Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Townes Van Zandt (2022)

John Townes Van Zandt was born on 7 March 1944 in Fort Worth, Texas, into a wealthy family, and after the family relocated from Fort Worth to Billings, Montana in 1952, his father gave him a guitar, which he practiced while wandering the countryside. After attending the Shattuck School in Faribault, Minnesota, he enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1962, and wrote poetry and listened to records by Lightnin' Hopkins and Hank Williams. In the spring of his second year, his parents flew to Boulder to bring Townes back to Houston, worried about his binge drinking and episodes of depression, and he was admitted to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where he was diagnosed with manic depression. He received three months of insulin shock therapy, which erased much of his long-term memory, but in 1965 he was accepted into the University of Houston's pre-law program. After his father died in January 1966 at age 52, he quit school and went on the road for the first time, having been inspired by his singer-songwriter heroes to pursue a career in playing music. His early gigs in Houston clubs mostly consisted of covers of songs written by Hopkins, Bob Dylan, and others, as well as original novelty songs like 'Fraternity Blues', and in 1968 he met songwriter Mickey Newbury in a Houston coffee shop, and he persuaded Van Zandt to go to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was introduced to the man who became his longtime producer, "Cowboy" Jack Clement. With Clement producing, Van Zandt recorded sessions in the studio which became his debut album, 'For The Sake Of The Song', released in 1968 by Poppy Records. The next five years were the most prolific of Van Zandt's career, as Poppy released the albums 'Our Mother The Mountain', 'Townes Van Zandt', 'Delta Momma Blues', 'High, Low And In Between', and 'The Late Great Townes Van Zandt'. It's his third album which has some of his most covered songs, and the fact the many of them are by modern artists, such as The Magic Numbers, Laura Marling, and Bright Eyes shows the esteem in which he is still held as a legend of American song-writing. 

Track listing

01 For The Sake Of The Song (Azure Ray 2002)  
02 Columbine (Mike Molaro 2021)  
03 Waiting Around To Die (Nathan Hamilton 2020)  
04 Don't Take It Too Bad (Steve Earle 2009  
05 Colorado Girl (Laura Marling 2014)  
06 Lungs (Jonell Mosser 1996)  
07 I'll Be Here In The Morning (The Stonemans 1970) 
08 Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel (Bright Eyes 2022)  
09 (Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria (The Magic Numbers 2010)  
10 None But The Rain (Robin & Linda Williams 1975)

Jean Michel Jarre - La Cage (1976)

Jean-Michel Jarre was born in Lyon on 24 August 1948, and is the son of composer Maurice Jarre. When he was five his parents separated and his father moved to the United States, leaving him with his mother, and he didn't see his father again until he was 18. His musical education was fraught, and he struggled with classical piano studies, although he later changed teachers and worked on his scales. As a young man Jarre earned money by selling his paintings, exhibiting some of his works at the Lyon Gallery, and also by playing in a band called Mystère IV. In 1967 he played guitar in a band called The Dustbins, who appear in the film 'Des garçons et des filles', and he mixed instruments including the electric guitar and the flute with tape effects and other sounds. More experimentation was followed in 1968, when he began to use tape loops, radios and other electronic devices, and in 1969 he joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, founded and led by Pierre Schaeffer, inventor of musique concrete. Around this time he was introduced to the Moog modular synthesizer and spent time working at the studio of influential German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne. In the kitchen of his apartment in Rue de la Trémoille, Jarre set up a small makeshift recording studio. linking his EMS VCS 3 and EMS Synthi AKS synthesisers to Revox tape machines, and for a 1969 exposition at the Maison de la Culture in Reims, Jarre wrote the five-minute song 'Happiness Is A Sad Song', after which he composed and recorded his first single 'La Cage'/'Erosmachine', a mixture of harmony, tape effects and synthesisers, which was released in 1971. That same year he was commissioned by choreographer Norbert Schmucki to perform a ballet called 'AOR' (in Hebrew "The Light'), and he also composed background music for ballet, theatre, television programs, department stores, and advertising jingles for Pepsi-Cola, Nestlé and RTL. 

He also formed The Popcorn Orchestra to record a cover version of Gershon Kingsley's Moog instrumental 'Popcorn', although Hot Butter had the international hit with it the following year. From 1972 to 1975 he wrote music and lyrics for artists like Françoise Hardy, Gérard Lenorman, Christophe and Patrick Juvet, and he also appeared on Samuel Hobo's 1972 single 'Freedom Day' and Triangle's 'Recreation' the same year. In 1973 he released his first solo album, 'Deserted Palace', as well as composing the soundtrack for 'Les Granges Brûlées', and he also composed the song 'Zig Zag Dance', which he seemed so determined to have a hit with that he released it nearly half a dozen times, either under pseudonyms such as Jo Sherman, The Electric Choo Choo Band and The Superfly, or playing on recordings of it by artists Foggy Joe and Tony Lopez. 1974 saw another mystery band appear, but once again 1906 was just Jarre with another single, 'Cartolina', while his next few appearances on record were collaborations with stage illusionist Dominique Webb, Gerard Lenorman, Blue Vamp and Bill And Buster. In 1976 he recorded and released his low-budget solo album 'Oxygène', recorded at his home studio with analogue synthesizers like the EMS VCS 3 and the EMS Synthi AKS, and taped on a Scully 8-track recorder. It was initially turned down by several record companies, until Jarre decided to meet with Francis Dreyfus, the head of the Disques Motors label, to see if he could release the album, and it was accepted. The first pressing of 50,000 copies was promoted through hi-fi shops, clubs and discos, and by April 1977 it had sold 70,000 copies in France. It was to be his breakthrough record, launching him to international stardom, and so he no longer needed to pretend to be one-man bands or work with other artists. This collection of his early work shows the effort that he put in to get to that point in his career, and there are glimpses of what was to come in some of these pieces, so enjoy these early efforts from Jean Michel Jarre, and so you don't get completely fed up with 'Zig Zag' I've only included two versions of it.  

Track listing

01 Happiness Is A Sad Song (for the Maison de la Culture exposition 1969)

02 La Cage (single 1971)

03 Erosmachine (b-side of 'La Cage')
04 Pop Corn (single as The Pop Corn Orchestra 1971)
05 Black Bird (b-side of 'Pop Corn' as The Pop Corn Orchestra)
06 Freedom Day (single with Samuel Hobo 1972)
07 Recreation (single with Triangle 1972)
08 Le Matin Du Premier Jour (b-side of 'Recreation' with Triangle)
09 Zig-Zag Dance (single as Jo Sherman, with Christopher Laird 1973)
10 Ping-Pong Song (b-side of 'Zig-Zag Dance' as Jo Sherman 1973)
11 Zig-Zag (Instrumental) (single as Electric Choo Choo Band 1973)
12 Cartolina (single as 1906 1974)
13 Helza (b-side of 'Cartolina' as 1906)
14 Hypnose (single with Dominique Webb 1974)
15 La Belle Et La Bete (single with Gerard Lenorman 1975)
16 Jolly Dolly (single with Blue Vamp 1976)
17 Lady (single with Bill And Buster 1976)

Ray Davies - Return To Waterloo (1985)

'Return To Waterloo' is the only album ever credited solely to Kinks singer/songwriter/guitarist Ray Davies, and it contains "music from the motion picture" of the same name. The film was written and directed by Davies, and depicts the daydreams and nightmares of a commuter taking a one-hour train trip from the London suburbs to Waterloo train station. The format allows Davies to write a series of story-songs, including 'Going Solo' and 'Missing Persons', both of which refer to the commuter's daughter who had left home, while 'Sold Me Out' and 'Not Far Away' are punk rock rave-ups expressing the anger of the young people on the train, and 'Expectations' is a Davies reflection on one of his favourite subjects, the decline and fall of the British Empire. This would have been an excellent Kinks album, and in fact three of the songs had appeared on the last Kinks album, 1984's 'Word Of Mouth', but 'Return To Waterloo' is credited as a solo Davies record, possible because his brother Dave reputedly refused to play on it, and so despite the fact that the rest of the The Kinks did contribute, it would be pushing it to call it a Kinks album. The hour long feature film was a unique approach to the synthesis of music, video and cinema, and instead of dialogue, the story is told through music and lyrics. The haunting songs take renowned actor Ken Colley on a suspenseful journey through his imagination, as he confronts reality and fantasy, love and violence, and it also features Valerie Holliman, Dominique Barnes, Tim Roth and (briefly) Ray Davies himself as a busker. It was broadcast just the once by Channel 4 on a Sunday evening on 04 November 1984, and has become something of a cult classic, particularly among Kinks fans, and so this expanded edition of the "soundtrack" album is a god-send. It includes songs which were not on the original album, and the tracks which were on there are either remixed or alternate versions. It's been put together with a lot of attention to detail, and includes sound-bites of dialogue, sound effects, and ambient segues which all enhance the listening experience, whether you've seen the film or not.  

Track listing

01 Intro (Unreleased Extended Version)
02 Return To Waterloo (Edited Mix)
03 Ladder Of Success (Unreleased Recording)
04 Going Solo (Alternate Mix)
05 Missing Person (Alternate Mix)
06 Sold Me Out (Alternate Mix)
07 Lonely Hearts (Extended Alternate Mix)
08 Good Times Are Gone (Unreleased Recording)
09 Not Far Away (Alternate Mix)
10 Expectations (Alternate Mix)
11 Return To Waterloo (Reprise) (Unreleased Recording)
12 Voices In The Dark (Alternate Mix)
13 Outro (Unreleased Recording)

Allie Hughes - The Hard Way (2011)

In 2008 Allie Hughes took part in CBC Television's 'How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?', the Canadian version based on the UK series of the same name, which was searching for a singer to play the part of Maria in the stage show of 'The Sound Of Music'. She performed 'My Favourite Things' from the show and 'It's Oh So Quiet' by Björk, but was eliminated after two weeks. She released her second demo album that same year, titled 'Ladies And Gentlemen', which included some songs from her first album alongside some new recordings. In 2009 she recorded her debut studio album, collaborating with Leon Taheny, Dave Newfeld of Broken Social Scene, and Adam King of Run With Kittens. It was titled 'The Hard Way', and was initially set to be released in late 2010, but was then delayed to 2011, until it was ultimately scrapped later that year. She released a 4-track self-titled extended play in 2010, which included four songs from the proposed album, and which are the only officially released tracks from the project. Following the cancellation of 'The Hard Way', Hughes developed her synth-pop and electronic inspired band, ALX, in late 2011, releasing their debut and only single, 'I Will Love You More' in March 2012, and they had their final known live performance at the Hillside Festival in July, where they performed seven unreleased original songs and one cover. In July 2013 Hughes moved to Los Angeles to pursue a full-time career as a songwriter, but despite this she didn't stop working on her solo material, and after adopting the name Allie X she began working with producers Cirkut and Billboard. In early 2014 she released her debut single under the Allie X name, 'Catch', and it received praise from multiple sources, kick-starting a second career under the new name. She finally managed to get her music officially released by Twin Music Records, issuing numerous singles and three albums, and so as a reminder of what she was doing when she started out, here is her second shelved album, 'The Hard Way' from 2011, and you can definitely hear the progression of her music, from that idiosyncratic debut to this much more mature and assured sophomore effort.   

Track listing

01 Overture
02 Rolling Days  
03 Damaged Nail 
04 The Hard Way 
05 Stars (feat. Darcy Rego) 
06 Elevator 
07 I Will Love You More 
08 Headmaster 
09 O Chad 
10 Mistake  

David Bowie - The Leon Suites (1994)

David Bowie and Brian Eno were two of music’s most avant-garde figures, and throughout their lifelong friendship they often collaborated, most notably on Bowie's Berlin records. After reuniting at Bowie's 1992 wedding, they started emailing each other about what they felt was missing from music, and in a bid to reignite some artistic bravery that they clearly felt was lacking, they decided to embark on an album together without so much as "a gnat of an idea". They put together a band consisting of Bowie/Eno, Reeves Gabrels, Mike Garson, Erdal Kizilçay & Sterling Campbell, and began recording at Mountain Studios, in Switzerland, and the resulting album was far more fleshed out than its initial beginnings, being a narrative-focused cyberpunk curiosity built largely of interviews the pair conducted with patients at a wing of a Vienna psychiatric hospital, who were well-known for their outsider art. 'The Leon Suites' was a bold attempt to bring more conceptual artistry to the modern album, a bizarre offering that was influenced by murder, Twin Peaks, and hospital interviews. The two musicians put together a three-hour recording consisting of mainly spoken word passages and strange jams, employing the cut-up technique employed by William Burroughs and Brian Gysin, relying on an app Bowie had co-developed, called the Verbasizer. It allowed him to auto-generate random sentences to bulk out tracks or use its words to trigger an idea that formed the shape of a song. Eno was said to hand out cards to backing musicians each morning with their unique backstory, which contained instructions like: "You are the disgruntled member of a South African rock band. Play the notes that were suppressed". 

He also used the Oblique Strategies cards that he and artist Peter Schmidt had pioneered in 1975, which involved using a series of prompts on cards drawn only when faced with a creative blockage. Everything was highly improvised and written by Bowie in the studio, and he described what emerged as an almost obsessive interest in ritualistic, outsider artists. He told Vox magazine: "It's like a replacement for a spiritual starvation that's going on, like a tribe with dim memories of what their rituals used to be. They're sort of being dragged back again in this new, mutated, deviant way, with so-called gratuitous sex and violence in popular culture and people cutting bits off themselves. For me, it seems like a natural kind of thing". There were five suites recorded for 'Leon...', but two were deleted, with three receiving a final mix and then being presented to the record company for release, but they were not as forward-thinking as Bowie, and rejected the project as being too uncommercial. He therefore scrapped the whole thing and started work on something that the record company would accept, with snippets from 'The Leon Suites', including some of its narrative arcs and characters, ending up appearing on his 1995 album '1. Outside'. Although these tracks are often touted as 'Outside' outtakes, its more true to say that 'Outside' was based on outtakes from 'The Leon Suites', which was an album in its own right, and if the record company had accepted this as Bowie's next album, then '1. Outside' would never have happened. It's great that we can now get to hear these tracks, in the best quality so far, as these come from a CDR provided by Adam Bedstroke, and so thanks to him for letting these demos be shared amongst fans.

Track listing

01 Suite 1: I Am With Name  
02 Suite 2: Leon Takes Us Outside 
03 Suite 3: Enemy Is Fragile 

Elvis Presley - Memphis Revisited (1969)

In 1968, Elvis Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker arranged a deal with NBC for a Christmas television special starring Presley in front of a live audience. Parker originally planned to have Presley sing Christmas carols only, but the producer, Steve Binder, convinced him to perform songs from his original repertoire, and the high ratings received by the special, plus the success of its attendant LP, re-established Presley's popularity with his fans. For the previous half-decade, Parker had decided that Presley should only record soundtrack albums, as he viewed films and their soundtracks as complementary, with each helping to promote the other. However, the commercial success of these had steadily diminished throughout the 60's, and following the success of the TV special, he was persuaded to leave the RCA studios and record a new, non-soundtrack album at a different location. During a January 1969 meeting at Graceland, Presley told his producer, Felton Jarvis, that he did not want to record his next album at RCA, and American Sound Studio in Memphis, which was at the peak of a hit-producing streak, was suggested as an alternative. RCA contacted the studio's producer Chips Moman, and he was so keen to work with Presley that he postponed a session with Neil Diamond in order to put aside ten days to record with him. He was to be backed by the studio's house band, the 827 Thomas Street Band (informally known as the Memphis Boys), which consisted of Reggie Young on guitar, Tommy Cogbill and Mike Leech on bass, Gene Chrisman on drums, Bobby Wood on piano, and Bobby Emmons on organ. 

Recording began on 13 January 1969, when Presley arrived at the studio nursing a cold, but he worked through the next two days before his cold worsened, and on 15 and 16 January the house band recorded backing tracks for subsequent sessions without him. Presley returned on 20 January, recording 'In The Ghetto' in 23 takes and finishing the vocal track for 'Gentle On My Mind', and on 22 January he recorded Eddy Arnold's 'I'll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)' and the non-album single 'Suspicious Minds'. He then took a break from recording for a vacation trip to Aspen, Colorado to celebrate his daughter Lisa Marie's first birthday, and recording re-commenced on 17 February, completing about a dozen songs before the sessions ended on 22 February. Moman moved away from the usual Presley pop recordings aimed at an established audience, and he incorporated a Memphis sound integrating soul, country, gospel and rural and electric blues. Many arrangements lean heavily on the rhythm section, with lesser contributions from strings, brass and woodwinds, and arrangers Glenn Spreen and Mike Leech changed Presley's image on the tracks with the addition of violas, cellos and French horns. The single 'In the Ghetto' was released on 14 April 1969, with 300,000 copies shipped by RCA, and in its second week of release it entered the US charts, where it remained for thirteen weeks, eventually reaching number three, and it also reached number two on the British Singles chart. 

'From Elvis In Memphis' was released on 2 June 1969, topping the UK Albums Chart, and reaching number thirteen on Billboard's Top Albums. Although it received mixed reviews at the time, with The Los Angeles Times' Pete Johnson criticizing the music arrangements that he considered inconsistent with Presley's original Sun Records style, or the contemporary Memphis Sound produced by Stax Records, 'From Elvis In Memphis' has continued to receive praise in retrospective reviews. Following the release of the album, some of the songs which were left off the track listing were released as singles, with 'Don't Cry Daddy' reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and 'Kentucky Rain' becoming a moderate hit in 1970. That same year ten unused track from the 1969 sessions were issued under the title 'Back In Memphis', and while it pales in comparison to 'From Elvis In Memphis', it's still a fine collection of songs, with his rendition of Mort Shuman's 'You'll Think Of Me' being a soaring, passionate recording. Even after extracting these ten tracks from the studio leftovers, there were still a few completed tracks which were left behind, and so for this mopping up exercise I've taken all the non-albums singles which were recorded in Memphis, added an alternate take of 'Suspicious Minds', plus a couple of outtakes and b-sides, and in a controversial move I've included a version of the aborted vocal take of 'Poor Man's Gold' which has been completed using AI. It might rankle with the purists, but it is exceptionally well-done, and perfectly rounds off this one final Memphis album from The King. 

Track listing

01 Rubberneckin'
02 Mama Liked The Roses

03 I'll Be There

04 Kentucky Rain
05 Suspicious Minds
06 Don't Cry Daddy
07 Poor Man's Gold
08 My Little Friend

09 If I'm A Fool (For Loving You)
10 Medley: It's My Way/This Time/I Can't Stop Loving You
11 Who Am I?
12 Hey Jude

B*Witched - Where Will You Go? (2001)

B*Witched were an Irish girl group consisting of twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch, Lindsay Armaou and Sinéad O'Carroll, and all four members knew each other vaguely from dancing at Digges Lane dance studios in Dublin. O'Carroll met Keavy Lynch in a garage in the Dublin suburb of Finglas, where Keavy was working as a part-time mechanic, and the two became friends after talking about music, which sparked the idea of being in a band. In 1996 they decided to put a group together, and invited Keavy's identical twin sister Edele to join, originally calling themselves Butterfly Farm, and they later became a four-piece when Armaou joined, having met Keavy at a kickboxing class. They experimented with the names D'sire and Sister, before settling on B*Witched, and the band members deliberately cultivated a tomboy image and, in order to appeal to a younger audience, they also understated their ages in their early years. Edele and Keavy's older brother Shane (of the band Boyzone) helped the group find a manager, and Kim Glover signed them to Glowworm Records in 1997. B*Witched released their debut single 'C'est la Vie' on 25 May 1998, and despite mixed reviews, it reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, making them the youngest girl group to have a number one in the UK. Following its release in the United States, the song went to number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, and subsequent singles 'Rollercoaster', 'To You I Belong' and 'Blame It On The Weatherman' also topped the UK chart. 

Their self-titled debut album was released in October 1998, and reached number three on the UK Albums Chart and number 12 on the US Billboard 200. In 1999 the group appeared on the ABBA tribute single 'Thank ABBA For The Music', which reached number four in the UK, and they also recorded a cover of 'Does Your Mother Know' for the subsequent 'ABBAmania' album and TV special. Their second album, 'Awake And Breathe', appeared a year after their debut, and peaked at number 5 on the charts, but singles from the album were less successful than earlier releases. After touring Europe and America, the band began work on a third album, but although three new songs were recorded: 'Hold On' (featured in the film 'The Princess Diaries'), a cover of Toni Basil's 'Mickey' (featured in the film 'Bring It On'), and a cover of Wild Cherry's 'Play That Funky Music', the sessions didn't produce much other new music. The band had chosen 'Where Will You Go?' as their next single for release in October 2001, but before they could film a music video for it, the girls received a phone call from their manager telling them their record label Sony had dropped them. In June 2002, after one year without signing a new record deal, O'Carroll left the band, unhappy with the forced hiatus, and in September the group split up. There has been a tentative track listing doing the rounds for what could have been their third album, but only two songs from it have ever surfaced, so the best we can do is to gather up all of the tracks from their 2000 EP, a few b-sides, and the ABBA cover, and I've topped and tailed the album with a rather strange piece from the flip of their 'Rollercoaster' single entitled 'B*Witched Go To The Moon'. 

Track listing

01 B*Witched Go To The Moon/

02 Where Will You Go?
03 Mickey
04 Get Happy
05 Together We'll Be Fine
06 Play That Funky Music
07 Coming Round Again

08 Does Your Mother Know
08 Don't Say Never

09 Fly Away
09 Hold On

Soft Machine - Soft Machine's Little Red Records (1970)

johntest has been busy recently upgrading the artwork for some of the posts on the excellent Soft Machine alternate universe blog https://softmachinerigamarole.blogspot.com, and I think that this one is such an improvement that I'm replacing the original cover on the post and in the album file with this one. If you already have the album then just save it from this page. The illustration of Kevin Ayers is by Neal Anderson. 

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Van Morrison (2021)

After the commercial failure of his first Warner Bros. album 'Astral Weeks' in 1968, Van Morrison moved to upstate New York with his wife and began writing songs for the follow-up album 'Moondance', attempting to produce a record that would be more accessible and appealing to listeners. The musicians who went on to record 'Moondance' with Morrison were recruited from Woodstock, and would continue working with him for several years, including guitarist John Platania, saxophonist Jack Schroer, and keyboardist Jef Labes. Recording sessions began at Century Sound in New York, accompanied by most of the musicians from 'Astral Weeks' and its engineer Brooks Arthur, but Morrison soon manipulated the situation and got rid of them all. He had his own ideas for how he wanted the music to sound, and so enlisted the help of a horn section and chorus, and brought in the musicians recruited from Woodstock. Recording then moved to Studio A penthouse of A & R Studios in New York from August to September 1969, coming to the studio with only the basic song structures written down, and the song's arrangements in his memory, and they were developed throughout the album's recording. Most of Morrison's vocals were recorded live, and he later said that he would have preferred to record the entire album that way, and the finished album was the first for which Morrison was credited as the producer, later saying that as no-one else knew what he was looking for, he just did it. The resulting album found him abandoning the abstract folk/ jazz compositions of 'Astral Weeks' in favour of more formally composed songs, and its lively rhythm and blues/rock music was the style he would become most known for in his career. 'Moondance' was released by Warner Bros. on 27 January 1970 in the UK and on 28 February in the US, receiving immediate acclaim from critics on both sides of the Atlantic, being hailed by both Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs jointly in Rolling Stone as a work of "musical invention and lyrical confidence; the strong moods of 'Into the Mystic' and the fine, epic brilliance of 'Caravan' will carry it past many good records we'll forget in the next few years." The title track is one of his most covered songs, attracting nearly 250 versions, and some of the other tracks aren't far behind, with soul stars like Ben E. King, Lorraine Ellison, Merry Clayton and Esther Phillips all recognising the soulful quality of the song-writing, so here are some of the very best takes of the songs from Van Morrison's classic 'Moondance'. As it's quite a short collection I've added a track from Miriam Makeba from the same time period to close the album. 

Track listing

01 And It Stoned Me (Jackie DeShannon 1971) 
02 Moondance (Irene Reid 1970)   
03 Crazy Love (Rita Coolidge 1971)
04 Caravan (Lorraine Ellison 1971) 
05 Into The Mystic (Ben E. King 1972)
06 Come Running (Lynn Anderson 1979)
07 These Dreams Of You (Jesse Colin Young 2021)
08 Brand New Day (Esther Phillips with The Dixie Flyers 1970)
09 Everyone (Elizabeth Mitchell 2012)
10 Glad Tidings (Merry Clayton 1970)
11 I Shall Sing (Miriam Makeba 1970)

Allie Hughes - Waiting For The Prize (2006)

Alexandra Ashley Hughes (better known by her stage name of Allie X) was born on 31 July 1985 in Oakville, Ontario, and after studying classical piano and voice at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, and graduating from Sheridan College's Musical Theatre Performance program, she started her musical career in Toronto around 2006. At this time she was performing indie pop, indie rock, jazz, and electronic music, and she recorded the 10-track demo album, 'Waiting For The Prize', in 2006, while still in college. The album was pressed up on CD and sold at her early shows in 2006 and 2007, and takes inspiration from both jazz music, and piano-based alternative sounds. Said to be inspired by artists such as Kate Bush, Regina Spektor, and Norah Jones, the album pairs piano-pop and jazz instrumentals with sassy, quirky lyrics. It actually gained a review by John Arkelian for artsforum.ca, who described 'Bad Luck' as "a jazzy, bluesy song that sounds like a show tune from the musical stage", 'That's Just Me' as "an ironic juxtaposition of down-to-earth lyrics and an operatic lament", and 'What Have I Done?' as "a serious reverie on life’s choices, with a hint of the bittersweet". Those early CD's are now impossible to find, so here is Allie X's very first album, while still performing under the name Allie Hughes. 

Track listing

01 That's Just Me 
02 Gorilla Sounds
03 Bad Luck
04 Irish Colcannon 
05 What Have I Done?
06 Oyster Song
07 Perfect Day 
08 Brand New 
09 Fall
10 Something Isn't Right

Once - Once And Once Only (1988)

John Cipollina was a guitarist who was best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the prominent San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service. He created a distinctive guitar sound by using a one-of-a-kind amplifier stack, while his Gibson SG guitars had two pickups, one for bass and one for treble, giving a sound which was instantly identifiable as his own. After leaving Quicksilver in 1971, Cipollina formed the band Copperhead with early Quicksilver member Jim Murray, former Stained Glass member Jim McPherson, drummer David Weber, Gary Phillipet (a.k.a. Gary Phillips) on keyboards, and Pete Sears on bass. Copperhead disbanded in mid 1974 after becoming a staple in the SF Bay Area, and Cipollina teamed up with Link Wray to perform a series of shows together along the West Coast, with the Copperhead rhythm section of Hutchinson & Weber, and keyboardist David Bloom. During the 1980's, Cipollina performed with a number of bands, including Fish & Chips, Thunder and Lightning, the Dinosaurs and Problem Child, and he was a founding member of Zero, and its rhythm guitarist until his death in 1989. On 20 February 1988 he put together a band which consisted of his brother Mario Cipollina on bass, former bandmate Pete Sears on keyboards, Tony Johnson on drums, and Alex Ligertwood on vocals, and they performed one gig at SF Musicworks in San Francisco, California. It was one show, one time, so the band was named Once, and they played an hour and half set of classic covers from the 60's and 70's, which enabled Cipollina to adapt his great guitar style to a variety of genres, including rock, blues and reggae. I think the second set was marginally the better, with Cipollina's guitar playing being outstanding on some tracks, while a couple of them didn't work quite as well, so I've taken what I consider to be the best recordings from the night and edited them down into one six-track, 46-minute album of superb music from a true guitar legend, recorded just one year before his untimely death. 

Track listing

01 My Babe
02 Who Do You Love
03 Baby Watcha Wanna Do
04 You Gotta Help Me
05 Stormy Monday
06 Mona / Tequila / Mona

Rashad - Elevator Music (2003)

Hailing From Columbus, Ohio, Rashad Thomas invested years in building a career in music, and from a young age he earned acclaim as an R&B singer, landing his first record deal at age 13, and subsequent major label deals with RCA, Columbia and Universal. In 2002 Universal tested the waters with a promo release of 'Good Luv', and they followed this in 2003 with 'Sweet Misery', both of which were taken from his proposed debut album 'Elevator Music'. The record was to feature guest appearances by Jadakiss, Sheek Louch, Lone Catalysts affiliate P.A. Flex and 106 & Park battle rapper Posta Boy, but as both singles failed to make any impact on the Billboard charts, the album was cancelled by Universal and has remained in the vaults ever since. Thomas is still involved in music, and produced Jack Harlow's album 'Jackman' as recently as 2023, but as I've mentioned before, some of these cancelled albums are too good to stay hidden, and this is a case in point, so here is Rashad's debut long-player, 'Elevator Music', from 2003. 

Track listing

01 Good Luv  
02 Sweet Misery  
03 Stay Or Let Go? 
04 Met U On The Dance Floor  
05 Summ Cut 
06 Fantasy  
07 Naked 
08 Better Go Now  
09 Jasmine  
10 Used 2 Make Luv  
11 Makin' Babies  
12 ...Get II Know U  
13 Eye on U  
14 Why U Gon' Give It Up (To Him?) 
15 Amen  
16 My Heart (Outro) 

Paul McCartney - Simple As That (1989)

Here's a nice little collection of rarities, out-takes and b-sides from Paul McCartney, mostly covering the 80's - that's the 1980's and the 1880's, as it also includes one legendary track from 1972, with the first demo of '1882' dating back to the time that he was recording the 'McCartney' album. That was as a simple Paul-on-piano track, and some of the eventual lyrics weren't yet present, but a second second demo brought Linda in for some backing vocals, and she also vocalized the guitar parts. It was supposed that a studio version was recorded in January 1972, and this did eventually surface on the 4CD re-issue of 'Red Rose Speedway', but it was also played during the 'Wings Over Europe' tour in 1972, and a live version recorded in The Hague was originally slated for inclusion on the band's 'Red Rose Speedway' album. This was initially planned as a double-disc set, and the live recording of '1882' was to be augmented with some studio overdubs, but it was eventually removed from the final track listing, and so this version is the actual recording from The Hague, on which I've reconstructed the intro and given it a suitably bombastic finale. 'On The Wings Of A Nightingale' was written for, and gifted to, The Everly Brothers in 1984, and as their version was so faithful to his original demo, Frank Walker has managed to remix it using the Everly's backing track with McCartney's vocals for this unique version. There are a couple of b-sides from collaborative singles with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, with 'Rainclouds' reputedly being the song he was working on the day that John Lennon was murdered. 'Don't Break The Promise' was written by McCartney and Eric Stewart of 10cc during their collaboration in 1986 for the 'Press To Play' album, and although McCartney recorded it in 1988 with the help of Hamish Stuart, he kept it until 1997 when it was released as the b-side of his 'Beautiful Night' single. The title track is McCartney's contribution to an anti-heroin charity album in 1986, and 'Spies Like Us' was written as the theme to the 1985 film of the same name. It's all housed in a cover based on a wooden sculpture by Wilfred Wood, which you may seen in the news recently, as it caused quite a stir when it was banned from being used for a 7" single released by the Secret 7 charity because McCartney thought it was too "unflattering". I love it, so I'm using it here.  

Track listing

01 Simple As That (from 'It's A Live-In World' charity album by The Anti-Heroin Project 1986)
02 The First Stone (b-side of 'This One' 1989)
03 Good Sign (b-side of 'This One' 1989)
04 Rainclouds (b-side of 'Ebony And Ivory' 1982)
05 I'll Give You A Ring (b-side of 'Take It Away' 1982)
06 Don't Break The Promise (recorded 1988, b-side of 'Beautiful Night' 1997)
07 Ode To A Koala Bear (b-side of 'Say Say Say' with Michael Jackson 1983)
08 On The Wings Of A Nightingale (remixed demo for The Everly Brothers 1984)
09 Hanglide (b-side of 'Press' 1986)

10 Spies Like Us (single 1985)

11 1882 (Live in The Hague, Rotterdam, 1972)

Propaganda - Anonymous (1998)

Propaganda was formed in Düsseldorf, West Germany, in 1982, by Ralf Dörper (a member of the pioneering German industrial band Die Krupps), alongside artist Andreas Thein and vocalist Susanne Freytag. Early recordings in Germany attracted the attention of DJ John Peel and journalist Chris Bohn (aka Biba Kopf), and with the inclusion of classically trained musician and composer Michael Mertens and singer Claudia Brücken, music journalist Paul Morley signed the band to Trevor Horn's newly formed ZTT label in 1983. The group relocated to the United Kingdom and released the single 'Dr. Mabuse', named after the fictional character made famous by filmmaker Fritz Lang, and it reached the Top 30 in the UK Singles Chart. Before the year was out, Thein was asked to leave the band due to musical differences, and with Mertens now filling the gap left by his departure, the band forged ahead with recording their follow-up single and debut album. However, both of these were to be delayed as a result of the unexpectedly huge success of ZTT's most famous signing, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, as the label was forced to spend all its limited resources on promoting and marketing them, meaning that Trevor Horn was not available to produce Propaganda's album. Stephen Lipson took his place along with Andy Richards playing keyboards, and the band's second single, the more pop-oriented 'Duel', was released in April 1985, becoming their most recognisable release. The first week of July 1985 finally saw the release of the band's debut album, 'A Secret Wish', which received considerable critical acclaim and some commercial success, and which reached number 16 on the UK Albums Chart. 

Following a year on the road, a remix album, 'Wishful Thinking', was released in November 1985, and although it was originally intended for the American club market, the album was also released in Europe against the wishes of the group themselves. The year 1986 started positively, with the single 'p:Machinery' gaining the number 1 chart position in Spain, but in late 1985 their management introduced the band to the London-based music lawyer Brian Carr, who explained to the group members that under their current contracts with ZTT, they could go on making records for the rest of their lives and never make any money from them, and so based on this information the band asked ZTT to renegotiate the contracts, which the company declined to do. Soon afterwards Claudia Brücken left Propaganda to pursue a solo career, and after a protracted legal battle, which saw the remaining members of Propaganda under an injunction by ZTT for fourteen months, they were finally released from their contract to ZTT in the summer of 1987. In 1988, the band signed to Virgin and began recording new material, resulting in a new album, released in 1990 called '1234'. In 1998, Mertens, Brücken, and Freytag reunited, signed an options deal with East West, and began working on new material. Several tracks were completed, including one produced by Tim Simenon and featuring Depeche Mode's Martin Gore on guitar, and a video for one song, 'No Return', was produced in Morocco and directed by 'Keyser Soze' in December 1998. However, no album materialized and, in January 2002, Brücken announced, "The reunion was worth a try, but did not work out'. A number of the finished tracks have leaked, and so I've collected them here, resulting in what could have been the band's third studio album, now titled 'Anonymous'. 

 
Track listing

01 Cloud 9
02 Ignorance
03 Who's The Fool
04 Beast Within
05 No Return
06 To The Future
07 Turn To The Sun

08 Anonymous
09 Dream Within A Dream 

Lady May - May Day (2002)

Rhonda Natasha Robinson was born on 6 March 1974, and is better known by her stage name Lady May. She grew up listening to Elton John, Duran Duran and Michael Jackson, but by the age of 15, she stopped attending high school and became a hip hop dancer in music videos for artists such as LL Cool J and Jodeci. Feeling unsatisfied with this as a career, she began rapping in the late 1990's under her stage name Mae West, and her rapping skills would eventually gain notice from fellow producer/rapper, Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie, who later renamed her Lady May, and introduced her to Crazy Cat Productions. In 2001 she landed a contract deal with Arista Records, and she released her debut single in 2002, with 'Round Up' featuring R&B singer and former label-mate Blu Cantrell. Her following single was planned to be 'Dick & Doe', and a music video for the song was shot, but in the midst of the pushbacks for her album 'May Day' (first scheduled for a release in May 2002, then to 16 July 2002, then to August 2002), the single and video, as well as the album, were all shelved after the poor reception to 'Round Up'. She was also featured on former label-mate Rob Jackson's 2002 single 'Boom Boom Boom', which was slated to appear on his debut album, 'For the People', but that was eventually shelved as well. In 2003, she was featured on Willa Ford's 'A Toast To Men', and in 2007 she contributed to Jennifer Lopez's 2007 album 'Brave', where she was credited as a songwriter on several tracks. A version of 'May Day' was ultimately released online last year, but it contained a few more interludes that were not present on the original promotional copies that circulated physically, and so here is that 2003 promo so that you can hear this excellent album as it was intended to be heard. 

Track listing

01 We Got it Locked (feat. Memphis Bleek)
02 Right Right
03 Hard 2 Get 2 
04 Dear Richard 
05 My Blues
06 U Ain't Neva Lie
07 Glamorous Girls
08 8 Million Stories
09 Stick N Move
10 Didn't Mean To Turn You On (feat. Cheri Dennis)
11 Round Up (feat. Blu Cantrell)
12 Dick And Doe
13 Unborn
14 What Up (feat. P. Diddy)

Bob Dylan - The Hitmakers Sing 'Another Side Of Bob Dylan' (1993)

In February 1964, Bob Dylan embarked on a 20-day trip across the United States, riding in a station wagon with a few friends and heading towards California, with the primary motivation for the trip being to find enough inspiration to step beyond the folk-song form, if not in the bars, or from the miners, then by peering deep into himself. Dylan spent much time in the back of the station wagon, working on songs and possibly poetry on a typewriter, and it was during this trip that he composed 'Chimes Of Freedom'. With his commercial profile on the rise, Columbia was now urging him to release a steady stream of recordings, so on his return to New York, studio time was quickly scheduled, with Tom Wilson back as producer. The first, and only, recording session was held on 9 June at Columbia's Studio A, and while polishing off a couple of bottles of Beaujolais, he recorded fourteen original compositions, in a single three-hour session between 7pm and 10pm that night. Three were ultimately rejected, with 'Denise Denise', 'Mr. Tambourine Man', and 'Mama, You Been On My Mind' not being considered for the fourth album, although 'Mr. Tambourine Man' was revisited for his next album. As 'Another Side Of Bob Dylan' was being prepared for release, Dylan premiered his new songs at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1964, which was where he first met Johnny Cash. He was already an admirer of Cash's music, and vice versa, and the two spent a night jamming together in Joan Baez's room at the Viking Motor Inn. When the album was released, it was a step back commercially, failing to make the Top 40, and indicating that record consumers may have had a problem with the new music, just as critics had when they first heard the songs at Newport. Dylan soon defended his work, insisting that the songs were insanely honest, and that he and he alone wanted and needed to write them. Years later, mixed reactions over 'Another Side Of Bob Dylan' remained, but not for the same reasons, as critics later viewed it as a 'transitional' album, although contemporary artists could hear the quality of the songs, with nearly all of them being covered by 1968, and here are some of the best of them.  

Track listing

01 All I Really Want To Do (The Four Seasons 1965)
02 Black Crow Blues (The Silkie 1965)
03 Spanish Harlem Incident (The Pozo Seco Singers 1968)
04 Chimes Of Freedom (Julie Felix 1967)
05 I Shall Be Free No. 10 (Paul James 1990)
06 To Ramona (The Alan Price Set 1968)
07 Motorpsycho Nitemare (Strangelove 1993)
08 My Back Pages (The Byrds 1967)
09 I Don't Believe You (Ian & Sylvia 1967)
10 Ballad In Plain D (Michael Chapman 1977)
11 It Ain't Me Babe (The Turtles 1965)

Dua Lipa - Forgiveness (2020)

This final collection of songs from 2020 is another fine album made up of the leftovers from the writing and recording sessions for her 'Future Nostalgia' album. 

Track listing

01 Jealousy
02 Human
03 Don't Wait For Me
04 Pretend I Don't Exist
05 Cherry
06 Hard Days
07 Forgiveness
08 Hi (feat. Pharrell)
09 Protect Me From What I Want
10 Not Over You
11 Sleep No More (feat. Pharrell)

Johnny Cash - Flesh And Blood (1993)

In 1993 Johnny Cash was approached by producer Rick Rubin and offered a contract with Rubin's American Recordings label, better known for rap and heavy metal than for country music. Rubin had seen Cash perform at Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary concert in late 1992, and felt Cash was still a vital artist who had been unfairly written off by the music industry. Suffering from health problems, and recovering from a relapse of his drug addiction, Cash was initially sceptical, but the two men soon bonded, particularly when Rubin promised Cash a high level of creative control. Cash decided to record the first solo album of his career without any accompanying musicians, and so under Rubin's supervision he recorded most of the album in his own Tennessee cabin or Rubin's home in Los Angeles, accompanied only by his guitar, which was a return to his earliest recording style. 'The Beast In Me' was written and originally recorded by Cash's former stepson-in-law Nick Lowe, and Rubin commissioned new songs from several musicians, two of which ended up on 'American Recordings', including Glen Danzig's 'Thirteen'. 'American Recordings' received nearly universal acclaim from critics, with a rave review in Rolling Stone hailing it as one of Cash's greatest albums, because of his self-possessed, "biblically intense" take on traditional folk songs, and Rubin's no-frills production. In fact Cash had recorded many other songs in that fruitful period of playing for Rubin, and it wasn't long before outtakes started to surface, with a number of them being compiled on the 'American Outtakes' album in 1999, which Paul posted on his site back in 2019, but more surfaced later and the second volume was much harder to find. In fact most of these songs finally appeared on the 'Unearthed' box set in 2003, but for this post I'm using the original bootleg versions for most of the recordings, although the difference is probably minimal. It's the perfect accompaniment to 'American Outtakes', as we now have just about all the songs recorded in 1993, from which the 'American Recordings' track list was selected.   

Track listing

01 Long Black Veil
02 Just The Other Side Of Nowhere
03 The Fourth Man
04 Waiting For A Train
05 Flesh And Blood
06 If I Give My Soul
07 Understand Your Man
08 The Caretaker
09 Banks Of The Ohio (with June Carter)
10 Breaking Bread
11 Casey's Last Ride
12 As Long As The Grass Shall Grow (with June Carter)
13 No Earthly Good
14 Two Timin' Woman

Bellefire - Spin The Wheel (2004)

After the UK version of their debut album was shelved, Bellefire did eventually sign to WEA in 2003, and they moved their base to London, where they subsequently recorded a new album entitled 'Spin The Wheel' as a trio, following the departure of Tara Lee. Their first single as a three-piece was 'Say Something Anyway', which was released in early 2004, and which peaked in the UK at No.26, but spent only three weeks on the charts, although it did much better in their native Ireland, reaching No. 2 and going double platinum. The planned follow-up single for the summer of 2004, 'You Were Meant For Me', was shelved, and so the band spent the summer of 2004 promoting their upcoming album release around the UK at various festivals, but due to the release date of the album being continually pushed back, the summer promotion did little to boost their reputation and sales. After the failure of their next single, the title track 'Spin The Wheel', to impact the UK charts in October 2004, the band once again concentrated on the Asian market, where 'Say Something Anyway' was reaching the top of the charts in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and The Philippines. They completed their tour of Southeast Asia and released their album there, and the UK release of 'Spin The Wheel' and a third single was pushed back several times, until it was eventually cancelled. After the non-release of the 'Spin the Wheel' album in the UK, Bellefire and Atlantic Records parted company, and the group went their separate ways. It was a sad end for a fine girl band, and it's a shame that record company politics once again ruined a promising career for the girls. So that their efforts are not wasted, here is Bellefire's second album that we in the UK and US were not allowed to hear. 

Track listing

01 Say Something Anyway
02 You Were Meant For Me
03 Spin The Wheel
04 What Hurts The Most
05 Nobody Loves Me Like You Do
06 Damn
07 Pieces Of You
08 Sold Out
09 Can't Cry Hard Enough
10 I Need To Be Next To You
11 Stay
12 I'll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me
13 Don't Know Why

The Rolling Stones - Prairie Love (1997)

For the final post in this Rolling Stones' outtakes collection we raid the 'Bridges To Babylon' archives, with some nice offcuts, plus three tracks featuring Keef on vocals, which did eventually make the final track listing once Jagger took over vocal duties. By this time the band were down to a four-piece, following the retirement of Bill Wyman in 1991, and for one last time, here are the notes from the Zen Archer's Aural Surfing Odyssey blog, with a bit of background to the tracks, plus the corrected year of recording. 
01 20 Nil (1991)
A dusty little piece from the 'Bridges To Babylon' sessions (I wonder how deep THAT well is?) – it fits well of the time and would still sound amazing now. An extended, indie-ish intro leads in to an almost primal squall from Mick while Ronnie and Keith ad-lib in the background, taking turns at stripping off levels of slow-burn guitar. Should be 1997. 
02 Dream About (1992)
This might the stray mutt of the collection. A shonky set of lyrics with a very rote drum backing and less than inspiring musical prowess. Thankfully, it was buried in the middle of the set making it easier to forget. Should be 1997.
03 Low Down (Keith Richards vocal 1997)
A Keith vocal for a change, one that was given up to Mick for the final 'BTB' album – Keith’s voice here being buried under the instrumental (though it’s a tight race between such a densely layered production, and I've now boosted them up a fraction), it was the right decision to give the job over. Correct year.
04 Prairie Love (1993)
Prowling funk work out with a breathy vocal line and slinky clockwork bass line. A b-side at best (and considering the glut of danceable remixes that littered CD singles at the time, that's no bad thing). Should be 1997.
05 Sanctuary (1994)
An odd little breathy whisp of a ballad around a curious organ bedding and bongos. As with 'Desperate Man', it draws deeply on Minneapolis's most famous son, but unlike that track, it never seems to go anywhere and opposed to being sexy, sounds a little creepy. There's a lot to be said for experimentation, though and this track is wildly different to what you might expect. Should be 1997.
06 Too Tight (Keith Richards vocal 1997)
A Keith lead track from 'BTB' that was handed back to Mick for the commercial version. Correct year.
07 Desperate Man (1973)
A proto-Prince production of spidery silk slide guitar lines and falsettos. It edges in, stealing from styles as it shifts around too, showing just how versatile the band can be all in the space of a few minutes. Should be 1997. 
08 Might As Well Get Juiced (extended, alternate version 1998)
Borne of static and a moody, looping riff, an electronic throb permeates through this 'BTB' track. This one is around a minute and a half longer than the commercial version. Should be 1997.
09 Flip The Switch (Keith Richards vocal 1998)
From the 'BTB' sessions again, this is a solid Keith vehicle. A wildly different production with a disjointed feel – not that that’s damning it with faint praise – it's a brave move for someone who professes a more blues oriented style generally. As it's 'BTB', it should be 1997. 

Track listing

01 20 Nil
02 Dream About
03 Low Down
04 Prairie Love
05 Sanctuary
06 Too Tight
07 Desperate Man
08 Might As Well Get Juiced
09 Flip The Switch