The Bee Gees - August October (1970)

In March 1969 Robin Gibb announced that he was leaving the Bee Gees to pursue a solo career, and so the remaining brothers Barry and Maurice knew that they would have to start working more closely together in order to keep the group going. Maurice has said that he looked forward to it, as it meant that they could bring anyone they liked into things, and he could see that it would enable him to contribute more vocals to the songs. In May 1969 the brothers started recording their next album, laying down 'Don't Forget To Remember', along with other songs 'I Lay Down And Die', 'Give A Hand, Take A Hand' and 'Bury Me Down By The River'. At the time the band was considering a replacement for Robin, but despite auditioning Peter Mason, who recorded a few test vocals with the group, the brothers decided not to offer him the job, and it was in fact at this time that drummer Colin Petersen was sacked from the band, cementing the line-up as just two brothers. Although Maurice could have stepped in, as he was a multi-instrumentalist and could play the drums, Pentangle drummer Terry Cox was brought it to complete the recordings. At the same time as recording the 'Cucumber Castle' album, Barry and Maurice were making a film of the same name as the record, with filming starting on 11 August 1969, and they returned to the studio in September to record seven more songs for the album. When the film was released, all of Petersen's scenes from the film were cut and he is not credited on the accompanying album, though he does play on some songs. The film itself is very much of it's time, and although it includes a host of respected UK comedians such as Frankie Howard, Spike Milligan, Eleanor Bron, and Julian Orchard, plus musicians Lulu, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Ric Grech, Steve Winwood, Roger Daltry, and Donovan as well as an appearance by Vincent Price, it's not really a very good film. The plot revolves around two heirs, Prince Frederick (Barry Gibb) and his brother Prince Marmaduke (Maurice Gibb), and their dying father (Frankie Howerd). On his death bed, The King orders his kingdom divided into two halves, the Kingdom of Jelly and the Kingdom of Cucumbers, but before the king dies, Prince Frederick declares himself the "King of Cucumber" and Prince Marmaduke becomes the "King of Jelly". The film intersperses comedy sketches with Bee Gees songs plus performances by Lulu and Blind Faith, and for many years I assumed that the 'Cucumber Castle' album was the soundtrack to the film, when in fact they just share a title and aren't really connected, although some songs appear on both. Because of this I tended to ignore the album, skipping directly from 'Odessa' to '2 Years On', but after listening to a fascinating podcast about the band I've changed my mind. Christiano and Stuart produce a regular podcast looking at the output of the group, and the latest was a dive into Maurice's 'The Loner', which was posted here some years ago. After I'd listened to that I started to work my way backwards and listened to the one about 'Cucumber Castle', and this is what prompted me to re-evaluate the album. At the end of the podcast, both guys picked four songs from Robin's 'Saved By The Bell' album that they would have liked to have seen on 'Cucumber Castle', and that gave me the idea of doing the same, to see what they could have made if Robin hadn't left. Opinions were very similar on which songs to take from 'Robin's Reign', and which ones to lose from 'Cucumber Castle', and so I've sequenced four of Robin's songs into the body of the album, and also added one out-take which was really too good to leave off, which extended a rather short record into a more acceptable 38 minutes. As this breaks the links with the 'Cucumber Castle' film, it no longer needs that title, so it's also renamed (the original title was mooted to be 'Lay Down And Die' but that was deemed a bit too depressing) and I've also housed it in a new cover featuring all three brothers.  

Track listing

01 If Only I Had My Mind On Something Else
02 August October
03 Then You Left Me
04 The Lord
05 Give Me A Smile
06 Lay Down And Die
07 Saved By The Bell
08 Sweetheart
09 Who Knows What A Room Is
10 Bury Me Down By The River
11 Mother And Jack
12 Don't Forget To Remember

Check out Christiano and Stuart's brilliant Bee Gees podcast 'Words' here:  https://link.chtbl.com/mPGE_Iwm?s=09 

Dr. Dre - Poppa's Got A Brand New Funk - The Chronic II (1996)

Following the release the Dr. Dre's 'The Chronic' album in 1992, he swiftly became one of the best-selling American artists of 1993, and so he could pretty much do what he liked without having to worry about the commercial consequences. This included producing Snoop Doggy Dogg's debut album 'Doggystyle' in 1993, and then directing the 1994 short film 'Murder Was The Case', in which Dogg acted and Dre wrote the soundtrack. The same year he announced that he was working with Ice Cube on an album to be called 'Helter Skelter', although that has yet to appear, but by 1995/1996 he was ready to release the follow-up to 'The Chronic'. However, in March 1996, just before the album was due to be issued, he left Death Row Records due to incessant infighting, and he formed his own label Aftermath Records, and 'The Chronic II: A New World Odor (Popps'a Got A Brand New Funk)' was cancelled. Instead of releasing it on his own label he issued some of the tracks as singles, but then scrapped the rest and recorded a brand new album, with '2001' coming out on Aftermath in 1999, and including none of the aborted 'The Chronic II' tracks. Of the singles which came out from 1994 onwards, 'Natural Born Killaz' was written for the soundtrack to the 'Murder Was The Case' film in 1994, and featured Ice Cube And Sam Sneed, while 'California Love' was credited to '2Pac featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman'. 1997 saw the release of 'Game Over' from Scarface featuring Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Too $hort & B Real, and while all of those songs appear on this album, these are the original versions, including 'California Love' without 2Pac, 'Zoom' with Snoop Doggy Dogg instead of LL Cool J, and 'Natural Born Killaz' with a verse by Sam Sneed. I've said before that I'm not the biggest fan of hip-hop, but since finding these albums from Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg and MF DOOM/Ghostface Killah I've come to realise that I was missing out on something by ignoring them in the early 90's, and this album in particular is swiftly becoming one of my favourites.   

Track listing

01 Intro (feat. George Clinton & Chris Tucker)

02 Da Godfather (feat. Baby S)

03 California Love (feat. Roger Troutman)

04 Split Personality (feat. E-A Ski)

05 My Life (Smokin' Weed 4 Hours)

06 It's Entertainment (Skit)

07 Monay (feat. King T. & Dawn Robinson)

08 Street Scholars (feat. J-Flexx & Sam Sneed)

09 Zoom (feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg)

10 211 (Skit) (feat. Nancy Fletcher & Fingas)

11 Natural Born Killaz (feat. Sam Sneed & Ice Cube)

12 Blueberry (feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg & Sam Sneed)

13 Game Over (feat. Scarface, Too $hort & Ice Cube)

14 House Calls (feat. Baby S & the Casino Crew)

The Real Thing - Stone Cold Love Affair (1975)

The Real Thing were founded in 1970 by Chris Amoo, Dave Smith, Kenny Davis and Ray Lake, and were originally called the Sophisticated Soul Brothers, but their manager Tony Hall didn't really like the name, and after seeing a billboard ad for Coca Cola he re-named them The Real Thing. Their progressive soul-influenced covers of American hits attracted enough attention for them to secure a recording deal with EMI, although the singles they released through EMI from 1972 to 1974 were not successful sellers, despite their high quality (how did 'Vicious Circle' miss being a hit single?). Despite this the band persisted, even after the departure of Kenny Davis, who was replaced by Chris's brother Eddie, later appearing on and winning the UK talent show 'Opportunity Knocks'. The turn-around in their career began with their collaboration with David Essex and Pye Records in 1975, touring internationally with Essex, and recording a number of songs with him, though none were big charters. The band finally found chart success in 1976 with the pop-soul single 'You To Me Are Everything', which reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, and No. 66 on Billboard's Hot 100. The follow-up 'Can't Get By Without You' didn't chart in the US but was still a success in the UK, where it reached number 2, and this was followed by the release of their debut album 'Real Thing', which included both of their hit singles, as well as a third UK hit 'You'll Never Know What You're Missing'. They continued recording prolifically, releasing a steady stream of albums, following 'Real Thing' with 1977's 'Four from Eight' (originally to have been called 'Liverpool 8' in honour of the racially mixed, economically depressed neighbourhood in which they grew up, before Pye rejected the title), 1978's 'Step Into Our World' (reissued in 1979 as 'Can You Feel The Force'), and 1982's compilation '100 Minutes', as well as scoring eight more British hit singles. In 1982 they returned to working with David Essex, performing as backing vocalists on his tour, and also appearing on his 1982 top 20 hit 'Me And My Girl (Nightclubbing)'. The Real Thing are now considered one of the very best UK soul groups of the 70's, but as is so often the case, it wasn't a case of overnight success, as they'd been slogging away for six years before that first big hit, releasing a number of superb but overlooked singles to an unappreciative audience. This collection brings together both sides of all of them from 1972 to 1975, and shows that in their early days they were adept at playing funk, soul and everything inbetween to try to get noticed, and it's a real shame that until the recent over-arching box set 'The Anthology 1972-1997', none of these songs could be heard as they weren't included on re-issues of any of their albums.  

Track listing

01 Vicious Circle (Parts 1 & 2) (single 1972)
02 Plastic Man (single 1973)
03 Check It Out (b-side of 'Plastic Man')
04 Listen, Joe McGintoo (single 1973)
05 Girl, I Don't Mind (Losin') (b-side of 'Listen, Joe McGintoo')
06 Humpty Dumpty (single 1973)
07 Daddy Dear (single 1974)
08 Sun Gold (b-side of 'Daddy Dear') 
09 Stone Cold Love Affair (single 1975)
10 A Love That's Real (b-side of 'Stone Cold Love Affair')
11 Watch Out Carolina (single 1975)
12 I Want You Back (b-side of 'Watch Out Carolina')

The Black Crowes - Band (1997)

Personnel changes and label interference frustrated The Black Crowes' attempts to follow up their 1996 album 'Three Snakes And One Charm', as after recording an album during May and June 1997, which was to be called either 'Band', 'The Band' or 'Meet The Band', it was rejected by their label, American Recordings. Lead singer Chris Robinson said American "couldn't go with the vibe" and wanted something more "safe", and so after guitarist Marc Ford was fired due to a heroin habit that impaired his performances, and Johnny Colt left to become a yoga instructor, the band regrouped and began writing and recording an album that would be acceptable to their record company, eventually presenting them with 'By Your Side' in 1998. When 'Band' leaked online in 2002, the comments by fans were almost universal in saying that it should have been released and that it would have been a great addition to the band's discography, and it seems that the record company took note of this and so in 2006 they released 'The Lost Crowes', which consisted of sessions for a proposed album called 'Tall', where many of the songs were later re-recorded for the 'Amorica' record, and the aborted sessions for 'Band'. However, they couldn't help themselves from interfering, remixing the tracks and changing the running order, as well as removing two of the songs completely, and bizarrely renaming 'OK By Me' as 'Grinnin''. What fans were therefore left with was nothing like the rejected record, and even the addition of a previously unheard rehearsal take of 'Peace Anyway' (which I've added here) couldn't make up for their disappointment. The only track that eventually made it to 'By Your Side' was the horn-laden 'Only A Fool', although 'If It Ever Stops Raining' was re-recorded with different lyrics to become the title track of 'By Your Side', so 'Band' remains pretty much a completely new, unheard album, and it's therefore no surprise that it's been heavily bootlegged over the years. However, it's now getting much harder to find online, and so here it is so that fans of the band who haven't heard it can make up their own minds about whether the record company was right to reject it.   

Track listing

01 If It Ever Stops Raining
02 Predictable
03 My Heart's Killing Me
04 Only A Fool
05 Smile
06 Never Forget This Song
07 Wyoming And Me
08 Life Vest
09 Paint An 8
10 Another Roadside Tragedy
11 OK By Me
12 Peace Anyway

Kim Wilde - Wilde At Heart (1983)

By 1986 Kim Wilde was writing more of her own material, with her fifth album 'Another Step' featuring mostly songs that she wrote herself or co-wrote, and although the album's lead single 'Schoolgirl' flopped in Europe and Australia, her Hi-NRG remake of The Supremes' classic 'You Keep Me Hangin' On' was a huge success, topping the charts in Australia and Canada, and peaking at number two in the UK. It also belatedly hit number one on the US Billboard chart in 1987, and with that hit she became the fifth UK female solo artist ever to top the US Hot 100, following Petula Clark, Lulu, Sheena Easton, and Bonnie Tyler. Her popularity, especially in her native UK, was revitalised and she scored further Top 10 hits in 1987 with 'Another Step (Closer to You)' and the Comic Relief charity single 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, recorded with comedian Mel Smith as Mel & Kim. In 1988 she released her biggest selling album to date, with 'Close' returning her to the UK top 10, spending almost eight months on the UK album chart. It produced four major European hits in 'Hey Mister Heartache', 'You Came', 'Never Trust A Stranger' and 'Four Letter Word', and she toured the album throughout Europe as the opening act for Michael Jackson's Bad World Tour. In 1990 she released her next album 'Love Moves', but she found that the public can be very fickle, with the record barely making the UK Top 40, and only spawning two minor hit single. A collaboration with Rick Nowels, who had produced hits for Stevie Nicks and Belinda Carlisle, resulted in the guitar-driven pop of the single 'Love Is Holy', and the 1992 album 'Love Is', but once again the album's success was limited to a small number of countries, though the single was another Top 20 hit in the UK. In 1994 Wilde embarked on a huge "Greatest Hits" concert tour throughout Europe, Australia and Japan, but her next album 'Now & Forever' was a commercial failure worldwide, and after a couple more relatively unsuccessful singles she took a year off from February 1986 to February 1987 to appear in the West End production of the musical 'Tommy'. Since 2001, Wilde has resumed her singing career, releasing records and touring, while at the same time reviving an old interest in gardening and appearing on TV gardening programmes 'Better Gardens' and 'Garden Invaders', as well as writing two books on the subject. This second collection of non-album singles and b-sides takes us up to that Greatest Hits tour in 1994, and includes a number of fine self-penned songs from the most-charted British female solo act of the 1980's.  

Track listing

01 Loving You (b-side of 'You Keep Me Hangin' On' 1986)
02 Songs About Love (b-side of 'Schoolgirl' 1986)
03 Hold Back (b-side of 'Another Step (Closer To You)' 1987)
04 Tell Me Where You Are (b-side of 'Hey Mr. Heartache' 1988)
05 Wotcha Gonna Do (b-side of 'Never Trust A Stranger' 1988)
06 Virtual World (b-side of 'It's Here' 1990)
07 Birthday Song (b-side of 'Love Is Holy' 1992)
08 I've Found A Reason (b-side of 'Heart Over Mind' 1992)
09 If I Can't Have You (single 1993)
10 Never Felt So Alive (b-side of 'If I Can't Have You' 1993) 
11 In My Life (single 1993)

Triple Threat Revue - Empty Arms (1978)

I mentioned in the recent Stevie Ray Vaughan post that the band that he played in immediately before Double Trouble was called Triple Threat Revue, alongside vocalist Lou Ann Barton, Mike Kindred on organ, W.C. Clark on bass, Johnny Reno on saxophone, and Freddie Pharaoh on drums. Due to his multiple talents, the locals began calling Vaughan Triple Threat, so when it came time to pick a name for his new band, it seemed obvious, and it was named The Triple Threat Revue. The band stayed together in this form until the middle of 1978, and even recorded some sessions at Belmont Studio in Nashville, following the departure of Johnny Reno, and the replacement of Clark and Pharaoh with Jack Newhouse on bass and Chris Layton on drums . It was after this that Vaughan decided the band had too many leaders, so he and Lou Ann Barton left to form their next band, and Double Trouble was born. As a coda to the Vaughan post, here is that unreleased album by Triple Threat Revue. 

Track listing

01 You Can Have My Husband 
02 Rude Mood
03 Pride And Joy
04 Oh, Yeah
05 Love Struck Baby
06 Ti-Ni-Nee-Ni-Nu 
07 Empty Arms 
08 I Wonder Why
09 I'm Crying
10 Sugar Coated Loving
11 Natural Born Lover
12 Scratch My Back 
13 I'll Change
14 Shake A Hand, Shake A Hand
15 Oh Baby

Peter Cook - Dr. Jekyll & Mrs Hyde (1977)

I've just watched a fascinating programme on BBC4 which collected all the interviews that comedian Peter Cook did with chat-show host Michael Parkinson in the 70's, and in passing Cook mentioned that he'd written a script for a film that was to be made the following year called 'Dr. Jekyll & Mrs Hyde'. It was to be produced by Michael Medwin, who had met Cook after seeing him in 'Good Evening' on Broadway circa 1975, going backstage afterwards to meet the show’s writers and cast, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. During this encounter Cook told Medwin of an idea which was to have a Dr Jekyll who mutated not into Mr Hyde, but into a beautiful woman who was really the first Woman’s Libber. Medwin and Cook had several follow-up meetings to discuss the idea, and Medwin commissioned Cook to write the screenplay, announcing in an interview with Sheridan Morley in 1975 that the film was in preparation and “we hope to make it in the next year”. Cook actually finished his script not in 1975, or even 1976, but on Wednesday the 19th of January 1977, presumably after struggling through many structural problems regarding the film’s story. It was described by Cook in the script’s foreword, “though predominantly a comedy, is also a love story, a study in narcissism and an exposé, in funny terms, of the hypocritical Victorian attitude towards women. Dr Jekyll, though outwardly respectable, is an adventurer. His alter-ego, Mrs Hyde, the only woman he can really love, represents everything a Victorian lady should not be”. The foreword concludes: “Mrs Hyde’s outrageous modes of dress and behaviour cause understandable shock to her contemporaries. To many of them she seems as horrifying as the Mr Hyde in the original Stevenson story”. As for the actual story of the film, that was summarised by Dudley Moore in the November/December 1979 issue of Film Comment: “Dr Jekyll turns into a woman and falls in love with the woman, but can never meet her because he either changes into her or Dr Jekyll. It’s a wonderful premise”. I don't recall ever seeing the film, and some investigation online confirmed that it was in fact never made, but amazingly the script is available to read online, and so as a bit of a departure from the music, and because I'm such a huge Peter Cook fan, here is the script for his never-made film 'Dr. Jekyll & Mrs Hyde'.

Ron Wood - ...and on guitar (1987)

Ronald David Wood was born on 1 June 1947 in Hillingdon, London, and made his first appearances on record during the mid-'60s, firstly as guitarist for the Birds, who were an R&B band based in Yiewsley, Middlesex. They were a popular live act with a considerable fan base, releasing several singles in the mid-1960's, and Wood wrote or co-wrote nearly half the songs that the group recorded. By 1967 the Birds had disbanded, and Wood briefly took part in a project called Santa Barbara Machine Head, which included later Deep Purple co-founder Jon Lord (did he file that name away for later use?), before becoming a member of the oft-overlooked mod outfit The Creation, remaining with them for a short while, and appearing on a handful of their singles. After he left The Creation in 1967 he joined the Jeff Beck Group, but as Beck was one of the leading guitarists of the time, Wood switched to bass while with the band, and they recorded two highly respected albums, with 'Truth' appearing in 1968, and 'Beck-Ola' following the next year. Following the release of 'Beck-Ola', the Jeff Beck Group disbanded, with vocalist Rod Stewart embarking on a solo career, and after Steve Marriott left the Small Faces, Wood began working with the remaining members of that group, returning to his instrument of choice, the guitar. This line-up, plus Rod Stewart and former Bird Kim Gardner, teamed up with Wood's brother Art Wood in a group that they called Quiet Melon, and they made a handful of recordings in May 1969. When Quiet Melon folded, Wood and Stewart joined the former Small Faces full-time, changing the band's name to The Faces, and it was most of this band, with the addition of Keith Emerson on keyboards, and Steamhammer's Martin Pugh and Martin Quittenton, that backed Stewart on his first solo album 'An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down' in 1969. 

In the first half of the 1970's, The Faces released four studio albums and were among the top-grossing live acts of the period, and as well as his distinctive guitar work, Wood contributed harmonica, vocals and bass to the band's recordings, and co-wrote many of their songs. In 1972, Wood and Faces bassist Ronnie Lane composed the soundtrack to the film 'Mahoney's Last Stand' with help from Pete Townshend, Ric Grech and Kenney Jones, but the soundtrack album didn't appear until four years later in 1976. In 1973 Wood asked his old friend Mick Taylor to help out with his first solo album, and later that year he collaborated with Mick Jagger on the song 'It's Only Rock'n Roll (But I Like It)', as well as joining David Bowie to record a cover of Bruce Springsteen's 'Growing Up' during sessions for his 'Diamond Dogs' album. When Taylor departed from the Rolling Stones in December 1974, Wood helped out with the band's March 1975 recording sessions for their forthcoming album 'Black And Blue', and although still a member of Faces, he toured North America with The Rolling Stones in 1975. When The Faces announced their break-up in December of that year, Wood was officially declared a member of The Rolling Stones in 1976, playing slide guitar, as Taylor and Brian Jones had done before him, and adding both lap steel and pedal steel guitar to his repertoire. In addition, he often exchanged roles on the guitar with Keith Richards, blurring the boundaries between rhythm and lead, even within a particular song. In 1975, Wood released his second solo album 'Now Look', followed four years later by 'Gimme Some Neck', and to promote it he formed and toured with The New Barbarians, playing 20 concerts in Canada and the US. Throughout the 1980's Wood kept very busy, playing as an official member of The Rolling Stones, continuing his solo career, painting, and collaborating with a number of other artists, including Prince, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley, Ringo Starr and Aretha Franklin. Wood's first guest appearance was actually on Donovan's 'Barabajagal' single, where The Jeff Beck Group acted as his backing band, but as Wood was playing bass and not guitar I'm starting this collection with his appearance on Rod Stewart's 1970 album, and working through his contributions to other artists efforts through to the late 80's, and for the cover I've used a rare self-portrait painted by Wood himself. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Only A Hobo (from 'Gasoline Alley' by Rod Stewart 1970) 
02 I'm Ready (from 'It Ain't Easy' by John Baldry 1971) 
03 Stop On The Red (from 'Wun' by Gerry Lockran 1972)

04 Just For A Moment (from the soundtrack of the film 'Mahoney's Last Stand' 1972)
05 Brahms (from 'The Academy In Peril' by John Cale 1972) 
06 Fallen Angel (from 'On The Road To Freedom' by Alvin Lee & Mylon LeFevre 1973)
07 Growin' Up (out-take from 'Pin Ups' by David Bowie 1973)
08 Kew (from 'Love Songs' by Billy Nicholls 1974)
09 Shut Up (from 'First Of The Big Bands' by Tony Ashton & John Lord 1974)
10 Ding Dong, Ding Dong (from 'Dark Horse' by George Harrison 1974) 
11 Feet (from 'Stone Alone' by Bill Wyman 1976)
12 Kinky (from 'Lasso From El Paso' by Kinky Friedman 1976)

Disc Two
01 All Our Past Times (from 'No Reason To Cry' by Eric Clapton 1976)
02 What A Town (from 'Rick Danko' by Rick Danko 1977)
03 Slow Screw Against The Wall/A♭ Fry (from 'Ask Rufus' by Rufus feat. Chaka Khan 1977) 
04 Nobody's Child (from 'Puttin' On The Style' by Lonnie Donegan 1978) 
05 Jumpin' Jack Flash (from 'Aretha' by Aretha Franklin 1980)
06 Little Girl (from 'Bump In The Night' Ian McLagan 1981) 
07 Dead Giveaway (from 'Stop And Smell The Roses' by Ringo Starr 1981) 
08 Clean Cut Kid (from 'Empire Burlesque' by Bob Dylan 1985)
09 Go 'Way Little Boy (b-side of 'Sweet Sweet Baby' single by Lone Justice 1985)
10 Love Roulette (from 'Heartbeat' by Don Johnson 1986) 
11 Baby (from 'Dirty Strangers' by Dirty Strangers 1987)
12 The Usual (from the soundtrack of the film 'Hearts Of Fire' 1987)

Thanks to Gil for the suggestion

Gary Numan - Noise Noise (1983)

With his former backing band of Chris Payne (keyboards, viola), Russell Bell (guitar), and Ced Sharpley (drums) now reformed as Dramatis, Gary Numan contributed vocals to their 1981 hit 'Love Needs No Disguise' from the album 'For Future Reference', and he also lent his vocals to the first single released by his long-term bassist Paul Gardiner, with 'Stormtrooper In Drag' making the UK charts the same year. Numan's own career, however, had begun to experience a gradual decline, and he was eclipsed commercially by former support act Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, as well as by the Human League, Duran Duran, and Depeche Mode, and although each album also saw a new image, none of these captured the public's imagination to nearly the same extent as the lonely android of 1979. The follow-up to 'Dance' appeared in 1982, but 'I, Assassin' fared less well, and despite producing the top 10 hit 'We Take Mystery (To Bed)', plus two other top 20 singles, the album peaked at No. 8 and left the charts after a six-week run. The heavily percussive funk style of the album did make several tracks from the album, such as the 12" version of 'Music For Chameleons' and a special remix of 'White Boys And Heroes', unexpected successes in the American club scene, and so 18 months after Numan's farewell concerts in April 1981 he embarked on a US tour. 1983's 'Warriors' further developed Numan's jazz-influenced style, and featured contributions from Bill Nelson, but the musicians fell out during recording, and so Nelson chose to be uncredited as co-producer. The album performed less well than 'I, Assassin', peaking at No. 12, but it did produce two hit singles, including the top 20 title-track. This second collection of b-sides and out-takes covers the flips of the singles released from 'I, Assassin' and 'Warriors', including an exclusive mix of both parts of 'My Car Slides', as well as a couple of interesting out-takes.  

Track Listing

01 Dance (out-take 1981)
02 Noise Noise (b-side of 'Music For Chameleons' 1982)
03 Bridge? What Bridge? (b-side of 'Music For Chameleons' 1982)
04 The Image Is (b-side of 'We Take Mystery (To Bed)')
05 War Games (b-side of 'White Boys And Heroes' 1982)
06 Glitter And Ash (b-side of 'White Boys And Heroes' 1982)
07 This House Is Cold (out-take 1982)
08 My Car Slides (Parts 1 & 2) (b-side of 'Warriors' 1983)
09 Poetry And Power (b-side of 'Sister Surprise' 1983)
10 Face To Face (Letters) (b-side of 'Sister Surprise' 1983)

Elvis Costello - The Imposter (2017)

In the 80's Elvis Costello's songwriting was so prolific that as well as releasing albums under his own name and with The Attractions, he also issued a number of singles under pseudonyms like The Imposter, The Emotional Toothpaste, and The Coward Brothers with T-Bone Burnette. 'Pills And Soap' was one of his better songs, and it did appear on the 'Punch The Clock' album, so I've used the extended b-side for this post, and that was followed by another excellent 7" in 'Peace In Our Time'. Costello teamed up with his producer T-Bone Burnette to form The Coward Brothers for 'The People's Limosine' single in 1985, and a couple of years later The McManus Gang recorded 'A Town Called Big Nothing', featuring Costello's dad Ross McManus on trumpet, and included here is an exclusive mix of both sides of the single. Sometimes Costello used his alter egos for b-sides to singles from his main band, and so songs by Elvis Costello And His Confederates, Napoeleon Dynamite & The Royal Guard and The Emotional Toothpaste appeared on the flips of Elvis Costello & The Attractions singles. After a gap of 30 years The Imposter made a come-back in 2017, with a cover of Paul Simon's 'American Tune', followed by a song used in the 1998 film 'Soft Sand, Blue Sea', which was pressed in a run of 500 copies and sold on the 'Imperial Bedroom And Other Chambers' tour. This is now an extremely hard-to-find rarity and cannot be located anywhere on the net, so I've extracted the music from the film itself just so we can hear a brief idea of the song. One of the highlights of this collection is being able to hear the title track to the 'Imperial Bedroom' album, which never appeared on the original release, and so enjoy these mysterious Costello recordings, some of which have remained hidden away for some time, and with the resurrection of the name for Elvis Costello And The Imposters new album 'The Boy Named If' then it's time they were brought out again and enjoyed. 

Track listing

01 The Stamping Ground (b-side by The Emotional Toothpaste of 'You Little Fool' 1982)
02 Imperial Bedroom (out-take by Napoleon Dynamite & The Royal Guard 1982)
03 Pills And Soap (extended b-side by The Imposter 1983)
04 Peace In Our Time (single by The Imposter 1984)
05 Withered And Died (b-side of 'Peace In Our Time')
06 The People's Limousine (single by The Coward Brothers 1985)
07 They'll Never Take Her Love From Me (b-side of 'The People's Limosine')
08 Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo (b-side by The Costello Show of 'Don't Let Me Be

                                                                                                                 Misunderstood' 1986)
09 A Town Called Big Nothing (The Big Return) (single by The McManus Gang 1987)
10 Shoes Without Heels (b-side by Elvis Costello And The Confederates of 'Blue Chair' 1987)
11 True Love Ways (b-side by Elvis Costello And His Confederates of 'Brilliant Mistake' 2005)
12 I Can't Turn It Off (by D. P. Costello from 'Unfaithfull Music & Soundtrack Album' 2015)
13 American Tune (single by The Imposter 2017)
14 Lucky Dog (b-side by Sgt. Larry Singer of 'American Tune')
15 Bright Blue Times (10" single by The Imposter 2017)

Kim Wilde - Call Of The Wilde (1985)

Kim Wilde was born Kim Smith on 18 November 1960, and is the eldest child of 50's rock 'n' roller Marty Wilde and Joyce Baker, who had been a member of the singing and dancing group the Vernons Girls. When Kim was nine, the family moved to Hertfordshire, and after leaving Presdales School, she took a foundation course at St Albans College of Art & Design, completing it when she was 20. After leaving college she wanted so become a session backing singer, but RAK Records owner Mickey Most had other ideas, and signed her to his label as a solo artist under the name of Kim Wilde. Virtually all of her material in the early to mid-80's was written by her father Marty and her brother Ricky, and key influences included Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), Ultravox, John Foxx, Gary Numan, Skids, Sex Pistols, the Clash, Kraftwerk and the Stranglers, blending punk, new wave and synth-pop from the late 70's. Her debut single was released in January 1981, and 'Kids In America' was an instant success, reaching number two in the UK Singles Chart and scaling the Top 5 in other countries such as Germany, France and Australia. Although it achieved only moderate success in the US, peaking at number 25 when released in 1982, it is often regarded today as her signature song, and her debut album 'Kim Wilde' repeated the success of the single, spawning two further hits in 'Chequered Love' and the UK-only single 'Water On Glass'. 'Select' followed in 1982, led by the hit singles 'View From A Bridge' and 'Cambodia', with the latter sparking some controversy over the lyrics referencing the Operation Menu bombing during the Vietnam war, but despite that it sold a million copies in France alone. Unusually for someone with two hit albums under their belt, Wilde was reluctant to do a live tour, and so her first concerts took place in September 1982 in Denmark, before embarking on a UK-wide tour in October. Wilde's third album 'Catch As Catch Can' appeared in 1983, but failed to equal the success of the previous two, although the first single from the album 'Love Blonde' was another success in France and Scandinavia, although it didn't really perform well in other countries. The relative failure of the album led to her leaving RAK and signing with MCA Records in the summer of 1984, and her first album for the label was 'Teases & Dares', which was once again overlooked in her home country, faring much better in Germany, France and Scandinavia. As well as scoring another German Top 10 single with 'The Second Time', the third single from the album, the rockabilly 'Rage To Love', finally returned her to the UK top 20 in 1985. It was on 'Teases & Dares' that Wilde made her first songwriting contributions, penning 'Fit In' and 'Shangri-La', and 1983 saw the start of four years of constant touring, completing three European concert tours in 1983, 1985 and 1986. On nearly all of her early singles, the b-sides were not taken from the current album, and Japanese fans were even treated to a bonus track on their edition of the 'Select' album, so this collection includes all those songs, alongside a couple of out-takes, plus her contribution to the soundtrack of the hit 1985 film 'Weird Science'.  

Track listing

01 Shane (b-side of 'Chequered Love' 1981)
02 Boys (b-side of 'Water On Glass' 1981)
03 Watching For Shapes (b-side of 'Cambodia' 1981)
04 Child Come Away (single 1982)
05 Just Another Guy (b-side of 'Child Come Away')
06 He Will Be There (out-take 1982)
07 Bitter Is Better (bonus track on Japanese edition of 'Select' 1982)
08 Back Street Driver (b-side of 'Dancing In The Dark' 1983)             
09 Rain On (out-take 1983)
10 Lovers On A Beach (b-side of 'The Second Time' 1984)
11 Putty In Your Hands (b-side of 'Rage To Love' 1985)
12 Turn It On (from the soundtrack of the film 'Weird Science' 1985)

Dr. Dre - The Chronicle (1992)

Dr. Dre's debut studio album 'The Chronic' was released in 1992 on Death Row Records, and made him one of the best-selling American music artists of 1993. It earned him a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance for the single 'Let Me Ride', as well as several accolades for the single 'Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang'. Not only that, but also that year he produced Death Row label-mate Snoop Doggy Dogg's debut album 'Doggystyle', as well as mentoring producers such as his stepbrother Warren G, Snoop Dogg's cousin Daz Dillinger, Sam Sneed and Mel-Man. The album is named after a slang term for high-grade cannabis, and its cover is an homage to Zig-Zag rolling papers, and although it was a Dre solo album, it featured many appearances by then-emerging American rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, who used the album as a launch pad for his own solo career, making him a superstar before he'd even released a recording of his own. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and has been certified 3x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, which led to Dr. Dre becoming one of the top ten best-selling American performing artists of 1993. It established Dre's patented G-funk sound, consisting of fat, blunted Parliament-Funkadelic beats, soulful backing vocals, and live instruments for the rolling basslines and whiny synths, and for the next four years it was virtually impossible to hear mainstream hip-hop that wasn't affected in some way by Dre and his patented G-funk. The album launched the careers of many West Coast hip hop artists, including Snoop Doggy Dogg, Daz Dillinger, Kurupt, Nate Dogg, and Warren G, all of whom subsequently pursued successful commercial careers, and 'The Chronic' is widely regarded as the album that re-defined West Coast hip hop, demonstrating gangsta rap's commercial potential as a multi-platinum commodity, while establishing G-funk as the most popular sound in hip hop music, and Death Row Records as a dominant force in 1990's hip hop. The album was re-released in 2009 as 'The Chronic Re-Lit', which included seven previously unreleased tracks, but these weren't the only out-takes to surface over the years, and so when a number of them appeared on the net they were eagerly pounced on by fans, with the the most frequent comment being 'why don't they make music this good today?'. I've added those seven tracks from the 'Re-Lit' re-issue to another half a dozen that later surfaced online, including the original longer version of 'Rat Tat Tat Tat', to make a companion album to that classic record, which I've wittily titled 'The Chronicle', as taken together they provide a complete history of the album that jump-started hip-hop in the 90's. A few of these out-takes have also appeared on lost collections from Snoop Doggy Dogg, as both artists featured heavily on the tracks and so they could have appeared under the name of either artist, and so to avoid duplication I've removed them from this album as they can be heard on the recent Snoop Doggy Dogg post.     

Track listing

01 Die Muthafucka Die (feat. Top Dogg)
02 Poor Young Dave (feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg)
03 Foo Nay Mic (feat. CPO)
04 Rat Tat Tat Tat (original recording feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg)
05 O.G. to B.G. (feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg)
06 Slippin' In The West (feat. CPO & Kurupt)
07 Niggaz Don't Give A Fuck (feat. Tha Dogg Pound, The Lady Of Rage & Snoop Doggy Dogg)
08 Dogg Collar (feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg)
09 Mr. Officer (feat. RBX & Prince Ital Joe)
10 Touchdown (feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg)
11 Smoke Enough Bud (feat. Jewell & Snoop Doggy Dogg)
12 187um (Deep Cover Remix feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg)
13 Would You Ride (feat. Kurupt, Tyrone, Daz, Snoop Doggy Dogg & Amber)

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.