Various Artists - The Name's Bond..... (2015)

Mike has been disappearing down the rabbit holes again, and has stumbled upon some more rejected James Bond themes to go with his recent post.....as if there weren't enough there already. So over to Mike...

Since I posted my original Bond Rarities Collection album here a few months ago…I found a brand new album (Legitimacy Unknown!) that suspiciously follows my exact track listing throughout a large portion of it… but it was nice enough to veer off in spots and find a few more songs I may have missed. So since turnabout is Fair Play… I thought I would steal their additions.
Now some of these were up for consideration in my original post (and passed over due to little or no info about them…but since these folks were nice enough to put out a 6! CD compilation of obviously legit tracks (at least volumes 1-2 of the six seem that way as well as at other points throughout the rest of the volumes) I thought I would give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they found legit reasons to include some of the following tracks on their album. (I've included the details on their set in my pdf, as well as a link to it at the very end of the post, because it really is a beautiful collection every Bond fan should have!). Iʼm not going to include all the songs from their compilation, because I debunked some of them in my original go round, but I've researched the cuts they added and found that a bunch were truly outtakes or used in the now very rare video games. Hereʼs my updated notes on these new cuts and why I feel they are worthy (well…almost worthy) of inclusion.

As i stated in my original notes….let the arguments over them begin… (but enjoy the music while you are arguing!!).
On Her Majesty's Secret Service 1969
John Barry and Hal David wrote two other songs for the film, both performed by Danish singer Nina. One, entitled 'Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?', was featured in the film in several scenes. The other, 'The More Things Change', was recorded by Nina at the same session, but did not end up in the finished film. Instead, it appeared as the b-side of the UK single of 'Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?'. Now the first is obviously a
Christmas song…so Iʼm not including it… but the second fits in nicely with the melancholy feel of the film… so in it goes.
The Living Daylights 1987
In 1987, Tor Endresen's single 'Black Rain' was almost chosen as the theme song for 'The Living Daylights', and 'Lovemagic' by Elisabeth Andreasson is also included on this collection. 
Flimsy I know…but that is definitely the Bond theme in there!
Tomorrow Never Dies 1997
The most convoluted of any Bond theme, 'Tomorrow Never Dies' was completely up for grabs. Thanks to some indecision from the studio, a contest of sorts was launched in which a handful of selected artists submitted their version of the title track. The list was an impressive one too: Pulp, Saint Etienne, The Cardigans, Swan Lee, Duran Duran, Marc Almond, The Fixx, and this one by Dot Allison all entered the sweepstakes. Canadian crooner k.d. lang came in a close second with her contribution 'Surrender', which won the consolation prize of rolling through the end credits, but in the end Sheryl Crow was the surprise winner, proving she could pull off a seductive vocal backed by a debonair arrangement from David Arnold and his orchestra.

Quantum Of Solace 2008
Composer Huck Whitney wrote 'Quantum Of Solace' as a demo for the film..to be sung by whichever star they choose - it's not official, and some say itʼs a spoof. For the same film we have ʼWeapons' by The Neon Empire, which is another one thatʼs hard to say…not much on this one.

Skyfall 2012
'Cold War' was self-submitted by the band Red Is For Fire, but it was doubtful that it would be chosen.

SPECTRE 2015
The band TREN has made an original James Bond song of their own title 'Ghost'. Once again self submitted… so also doubtful.

No Time To Die 2021
English singer, songwriter, DJ, and fashion designer Boy George has released a track named after the new James Bond film 'No Time To Die'. Boy George confirmed via his official Twitter account that the song is in no way official or connected to the production, and joked that he "only did it to annoy Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa." Cool Song tho!
Everything Or Nothing video game 2003

'Everything Or Nothing' is a song by American recording artist Mýa. It was written by Ron Fair, Randy Bugnitz, and Mýa and recorded for the 2003 James Bond third-person shooter video game 'James Bond 007: Everything Or Nothing', released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube consoles. Published by Electronic Arts, the game features the likeness and voice of Mýa, who portrays the character Mýa Starling, an NSA double agent who aids Bond in dealing with the use of nanotechnology as terrorism. 'Everything Or Nothing' was released as a promotional single in support of the game's official release, and a jazz version, also produced by Fair, was performed by Mýa on 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' in late 2004.
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent video game 2004

Paul Oakenfold remixed Natacha Bedingfield's 'If You're Gonna Jump' for the 'GoldenEye: Rogue Agent' video game in 2004, and here's an interesting fact - Natasha Bedingfield also portrayed one of the two new Bond girls in the 'From Russia With Love' video game which was released a year later. The song only plays when you beat the game, so howʼs that for a rarity!!
OK kids… That wraps up my update…let me know what you think! And if you want to try the whole 6CD set (full track listing included in the pdf included in the folder) then it's here hXXps://download-soundtracks.com/movie_soundtracks/the-best-of-bond-jamesbond-collection-soundtrack/ , on a site that's possibly the best I've ever found for rare soundtracks.

Track listing

01 The More You Change - Nina

02 Black Rain - Pal Thowsen & Tor Endresen

03 Lovemagic - Elisabeth Andreasson

04 Tomorrow Never Comes - Dot Allison

05 Quantum Of Solace - Huck Whitney

06 Weapons - The Neon Empire

07 Cold War - Red Is For Fire

08 Ghost - TREN

09 No Time To Die - Boy George

10 Everything Or Nothing - Mya

11 If You're Gonna Jump - Natasha Bedingfield

Moonstone - Moonstone (1979)

British record producer Ian Levine had burst onto the scene in 1975, producing the hit single 'Reaching For The Best' with The Exciters, and several more productions followed over the following years with the likes of Evelyn Thomas, Barbara Pennington, L. J. Johnson, Tyrone Ashley, Doris Jones, James Wells, Eastbound Expressway and Seventh Avenue. 1979 saw him produce four disco albums, none of which would be released at the time, and the cost of producing them left him indebted and unable to record for four long years, until he bounced back with Miquel Brown's million-selling single 'So Many Men, So Little Time' in 1983. One of those 1979 albums was by Moonstone, which was a studio project for Salsoul Records which fell through at the last minute, and although Levine's business partner Rick Gianatos wanted to shop the tapes around for other record labels, Levine wasn't keen, as he disliked session singer Liza Strike's original vocals, and recut the tracks, two of them with Karen Pree and three of them with Evelyn Thomas. In the end the tracks would sit in the can until they leaked in the early 90's, although some recordings, such as the mix of Karen Pree's 'Stop When The Light Is On Red' remain lost. I wouldn't say that disco is one of my favourite genres, and it has certainly dated since its heyday in the 70's and 80's, but it's worth resurrecting the album for fans who still have a soft spot for it, and I'm posting a mix of the Strike/Pree/Thomas versions, so that we can get an idea of each singer's take on the tracks that they recorded. 

Track listing

01 Out Of The Ball Game (feat. Liza Strike)
02 You're Sending Me Delirious (feat. Karen Pree)
03 Stop When The Light Is On Red (feat. Liza Strike)
04 Love In The First Degree (feat. Evelyn Thomas)
05 Summer On The Beach (feat. Evelyn Thomas)
06 Sleaze (feat. Evelyn Thomas)

Paul Nicholas - Club Of Lights (1971)

Paul Nicholas was born Paul Oscar Beuselinck on 3 December 1944 in Peterborough into a showbiz family, as his father, Oscar Beuselinck, a former MI6 agent, became a highly esteemed entertainment and show business solicitor in the 60's. He began his pop career as early as 1960, adopting the stage name Paul Dean and forming Paul Dean & The Dreamers, who were booked to support The Savages, the backing band for the British rocker Screaming Lord Sutch. It was here that Sutch first noticed the young Nicholas, who was soon to become vocalist and pianist with his band, but before that he released two singles, one as Paul Dean And The Thoughts and the other as just Paul Dean. After taking a new stage name, Oscar, he began a long association with the Australian-born entrepreneur Robert Stigwood, signing to Stigwood's Reaction Records and releasing four singles for the label, the first of which 'Club Of Lights', scraped into the lower reaches of the Radio London Fab Forty chart. His second single as Oscar was a version of a Pete Townshend song 'Join My Gang', which The Who never recorded, and his third was a novelty song called 'Over The Wall We Go', which was written by a young David Bowie. After settling on the stage name Paul Nicholas he found success in the UK in musicals, beginning with the leading role of Claude in 'Hair', before winning the title role in the original London production of 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. In 1970 he released a single under his own name, with 'Freedom City' being a self-penned protest song about apartheid, and this was followed by one last single for Polydor in 1971 before he took a break from the pop scene, returning five years later for a short-lived but high-profile pop career, earning three top 20 hits with 'Reggae Like It Used To Be', 'Dancing With The Captain', and 'Grandma's Party'. Following these singles he released two albums in 1977 and 1978, before landing the role of Vince Pinner in the hugely successful sitcom 'Just Good Friends', which was the part for which he will be most fondly remembered. He later returned to the stage, playing numerous roles on screen in both movie and television projects, and most recently could be seen playing Gavin Sullivan in 'Eastenders'. If Nicholas is remembered at all as a singer these days, it is usually for those three hits singles from 1976, but like many artists before him he paid his dues in his early years, and in this case some of those early songs are as notable for their writers as for being fine pop songs in their own right, with Nicholas writing many of his singles and b-sides himself under his real name of Beuselinck.

Track listing

01 You Don't Own Me (single by Paul Dean And The Thoughts 1965)
02 Hole In The Head (b-side of 'You Don't Own Me')
03 She Can Build A Mountain (single by Paul Dean And The Savages 1966)
04 Club Of Lights (single by Oscar 1966)
05 Waking Up (b-side of 'Club Of Lights')
06 Join My Gang (single by Oscar 1966)
07 A Day Gone By (b-side of 'Join My Gang')
08 Holiday (single by Oscar 1967) 
09 Over The Wall We Go ‎(single by Oscar 1967)
10 Every Day Of My Life (b-side of 'Over The Wall We Go')
11 Open Up The Skies (single by Oscar 1968)
12 Wild Ones (b-side of 'Open Up The Skies')
13 Where Do I Go (single 1968)
14 Freedom City (single 1970)
15 Run Shaker Life (b-side of 'Freedom City')
16 Lamp Lighter (b-side of 'The Word Is Beautiful' 1971)

The Phantom Chords - Born To Be Wicked (1991)

Following the 1989 breakup of The Damned, singer Dave Vanian, guitarist Roman Jugg and bassist Bryn Merrick formed the Phantom Chords with Brendan Mooney (guitar) and Clyde Dempsey (drums), releasing a cover of the Geoff Goddard song 'Johnny Remember Me' as their debut single in 1990. An 11-track album (including 'Johnny Remember Me') was written and recorded, and Polydor had planned to release it, but they changed their minds and only two one-sided acetates of it now exist. A promotional cassette was later made available for purchase at some of the venues when the band toured the United States later in 1993. The band released another single in 1992, with 'Town Without Pity' appearing on Camden Town Records, and by 1995 Donagh O'Leary had replaced Bryn Merrick on bass, following a tour of Britain and the US. In 1995 they eventually released their actual debut album 'David Vanian And The Phantom Chords' on Big Beat Records, promoting it by performing 'This House Is Haunted' on VH1 UK, and 'Born To Be Wicked' on ITV's "It's Bizarre". Oddly, this last song was not on the album, as the official debut contained all new material, and 'Born To Be Wicked' was recorded for the shelved 1991 album. The band's lineup was always very variable, and a 1993 Damned reunion meant that The Phantom Chords became a side project for Vanian, and they've released nothing since 1995, but both their albums, official and unofficial, contain some fine rockabilly/goth rock songs.   

Track listing

01 Someone Up There
02 Born To Be Wicked
03 Gunning For Love
04 Pretty Girl
05 Haunted Garage
06 Johnny Remember Me
07 After The Lights Go Out
08 Piece Of My Heart
09 King Of Fools
10 Time After Time
11 The Loveless And The Damned
12 Ghost Train
13 Relentless

John Lennon - The Sleepy Blind Lennon Album (1980)

I stumbled on this bootleg when I was preparing the recent Julian/John duet for Mike, and had almost forgotten that I had it. I'd always meant to clean it up and give it a new cover before posting it, but somehow it slipped through the net. It's an actual bootleg CD which appeared in 1990, after 'The Lost Lennon Tapes' were aired on the radio, as all the songs are taken from those broadcasts, and they mostly come from the 'Dakota Demos' that were recorded around 1980. When 'Serve Yourself' was first aired I remember that it caused quite a commotion, as it was a pretty much complete song from Lennon that hadn't been heard before, and this version is an even rarer piano version. You'll recognise 'The Worst Is Over Now' as an early version of '(Just Like) Starting Over' from 'Double Fantasy', and we also get the original Lennon demo of 'Free As A Bird', but the rest of the tracks are all new to me, so I hope you find something you are not familiar with as well. I've given the album a new cover in keeping with the title, which I guess is taken from the introduction to 'John Henry', which I've edited slightly from the original Sleepy Blind Lemon Lennon, as that didn't really scan. I've removed one track, which was a short cover of 'Only The Lonely' which didn't really go anywhere, and just so you know, 'Howling At The Moon' and 'Memories' are the same song done in different styles. 

Track listing

01 John Henry (The Steel Driving Man)/I Ain't Got Time
02 Serve Yourself  (piano version)

03 You Saved My Soul (With Your True Love)
04 The Worst Is Over 
05 When A Boy Meets A Girl
06 She's A Friend Of Dorothy's 
07 One Of The Boys
08 He Got The Blues
09 Cookin' (In The Kitchen Of Love) 
10 Free As A Bird
11 People (Angela)
12 On The Caribbean
13 Well (Baby Please Don't Go)
14 Gone From This Place
15 Howling At The Moon (electric)
16 Memories (Howling At The Moon) (piano)
17 Mucho Mungo

Latrelle - Dirty Girl, Wrong Girl, Bad Girl (2001)

Andrea Latrelle Simmons (known simply as Latrelle) gained her early singing experience in church as a young child, and determined to pursue a career in music she began recording her own music at the age of sixteen. She showcased at Montana studios in New York City, which led to several labels, including Sony Columbia, Motown, Def Jam, Warner Bros, LaFace, Island and Yab Yum, courting the young star, but she then met Tracey and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds who signed her and her mother to a publishing deal at Edmonds Music Publishing. They were impressed enough to introduced her to L.A. Reid, and push for Arista to sign the young talent, and in her teen years she wrote songs for artists such as Destiny's Child, Mary Mary, Next, and Monica. By the age of 19 she had recorded her first album, but 'Dirty Girl, Wrong Girl, Bad Girl', which was scheduled for release in October 2001, was never released, and has remained hidden away ever since. According to an interview with Latrelle, the label blamed the events of September 11th 2001 for the failure of the album to appear, even though promotional copies had been sent out. She did release 'Dirty Girl' as a single, which was issued along with a remix with then label mate T.I., and an alternate version also appeared featuring Lisa 'Lefteye' Lopes. While the single had little impact on radio, it received heavy airplay in clubs and appeared on several mixtapes, and so in December 2001 'House Party' was released as the follow-up single, this time being produced by The Neptunes, who also produced six tracks on her Arista album. Since leaving Arista Latrelle has recorded a new album for the label that she co-owns, AMI Music Group, as well as recording with P. Diddy, and more recently she has performed and recorded under the stage name MzMunchie. Luckily those promotional copies of the album have found their way onto the internet, and so we are able to hear this album from the precocious teenager, and judge for ourselves if it deserved to be shelved. The answer is no, by the way.  

Track listing

01 More Than You Know 
02 You Don't Even Know (Da Da Da)
03 House Party  
04 Dirty Girl (feat. Lisa 'Lefteye' Lopes) 
05 Mama Was Daddy Too  
06 Don't Leave (Bad Girl)
07 My Life (Featuring Kelis)
08 Wrong Girl (Interlude) 
09 Deal With The Pain
10 Maze Of Love
11 Infatuated
12 Long Time 
13 The Wrong Girl 
14 Mystery Of Love 
15 International Dirty Girl

Bourgie Bourgie - Dinky Honey (1984)

Paul Quinn was a classmate of Edwyn Collins between the ages of 11 and 15, and sang backing vocals on 'Rip It Up' by Collins' band Orange Juice in 1983. After his band The Jazzatters (contemporaries of Josef K, The French Impressionists and Aztec Camera) signed with Postcard Records, they changed their name to Bourgie Bourgie and were then signed by MCA Records, releasing two singles in 1984, 'Breaking Point' and 'Careless', both of which charted in the UK, at numbers 48 and 96 respectively. After taping a session for the John Peel show, the group began recording an album with producer Mike Hedges, but before it could be released the band split up, with Quinn then collaborating with Edwyn Collins on a version of The Velvet Underground's 'Pale Blue Eyes', released on Postcard Records boss Alan Horne's new Swamplands label in 1984. In early 1985, Quinn released his first solo single, 'Ain't That Always The Way', which again featured Collins but was credited solely to Quinn for contractual reasons, and which was also a minor hit. Since then he's collaborated with Vince Clarke on the 'One Day' single, and formed The Independent Group, a supergroup containing former members of Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, and The Bluebells. However, there are fans of Bourgie Bourgie who fondly remember those two singles and would love to have heard an album by the band, and so here is 'Dinky Honey', which was shelved after the band ceased to exist, and which proves that even in his early days, Quinn had something that hinted that he was on the cusp of making it big in the music industry. 

Track listing

01 Breaking Point
02 Change Of Attitude
03 Careless
04 Show Me The Door
05 Something To Prove
06 Apres Ski
07 I Give You Love
08 Quel Dommage
09 Here Comes That Feeling
10 Breaking Point (demo)

Isaiah - Playing The Circle Game (1977)

Isaiah were a progressive rock band from Austria, who formed in 1971 and released just the one album in 1975, which features a mix of jazz, blues and progressive rock elements. Led by the charismatic voice of flautist and guitarist Gert Raabe, the band counts as one of Austria's most versatile groups of the 1970's, often likened to Jethro Tull, Rare Bird, Yes and ELP, and original copies of their album very rarely come up for sale these days, but when they do they command a price of several hundred Euros. Although Isaiah's sound is more typical of what was coming from Germany circa 1971/72, with flute, guitar, and excellent vocals in the lead, it's a bit more commercialized, and so the Krautrock epithet which is often applied to them is not really accurate. Following the release of 'Isaiah' the band recorded a second album, taking some songs from prior to 1975 alongside newly written material, and this version of the band was far more bluesy than before, which could be why their record label rejected it as being too weird. It's not actually that bad, although there are fewer sax solos and background organ passages than before, but the musicianship is solid, if a bit too cliched and typical for the time. There are some interesting pieces on here, with traces of Isaiah's later more developed style like the long 'Playing The Circle Game', with its strong Birth Control influences, based on light flutes, great vocal parts, measured guitar playing and atmospheric keyboards and sax parts. The ten-minute 'Long Way' is a great example of their take on a slow blues piece, while the instrumental 'Sunset' has a dreamy, hypnotic approach, and the short but fiery 'Nightmare' has an intense Krautrock vibe despite the English lyrics. While the music is very much of its time, the mid-70's happens to be a particular favourite time of mine, and I'll lap up almost anything from that period, and so this sounds just fine to me as an example of that very rare thing - an Austrian progressive rock band who can hold their own against contemporary German and British bands of the same era. 

Track listing

01 The Fighter

02 Nightmare

03 Long Way

04 Same To You

05 Zu Leise

06 Hero

07 No Reason

08 Sunset

09 Playing The Circle Game 

World Renown - Definition Of A MC (1995)

World Renown are a duo consisting of Seven Shawn (cousin of K-Def) and John Doe (cousin of Marley Marl), who released a couple of well-received singles, with 1994's 'How Nice I Am', and the 12" follow-up 'Come Take A Ride' both appearing on Warner Brothers Records. Due to the buzz surrounding the singles, the duo were given a one-album deal with the label, and they recorded their self-titled project, included interludes, and it was even given a Warner Bros. catalouge number (WB.4/2-45715). Unfortunately, as with so many lost mid-'90's albums, it was shelved by Warner Brothers, after a promo copy received a less than favorable review from The Source in a 1995 issue, praising the first half of the album, but feeling that the second half was lacking, with the final words of the review saying "The B-side didn't measure up to the album's first half, yes there are some strong songs like 'Real MC's' and 'Easy On The Tweeter' but the level of quality declines." It's not known if this was the reason that Warner Brothers shelved the album in mid 1995, but as of today it's still unreleased, although bootlegs soon started to appear online. As well as the tracks recorded for the album, there are also a few others that were taped at the same time, and these have been added to extended versions of the album, but as a couple of them were only short interludes I thought that I'd use the original track listing of eleven songs, as this is not currently available on the net, and if you like what you hear and want to listen to the other songs then you can find them on YouTube. 

Track listing

01 Roll Wit' It
02 Shoowa
03 Definition Of A MC
04 Long Gev
05 How Nice I Am
06 Don't Trust Ur Man
07 Butta Love
08 EZ On The Tweeter
09 Come Take A Ride
10 Easy Connect
11 Long Gev (Instrumental)

Slowdive - I Saw The Sun (1992)

Slowdive was formed in October 1989 in Reading, England, by Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell, who had been friends since they were six years old, and who both sang and played guitar. Their first band together was the indie-pop group The Pumpkin Fairies, where they were joined by bassist Mike Cottle and drummer Adrian Sell, but when The Pumpkin Fairies disbanded the group evolved into Slowdive, named after the single by one of their favourite bands Siouxsie And The Banshees, where they were assisted by drummer Adrian Sell and Sell's friend, bassist Nick Chaplin. A third guitarist named Christian Savill, previously of the band Eternal, joined when he became the only person to answer an advert from the band, and although the ad called for a female guitarist, Savill wanted the gig so badly that he offered to wear a dress, and was subsequently recruited. The band quickly recorded a demo, and several months later played a show with the band Five Thirty, where head of A&R at EMI Steve Walters saw them, and requested one of their demos. The band signed to Creation Records shortly after, but Sell felt things were progressing too fast and left for university after being in the band for about six months. Their self-titled EP was released in November 1990 and received praise from music critics, even thought the songs on it were from their original demo, as the band preferred the older recordings after feeling disillusioned with their studio craft. Drummer Neil Carter joined from fellow Reading band the Colour Mary in time to play on the 'Morningrise EP', but left prior to its release in February 1991, and Simon Scott took over on drums after his previous group The Charlottes broke up. The 'Holding Our Breath EP' followed in June 1991, reaching No. 52 in the UK Albums Chart, while the single 'Catch the Breeze' topped the UK Indie Chart, and by mid-1991 Slowdive were at the forefront of the newest indie sub-genre, "shoegazing", led by bands such as My Bloody Valentine, with their abrasive guitars and ethereal vocals, and penchant for playing with their gaze firmly fixed on the floor. Production on their debut album commenced shortly after Halstead convinced Creation's head honcho Alan McGee that they had enough songs written for a full-length album, which was not actually true. They hurriedly started writing songs in the studio, experimenting with drug-inspired sounds, while Halstead drew lyrical inspiration from the abstract nature of the music. 'Just For A Day' was released in September 1991 and hit the top 10 of the UK Indie Chart, gaining a positive review along the way from the NME, although most of the other music press were engaged in a backlash against shoegazers, following the release of My Bloody Valentine's disappointing 'Loveless', and so were less complimentary.

A tour of the UK followed in autumn 1991, and after that the band made their first visit to the United States, touring with Blur. In 1992 they began writing songs for a follow-up album, but the negative coverage they'd received in the press affected their songwriting, and although approximately 40 songs were recorded and re-recorded, the group were very self-conscious of their writing and how it might be received. McGee listened to the new material, and subsequently dismissed it, so they band discarded it all and started over. During this time they wrote to ambient visionary Brian Eno and requested he produce their second album, but when he responded he told them he liked their music, but wanted to collaborate rather than produce, and the two songs that they recorded together later appeared on their second album. Creation Records wanted Slowdive to produce a commercial sounding album, and Halstead agreed that he wanted to make a 'pop' record, but it took a while to record, and at one point he left for a break in a Welsh cottage, leaving Savill, Chaplin and Scott in the recording studio, where they recorded some "joke songs". To their misfortune, McGee acquired them and became despondent at the new direction of the band, but Halstead soon returned with new music, including 'Dagger' and '40 Days', and 'Souvlaki' was released in May 1993, alongside the 'Outside Your Room EP'. Although critical reaction was once again generally negative, it's been re-evaluated over the years, and is now considered their defining moment. But would that have been the case if they hadn't scrapped those earlier 1992 recordings and had released them as their second album? Well we can now decide for ourselves, as this post collects together the best of them for what could have been the follow-up to 'Just For A Day', and while there's no doubt that 'Souvlaki' is now considered a classic shoegaze album, these songs aren't that bad, and I'm sure fans of the band will enjoy hearing what might have been. 

 
Track listing

01 Summer Day
02 Bleed
03 Sleep
04 Silver Screen
05 Dagger
06 I Saw The Sun
07 Hide Yer Eyes
08 Joy
09 I Believe
10 Richard
11 Ending

Bob Dylan - Yonder Comes Sin (1981) UPDATE

I was listening to this album recently and a couple of things occurred to me, which detracted from the complete listening experience of the album . Firstly, the coda of 'Blowing On The Water' which I tagged on to the end of 'Caribbean Wind' was too long. I still think it works nicely, but just when you expect it to gently fade away it just carries on going, so I've chopped about 40 seconds from it and I think it sounds much better. The other issue was with 'High Away', which once again just seemed to drag on too long, as well as having a false start in the middle, which I originally though would be OK to leave, but which does jar on repeated listens. On this one I've removed the false start, and also a couple of choruses either side of it, which tightens it up considerably, and instead of a rambling eight minutes, it's now a concise 4:52. Yandex links and Soulseek have been updated if you want to hear these edits, and see what you think. Obviously, if you prefer the originals then just ignore me.   

Rick Wakeman - The Complete Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table (2016)

For tonight's post Mike Solof has overhauled a classic album from the 70's and made it even better, by adding more songs, and remixing then to sound the best they can, so that they slot into the original album seamlessly. Over to Mike for some background.....

Today I thought Iʼd take a stab at melding one of my favorite classic albums from 1975, 'The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table' by Rick Wakeman, with the totally rerecorded and greatly expanded version he released 41 years later, in 2016.
In July 1974, the 25-year-old Wakeman headlined the Crystal Palace Garden Party VII concert held at Crystal Palace Park in London, with his rock band, a symphony orchestra, and choir. He'd left Yes two months prior over differences surrounding their creative direction, and continued with his solo career, which had reached newfound success after his second album 'Journey To The Centre Of The Earth' had become the first from A&M Records to chart at
number one in 1974. Despite the success, Wakeman's health deteriorated during the
preparations for the Crystal Palace show, with the stress of putting it together resulting in him  going without sleep in the five days prior to the event, as well as cracking some bones in his wrist after he fell over in a pub. He got through the gig after receiving three injections, one of morphine, before going on stage, but coupled with his frequent smoking and heavy drinking, the situation culminated in him having three minor heart attacks several days afterwards. During his recovery at Wexham Park Hospital in Berkshire, his management paid a visit, where a specialist advised them that Wakeman should cease all performing and retire, but he ignored the order and later that evening he began to write material for his next studio album, based on the legend of King Arthur, and the people and stories involved. 

During his youth Wakeman had stayed for five months on a farm in Trevalga, Cornwall, and this was near Tintagel, which is the legendary site of Arthur's castle, and it had stuck with him since then. He encountered some difficulty with the songwriting as many of the stories described in the books gave different accounts, but after reading eight books himself, he picked the details he found the most colourful, which included taking a passage from a children's book on the subject. He settled on four widely known stories, and also two lesser known, and proceeded to adapt them to music and lyrics. Much of the album was based around the three swords of the legend: the sword Arthur pulled out from the stone and anvil, the Excalibur, which some believe was instead handed to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake, and the one associated with Galahad. He incorporated ideas from his personal life into the music, saying "It's as much about me as Arthur." 'Guinevere' was a song that Wakeman had arranged six years prior to recording the album, and he wrote violin arrangements for 'Sir Lancelot And The Black Knight' that were so fast for the players, biographer Dan Wooding wrote they "collapsed with laughter" upon viewing the score. After some false starts, they played the music correctly after Wakeman instructed them they play twice as fast as he originally wanted, as he "thought I'd teach the ones who were cocky a lesson". 

'Merlin The Magician' is in three parts, as Wakeman had read several descriptions of the character, and conjured the image of "a little old man preparing his potions", so he therefore introduces the song with a quiet theme, and because one book depicted Merlin working in the basement of a castle, "surrounded by bottles and liquids like a mad professor", that inspired the heavier second theme. The piano and banjo section arose from a story that involved Merlin falling in love and chasing after a young girl, who eventually shuts him in a cave where he dies. The first piece Wakeman worked on was 'The Last Battle', which is the finale to the album, and as he composed it while still in hospital, he organised for someone to sneak a cassette recorder into his hospital room, recording his arrangements by humming them into the microphone. Before the album was recorded, he undertook a tour of North America in September and October of 1974, being his first full-scale tour as a solo artist. It featured his band, an orchestra and choir; and the production ultimately cost him around £125,000. On its release in April 1975 the album peaked at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and number 21 on the Billboard 200 in the United States, becoming Wakeman's third consecutive record to be certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, repeating this in Brazil, Japan and Australia, and selling 12 million copies in total. 

'King Arthur...' was performed for three sell out nights from 30–31 May and 1 June 1975, and they were attended by 27,000 people in total. Wakeman funded the production with his own money which included his band the English Rock Ensemble, an orchestra and choir playing in the round, a narrator, and 19 international ice skaters who re-enacted the scenes in costume. The first performance had some imperfections, as when the actor playing the young Arthur pulled the sword from the stone, the anvil used to anchor the sword came out as well, since it had not itself been anchored. The actress playing Guinevere inadvertently skated over her veil, tearing her headgear out, and the chainmail under Wakeman's cape accidentally caught on something as he was descending from his seat at one point, leaving him dangling over the ice. The dry ice fog, when used over real ice, created a mist that rose ever higher and thicker, to the point that the musicians not only could not see each other but had difficulty seeing their own instruments, and at the end, during 'The Last Battle', plans called for six skaters dressed as knights to take to the ice and fight to their mutual "deaths". Well before the song was over, one knight appeared to have survived, skating aimlessly around the ice, eventually solving the  problem by pretending to throw himself on his sword and disappearing under the fog. This notorious production has gone down in history as one of the most embarrassing concerts ever, and it was ranked No. 79 on the list of 100 Greatest Shocking Moments in Rock and Roll compiled by VH1. 

In 2012, Wakeman released a rerecorded version of 'Journey To The Centre Of The Earth', with additional pieces that were originally removed from the arrangement due to the limited time available on a vinyl record. He was booked to perform the extended album in Argentina that year, but the promoter also wished for a show with an extended version of 'King Arthur...', an idea that had first resurfaced in 2015 when Stuart Galbraith, promoter of Wakeman's 2014 'Journey...' tour, suggested a similar rerecording for 'King Arthur...', and to have it performed at The O2 Arena as part of the 2016 Stone Free Festival. It would be the first performance of the album in its entirety since 1975, and so Wakeman accepted, and the concert became a catalyst for a new, 88-minute version, to be arranged and recorded in time for it. When Wakeman first approached his record label, he told them he wanted to put out the original album, but with new songs added in. The label had different ideas though, and decided that they wanted everything to be entirely re-recorded from scratch. I was super excited when he revisited the album but definitely not thrilled with the newest versionʼs mix, as the vocals seemed weak and buried deep in the music. Thankfully, modern technology has allowed me to separate out those vocals and bump them up for my own new personal remix. The 2016 re-release (weirdly) repeated entire songs numerous times using different instruments, so Iʼve taken the liberty of picking the best version of each and skipped all the repetitive stuff. Iʼve decided to honour Wakemanʼs original vision of the 2016 release, and create a wonderful mix of his classic 1975 album, but with new songs added in from the 2016 re-recordings.

Track listing

01 Arthur
02 Morgan Le Fey*
03 Lady Of The Lake - Arthur's Queen*
04 Guinevere
05 Sir Lancelot And The Black Knight
06 Princess Elaine*
07 Camelot*
08 Merlin The Magician
09 The Holy Grail*
10 Sir Galahad
11 Percival The Knight*
12 Excalibur*
13 The Last Battle

* denotes 2016 recordings

Mike's pdf, which is included in the folder, also contains scans of the booklet which came with the CD re-issue of the 1975 album, including lyrics to the original six songs.

Twelfth Night - Skan (1979)

Twelfth Night are an English neo-progressive rock band of the 1980's, put together by guitarist Andy Revell and drummer Brian Devoil in 1978 to win a talent competition at Reading University, and their road crew included Geoff Mann as backdrop painter, and Rick Battersby as dry ice engineer. Devoil and Revell had both been in various bands around Reading, with Devoil playing in Trash, and Revell  appearing with Joe Soap And The Bubbles and Abraxas. Later in 1978, Clive Mitten wandered into a rehearsal asking for a job, and was given bass duties in the Andy Revell Band, as they were then known, and after a name change in 1979 to Twelfth Night, the band completed their first recording sessions, which resulted in the legendary 'Skan' demo. In the summer of 1979 they played a notable gig at Reading University, where friend Geoff Mann guested on vocals, and after a couple of open-air concerts in the summer, the band retired to Mann's parents' home in Manchester for rehearsals, taking Rick Battersby with them. When Battersby and Mann joined the band it was their first musical venture, although Battersby had previously been classically trained on the piano, but Mann decided to remain in Manchester to paint and work with a close friend, Peter Lawrence, in a two-piece "off the wall" band called the God Stars. Twelfth Night therefore decided to forge ahead as an instrumental band, gigging in earnest throughout 1980, but they wanted a singer, and so after a short period when they were fronted by Electra MacLeod, they persuaded Mann to re-join the band as vocalist, and with the release of 'Fact And Fiction' in 1982, they joined the ranks of Galahad, IQ, Pallas and Pendragon as one of the best bands of the neo-progressive resurgence. This post goes right back to the beginning of their career, with that 'legendary' 1979 cassette, and as a fan of the band I was intrigued when I first heard it, even at one point not believing that it really was Twelfth Night, as it sounds so different to the band that I know. It's certainly an interesting listen, and I think fans of the band need to hear it to get an idea of the direction the group could have taken if they hadn't decided to recruit a vocalist the following year. 

Track listing 

01 Scales - Fur Helene 1

02 Encore Une Foise

03 Fur Helene II

04 Sequences (Short Version)

05 Four And Three

06 (Hats Off To) Freddie Hepburn

07 Sequences