Mike Nesmith - Elephant Parts (1981) **UPDATE**

While reading the obituaries for the late, great Mike Nesmith I saw mention of a film that he produced in 1981 called 'Elephant Parts', which was apparently a precursor of what was to become MTV in the future, combining as it did music videos of some of his songs with comedy sketches and parodies of adverts. The most notable sketches are 'Elvis Drugs', 'Neighborhood Nuclear Superiority', 'Mariachi Translations', and some bits with a lounge singer, as well as a game show called 'Name That Drug'. The musical videos include 'Magic', 'Cruisin'', 'Light', 'Tonight'. and 'Rio', and director Bill Dear and Nesmith were doing music videos before people even knew what they were, approaching them as mini-movies. 'Elephant Parts' won the first Grammy in the Music Video category, with Billboard's review saying it was "the cleverest exercise in original video programming to date." I tried to find a copy online with no success, but most of the individual parts had been uploaded to Youtube, so I've pieced it all back together so that we can see that Nesmith had lost none of his comic timing or musical genius even later in his career. The final video was a little bit shorter than the advertised running time, as there seemed to be sketch or two missing, so I owe eternal thanks to Mike Solof for providing me with a VHS rip of the complete video, so you can now enjoy the whole thing. 

The title 'Elephant Parts' refers to the parable of the blind men and an elephant where each man comes to a different conclusion about what an elephant is due to them touching only one part. 

Stevie Ray Vaughan - ...and on guitar (1990)

Stephen Ray Vaughan was born on 3 October 1954 in Dallas, Texas, and began playing guitar at age seven, initially inspired by his elder brother, Jimmie Vaughan. Learning by ear, he diligently committed himself, following along to songs by the Nightcaps, and he listened to blues artists such as Albert King, Otis Rush, and Muddy Waters, and rock guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Mack. In 1963, he acquired his first electric guitar as a hand-me-down from Jimmie, and soon after he joined his first band, the Chantones, in 1965. Following a falling out with the other members he left the band and joined the Brooklyn Underground, playing professionally at local bars and clubs. In May 1969, after leaving the Brooklyn Underground, he joined a band called the Southern Distributor playing pop rock covers, but he tried to add blues songs to the group's repertoire, even though he was told that he wouldn't earn a living playing blues music, and so he and the band parted ways. In February 1970, Vaughan joined a band called Liberation, which was a nine-piece group with a horn section, and at a gig at the Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas he was asked onstage by ZZ Top to jam with the band. In September 1970 Vaughan made his first studio recordings with the band Cast Of Thousands, which included future actor Stephen Tobolowsky, recording two songs for the compilation album 'A New Hi', which featured various teenage bands from Dallas. In late January 1971 he left Liberation and formed his own band Blackbird, moving from Dallas to Austin, Texas, as he felt they had more liberal and tolerant audiences. After a couple of years Vaughan left Blackbird and joined Krackerjack, staying with them for less than three months, and then joined Marc Benno's band, the Nightcrawlers, reuniting with Benno after meeting him at a jam session some years before. 

The next month, the Nightcrawlers recorded an album at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood for A&M Records, and although the record was rejected by A&M, it did include Vaughan's first songwriting efforts, 'Dirty Pool' and 'Crawlin''. In 1975 Vaughan joined a six-piece band called Paul Ray And The Cobras, which included guitarist Val Swierczewski and saxophonist Joe Sublett, and for the next two-and-a-half years he earned a living performing weekly at the Soap Creek Saloon and at Antone's, which was widely known as Austin's 'home of the blues'. In late 1976 the band recorded a single, with Vaughan playing guitar on both tracks, which was released in February 1977, and the band carried on touring for most of the rest of that year. Near the end of September he left the band and formed Triple Threat Revue, recording some tracks in an Austin studio in January 1978, but in mid-May the bassist left to form his own group and Vaughan renamed the band Double Trouble, recruiting new bass-palyer Jackie Newhouse, and by October that band had a residency at one of Austin's most popular nightspots, the Rome Inn. Following some line-up changes, the group settled on bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton, and in 1982 they performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, where David Bowie saw Vaughan play and contacted him for a studio gig, resulting in him playing his blues guitar on six of the eight songs on Bowie's 1983 album 'Let's Dance', including the iconic solo at the end of the title track. 

With the success of 'Let's Dance', Bowie requested Vaughan as the featured instrumentalist for the upcoming Serious Moonlight Tour, and in late April he began rehearsals for the tour in Las Colinas, Texas, but when contract renegotiations for his performance fee failed, he abandoned the tour days before its opening date, and he was replaced by Earl Slick. Double Trouble had recorded some tracks at Jackson Browne's studio after Browne had jammed with them in Montreux and offered free use of his studio, and after acquiring the recordings Double Trouble began assembling the material for a full-length album, to be called 'Texas Flood'. After knocking the album into shape, it was released on 13 June 1983, and peaked at number 38 on the US charts, ultimately selling half a million copies. In January 1984, Double Trouble began recording their second studio album 'Couldn't Stand The Weather', with John Hammond as executive producer and engineer Richard Mullen, and during recording sessions Vaughan began experimenting with other combinations of musicians, including Fran Christina, Stan Harrison, and Jimmie Vaughan. 'Couldn't Stand The Weather' was released on 15 May 1984, and two weeks later it had rapidly outpaced the sales of 'Texas Flood', peaking at number 31 on the US album chart. 

The success of the band's two albums, added to his recognition at playing with Bowie on 'Let's Dance', meant that he was often asked to guest on other artist's work, adding his guitar to records by Lonnie Mack, James Brown, and Jennifer Warnes among others. The recording with James Brown was for the soundtrack to the 1985 film 'Rocky IV', but it wasn't without it's troubles, as apparently Vaughan was so upset by how low his guitar parts had been mixed that he left in a helicopter never to return. The songs were edited for release as a single, and about four minutes had to be cut, which included most of Vaughan's solos, so for this post I've used the longer version which later appeared on Brown's 'Gravity' album, on which you can hear Vaughan's playing in full. During the majority of his life, Vaughan struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, but he successfully completed rehabilitation and began touring again with Double Trouble in November 1986. His fourth and final studio album 'In Step' reached number 33 in the United States in 1989, and was one of his most critically and commercially successful releases, including his only number-one hit 'Crossfire'. It cemented his reputation as one of the world's most highly in demand blues performers, and he headlined Madison Square Garden in 1989, and the Beale Street Music Festival in 1990. On 27 August 1990, Vaughan and four others were killed in a helicopter crash in East Troy, Wisconsin, following a performance with Double Trouble at Alpine Valley Music Theatre. An investigation concluded that the cause was pilot error and Vaughan's family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Omniflight Helicopters that was settled out of court. It was a terrible waste of a supremely gifted musician who was at the peak of his powers, and I hope that this collection of early recordings and guest appearances is a fitting tribute to his talent. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Red, White And Blue (from the 'A New Hi' compilation album 1970)
02 I Heard A Voice Last Night (from the 'A New Hi' compilation album 1970)
03 Dirty Pool (from the unreleased album by The Nightcrawlers 1973)
04 Crawlin' ((from the unreleased album by The Nightcrawlers 1973)
05 Other Days (single by The Cobras 1977)
06 Texas Clover (b-side of 'Other Days)
07 Love Struck Baby (Triple Threat Revue demo 1978)
08 I Wonder Why (Triple Threat Revue demo 1978)
09 Let's Dance (from 'Let's Dance' by David Bowie 1983)

Disc Two
01 Don't Stop By The Creek, Son  (from 'Texas Twister' by Johnny Copeland 1983)
02 Oreo Cookie Blues (from 'Strike Like Lightning' by Lonnie Mack 1985)
03 Living In America (by James Brown from the film 'Rocky IV' 1985)
04 First We Take Manhattan (from 'Famous Blue Raincoat' by Jennifer Warnes 1986)
05 You So Heavy (from 'Emerald City' by Teena Marie 1986)
06 Love Roulette  (from 'Heartbeat' by Don Johnson 1986)
07 Bumble Bee Blues (from 'Distant Drums' by Brian Slawson 1988)
08 Pipeline (from 'King Of The Surf Guitar' by Dick Dale 1989)
09 Cat's In The Well (from 'Under The Red Sky' by Bob Dylan 1990)
10 Just How You Play The Game (from 'The Peacemaker' by Jerry Lynn Williams - 

                                                                                               recorded 1990, released 1996)

 

Gary Numan - Exhibition (1981)

Following the release of Tubeway Army's second album 'Replicas' in 1979, Gary Numan was already busy recording his next album with a new backing band, and when he was invited to record a John Peel session he opted to premiere four new songs instead of promoting the Tubeway Army release. The first fruits of his labours was the single 'Cars', and this first solo effort reached No. 1 in the UK charts, as well as finding success in North American, spending two weeks at No. 1 on the Canadian RPM charts, and reaching No. 9 in the U.S. charts. His debut solo album was also released in 1979, and 'The Pleasure Principle' equaled the success of 'Cars', reaching No. 1 in the UK, and a sell-out tour quickly followed. In contrast to Tubeway Army's music, 'The Pleasure Principle' was a rock album with no guitars, instead using synthesisers fed through guitar effects pedals to achieve a distorted, phased, metallic tone. The second single from the album was 'Complex', which didn't quite match the success of 'Cars', but achieved a respectable No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart. In 1980 Numan released the singles 'We Are Glass' and 'I Die: You Die', reaching No. 5 and No. 6. in the UK singles chart, and he then topped the album charts for a third time with 'Telekon', but when 'This Wreckage' was lifted from the album in December, it only scraped into the top 20. 'Telekon' was his final studio album that he retrospectively termed the "machine" section of his career, reintroducing guitars to his music and featuring a wider range of synthesisers. The same year he embarked on his second major tour with an even more elaborate stage show than the previous year, but then unexpectedly announced his retirement from touring with a series of sell-out concerts at Wembley Arena in April 1981. A live two album set from the 1979 and 1980 tours released at this time reached No. 2 in the UK charts, and they were also released individually as 'Living Ornaments '79' and 'Living Ornaments '80', charting separately in their own right. Departing from the pure electro-pop that he had been associated with, Numan began experimenting with jazz, funk, and ethereal and rhythmic pop, and his first album showcasing this change in style was 'Dance', which came out in 1981, and which charted at No. 3 on the UK charts. The album produced one hit single in 'She's Got Claws', and featured several distinguished guest players, such as Japan's Mick Karn on bass guitar and saxophone and Rob Dean on guitar, Roger Mason of Models on keyboards, and Queen's Roger Taylor on drums. For this first of three collections of b-sides and out-takes we look at the non-album tracks which appeared on those first seven solo singles, emphasising the difference between his solo work and the Tubeway Army period, most notably on the b-side of 'We Are Glass', 'Trois Gymnopedies (First Movement)', and the piano version of 'Down In The Park'. 

Track listing

01 Asylum (b-side of 'Cars' 1979)

02 Random (out-take 1979)

03 Bombers (Live) (b-side of 'Complex' 1979) 

04 Oceans (out-take 1979)

05 We Are Glass (single 1980)

06 Trois Gymnopedies (First Movement) (b-side of 'We Are Glass')

07 I Die: You Die (single 1980)

08 Down In The Park (Piano Version) (b-side of 'I Die: You Die')

09 On Broadway (b-side of 'Remember I Was Vapour' 1980)

10 A Game Called Echo (out-take 1980)

11 Photograph (b-side of 'This Wreckage' 1980)

12 I Sing Rain (b-side of 'She's Got Claws' 1981)

13 Exhibition (b-side of 'She's Got Claws' 1981)

The Stone Roses - Groove Harder (1995)

When The Stone Roses released the single 'Fools Gold'/'What the World Is Waiting For' in 1989, 'Fools Gold' was orignally intended as the b-side, but the song quickly became one of the band's most famous songs, and merited an extended version on the 12" single, becoming their first top ten UK hit. This success led to their biggest headline gigs in 1989, to 4,000 people at Blackpool's Empress Ballroom and to 7,000 people at London's Alexandra Palace, and the group won four NME Readers poll awards that year - Band of the Year, Best New Band, Single of the Year for 'Fools Gold', and Album of the Year for 'The Stone Roses'. Their gig at Spike Island on 7 May 1990 was attended by some 27,000 people, and although it was considered a failure at the time due to sound problems and bad organisation, it's since become legendary over the years as a "Woodstock for the baggy generation". Their final single for Silvertone was 'One Love', which reached number four in the UK singles chart, and which proved to be the band's last original release for four years, entering a protracted legal battle to terminate their five-year contract with the label. Silvertone owners Zomba Records took out an injunction in September 1990 to prevent the band from recording with any other label, but in May 1991 the court sided with the group, and they were released from their contract. The band subsequently signed with Geffen Records for a million-pound advance, and began work on their second album, but an appeal against the ruling delayed the record for another year, and the band finally started work on the record in mid-1993.

Progress was slow, with producer John Leckie ultimately leaving the project as the band would not sign a production contract, and the band assuming production duties with engineer Simon Dawson at Rockfield Studios in Wales, spending 347 ten-hour days working on the album. 'Second Coming' finally arrived on 5 December 1994, and their sound had changed to a shady, heavy blues rock sound, mostly due to Squire writing most of the material. 'Love Spreads' was the first single from the album, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart, but 'Second Coming' received a mixed reception from the British press, with poor reviews and much being made of the length of time it took to record. In March 1995, just two weeks before a tour in support of 'Second Coming' was due to begin, Reni exited the band following a disagreement with Ian Brown, and a replacement drummer had to be found, with Robbie Maddix filling the drum-stool. After a couple of aborted attempts at setting up a tour, the band finally organised a full UK tour for November and December 1995 and all dates sold out in a day. John Squire announced his departure on 1 April 1996, blaming the gradual social and musical separation that the band had undergone in the past few years, and guitarist Aziz Ibrahim was recruited as a replacement. The band continued for another six months, but there was a noticeable deterioration in the quality of its public performances after Squire's loss, and the music press was united in its criticism, leading to Brown and Mani dissolving the group in October 1996. Their singles from 1989 onwards often added extended versions to the 12" versions, so we start with the full length version of the song that ended the last post, and which heralded the start of the band's attempts to 'groove harder'. While this post only has seven tracks it's still a full 48-minute album, so enjoy the final days of this iconic UK indie band.  

Track listing

01 Fools Gold (extended single 1989)
02 One Love (extended single 1990)
03 Something's Burning (extended b-side of 'One Love')
04 Breakout (b-side of 'Love Spreads' 1994)
05 Groove Harder (b-side of 'Love Spreads' 1994)
06 Moses (b-side of 'Ten Storey Love Song' 1995)
07 Ride On (b-side of 'Ten Storey Love Song' 1995)

They Might Be Giants - Let's Start (1985)

John Linnell and John Flansburgh first met as teenagers growing up in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and began writing songs together while attending Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, but didn't form a band at that time. They then attended separate colleges after high school and Linnell joined The Mundanes, a new wave group from Rhode Island, but they reunited in 1981 after both relocating to Brooklyn, moving into the same apartment building on the same day. At their first concert, they performed under the name El Grupo De Rock and Roll (Spanish for "the Rock and Roll Band"), because the show was a Sandinista rally in Central Park, and a majority of the audience members spoke Spanish. Discarding this name, the band assumed the title of the 1971 film 'They Might Be Giants', which in turn was taken from a 'Don Quixote' passage about how Quixote mistook windmills for evil giants. The duo began performing their own music in and around New York City, with Flansburgh on guitar, Linnell on accordion and saxophone, and accompanied by a drum machine or prerecorded backing track on audio cassette. Their atypical instrumentation, along with their songs which featured unusual subject matter and clever wordplay, soon attracted a strong local following, and their performances often featured absurdly comical stage props such as oversized fezzes and large cardboard cutout heads of newspaper editor William Allen White. From 1984 to 1987 the band were the house-band at Darinka, a Lower East Side performance club, playing one weekend a month, and by the end of their three-year stint they were selling out every performance. On 30 March 1985 They Might Be Giants released their 7" flexi-disc, the 'Wiggle Diskette' disc, which included demos of the songs 'Everything Right Is Wrong' and 'You'll Miss Me'. In 1985 the band released their full length demo cassette, originally distributed by the Johns at TMBG concerts in 1985-86. The material was recorded onto standard store-bought audio cassettes, with black-and-white photocopied inserts on different colored paper (commonly yellow, but also on white and blue), and although it was self-released, the cassette was reviewed by Michael Small in People magazine, giving the band the attention they would need to score a record deal with Bar/None. The duo released their self-titled debut album in 1986, which became a college radio hit, with 'Don't Let's Start' alerting me to the band, and they later issued one of my all-time favourite songs with 'Birdhouse In Your Soul'. So that you can hear what all the fuss was about at 'the start' of their career, here's that 1985 demo cassette, housed in new cover art, and (sort of) titled after the demo of 'Don't Let's Start' that features on the tape. Some of these songs later appeared on their debut album in a more polished form, and at least one was resurrected for their third album, but many of them are exclusive to this tape, so enjoy this collection of early work from the band.

Track listing

01 (Put Your Hand Inside The) Puppet Head  
02 When It Rains It Snows  
03 Number Three  
04 Don't Let's Start  
05 You'll Miss Me  
06 Hope That I Get Old Before I Die  
07 Biggest One  
08 32 Footsteps 
09 Boat Of Car  
10 Cowtown 
11 Chess Piece Face  
12 Rabid Child  
13 Youth Culture Killed My Dog  
14 Alienation's For The Rich  
15 The Day 
16 (She Was A) Hotel Detective  
17 Which Describes How You're Feeling  
18 Toddler Hi-Way  
19 Become A Robot  
20 I'm Def 
21 Hell Hotel  
22 They Might Be Giants  
23 Nothing's Going To Change My Clothes

Snoop Doggy Dogg - Playin' 4 Keepz (1991) UPDATE

There were a couple of tracks on this album where I wasn't 100% happy with the quality, and luckily I stumbled on a better recording of '187 (It's On)', so I've replaced the slightly thin-sounding version with this much better one. The Yandex link is updated and so is Soulseek, so either download the whole thing again, or just the one song from Soulseek. 'Longbeach Is A Muthafucca' will have to stay there unless I find a better version of that one. 

Track listing

01 Let 'Em Understand (feat. Tha Foesum)
02 Long Beach Is A Muthafucca (feat. Warren G)
03 Do You Remember (feat. George Clinton)
04 187 (It's On) (feat. Lady Of Rage)
05 Playin' 4 Keepz (feat. Tha Convicts)
06 Niggaz Is Like That (feat. Chocolate & CPO)
07 County Bluez 
08 The Message
09 Smoke On (feat. Po', Broke, and Lonely)
10 Dope Slang Symphony (feat. Nate Dogg, Kurupt Tha Kingpin, and Dat Nigga Daz)
11 True To The Game
12 Hoe I Like (feat. Dr. Dre)

Robert Fripp - Triple Exposure (1979)

In the first of what is intended to be a regular spot on the blog, here is Mike Solof's personal take on a trio of classic albums from the late 70's. All his albums include a pdf of his notes.  
According to Robert Fripp, his 1979 album 'Exposure' was originally conceived as the third part of an MOR trilogy with Daryl Hallʼs solo album 'Sacred Songs' and Peter Gabriel's 'Peter Gabriel II', both of which he produced and to which he contributed. With the proposed release of 'Sacred Songs' postponed, and the delay in the release of 'Exposure', it made it impossible to convey the sense of what he'd intended, which was to try to investigate the 'pop song' as a means of expression. He considered it a supreme discipline to know that you have three to four minutes to get together all your lost emotions, and find words of one syllable or less to put forward all your ideas, and it's a discipline of form that he didn't consider to be cheap or shoddy. Although Daryl Hall's 'Sacred Songs' was recorded in 1977, record company indecision meant that it didn't appear until 1980, which was a year after the appearance of 'Exposure', and thus ruining Fripp's concept of a trilogy of records that would have started with 'Sacred Songs' and ended with his own 'Exposure', all being released very close to each other as a way to feature and promote Fripp's production techniques. 'Sacred Songs' was originally to be titled 'The Last Great New York Heartthrob', and would have featured a different track listing to that of the final release, but Hall's management and label resisted the project, fearing the music would damage Hall's commercial appeal, and insisting as well that 'Exposure' be equally credited to Hall, who was initially Fripp's main vocalist. To counter what the record company was demanding, Fripp instead used only two Hall vocals on his album, substituting Peter Hammill and Terre Roche as vocalists on other recordings. All the songs from the sessions were eventually released in various forms on each artist's individual albums, with 'Urban Landscape' appearing on Hall's album, as does 'NYCNY' (actually 'I May Not Have Had Enough of Me but I've Had Enough of You' with different lyrics written by Hall), while the Gabriel record also featured a version of 'Exposure'. Fripp's album was remixed in 1983, and a second "definitive edition" was released in 1985 featuring some alternate takes, but in 2006, a 24-bit two-disc remaster appeared on Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile label, with one disc containing the original 1979 album, and the second disc featuring a version of 'Exposure' containing all the original Daryl Hall vocals. For this re-imagining of the trilogy as one album, Mike has one rule, and that is that every song had to feature Fripp playing on it as opposed to just producing the cut, and although many of the songs appeared in different forms on different albums, he's only picked one version of each for the project. Unfortunately, all three musicians never appeared together on the same recording, but through the magic of clever editing he's included a remix of a great version of 'Exposure' (which he found on Youtube by Mr. J. Wilson…), enhancing and bringing forward all the vocal parts from the different versions, and that’s the perfect opener to his take on Fripp's vision.

Track listing
 
01 Exposure (Custom Mix featuring Fripp/Gabriel/Hall & Roche)
02 Preface / You Burn Me Up
03 Disengage II
04 Chicago
05 New York, New York, New York
06 Perspective
07 Exposure
08 Mother Of Violence
09 Why Was It So Easy
10 North Star
11 Water Music 1 / Here Comes The Flood
12 White Shadow
13 Something In 4-4 Time
14 Babs And Babs
15 Survive
16 On The Air
17 Mary
18 The Farther Away I Am
19 Without Tears
 
A Mike Solof Production

The Wannadies - Want More (1996) UPDATE

Thanks to Rev. Dave for pointing out that this post seemed to have one of the tracks missing, so I've now added 'I Got A Right' into its rightful place and you can re-download from Soulseek or Yandex for the correct track listing. 

Track listing 

01 The Beast Cures The Lover (from the 'Smile' EP 1989)

02 This Time (from the 'Smile' EP 1989)

03 I Want More (from the 'Smile' EP 1989)

04 Children Of The Revolution (b-side of 'Heaven' 1990)

05 In The Altogether (b-side of 'So Happy Now' 1992)

06 Birds (b-side of 'So Happy Now' 1992)

07 Lee Remick (b-side of 'Cherry Man' EP 1993)

08 I'm A Man (b-side of 'Cherry Man' EP 1993)

09 Blister In The Sun (b-side of 'Cherry Man' EP 1993)

10 I Got A Right (b-side of 'Love In June' 1994)

11 Let Go Oh Oh (b-side of 'You And Me Song' 1994)

12 No Disco (b-side of 'You And Me Song' 1994)

13 Lift Me Up (Don't Let Me Down) (b-side of 'You And Me Song' 1994)

14 New Life (b-side of 'You And Me Song' 1994)

15 Why (b-side of 'Someone Somewhere' 1996)

16 Goodbye (b-side of 'Someone Somewhere' 1996)

17 Disappointed (b-side of 'Someone Somewhere' 1996)

Steve Vai - ...and on guitar (2003)

Steven Siro Vai was born on 06 June 1960 in Carle Place, New York, and his first experience of music started at an early age, when at the age of six he was first introduced to the guitar, seeing an older child playing in his grade school auditorium, and knowing instinctively that he was going to play the guitar someday. At the age of twelve he decided to start playing the instrument, and in 1973 he began taking guitar lessons from fellow New York native Joe Satriani, and playing in local bands like The Ohio Express, Circus, and Rayge throughout his high school years. In 1978, to further pursue his interest in music composition and theory, Vai attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and after receiving both a notated transcription of Frank Zappa's 'The Black Page', and a recording of Vai's college band Morning Thunder, Zappa was impressed enough to put Vai on salary as a transcriptionist to transcribe his work. After leaving Berklee College of Music and moving to California, Vai auditioned for and became a full-time member of Zappa's band, going on his first tour with Zappa in late 1980. After leaving Zappa's employ in 1983, Vai bought a house in Sylmar, Los Angeles and built his first professional studio, where he wrote and recorded a large amount of music that was not originally intended for release. Out of this material, he compiled his first studio album 'Flex-Able', which he released on his own Akashic Records label. At the same time as the album came out, he'd come to public attention when his composition 'The Attitude Song' was published in Guitar Player magazine, showcasing a number of specialized techniques, such as two-handed tapping, whammy bar acrobatics, sweep picking, alternate picking, multi-part harmonies, and odd phrasing. In between his solo work, and appearing in the film 'Crossroads' in 1986 as the Devil's guitar player Jack Butler, where he wrote and performed nearly all the guitar parts in the duel scene, he replaced Yngwie Malmsteen as the lead guitarist of Alcatrazz, recording the album 'Disturbing The Peace' with them in 1985. Later that year he joined David Lee Roth's post-Van Halen band as lead guitarist, and their 1986 debut album 'Eat 'Em And Smile' was both a critical and commercial success, reaching number four on the Billboard 200 albums chart and selling over two million copies. Roth's subsequent album 'Skyscraper' was released in 1988 and was another commercial success, but Vai left the band after the Skyscraper Tour to work on the JEM guitar that he'd designed, which incorporated a series of groundbreaking designs that have since become staples throughout the guitar industry, and he releasing the Ibanez JEM 777 guitar in 1987. 

From 1985 to 1990 he recorded the 'Passion And Warfare' album at his home studio, and in those five years he also appeared on a number of other artist's albums as a guest guitarist, always adding something a bit out of the ordinary to the recordings. One of these sessions was to record the guitar parts for Whitesnake's 'Slip of The Tongue' album, where he replaced the injured Adrian Vandenberg, and after the album came out to critical acclaim, Vai joined the band on their thirteen-month world tour. In May 1990 he released his second album 'Passion And Warfare' through Relativity Records, winning him a number of awards such as Guitar World and Guitar Player's 'Best Album' and 'Best Rock Guitarist' awards. Vai's next project was to form his own band with Devin Townsend on vocals, T. M. Stevens on bass, and Terry Bozzio on drums and release the 'Sex & Religion' album, and in 1994 he began working with Ozzy Osbourne, writing and recording the 'Ozzmosis' album, before internal conflicts led to the whole album being re-written and recorded with Zakk Wylde on guitar instead. 2001 saw the limited release of 'The Secret Jewel Box', a conceptual ten-CD box set containing unique material from various eras of Vai's career, and he continues to releases albums, either solo or with the band G3, including fellow guitar maestros Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson, as well as playing live for a few years on the Zappa Plays Zappa tour as a special guest, but this collection showcases his guest appearances from his early days as one of the new kids on the block, showing the old guys how it should be done.   

Track listing

01 London 1941 (from 'At The Door' by Heresy 1985)
02 Full Moon (from 'The Epidemics' by The Epidemics 1986)
03 There's Still Hope (from 'The Great Nostalgia' by Bob Harris 1986)
04 Home (from 'Album' by Public Image Ltd 1986) 
05 Funk Me Tender (from 'Funk Me Tender' by Randy Coven 1986)
06 Noah's Ark (from 'Submarine' by Greg Bissonette 1986)
07 Western Vacation (from 'Western Vacation' by Western Vacation 1986)
08 Sweet Lady Luck (out-take from 'Slip Of The Tongue' by Whitesnake 1989)
09 Supergirl (from 'The Best Of Dreams' by Rebecca 1990)
10 Feed My Frankenstein (from 'Hey Stoopid' by Alice Cooper 1991)
11 Speed (from 'Free World' by Munetaka Higuchi with Dream Castle 1997)
12 Room Full Of You (from 'Vertigo' by Billie Myers 2000)
13 Shapes Of Things (from 'Birdland' by The Yardbirds 2003)

Snoop Doggy Dogg - Playin' 4 Keepz (1991)

Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), was born on 20 October 1971, and shortly after graduating from high school at Long Beach Polytechnic High School in 1989, he was arrested for possession of cocaine, and for the next three years, was frequently incarcerated. With his two cousins Nate Dogg and Lil' ½ Dead, and friend Warren G, he recorded homemade tapes as the group 213, named after the area code of their native Long Beach at that time. One of his early solo freestyles over 'Hold On' by En Vogue was on a mixtape that fortuitously wound up with Dr. Dre, who was so impressed by the sample that he called Broadus to audition. When he began recording, he took the stage name Snoop Doggy Dogg, and together he and Dr. Dre began working on the theme song of the 1992 film 'Deep Cover', and then on Dr. Dre's debut solo album 'The Chronic'. He had in fact been recording for a while before that big break, and had even taped an album in 1991 for Future Shock Entertainment called 'Over The Counter', which was released as a cassette tape that year. It was originally 'Over The Counter', and not Dr. Dre's 'The Chronic', that was to be the debut album for both Snoop Doggy Dogg and the Death Row label, but the record was pulled off the production line and never had an official release, other than the cassette copies sold at swap-meets. This was due to the fact that Death Row did not have the financial capabilities to support itself as a legitimate record label in 1991, and as a result their distributors Priority Records, Sony Music and Time Warner were unable to legally release it onto the market. Around the same time Snoop also recorded some other demos, including a second version of 'Deep Cover', and another collaboration with Dr. Dre on 'Smoke On'. Only six tracks from 'Over he Counter' have ever surfaced online, but if you add those to some other pieces recorded at the same time we end up with an album that could have been released a full two years before his official debut release 'Doggystyle'. Whether it would have catapulted him to stardom like 'Doggystyle' did we'll never know, as those two years honing his craft probably gave that debut album the extra edge that helped it achieve the success that it did. However, it's interesting to be able to listen to these songs that were recorded when he was just starting out, and to hear the emergent talent that has kept him at the top of the rap scene for all these years.    

Track listing

01 Let 'Em Understand (feat. Tha Foesum)

02 Long Beach Is A Muthafucca (feat. Warren G)

03 Do You Remember (feat. George Clinton)

04 187 (It's On) (feat. Lady Of Rage)

05 Playin' 4 Keepz (feat. Tha Convicts)

06 Niggaz Is Like That (feat. Chocolate & CPO)

07 County Bluez 

08 The Message

09 Smoke On (feat. Po', Broke, and Lonely)

10 Dope Slang Symphony (feat. Nate Dogg, Kurupt Tha Kingpin, and Dat Nigga Daz)

11 True To The Game

12 Hoe I Like (feat. Dr. Dre)

The Stone Roses - So Young (1991)

The Stone Roses formed in Manchester in 1983, and one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The classic and most prominent lineup consisted of vocalist Ian Brown, guitarist John Squire, bassist Mani and drummer Reni, and started when Brown (who at the time was a bassist) and guitarist John Squire formed a short-lived Clash-inspired band called The Patrol in 1980 along with singer/guitarist Andy Couzens and drummer Simon Wolstencroft, and they played several gigs in 1980 and recorded a demo tape. Towards the end of that year they decided on a change of direction, as Brown had got a taste of being a frontman during the last Patrol show, singing Sweet's 'Block Buster!' to close the set, and Couzens wanted to concentrate on guitar. The band members lost enthusiasm in 1981, with Brown selling his bass guitar to buy a scooter, and Wolstencroft joining Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke's pre-Smiths band Freak Party, but Squire continued to practise guitar while working as an animator for Cosgrove Hall during the day, and together with Couzens he started a new band, The Fireside Chaps, with bassist Gary "Mani" Mounfield, and later recruited a singer named David "Kaiser" Carty and drummer Chris Goodwin. After changing their name to The Waterfront, their sound became influenced by 1960's groups and contemporary bands such as Orange Juice, but Goodwin left the band recorded their first demo, and shortly afterwards Squire asked Brown to join as singer, joining The Waterfront in late 1983, for a time sharing vocals with Dave Carty. Like the earlier attempts at bands, The Waterfront fizzled out, but in late 1983 Couzens decided to try again, and approached Brown, and together they decided on Wolstencroft as drummer and Pete Garner as bassist, and they also decided that they needed Squire in the band, and when he agreed the band's line-up was cemented. They worked solely on new material, and after rehearsing for some time without a band name, Squire came up with The Stone Roses. 

The band rehearsed for six months, during which time Wolstencroft had been auditioning for other bands, and he left to join Terry Hall's The Colourfield, so Goodwin rejoined, but he lasted for only one rehearsal, and an ad for a replacement eventually resulted in Alan "Reni" Wren joining in May 1984. After rehearsing and writing songs over the summer, they recorded their first demo in late August, making 100 cassettes, with artwork by Squire, and set about trying to get gigs, debuting as The Stone Roses on 23 October 1984, supporting Pete Townshend at an anti-heroin concert at the Moonlight Club in London. Following this high-profile gig, the band was interviewed by Garry Johnson of Sounds magazine, and the band received management offers, with ex-Hacoenda manager Howard Jones eventually taking on the band. They played their first headlining gig on 4 January 1985, and had their first recording session with legendary producer Martin Hannett in January 1985 at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, aiming to record tracks for a single and an album. Further sessions followed in March, during which they recorded two tracks which would be come their debut single, the double A-side 'So Young'/'Tell Me', and they were invited to play a live session on Piccadilly Radio in March, for which they premiered a new song, 'I Wanna Be Adored'. A tour of Sweden followed in April, and on their return they returned to the studio to record their debut album, but hey were unhappy with the results, as the band's sound was changing, and so it was shelved, later being released as 'Garage Flower', although they did release the 'So Young' single. In 1986 they began working on new material, including 'Sally Cinnamon', and at the same time they parted company with Jones and took on Gareth Evans as manager, using his International 1 venue as their new rehearsal space. As Brown and Squire began collaborating more closely on songwriting, they decided that they should take a larger slice of the money than the other band members, and so Couzens and Wren left the band in protest, although they soon returned. Couzens played an ill-fated gig with the band at the end of May, before being pushed out of the band by Evans after flying home alone while the rest of the band returned in their van, and in December 1986 they recorded their first demo as a four-piece, including the first studio recordings of 'Sugar Spun Sister' and 'Elephant Stone'. 

In early 1987, Evans negotiated a deal with Black/FM Revolver for a one-off release on the specially created Black Records label, and 'Sally Cinnamon' became the band's second single, although the chiming guitar hooks and strong melody alienated some of their old fans, but also attracted many new ones. In June, Garner announced that he was leaving, although he stayed until they found a replacement in Rob Hampson, who only lasted a week before he too was replaced by old Waterfront band-mate Mani. In early 1988 the band played at Dingwalls in London, and Zomba/Rough Trade's Geoff Travis was interested in signing the band, even funding studio time to record 'Elephant Stone' with Peter Hook producing. Roddy McKenna, A&R executive with Zomba, asked if they could be transferred internally to Andrew Lauder's newly created guitar-based Silvertone Records subsidiary, who signed them to an eight-album deal, and bought the 'Elephant Stone' tapes from Rough Trade to release as a single in October 1988. In 1988 and early 1989 the Stone Roses recorded their debut album at Battery Studios and Konk Studios in London, and Rockfield Studios in Wales, produced by John Leckie. 'Elephant Stone' had made little impact, and band's performances outside the north-west were still attracting small audiences, but their 'Made Of Stone' single received more press attention and was picked up for airplay by DJ Richard Skinner on his late night Radio One show. The band's eponymous debut album was released in April 1989, and entered the UK Albums Chart at number 32, followed by the single 'She Bangs The Drums', which gave them a top forty UK hit. Later in 1989 the band released a non-album double A-side single, 'Fools Gold'/'What The World Is Waiting For', which reached number eight on the UK Singles Chart, and which quickly became one of the band's most famous songs. There are quite a few Stone Roses collections out there, but very few of them include their first two singles, and none of them include all the early b-sides, so this post has every non-album track that they recorded up to 1989, excluding the 'Garage Flowers' album, which will appear in its own right later.   

Track listing

01 So Young (single 1985)
02 Tell Me (b-side of 'So Young')
03 Sally Cinnamon (single 1987)
04 All Across The Sands (b-side of 'Sally Cinnamon')
05 Here It Comes (b-side of 'Sally Cinnamon')
06 Elephant Stone (single 1988)  
07 Full Fathom Five (b-side of 'Elephant Stone')
08 The Hardest Thing In The World (b-side of 'Elephant Stone')
09 Going Down (b-side of 'Made Of Stone' 1989)
10 Guernica (b-side of 'Made Of Stone' 1989)
11 Simone (b-side of 'I Wanna Be Adored' 1989)
12 Where Angels Play (b-side of 'I Wanna Be Adored' 1989)
13 Mersey Paradise (b-side of 'She Bangs The Drums' 1989)
14 Standing Here (b-side of 'She Bangs The Drums' 1989)
15 Fools Gold (single 1989)
16 What The World Is Waiting For (b-side of 'Fools Gold' )

Alan Hawkshaw - The Hawk (1971)

British composer and performer Alan Hawkshaw died on 16 October 2021 aged 84, leaving behind him a legacy of over 7,000 performances on record as composer and musician, including a number of well-known TV theme tunes such as Grange Hill, Channel 4 News, The Dave Allen Show and the Countdown timer music. Hawkshaw was born on 27 March 1937 in Leeds,and worked as a printer for several years before becoming a professional musician, first joining the pop group The Crescendos, and then in the early 1960's becoming a member of rock and roll group Emile Ford and the Checkmates. He also formed the Mohawks and Rumplestiltskin with some fellow session musicians, playing the Hammond organ in both groups, and in 1965 he played piano on The Hollies 'Put Yourself In My Place' on their 'Hollies' album, as well as playing with David Bowie on the 'Bowie At The Beeb' album, soloing on the Top Gear recording of 'In The Heat Of The Morning'. In 1969, Hank Marvin recruited Hawkshaw into The Shadows to tour Japan, where he can he heard taking lead piano on 'Theme From Exodus' on the resulting live album 'The Shadows Live In Japan', and in 1970 he played on the band's 'Shades Of Rock' album. After leaving The Shadows he did rejoin Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, & John Farrar, playing on both of their albums under the name of Marvin, Welch & Farrar. Around this time he was composing and recording music for KPM Records, which was one of the best 'libaray music' specialists in the UK. Musicians would record instrumental pieces in a particular genre, like funk or rock (The Pretty Things famously recorded a number of these albums for De Wolfe), and KPM would press them up onto albums and send them round to TV and film production companies for them to pick tunes that they might want to feature in their productions. Alongside Keith Mansfield, Alan Parker, and Johnny Pearson, Hawkshaw was at the forefront of this enterprise, and it's reckoned that he played on over 7,000 recordings in his career, many of which can be found on KPM's library discs, as well as his own albums. In the 1970's, he worked for Olivia Newton-John, Jane Birkin, and Serge Gainsbourg as a musical director, arranger and pianist, and was also a keyboard player for Cliff Richard, for whom he co-wrote 'The Days Of Love', one of six shortlisted songs which Richard performed in A Song for Europe that year. As well as his TV themes, including composing all the music for the 'Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World' series, he also wrote or played the music for many adverts, including ads for Cadbury's Milk Tray, Sunsilk shampoo, Heinz Spaghetti, Bird's Eye, and Esso, and his recordings have been sampled by a host of modern artists, with the opening three notes from The Mohawks' 'The Champ' being one of the most sampled pieces ever. Even if you don't know his name you've probably enjoyed his music more than you know, and so as a tribute to 'the best-know British composer that you've never heard of', here's a selection of his compositions from his KPM records from 1969 to 1971 - and just listen to 'Pollution' from 1970 and decide amongst yourselves who came up with the riff first - Hawkshaw or Deep Purple.   

Track listing

01 Work Out
02 The Difference
03 Action Replay
04 Delivery Date
05 Powerboat
06 Purity
07 Freight Line
08 Studio 69
09 The Brisk Scene
10 Go Go Go
11 Stratosphere
12 Beat Me 'Til I'm Blue
13 Thrills And Spills
14 Lady Grey
15 Pollution
16 Speed Speed Speed
17 Smooth And Easy
18 The Busy Scene
19 Chilli 'n' Grits
20 Electromotion

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Toast (2001)

Sometime in late 2000 or early 2001, Neil Young went into the studio with Crazy Horse and cut an album that was to be named 'Toast', after the studio where it was recorded. The only song to see the light of day from these sessions was 'Goin’ Home', which appeared on the underwhelming 'Are You Passionate?', but for years Young has claimed that 'Toast' is on the verge of being officially released, and he was enthusiastic about it in a Rolling Stone interview in in 2008, saying "It's an amazing listening experience. It was recorded in 5.1. It’s a mind-blowing record, and I don’t think it's a commercial record, but it's great rock & roll, very moody, kind of jazzy. It was recorded in the same place where Coltrane was recorded, so there's a lot of heavy stuff in there". He expanded on the songs, saying "The music of 'Toast' is about a relationship. There is a time in many relationships that go bad, a time long before the break up, where it dawns on one of the people, maybe both, that it’s over. This was that time. The sound is murky and dark, but not in a bad way, and from the first note, you can feel the sadness that permeates the recording. That song, with its refrain, "Don't say you love me", is called 'Quit', while the next one 'Standing In The Light' is sort of like a Deep Purple hit. 'Goin' Home' follows, painting a landscape where time doesn't matter - because everything is going south. A lady is lost in her car. The dark city surrounds her - past, present and future. Then the scene changes to a religious guy who just lost his job as a logger - he can't cut any more tress and so he's turning on Jesus, and then the album closes with 'Gateway Of Love', beckoning with "background noise on a changing sky". I had forgotten about these songs, put them out of my mind and went on living my life". However, like many of Young's unreleased albums it currently remains locked away, so we'll have to find another way to hear it. Although 'Toast' was never released, it seems that Young really was intending it to appear, as he played all the songs from it on his 2001 world tour, and many of these concerts were recorded. While 'Quit' did eventually appear on 'Are You Passionate' alongside 'Goin' Home', this was a re-recorded version with Booker T. & The M.G.s, so I've taken a recording with Crazy Horse from a Montreux gig, and added the other four tracks from his Japanese concert at the Fuji Rock Festival, so that we can hear an approximation of what the album might have sounded like. As it is quite short at just 33 minutes, I've added a cover that Young has performed a few times with Crazy Horse but which never seems to have made it to an official live album, rounding it out to a more acceptable 44 minutes. 

Track listing 

01 Quit
02 Standing In The Light Of Love
03 Goin' Home
04 Hold You In My Arms
05 Gateway Of Love
06 All Along The Watchtower