Blur - Peter Panic (1994)

After disappointing sales for their previous album 'Modern Life Is Rubbish', Blur went into the studio determined to establish themselves as one of the leaders of the Britpop genre, alongside Suede and Pulp. Once the recording sessions for 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' were complete, Albarn began to write prolifically, with the band demoing the new songs in groups of two and three, and due to their precarious financial position at the time, the band decided to quickly go back into the studio with producer Stephen Street to record their third album. When recordings were complete the band were pleased with the final result, but Food Records owner David Balfe was not, telling the band's management that the album was a mistake, and then soon afterwards Balfe sold Food to EMI. Albarn has explained that for him, 'Parklife' was like a loosely linked concept album involving a number of different stories, and he has cited the Martin Amis novel 'London Fields' as a major influence on the record. The songs themselves span many genres, such as the synthpop-influenced hit single 'Girls & Boys', the instrumental waltz interlude of 'The Debt Collector', the punk rock-influenced 'Bank Holiday', the spacey, Syd Barrett-esque 'Far Out', and the fairly new wave-influenced 'Trouble In The Message Centre'. The album was originally going to be entitled 'London' and the cover shot was going to be of a fruit-and-vegetable cart, but this was later changed to 'Parklife', which is a reference to the British pastime of greyhound racing. The album was met with almost universal critical praise, and has gone on to become one of the most acclaimed albums of the 1990's. Because Albarn was so prolific during this period there were a number of songs recorded at the sessions which were held back, either for use as future b-sides, or just because they didn't fit on the album, and they were collected on a 4-CD bootleg set which rounded up everything Blur produced around the time of 'Parklife', including the remixes, radio sessions, demos and live performances. For this album I've chosen only the songs which haven't previously appeared in any form (with the exception of 'Trouble In The Message Centre', as the demo for this is drastically different to the album version), so just the b-sides and demos, which make a great 46-minute companion to the classic album, all housed in a affectionate homage to the original sleeve by Reckoner97. 

Track listing

01 Magpie (b-side of 'Girls & Boys' 1994)
02 Anniversary Waltz (b-side of 'Girls & Boys' 1994)
03 People In Europe (b-side of 'Girls & Boys' CD single 1994)
04 Peter Panic (b-side of 'Girls & Boys' CD single 1994)
05 Never Clever (demo 1993)
06 Threadneedle Street (b-side of 'To The End' 1994)
07 Got Yer! (b-side of 'To The End' 1994)
08 Trouble In The Message Centre (demo 1993)
09 Beard (b-side of 'Parklife' 1994)
10 To The End (French Version) (b-side of 'Parklife' 1994)
11 Supa Shoppa (b-side of 'Parklife' 1994)
12 Theme From An Imaginary Film (b-side of 'Parklife' CD single 1994)
13 Seven Days (demo 1993)
14 Red Necks (b-side of 'End Of A Century' 1994)
15 Alex's Song (b-side of 'End Of A Century' 1994)

Kendell Kardt - Buddy Bolden (1971)

There was one artist in the recent Ronnie Montrose post that might be unfamiliar to many people, and so here's a bit of information about him. Kendell Kardt was born on 27 February 1943 in Ridgewood, Queens, New York, and he grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, where he attended public schools. Because his religious parents discouraged his 'worldly' interest in music, he left home at age nineteen to attend college, where he received his Bachelor of Arts Degree with a major in music in 1967. He soon abandoned classical pursuits in favor of popular music, and while still in college he joined his first rock band, The Frozen Flowers, who performed locally in Queens. They released one single, 'Are You In Love', written by band member Bob Zaidman, and after the breakup of the Frozen Flowers, Kardt performed briefly as a founding member of The Fugs in the mid-1960's. During this time he began to pursue songwriting, at first with collaborator Matt Fried, and then on his own, focusing on developing a rock ensemble as a vehicle for his new songs. In 1967 he formed a power trio called Black Betty, in which he was the bassist and lead vocalist, and they attracted the attention of record company entrepreneur Jac Holzman, whose Elektra Records label was still based in New York. Holzman agreed to record Black Betty if the band found a replacement for guitarist Jack McNichol, but Kardt refused and the deal fell through. The following year he formed the quartet Rig, which also included guitarist Artie Richards, bassist Don Kerr, and drummer Rick Schlosser, and after playing the New York club scene for a couple of years, the group recorded an album for Capitol Records in 1970, under the auspices of new manager Bill Graham and producers Elliot Mazer and Adam Mitchell. At the same time as being in Rig, he was also a session player, and appeared on the Archies 'Sugar Sugar' album, playing the Rhodes keyboard on the title track. 

At the end of 1970, Rig broke up and Kardt relocated to northern California with co-manager Mark Spector in order to be closer to Graham's San Francisco operation. In 1971 he recorded a solo album titled 'Buddy Bolden', scheduled for release on Capitol, and including musicians such as Ronnie Montrose on lap steel, electric and acoustic guitar, Spencer Dryden on drums, David Torbert on bass, Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar and banjo, Ed Neff on fiddle, and Pamela Polland, Barbara Mauritz and Lynne Charles on background vocals. When Ronnie Montrose formed his band Montrose, they recorded one of the songs,'Black Train', for their 'Warner Bros. Presents Montrose!' album, and this prompted interest in the shelved album once it became known where the song came from. Kardt himself has posted the songs on his own website kendellkardt.com, and so you can now hear this legendary album in all it's glory, housed in a sleeve that celebrates the title character, the African/American cornetist who was regarded by contemporaries as a key figure in the development of a New Orleans style of ragtime music in the early 1900's, which later came to be known as jazz. Kardt continued to write and perform his compositions nationally as a solo artist until 1984, after which he retired from performing and writing to devote himself to his family and other projects, and now lives quietly in rural New Hampshire.

Track listing

01 Buddy Bolden
02 Black Train
03 Mr White's Song
03 Get On By Me
05 Country Lullaby
06 Jesse, Jesse
07 Don't You Worry, Darlin'
08 Arabian Queen
09 City Lights
10 After The Rain
11 My Delight

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Opium Tea (1997)

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds released their tenth studio album in 1997, with 'The Boatman's Call' being entirely piano-based, alternately somber and romantic in mood, and a marked departure from the bulk of the band's post-punk catalogue. Recording for the album began at Sarm West Studios in London in mid-1996, with 'The Garden Duet' being the first song to be recorded, although it was to be one of a number of songs which didn't appear on the final record. Further recordings were later done at Abbey Road Studios, with Cave moving away from full-band arrangements and character-based narratives, and the album's music and lyrics moving towards the more intimate sound of his solo voice accompanied by piano or a few other instruments. The tempo is also generally slow, reflecting the sombre mood of the songs, while many of the lyrics seem to reflect on Cave's personal relationships and spiritual yearnings at the time of writing. Precious few studio outtakes from Cave predating the mid-90's actually exist, something he attributes to the fact that they were often too strung out to record more than the bare minimum, but having recently kicked heroin, and also had his heart scrambled by Polly Harvey, following their brief relationship, he entered Sarm West in 1996 with an abundance of material. Several strays from the sessions turned up on 2005's 'B-Sides And Rarities', and a couple ended up as b-sides on singles from the album, while alternate versions of four of the tracks from the record have also appeared, most radically a full band version of 'Black Hair'. You can hear why the long, half-realised 'Garden Duet' and sleazy blues of 'I Got Another Woman Now, Dear' might not have fitted in with the rest of the tracks chosen for the album, although they are still well worth hearing, whereas the decision to discard the wracked 'I Do, Dear, I Do' is, quite frankly, a mystery. I've had to make one small edit, as the afore-mentioned 'I Got Another Woman Now, Dear' had an annoying glitch in the first verse on every single online copy that I found, and try as I might I couldn't fix it, so as it was a lengthy track to start with I've just removed the whole of the first verse, and if I hadn't told you I don't think you'd have noticed.  

Track Listing

01 Come Into My Sleep (b-side of '(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?' 1996)
02 Little Empty Boat (b-side of 'Into My Arms' 1997)
03 Right Now I'm a-Roaming (b-side of 'Into My Arms' 1997)
04 The Garden Duet (out-take 1996)
05 I've Got Another Woman Now, Dear (out-take 1997)

06 Wake Up My Lover (out-take 1997)
07 Baby I Got You Bad (b-side of '(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?' 1996)
08 I Do, Dear, I Do (bonus track on Japanese CD)

09 Opium Tea (out-take 1997)
10 Sheep Shall Safely Graze (out-take 1997)
11 Farewell, So Long, Goodbye (out-take 1997)

Ronnie Montrose - ...and on guitar (1989)

Ronald Douglas Montrose was born on 29 November 1947 in San Francisco, and when he was a toddler his parents moved back to his mother's home state of Colorado, where he spent most of his younger years in Denver. When he was about 16 years old he ran away from home to pursue his musical career, but he wouldn't join his first real band for another six years, when in 1969 he joined Sawbuck, with Mojo Collins (lead vocals, guitar), Starr Donaldson (guitar, vocals), Chuck Ruff (drums) and Bill Church (bass). They were signed to Fillmore Records, co-owned by producer David Rubinson and promoter Bill Graham, and they toured and opened for major acts, before recoding their only album at the beginning of 1971, and it was during this time that Rubinson arranged an audition for Montrose with Van Morrison. Morrison, having recently moved from New York to California, needed a new band to record his next album 'Tupelo Honey', and so both Montrose and Church left Sawbuck to join Morrison before the sessions had finished for the 'Sawbuck' album, and so they only appeared on two songs on the 1972 album from the band. As well as songs from 'Tupelo Honey', Montrose and Church also played on the song 'Listen To The Lion', which was recorded at the same time but not released until the following year, when it appeared on 1972's 'Saint. Dominic's Preview'. After that, Montrose played briefly with Boz Scaggs, and then added guitar to an unreleased album by Kendell Kardt, where he was so taken with Kardt's song 'Black Train' that he covered it on one of his later albums. In 1972 he joined The Edgar Winter Group, and when he recruited Chuck Ruff to join him it essentially spelled the end of Sawbuck. After playing electric guitar, 12 string acoustic and mandolin on Winter's third album 'They Only Come Out at Night', he left to form his own band, the eponymously named Montrose, in 1973. 

Featuring Sammy Hagar on vocals, they released two albums on Warner Bros. Records, 'Montrose' in 1973, and 'Paper Money' the following year, before Hagar left to pursue a solo career. With his work on Morrison's album having been noticed, he was asked to add his guitar work to 'Power Of Love' from former Spooky Tooth member Gary Wright's 1975 solo album 'The Dream Weaver', which kick-started a parallel career in session work, playing with Dan Hartman, The Beau Brummels, The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils, Tony Williams and Nicolette Larson over the next few years. With Bob James replacing Hagar on vocals and Jim Alcivar added on keyboards, two more Montrose albums were released, with 'Warner Bros. Presents Montrose!' coming out in 1975 and 'Jump On It' in 1976. Montrose then shifted direction and released a solo album, the all-instrumental 'Open Fire' in 1978, produced by former band-mate Edgar Winter. In 1979 he formed Gamma with vocalist Davey Pattison, bringing Jim Alcivar with him, and recruiting Alan Fitzgerald on bass and Skip Gillette on drums. Gamma had more of a progressive rock edge compared to the hard rock of Montrose, and produced three consecutively titled albums before splitting up. In 1983 Montrose played lead guitar on '(She Is A) Telepath' from Paul Kantner's album 'Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra', and a couple of years later he joined Seattle's Rail (winners of MTV's first Basement Tapes video competition), as he was looking for a new band and one of Rail's guitarists, Rick Knotts, had recently left. For the few months that he was with them, they were billed as 'Rail featuring Montrose' or 'Ronnie & Rail', and they played a set of half Rail favorites and half Montrose songs, before splitting amicably at the end of their tour. He continued to record through the 1980's and 1990's, releasing solo albums including 'The Speed Of Sound' in 1988 and 'Music From Here' in 1994, as well as reforming Gamma to record 'Gamma 4' in 2000. During his 2009 tour, Montrose revealed that he had fought prostate cancer for the previous two years but was healthy once again, and he continued to tour until, on 03 March 2012 he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death was originally assumed to be the result of his prostate cancer, but the San Mateo County Coroner's Office confirmed the guitarist had taken his own life. It was a sad end to what most people would consider to be a rich and fulfilling life, but at least we have his many recordings as a reminder of what a great guitarist he was. 

Track listing 

Disc One
01 Wild Night (from 'Tupelo Honey' by Van Morrison 1971)
02 Saga Of The Blue Beaver (from 'Gandharva' by Beaver And Krause 1971)
03 We've Got Ways to Keep High (from 'Victoria' by Victoria Domoalgoski 1971)
04 Black Train (from 'Buddy Bolden' unreleased album by Kendell Kardt 1971)
05 Lovin' Man (from 'Sawbuck' by Sawbuck 1972)
06 Rock 'n' Roll Boogie Woogie Blues (from 'They Only Come Out At Night' by 

                                                                                              The Edgar Winter Group 1972)
07 If You Need Me (from 'Insane Asylum' by Kathi McDonald 1973)
08 Power Of Love (from 'Dream Weaver' by Gary Wright 1975)
09 Down To The Bottom (from 'The Beau Brummels' by The Beau Brummels 1975)
10 The Party's In The Back Room (from 'Images' by Dan Hartman 1976)

Disc Two
11 Teach Your Daughter (from 'Safe In Their Homes' by The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils 1976)
12 Open Fire (from 'The Joy Of Flying' by Tony Williams 1978)
13 Just In The Nick Of Time (from 'In The Nick Of Time' by Nicolette Larson 1979)
14 Trouble (from 'Two Years In A Padded Cell' by Earth Quake 1979)
15 Dirty Work (from 'Lauren Wood' by Lauren Wood 1979)
16 Soldier (from 'No Heroes' by Jamie Sheriff 1980)
17 (She Is A) Telepath (from 'Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra' by Paul Kantner 1983)
18 Whatever It Takes (from 'Uptown' by The Neville Brothers 1987)
19 Blood Alley 152 (from 'Guitar Speak II' by Various Artists 1988)
20 Tighter (from 'High Heel Heaven' by Heist 1989)

For MAC users

Press command+shift+period (to show hidden files) and a grayed out folder '...and on guitar" will appear and the mp3s will be inside. Either drag those to another folder OR rename the folder without any periods at the beginning. Press command+shift+period to once again hide the hidden files.

The Verve - Little Gem (1995)

In 1994, The Verve released the album 'No Come Down' on Hut Records, a compilation of b-sides plus a live version of 'Gravity Grave' performed at Glastonbury Festival in 1993. It was the band's first release under the name "The Verve", following legal difficulties with jazz label Verve Records, which forced the band to change their name following a US court case. The band then played on the travelling US alternative rock festival, Lollapalooza, in the summer of 1994, and the tour became notorious for the events of 11 July – Richard Ashcroft was hospitalised for dehydration after a massive session of drinking, and Peter Salisbury was arrested for destroying a hotel room in Kansas in a drug-fueled delirium. The Verve's physical and mental turmoil continued into the chaotic recording sessions of their second album, 1995's 'A Northern Soul', produced by Owen Morris. The band departed from the experimental psychedelic sounds of 'A Storm In Heaven' and focused more on conventional alternative rock, with Ashcroft's vocals taking a more prominent role in the songs. Around this period, Oasis guitarist and friend of Ashcroft, Noel Gallagher, dedicated the song 'Cast No Shadow' to Ashcroft, who returned the gesture by dedicating the song 'A Northern Soul' to Gallagher. The band released the album's first single 'This Is Music' in May, and it reached No. 35, becomoing their first single to reach the Top 40. It was followed by 'On Your Own' in June which performed even better, reaching No. 28. The album reached the UK Top 20 upon its release in July, but Ashcroft broke up the band three months later, just before the release of the third single 'History', a prophetic title in hindsight. Ashcroft reunited with Simon Jones and Peter Salisbury just a few weeks after the break-up, but Nick McCabe did not rejoin them, and the new band hired former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, although he spent only a couple of days with the band, and Simon Tong, a school friend credited with originally teaching Ashcroft and Jones to play guitar, became their permanent guitarist. The three singles from 'A Northern Soul' all had exclusive b-sides, and  the band also recorded a number of songs which didn't make the final cut for the album, so this collection of b-sides and out-takes rounds them all up into a companion album to the one which is generally credited as bringing the band the mainstream commercial success that they'd been craving for so long. 

Track listing

B-sides
01 Let The Damage Begin (b-side of 'This Is Music' 1995)
02 You And Me (b-side of 'This Is Music' 1995)
03 I See The Door (b-side of 'On Your Own' 1995)
04 Little Gem (b-side of 'On Your Own' 1995)
05 Dance On Your Bones (b-side of 'On Your Own' 1995)
06 Back On My Feet Again (b-side of 'History' 1995)
07 Monkey Magic (Brainstorm mix) (b-side of 'History' 1995)
08 Grey Skies (b-side of 'History' 1995)
09 Life's Not A Rehearsal (b-side of 'History' 1995)

Out-takes
10 Brake Lights (out-take 1995)
11 Mover (out-take 1995)
12 Funky Jam (AKA The Rolling People) (out-take 1995)
13 Echo Bass (out-take 1995)
14 Muhammad Ali (out-take 1995)
15 Come On (out-take 1995) 
16 King Riff (AKA This Is Music) (out-take 1995)

Devo - From The Past (1974)

Devo formed in Akron, Ohio in 1973, taking their name from the concept of "de-evolution" and the band's related idea that instead of continuing to evolve, mankind had begun to regress, as evidenced by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American society. In the late 1960s, this idea was developed as a joke by Kent State University art students Gerald Casale and Bob Lewis, who created a number of satirical art pieces in a devolution vein, while at the same time Casale was also performing with the local band 15-60-75 (The Numbers Band). They met Mark Mothersbaugh around 1970, who was a talented keyboardist playing with the band Flossy Bobbitt, to whom he brought a more humorous feel, introducing them to material like the pamphlet "Jocko Homo Heavenbound", which includes an illustration of a winged devil labelled "D-EVOLUTION" and would later inspire the song 'Jocko Homo'. The "joke" about de-evolution became serious following the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970, and this event would be cited multiple times as the impetus for forming the band Devo. The first form of the group was the Sextet Devo, which performed at the 1973 Kent State Performing Arts festival, and included Casale, Lewis and Mothersbaugh, as well as Gerald's brother Bob Casale on guitar, and friends Rod Reisman on drums and Fred Weber on vocals. This performance was filmed and a part was included on the home video The Complete Truth About De-Evolution, but this lineup performed only once, and when Devo returned to perform in the Student Governance Center in 1974 they had trimmed down to the Casale brothers, Bob Lewis, Mark Mothersbaugh, and his brother Jim Mothersbaugh on drums. 

The band continued to perform, generally as a quartet, but with a fluid lineup including Mark's brothers Bob Mothersbaugh on guitar and Jim Mothersbaugh providing percussion using a set of home-made electronic drums. As well as gigging they also recorded a lot of material on a four-track machine in the Mothersbaugh's basement, and a number of these home recordings have surfaced on the two excellent 'Hardcore' compilations. These albums are collections of demos recorded by the band between 1974 and 1977, some of which were early versions of their best known tracks that would later be re-recorded and used on subsequent records, such as 'Jocko Homo', 'Mongoloid', and 'Satisfaction', but the majority of the tracks were never re-used and remained unreleased until the 'Hardcore' compilations appeared. The albums were released in 1985 and quickly went out of print for over 20 years, until they were re-issued in 2013, and two further volumes have surfaced more recently, but these are all now extremely hard to track down. I was interested in the 'evolution' of the band (pun intended) and so split the recordings into the individual years that they were taped, and this gives us three excellent albums of around 40 minutes each from 1974, 1975 and 1976, so with some contemporary cover art added, here is the first of them by a band that can truly be classed as unique.

Track listing

01 Can You Take It
02 A Plan For U
03 The Rope Song
04 Be Stiff
05 All Of Us
06 Buttered Beauties
07 I Need A Chick
08 Jocko Homo
09 I'm A Potato
10 Ono
11 I Been Refused
12 Man From The Past

Palm Honey - Stick The Knife In (2018)

Joseph Mumford (vovals), Ayden Spiller (drums), Harrison Clark (guitar/synth) and Sebastian Bowden (bass) all met on a music course at Reading college and started jamming together, and it worked, so they formed Palm Honey. They are influenced by bands such as Stereolab, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, as well as Brian Eno, and try to incorporate experimental elements into catchy pop music. Their music is a swirling haze of chilled-out beats, dual vocals and less-is-more guitars, with hints of Tame Impala and the psych-pop sounds that have come out of the Heavenly Records stable in recent years. They've been uploading songs to Soundcloud for a number of years, and even released a 7" single through Flying Vinyl, as well as getting one of their demos featured in the NME, but after gigging and recording for four years they broke up in February 2018, although not before leaving behind enough music to make an album of superb modern psyche. Spiller is still releasing music under the name of J M Hatley, but for now you can listen to this and appreciate another great unknown band who never quite made it. 

Track listing

01 Bewitched
02 Bones
03 You Stole My Blackout
04 Hot Simian Weather
05 Starving Hysterical Naked (Part 1)
06 Starving Hysterical Naked (Part 2)
07 Palace
08 Stick The Knife In
09 Going Normal
10 I Can Try

Bob Dylan - Yonder Comes Sin (1981)

Following Bob Dylan's two religious-oriented albums, 'Slow Train Coming' and 'Saved', he began writing songs for the next record, with 'Property Of Jesus', 'Yonder Comes Sin', and new arrangements of older material like 'Ain't Gonna Go to Hell (For Anybody)' being composed during this time, as were 'Caribbean Wind' and 'The Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar'. In March 1981, Dylan held some informal sessions at both Rundown and Studio 55, rehearsing some of his new compositions while auditioning a potential producer, Jimmy Iovine. These sessions focused on the song 'Caribbean Wind', an ambitious work that had been performed live once during November, and which was hoped to be a potential centerpiece for his upcoming album, but despite numerous attempts it was not considered quite finished. In the meantime, Dylan concluded that another producer was needed, and although legendary producer Bumps Blackwell stopped by one day and oversaw the recording of 'Trouble', 'Magic' and 'Shot Of Love', he didn't return for further work, possibly because of health issues. Chuck Plotkin, who had experience working with Bruce Springsteen, was eventually hired, and five sessions were scheduled for Plotkin's Clover Studio, producing usable takes of 'Property Of Jesus', 'Watered-Down Love', 'Heart of Mine', 'Lenny Bruce', 'Dead Man, Dead Man', 'In the Summertime', and 'Every Grain Of Sand'. An extensively rewritten and rearranged version of 'Caribbean Wind' was also recorded at Clover, but once again, Dylan was disappointed with the results, and it wasn't considered for inclusion. 

After listening to a preliminary version of the album, he decided to remove 'Angelina' and 'Magic' from the final sequence, and to re-record three of the remaining songs. Unlike Dylan's previous studio album 'Saved', 'Shot Of Love' included more secular material as well as overtly religious and evangelistic songs, and a number of critics had already turned on him for the evangelism of his last two albums, so the reception for 'Shot Of Love' was particularly harsh. Despite lavishing praise on 'Every Grain Of Sand', Paul Nelson of Rolling Stone savaged the rest of the album, and Nick Kent of New Musical Express called it "Dylan's worst album to date." In recent years, some critics have grown to appreciate 'Shot Of Love', while others continue to disparage it, but there are some fine songs on it, and no-one can dispute the quality of 'Every Grain Of Sand'. Many of the songs mentioned didn't make it to the final cut of the record, but luckily they have survived, and many of them would have been a welcome addition to the album. In fact, Dylan himself has said that the 'Shot Of Love' version of 'Heart Of Stone' is not as good as some of the other takes, and so now you can decide for yourself, as one of them is here, along with a wealth of other unreleased material from the various sessions. 'Borrowed Time' required a bit of work to give it an proper intro, and to clean up the ending, and as 'Wind Blowing On The Water' was only a one and half minute quasi-instrumental, I've added it as a coda to 'Caribbean Wind'. A few others needed a bit of cosmetic editing, but generally they were fine just as they were, including a raucous cover of 'Mystery Train' to end the album in fine style.

Track Listing

01 Caribbean Wind (Blowing On The Water)
02 Hallelujah
03 Heart Of Mine  
04 High Away (Ah Ah Ah Ah)
05 Yonder Comes Sin
06 Is It Worth It?  
07 Borrowed Time
08 Let's Keep It Between Us  
09 Magic  
10 Mystery Train

Don Felder - ...and on guitar (1981)

Donald William Felder was born in Gainesville, Florida, on September 21, 1947, and was first attracted to music after watching Elvis Presley live on The Ed Sullivan Show. He acquired his first guitar when he was about ten years old, which he has stated he exchanged with a friend at the five-and-dime for a handful of cherry bombs. A self-taught musician, he was heavily influenced by rock and roll, and at the age of fifteen he started his first band, the Continentals. Around that time he met Bernie Leadon, who later became one of the founding members of the Eagles, and Leadon replaced Stephen Stills in the Continentals, which eventually changed its name to The Maundy Quintet. Felder gave guitar lessons at a local music shop for about 18 months, where one of his students was a young Tom Petty, and he also learned how to play slide guitar from Duane Allman. The Maundy Quintet recorded and released a single on the Tampa-based Paris Tower label in 1967, which received airplay in north-central Florida, and after the band broke up Felder moved to Manhattan with a band called Flow, which released a self-titled improvisational rock fusion album in 1970. After Flow split, he moved to Boston where he got a job in a recording studio, and in 1973 he relocated to Los Angeles where he was hired as guitar player for a tour by David Blue, replacing David Lindley who was touring with Crosby & Nash. 

In early January 1974 Felder was called by the Eagles to add slide guitar to their song 'Good Day In Hell' and some guitar solos to 'Already Gone', and shortly afterwards he was invited to join the band. After founding member Bernie Leadon departed in 1975 Joe Walsh joined, and his and Felder's dual guitar leads would eventually become one of rock music's most memorable onstage partnerships. The first album that the Eagles released after the lineup change was 'Hotel California', which became a major international bestseller and cemented their reputation as one of America's best bands. Once Felder's skill as a guitarist was recognised by the music industry he started to be asked to provide guitar on albums by a variety of artists, including Bob Seger, Andy Gibb, J. D. Souther, Warren Zevon, Stevie Nicks, and also on Joe Walsh's solo recordings. These guest appearances showed what a versatile musician he was, as he could add a country twang to Fools Gold's 'Rain, Oh, Rain', a fiery rock guitar to David Blue's 'Com'n Back For More', or a refined solo to Terence Boylan's 'Going Home'. In 1983, Felder released his first solo album entitled 'Airborne', and the album's single 'Never Surrender' was a minor hit, having also appeared on the soundtrack to the teen comedy 'Fast Times At Ridgemont High', and although he'll always be primarily remembered for his work with The Eagles, this album shows what an under-rated guitarist he was. 

Track listing

01 Tattooed Man From Chelsea (from 'The Great Pretender' by Michael Dinner 1974)
02 Com'n Back For More (from 'Com'n Back For More' by David Blue 1975)
03 My Old Lady And Your Old Man (from 'A Rumor In His Own Time' by Jeffrey Comanor 1976)
04 Rain, Oh, Rain (from 'Fools Gold' by Fools Gold 1976)
05 I Can't Dance (from 'Glenda Griffith' by Glenda Griffith 1977)
06 I Go For You (from 'Shadow Dancing' by Andy Gibb 1978)
07 Ain't Got No Money (from 'Stranger In Town' by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band 1978)
08 At The Station (from "But Seriously, Folks..." by Joe Walsh 1978)
09 If You Don't Want My Love (from 'You're Only Lonely' by J.D. Souther 1979)
10 Going Home (from 'Suzy' by Terence Boylan 1980)
11 A Certain Girl (from 'Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School' by Warren Zevon 1980)
12 I Don't Want To Talk About It (from 'Alive Alone' by Mickey Thomas 1981)
13 Man Gonna Love You (from 'Plantation Harbor' by Joe Vitale 1981)
14 The Highwayman (from 'Bella Donna' by Stevie Nicks 1981)

For MAC users

Press command+shift+period (to show hidden files) and a grayed out folder '...and on guitar" will appear and the mp3s will be inside. Either drag those to another folder OR rename the folder without any periods at the beginning. Press command+shift+period to once again hide the hidden files.

As the series is now back for a short run, I've gone back to some of the previous posts and improved the covers where the colours were a bit off. You can download them from here.

 

and I'd never been happy with the one for Gary Boyle, as there are so few pictures of him online that I had to use a screenshot from a Youtube video, and it wasn't that great quality. I think this one from the same video is a bit sharper, and captures him better.

                                                                                

The Fall - Country On The Click (2003)

Shortly after 'Are You Are Missing Winner' was released in November 2001, The Fall played a short, well-received US tour, although despite the positive reception, the fabled line-up merry-go-round continued as Spencer Birtwistle quit after an altercation with someone from a New York venue's management, and was later replaced by Dave Milner, who had less than an hour of rehearsal time before his first gig in Manchester. They toured constantly throughout 2002 to raise some much-needed cash, but towards the end of the year Ed Blaney resigned as the group's manager over problems regarding visa applications for a proposed US tour. He was replaced by Eleni Poulou, under whose guidance the band decamped to Lisa Stansfield's Gracieland Studios in December 2002 and January 2003 and recorded songs for their next album, to be called 'Country On The Click', as well as recording their 23rd John Peel session in February 2003. The album was originally due to come out in April, but the release date was pushed back, with it eventually being listed on Amazon's forthcoming releases as appearing on 4 August 2003. However, at some point in the first half of 2003 the album was leaked online, which led to the original release being withdrawn and the album being remixed and re-sequenced by Smith, and then re-titled as 'The Real New Fall LP'. Ben Pritchard has since said that the internet leak was the best thing that could've happened, as the band were all really unhappy with Grant Showbiz's mix, especially on 'Theme From Sparta F.C.' and 'Recovery Kit', although at the time the perceived opinion was that the band were furious that it had leaked. The music press were almost entirely enthusiastic about the album when it did finally officially appear in October, with The Wire's John Mulvey considering it one of Mark E Smith's perennial 'returns to form', and Mojo's Ian Harrison saying that it was the group's best since 'The Infotainment Scam'. Both versions of the album have their fans, and so here is the original Grant Showbiz mix so that you can make up your own mind. There are a couple of covers around for this one, but like the recent Zappa post, I imagine that the artwork was already completed by the time the original release was cancelled, and was just updated afterwards, so this could very well be what it looked like in the first place.

Track listing 

 
01 Theme From Sparta F.C.
02 Proteinprotection
03 Mountain Energei
04 Contraflow
05 Green Eyed Loco-Man
06 Last Commands of Xyralothep Via M.E.S.
07 Boxoctosis
08 Ho(e)uston
09 The Past
10 Recovery Kit
11 Mike's Love Xexagon
12 Susan Vs Youthclub

Joe Strummer - When Pigs Fly (1993)

In 1992 Joe Strummer was asked to provide the soundtrack to Sara Driver's forthcoming film 'When Pigs Fly'. Driver was the long-time partner of film director Jim Jarmusch, who Strummer had previously worked with, acting in his 1989 film 'Mystery Train', and so he accepted the commission and spent the next eight months composing songs and instrumental music for the film. It starred Marianne Faithfull as a ghost and Alfred Molina as a jazzer, but despite this promising cast Driver had trouble gaining a distribution deal, and so although it was shown at a few festivals, nothing really happened off the back of them. Strummer's soundtrack consisted of eight pieces, four songs and four instrumentals, taking in the Pogues-ey Celtic-rock of 'Rose Of Erin', the Bernard Herrmann-meets-Link Wray noir of instrumental 'Storm In A D-Cup', and the breezy pop of the rattling title track. Strummer has said that he seemed to be a jinx around projects like this, and was often involved in things that never saw the light of day, but this collection is a worthy addition to his solo canon, so here it is, together with alternate takes of 'Pouring Rain' and 'Rose Of Erin'.  

Track listing

01 When Pigs Fly (vocal)

02 Ellis Island Line (instrumental)
03 Pouring Rain (vocal)

04 Rose Of Erin (vocal)
05 Storm In A D-Cup (instrumental)
06 Free At Last (vocal)
07 Pouring Rain (alt. version)

08 Phantom County Fair (instrumental)
09 Rose Of Erin (alt. version)
10 When Pigs Fly (instrumental)

Keane - New Golden Age (2019)

Keane's fourth album was recorded and mixed at the beginning of 2012, with a tour commencing in March, and the lead single 'Silenced By the Night', being released in the UK on 15 April 2012, followed by 'Disconnected' six months later. The reception for the new album was not as universally positive as for the first three, with some critics saying that it was a step back to their comfort zone, and that the band lacked 'blood, guts and muscle'. In November 2013 they released a 'best of' compilation, which included two new tracks which were released as singles, with 'Higher Than the Sun' appearing in September 2013 and 'Won't Be Broken' in January 2014. On 20 October 2013 several publications, including The Sun and Digital Spy, claimed that Keane intended to split following the release of 'The Best Of Keane', but this was denied by Chaplin the next day, explaining that the band was not splitting up, but the members would like to "take a bit of time out from being Keane" after being busy for the past few years. This 'time out' lasted for six years, during which time Chaplin recorded a solo album titled 'The Wave' in 2016, and a Christmas-themed second album 'Twelve Tales Of Christmas' the next year, while Rice-Oxley and Quin continued with their side project Mt. Desolation, releasing 'When The Night Calls' in 2018. Toward the end of 2018, Keane posted a series of cryptic images onto their various social media accounts, hinting that the quartet were in the studio working on material, while on 6 February 2019 they posted several announcements on their Instagram and Facebook sites of various festivals in which the band would perform in the summer. In June 2019 the band released a new single from the forthcoming 'Cause And Effect' album, titled 'The Way I Feel', with the album finally appearing in September, including two bonus studio tracks on the European edition. The final post of this short series collects singles and b-sides from their last two albums, alongside some previously unreleased and bonus tracks, and their contribution to the soundtrack of 'A Monster Calls'. It nicely rounds off this four-volume collection of rarities from a band who dared to be different, and managed to make a 25 year career out of it, releasing almost as much music hidden away on singles and charity albums as they did on their five official records.   

Track listing 

01 Dinner At 8 (Rufus Wainwright cover from 'Connect Sets' EP 2010)
02 The Happy Soldier (previously unreleased 2010)
03 Myth (b-side of 'Silenced By The Night' 2012)
04 Difficult Child (b-side of 'Sovereign Light Cafe' digital download 2012)
05 Russian Farmer's Song (previously unreleased 2013)
06 Higher Than The Sun (single 2013)
07 Won't Be Broken (single 2014)
08 Tear Up This Town (single, from the soundtrack of the film 'A Monster Calls'  2016)
09 Glass Bottles (demo 2019)
10 New Golden Age (bonus track 2019)
11 Difficult Year (bonus track 2019)

Bruce Springsteen - Electric Nebraska (1982)

Over the course of a few weeks in early 1982 Bruce Springsteen recorded demos for his new album at his home with a 4-track cassette recorder, using only acoustic guitar, electric guitar (on 'Open All Night'), harmonica, mandolin, glockenspiel, tambourine, organ, synthesizer (on 'My Father's House') and voice. Once the demos were complete, he brought the songs to sessions at the Power Station studios in late April 1982, and he attempted to record full-band arrangements of the songs with the E Street Band. However, it soon became apparent to him that a majority of these songs did not lend themselves well to these full-band arrangements, and he later said "I went into the studio, brought in the band, rerecorded, remixed, and succeeded in making the whole thing worse". Only Springsteen and Jon Landau had any decision-making power in this process, and they both felt that certain songs were too personal, and the raw, haunting folk essence present on the home tapes could not be duplicated or equaled in the band treatments. Once this decision had been made, Springsteen asked Toby Scott if it was possible to make the sound quality good enough to release some of the songs as a solo album. It took Scott a few weeks to get back to him with a definitive answer, and if that answer had been "no" then there is unlikely to have ever been a 'Nebraska' album. Eventually, Scott confirmed that he would be able to use the recordings, and so by late May it had been decided to issue the album in its acoustic form. Despite Scott's confirmation that the tape was usable, the task to produce the album was not an easy one, as some of the equipment needed was somewhat the worse for wear, and it wasn't helped by the fact that Springsteen had carried the only tape copy around in his jacket pocket for three months. Springsteen fans have long speculated whether the full-band recordings of the Nebraska session tracks that took place in the last week of April 1982 will ever surface, but bearing in mind that Springsteen didn't think they brought anything new to the songs, and in his opinion 'the right version of 'Nebraska' came out', then it's unlikely that they will ever now see the light of day. However, an enterprising fan has put together the next best thing, and has taken band recordings of all the songs from 'Nebraska' and sequencing them into the same order as the record, in effect making an electric version of the album. Considering that the recordings come from a number of different sources, they run together very well, although I felt that the take of 'My Father's Place' was a bit tinny, so I've replaced that with an alternate recording, and 'Reason To Believe' ended rather suddenly so I've grafted on some applause to fade it out. That just left a bit of trimming and cross-fading so that it sounds like one complete concert, and as this is probably the nearest that we'll ever get to hearing an electric 'Nebraska', enjoy an alternate version of one of Springsteen's most highly-regarded albums.   

Track listing

01 Nebraska (1984-08-06 East Rutherford, NJ)

02 Atlantic City (1984-08-06 East Rutherford, NJ)

03 Mansion On The Hill (2000-07-01 Madison Square Garden,NY)

04 Johnny 99 (2009-05-04 Uniondale,NY)

05 Highway Patrolman (1984-08-20 East Rutherford, NJ)

06 State Trooper (1984-10-21 Coliseum, Oakland, CA)

07 Used Cars (1984-08-06 East Rutherford, NJ)

08 Open All Night (1992-07-25 East Rutherford, NJ)

09 My Father's House (1984-10-31 Sport Arena, Los Angeles, CA)

10 Reason To Believe (2007-11-19 Boston, MA)