The Rolling Stones - Gathered Up Moss Vol. II (2020)

The second volume of Auran's comprehensive collection of The Rolling Stones' non-album singles and b-sides picks with a legendary out-take from 1970 and goes right through to a non-album single from 2020. Mixed in are a number of previously unreleased songs which were added to various compilation albums in 1981, 2002 and 2012, plus a couple of tracks from their 1991 live album which never made it into the studio. As mentioned in the first post, she's omitted tracks from super deluxe editions of albums that have been coming out lately, but that's mostly due to personal preferences, and the fact that this was meant to be a collection of songs which were released at the time, but just not on a studio album. So we now have every non-album song from the band's whole career to enjoy, and once again many thanks to Auran for putting it together.   

Track listing

Gathered Up Moss Vol. II: Disc I 1970-1991
01 Cocksucker Blues (unreleased, from the 1984 German boxset 'The Rest Of The Best')
02 Through the Lonely Nights (b-side of 'It's Only Rock 'n' Roll' 1974)
03 Everything Is Turning To Gold (b-side of 'Shattered' 1978)
04 If I Was A Dancer (Dance Pt. 2) (from 'Sucking In The Seventies' compilation 1981)
05 I Think I'm Going Mad (b-side of 'She Was Hot' 1984)
06 Fancyman Blues (b-side of 'Mixed Emotions' 1989)
07 Cook Cook Blues (b-side of 'Rock And A Hard Place' 1989)
08 Wish I'd Never Met You (b-side of 'Terrifying' 1990)
09 Highwire (from 'Flashpoint' live album 1991)
10 Sex Drive (from 'Flashpoint' live album 1991)

Gathered Up Moss Vol. II: Disc II 1994-2020
01 The Storm (b-side of 'Love Is Strong' 1994)
02 So Young (b-side of 'Love Is Strong' 1994)
03 Jump On Top Of Me (b-side of 'You Got Me Rocking' 1994)
04 I'm Gonna Drive (b-side of 'Out Of Tears' 1994)
05 Anyway You Look At It (b-side of 'Saint Of Me' 1998)
06 Don't Stop (from 'Forty Licks' compilation 2002)
07 Keys To Your Love (from 'Forty Licks' compilation 2002)
08 Stealing My Heart (from 'Forty Licks' compilation 2002)
09 Losing My Touch (from 'Forty Licks' compilation 2002)
10 Hurricane (single 2002)
11 Watching The River Flow (with Ben Waters, from 'Boogie 4 Stu: A Tribute To Ian Stewart' 2011)

12 Doom And Gloom (from 'GRRR!' compilation 2012)
13 One More Shot (from 'GRRR!' compilation 2012)
14 Living In A Ghost Town (single 2020)

And as a bonus for those who want it, 'Vol. 1: Disc III' in now on Soulseek, and has been added to the first post on Mega. 

Mega update

It didn't take me as long as I thought it would to move all the files to Mega, so everything from June 2021 is now on Mega, and the Archive is on Yandex, although I've a horrible feeling that my subscription runs out tomorrow, so if it does then I'll start moving the Archive to Mega after Christmas.

 
pj

Ke$ha - Lost Weekend (2010)

Kesha Rose Sebert was born in Los Angeles, California on 01 March 1987 to Rosemary Patricia "Pebe" Sebert, who is a singer-songwriter who co-wrote the 1978 single 'Old Flames Can't Hold A Candle To You', as featured on Dolly Parton's 1980 album 'Dolly, Dolly, Dolly'. Pebe, a single mother, struggled financially while supporting herself and her two children, sometimes having to look after them onstage while performing. In 1991 Pebe moved the family to Nashville, Tennessee after securing a new publishing deal for her songwriting, and she frequently brought her children along to recording studios and encouraged Kesha to sing when she noticed her vocal talent. Kesha attended Franklin High School and Brentwood High School, playing the trumpet and later the saxophone in the school marching band, and after attaining a near-perfect score on her SATs, she attended Barnard College, dropping out after three months to pursue her music career. In addition to taking songwriting classes, Kesha was also taught how to write songs by her mother, and they would often write together when she returned home from high school. Eventually she began recording demos, which her mother would give to people she knew in the music business. Around this time, Pebe answered an advertisement from the American reality TV series 'The Simple Life', looking for an "eccentric" family to host Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, and the episode featuring the Sebert family aired in 2005. Kesha's demos were gaining interest in the music business, and in 2005, at age 18, she was signed to Kemosabe Records, and later to David Sonenberg's management company, DAS Communications Inc. Working with several writers and producers while at Kemosabe she co-wrote Australian pop group The Veronicas' single 'This Love' with producer Toby Gad, while at the same time earning a living as a waitress, and it was around this time that she added the 'ironic' $ to her name. In 2008 she appeared in the video for her friend Katy Perry's single 'I Kissed A Girl', and also sang background vocals for the song 'Lace And Leather' by Britney Spears. A deal with Warner Bros. Records fell through due to her existing contract with Kemosabe, and after failing to negotiate deals with Lava Records and Atlantic in 2009, she finally signed a multi-album deal with RCA. 

Having spent the previous 6 years working on material for her debut album, she chose the best of the 200 songs that she'd written in the preceding years, and the resulting 'Animal' sold two million copies and was certified Platinum in the United States. The lead single, 'Tik Tok', broke the record in the United States with 610,000 digital downloads sold in a single week, the highest ever by a female artist since digital download tracking began in 2003. Subsequent singles from the album - 'Blah Blah Blah', 'Your Love Is My Drug' and 'Take It Off' - achieved similar commercial success, each reaching the top ten in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Kesha's deliberately unpolished aesthetic and juvenile stage persona quickly made her a deeply polarizing figure, with some of her critics finding her output to be unsophisticated, while others felt that she was manufactured and lacked credibility. In November 2010, 'Animal' was re-released with a companion EP 'Cannibal'. The lead single taken from Cannibal, 'We R Who We R', debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, and with two number ones and four top ten hits Kesha was named Hot 100 Artist of 2010 by Billboard magazine, with 'Tik Tok' ranked as the best-performing song of the year in the US. With a backlog of 200 songs, it's not surprising that they started to leak onto the internet after the huge success of her first few releases, and so here is just a small selection of the ones that didn't make 'Animal'/'Cannibal'.

Track listing

01 TV To Talk About  
02 Who Do You Love?   
03 This Is Me Breaking Up With You  
04 True Love (feat. Katy Perry) 
05 Booty Call  
06 Butterscotch   
07 Boy Like You (feat. Ashley Tisdale)   
09 Mouth  
09 Red Lipstick   
10 Lovers In the Deep End 
11 Paper Airplane 
12 Bad Dream  
13 Heart Fall Out  
14 Boys Just Suck  
15 Shots On the Hood Of My Car 
16 Lost Weekend 
17 Run Devil Run 

Diamond Head - Play It Loud (1983)

Diamond Head are a well-respected heavy metal band, who were at the forefront of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal movement of the late-70's, and are acknowledged by thrash metal bands such as Megadeth and Metallica as an important early influence, with the latter including the band's 'Helpless' on their classic EP 'The $5.98 E.P. - Garage Days Re-Revisited' in 1987. Diamond Head was formed by Brian Tatler and Duncan Scott while they were both still at school in June 1976, and although they soon found singer Sean Harris, they had to go through three bass players before settling on Collin Kimberley in 1978. The band recorded two self-financed demo tapes on a four-track recorder in 1979, and they sent the demo to Geoff Barton at Sounds magazine, which was perfect timing with the emergence of a new genre coined by Barton as The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. In 1979/80, Diamond Head were managed by budding local managers Dave Morris and Ian Frazier, with Morris putting some money into the band and trying to get them a record deal, and Frazier driving the band around the UK when on tour. The band's demos and live reputation gained enough attention for them to get two support dates with AC/DC, and also one with Iron Maiden at The Lyceum, London. Although several record companies expressed interest in signing the band, none were deemed worthy by Harris's mother Linda Harris, who was by now taking an interest in her son's band, and advising him on important decisions, along with her boyfriend Reg Fellows. Following a difference of opinions about how to manage the band, Morris and Frazier quit their roles, leaving the job solely to Linda Harris and Reg Fellows, and so while other young heavy metal bands were signed to major labels and headlining their own tours, Diamond Head remained independent. Guitarist Brian Tatler thinks that their joint managers had unrealistic expectations about the kind of record deal the band should sign, and so when no deal lived up to this, Fellows decided that the band should record an album quickly and cheaply at a local 24 track studio, where they had recorded their first single 'Shoot Out the Lights', in a deal which gave studio owner Muff Murfin 50 percent of the bands publishing for fifteen years in exchange for use of his studio. 

Tapes were passed around various labels, but when the album, now titled 'Lightning To The Nations', failed to secure a record deal, the band's management decided that they would release 1000 copies of the record on Muff Murfin's independent Happy Face Records label. The album was packaged in a plain white sleeve with no title or track listings, and 250 copies were signed by each band member. The management thought that it should be perceived as a 'demo' album, so no fancy sleeve was required, making it very cheap to produce. The first 1000 copies were pressed and made available at concerts and via mail-order for £3.50, with a mail-order advertisement appearing in Sounds for six weeks, but which the band's management neglected to pay for, and which resulted in them being sued. The original stereo master tapes were lost after they were sent to the German record company Woolfe Records, for them to release a vinyl version of the album with a new sleeve, and they were eventually tracked down by Lars Ulrich and Phonogram Germany for inclusion on the 1990 compilation album 'New Wave Of British Heavy Metal '79 Revisited'. In 1980, Pete Winkelman from Wolverhampton got involved and tried to sign Diamond Head to his new label, Media Records, along the way advising the band to change management,  but this advice was not heeded, and in the end Diamond Head agreed to make just one single for Winkelman, which was a re-recorded version of 'Sweet & Innocent' b/w 'Streets Of Gold', appearing around October 1980. In January 1981, Diamond Head successfully opened for April Wine on their UK tour, and the 'Diamond Lights' EP was quickly recorded to help pay towards the expenses of an ambitious UK tour which was planned for the summer. However, their management tried to save money by bypassing promoters and booking the venues with local agents, and so with little promotion for the tour, it lost money. The only A&R man who was determined to sign the band was Charlie Eyre, who quit his job at A&M and joined MCA in order to sign Diamond Head and Musical Youth. Discussions went on for around six months until the band finally inked a five-album deal on 1 January 1982. 

First on the agenda was to record and release the 'Four Cuts' EP, which contained two early era songs, 'Shoot Out The Lights' and 'Dead Reckoning', alongside new songs 'Call Me' and 'Trick Or Treat'. Their first MCA album 'Borrowed Time', housed in a lavish Rodney Matthews-illustrated gatefold sleeve based on the album's Elric theme, was commercially successful, climbing to No 24 in the UK Albums Chart, and it enabled the band to perform a full-scale UK tour at premier venues such as London's Hammersmith Odeon. Once the two-week UK tour was over, they were told to start writing the next album, and they tried a more experimental sounding follow-up, tentatively titled 'Making Music', and which was later re-named 'Canterbury' in 1983. Using top engineer Mike Shipley at an expensive London studio put immense pressure on the band, and Scott struggled to adapt to this new level of scrutiny and was fired, after completing just six drum tracks in three weeks. Then once all the bass parts had been recorded, Kimberley also quit, leaving just Harris and Tatler to complete the recording, and resulting in Tatler almost having a nervous breakdown. The initial success of the album was stalled as the first 20,000 copies suffered vinyl pressing problems, causing the LP to jump, but it still made number 32 in the UK Albums Chart, although it sold less than their debut, possibly because the sound was so different to 'Borrowed Time', and fan were somewhat confused by it. The band were invited to open that year's Monsters of Rock Festival, and toured Europe as special guests of Black Sabbath, but in early 1984 they were dropped by MCA records, and after an 18-date UK tour which lost money they put the band on hold. Harris and Tatler still continued to write together, and in October/November, they re-convened in a purpose-built studio in Stambermill, West Midlands, to record their next album, but it was never finished, and the band fell apart in early 1985. Diamond Head were one of the better exponents of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, but just didn't seem to have the luck of Judas Priest or Iron Maiden, although 'Borrowed Time' is rightly considered a classic of the genre. This post brings together their singles and EP's which led up to that record, excluding the songs which were later re-recorded for it, and including a handful of demos for their second album. It's a great collection of heavy metal from one of the best bands of the period. 

Track listing

01 Shoot Out The Lights (single 1980)
02 Streets Of Gold (b-side of 'Sweet & Innocent' 1980)
03 Waited Too Long (single 1981)
04 Play It Loud (b-side of 'Waited Too Long')
05 Diamond Lights (from the 'Diamond Lights' EP 1981)
06 We Won't Be Back (from the 'Diamond Lights' EP 1981)
07 I Don't Got (from the 'Diamond Lights' EP 1981)
08 Dead Reckoning (from the 'Four Cuts' EP 1982)
09 Trick Or Treat (from the 'Four Cuts' EP 1982)
10 Can't Take No More (demo 1983)
11 Time's On My Side (demo 1983)
12 Come To Hear You Play (demo 1983)

Even As We Speak - Falling Down (1993)

Even As We Speak were formed in Sydney, Australia in the mid-1980's by founding members Matthew Love (guitar, banjo, vocals) and Mary Wyer (vocals, guitar), who were later joined by Rob Irwin (bass) Anita Rayner (drums, banjo, mandolin), Paul Clarke (guitar, vocals) and Julian Knowles (keyboards, guitar, production). After a series of vinyl releases on Australian independent labels including Phantom Records, and success on the Australian indie scene, they came to the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel who started to play the band's Phantom Records single 'Goes So Slow' on his show. This brought them to the attention of UK audiences and began a relationship with UK indie label Sarah Records, releasing several singles and the superb 'Feral Pop Frenzy' album on the label. Between 1992 and 1993 the group recorded three sessions for John Peel and one session for Mark Goodier for BBC Radio 1, and were one of the few Australian bands to record Peel Sessions, alongside The Birthday Party, The Triffids, The Go-Betweens and Laughing Clowns, and all of the recordings were released as the album 'Yellow Food: The Peel Sessions' in June 2014. After the release of their sole album the band broke up, and Wyer formed a pop rock band, Her Name in Lights, which issued their debut album 'Into The Light Again' in October 2004. In 2016, the band reformed (minus Paul Clarke) to play NYC Popfest and added some further shows to mark the release of 'Yellow Food: The Peel Sessions'. This led to the band recording and releasing a 5 track EP of new material, 'The Black Forest', on 10" vinyl and CD through Emotional Response Records in the US in September 2017, and they followed this three years later with their second album 'Adelphi', which was released 24 July 2020 on Shelflife Records. Before they signed to Sarah Records, the band had released a significant amount of material on Australian indie labels, and few of these songs appeared on that debut album, so this post collects them together so that every non-album track is now all in one place.   

Track listing

01 Looking Over Your Shoulder (from the 'Small Fish In A Big Machine' EP 1986)
02 By The Side Of The Road (from the 'Small Fish In A Big Machine' EP 1986)
03 I Can Do Without (from the 'Small Fish In A Big Machine' EP 1986)
04 Falling Down (from the 'Small Fish In A Big Machine' EP 1986)
05 Blue Suburban Skies (single 1987)
06 Bizarre Love Triangle (b-side of 'Blue Suburban Skies')
07 I Won't Have To Think About You (single 1987)
08 Single To Central (b-side of 'I Won't Have To Think About You')
09 Galveston (b-side of 'I Won't Have To Think About You')
10 Goes So Slow (single 1989)
11 Nothing Ever Happens (b-side of 'Goes So Slow')
12 A Stranger Calls (b-side of 'Goes So Slow')
13 100 (from 'Outgrown This Town' 12" 1990)
14 Pleasure Circles (from 'Outgrown This Town' 12" 1990)
15 Brain (from 'Outgrown This Town' 12" 1990)
16 Outgrown This Town (from 'Outgrown This Town' 12" 1990)
17 Must Be Something Else (from the 'One Step Forward' EP 1991)
18 Best Kept Secret (from the 'One Step Forward' EP 1991)
19 Nothing Much At All (b-side of 'Beautiful Day' 1991)
20 Blue Eyes Deceiving Me (from the 'Blue Eyes Deceiving Me' EP 1993)
21 (All You Find Is) Air (from the 'Blue Eyes Deceiving Me' EP 1993)
22 Getting Faster (from the 'Blue Eyes Deceiving Me' EP 1993)

Mega update

It looks like most people get on pretty well with Mega, so I've uploaded all the files from April this year to date, and just about used up the 20GB of free space. It does seem that despite Yandex saying that my files will remain active until 27th January, it's not letting people download them, so this should tide you over. I'll purchase some extra storage and carry on uploading to Mega, and the plan was that when I've stored 50GB with them, I'll then delete 43GB of files from Yandex and that will take me below my limit, and the archived files will become downloadable again. However, as the Yandex files cannot currently be downloaded then there's no point in putting that off so I've deleted the files and so the Archive is now available again on Yandex. There might be a few files missing, as the dates seemed a bit odd in December 2021, but let me know if it's not there and I can add it back in. I don't know how long that subscription lasts for, so I will eventually have to move them all to Mega, but that's going to take a very long time, so I hope it lasts until I've finished. 

Soulseekers can carry on as if nothing has happened. 

For now, it seems like we have a solution, so let me know how it all goes. 

For anyone new to the site, there is a downloadable file under the disclaimer on the right that says NO MUSIC IS STORED ON THIS SITE, and links to all the albums are in there.

The achive is back with it's own Yandex file. 

pj

The Rolling Stones - Gathered Up Moss Vol. 1 (1969)

As a special Christmas treat we have a guest post from fellow blogger Auran, who decided that she wanted to put together a series of albums which collected up every non-UK album track that The Rolling Stones released between 1963 and 2020, and this near-comprehensive compilation of every studio recording the band released outside of their core UK album catalogue is sourced from singles, US albums, bonus tracks on live albums and compilations, and some bootlegs. The band have had many, many compilations released over the years, but because of things like label issues, or the fact that they wanted to concentrate on just the hits, a comprehensive overview of their non-album songs has never been done, and The Rolling Stones are in a not dissimilar situation to The Beatles in regards to the sheer amount of non-album singles and alternate cuts they released throughout their career. However, unlike The Beatles, there isn't any compilation that compiles them all together, so Auran took it upon herself to aggregate something and come up with a title and cover for it, and what she came up with was a two volume series that she called 'Gathered Up Moss'. The first volume covers the 60's, and the second volume the 70s' onwards (which is much less voluminous than the 60's on the front of non-album cuts, but there's still enough to fill up two discs). For that one she did omit tracks from super deluxe editions of albums that have been coming out lately, but that's mostly due to personal preferences, and it still left plenty to be going on with. 
One thing to note is that tracks from the 1964 self-titled EP and the 'Five By Five' EP have not been included, as they stand just fine on their own, and are worth being a part of any hardcore Stones fan's collection as more than just part of a compilation like this. The files that Auran sent included a third volume of 60's tracks, which repeated those of the second volume but in stereo or with alternate takes. Unless you're listening intently on headphones I don't think the casual listener will notice much difference, and so to avoid duplication I'm just including the mono versions, as to be honest, the Stones in the 60's will always be mono to me. If anyone is interested in hearing the third volume then I can always post it later, after Vol. 2.
On a personal note, there are tracks on here that even I had never heard before, especially early b-sides, and so I think even the most avid Stones fan will appreciate the work that Auran has put into these collections. 

Track listing

Gathered Up Moss Vol. I: Disc I 1963 - 1965

01 Come On (single 1963)
02 I Want To Be Loved (b-side of 'Come On')
03 I Wanna Be Your Man (single 1963)
04 Stoned (b-side of 'I Wanna Be Your Man')
05 Fortune Teller (from Decca Records "Saturday Club" compilation)
06 Poison Ivy (from Decca Records "Saturday Club" compilation)
07 Not Fade Away (single 1964)
08 It's All Over Now (single 1964)
09 Good Times, Bad Times (b-side of 'It's All Over Now')
10 Time Is On My Side (US single 1964)
11 Congratulations (b-side of 'Time Is on My Side')
12 Little Red Rooster (single 1964)
13 Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (from US album 'The Rolling Stones, Now!' 1965)
14 Surprise, Surprise (from US album 'The Rolling Stones, Now!' 1965)
15 The Last Time (single 1965)
16 Play With Fire (b-side of 'The Last Time')
17 I've Been Loving You Too Long (from 'Got Live If You Want It!' with crowd overdubs 1966)

18 The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man (extended version from early copies 

                                                                               of the UK 'Out Of Our Heads' album 1965)
19 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (single 1965)
20. The Spider And The Fly (b-side of '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction')
21 One More Try (from US album 'Out of Our Heads' 1965)
22 Get Off Of My Cloud (single 1965)
23 The Singer Not the Song (b-side of 'Get Off Of My Cloud')
24 Look What You've Done (from US album 'December's Children (and Everybody's)' 1965)
25 As Tears Go By (from US album 'December's Children (and Everybody's)' 1965)
26 Blue Turns To Grey (from US album "December's Children (and Everybody's)' 1965)

Gathered Up Moss Vol. I: Disc II 1966 - 1969
01 19th Nervous Breakdown (single 1966)
02 Sad Day (b-side of '19th Nervous Breakdown')
03 Con le Mie Lacrime (Italian version of 'As Tears Go By' 1966)
04 Paint It Black (single 1966)
05 Long, Long While (b-side of 'Paint It Black')
06 Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow? (single 1966)
07 Who's Driving Your Plane? (b-side of 'Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby....')

08 Let's Spend The Night Together (single 1967)
09 Ruby Tuesday (b-side of 'Let's Spend The Night Together')
10 Out Of Time (from US compilation 'Flowers' 1967)
11 My Girl (from US compilation 'Flowers' 1967)
12 Ride On, Baby (from US compilation 'Flowers' 1967)
13 Sittin' On A Fence (from US compilation 'Flowers' 1967)
14 We Love You (single 1967)
15 Dandelion (b-side of 'We Love You')
16 Jumpin' Jack Flash (single 1968)
17 Child Of The Moon (b-side of 'Jumpin' Jack Flash')
18 Street Fighting Man (single 1968)
19 Honky Tonk Women (single 1969)
20 You Can't Always Get What You Want (b-side of 'Honky Tonk Women')

If you're a fan of the Canterbury scene of the 70's then check out Auran's blog The Soft Machine Rigmarole

Yandex update 2

So Turbobit doesn't seem to be very popular, but then I haven't used the free version for years so don't know how bad it is. I've had a look through the other file-hosting services, and despite the fact that they banned me from their site a few years ago, I think Mega is worth a shot. I use the free version a lot and never have any issues, so I've uploaded the last two dozen posts as a test so see how you all get on with it. I'll give it a week or so to see what comments I get, and if it seems to be working then I'll upload some more posts over the next few weeks, and I might even try to upload everything in time, as their annual subscription seems fairly reasonable. Yandex have told me that my files will stay available for another month, although people seem to be having issues downloading already, so not exactly sure what's happening there. Let me know what you think of Mega, and I hope they don't look too closely at the files and try to ban me again. 

pj

 

Dr. Dre & Ice Cube - Helter Skelter (1995)

After his acrimonious and very public departure from NWA, the possibility of Ice Cube ever re-entering the same circles as other members of 'The World’s Most Dangerous Group' felt like a pipe dream. Slighted by the "Benedict Arnold" moniker that they’d given him after he left the group, the release of his infamous 'No Vaseline' diss drove a wedge that seemed as though it could never be healed. However, Dr. Dre's decision to follow his former friend's lead and depart from Jerry Heller's Ruthless Records would help repair the rift between the two, and as he was now at the forefront of his own G-funk-tinged musical revolution at Suge Knight's Death Row Records, he then reached out to Ice Cube to make a hilarious cameo in the iconic video for The Chronic's 'Let Me Ride', and this led to speculation over the status of both Dre and Cube's personal and professional relationship. When Snoop Doggy Dogg's 'Doggystyle' album was released it seemed that a collaboration was on the cards, as when listeners flipped over to the back of the album they found a list of records 'soon to be released on Death Row', including one titled 'Dr Dre/Ice Cube "Helter Skelter"'. 

In 1994 Dre and Cube started to tease fans about their collaboration, even selling T-Shirts hyping the album up. One track did appear, with 'Natural Born KIllaz' featuring on the soundtrack to Snoop Dogg's short film 'Murder Was The Case', but the deadline of summer 1995 came and went without another hint of new music from the duo. On account of Dre's well-publicized perfectionism, this didn't necessarily dash hopes that the record would ever see the light of day, but this delay did open up the door for someone else to take over the concept. While he was with Death Row Records, the The D.O.C. would often ghost-write lyrics for Dr. Dre, but he always felt that his contributions were treated dismissively, and so when he left Death Row he decided to release his own album using the title 'Helter Skelter', and featuring a lot of the lyrics that he'd written for the Dre/Cube collaboration. Although his vocals had been irrevocably damaged in a car accident in the years since his landmark debut album 'No One Can Do It Better', he still decided to go ahead with the album, as for him it was never about bringing his own vision to life, but it was more important to take Dre's idea from under him, admitting to longtime collaborator Erotic D that he simply wanted to name the record before Dre could release his own version of it. 

This could have been the final straw for the Dre/Cube version, which has never seen the light of day, and is seldom, if ever, mentioned any more by either party. Some scattered fragments of it do remain out there, with 'My Life' first surfacing online in the early 2000's, and while Cube doesn't appear on the track in its present form, fans believe that it was earmarked for their joint effort. It's also been said that the instrumental used on 'Can't C Me' from Tupac's seminal 'All Eyez On Me' was initially allocated for 'Helter Skelter', while the sinister tones used in Scarface's 'Game Over', (featuring Dre, Cube, and Too $hort), were first laid down during the sessions for the shelved album. Ice Cube has his own theory of why 'Helter Skelter' stalled, and he lays the blame at the door of Eminem and 50 Cent, who he felt took up too much of Dre's time when they joined Interscope, and by the time those artists had become established on the label, they'd missed the boat on their collaboration. However, fans who really wanted to hear the album have gone to great lengths to piece it together, and one of the very best efforts is by Nas The Judge on Youtube, who has taken the tracks where we know they collaborated, plus some where they are both present, and remixed others, to produce perhaps the closest that we'll ever get to hearing the original 'Helter Skelter'. There's only one poor quality scan of the cover online, so I've done my best to improve it, and we can now all hear an album that we really do wish existed.    

Track listing

01 Intro
02 Die Mutha Fucka Die (Dr. Dre)
03 Chin Check (NWA)
04 Started This (Dr. Dre/Ice Cube)
05 Natural Born Killaz (Dr. Dre/Ice Cube)
06 Game Over (Dr. Dre/Ice Cube/Scarface)
07 My Life (Smoke Weed 4 Hours) (Dr. Dre/Ice Cube - NTJ remix)
08 California Love (Dr. Dre/Ice Cube - NTJ remix)
09 Can't C Me (Dr. Dre/Ice Cube feat. G Clinton - NTJ remix)
10 Better Recognize (Dr. Dre/Ice Cube - NTJ remix)

Five Thirty - Air Conditioned Nightmare (1991)

Tara Milton and Nick Baker formed Five Thirty whilst still at school near Oxford in 1983, and after recruiting drummer Steve Beatty they played their first official gig in May 1984. Baker decided to leave the band in March 1985, and 21 year-old American replacement Shawn Gwin (formerly of the bands East Cambodia and The Numbers in New Orleans) was spotted advertising his services in the then popular weekly Phoenix List. They quickly recorded demos of Gwin's songs 'Weight Of The World', 'Catcher In The Rye', 'Mood Suite' and 'Suburban Town' before Gwin left to return to New Orleans, and the band released their demos as a 12" vinyl single titled 'Catcher In The Rye' in 1985. Paul Bassett took over on guitar and vocals after Gwin left,and then the original drummer Steve Beatty was replaced by Keith McCubbin and finally Phil Hopper. This line-up (Milton/Bassett/Hopper) then signed to Atco/East West Records in 1990 and released four singles and their only album 'Bed' in 1991. The group disbanded in 1992, but left behind a considerable body of work which was released in 1990 and 1991, including a cover version of 'My Sweet Lord' for the anti-poll tax album 'Alvin Lives (in Leeds)'. I've always had a soft spot for their decision to go down the indie/psyche/rock route at the height of BritPop, and the fact that they recorded so much material which was given away as b-sides to their singles. I'll be the first to admit that the first four tracks are not really representative of the band's sound, and so even though they are not as well-known as some other bands of the period, do give them a try, and if you like what you hear then do get the 'Bed' album, as it's even better.  

Track listing

01 Weight Of The World (b-side of 'Catcher In The Rye' 12" single 1985)
02 Catcher In The Rye (12" single 1985)
03 Mood Suite (b-side of 'Catcher In The Rye' 12" single 1985)
04 Suburban Town (b-side of 'Catcher In The Rye' 12" single 1985)
05 Air Conditioned Nightmare (single 1990)
06 Judy Jones (b-side of 'Air Conditioned Nightmare' 12" single)
07 The Things That Turn You On (b-side of 'Air Conditioned Nightmare' 12" single)
08 Mistress Daydream (b-side of 'Air Conditioned Nightmare' 12" single)
09 Coming Up For Air (b-side of 'Abstain!' 12" single 1990)
10 My Sweet Lord (from the 'Alvin Lives (In Leeds)' anti-poll tax album 1990)
11 Hate Male (b-side of '13th Disciple' 12" single 1991)
12 Out To Get In (b-side of '13th Disciple' 12" single 1991)
13 Come Together (b-side of '13th Disciple' 12" single 1991)
14 Something's Got To Give (b-side of 'Supernova' 12" single 1991)
15 Still Life (b-side of 'Supernova' 12" single 1991)  
16 Cuddly Drug (b-side of 'You' EP 1991)
17 Slow Train Into The Ocean (b-side of 'You' EP 1991)     

Brandy - Honey (2006)

Returning from her foray into reality television, Brandy's fourth album 'Afrodisiac' was released in June 2004, amid the well-publicized termination of her short-lived business relationship with entertainment manager Benny Medina. She ended her contract with his Los Angeles-based Handprint Entertainment after less than a year of representation, following controversies surrounding Medina's handling of the lead single 'Talk About Our Love', and failed negotiations of a purported co-headlining tour with R&B singer Usher. Despite the negative publicity, 'Afrodisiac' became her most critically acclaimed album, with some reviews highlighting the more consistently mature and challenging effect of Timbaland on her music, and favourably comparing her to Janet Jackson. A moderate seller, the album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, and 'Talk About Our Love' reached number six in the United Kingdom single chart, although subsequent singles failed to score as successfully. After eleven years with the company, Brandy asked for and received an unconditional release from Atlantic Records at the end of 2004, citing her wish "to move on" as the main reason for her decision. Completing her contract with the label, a compilation album titled 'The Best Of Brandy' was released in March 2005, and despite little promotion, it reached the top 30 in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, where the collection was appreciated by contemporary critics, who noted the creativity of her back catalogue. Recording sessions commenced for what would be the follow-up to 'Afrodisiac' while negotiations went on for a new recording contract under the auspices of her brother's Knockout Entertainment company. In 2006 she began appearing in a recurring role in the UPN sitcom 'One On One', and in June she was picked as one of the three judges on the first series of 'America's Got Talent', and so her singing career was once again put on hold. It was not until 2008 that she would sign to Epic Records and release the 'Human' album, meaning that the 2006 recordings remained unreleased, so here they are, along with the odd 'Afrodisiac' out-take, for an album that could have appeared in 2006 had her TV career not taken priority.     

Track listing

01 La La Land
02 Nodding Off
03 Honey
04 Ryde Or Die (feat. Posta Boy)
05 Follow Me
06 Maximum Risk
07 Fall Back (feat. DJ Whoo, Lloyd Banks & Fabolous)
08 Lately (What Have You Done For Me?) 
09 So Good
10 Sweet Nothing
11 Doesn't Really Matter

Yandex update

We knew it was coming, but my subscription has finally run out with Yandex, as I can't get any money over to Russia to extend it due to the sanctions in place here. I'm now unable to upload any more files, but I have a back-up, as I have a Turbobit account which runs until April next year, so new files will be uploaded to that. Files can still be downloaded from Yandex until 27 January 2023, but after that all files will be locked. I could delete some of the older uploads to free up some space, and then if anyone wants them they can request in the comments and I can re-upload to Turbobit, so that's a possibility that I'll have to consider in the new year. Hopefully Turbobit will be user-friendly, but let me know it there are any problems with it. 

pj

Have A Blues Christmas 2022

Christmas is looming, so here are some fine bluesy Christmas songs to get you in the mood.

Track listing

01 Christmas Time, Part 1 (Jimmy McCracklin 1966)
02 Merry Christmas, Baby (Charles Brown 1950)
03 Blues For Christmas (John Lee Hooker 1961)
04 I Wanna Spend Christmas With You (Part 2) (Lowell Fulson 1967)
05 Love For Christmas (Felix Gross 1950)
06 Santa (Lightnin' Hopkins 1966)
07 Christmas Tears (Freddy KIng 1961)
08 Christmas Eve Baby (Johnny Moore's Blazers with Johnny Ervin 1955)
09 Christmas Blues (Ralph Willis 1971)
10 Christmas (Chuck Berry 1970)
11 Merry Christmas Darling (Hop Wilson 1961)
12 Hello Santa Claus (Cecil Grant 1950)
13 Sonny Boy's Christmas Blues (Sonny Boy Williamson 1951)
14 Empty Stocking Blues (Floyd Dixon with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers 1950) 
15 Happy New Year (Lightnin' Hopkins 1953)

Soulseek hint   blues 2022