Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Jimmy Webb (1974)

Although 'Sunshower' is considered to be the debut album of Thelma Houston, released in 1969 on Dunhill Records, it could also be classed as a Jimmy Webb album with Thelma Houston as the featured vocalist. It was all written by Webb, apart from a cover of 'Jumpin' Jack Flash', and was also produced and arranged by him, and it charted at number 50 on the Billboard R&B chart. By 1969 Webb had already established himself as one of the best songwriters of the late 60's, with such classic songs as 'By The Time I Get To Phoenix', 'Galveston', 'Wichita Lineman' and 'MacArthur Park' providing massive hits for Glen Campbell and Richard Harris. By 1969 Webb was looking to start a career as a singer/songwriter, but it didn't get off to a very good start when a set of early demo recordings were redubbed and orchestrated by Epic Records without Webb's participation or consent, and released as the 'Jim Webb Sings Jim Webb' album in 1968. None of Webb's hit songs from that period appear on the album, and the sound quality of the recording is distinctly inferior, with Webb later denouncing the release in the strongest terms. He followed this debacle by writing, arranging, and producing Thelma Houston's first album, 'Sunshower', which produced four singles: 'Everybody Gets To Go To The Moon', 'Sunshower', 'If This Was The Last Song' and 'Jumpin' Jack Flash'. The songs were up to his usual high standard, and so it's no surprise that within a year nearly all of them had been covered by other artists, with Frank Sinatra choosing to include his version of 'Didn't We' on his 'My Way' album, released the same year as 'Sunshower'. By 1974 every single Webb song from the album had been added to another artists records, and so here are the best of them, offering an alternate look at Thelma Houston's debut album, without Thelma Houston appearing on it.   

Track listing

01 Sunshower (Affinity 1972)
02 Everybody Gets To Go To The Moon (Judy Singh 1970)
03 To Make It Easier On You (Nancy Wilson 1974)
04 Didn't We (Frank Sinatra 1969)
05 Mixed-Up Girl (Dusty Springfield 1972)
06 Someone Is Standing Outside (The Fortunes 1970)
07 This Is Where I Came In (Richard Harris 1971) 
08 Pocketful Of Keys (Revelation 1970)
09 This Is Your Life (The 5th Dimension 1970)
10 Cheap Lovin' (The Supremes 1972)
11 If This Was The Last Song (Bill Medley 1970)

Protocol - Rules Of Engagement (2006)

Protocol were a British pop group, who were formed in 2005 by John Pritchard on lead vocals, James McMaster on guitar, Steven Oates on bass, David Malik on keyboards/synthesizers, and Dominic Joseph on drums. The five-piece had been honing their craft since meeting four years earlier, and ran their own club night, Vanity, in London. The quickly signed to Polydor records, and released two singles in 2006, 'She Waits For Me' and 'Where's The Pleasure?'. They also toured with New Order, Fisherspooner, The Bravery, and Hard-Fi, and played the Wireless and V Festivals. They recorded their debut album for the label, and promo copies were sent out, but in April 2006 they were dropped from the label and the release of the album was cancelled. Despite this double catastrophe, they continued to tour before splitting up later that year. Joseph went on to DJ and co-produce in Electro Duo Leatherhead, supporting Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers and Pete Tong, but the band's work on their long-playing debut has remained largely unheard, so here is what would have been Protocol's first album. 

Track listing

01 Love Is My Drug
02 She Waits For Me
03 Burning Up
04 Where's The Pleasure
05 Needed
06 Those Things I Do
07 We Both Hurt The Same
08 Don't Make Me Jealous
09 Headaches & Heartbreaks
10 Cover Over You
11 Beautiful Girlfriend
12 Deborah
13 Hot Under The Collar
14 Sorry

Puressence - Think Of The Times (2008)

James Mudriczki, Neil McDonald, Anthony Szuminski and Kevin Matthews met on a bus on their way to watch The Stone Roses play at Spike Island, and after watching The Stone Roses' Gary Mounfield play bass, Matthews bought himself a bass guitar. The rest of the members followed suit and bought the necessary equipment to form a band, although they had little to no musical experience or training, with only McDonald having played the guitar for a number of years, being heavily influenced by Eddie Van Halen. The other members soon caught up, and they decided on the name Puressence, a name which was soon well known around Manchester following paper letters spelling the band's name being plastered around Manchester city centre, on derelict buildings, and on bridges. They quickly signed to 2 Damn Loud Records, who released two singles, the 'Petrol Skin' EP in 1992 and 'Offshore' in 1993, and this brought them to the attention of Rough Trade, who included their 'Scapa Flow'/'Siamese' single in their 7" Singles Club series. Over the next few years they played a series of gigs at Manchester's In The City festival, and their big breakthrough came a couple of years later, when they signed to Island Records in 1995. Their first single for the new label was the U2-inspired 'I Suppose', and their self-titled debut album appeared the following year, drawing favorable comparisons to Radiohead's work on 'The Bends'. Despite this positive reaction, it seemed that the U.K. record-buying public preferred hometown giants Oasis' '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?', and sales were disappointing. With its lighter, pop focused sound, 1998's 'Only Forever' yielded the band's first U.K. top 40 single, with the Who-inspired 'This Feeling', and following that year's acquisition of Island by Universal, the label continued to show faith in Puressence, eventually releasing the ambitious 'Planet Helpless' in October 2002, despite many other similar acts being stripped from their roster. However, 2003 saw the band part company with the label and their manager, as well as with McDonald, who went on to form the Editors-influenced local act Juno Ashes, and a fan of the band, Lowell Killen, was brought in to replace him on guitar. 

The next few years saw only sporadic live appearances from the group, and rumours that they had split were starting to surface when they returned with the 'Pallisades' single on Manchester's Reaction Records in 2006, followed by the 'Don't Forget To Remember' album in September 2007. Recorded at Manchester's Revolution Studios, the album failed to take root on home soil, but helped to spread the word further afield, and the accompanying tour took in their first U.S. dates, and built on the earlier success of 'Planet Helpless' in Greece, where the album placed them back into the Top Ten of the Greek album charts. The retrospective 'Sharpen Up The Knives' arrived in October 2009, prior to the band's biggest ever U.K. headlining gig in front of 3,500 fans at the Manchester Apollo. In October 2010 the band's website announced details of a new album, 'Solid State Recital', which was released on 21 April 2011, but a couple years later, in November 2013, Puressence announced that they had split up. In November 2023, 10 years after their split, the band announced on their Facebook page that their first concert in 11 years will take place in their hometown of Manchester, and they played the Albert Hall last Saturday, 29 June, so now is the perfect time to remember one of the many under-appreciated bands from the early 90's who didn't fit into the Brit-pop obsession of the time, and so didn't achieve the success that they deserved. Over their career they gifted many non-albums songs to their fans on the b-sides of their singles, and so this three disc set collects them all together, along with those rare early singles, for a reminder of what an under-rated band they were.  

Track listing

Disc I: 1992-1995
01 Telekinesis (from the 'Petrol Skin' EP 1992)
02 Suck The Knife (from the 'Petrol Skin' EP 1992)
03 Polystyrene Snow (from the 'Petrol Skin' EP 1992)
04 Petrol Skin (from the 'Petrol Skin' EP 1992)
05 Siamese (Rough Trade Singles Club 7" 1992)
06 Scapa Flow (b-side of 'Siamese')
07 Offshore (single 1993)
08 None Handed (demo) (b-side of 'Offshore')
09 Mist (b-side of 'Offshore')
10 Let It All Go (b-side of 'I Suppose' 1995)
11 Free Fall (b-side of 'I Suppose' 1995)

Disc II: 1995-1998
01 Allstar (b-side of 'Fire' 1995)
02 Gutter Girl (b-side of 'India' 1996)
03 Let Down (b-side of 'India' 1996)
04 A Different Sand (b-side of 'Traffic Jam In Memory Lane' 1996)
05 Sick Of Waiting (b-side of 'Traffic Jam In Memory Lane' 1996)
06 Half The Way You Were (b-side of 'Casting Lazy Shadows' 1996)
07 Fifteen Years (b-side of 'Casting Lazy Shadows' 1996)
08 Think Of The Times (b-side of 'This Feeling' 1998)
09 Walk On By (b-side of 'This Feeling' 1998)
10 Northern Framing Company (b-side of 'This Feeling' 1998)
11 London In The Rain (b-side of 'This Feeling' 1998)
12 Along The Sure (b-side of 'All I Want' 1998)

Disc III: 1998-2008
01 Another Day Another Night (b-side of 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' 1998)
02 Take A Ride (b-side of 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' 1998)
03 The Drone (b-side of 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' 1998)
04 Deathtrap (b-side of 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' 1998)
05 Moss Side Lonely (b-side of 'Walking Dead' 2002)
06 Only Holy Maybe (b-side of 'Walking Dead' 2002)
07 Emotion (b-side of 'Walking Dead' 2002)
08 Where There's A Will There's No Way (b-side of 'Drop Down To Earth' 2007)
09 Eyes Are Streaming (b-side of 'Drop Down To Earth' 2007)
10 April In July (b-side of 'Drop Down To Earth' 2007)
11 3rd Degree (b-side of 'Drop Down To Earth' 2007)
12 Sold Unseen (b-side of 'Don't Know Any Better' 2008)
13 Bright Eyes (b-side of 'Don't Know Any Better' 2008)
14 You've Already Said Goodbye (b-side of 'Don't Know Any Better' 2008)

Thanks to jman for the suggestion.

Ciara - One Woman Army (2012)

Following the release of the truncated 'Fantasy Ride' album in 2009, Ciara bagged the support spot for Britney Spears's Circus tour, where she performed eight nights at London's prestigious O2 Arena during June 2009. Her performance received rave reviews from critics and fans alike, who noted her dancing skills as being spectacular, and arguably better than Spears'. After a couple of collaborations in 2010, on Nelly's single 'Stepped On My J'z', Enrique Iglesias' 'Takin' Back My Love', and 'How Long' by Ludacris, she released her fourth studio album, 'Basic Instinct', on 14 December 2010. It was executive-produced by the singer, alongside her A&R agent Mark Pitts and writing/production duo Tricky Stewart and The-Dream. and debuted at number forty-four on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, becoming her first album to not peak within the top three. Three singles were released from the record, but neither 'Ride', 'Speechless', nor 'Gimmie Dat' managed to break the Billboard Top 40. In February 2011, following rumours that Ciara had been dropped by Jive Records, she released an official statement to her Facebook page complaining of inadequate promotion and funding from the label, and after asking to be released from her contract, she was removed from the Jive Records website roster in May 2011. 

Two months later she'd reunited with L.A. Reid by signing with his record label Epic Records, and work began on her fifth album. During a press conference with MTV in May 2012, she announced her fifth studio album would be titled 'One Woman Army' and said the lead single, 'Sweat', would be out very soon. The single premiered online on 4 June 2012, but just before it was due to be released via iTunes it was scrapped, for unknown reasons. By August, the official lead single for the album had changed to 'Sorry', which was released in September, and just scraped into the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Top 40. 'Got Me Good' was released as the second single from the album, but nothing more was heard about it until April 2013, when it was announced that it would no longer be called 'One Woman Army', and that the new title was 'Ciara'. Due to their low performance on the charts, the label decided not to include 'Sweat', 'Sorry', or 'Got Me Good' on the tracklist, and with these changes it became a completely different record to the one announced in 2012. 'Ciara' was released in July 2013, and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 59,000 copies in the U.S. Many of the songs which were recorded for 'One Man Army' and which were left off 'Ciara' have since surfaced, and so we can add them to those three abandoned singles and come up with a pretty good alternate fifth album for the signer, so here is the scrapped 'One Woman Army' from 2012. 

Track listing 

 
01 One Woman Army Intro
02 Wake Up, Turn Up (feat. Future)
03 Sweat (feat. 2 Chainz)
04 Got Me Good 
05 Sorry
06 Boy Outta Here (feat. Rick Ross)
07 Backseat Love
08 One Night With You
09 Livin' It Up
10 Overdose
11 One Woman Army
12 Sorry (Part 2) (feat. Future)

Kanye West - Good Ass Job (2008)

In 2003, before 'The College Dropout' had even been released, Kanye West announced his intention to release a series of four albums as part of a tetralogy. These albums were to be thematically linked, reflecting West's journey through the stages of higher education and his subsequent experiences in the music industry. The first three albums in this series, 'The College Dropout', 'Late Registration', and 'Graduation', were released to critical acclaim and commercial success, featuring West's signature blend of soulful samples, thought-provoking lyrics, and innovative production techniques. 'Good Ass Job' was intended to serve as the culmination of West's tetralogy, exploring his growth and development following his metaphorical graduation from the music industry. However, just two months after 'Graduation' was released, his mother, Donda West, passed away in November 2007, due to complications following plastic surgery. West was devastated by the loss of his mother, and to make matters worse, in the spring of 2008, he broke up with his former fiancée, Alexis Phifer, leading to a bout of depression, which coupled with his struggle of adapting to new-found fame, caused him to scrap the concept of 'Good Ass Job' entirely. Instead he worked on a completely different sound, and in November 2008 he released '808s & Heartbreak', after which he began working on new material for his then-upcoming fifth studio album. 

He worked on the record throughout most of 2009, but things took a drastic turn on 13 September, when West walked on stage during Taylor Swift's acceptance of her Best Female Video award at the MTV Video Music Awards, took the microphone from her, and stated that Beyoncé had "one of the best videos of all time". As the crowd booed he handed the microphone back to Swift, shrugged, and walked off. The backlash was immediate and all-encompassing, both from the public, as well as several celebrities, including then-U.S. president Barack Obama, who called Kanye a "jackass". West apologized to Swift on his blog, but the damage had been done and he fell into another deep depression due to the overwhelming hate. After the incident, he decided to take a break from making music altogether and ventured into fashion, but before long he had holed himself up in Honolulu, Hawaii to make new music. He invited several artists to his studio, where they were forced to wear black suits, and to obey a list of rules on the wall, nicknamed the "Kanye Commandments", which set the mood for the upcoming album. In July 2010, West announced on Twitter that the album would no longer be called 'Good Ass Job', and instead it would be titled 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'. That spelled the end for the final record of his tetralogy, resulting in yet another one of his legendary unreleased albums. There are a number of track listings around for it, but most of them use the majority of the tracks that I've included on this post, including the Billy Joel-sampling 'Mama's Boyfriend', and they hang together pretty well, so I'm happy that this is as good a version as any for this particular lost album in the West canon. 

Track listing

01 Shoot Up
02 Hard Horn Nightmare
03 Ghetto University
04 Down Town
05 That's My Bitch
06 Throw Money Everywhere 
07 Hell Of A Life
08 Heartbreaker
09 Mama's Boyfriend
10 Eyes Closed
11 It'll Be Alright
12 Never See Me Again

Jessica Andrews - How Much I Love You (2008)

As I mentioned in my first post from Jessica Andrews, she was unlucky enough to have two albums cancelled when her record labels closed before they could be released, and so here is the second of them, which should have come out on Carolwood Records in 2008. I've had to omit the track 'Settle Down' as the sound quality was completely unlistenable, but it's still a nice 43-minute album so it's not really missed.   

Track listing

01 How Much I Love You   
02 Behind  
03 I Would  
04 Afraid Of My Freedom  
05 What The Whiskey Said  
06 The Clown  
07 Love 
08 Slow And Steady Burn 
09 Fall Like The Rain 
10 Now Or Neverland (with Dave Pahanish) 
11 Did I Make You This Way  
12 Good Time

Phixx - Electrophonic Revolution (2004)

Phixx were an English-Irish boy band formed in 2003 from the five runners=up on British TV show 'Popstars: The Rivals', made up of Andrew Kinlochan, Chris Park, Mikey Green, Peter Smith, and Nikk Mager. In February 2003 they signed to Hyperactive Management, who had previously been successful with Liberty X, and in October they released their first single, 'Hold On Me', on the Concept Records label, which charted at number 10 in the UK. March 2004 saw the release of their second single, 'Love Revolution', which was followed in June by a cover of Duran Duran's 'Wild Boys'. During the release week, one version of the single was disqualified from the chart for being a few seconds too long, so the single dropped from the midweek chart position of 9 to number 23, but an appeal was made to the chart regulators and both versions were eventually counted, giving a final position of number 12. Just after the release of 'Wild Boys', Peter Smith announced he was leaving to pursue a solo career, and to give him more time to write music. In autumn 2004, Phixx toured South Africa, where they were already popular, and they released their debut album, 'Electrophonic Revolution', becoming the best-selling album for their South African record company Sheer Music. In December 2004 the band recorded a Christmas song written by Matt Baker for the children's show Blue Peter, and it was made available as a free download from the Blue Peter website in the weeks leading up to Christmas, but it was never released for sale. In January 2005 they released the Judie Tzuke-penned 'Strange Love' as their fourth UK single, but in May Nikk Mager also left the band. They continued to perform around England and Ireland as a three piece, and spent six months in the recording studio, writing and recording new material, but in November 2005, Chris Park announced that the remaining members of Phixx would be breaking up for good in 2006, in order to work on their own solo projects. Because of this their album never received a world-wide release following its success in South Africa, and so the majority of their fans never got to hear it. For anyone with fond memories of Phixx, here is their debut album from 2004, with the addition of three bonus tracks.  

Track listing

01 Hold On Me
02 Love Revolution
03 Wild Boys
04 Strange Love
05 Original Sin
06 Superstar
07 Judgement Day
08 Red Light
09 Relentless
10 Voyeur
11 Temptation
12 Let's Go All The Way
13 City Of Night
14 When I Fall
15 Don't Walk Out
16 Creepin'
17 Synchronised
18 Eyes Wide Open

...and on guitar - The Book (2023) **UPDATE**

Thanks to the recent visitor who pointed out to me that I'd spelled Steve Lukather's name wrong throughout his '...and on guitar' post, and I was surprised that it hadn't been spotted before. The post was easy enough to fix, but then I realised that I should really update the book that I put together from the posts, and that was a bit more tricky. When I opened up my original Word file I found that the cover for the Robbie Blunt post was corrupt, and all the covers after that entry were blank. I though that someone would have mentioned that when I first posted it, so I can only assume that somehow the picture became corrupt after I'd made the post, but it had also affected the pdf, which I don't understand. Anyway, I've managed to re-do the whole thing, and I've double-checked and all the pictures are now there. If you got a dodgy copy when you first downloaded it, or just want the updated version, then try it now. 

pj  

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Barry Mann (1975)

Barry Imberman (aka Barry Mann) was born on 9 February 1939, and is best know for his song-writing partnership with his wife Cynthia Weil. His first successful song as a writer was 'She Say (Oom Dooby Doom)', a Top 20 chart-scoring song composed for the band The Diamonds in 1959, which was co-written with Mike Anthony. In 1961, Mann had his greatest success to that point with 'I Love How You Love Me', written with Larry Kolber, and scoring a number 5 hit for the band The Paris Sisters , and the same year Mann himself reached the Top 40 as a performer with a novelty song co-written with Gerry Goffin, 'Who Put The Bomp', which parodied the nonsense words of the then-popular doo-wop genre. Despite his success as a singer, Mann chose to channel his creativity into song-writing, forming a prolific partnership with Cynthia Weil, a lyricist he met while both were staff songwriters at Aldon Music, whose offices were located in Manhattan, near the composing-and-publishing factory the Brill Building. In the late 1960s, Mann and Weil left Aldon Music to head for Hollywood, where they continued to rack up the hits, working with Larry Kolber on Bobby Vinton's version of his earlier hit 'I Love How You Love Me' in 1968, and following up with Jay and the Americans' 'Walking in The Rain' in 1969, and B. J. Thomas's 'I Just Can't Help Believing' in 1970. Meanwhile, in addition to his role behind the scenes, Mann occasionally sought the limelight, and in 1971 he released his own album 'Lay It All Out', featuring himself as a singer, but it did not enjoy the success of his and Weil's works for others. As well as new songs it also included his own versions of some of his biggest hits, 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling', 'On Broadway', and 'Something Better'. Unsurprisingly, considering his standing as a songwriter, it wasn't long before all of the songs on the album had received cover versions, even those three afore-mentioned hits. Rather than use the original hit recordings of them, by The Righteous Brothers, The Drifters and Marianne Faithfull, I've chosen contemporary takes of the songs from around the same time as the album, although Bill Medley still gets to sing '...Lovin' Feeling', taken from his 1971 solo album 'A Song For You'. Three extra tracks from the following year round off this collection of songs from Mann's 1971 solo album.    

Track Listing

01 Too Many Mondays (Mary Travers 1973)
02 When You Get Right Down To It (Ronnie Dyson 1971)
03 I Heard You Singing Your Song (The Partridge Family 1973)
04 Holy Rolling (The New Seekers 1972) 
05 You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling (Bill Medley 1971)
06 On Broadway (Eric Carmen 1975)
07 Something Better (Harper's Bizarre 1969)
08 Sweet Ophelia (Wicked Lester 1971) 
09 Don't Give Up On Me (Suzanne 1973)
10 Ain't No Way To Go Home (The Grass Roots 1973)  
11 Rock And Roll Lullaby (B.J. Thomas 1972)
12 So Long Dixie (Blood, Sweat And Tears 1972)
13 The Last Blues Song (Helen Reddy 1972)

The Departure - Inventions (2008)

The Departure was an English rock band from Northampton and were formed in January 2004, after starting as a collaboration between a former Christian commune member David Jones (vocals/guitar) and his friend Sam Harvey. After recruiting old school associates Ben Winton (bass) and Lee Irons (guitar), the line-up was completed with the addition of Andy Hobson (drums) via a musician's ad website. They were signed to Parlophone after playing only three gigs, and being together for just four months, a fact that attracted a considerable level of derision and scepticism. Touring slots with The Killers, Feeder, Duran Duran, Placebo, The Tears and a reformed Gang Of Four soon followed, as the band sought to build a support base ahead of their first slew of releases. Debut single 'All Mapped Out' was released on 2 August 2004, debuting at number 30 on the UK singles chart, and it was included on the soundtrack to the 2006 video game 'Driver: Parallel Lines', while follow-up single 'Be My Enemy' emerged on 18 October 2004, and was included on the soundtrack to 'FIFA 06'. They released their debut album 'Dirty Words', later that year, and it was trailed the week before its release by the reissue of the 'All Mapped Out' single, but disappointingly it charted lower than the original. The album drew a middling response from critics, who varied between praising it for its bleak, futuristic atmosphere, and slating it for its perceived superficiality and over-reliance on the music of the 1980's for inspiration. By early 2006, Irons had left the band citing artistic differences, and Hobson followed later that year, being replaced by the original drummer, Simon Alexander. The four-piece began work on the follow-up to 'Dirty Words' in Grouse Lodge Studios, Ireland, and it was given an expected release date of 2007. However, 2007 came and went, and in January 2008 the band announced that they had split up after being dropped by Parlophone. In 2010 Jones formed a new band called NewIslands, who released the single 'Out Of Time', while later in the decade he formed a duo called Born Stranger, but The Departure's second studio album has yet to see the light of day, and so for any fans who fondly remember 'Dirty Words', here is their 'Inventions' album, which should have appeared in 2008. 

Track listing

01 We Will Be The Only Ones
02 7 Years
03 Love Forever
04 Young And Clever
05 Pieces
06 Chemicals
07 Not Alone
08 Lights Go Out
09 Falling
10 Whose Side Are You On

Bo Hansson - Sagan Om Ringen (Lord Of The Rings) (1970)

Bo Hansson is a Swedish musician, most known for his 1972 concept album. 'Music Inspired By Lord Of The Rings, but before that album he had worked as one half of the duo Hansson & Karlsson. The duo were relatively well known in their native Sweden and between 1967 and 1969 they released a series of well received albums, all of which are worth checking out , but by early 1969 Janne Karlsson had embarked upon a successful career as a television presenter and comedian, resulting in the breakup of the duo. At around the same time, Hansson became fascinated with the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, and in particular 'The Lord Of The Rings', after being introduced to the book by a girlfriend. Hansson moved into a friend's apartment and began working on a musical interpretation of the book, and then approached sound engineer and founder of Silence Records, Anders Lind, with the idea of recording an album based on the book. Lind was encouraged by Hansson's demos and agreed to release the album on Silence. However, the fledgling record company could not afford the expensive recording studio time needed to realise the production of the album, and so a small summer house on the remote island of Älgö was converted into a makeshift recording studio, and throughout late 1969, Hansson and Lind worked on the album with the help of a handful of session musicians and friends. They then relocated to Studio Decibel in Stockholm to complete the album in early 1970, with Hansson's original ideas of including a string section and other exotic instruments having to be replaced by primitive electronic keyboards and Moog synthesizers due to lack of finances. 

The album was released in Sweden by Silence Records in December 1970 under the title 'Sagan Om Tingen', and it enjoyed modest commercial success in its native country, leading Hansson to compose additional material based on Tolkien's book. News of the album's success and popularity in Sweden travelled to England and as a result, it was licensed to Tony Stratton Smith's Charisma Records in 1972, although Hansson and Charisma were forced to give the album the augmented title of 'Music Inspired By Lord Of The Rings', at the insistence of Tolkien and his publishers Allen & Unwin. Tolkien's publishers also had a hand in determining the musical content of the album, insisting that it remain completely instrumental, and so the retitled album was released in September 1972, housed in a new cover, and including two extra tracks. It was a huge success in the UK, with the strange other-worldly music and Tolkienesque subject matter proving popular during the early 1970's, a time when interest in Tolkien's writings among college students was at an all-time high. The album peaked at number 34 on the UK Album Chart in November 1972, and is still considered a classic of the progressive rock genre. My only criticism of it is that it was quite a short album, at just over 35 minutes, and so when it was re-issued an extra track was added, which consisted of early demos of the first three tracks, titled 'Early Sketches From Middle Earth'. These were significantly different from the finished versions, and so I thought it would be interesting to use a couple of these slower-paced, alternate takes, (I felt that 'The Old Forest' needed to be the faster version), and also try to extend the three shorter tracks, which resulted in an album just shy of 40 minutes. As I imagine that most people who own this already would probably have the 1972 UK re-issue, I've used the original 1970 album cover, with Hansson's name added for this post, and although it's not massively different from the original, there are enough changes to make it worth at least one listen.  

Track listing

01 Leaving Shire (Första vandringen) 
02 The Old Forest (Tom Bombadil) (Den gamla skogen/Tom Bombadil) 
03 Fog On The Barrow-Downs (I Skuggornas rike)
04 The Black Riders (Flight To The Ford) (De svarta ryttarna/Flykten till vadstället)
05 At the House Of Elrond (The Ring Goes South) (I Elronds hus/Ringen vandrar söderut)
06 A Journey In The Dark (En vandring i mörker)
07 Lothlórien
08 Shadowfax (Skuggfaxe)
09 The Horns Of Rohan (Battle Of The Pelennor Fields) (Rohans horn/Slaget på Pelennors slätter)

10 Dreams In The House Of Healing (Drömmar i Läkandets hus)
11 Homeward Bound (The Scouring Of The Shire) (Hemfärden/Fylke rensas)
12 The Grey Havens (De grå hamnarna)

Ciara - Go Girl (2009)

Ciara Princess Harris was born in Fort Hood, Texas, on 25 October 1985, and attended North Clayton High School before graduating from Riverdale. In her mid-teens she formed the all-girl group Hearsay with two of her friends and recorded some demos, but as time went on they began to have differences and eventually parted ways. She later signed a publishing deal as a songwriter, and her first writing credit was on Blu Cantrell's debut album, 'So Blu', for the song '10,000 Times'. It was when she was writing songs that she met music producer Jazze Pha, whom she called her "music soulmate", and they worked together on writing for her debut album. In early 2004 she recorded a demo with record producer Sean Garrett, which came to the attention of Lil Jon and became her debut single 'Goodies', followed by her debut album of the same name in September 2004. The album debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200, staying there for 71 weeks, and was certified triple platinum by the RIAA in 2006. '1, 2 Step' featuring Missy Elliott was released as the album's second single, reaching the top 10 in many countries, and topping the charts in Canada, and this was followed by 'Oh' featuring Ludacris, as the third single in March 2005. She was an opening act for Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers Tour 2005 and went on tour with Chris Brown and Bow Wow on the Holiday Jam Tour in December 2005, and at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards she received four nominations, including Best New Artist, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for '1, 2 Step', and Best Rap Song for Missy Elliott's single 'Lose Control'. 

In December 2006 Ciara released her second studio album, 'Ciara: The Evolution', becoming her first and only number one album on the U.S. Billboard 200, going on to be certified platinum. Four top ten singles were released from the album, with 'Get Up' also being used in the 2006 film 'Step Up'. In addition to her music, Ciara made her acting debut in the MTV Films production 'All You've Got' in May 2006, playing Becca Whiley, a teenager who is competing in a volleyball tournament. In October 2008 she was honoured as Billboard's "Woman of the Year", because of her success as a recording artist and leadership in embracing the changing the music business. Her third album was originally scheduled for a September 2008 release, but 'Fantasy Ride' was eventually released after several delays in May 2009, combining her R&B and hip hop sound from her previous albums along with a new pop and dance sound. 'Go Girl' was the lead single released from the album, but after it achieved minimal success it was later deemed a promo single, and  'Never Ever' became the official lead single, while 'Love Sex Magic', featuring Justin Timberlake, became a worldwide hit, peaking within the top 10 in 20 countries. During the 'Fantasy Ride' sessions, over thirty songs were considered for the album, as when the concept was originally conceived in 2008 it was considered for a three-disc collection idea, to be led by the T-Pain-produced gem 'Go Girl' as the lead single, but her label decided against the 3-CD idea, as well as further complicating matters by shelving a teaser mixtape/sampler that was intended to hype up anticipation for the album. In the end thirteen tracks were chosen for the final running order of 'Fantasy Ride', but that involved ditching over twenty songs, including the title track and the proposed 'Go Girl' single. Rather than leave them in the vaults, here is a companion album to the original 'Fantasy Ride', and as that title is now taken I've renamed it after that proposed lead single.   

Track listing

01 Fantasy Ride (feat. Claude Kelly) 
02 Click, Flash
03 Blauw (feat. Rodney 'Darkchild' Jerkins)
04 Up & Down 
05 Switch
06 Fit Of Love
07 Tick-Tock (Mr. Mechanic)
08 Go Girl (feat. T-Pain)
09 Cool On You 
10 Secret 
11 Swim 
12 Echo
13 One More Dance 

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (Early Version) (1974)

Time for another guest post from Mike Solof, and this time it's an alternative look at one of both his and my favourite albums of all time.

I've always loved Genesis and all their various group versions (except for the last album without Collins… who the heck is Ray Wilson??) But 'Lamb...' always held a special place in my heart. I recently got a hold of Highland's great compilation of all the different outtakes available from the album, and although it was a cool listen it was repetitive at times, and still missing some cuts. So I decided to go through all the different versions included in their set and try to edit together a complete alternate version made of the best cuts and segments of cuts from all the demo's available. To do this I had to mix together early takes, demo’s, alternate mixes, and the occasional live track here and there to fill in the missing gaps, as I figured the live tracks were the closest I could come to including an "alternate version".  I really liked the way this turned out and made three different versions. The first was just a pretty seamless entire album version. The second was a 5 part segmented version where each "suite" was separated at the parts that didn’t really mix well into the next, usually because the early takes sound very different from the alternate demo mixes of the finished takes. As much as possible I tried to use the early takes over everything else because they are so unique and different. The third and final version I made up was each track presented as an individual track. This was my least favourite version as some tracks had rough beginnings and ending and worked much better when gently mixed into the next track using fade ins and fade outs. Once I had the whole thing edited to my liking… I turned to my friend CaptainAcid for help with remastering this to sound as best it could. It is my first team-up on remastering and I really appreciate all his help. He helped me touch up about 80% of the whole album and those bits and pieces sound magnificent! THANKS CAPTAIN!! Then, after much discussion with pj we decided to go with posting the full, unedited, one track, complete version for... THE FLOW! (It’s all about The Flow baby!). On most cuts the vocals were very low in the mix so I used modern tech to raise them so you can now here all of Peter's imperceptible, incoherent and unintelligible mumblings in gorgeous clarity, lol, you can thank me later!!) If anyone would like the other versions just drop a note in the comment section and I will gladly provide them, Attention Hound that I am!) 

PS If you'd like to hear and see another fun version of this album, check out this YouTube video by another favourite artist of mine Kevin Gilbert! Kevin was a huge Genesis fan and was actually being considered to take over for Collins. It's really rather a tragic story, as when Kevin’s manager found out that Kevin was on the short list as Collin’s replacement he rushed over to Kevin’s house to tell him, only to find Kevin had accidentally killed himself at his home. But here is a link to Kevin (and Giraffe, his incredible back-up band!) performing 'The Lamb; almost in it's entirety, and it’s just FREAKING BRILLIANT! Ahhh…what might have been, but that's a story I'll save for a possible Kevin Gilbert post I'm considering doing here! (Let me know if you’d like that in the comments!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-RtfxuX3Co.

It's always my pleasure to present the various incarnations of Genesis in new and different ways, like this one posted on Paul's site recently   https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2021/05/genesis-acoustic-evening-with-genesis.html

So here is the track listing of what I ended up using from the 2 LP Highland set.

Track listing

01 The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (take 1)
02 Fly On A Windshield (take 1)
03 Broadway Melody Of 1974 (live)
04 Cuckoo Cocoon (different mix demo 1)
05 In The Cage (take 3 and demo mix)
06 The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging (different mix demo 3)
07 Back In N.Y.C. (take 1 and demo mix 3) 
08 Hairless Heart (unnumbered early take)
09 Counting Out Time (take 1)
10 The Carpet Crawlers (live)
11 The Chamber Of 32 Doors (take 1)
12 Lilywhite Lilith
13 Drum Solo - Waiting Room (different mix demo)
14 Anyway (different mix demo)
15 Here Comes The Supernatural Anesthetist (take 1 -demo with Phil on vocals)
16 The Lamia (take 2)
17 Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats (live)
18 The Colony Of Slipperman (Arrival / A Visit To The Doktor / Raven) (take 5)
19 Ravine (live)
20 The Light Dies Down On Broadway (unnumbered early take)
21 Unused Instrumental Intro - Riding The Scree (different mix demo)
22 In The Rapids / It (take 2)

I hope you enjoy this rare peek behind the curtain at Genesis recording their most brilliant album in their catalogue.

Michael

PPS… as always, there is a lot more background info around - here are three great articles on the making of this stunning prog rock masterpiece!

https://classicrockreview.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/genesis-the-demo-mix-down-on-broadway/

https://en.apoplife.nl/in-1974-genesis-releases-the-masterful-the-lamb-lies-down-on-broadway/

https://www.loudersound.com/features/genesis-i-was-aware-there-was-something-going-on-with-peter

For my part I just made the cover, which I wanted to keep as close to the iconic original as possible, so I decided just to colourize the original artwork. pj