Friday, April 27, 2018

Michael Hedges - Dreaming Out Loud

"I play the guitar because it lets me dream out loud."
~ Michael Hedges ~

Here's the follow up to my previous Michael Hedges post. This one has a similar history but I took a different approach to the tracklist. This is a covers only album. Michael always put a personal stamp on his covers and always performed at least a few during each show.

I had the pleasure of seeing Michael perform four times over the years before he passed and each show was better than the last. I'm still saddened when I think of what we lost but take great joy whenever I listen to what he left us.

01 Let's Get It Up
02 Buffalo Stance [90.winter]
03 Where Do the Children Play (with Don Record) [95.07.23]
04 Comfortably Numb [harp guitar 97.11.12]
05 Gimme Shelter [Strings of Steel]
06 Watermelon Man [85.02.16]
07 I Misunderstood [91.10.08]
08 She Drives Me Crazy [91.10.08]
09 Lucky Star [94.10.29]
10 Almost Cut My Hair [95.09.30]
11 Come Talk To Me [96.10.25]
12 Rock'n'Roll Part 2 [97.09.21]
13 Blackbird [81.03.20]
14 I'm Into Something Good
15 Head and Heart
16 While my Guitar Gently Weeps [97.07.06]
17 A Love Bizarre/Aquarius (with Michael Manring) [94.10.29]

Reality Notes

The overall quality of these tracks were on average a little better than the last Hedges comp so I did very little to this one. There are still some dodgy sounding tracks but the music comes through and makes it all better. Mostly I trimmed the beginnings and endings and a bit of volume matching. If I could, I removed audience noise as much as possible if only to tighten up song transitions.

All of the tracks are unofficial live recordings with the exception of Gimmie Shelter. That track comes from the out of print 1993 South American only release Strings Of Steel. A version of She Drives Me Crazy also appeared on that album which is of better sound quality than the one here but at the time I compiled this Gimme Shelter was all I had. And like the last project, my intention here is to present the comp as it is with only some editing to improve the flow.

A version of Love Bizarre appeared on Live on the Double Planet but by the time of this recording Michael was adding bits of Age of Aquarius in the middle which is why I have included it here.

If I knew the date of the recording I made a note of it but beyond that I have no other information about the sources. I also made no mention of the original artists. Most of them you will know but there are a few I had never heard until I came across these.

The cover was one of the first covers I made where I was very happy with how it turned out. Plain and simple but nice to look at. It does show its age to me and looks a bit primitive when compared to some of my more recent works but I still like it.

Friday, April 20, 2018

Pete Townshend - Rock Is Dead...Long Live Rock - 1972

I wasn't sure if I would have something to post this week. The project I'm working on isn't quite ready but this one fell together quickly.

I've been seeing a lot of constructions of the abandoned Who album that became Quadrophenia, so I thought I would look at it from a different angle. What if instead of The Who recording Long Live Rock, Pete released it as a solo album?

Side One
01 Relay
02 Get Inside
03 Riot In A Female Jail
04 Love Reign O'er Me
05 Long Live Rock

Side Two
01 Is It In My Head_
02 Put The Money Down
03 Can't You See I'm Easy
04 Join Together

Reality Notes

Not a lot of imagination went into this. As I said, it fell together almost effortlessly. Even so, I am finding this comp to be very enjoyable to listen to. Editing was limited to making sure that the beginnings and endings were smooth and a bit of volume matching.

All of the songs except one are found on the five disc Genuine Scoop bootleg. Get Inside was finally released on the Director's Cut edition of Quadrophenia along with Is It In My Head? and Love Reign O're Me. Some of these can also be found on the official Scoop series.

The piano track on this version of Love Reign O're Me was reused on the final recording. According to Pete's notes, Pete was concerned that they would not be able to recreate it so they just transferred it to a 2 inch multitrack tape and rebuilt the song around it.

I got the track list from the Wiki article which states that a tape of Pete's demos was compiled so consider this a reconstruction of that demo reel. The timing of that tracklist splits nicely between songs five and six for vinyl purposes and the songs flow nicely so I felt no need to rearrange anything.

There is another song, Ambition, that according to the Wiki article was recorded during the Rock Is Dead sessions but at this time it does not circulate in any form outside of a live version Pete performed on The Attic, a weekly webcast that originates from Pete's London studio.

For the cover I used the painting that was used for the cover of Pete's third official demo collection, Scooped 3. I'm sure that it doesn't fit the timeline but I like it and it works.

Sources

The Genuine Scoop (bootleg)
Quadrophenia: The Director's Cut

[Update]
After seeing a picture of the demo reel box I see that I have Riot in a Female Jail and Love Reign O're Me switched around. (I have it as Wiki listed the track order. Wiki is sometimes wrong? Who Knew?) Feel free to adjust your downloads if you want but I'm keeping it as it is.

Friday, April 13, 2018

Alternate Universe - Various Artists

Not much time to work on these lately so here's a mix tape to fill the gap. It's been a great six month run of weekly postings but time and ideas have been running short and real life is getting in the way of maintaining that at the moment. I still have a few projects in the works so keep checking in. And, if I do run out of ideas,I have a stack of mix tapes to share with you.

Every track on this compilation is either an alternate version (live or studio outtake), original version or a cover version that challenges the so called definitive for superiority. Most of these songs were officially released in some way but many can only be found on bootlegs. A couple of songs appear, to the best of my knowledge, nowhere else but here. All volume matched to the best of my ability and timed to fit on one CD.

Track by Track

1. Anchor Man – Afternoon Delight
From the movie Anchorman, performed live by Will Ferrell and supporting cast. This is the live vocal version taken from the movie. Ripped from the DVD.

2. AC/DC – Back In Black
I found this track on the bootleg Shockingly Rare which claimed it was from recording sessions before Bon Scott's death. Not being an uber fan I believed it. I have since learned that is is not AC/DC but comes from the tribute album Thunderbolt - A Tribute To AC/DC from 1998. Joe Lynn Turner from Rainbow is on vocals, who did a convincing enough job of emulating Bon's vocal style to fool me. Also, Phil Collen from Def Leppard is on guitar and on drums is Simon Wright who was the drummer for AC/DC from '83 to '89.

3. John Lennon – Watching The Wheels
The original acoustic demo version. First heard on The Lost Lennon Tapes radio show, can be found on the Lennon Anthology. This is my preferred version.

4. Big Star – In The Streets
In the Streets was recorded by Todd Griffin as That '70s Song with additional lyrics by Ben Vaughn as the theme song for the television sitcom That '70s Show. Another recording of That '70s Song by Cheap Trick was used as the theme beginning with season two. This is the original version. A big thanks to Smash Adams at The LP RE-construction blog for his Big Star post which pushed me to seek out this band I missed the first time around. From the album #1 Record.

5. Dwight Yaokham – I Want You To Want Me
From the album Tomorrow’s Sounds Today, Dwight's covers album. Another Cheap Trick related track. This is a cover of the seminal track from the In Color album.

6. Gloria Jones – Tainted Love

The original version from 1965 released as a B side. Gloria rerecorded the song in 1976 for an album titled Vixen which was produced by Marc Bolan. It was that remake that the band Soft Cell based their cover version on.

7. Beach Boys – California Girls
Vocals only version. From the box set Good Vibrations: 30 Years. Ooh, the harmonies. Say what you want about Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys but this track truly demonstrates Brian's amazing arrangement skills and the band's vocal abilities.

8. Guns ‘N Roses – You’re Crazy
The original acoustic version outtake from the Appetite For Destruction CD. Found on the Welcome To The Jungle CD single. They re-recorded the song to give the album a more consistent heavy sound.

9. Tom Petty – The Waiting
Acoustic performance from the It’s Gary Shandling’s Show. Recorded direct from a VHS recording of the original airing onto cassette courtesy of my friend Redfreak then digitally transferred to CD. Later reruns edited this performance down to just one or two verses. This is the complete performance. I'm really surprised that I have not seen this on any bootleg compilations.

10. Stills & Nash – Dear Mr. Fantasy
Outtake from the Crosby, Stills and Nash, Daylight Again LP. This CSN album started life as a Stills & Nash project due to David Crosby’s drug problem during that time. I may be a bit soft but Stephen's lead guitar work on this song has brought me to tears more than once. From the CSN box set.

11. Elton John – Tiny Dancer
Live solo piano/vocal performance from The Old Grey Whistle Test aired on BBC television during the early 70’s. I would love to get my hands on Elton's multitrack session tapes so I can strip them down to the bare essentials. Originally ripped from DVD but the song can be found on the three CD 40th Anniversery set.

12. Masked Marauders – Can’t Get No Nookie
From an parody album that was based on a fake LP review in Rolling Stone magazine. The Masked Marauders was a supposed supergroup featuring Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and an unbilled drummer.The album contains many great performances including an epic 10 minute version of Season of the Witch as sung by Bob Dylan. Vinyl rip.

13. Michael Hedges - All Along The Watchtower
From the album Live on the Double Planet. This album was the first CD I ever purchased. Michael recorded a version for his Watching My Life Go By but this is version is magic. For me this cover even tops Jimi Hendrix's version as the definitive version of this song.

14. Brian May – ’39

From the Making of A Night At The Opera edition of the Classic Albums DVD series. This is a solo performance. Ripped from DVD special features.

15. Pink Floyd – Pigs On The Wing
The "complete full version", Features both parts 1 & 2 with an additional middle section featuring a guitar solo by Snowy White between. This was essentially Snowy's audition for the job of touring guitarist for the band. First appeared on the 8-track version of Animals.

16. Julian Lennon – Saltwater
Acoustic version. Most likely found on a CD single somewhere or possibly from a live in the studio performance. I downloaded this from a file sharing network back in the days of Napster so if anyone has more info please share.

17. Dolly Parton – Shine
From the Little Sparrow CD. Another one of those few cover versions of a song which in my opinion outdoes the original. On her next album she covered Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven and failed to capture any of the magic found here.

18. Bruce Springsteen – It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City
Original Acoustic demo. Found on the Tracks box set. There are acoustic demos of almost the entire first album spread across many bootlegs and rarities collections.

19. David Bowie – Space Oddity
Original demo version. Before making it big as a solo performer, Bowie was part of a duo. This song originates from a tape of demos they were shopping around at the time. From the Sound and Vision box set.

20. The Beatles – Watching Rainbows
From the last day of the Twickenham rehearsals, which George did not attend, for what became the Let It Be album. One of the many one-off songs that were recorded by the cameras during the filming of the Let It Be movie while the songs for the album were being developed. This is my own unique edit joining two takes (one full and one partial) which can be found on the Beatles bootleg The Black Album.

The cover features an illustration from the cover of an issue of the comic book Weird Science.

Friday, April 6, 2018

Christine Mcvie/Stevie Nicks - 1979

This week in our Half Off Double Album series we are going to tear apart a contentiously beloved album, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk. Tusk as an album contains a lot of great songs, arguably mostly from Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie but also a few from Lindsey Buckingham. The production of the album was pushed forward by heavy drug use and a maniacal Lindsey who was insistent that this album sounded nothing like their previous album Rumors.

It was early on when the decision was made to make a double album. Whether that was a good or bad decision is a matter of opinion. But what if among all the stress and turmoil surrounding the Rumors album and tour they decided to take a step back and do other projects? So here we have McVie/Nicks.

Side One
01 Angel
02 Never Forget
03 Brown Eyes
04 Beautiful Child
05 Sisters Of The Moon

Side Two
01 Over & Over
02 Storms
03 Honey Hi
04 Farmer's Daughter
05 Sara
06 Never Make Me Cry

Reality Notes

It had been a while since the last time I had listened to the album, so I took some time to reacquaint myself with the material. I came to the conclusion that this album cannot be trimmed down to a single disc Fleetwood Mac album without losing some great songs. The way I see it, this could go one of three ways.

1. Everyone records solo albums
2. Lindsey and Stevie revive Buckingham-Nicks and Christine records a solo album
3. Lindsey records a solo album and Stevie and Christine do an album together

I suppose technically Lindsey and Christine could have teamed up and Stevie could do a solo album but for some reason I didn't find that as interesting to warrant exploring. We don't have enough songs to really explore option one although with one outtake and some alternate versions I might be able to pad enough to make a Lindsey solo album. Still hacking away on that.

There were also many other Stevie songs demoed, some of which showed up on later solo and Fleetwood Mac albums. Beauty And The Beast was recorded for The Wild Heart. Smile At You was released on Say You Will. Secret Love appears on In Your Dreams and The Dealer shows up on 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault. If someone wants to put that together go ahead. Unfortunately the production varies from album to album so I'm not sure how well the songs will blend together.

Going with option three I had more than enough songs to work with. We have six Christine songs, five Stevie songs and one Beach Boys cover outtake (Farmer's Daughter). I dropped Think about me by Christine, there was just too much Lindsey on it. Lindsey, being the producer, has his hands in everything and can be heard on many tracks vocally (on a Fleetwood Mac album that's fine if not expected). And of course, Lindsey, Mick and John are all there to lend a hand.

I'm kind of treating this as being similar to Bob Weir's Ace solo album that features the Grateful Dead as the backing band. Here we have Christine and Stevie being backed up by the rest of Fleetwood Mac. Peter Green even shows up playing guitar on Brown Eyes.

I actually started with option two. I'm a big fan of the first Buckingham/Nicks album so to make a follow up seemed to be a good idea. The results were good and after a few listens I warmed up to some of Lindsey's songs but the production on the first album was more like the last two Fleetwood Mac albums and this one didn't always feel very Buckingham/Nicks like.

It was when I was constructing option two that I realized that it was Lindsey's songs I liked least. Lindsey was determined at the time to make Fleetwood Mac relevant in a post punk/new wave era. While he may have succeeded on some level there, the results don't always feel like a Fleetwood Mac song when taken out of context, especially Lindsey's songs.

Because we have more Lindsey songs than Stevie or Christine I'm still shuffling things around and I may switch a few songs out but at the moment this is where this album stands.

01 Tusk
02 Angel
03 Sisters Of The Moon
04 Walk A Thin Line
05 Storms
06 Sara
07 Save Me A Place
08 Not That Funny
09 Beautiful Child
10 The Ledge
11 That's Enough For Me

If I manage to achieve something I can be happy with I will post that sometime in the future.

I modified the original cover to reflect the change to a McVie/Nicks album. Because the title track was a Lindsey song we can no longer call the album Tusk. I am hoping to use it for the Lindsey solo album or the Buckingham/Nicks album, whichever gets done first.