KISS - Indy Debut - 1973

In 1973 KISS released their debut album as a self financed independent release. Funded by manager Bill Aucoin who used the LP to secure a major label contract with newly formed Casablanca Records. The tracks were recorded quickly and cheaply at two different studios. They even included a live track recorded at an early gig. While the album didn't sell it did get them signed and they still play most of these songs live today. It was cleaned up some and repackaged for re-release in 1975 after the success of their double live LP Alive!

Side One
01 Strutter [Electric Lady]
02 Let Me Go Rock And Roll [Bell Sounds]
03 Firehouse [Bell Sounds]
04 Cold Gin [Electric Lady]
05 Let Me Know [Bell Sounds]

Side Two
01 Watchin You [Electric Lady]
02 Deuce [Electric Lady]
03 Acrobat [Live at The Daisy]
04 Black Diamond [Electric Lady]
05 100,000 Years [Bell Sounds]

Reality Notes

Things happened fast For KISS in 1973. Within a year after forming they had acquired a manager and a record contract with an up and coming label. Both helped to shape and mold them into the machine they became four years later. What if things did not move quite so fast? What if their debut album was an independent release? With the available demos we can construct what could have been that LP.

The tracks here were all recorded before their debut album. Five songs were recorded at Electric Lady by Eddie Kramer as payment for session work owed Gene and Paul. Four songs were recorded at Bell Sounds studios by Kerner and Wise who produced their major label debut and the follow up Hotter Than Hell. Acrobat was recorded live at an early gig at the Daisy, this song would become Love Theme From KISS after dropping the Much Too Young second half.

There are two songs from the first album that we do not have a demo for. Nothin' to Lose and Kissing Time. Kissing Time is a Bobby Rydel cover that was added to the second pressing of the first album. These two songs are replaced with two demos from the same sessions of songs that would later appear on the second album. You could take Nothin' to Lose and Kissing Time from the first album and move them to the second if you really wanted to.  

Watching You comes from the Eddie Kramer produced demos and Let Me Go Rock And Roll is from the Kerner and Wise produced Bell Sounds demos. It was standard practice for Kerner and Wise at the time to record pre-production demos in an independent studio. Their reasoning was to keep any unreleased songs out of the labels hands. It's not theirs if they didn't pay for it.

I basically used the first album as a template and substituted the HTH tracks where they were needed. I did switch the last two songs around simply because I wanted to. All songs were sourced from the 28 disc KISSTORY bootleg.

The cover features one of the earliest photos of the band in full makeup.

U2 - Hold Onto Love - 1987

The Joshua Tree was U2's fifth album and was released in March of 1987. A few months later in spite of the album still sitting at the top of the charts the band released Hold Onto Love as a part two of sorts. The songs were recorded at the same time as those on The Joshua Tree but were finished after its release. While a double album was considered at one time the idea was dropped in favor of two separate albums released close together under the umbrella title of Desert Songs Volume One and Two. While the title Desert Songs never appeared on the packaging it was mentioned during interviews and press releases and the similar artwork tied it all together. It was felt that the second batch of songs had a different feel than the first and was closer in feel to The Unforgettable Fire.

Side One
01 Luminous Times
02 Sweetest Thing
03 Deep In The Heart
04 Beautiful Ghost
05 Heartland

Side Two
01 Spanish Eyes
02 Wave Of Sorrow (Birdland)
03 Walk To The Water
04 Race Against Time
05 Silver And Gold

Reality Notes

The inspiration for this construction came from AlbumFixer who posted an expanded version of The Joshua Tree that becomes a double album. Not being a fan of double albums (have I mention that before?) I wondered if the extra tracks would make a decent single album. I think it worked. Many, if not most, of the songs here are just as good as any of the songs on The Joshua Tree. All of these songs originated and were worked on during the Joshua Tree sessions. They were finished after the release of that album without the presence of any producers with the intention of using them as B sides for the upcoming singles. Heartland was later released on Rattle and Hum but originated during these sessions.

I Was U2 mad at the time The Joshua Tree was released. I had every album, EP and 12" single I could find. The day I purchased the album I had heard it in it's entirety on the radio. They were playing it in the store when I bought it and I played it almost constantly when I got it home. This was U2 at the peak of their game. After this album I kind of lost interest. Rattle and Hum was good but I never really took the time to immerse myself in it like The Unforgettable Fire or The Joshua Tree.

At the time of release I purchased as many of the 12" vinyl singles that contained these songs that I could find. I marveled at the quantity of quality leftover songs and wondered why they didn't gather them for another album or EP instead of wasting them on B sides. I wouldn't doubt that at one time I used them as filler with the album when I put it on cassette for listening on the go. All of these songs were collected together along with a few more songs from the sessions and released on a companion CD for the anniversary deluxe edition of The Joshua Tree.

For the cover I did my best to emulate The Joshua Tree cover to tie them together. I used a picture from the same cover photo sessions.

CSN&Y - Human Highway - 1974

In May of 1973 CSN&Y had some writing sessions at Neil's rented Maui beach house followed soon after by some recording at Neil's ranch. In October they did a surprise performance at Winterland. All of this was leading up to the recording of a new record that was to be titled Human Highway. The album was released shortly after a 1974 summer arena tour. Being a bit heavy on the Young portion of CSN&Y and due to some of the tracks being live performances some critics accused Neil of dragging his bandmates with him into the ditch.

Side One
01 Human Highway (Bootleg)
02 And So It Goes (Nash - Wild Tales)
03 Little Blind Fish (Bootleg)
04 Hawaiian Sunrise (CSN&Y 1974)
05 Myth of Sisyphus (CSN&Y 1974)
06 See The Changes (CSN - Box Set)

Side Two
01 As I Come Of Age (CSN - Box Set)
02 Traces (CSN&Y 1974)
03 Homeward Through The Haze (CSN - Box Set)
04 Love Art Blues (CSN&Y 1974)
05 Prison Song (Nash - Wild Tales)
06 Through My Sails (Young - Zuma)

Reality Notes

Human Highway is among the most debated and reconstructed unreleased albums out there. So why do another one? After a lot of research (mostly from this forum thread) and comparing other reconstructions and being less than thrilled but still intrigued by the results I decided "why not?".

The history of this "lost" CSNY reunion album starts in 1973 and runs through 1974 or 1975 depending on how you view the sessions. Over those two or three years there were several attempts to record an album each failing due to egos and other personality conflicts. Other reconstructions of this album have focused on creating one definitive collection of songs that could have been the official final release at the end of 1975. I have decided to take a different approach.

My first attempt ended up with a four album cycle of three "unreleased" acetates that showed the progression from a very rough sketch of an album through to the fourth finished product where it ceased to be Human Highway and became Long May You Run. Since then I have refined and redone the project several times until I ended up with what we have here.

I decided to set a cut-off date for the Human Highway session at the end of 1974 and focus only on those songs that were actually worked on during those sessions. It is my opinion that anything after that belongs to Long May You Run. (I will address that album sometime soon.) Because none of the recording sessions produced enough material to fill and entire disc and due to the lack of leaked material I have utilized the three CD set of live recordings from the 1974 tour to fill in the gaps.

If we examine the timeline and what was worked on we can come up with a short list of songs. Those sessions and what they produced are as follows.

May 1973 - Writing sessions at Neil's rented beach house on the island of Maui Followed by recording at Neil's Broken Arrow ranch. Six songs produced.

See The Changes
Prison Song
And So It Goes
Human Highway
Through My Sails
Little Blind Fish

October 4 1973 - Crosby, Nash and Young joined Stills at the end of a Manassas show at Winterland playing many new songs.

As I Come Of Age
Human Highway
New Mama
And So It Goes
Prison Song

Reunion Tour Rehearsals - Some recordings were made during the rehearsal sessions for the tour.

Summer 1974 Reunion Tour - Most if not all new songs as well as many even newer songs were played during this tour.

December 1974

Wind On The Water
Carry Me
Homeward Through The Haze
Time After Time
Different Tongues

It appears that Homeward Through The Haze is the only song completed during the '74-'75 sessions.

My intention was to see how CSN&Y would sound if Neil was successful in dragging the rest of the band with him into the ditch. This allows for the rough edges to show through whereas normally the group is known for its polish and perfection. Because Neil is the major instigator here I have bookended the album with his songs. The title track comes first on side one and side two finishes with Through My Sails (as a slight nod to Zuma where it also closes that album). Neil writes and sings five of the twelve songs giving him a big chunk of the album. The other three songs were previously unreleased until the 1974 live album (at least officially).

And So It Goes and Prison Song are taken from Graham's Wild Tales album but both were introduced during the initial writing sessions in Hawaii. David sings backup on both songs and Neil plays piano on And So It Goes. And So It Goes sounds like it could have been recorded with Crazy Horse with Neil at the helm. As I Come of Age actually comes from 1981, a version also appeared on Stills in 1975 as a solo recording but the song was first played at the reunion concert in 1973. Stephen's Myth of Sisyphus is a solo piano and vocal live recording from the '74 summer CSN&Y tour. Homeward Through The Haze was recorded during the last sessions in 1974.

Little Blind Fish was written and recorded during the initial 1973 sessions. If someone can point me to a better version of Little Blind Fish I will do an upgrade. I have two versions. Both are low quality. One seems to shift to mono at the end and the other sounds better but  is sped up. I reluctantly used the first version because I felt the song was needed due to the collaborative nature of the song.

There are two versions of the album in the archive. One where I did my best to eliminate any crowd noise and applause and another where I used the crowd to create transitions between the live and studio tracks. You can decide which you like best.

The cover features a photo taken during the Hawaii sessions.

Michael Hedges - Live on Planet X

In an effort to keep things fresh and different here I give you Michael Hedges. This comp was created at a time when the internet was mostly dial-up, Napster was still a pirate file sharing app, hard drives were measured in megabytes and CD burners were a brand new technology. Michael had only been gone for about a year or two. I was and still am a big fan. My very first CD I purchased (before I even owned a CD player) was Michael's Live on a Double Planet so it seems fitting that my first CD compilation was a Michael Hedges project that was meant to emulate that CD.

Michael Hedges was one of those rare breed of artists. Not content to play within the accepted boundaries of contemporary music Michael pushed the envelope of composition and acoustic guitar technique. He was an early pioneer of two-handed tapping most likely inspired by Eddie Van Halen and Stanely Jordan. He also employed endless alternate turnings, percussive and harmonic slaps and both fingerstyle and strumming with a pick to achieve his visions. He was a classically trained multi instrumentalist and deeply immersed in music theory yet there was a spiritual force the came through everything he did. And, he had the voice of an angel with a powerful set of lungs to boot. Michael was the real deal. Michael was only 43 when he passed away but he left a legacy that few can match.

If there is a what-if question attached to this comp it would be "What if Windham Hill released a posthumous follow up to Live on the Double Planet?" To emulate that album I tried to strike a balance between vocal and instrumental tracks and between originals and covers. I kept pre and post song chatter to a minimum and removed any gaps between songs. There are several songs here that have never appeared on any official Hedges CD in any form.

01 Eminence Front
02 Fusion of the Five Elements (10/25/96)
03 Follow Through (with Michael Manring)
04 Free Swinging Soul (07/06/97)
05 Rickover's Dream (10/25/81)
06 No Expectations (on harp guitar)
07 Sofa #1 (10/25/96)
08 India (winter 1990)
09 Ragamuffin (Kent State 1985)
10 Wondering Where the Lions Are (1981)
11 Point A » Point B (on TransTrem guitar - winter 1990)
12 Face Yourself
13 Aerial Boundaries (1996)
14 Like a Rolling Stone (07/05/97)

Reality Notes

**WARNING - NOT EVEN CLOSE TO STUDIO QUALITY!**

This was my first "mix tape" CD made on a computer. All of the tracks were downloaded through Napster or another file sharing app while working as a tutor at my college's computer lab and are all from unofficial, bootleg recordings. The disc was burned in a classroom that taught emerging technologies where the instructor's computer had an early CD burner. Because I did not have any other music production software at the time and the source material was less than ideal the finished product was a bit on the raw side. But hey, beggars can't be choosers and this was new Hedges. This was the best of what I could find at the time. Luckily I never delete anything.

Once this blog started rolling I started to think about what other projects I could do or have done that I could share. I wanted to avoid just doing my takes on the same things everyone else was doing. I had almost forgotten about this one since it has been in my digital library from the beginning but I have been wanting to clean it up a bit for some time. I took all of the original files and dumped them into my sequencer and proceeded to give this project the polish it sorely lacked.

Because these tracks came from file sharing channels there was very little info about where they were from. I included what little data was there. I could have done some research to track down more information and maybe find better sources but I wanted the project to stand on its own as it was. I wanted to improve it, not redo it.

This is more of a nostalgia piece for me so I made very little changes to the original. I kept the original running order. I trimmed the beginnings and endings to make a better flow from track to track. I cleaned, EQ'd and volume matched as best I could but with the quality of some of the source material I can only do so much. The final result is still a great improvement over the original and still a great listen. I do have a follow up to this comp which I will also post eventually. It too has a similar history and is in need of some editing and cleaning.

The cover is one of the first covers I ever made. To show its age I believe it was done with Microsoft Word for Windows 3.1.

Pink Floyd - The Wall - 1979

In late 1979 Pink Floyd released their most successful album since Dark Side of the Moon. Spanning two vinyl discs The Wall told the story of Pink, a celebrity recluse driven mad by fame and circumstance. The project was driven mostly by Roger Waters with production aided by Bob Ezrin. The album, in spite of its success, proved to be the beginning of the end of the band.

What if the record label, after hearing the finished album, demanded that the album be cut down to a single disc? Could it be done? I thought so and here are my results. For those that insist that this is unnecessary and/or believe the album should be expanded to three discs let's just say that with the release of the film they put out a two or three disc soundtrack version using new and rerecorded material to flesh out the story. If someone wants to do that album, go ahead. I don't think I could.

Side A
01 In The Flesh? 3:18
02 The Thin Ice 2:33
03 The Happiest Days Of Our Lives 1:33
04 Another Brick In The Wall 4:18
05 Mother 5:27
06 Goodbye Blue Sky 5:22
07 Young Lust 4:17

Side B
01 Hey You 4:49
02 Is There Anybody Out There? 2:17
03 Comfortably Numb 6:18
04 The Show Must Go On 1:36
05 In The Flesh 4:14
06 Run Like Hell 4:24
07 Stop Outside The Wall 2:13

Reality Notes

Do I need to repeat myself on how much I dislike double albums? There are only a few I enjoy from front to back. Either they are some self indulgent concept album that got out of control or a prime example of not being able to edit oneself, sometimes both. The Wall is one of these, at least for me. It didn't help that the album was released around the time I became completely disenchanted with and resistant to anything that was on the radio. If it was popular I wanted nothing to do with it. It took quite a while before I grew out of that phase.

That said, The wall does contain a few of my favorite Floyd songs with Comfortably Numb being among my all time favorites by any artist. This comp is a purely selfish attempt to rescue these songs but keep them in a context that is as close to the intent of the artists as I could manage and still maintain interest.

To accomplish this goal I loaded the entire album into my sequencer and slowly whittled away. In some cases I deleted whole tracks, in others I trimmed and combined to create new ones. I paid very close attention to transitions and in some cases rearranged or created completely new transitions using the material at hand. I did not introduce any outside material although I did go through the preproduction demos before dropping the idea. My intention was not to make an alternative Wall but a more concise one.

I'm not going to go into details of where I edited. There are too many to mention and when I started this project I did not think it would be shared and did not keep notes. Just download it and see if you can spot the edits. At just over 50 minutes, 25 minutes per side, it pushes vinyl constraints to their limits but I don't think I can trim it down anymore. It will fit comfortably on a CD, Just make sure you burn it with no gaps between tracks.

I did not create the cover this time. I found this one on a google search so I do not remember who made it. If the original creator wishes that it be removed I will gladly take it down and make one of my own but I do like this one a lot. So thanks to whoever it was that created it.

Source
The Wall [Experience Edition]

Grateful Dead - Souls In Communion - 1973

To celebrate our feast day (Thanksgiving) here in the States here is a second helping, and our final installment of Grateful Dead.

Again only a few months after the Europe ’72 live album and six months after the last album Ace the Grateful Dead released another solid album. This is the first, and possibly only album to feature more songs from other members than Jerry Garcia with four songs from Bob Weir and another from Ron "Pigpen" McKernan and three from Jerry. This is also the last album to feature Pigpen who due to failing health left the band about this time and passed away soon after.

Side A
01 Cassidy– 3:40
02 He's Gone – 6:53
03 Comes a Time – 6:21
04 Black-Throated Wind– 5:43

Side B
01 They Love Each Other– 4:36
02 Walk in the Sunshine - 3:05
03 Looks Like Rain– 6:08
04 The stranger (Two Souls in Communion) – 6:46

Reality Notes

With four Bob songs this album should really have been called Ace, especially with Cassidy leading it off. I have always identified that song with that album even though there are plenty of other songs on that album that became setlist staples. They didn’t even play Cassidy live until 1974 which is one reason it appears here. I tried to swap it with a Jerry song from Ace but the only song close to this length was another Bob song. All of Bob’s songs here date from March 1972 either debuting live or on record at that time. Walk in the Sunshine was never played live by the band.

The three Jerry songs each come from a different year. Comes a Time debuted live in 1971 but this studio recording is from 1975. He’s Gone was played live for the first time in April of 1972. They Love Each Other is our one true anomaly. When it debuted in February of 1973 the arrangement was different. It was faster and more of a straight forward rock boogie in the vain of Pigpen’s Mr. Charlie. They stopped playing it shortly after its debut. When it was recorded in 1975, our version here, it was slowed down and the guitars were given more distinctive arrangements. When they started playing it live again after 1975 they slowed it down even more. This song was the real catalyst for this comp. I love this song and wanted it firmly in the dead catalog where it belonged. Because we are setting a March 1973 release date we have to imagine that it skipped its early arrangement.

Closing the album is Pigpen. A majestically soulful song that was only played live. It was at the beginning of 1973 that Pigpen took time off from the group to concentrate on his health. Sadly, he was never able to return. Pigpen passed away in March of 1973. I think it is a fitting tribute to have Pigpen finish this album with such a great song.

I struggled with this cover for a while. I had the picture and tried to balance the band name and title until I came on the idea of wrapping the text around the circle. The frame was the finishing touch that really made it come alive.

Sources
Reflections (Jerry Garcia)
Comes a Time
They Love Each Other
Ace (Bob Weir)
Cassidy
Black-Throated Wind
Walk in the Sunshine
Looks Like Rain
Europe ‘72
He's Gone
Complete Europe ‘72
The stranger (Two Souls in Communion)

Grateful Dead - Ace - 1972

Released six months after the last album Ramble on Rose the Dead again delivered an album packed with great songs. Sessions began prior to a two-month tour of Europe (with a full entourage and a 16 track tape recorder to capture every show). A few more studio sessions after the tour to polish up the album to give to the label and they were off on another tour. Truly, in 1972, the music never stopped.

Side A
01 Deal– 3:09
02 Jack Straw– 4:47
03 Mexicali Blues – 3:33
04 Tennessee Jed– 7:08
05 The Wheel– 4:03

Side B
01 One More Saturday Night– 4:28
02 Brown-Eyed Woman– 4:38
03 Sugaree– 5:52
04 Chinatown Shuffle – 2:38
05 Bird Song– 4:26

Reality Notes

The songs here span from February 1971 to March 1972. While most of the songs come from the same three, core sources as the last album, two songs are from the Complete Europe ’72 box set. I went for the live version of Mexicali Blues to avoid the mariachi brass on the studio version. This has always been the weak spot of the Weir album for me so if I could keep the song but lose the horns, I’m happy. This version emulates the horns nicely without being in your face, so I felt it was a good replacement. Chinatown Shuffle is a Pigpen song that was never released on an album during his lifetime. Always good to have a Pigpen song.

Jack Straw is the reason why I had to rethink this time line in the first place. It was during the European tour when Bob and Jerry started to trade verses. Before that Bob had sung all the verses. It is for this reason that the release date of this album is placed after the tour.

I decided to reuse the Ace title for the album to keep a toe in reality. This is not an alternate Bob Weir album though. Even though the Dead played on all the songs on Bob’s LP, he did write all the songs. Here we have what could have been a band album. Because I was keeping the name I decided to keep the artwork as well, with some modification of course.


Sources
Garcia (Jerry Garcia)
Deal
Sugaree
The Wheel
Bird Song
Ace (Bob Weir)
One More Saturday Night
Europe ‘72
Jack Straw
Tennessee Jed
Brown-Eyed Woman
Complete Europe ‘72
Mexicali Blues
Chinatown Shuffle

Grateful Dead - Ramble on Rose - 1971

As the follow up to American Beauty, Ramble on Rose had a lot to live up to and succeeded on all counts. Released in November of 1971, six months after the live album Skull and Roses and a year after American Beauty which itself was released only five months after Workingman’s Dead. The Grateful Dead were certainly on a roll with no signs of slowing down.

It’s amazing they had the time to even record with all the touring they were doing. It turns out that several of the songs were recorded live then sweetened in the studio later. The live tracks were recorded on 16 track tape, the first band to do so, which gave them the separation needed to make room for overdubs later. They would employ this method on the next two “studio” albums that would be released in the following year.

Side A
01 Bertha – 5:39
02 Ramble on Rose– 6:00
03 Playing in the Band– 7:36
04 Mr. Charlie– 3:36

Side B
01 Greatest Story Ever Told– 3:40
02 Loser– 4:05
03 Wharf Rat– 8:32
04 To Lay Me Down– 6:18

Reality Notes

No editing done on this one beyond trimming beginnings and endings and some volume matching. We are setting a release date for this album for sometime in November 1971. This allows us to use Ramble on Rose which had its live debut on October 21st the previous month. The oldest song, Playing in the Band, made its live debut two years before as a 10 minute instrumental on November 8th 1969. The sources for these versions are as follows:

Skull and Roses
Bertha
Wharf Rat
Garcia (Jerry Garcia)
Loser
To Lay Me Down
Ace (Bob Weir)
Playing in the Band
Greatest Story Ever Told
Europe ‘72
Ramble on Rose
Mr. Charlie

I had two versions of To Lay Me Down and Playing in the Band to choose from. Both were shorter than those used. To Lay Me Down was an outtake from American Beauty. I really wanted to use it but it just wasn't ready production wise so I went with the Garcia version. Playing in the Band was originally released on Skull and Roses and was just under five minutes but I went with the Ace version. If I did go with the shorter versions I could have slipped another song in.

The cover features a picture from Stanley Mouse. As a follow up to American Beauty I wanted to emulate that cover in some way so I included the wood background.

Grateful Dead - 1971 - 1973 Pt. 2

Because of the complexity of this project I thought I would use it to give a peek into my process.  While each project is different the more complex the project, the more planning and research involved.

Every project always starts with an idea that can be expressed with a what-if question. What if Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young had completed Human Highway? What if The Beatles recorded one more album? What if KISS dropped the Elder concept album and returned to a heavy sound like originally planned?

Most of these questions are triggered by a bit of passing trivia such as the fact that 1973 was the last time that all four Beatles released new albums in the same calendar year. This project was spurred on by the fact that between American Beauty (released Nov 1971) and Wake of the Flood (released Oct 1973) the Dead released two solo albums and two live albums. Each of these live albums contained enough new songs, never recorded in the studio, to fill a single album. The solo albums were not so solo. Jerry played everything but drums on his and Bob’s album was solo in name only and the fact that he wrote and sang all the songs. So, what if they released albums under the band name containing all of the new songs?

Once the question is formed I look at the time line in question to see how everything fits to get an idea of how the reconstructed albums might look. In this case I’m putting the first two new albums roughly in the same place as the two solo albums with the third being placed between Europe ’72 and Wake of the Flood. The live albums are not going away. I’ll address those in a moment.

Because I am a visual person, if needed, I’ll make some charts and tables to help me organize everything. The table below shows the release schedule of all the albums between 1969 and 1974. I did this to see how often they released albums. In general, as was the norm of the time. They released one or two albums each year roughly 6 months apart. Usually in May or June and in October or November.

I then gather the pool of songs and sort those by whatever criteria is appropriate for the project. In this case I sorted them in chronological order by the date of the first appearance of the song whether it is the first live performance or first appearance on an album. The table below shows the song pool with the name of the song, where it comes from, the first appearance and the length of the track. I color coded each column to better visualize where each song can go. The basic rule of thumb is a later song cannot appear earlier, but an earlier song can be saved for later. There is a small margin to fudge things. Just because a song was first played live on one date doesn’t mean it was written the day before.

Once that’s done I start loading the songs into my sequencer. I use Magix’s Audio Cleaning Lab for this. It’s a nice program that allows me to shuffle the songs around, do some editing if needed and place track markers. It also has some decent mastering options (EQ, volume normalization, stereo field width and more) and the ability to burn the finished CD or export the tracks to most of the common digital formats.

I also make sure the project will fit on the appropriate medium. If it is from the pre-CD era I make sure that the tracks can fit on each side of a vinyl album. If it is for a CD it must be less than 80 minutes. I also consider song flow and try to start and end each side with the stronger songs.

I then export the tracks to dump onto my MP3 player or burn to a disc so I can evaluate the finished product. I usually need to go back and make adjustments until I consider it done. Song transitions usually need the most attention, especially with live albums.

Some time during all of this I make a cover if needed. I’m not very good with Photoshop or Gimp so I actually make all of my covers in MS Word. I have a template with a preformatted, one row, two column table for front and back covers. I insert pictures text boxes and word art then tweak until I’m happy. The results can be printed, or I take a screenshot and save it into the project folder.

Then the whole project is saved, tagged and added to the library for easy access from all my devices. Occasionally I’ll upload then them to a file sharing site so others can enjoy them.

Now, about those live albums. At the time the Dead treated live albums with the same care and attention as studio albums. They tried to include as much unique and new material as possible while keeping songs that appeared on previous albums to a minimum. This means that even though we removed all the new originals there is still a lot of previously unreleased songs left. Of course, those songs are all cover songs that would never make it on to a studio album. So, I took the leftovers and looked them over and to my surprise there was enough to save each album.

Each set was reduced by one disc, so Skull and Roses becomes a single disc of all covers with the exception of The Other One and Europe ’72 becomes a two disc set with a mix of covers and originals but no new originals. I did have to find one song to fill up side one of Europe’72. I used Beat it on Down the Line from the Bremen Beat Club session taken from the Europe ‘72 The Complete Recordings mega box set. I sequenced them as follows:

Skull and Roses
Side One
"Mama Tried" (Merle Haggard) 2:42
"Big Railroad Blues" (Noah Lewis) 3:34
"Me and My Uncle" (John Phillips) 3:06
"The Other One" (Bill Kreutzmann and Weir) 13:28
Side Two
"Big Boss Man" (Luther Dixon and Al Smith) 5:12
"Me and Bobby McGee" (Fred Foster and Kris Kristofferson) 5:43
"Johnny B. Goode" (Chuck Berry) 3:42
"Not Fade Away/Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad" (Buddy Holly and Norman Petty/traditional) 9:14

In order to make side one fit I had to edit the Drums section in front of The Other One. Yea, I know, sacrilege. But if I didn’t then the side would have exceeded the limit by almost five minutes! I hate drum solos anyway so I don’t feel too bad about it. The edit works well and there is still a brief drum bit there for you drum heads to enjoy.

Europe '72
Side One
"Cumberland Blues" (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter, and Phil Lesh) 5:47
"China Cat Sunflower" (Garcia and Hunter) 5:33
"I Know You Rider" (trad., arr. The Grateful Dead) 4:55
“Beat it on Down the Line” 3:03
Side Two
"Sugar Magnolia" (Hunter and Weir) 7:04
"Hurts Me Too" (Elmore James) 7:18
"You Win Again" (Hank Williams) 3:54
Side Three
"Truckin'" (Garcia, Hunter, Lesh, and Weir) 13:08
"Epilogue" (Garcia, Donna Jean Godchaux, Keith Godchaux, Bill Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, and Weir) 4:33
Side Four
"Prelude" (Garcia, Donna Jean Godchaux, Keith Godchaux, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, and Weir) 8:08
"Morning Dew" (Bonnie Dobson and Tim Rose) 10:35

Each side is between 18 and 19 minutes. Which matches the official release.

As you can see the process can take some time. It would be interesting to hear from others and their process. Just leave a comment if you want to share. If you have a similar blog or site, leave a link and I'll add it to the list on the right.

Sources
Skull and Roses - Released October 24, 1971
Garcia [Jerry Garcia] Recorded July 1971 – Released Jan 1972
Ace [Bob Weir] Recorded January–March 1972 – Released May 1972
Europe '72 - Released: November 5, 1972
Europe ‘72 The Complete Recordings
Reflections [Jerry Garcia] - February 1976
Reflections is Jerry Garcia's third solo album, released in 1976. Partway through production, Garcia stopped recording with his solo band and brought in the members of the Grateful Dead, who performed on four songs, plus a bonus jam from 2004 release. Three of the four Grateful Dead-performed songs had earlier live debuts: "Comes a Time" (1971), "They Love Each Other" (1973) and "It Must Have Been the Roses" (1974); "Might as Well" entered their rotation in 1976. Most of the songs entered the live rotation of the new Jerry Garcia Band as well. (Wiki)

The Beatles - Out The Blue 1973

In late 1972 the four former Beatles gathered in a secret recording studio in upstate New York (the location was chosen due to John's immigration problems) to record what was to be their comeback album. After several years of solo efforts and hit singles by each the time had come to regroup and give the world what it really wanted.

Recording went smoothly and by early 1973 the album was finished, and a fine album it was. But at the last minute the project was shelved and the fab four again went their separate ways. Why we'll never know, it's not like the results were anything to be ashamed of. Almost all of the material was released on upcoming solo projects with little or no added production and no attempts to hide the fact that these songs were Beatles songs. But then they didn't advertise that they were either.

Some have suggested that the reason for scrapping the project was that none of the four were willing to sacrifice a song to bring the almost 60 minute LP (pushing the vinyl LP way beyond time limits) down to a more manageable 40-45 minutes (although a couple of the songs could have been slated for a non-LP single). Others have hinted at a heated discussion between John and Paul over songwriting credits and publishing.

In the end the session tapes were divided among the four for inclusion on solo projects while the final master tape was whisked away by Paul, but before the tapes could be taken away an engineer made safety copies of the master and hid them away. All involved were sworn to secrecy and ordered to forget that the event ever happened but those engineer's copies would eventually come back to haunt them. So sit back, put the headphones on, close your eyes and dream of what might have been if this treasure had been released in 1973.

1. Here We Go Again
2. Big Barn Bed
3. Don't Let Me Wait Too Long
4. I Know (I Know)
5. I'm The Greatest
6. Living In The Material World
7. One More Kiss
8. Out The Blue
9. When The Night
10. Bring On The Lucie (Freeda People)
11. Step Lightly
12. Get On The Right Thing
13. You Are Here
14. Hands Of Love/Power Cut
15. Be Here Now

Reality Notes

This is the album that got me started. Many years ago I made a tape containing Beatle solo songs from 1973. Inspired by the fact that 1973 was the only year after 1970 that all four Beatles released albums within the same calander year (Paul released Two). I thought, "what-if instead they collaborated on an album together".

The sad thing in all of this is that this could have and almost really happened. Before John reconciled with Yoko he had plans, with encouragement from May Pang, to join Paul while he was recording his Red Rose Speedway album. Once they got back together Yoko convinced John that it was not a good idea.

By taking the most Beatle sounding songs and avoiding better known songs and a small amount of editing I put together what I felt was a convincing album. I would play this for friends who claimed to be Beatle Fans telling them it was a lost Beatles album and would fool 9 out of 10 people. I created packaging with liner notes and proper song credits which helped the illusion.

When I first compiled "Out The Blue" my goal was to make a believable "unreleased" Beatles album. When I first made this compilation, all I had was a 60 minute cassette tape to fill. Rather than having five to ten minutes of blank space at the end of each side, I chose to fill the tape to capacity. In the context of the back story of an unreleased album, this was okay. One of the reasons given for shelving the album was that no one would sacrifice a song to trim the length down to vinyl time limits.

Songs were chosen for their Beatlesque attributes which included drum, bass guitar and background vocal styles. Singles and popular album tracks were avoided or kept to a minimum to keep the album fresh sounding. It is for this reason that I avoided Paul's "Band On The Run" album which has its own life, sound and personality, and because most casual Paul or Beatles fans know very well.

Eventually this album became the jumping off point for an entire alternate time line beginning with the "White Album" through 1980. You can find that here at my other blog..

The songs were taken from the following albums:

Menlove Avenue - John Lennon

Here We Go Again  -  I had a hard time tracking info about this song (the original demos are undated). I knew it was produced and co-written by Phil Spector which meant it could be from anywhere between 1970 and 1974. I later confirmed that it indeed comes from 1974. I included it because it fits both lyrically and musically, also, being an obscure song (left unreleased until the 80's) it adds to the "freshness factor" of the overall product.

Mind Games - John Lennon

I Know (I Know)
Out The Blue
Bring On The Lucie (Freeda People)  -  I chopped off the short spoken intro which says "Alright boys, this is it, over the hill." and saved that for later use.
You Are Here  -  Edited out the spoken word "nine" at the very beginning but kept the percussive taps as a count in.

Red Rose Speedway - Paul McCartney

Big Barn Bed
One More Kiss  -  Edited out the count in.
When The Night
Get On The Right Thing
Hands Of Love/Power Cut  -  This track closes paul's album and is part of a four song medley. I took advantage of a natural break between the 2nd and 3rd parts, discarded the first half and faded out early before the reprise of the 1st song occurs.

Living in the Material World - George Harrison

Don't Let Me Wait Too Long
Living In The Material World
Be Here Now  -  Closing the album I added 15 seconds of silence to the end of the song then added the spoken intro fron Bring on the Lucie to give the album closure.

Ringo - Ringo Starr

I'm The Greatest  -  The most authentic Beatles song on the album. Written by John who also plays piano and sings backing vocals, Ringo plays drums and sings, George plays guitar, Billy Preston (who appears on the "Let It Be" album) plays organ and long time Beatles associate Klaus Voorman plays bass.
Step Lightly

The Eddie Wilson Anthology

We all know the story. Eddie Wilson was the leader and creative force behind the seminal early sixties Jersey rock and roll band Eddie and the Cruisers. A popular regional group in the north east. They released one album of 12 tracks that bubbled up the middle of the charts and spawned two regional hits, On the Darkside and Tender Years, before being quietly forgotten. Then on the night after having his latest master work rejected by his record label, Eddie’s car skidded off a bridge. His body was never found. It was assumed he perished in the crash.

Twenty years later saw a resurgence, almost a mania, in Eddie Wilson’s popularity. His one album, Tender Years, was rereleased and went gold then platinum. His unreleased masterpiece, Season in Hell, was found and released. Then a “mystery” tape was discovered of a recording session of Eddie with some of the greats of early rock and roll. Then Eddie reappeared.

While hiding out in Canada under the name of Joe West, Eddie assembled a new band called Rock Solid playing local clubs and bars. Then, at the height of “Eddiemania”, Eddie’s band played the opening slot of the Montreal Spring Music Festival. Prior to the festival Eddie’s guitar player, Rick Diesel, sent a demo tape to Eddie’s old label Satin Records. The executives liked the tape and felt the singer sounded a lot like Eddie and decided to check them out.

As the story goes, the Satin Records execs confronted “Joe” and realized it was Eddie. Eddie panicked and almost ran away again but decided to push forward. Rock Solid played their set and during the band introductions Eddie revealed himself.

Eddie’s comeback album Rock Solid (coproduced by his friend, musical partner and original Cruiser Sal Amato) went gold then platinum. This gave him the success and freedom to write and record how and when he wanted. Two more albums followed at Eddie’s pace before Eddie left Satin Records to pursue life as he wanted to. Since then Eddie has released new albums when he feels he and the music are ready.

Contained on these two discs are the best of Eddie’s Satin Records output. From the first album Tender Years on through the last album Higher Ground. There are even a couple of unreleased songs although most fans will know these from the many bootlegs available.

CD 1
From the album – Tender Years
01 On the Dark Side
02 Wild Summer Nights
03 Hang Up My Rock & Roll Shoes
04 Tender Years
05 Boardwalk Angel
06 Down on My Knees
From the album – Season in Hell
07 Season in Hell (Fire Suite)
08 Small Town Girl
09 Where the Action Is
10 More Than Just One of The Boys
11 Crystal Blue
12 N.Y.C. Song – Previously unreleased version
From the album – The Lakehurst Tapes
13 Some Like It Hot
14 Garden of Eden
15 Runaround Sue
16 Emotional Storm
17 Chain Reaction
18 C-I-T-Y
19 Customary Thing
20 Down on My Knees [Live] – Previously unreleased

CD 2
From the album – Rock Solid
01 Runnin' Thru the Fire
02 Pride and Passion
03 Just A Matter of Time
04 Fool and His Money
05 Heat of the Night
06 When the World Was Young
From the album – Tough All Over
07 Open Road
08 Maryia
09 N. Y. C. Song
10 Keep My Love Alive
11 Strangers in Paradise
12 Bound for Glory
From the album – Higher Ground
13 Song and Dance
14 Killing Time
15 Wheel of Fortune
16 Higher Ground
17 Road I'm Running
 

Reality Notes

The story of Eddie Wilson was told through two films loosely based on a novel by P.F. Kluge titled of course, Eddie and the Cruisers. Love them or hate them, the films have achieved a cult status due to their runs on cable television and the growing home video market. The novel itself has faded into obscurity but if you ever find a copy pick it up. The book is darker and more of a mystery thriller. I won’t spoil anything here because the films greatly altered the plot line but I can recommend it. The films have recently been remastered and released on BluRay.

The music for both films was written and performed by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. They were hired on the recommendation of Bruce Springsteen after he turned down the job. The producers were looking for a Jersey roots type of sound and Cafferty fit the bill. The fact that he sounded a lot like Bruce didn’t hurt either. This compilation is as much a tribute to John Cafferty and his songs as it is to the story and films themselves.

For this compilation I used all of the soundtrack material I could find plus two Beaver Brown albums that were from the same period. There are two versions of the first soundtrack album. Due to copyright issues the second version dropped Tender Years and replaced it with two non-Cafferty songs. The current release has reverted back to the original tracklist. There is a third soundtrack related album titled The Unreleased Tapes. This one contained some alternate versions of a couple of songs and the rest of the songs used in the films but not on the other albums. This material presented a challenge because several tracks also contained dialog from the films placed over intros and instrumental parts. I had to edit those out and recreate some intros.

I then went through the two Beaver Brown albums Tough All Over and Roadhouse and found songs to fill in the gaps. My first attempt also used some Cafferty live bootlegs to create some live sets but I just couldn’t get them to sound right. Maybe that will be a separate project. There is actually enough material to fully simulate all of the “albums” in this comp.

I still think there is one great film that could be constructed from the two. Now that the films have been remastered and rereleased I’m hoping that some fan editor will tackle that one day.

Hindsight

This came out pretty cool. It's still a good listen. I prefer the first disc over the second probably because of the songs from the  first movie. For some reason the songs from the second film have a Canadian production feel that was popular at the time which makes sense seeing that the Eddie character had been hiding out in Canada. I still want to go back and edit down some of those live bootlegs, might be cool.

Is it on my iPod? At the moment, yes. This is my preferred way to listen to this material.

Grateful Dead 1971 – 1973

In 1970 the Grateful Dead released two albums – Working Man’s Dead and American Beauty. In late 1973 they released the album Wake of the Flood. In between these LPs they released two live albums and three solo albums. 1972 was an especially busy and productive year in spite of the lack of new band studio albums. The live albums contained songs that became concert staples but were never recorded in the studio. What if instead of the live albums and the solo albums (which were mostly band recordings anyway) they released albums which were a mix of live and studio tracks? The premise would be that they would enhance the live tracks of new songs (the European tour was recorded on 16track) and those songs that needed more attention they would record fully in the studio.

This period is full of new songs that were scattered over those five albums (actually four, Mickey’s album was mostly instrumental and more experimental). I had recently read that there was talk at the time of a follow up to American Beauty to complete a trilogy of sorts that was centered around or named after the song Ramble on Rose. I took it upon myself to compile this album and truly fell in love with the period.

My first attempt turned into a double album. Those familiar with me might know of my disdain for double albums but this one worked. The song choice was purely my own taste. I did very little research beyond finding out which live songs were new and unrecorded. I arranged the songs to fit on four vinyl sides. It worked. It played nice. But it left me with a handful of still great songs leftover. The final tracklist was as follows:

Side A
1 Deal
2 One More Saturday Night
3 Jack Straw
4 Mr. Charlie
5 To Lay Me Down

Side B
1 Greatest Story Ever Told
2 Ramble On Rose
3 Tennessee Jed
4 Black-Throated Wind

Side C
1 Bertha
2 Sugaree
3 Looks like Rain
4 Loser

Side D
1 Cassidy
2 He's Gone
3 Playing In the Band
4 Bird Song

I posted the tracklist in a comment on soniclovenoize’s Albums That Never Were blog and somebody asked where The Wheel was. I had just come across the song They Love Each Other which sort of fit the timeline so I compiled a follow up LP with the following leftover songs.

Side A
1 Brown-Eyed Woman
2 Walk in the Sunshine
3 The stranger (Two Souls in Communion)
4 The Wheel

Side B
5 They Love Each Other
6 Chinatown Shuffle
7 Wharf Rat
8 Mexicali Blues

This is where things started to snowball. I started thinking “what if the double album was two single albums?”. I looked at the tracklists again and rearranged the disc sides of the double album. If they were to be single albums, then some songs would have to be moved.

Jack Straw was the most out of place. If the first LP would have been released late ’71 or early ’72 then we had an anomaly. Before the European tour Bob sang all the verses but by the end of the tour Bob and Jerry were trading verses. The version I used from Europe ’72 had Bob and Jerry trading verses. This meant that the side with Jack Straw (Side A) had to be moved to the second album. I swapped side A with side C which contained Bertha which was from the first live album in late ’71. I made new covers and dumped them onto my mp3 player for testing and everything seemed good.

Then I started researching and, well, then things got crazy. I had to go back to the drawing board and start over. Same song pool but now I looked into the time line of when each song was first performed or recorded. I am still discovering and finalizing things. I will post the results after the next project.