunings. In March and April she found work at the Penny Farthing, a folk club in Toronto, where she met New York City-born American folk singer Charles Scott "Chuck" Mitchell, from Michigan. Chuck was immediately attracted to her and impressed by her performance, and he told her that he could get her steady work in the coffeehouses he knew in the United States. She left Canada for the first time in late April 1965, travelling with Mitchell to the US, where they began playing music together, and they later married, with Joni taking his surname, although the marriage and partnership ended with their divorce in early 1967. Following this, she moved to New York City to follow her musical path as a solo artist, and while she was playing one night in 1967 in the Gaslight South, a club in Coconut Grove, Florida, David Crosby walked in and was immediately struck by her ability and her appeal as an artist. She accompanied him back to Los Angeles, where he set about introducing her and her music to his friends, and soon she was signed to the Warners-affiliated Reprise label by talent scout Andy Wickham. 

Crosby convinced Reprise to let Mitchell record a solo acoustic album without the folk-rock overdubs in vogue at that time, and 'Song To Seagull' was released in March 1968. She toured steadily to promote the album, creating eager anticipation for her second LP, 'Clouds', which was released in April 1969. This contained her own versions of some of her songs already recorded and performed by other artists, such as 'Chelsea Morning', 'Both Sides, Now', and 'Tin Angel', and the covers of both albums were designed and painted by Mitchell herself.  In April 1970 Reprise released her third album, 'Ladies Of The Canyon', and her sound was already beginning to expand beyond the confines of acoustic folk music and toward pop and rock, with more overdubs, percussion, and backing vocals, and for the first time, many songs composed on piano, which became a hallmark of Mitchell's style in her most popular era. 'Ladies Of The Canyon' was an instant smash on FM radio and sold briskly, eventually becoming Mitchell's first gold album, but she made a decision to stop touring for a year and just write and paint. The songs she wrote during the months she took off for travel and life experience appeared on her next album, 'Blue', released in June 1971, which was an almost instant critical and commercial success, peaking in the top 20 of the Billboard albums chart in September and also hitting the British Top 3. The lushly produced 'Carey' was the single at the time, but musically, other parts of 'Blue' departed further from the sounds of 'Ladies Of The Canyon', with simpler, rhythmic acoustic parts allowed a focus on Mitchell's voice and emotions, while others such as 'Blue', 'River' and 'The Last Time I Saw Richard' were sung to her rolling piano accompaniment. With the music now so much more than just folk songs, they were soon picked up and recorded by a variety of artists in other fields, such as soul rendition of 'All I Want' by The Supremes, or the hard rock of 'This Flight Tonight' by Nazareth. The songs from 'Blue' have continued to be covered ever since, with Linda Ronstadt tackling 'River' in 2000, and Wilson Phillips taking on 'California' in 2004. 'Blue' is often cited as one of the best albums of all time, being rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and so here is a unique interpretation of it by a variety of artists who appreciate the quality of her song-writing.   

Track listing

01 All I Want (The Supremes 1972)  
02 My Old Man (Sandbloom 2011) 
03 Little Green (Blue Tapestry 2002) 
04 Carey (Goldie Hawn 1972)  
05 Blue (Sarah McLachlan 1994)  
06 California (Wilson Phillips 2004) 
07 This Flight Tonight (Nazareth 1973) 
08 River (Linda Ronstadt 2000)  
09 A Case Of You (Phoebe Snow 1998)  
10 The Last Time I Saw Richard (Clare Maguire 2014)

Have A Folky Christmas 2023

It won't be long before Christmas is upon us once again, so here is a fine selection of folk-inspired Christmas tunes, without a folkified carol in sight. 

Track listing

01 The Bells Of Dublin/Christmas Eve (The Chieftains 1991)
02 On A Quiet Christmas Morn (Mary Chapin Carpenter 2008)
03 Christmas For Cowboys (John Denver 1975)
04 The Coventry Carol (The Young Tradition with Shirley & Dolly Collins 1969)
05 Christmas Passing Through (The Roches 1990)
06 Gaudete (Steeleye Span 1973)
07 Song For A Winter's Night (Gordon Lightfoot 1967)
08 Upon A Winter's Night (Cara Dillon 2016) 
09 Christ Is Born On Christmas Day (John Fahey 1991)
10 River (Joni Mitchell 1971)
11 Silent Night All Day Long (John Prine 1993)
12 In Dulci Jubilo (Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band 2005)
13 Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) (Laura Marling 2009)
14 Sing We Noel (The Kingston Trio 1960)
15 Candlemas Eve (Kate Rusby 2008)
16 I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day (Burl Ives 1965)
17 Coventry Carol (Joan Baez 1966)
18 On Christmas Night All Christians Sing (The Christmas Albion Band 2003)
19 The Seven Rejoices Of Mary (Loreena McKennitt 2008)
20 Christmas Carolling (The Irish Rovers 1999)

Search 'christmas aiwe' for all my Christmas albums.

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter - ...and on guitar (1978)

Jeffrey Allen "Skunk" Baxter was born on December 13, 1948, and joined his first band at age 11. While still a high school student, he worked at Manny's Music Shop in Manhattan in 1966, and it was there that he met Jimi Hendrix, who was just beginning his career as a frontman. For a short period during that year, Baxter was the bassist in a Hendrix-led band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, along with fellow Manny's employee Randy California. He first reached a wide rock audience in 1968 as a member of the psychedelic rock band Ultimate Spinach, joining them for the third and final album 'Ultimate Spinach III'. After leaving the band, he played with the Holy Modal Rounders, and also backed singer Buzzy Linhart, and it was around this time that he started to use the nickname "Skunk," although its origins are shrouded in mystery to this day. Relocating to Los Angeles, he found work as a session guitarist, playing on Carly Simon's first album among many others, and in 1972 he became a founding member of Steely Dan, along with guitarist Denny Dias, guitarist-bassist Walter Becker, keyboardist-vocalist Donald Fagen, drummer Jim Hodder and vocalist David Palmer. Baxter appeared with Steely Dan on their first three albums, 'Can't Buy a Thrill' in 1972, 'Countdown To Ecstasy' in 1973, and 'Pretzel Logic' in 1974, and contributed the classic guitar solo on their highest charting hit 'Rikki Don’t Lose That Number'. While finishing work on 'Pretzel Logic', he became aware of Becker and Fagen's intentions to retire Steely Dan from touring, and to work almost exclusively with session players, and so with that in mind he left the band in 1974 to join The Doobie Brothers. As a session man, he had contributed pedal steel guitar on the band's fourth album 'What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits', so he fitted in straight away, and is much in evidence on 1975's 'Stampede'. While preparing to tour in support of 'Stampede', Tom Johnston was hospitalized with a stomach ailment, and so to fill in for him on vocals, Baxter suggested bringing in singer-keyboardist Michael McDonald, with whom Baxter had worked in Steely Dan. With Johnston still convalescing, McDonald was invited to join the band full-time, and his songwriting contributions, as well as Baxter's jazzier guitar style, marked a new direction for the band, but after three more albums Baxter left the band. He continued to work as a session guitarist for a diverse group of artists, including Willy DeVille, Bryan Adams, Hoyt Axton, Eric Clapton, Gene Clark, Sheryl Crow, Freddie Hubbard, Ricky Nelson, Dolly Parton, Ringo Starr, Gene Simmons, Rod Stewart, Burton Cummings, Barbra Streisand, and Donna Summer. 
He continues to do studio work, most recently on tribute albums to Pink Floyd and Aerosmith, and occasionally plays in The Coalition Of The Willing, a band comprising Andras Simonyi, Hungarian Ambassador to the United States; Alexander Vershbow, US Ambassador to South Korea; Daniel Poneman, formerly of the United States National Security Council and later the Obama Administration's Deputy Secretary of Energy; and Lincoln Bloomfield, former United States Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs. This is linked to a second profession that he fell into almost by accident when, in the mid-80s, his interest in music recording technology led him to wonder about hardware and software originally developed for military use, specifically data compression algorithms and large-capacity storage devices, and after extensive research he wrote a paper on missile defence systems, which he gave to California Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, and his career as a defense consultant began. However, we're more interested in the music here, so this double disc set collects some of those pre-Dan sessions from Carly Simon, Cashman & West, Buzzy Linhart, and Paul Pena, and a few post-Dan recordings from Bob Neuwirth, Wayne Berry, and Tom Rush. The second disc all takes place while he was a member of The Doobie Brothers, and features Cher, Richie Havens, Little Feat, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and John Sebastian. Outside of the timeframe of these two discs he also played on records by Leo Sayer, Judy Collins, Cerrone, Roger Miller, and Nazareth, but the decade from 1970 to 1978 contains arguably his best work, so that's what we have here. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Once In The Morning (from 'P. J. Colt' by P. J. Colt 1970)
02 The Best Thing (from 'Carly Simon' by Carly Simon 1971)
03 We Let Love Slip Away (from 'A Song Or Two' by Cashman & West 1972)
04 One For The Lonely (from 'Paul Pena' by Paul Pena 1972)
05 Danny's Song (from 'Reunion' by John Henry Kurtz 1972)
06 Tell Me True (from 'Buzzy' by Buzzy Linhart 1972)
07 Come Home Woman (from 'Out Of The Nest' by Swallow 1972)
08 Ole Slew-Foot (from 'Rootin'' by Navasota 1972)
09 Thanks For Nothing (from 'Thomas Jefferson Kaye' by Thomas Jefferson Kaye 1973)
10 We Had It All (from 'Bob Neuwirth' by Bob Neuwirth 1974)
11 Claim On Me (from 'Ladies Love Outlaws' by Tom Rush 1974)
12 All I Needed (from 'Home At Last' by Wayne Berry 1974)

Disc Two
01 Down The Backstairs Of My Life (from 'Eric Mercury' by Eric Mercury 1975)
02 These Days (from 'Stars' by Cher 1975)
03 Hot (from 'Moving Targets' by Flo & Eddie 1976)
04 Dreaming As One (from 'The End Of The Beginning' by Richie Havens 1976)
05 In France They Kiss On Main Street (from 'The Hissing Of Summer Lawns' by 

                                                                                                                      Joni Mitchell 1975)

06 A Song A Day In Nashville (from 'Welcome Back' by John Sebastian 1976)
07 Highly Prized Possession (from 'Word Called Love' by Brian & Brenda Russell 1976)
08 Missin' You (from 'Time Loves A Hero' by Little Feat 1977)
09 A Heartfelt Line Or Two (from 'Blowin' Away' by Joan Baez 1977)
10 Guns Guns Guns (from 'Dream Of A Child' by Burton Cummings 1978)
11 Cry Baby Cry (from 'Flying Dreams' by Commander Cody 1978)
12 He Lives On (Story About The Last Journey Of A Warrior) (from 'Modern Man' by 

                                                                                                                  Stanley Clarke 1978)

Joni Mitchell - The Hissing Of Summer Demos (1975)

In January 1974 Joni MItchell release her 'Court And Spark' album, marking the beginning of her flirtation with jazz and jazz fusion, and the start of her experimental period ahead. 'Court and Spark' went to No. 1 on the Cashbox Album Charts, and made her a widely popular act for perhaps the only time in her career, on the strength of popular tracks like 'Raised on Robbery', 'Free Man In Paris', and 'Help Me', which became her only Top 10 single when it peaked at No. 7 in the first week of June. While recording 'Court and Spark', Mitchell had tried to make a clean break with her earlier folk sound, producing the album herself and employing jazz/pop fusion band The L.A. Express as what she called her first real backing group. In the Spring of 1975 Mitchell went into the studio to record acoustic demos of some songs she'd written for a potential follow-up record, including an early version of 'Dreamland', a song that two years later would appear on the album 'Don Juan's Reckless Daughter'. A few months later she recorded band versions of the tunes with most of the same musicians she employed on 'Court And Spark', and this song cycle was released in November 1975 as the album 'The Hissing Of Summer Lawns'. The LP was a big seller and peaked at #4 on the Billboard album charts. Generally, however, the album was greeted less than enthusiastically, with fans feeling that Mitchell had ceased being the confessional song-writer, and had turned her razor sharp observations outwards to society, and this was not what fans and critics expected or wanted from her. This was probably the first time that a musical direction of her's had been questioned, really wounding her, and she's since talked of the sting she felt at those bad reviews. As is generally the case, though, there were also quite a few good notices for the album, and over the years it has become one of her best known and most-loved releases. When these songs appear on bootlegs they are often packaged with filler, but this album contains just those 1975 demos, apart from one extra song 'Hunter (The Good Samaritan)', which was originally scheduled for 'Blue', but was only ever included on a rare test pressing, and has never since been officially issued. The cover uses Mitchell's own painting which was later adapted for use with the actual album.  

Track listing

01 Harry's House
02 Edith And The Kingpin
03 In France They Kiss On Main Street
04 Sweet Bird 
05 Shades Of Scarlett Conquering
06 Shadows And Light
07 Dreamland
08 The Boho Dance
09 Hunter (The Good Samaritan)