Dimetia 13 - 108 Sacred Stages

To close out 2018 here's something special and a bit obscure. the neo-psyche band Dimentia 13.

Dimentia 13 released their first album in 1985 and released five albums while they were active. Hailing from Ohio they were similar but separate from the Paisley Underground bands of the time with influences closer to Syd Barrett, Robyn Hitchcock and the 13th Floor Elevators. Trippy lyrics and lots of fuzz guitar.

Fronted by Brad Warner who wrote the songs and on the early albums played most of, or all of the instruments. In the early 80s Brad was the bass player for the hardcore punk band 0DFX. When that band had run its course Brad went back to school, formed Dimentia 13 and discovered Zen. In the 90s he moved to Japan to teach English and went on to work for the company that gave us Godzilla and Ultraman. At that time he also became an ordained Buddhist monk in the Soto school of Zen. These days he leads Zen meditation classes, gives talks and writes books on Buddhism and Zen and plays bass in the revived 0DFX.

This is a collection of demos, outtakes and live tracks from his band Dimentia 13.

01 108 Sacred Stages
02 Hey, Maharaja!
03 Fog Camouflage
04 Truth
05 Weight
06 Innocent Anemia
07 Somebody Stop Me
08 In The Past
09 Snow Is Falling
10 Twice The Speed Of Time [Demo]
11 Can't Stand Still
12 All Is One
13 Mr Blood Clot
14 We Are
15 Mesmerized
16 Get Me Outta Sing Sing
17 Lucifer Sam
18 Do What You Will
19 God Part III

Reality Notes

I discovered Brad Warner through his books on Buddhism. If you have an interest in that kind of thing, I highly recommend them. His writing style is very accessible and personable and helped clarify many misconceptions I had about Buddhism in general and Zen in particular.

After reading his first book, Hardcore Zen, I found his website. There he would post articles and pictures of dinosaur books. He also posted some songs from his music career. The first ten songs in this comp came from there. The rest of the songs can be found on YouTube and are mostly live tracks and a couple of outtakes.

Tracks 14-17 come from a 1988 T.V. appearance on a Chicago public access show called Friday Club. Each performance was separated by other content so I edited the songs together to seem like a continuous performance.

Snow Is Falling was originally released on the various artist Christmas album put out by the record label he was signed to Midnight Records.

Can't Stand Still is an outtake from the album Flat Earth Society produced by Glenn Rehse of Plasticland.

Mr Blood Clot was released on a Flexidisc given away with an issue of the British psych mag Freakbeat.

God Part III is a more recent live solo acoustic performance of a song from the album Flat Earth Society.

I found the cover pic online and added the text.

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Melancholia - Volume 5

I think of all of the non-themed volumes, this is my favorite.  What makes this compilation slightly unique is that it is the first and only comp in the series originally made from dubbing cassette to cassette. It was made at a time when I was between buying vinyl and not yet buying CDs. Because of this, this is a good cross sample of what I was currently listening to at the time whereas previous collections were a mix of new discoveries and old favorites. There is still that mix but everything was purchased around the same time.

At the time this was complied I was working at a restaurant where on my breaks I would go and sit in the dinning room and chat with the other workers. We had a jukebox that played three songs for a quarter and I would always play the same three songs; Free Fallin' by Tom Petty, The Flame by Cheap Trick and Almost Hear You Sigh by the Rolling Stones. I'm not sure why the Stones song didn't make the comp but it should have. I must have run out of room.

01 Tom Petty - Free Fallin'
02 The Rainmakers - No Romance
03 Jimi Hendrix - The Wind Cries Mary
04 Heart - Love Alive
05 Ringo Starr - It Don't Come Easy
06 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Feel Your Love
07 Love and Rockets - So Alive
08 Tracie Spencer - Imagine
09 Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers - Tumblin Down
10 Vanilla Fudge - Ticket To Ride
11 David Crosby - Tracks In The Dust

12 Cheap Trick - The Flame
13 Nazareth - Love Hurts
14 Belinda Carlisle - Mad About You
15 Guns N' Roses - Patience
16 Indigo Girls - Closer To Fine
17 Tin Machine - Amazing
18 Eric Clapton - Please Be With Me
19 Living Colour - Broken Hearts
20 Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High
21 Paul McCartney - Distractions
22 Prince - Mountains
23 Enya - Orinoco Flow

Reina del Cid - Sunday Mornings With...The Originals

Here is a follow up to my Reina del Cid post a couple months back. This one focuses on the original songs they performed for their Sunday Mornings With... series.

I culled these 23 songs from more than 50 tracks. These folks are very prolific and continue to release a new song each week. Some are covers and some are originals.

Many of these songs have yet to appear on an album. I did my best to determine which songs were originals. It was usually declared in the video title or description and in some cases during the intros on the video itself. If any of these are covers they did a great job of making them their own.

01 Library Girl
02 1970
03 Let's Begin
04 All Time Low
05 Giving Up
06 Hold Me Before I'm Gone Forever
07 Blue Sky Armageddon
08 Sister, Don't Cry
09 Ferdinand
10 Million Girls
11 Runner in the Sun
12 Honey from the Bee
13 Woolf
14 O My Baby
15 Pretty Lie
16 Shot 'em Dead
17 Edge of the Universe
18 Soul Mines
19 Burn Out
20 Common Man
21 Queen Hazel
22 Up the Creek
23 Seasons

Reality Notes

I continue to be enamored by this band. Great songs and great musicianship. Always tasteful and never overstated. If you feel compelled to show your support they do have a Patreon page. This seems to be a common method for independent bands to fund their work.

I had a lot of material to choose from so I focused on unique tracks that have yet to find space on an album or were very different from the album versions. Many of these are song sketches that were either further developed or maybe even dropped for one reason or another but everything here is worthy of sharing.

Melancholia - Volume 4

This edition is my least favorite. Not because of the track list but more because of the time it was done. At the time of compiling I was living with my brother to be closer to the band we had. I lived in one city and everyone else lived in another. My records were in storage so I made this from my brother's stack of records. While we have some overlap in our tastes he leans toward more heavy stuff than I do, so finding songs that fit the Melancholia feel was a challenge. Of all the volumes in the series this would be the easiest to trim to fit on a CD.

The one song of note is the Pink Floyd song Grantchester Meadows. Long before I had any albums of my own my brother played this song for me. It was the first all acoustic song I remember hearing and I remember being very stunned by its simplicity. I used to sneak into his room when he wasn't home and play this song a few times then sneak out. I still find the song hauntingly beautiful and I'm sure it had a lot to do with my preference for more acoustic based music.

Side A
01 Montrose - Rich Man
02 Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes - Sasha
03 Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Lend Your Love To Me Tonight
04 Pink Floyd - Grantchester Meadows
05 Angel - Flying With Broken Wings (Without You)
06 Steve Howe - Ram
07 Missing Persons - Surrender Your Heart
08 Bruce, Lordan, Trower [BLT] - It's Too Late
09 Joe Walsh - Tomorrow
10 Pete Townshend - Evolution
11 KISS - Beth
12 Doobie Brothers - Listen To The Music

Side B
13 Captain Beyond - Sufficiently Breathless
14 Alice Cooper - You and Me
15 Neil Diamond - Be
16 James Gang - Spanish Lover
17 Grateful Dead - Dire Wolf
18 Saxon - Northern Lady
19 Steve Vai - Junkie
20 Tommy Bolin - Hello, again
21 Harry Chapin - Flowers Are Red
22 Yes - We Have Heaven

Melancholia - Vol 9 70s Edition

I do have a few other projects in the works but until they are ready the Melancholia fest continues.

There's a certain sound or production style that was popular in the early 70s. I never put my finger on it but I think it had something to do with a certain type of reverb and how it was used. The shimmery strums of acoustic guitar and the liberal use of the Fender Rhodes electric piano seem to be prevalent as well. Either way when I hear that sound I'm transported somewhere else.

This compilation was my attempt to bottle that nostalgia for easy consumption and I think it turned out pretty good. While '67 to '75 seems to be the period of music I gravitate to, I'm always surprised at how many of my favorite songs or albums come from 1973. This comp covers more than just that year but the bulk of the tracks are from right around that time. This is definitely a desert island disc for me. It also contains the most "big hits" than any other Melancholia comps with exception of the K-Tel Generation collection. Enjoy!

01 Neil Young - Heart Of Gold
02 Carly Simon - You're So Vain
03 Paul McCartney - Band on the Run
04 Rod Stewart - Maggie May
05 Lou Reed- Walk on the Wild Side
06 Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years
07 Badfinger - Day After Day
08 America - A Horse With No Name
09 The Kinks - Lola
10 Led Zeppelin - Hey Hey What Can I Do?
11 David Bowie - Heroes
12 T.Rex - Bang A Gong (Get It On)
13 Ringo Starr - Photograph
14 Gary Wright - Love Is Alive
15 Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine
16 Joe Cocker - Feelin' Alright
17 Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi
18 Eric Clapton - Let It Rain
19 The Hollies - The Air That I Breathe

Melancholia - Volume 3

This volume of my Melancholia series was again sourced from the best vinyl I had. It also contains more (sort of) current (at the time) songs than the previous volumes.

This is still one of my favorite editions. It has the right blend of new, classic and deep cuts. Many of these songs are still among my top favorites ever. If I were to make a best of Melancholia collection this volume would be well represented.

While not the last comp to be sourced from vinyl it was made when my record collection had reached its peak. Soon after this edition I went into a nomadic stage in my life which necessitated my collection going into storage and eventual reduction to make moving easier. During this time of limbo I purchased cassettes over vinyl and eventually embraced CDs.

Side A
01 Lone Justice - Shelter
02 Tommy James - Kelly Told Anne
03 Paul Simon - Take Me To The Mardi Gras
04 Bob Marley and the Wailers - Redemption Song
05 Lou Reed - I Love You
06 Crosby-Nash - The Wall Song
07 Rickie Lee Jones - On Saturday Afternoons In 1963
08 Led Zeppelin - Going to California
09 Grateful Dead - Black Muddy River
10 Amy Grant - Family
11 The Faces - Ooh La La
12 Dire Straits - Why Worry

Side B
01 Love and Rockets - Waiting For The Flood
02 Leo Kottke - Tiny Island
03 Lloyd Cole - 2cv
04 T'Pau - Heart And Soul
05 Klaatu - I Don't Wanna Go Home
06 Melanie - Holding Out
07 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - The Wild One, Forever
08 Squeeze - Black Coffee In Bed
09 Fleetwood Mac - Storms
10 Randy Stonehill - Christine
11 Yardbirds - Still I'm Sad
12 Billy Bragg - The Man In The Iron Mask

Reality Notes

I'd like to address naming conventions. Like many here, I have a large digital library. Early on I knew I needed a way to go through my files efficiently and I needed a way to organize my collection to make it accessible through my library manager (Media Monkey), my iPods or just browsing through the folders.

My general solution was to create a folder structure and naming convention that made my collection browsable no matter how I looked at it. At the folder structure root is a folder named Music (obviously). Inside there is a folder for each letter of the alphabet plus about a dozen special folders for certain genres that I wanted to keep separate from the mainstream general folders. The are folders for soundtracks, various artists, country, classical, jazz and a few others.

Artist are sorted by last name so folders within the main folders follow the naming convention of  last name first, first name last for solo artists. Band names with a "The" in front have the "The" placed after the name (IE: Beatles, The). Windows does not ignore "The" when sorting folders unlike Apple. If a band member has any solo albums I generally put those in with the main band's folder unless the solo artist has a sizable discography of their own. Examples are Stevie Nicks is separated from Fleetwood Mac but The Soft Boys get put in the Robyn Hitchcock folder. Solo Beatles have their own folders but I like to keep all solo Dead inside the Grateful Dead folder.

If a band has more than four or five albums the album folders include the number of the album (04 Beatles For Sale) or the year the album was released (1968 The Beatles [White Album]). This sorts the albums in chronological order. Live bootlegs, if numerous, are put in a special folder named '[bootlegs]" within the band folder with both the folder and album names matching using the format: "Year [date] venue, city, state/country - boot title(if applicable)", (1968 [08-13] The Catacombs, Boston, MA). Again this puts them in chronological order and easier to search.

Tags within the tracks themselves follow a similar convention. Last name first, first name last for solo artists and in most cases "The" is placed after the band name following a comma. I have since stopped this because most library managers and iPods ignore "The" when sorting by artists.

Various artist albums were a challenge. My library manager recognizes both the Artist and Album Artist tags. General convention says to put the artist in the artist tag and Various in the Album Artist tag. But iPods would generally put tracks where these two tags differ at the end of the device library thus putting some songs/albums out of order. My solution was to put the name of the various artist album in the Album Artist and Artist tags as well as the Album Title. If the album is a part of a series (like Melancholia) I would put the volume name in the Album tag. I would then put the artist name in the Title tag with the tile using the convention of "Artist - Title". File names use the "Track# Artist - Title" convention.

When I share a various artist collection I will retag the files to better comply with the general consensus of tagging styles. I always embed front cover art within the tag as well as as a separate file within the album folder. I realize there are most likely as many ways to organize a collection as there are collectors but this has worked for me and has proven to scale as the collection grows. How do you organize your collection?

Melancholia Vol 13/14

The following Melancholia sets were recorded on 45 minute tapes so I have bundled them into one post and download. They were named after phrases I found in magazine articles and advertisements. I used to cut them out to use as tape cover decorations along with pictures I would use for covers.

Bits Of Reality was compiled on the fly one night after a rough day at work. I was in a bad mood and chose songs to reflect my feelings. As the comp progressed my anger softened. You can almost hear my mood lift through the first four songs.

01 David Bowie - All the Madmen
02 The Rolling Stones - Dead Flowers
03 The Beatles - Baby You're a Rich Man
04 The Kinks - Celluloid Heroes
05 John Mellencamp - Pink Houses
06 Blues Image - Ride Captain Ride
07 Lou Reed - Wild Child
08 U2 - Seconds
09 The Band (ft The Staples) - The Weight
10 The Rascals - Mustang Sally

Tattered Furniture is almost a companion piece to Bits Of Reality. It was a little more planned out and not an emotional outburst. Four songs came from the same source. The songs from The Eagles, Uriah Heep, The Doors and Foghat all were found on another various artist album. It was a Warner Bros. double album called Heavy Metal Vol 1 (never did see a volume two). Despite the name the closest it got to heavy metal was a song each from Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. The rest was from the likes of The J. Giles Band and The Grateful Dead.

01 Eagles - Outlaw Man
02 Humble Pie - Natural Born Boogie
03 Uriah Heep - Stealin'
04 Ten Years After - I'd Love To Change The World
05 Fleetwood Mac - The Green Manalishi
06 The Beatles - Doctor Robert
07 Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky
08 Tom Petty - American Girl
09 The Doors - Touch me
10 The Guess Who - No Sugar Tonight - New Mother Nature
11 Foghat  - What A Shame
12 The Who - Pinball Wizard
13 Steve Miller Band - Take The Money And Run

Melancholia - Volume 2

Volume two of my Melancholia mixtape series.

For volume two I also wanted to gather some of my favorite songs but I loosened my criteria as far as the condition of the vinyl source. Naturally the reconstruction here mostly comes from CD but there may be one or two that are sourced from vinyl rips. There is also a more acoustic base to the collection.

This volume was a cleanup of sorts and covered what was missed on the first one due to space limitations or vinyl conditions. This volume initially suffered from the "hoping lightening strikes twice" syndrome. In the end the collection had a charm of its own and was enough to push the series onward.

Side A
01 Bob Dylan - Positively 4th Street
02 Derek & the Dominos - Bell Bottom Blues
03 Dr Hook - Sylvia's Mother
04 Mason Proffit - Two Hangmen
05 Dire Straits - Wild West End
06 John Prine - Souvenirs
07 Al Stewart - Year of the Cat
08 Ten Years After - Over The Hill
09 Johnny Rivers - Summer Rain
10 The Firm - Together
11 The Kinks - Tired of Waiting For You

Side B
01 Bad Company - Shooting Star
02 Fleetwood Mac - Gold Dust Woman
03 Dan Fogelberg - Leader Of The Band
04 Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale
05 Jesse Colin Young - The Peace Song
06 Harry Chapin - Taxi
07 Jethro Tull - One Brown Mouse
08 Alpha Band - Love and Romance
09 Don McLean - Vincent (Starry Starry Night)
10 George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
11 The Beatles - Julia

Kenny Parisot - Tell The Wind

Here's something a bit special to me. This is a collection of demos we recorded of a co-worker of my brothers way back in the early 2000s. What makes them special is that these demos served as the foundation of my band's first album.

When we recorded these our intention was not to start a band. My brother Pat met Kenny at work and in passing Kenny mentioned that he sang and played a little guitar and wrote songs. He wanted to record them so he had something to give his kids and friends. Pat offered to record him and Kenny accepted and that was it.

The plan was to make simple guitar and vocal demos but after the initial sessions Pat started to enhance the recordings with other instruments played by him, me and other friends. By the end of the sessions a core group emerged and that became the first incarnation of Pearhead.

01 Brown Guitar
02 Cinnamon Roll
03 Ghetto Song
04 Willow
05 Michelle
06 None and Slim
07 Red White and Blue
08 She's A Dancer
09 Remember Love
10 Tell The Wind
11 Set You Free
12 Mango
13 Soft Mattress
14 Whiskers on a Kitty

Reality Notes

Two songs here have some additional instruments. Ghetto Song has some heavy guitar and slight percussion and the title song, Tell The Wind, has some Mandolin. Both of these songs received further treatment before they were done.

Two other songs, None And Slim and Mango, were held over and rerecorded for the second album and two more songs, Willow and She's A Dancer, were demos from the second album sessions but they fit in nice here. She's A Dancer features Kenny playing the banjo. After the first album was done and the band coalesced he felt there were enough guitar players and he switched to banjo.

Remember Love is how it appears on the finished album but because it is just guitar and vocal I feel it fits in.

Some of these might sound rough guitar wise. Kenny never laid claimed to musical proficiency but his songs are amazing. He has that ability to paint pictures with words. In the course of enhancing and overdubbing we learned to follow his vocals more than his guitar. He was always rhythmically sound when he sang. when we recorded the next album the bulk of the songs were recorded as a band then enhanced so there are fewer solo demos from that album.

The cover art was sketched by our drummer from the time Ryan. He was doodling while listening to the finished album. I added the text.

If you want to hear how these songs developed you can listen to and download both albums at our ReverbNation page or check out my netLabel's website where you can download everything I've been involved with that I can offer for free (it's a bit of a mess at the moment but all the download links are good).. Our new album is nearing completion. We've added a second lead singer/songwriter and I'm very excited about what we've been doing. Still a few months away but I'll share it here when it is done.

Melancholia - Volume 12 [Special Edition]

Another Melancholia mixtape. I flip flopped on how I was going to post these. In chronological order or  randomly. I decided to post the first six volumes in order with the special themed volumes in between them.

This is the first of the themed collections. In reality, none of the themed tapes were intended to be a part of the series but when my library went digital I included them in with the series. They just seemed to fit together.

This edition has a slight country influence with splashes of reggae. I was going for something slightly off of mainstream with a bit of a Grateful Dead feel. In fact the first few times I played this at work we would play "find The Dead". This was also compiled on a 100 minute tape so it is a bit long but it's a nice kind of long.

Side A
01 Little Women - Breakfast at Lucille's
02 Kingfish - My Pledge of Love
03 Pete Townshend - There's A Heartache Following
04 Canned Heat - On The Road Again
05 The Wallflowers - Shy of the Moon
06 Roger Miller - King of  the Road
07 New Riders of the Purple Sage - Last Lonely Eagle
08 Peter Tosh - Ketchy Shuby
09 Joni Mitchell - Blue Motel Room
10 Steve Goodman - City of New Orleans
11 Paul Simon - Proof
12 Garcia, Grisman - A Horse Named Bill

Side B
01 Little Village - Don't Go Away Mad
02 Sugar Minott - Good Thing Going
03 Buffalo Springfield - Kind Woman
04 Bob Dylan - Hard Times
05 Solar Circus - Fortune Teller
06 The Rolling Stones - No Expectations
07 Led Zeppelin - That's The Way
08 KD Lang - Lock Stock & Teardrops
09 Neil Young - Are You Ready For The Country
10 John Lennon - You Are Here
11 Grateful Dead - Monkey And The Engineer
12 Bob Marley & The Wailers - One Love/People Get Ready
13 Arlo Guthrie - Hobo's Lullaby

Melancholia - Volume 1

noun: melancholia
 deep sadness or gloom; melancholy.
 
"rain slithered down the windows, encouraging a creeping melancholia"

Real life is encroaching on my time and I'm running thin on ideas that interest me so I think it's time to honor my promise/threat to post my Melancholia mixtape series (named after a Pete Townsend song). I'll be posting these when I have no other projects to post. I will give a short description of each collection and the tracklist but no further analysis. They are what they are.

You will see some artists make multiple appearances across the series but no artist appears more than once on any collection unless they are musicians in more than one band or a solo artist that is also in another band.

On my hard drive the series is 16 volumes. I won't be posting all of them. Three volumes (7, 10 and 11) are in flux at the moment and I have already posted one of the themed volumes which was the K-Tel edition. The first six volumes are general collections but starting with volume eight I started doing special themed compilations. Also the first five volumes were compiled on 90 minute tapes so they will not burn to a single CD.

When I made this first volume in 1985 it was not my intention to start a series but it turned out so well I kept it going. My goal with this comp was to gather some of my favorite songs with a focus on using only my cleanest vinyl and showcasing tracks that had a lot of headphone candy while at the same time being genre agnostic. Each volume has its own personality but there is a common feel that runs through the whole thing. Essentially this is my musical equivalent of comfort food. My wife at one time commented how the series does not make her sad like the name suggested and I had to correct her saying that it was meant to bring you out of sadness, not push you into it.

Side A
01 Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Lucky Man
02 Elton John - Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to be a Long Long Time)
03 Grand Funk Railroad - Some Kind Of Wonderful
04 Love and Rockets - Haunted When the Minutes Drag
05 The Bangles - More That Meets The Eye
06 T.Rex - The Slider
07 Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City
08 Cat Stevens - The Wind
09 War - Low Rider
10 Alice Cooper - Only Women Bleed
11 The Police - Walking in Your Footsteps

Side B
01 Kansas - Dust in the Wind
02 Pure Prairie League - Amie
03 Bob Seger - You'll Accomp'ny Me
04 Paul McCartney and Wings - Let Me Roll It
05 Doobie Brothers - Black Water
06 Pete Townshend - Behind Blue Eyes
07 U2 - Bad
08 Buckingham-Nicks - Crying In The Night
09 Crosby, Stills & Nash - Helplessly Hoping
10 The Rolling Stones - Play With Fire
11 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Southern Accents
12 Billy Vera & The Beaters - Hopeless Romantic

I have a common template for the covers. Each features some form of fantasy or classic artwork.

Grateful Dead - Day Job - 1995

[UPDATE: I've made enough changes to this album to justify an updated archive. Something I rarely do. I've removed the two songs I was never quite happy with: Keep Your Day Job and Samba In The Rain and swapped the version of Days Between with a new edit by John Hilgart over at Save Your Face. Overall the album feels more concise and consistent from front to back. On Nov. 22nd the band will finally release their version. With only 9 songs but still long enough to make it a double vinyl album due to using all live version it still seems long to me but at least we'll finally have the band's input.]

Last week I addressed The Grateful Dead's hypothetical first album so I thought it appropriate that I take a look at their last. I've been seeing a lot of constructions of what could have been the last Grateful Dead album before Jerry Garcia passed away. I enjoyed all of them but none of them satisfied me completely for one reason or another so I decided to throw my hat in the ring.

In 1995 The Dead had begun the process of recording their next album. According to interviews they had barely gotten past the stage of laying down the foundation when Jerry checked out. While ideally it would be best to polish off those recordings, Jerry never got around to doing his vocals or solos which renders the album impossible to finish from the band's perspective.

Fortunately for us all songs in contention were played live on many occasions. The band recorded every show which gives us plenty of source material to construct a facsimile of what the album could have sounded like. Interpretations of this album vary and production was still in its early stages so the only clues we have from the band is a list of potential songs in no particular order.

01 Lazy River Road (Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter)
02 Corinna (Bob Weir/Mickey Hart/Robert Hunter)
03 Wave to the Wind (Phil Lesh/Robert Hunter)
04 Easy Answers (Bob Weir/Bob Bralove/Rob Wasserman/Vince Welnick/Robert Hunter)
05 If the Shoe Fits (Phil Lesh/Andrew Charles)
06 So Many Roads (Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter)
07 Way to Go Home (Vince Welnick/Bob Bralove/Robert Hunter)
08 Liberty (Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter)
09 Eternity (Bob Weir/Rob Wasserman/Willie Dixon)
10 Days Between (Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter)

Reality Notes

The first version of this album I heard was Days Between (The Final Album That Never Was), by Tony Sclafani, author of The Grateful Dead FAQ book. This remained my goto version right up to when I started my construction. What I liked most about Tony's construction was his use of shorter length versions over longer jams even when the longer version was better. This allowed all 12 tracks to fit comfortably on one disc.

I think my growing dissatisfaction came down to sequencing, not enough Jerry and too much Phil. As a bass player Phil sits among my pantheon of bass gods but I have never been a fan of his voice and there were three Phil songs. To rectify this I dropped Phil's Childhood's End (the worst offender) and added Keep Your Day Job. I'm well aware of the controversy over Day Job but I have always liked the song and feel it is mostly misinterpreted by those who speak against it (if you're one of those then just delete the song and you'll still have a full album). I swapped a few other versions and shuffled the songs around until I had a good flow from track to track.

I have been enjoying this construction, I'm very pleased with how it came out. It's amazing how swapping out a few songs can complete an album. My only complaint would be its length. At just over 72 minutes it is quite hefty but this is the swan song of one of rock's most iconic bands so I'm willing to let the length slide. It fits on a CD and it's The Grateful Dead. I'm Happy.

There's still a few scraps out there to collect together. I had the cover song Women are Smarter in contention but in the end went with an all originals tracklist. If someone could find a version of Childhood's End where Phil doesn't sound like an average bar band singer let me know. It's an OK song and is filler worthy but time constraints and subpar vocals pushed it out of contention for this construction.

The cover again utilizes a tour poster graphic with added text by me. I like using tour poster art because I feel it's the closest we can get to official artwork and band promo photos don't always make good album covers.

Hindsight

I was going to add these hindsights chronologically but I wanted to address this album specifically because it is the only one that I have changed since posting. after some further listens it still felt long. I've since dropped Day Job and Samba In The Rain. As much as I like Day Job neither song seemed to fit. I'm not updating the download so if you want to play along you can just delete those songs. Eventhough I'm dropping the title song I'm keeping the album as named. It's a cool name and kind of a tribute to one of my favorite songs of this period that never found a home. This does mean that there are still a small handful of post Built To Last songs that are still unused. Hmmm.

A recent post on the Save Your Face blog led me to an acoustic Dead show on 09/24/1994 at The Berkeley Community Theatre that was billed as a Phil and Friends show but was The Dead minus the drummers. During the set they did a version of Phil's Childhood's End that is for me the most listenable version I've heard yet. If I were to make a comp of what's left I would go with that version. They also did a fine version of Lazy River Road that is almost as good as this one but not enough to replace it. It would have been nice to have at least one acoustic number on the album.

Is it on my iPod? Yes. The Dead is one of the few bands that I have their full studio discography with me at all times including all of the constructions here. It gives me a fuller picture of the band I feel and makes for an interesting listen when on shuffle.

Grateful Dead - Alt Debut -1966

[I was just putting the finishing touches on this when Paul at Albums That Should Exist posted three albums of '65-'66 Dead. So if you want more check him out.]

I thought I was done with The Dead but I discovered this album hiding in plain sight. The Grateful Dead released their major label debut in 1967 but that was not the beginning of their recording career.

The 2001 box set  The Golden Road (1965–1973) contained two bonus discs titled The Birth Of The Dead that was later released separately as a two disc set. One disc contained studio tracks and the other contained live tracks Both from 1965-66 before they recorded their Warner Brothers label debut.

Between those two discs and a couple stray tracks from other sources, I was able to put together what could have been the first Grateful Dead album, released on Scorpio Records who released their first single before signing to WB.

Side One
01 Alice D Millionaire 5
02 Mindbender (Confusion's Prince) 1
03 I Know You Rider 1
04 Early Morning Rain 1
05 Can't Come Down 1
06 Pain in My Heart 4

Side Two
01 You See a Broken Heart 3
02 On The Road Again 4
03 Tastebud 2
04 The Only Time Is Now 1
05 You Don't Have to Ask 2
06 Standing On the Corner 4

Single
A. Don't Ease Me In 2
B. Stealin' 2

Reality Notes

I love archival releases but they seldom lend themselves to repeated listens due to their focus on preserving every meaningful scrap they can find. The Birth Of The Dead is no exception. While disc two can see some regular listens, disc one suffers from the unfortunate side effect of the archival process. What we have on that disc includes multiple versions of many of the songs including instrumental versions. While that's great for research and gaining new insights into your favorite bands, with each listen the skip button is pressed more often.

But sometimes, after a few listens, a group of songs coalesce into an entity of its own. And it is that scenario that is one of the many reasons for what we do here. This is an effort to rescue songs that deserve to sit within the official cannon that otherwise would be buried and possibly forgotten among some less polished gems.

The bulk of these recordings come from two sets of studio sessions. The first was in late '65 for Autumn Records and the second in late spring of '66 for Scorpio Records. Two songs from the Scorpio sessions, Don't Ease Me In and Stealin', were released locally as a single which I have included as bonus tracks. The rest of the album is filled out with live tracks (it wouldn't be the last time). Many of these songs continued to be setlist regulars for the remainder of the band's career.

The one anomaly (there's always one, isn't there) is the opening track, Alice D Millionaire. This recording comes from the sessions that gave us the Warner Brothers debut although notes say it was played live in '66 which makes it fair game to use. I added it for a few reasons. Mostly because it is an original song and fit in stylistically and I didn't want it to get lost in bonus track limbo.

I struggled with a title for the album before giving up and leaving it untitled. They later named two other albums the same name, one was their WB debut and the other was a live album that is more commonly referred to as Skull and Roses so why not add to the confusion? Maybe the fans would have given it a nickname to set it apart. Think of it as a false start. The cover uses elements from a tour poster, an old promo pic and some clipart roses.

1 Autumn Records sessions November 3, 1965 at Golden Gate Recorders in San Francisco
note: tape box lists artist as: The Emergency Crew; a short-lived name the band used immediately prior to "Grateful Dead"
2 Scorpio Records sessions June 1966 at Buena Vista Studio in San Francisco, and Western Recording in San Francisco
note: Don't Ease Me In and Stealin', were previously issued locally (in limited quantity), in July 1966, as the Grateful Dead's first single (Scorpio Records #201), with Don't Ease Me In on the A-side. Included here is the "dry mix" - the single was mastered with added reverb. I Know You Rider was also recorded during these sessions.
3 Studio recording, early 1966 (from Rare Cuts and Oddities 1966)
4 Live tracks recorded in 1966 at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, On The Road Again is from Los Angeles, California
5 Outtake from the WB Grateful Dead sessions 1967. A version of Tastebud was also recorded during these sessions.

Reina del Cid - Sunday Mornings With...

YouTube month concludes with my most recent discovery and the catalyst for this series. 

Reina del Cid is an up and coming group that is doing very well. With three independent albums and what looks like regular touring including Europe it always pleases me when I see a group or artist do well when they really deserve it. They also have a weekly YouTube series named Sunday Mornings With Reina del Cid. They post weekly videos of covers and originals.

Musically Reina del Cid ticks every box in my list of things I like. They are mostly acoustic based with a variety of sounds and styles. Toni Lindgren, the lead guitarist is amazing. She has a great sense of tastiness and never overplays but obviously has the chops to do so if she wants. She also plays fine mandolin and banjo, a girl after my own heart. Reina writes great songs and has one of those voices that displays a wisdom well beyond this young girls age.

I was so struck by Reina Del Cid that I went and purchased what I could and I hope you show them some love and do the same.

01 Sugaree
02 Ain't No Sunshine
03 Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)
04 21st of May
05 Over the Red Cedar
06 Colours
07 What Would I Do
08 All My Little Words
09 Bells of Harlem
10 Dream A Little Dream of Me
11 Ophelia
12 XO
13 Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
14 Faded Love
15 Slip Slide on By
16 You Belong to Me
17 Boogie Shoes
18 Wildflowers
19 Tupelo Honey
20 Ruby
21 Dear Someone
22 I'll Be There
23 Praise You
24 Tonight I'll Be Staying Here
25 Dink's Song - Fare Thee Well

Reality Notes

The Sunday series has been going on for quite a while and I had plenty of songs to choose from. I was able to hold back all of the originals and still choose my favorites from what was left. Please go to her channel and check out the rest then go and see them if you can. They will be coming through my neck of the woods soon.

The quality of the audio varies from location to location but most are A+ with the worst never as bad as a B. They definitely have the equipment and the people to do this right.

I'll let Reina describe the songs herself. I copied these notes from the description of each video. I did edit out any unnecessary text about past tours and stuff like that. The headings are the actual video titles with the date they were first posted.

Sugaree (Grateful Dead) - Mar 12, 2017
Toni might be a bit of a Dead-head -- she introduced me to this song a while back, and now I love playing it. It was between this one or Tennessee Jed, which actually I think we'll do at some point, too. Keep those requests coming, btw!

[This was the first song I watched but it was their version of Tupelo Honey that sold me.]

Ain't No Sunshine - Jun 11, 2017
Here's an oft-requested classic from the great Bill Withers. "Use Me" will always be my favorite song by him, but this is up there, too. Though it looks sunny on camera, it's actually a pretty dreary day here in Minnesota, and right after we shut the camera off, there was a sudden downpour with hail, so there certainly ain't no sunshine today. See you next Sunday!

Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) - live from the van! - Oct 1, 2017
I'm dedicating this Sunday Morning video to my mom because it's one of her favorites. She once sang this song (after being persuaded by friends and a glass of wine or two) at a party, and little did she know, someone was recording the audio. I had that mp3 on my iPod for many years until it was stolen and lost forever, but I used to listen to her sing this one a lot when was walking around campus in college. So here you go, Mom! Our version, live from the new van.

21st of May - Nickel Creek (cover) - Jul 20, 2014
Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek wrote this stingingly satirical song from the point of view of Harold Camping, the California preacher who falsely predicted the end of the world--a few times. If you like our version, check out the original!

Over the Red Cedar - Charlie Parr cover - Oct 29, 2017
Charlie Parr is one of Minnesota's finest songwriters, and we wanted to pay homage to him for this Sunday Morning video. We're doing Charlie's song "Over the Red Cedar." If you like our version and haven't heard his, check it out here.

Colours - Jun 1, 2014
"Colours" is a song by Donovan, covered here by your friendly neighborhood Reina and Toni for our weekly Sunday Mornings with Reina del Cid video series.

What Would I Do (Ray Charles) - Feb 12, 2017
It doesn't get any better than waking up early, brewing a cup of coffee, and playing some Ray Charles to start the Sunday morning. It's been a pleasure bringing these songs to you so far.

All My Little Words - Mar 25, 2018
This Sunday morning we're doing a cover of a song by The Magnetic Fields. I've been a fan of this band forever, and this has always been one of my favorites by them.

Bells of Harlem - Jul 22, 2018
P.S. Loving this Dave Rawlings Machine tune? Check out their live version of “Bells of Harlem” from their KEXP session.

[This was recorded outdooors. Listen for the sirens that pop up in the background at just the right places.]

Dream A Little Dream of Me - Aug 20, 2017
Doing the Doris Day classic, "Dream A Little Dream of Me" for this week's Sunday Morning song.

Ophelia (The Band cover) - Jul 27, 2014
Our friend Grace sat in with us on tuba for this week's video and brought a whole new level of awesome.

XO (Beyoncé cover) - Oct 30, 2016
We did an acoustic treatment of Beyonce's "XO" for this Sunday morning video. It isn't very often that Toni plays that beautiful Gibson CS-336, but when she does, it's a treat for the rest of us.

Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard - May 28, 2017
Because we usually get up around 5 or 6 a.m. on Sundays to record our videos and post them a couple hours later, we're always looking for new places to record that won't get us in trouble with our neighbors. (Not everyone wants to wake up to the sound of a couple of hooligans learning a Paul Simon song.) So for this week's video, we brewed some coffee and took it to an abandoned schoolyard in St. Paul., far from any neighborly sleeping that might have been going on closer to home.

Faded Love - Apr 22, 2018
This is a Western swing song written by Bob Wills and released in 1950. I think it has one of the most beautiful melodies of any old time country tune. My favorite version is (of course) Patsy Cline's because it brings me to tears, but Willie and Merle both do this one justice, too. Putting my own spin on it for this Sunday Morning, and I hope you enjoy! (P.S. Thanks to Toni for lending me her sweet Martin for this one while she's in Norway!)

Slip Slide on By - Valerie June cover Jul 23, 2017
Toni Lindgren joins me this week with some tasty slide guitar on this cover of the beautiful Valerie June song, "Slip Slide on By." This comes off of her newest release, The Order of Time--one of my favorite albums from this year.

You Belong to Me - Dec 31, 2017
Here's a 1950s classic that was done by everyone from Jo Stafford to Patsy Cline to Bob Dylan. I just adore this song, so I wanted to share my version with you this Sunday! I hope you enjoy it!

Boogie Shoes - Aug 13, 2017
Happy Sunday morning! A couple minutes after a monsoon swept through, we went up to a wet rooftop in downtown St. Paul to play this song as the clouds started to clear up. That's Andrew Foreman grooving on the upright bass and Toni Lindgren choppin' the mandolin. Shane Lattie is the man behind the camera!

[If you listen close you can hear Reina break a string during Toni's solo. The professional that she is, she did not stop playing but soldered on.]

Wildflowers (Tom Petty) - Oct 8, 2017
This week we went over to one of our favorite local record stores, Hymies Vintage Records, to pay tribute to one of the greatest rock n roll legends of all time. Tom Petty has inspired me in countless ways and the best way I know how to honor the music he left behind for us is to live in it and share it with friends. So I hope you enjoy our take on "Wildflowers," one of his most beautiful songs.

Tupelo Honey - Apr 20, 2014
Good morning! So, I got a bunch of suggestions last week for covers, and this Van Morrison song was my favorite. My bandmates Chris (bass) and Toni (guitar) are sitting in with me for this one.

Ruby - Jan 29, 2017
We're sitting in a shed outside a coffee shop called the Bean Factory in St. Paul -- happy Sunday morning! No, Toni and I did not mean to match . . . we were just on a maroon sort of wavelength, apparently.

Dear Someone - Mar 18, 2018
We’re road tripping out in the American West to bring you some fun Sunday Morning videos in new locales, and this week we find ourselves in the gorgeous south rim of one of the wonders of the world: the Grand Canyon! This is the first time either Toni or I have seen it, and my, it sure is grand. I hope you enjoy this Gillian Welch tune, “Dear Someone.”

I'll Be There - May 25, 2014
"I'll Be There" is an old Ray Price song - we've revamped it a little and made it our own. Enjoy, and join us next Sunday for another video!

Praise You (Fat Boy Slim acoustic cover) - Jun 10, 2018
Happy Sunday Morning! We're currently on tour and recorded this acoustic cover of Fat Boy Slim's "Praise You" just outside an awesome venue called The Outpost where we played in Albuquerque yesterday.

I've always really liked this Fat Boy Slim song, and I absolutely love the original song "Take Yo Praise" by Camille Yarbrough from which the vocal sample was taken. If you haven't heard that, do yourself a favor and check it out on YouTube.

This is a song by Dave Rawlings Machine. If you like our version, check out their KEXP session (it's right here on YouTube): melodic guitar solos, great harmonies, and unbeatable facial expressions. :)

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You - Jan 22, 2017
Greetings from the pool room of a little motel in Ogallala, Nebraska. We’re on road back to Minneapolis after a short stint in Colorado, and we didn’t have our usual audio equipment with us so we had to just put up an iPhone and go. Hope you enjoyed this Bob Dylan classic!

Dink's Song - Fare Thee Well - Apr 27, 2014
The fourth installment in the "Sunday Mornings with Reina del Cid" coffee-and-a-song series. Love this beautiful, melancholy old song.

Thanks to Luke for this one. Keep those suggestions coming!

[I was going to provide a link to each video but Reina switches videos from public to private and from private to public from time to time. the private videos are visible only to her Patreon supporters.]

There are enough tracks left over to make another compilation. Maybe in the future I'll post a collection of some of the stripped down originals. In the meantime here is their Daytrotter appearance from February 2018.

The cover is a cropped screenshot from the videos.

Youtube
Website
Facebook

Benjamin Kammin - 6 Rabbits-2 Dogs-1 Cat-1 Cow

YouTube month continues. 

I'm cheating a little on this one. I've known Ben since long before he had a YouTube channel but I like to promote him whenever I can. I first encountered Ben playing at a Barnes and Nobel bookstore and was instantly a fan. I ran across him a few more times and struck up a conversation. Ben is an amazing fingerstyle guitarist with one of those soft and smokey singing voices that seems to wrap around you before penetrating your soul.

I had the pleasure of recording some demos for Ben when my studio was brand new and barely up to specs for such delicate music but the results were fine for demos. I've included some of those here. Simply put, anything with a vocal was recorded by me.

01 Road to Mallow
02 Sad, Sad, Sad
03 Breaking of the Shells [Billy McLaughlin]
04 Little Beaver [Leo Kottke]
05 Autumn
05 Little Beaver [Leo Kottke]
06 Long December
07 November [Pino Forastiere]
08 Ojo [Leo Kottke]
09 South by Winterwest [Billy McLaughlin]
10 September
11 Sunflower River Blues [John Fahey]
12 Dali
13 Mona Ray [Leo Kottke]
14 Sleepy Time [Alex de Grassi]
15 God Said No

Reality Notes

Ben does not perform very often these days but he is far from idle. He gives guitar lessons online for all levels. He was part of a research team that transcribed every available recording by Leo Kottke. He did release an album around the time I first met him. Sadly that album is out of print. He did give me permission to post it on my Sybil Records blog and site. That link is now dead but I will re-up it eventually, maybe here as well.

The cover is an homage to Ben's first CD which featured a sketch of a tree on the cover. The little caricature in the bottom left corner was drawn by me during one of his performances back in the day.

YouTube
Website

Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers - The Van Sessions

Week two of YouTube month.  

The Gramblers was a side project for Tim Bluhm of The Motherhips.  He heard Nicki sing one day and offered to produce some demos for her. They fell in love and married and Nicki joined The Gramblers.

To deal with the boredom of travel while on the road, they started working up cover songs and recording them in the van with their phone and posting the results to YouTube.

A friend pointed me to their rendition of the Hall And Oats classic I Can't Go For That and I was hooked. If you have a chance to see them live please do. Nicki has several albums to her name. Some solo and some credited to Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers, all wonderful.

01 I Can't Go For That
02 Watercolor Canvas
03 You're No Good
04 Hey Baby
05 Everyday
06 Islands in the Stream
07 Let's Hear It For The Boy
08 Can You Get To That
09 Faith
10 Deal
11 Band on the Run
12 Don't Worry Be Happy
13 Easy
14 Material Girl
15 How Sweet It Is
16 Hit Me With Your Best Shot
17 She's Got You
18 Stuck in the Middle With You
19 Take the Money and Run
20 Ramblin' Man
21 Here Comes The Sun
22 Days Like This
23 How Will I Know

Reality Notes

Because of the location and nature of these recordings, sound quality is so-so. Listenable but a bit of background noise (they were recorded in a moving van!). The noise is minimal and does not detract from the overall enjoyment of these songs. The performances are all top notch and instruments are well placed for a good balance. And Nicki has a beautiful voice. They have a lot more than this up on their channel so I was able to pick and choose my favorites.

I was saddened to read that Tim and Nicki have recently split and Tim has left the band. They seemed a great match both musically and relationship wise, I wish them well.

I found the cover during a google search. Some kind artist illustrated a screenshot from one of the videos. I did have to add the title text.

YouTube
WebSite
iTunes
FaceBook

Molly Lewis - SweetAfton23

I have declared September to be "YouTube star" month! Each week this month I will post a collection of songs from an artist that I first heard or follow on YouTube. The tracks themselves were ripped from the videos posted on their official channel. Each collection will be timed to fit on a CD meant to introduce you to the artist and their work. I will do my usual editing of removing spoken intros and outtros unless appropriate as well as EQ and volume matching where needed.

I came across Molly Lewis - aka: SweetAfton23, her original YouTube handle - when I was looking for songs to learn after I purchased my first ukulele. One of the first songs I found was Political Science by Randy Newman as performed by Molly Lewis. What kept me coming back to her channel was her charm and sense of humor and that she played the uke as her main instrument.

Contextual evidence from her videos suggests that she recorded most of her videos while she was in college and that music was/is a passionate but sideline hobby. She appeared to achieve some local fame as a performer and her videos receive a large amount of plays, she even had the opportunity to play her song for Stephen Fry (one of my favorite Brittish comedians) to the man himself. She does have a few songs for sale on her Bandcamp page so check out her channel and show her a little love and support (links below).

01 An Open Letter to Stephen Fry
02 Political Science
03 Crazy
04 Creep
05 Don t Think Twice, It s Alright
06 Hidden in the Sand
07 I Believe She's Lying
08 Toxic
09 It All Makes Sense At The End
10 Two Of Us (Mother s Day special)
11 I Pity The Fool
12 MOUSTACHES (Taken At All/Dear Prudence)
13 My Hope
14 Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
15 Only You
16 Our American Cousin
17 Poisoning Pigeons In The Park
18 Road Trip
19 Some Postman
20 Still Alive
21 Tom Cruise Crazy
22 Adverbs
23 10,000 SUBSCRIBERS medley
24 A Christmas Carol
25 PEEP FIGHT

Reality Notes

The quality of Molly's videos changed for the better as she honed her craft. The audio quality varies depending on the location chosen for the video. Of the four artists I will be presenting, Molly is the only one for which I am including original songs among her covers so Molly, if you see this and wish me to take down any or all of these songs, just say the word. But do know that I made this collection out of love and respect for your talent.

YouTube Channel
Website
Bandcamp

Goodies Volume 1 - WB Various Artists

This is a reconstruction of one of my favorite various artists albums. I purchased it for side two but it was side one that had the most affect on me. It also didn't hurt that side one turned out to be more acoustic/folk based, my preferred style.

When I purchased the album I knew most of the artists already but this was early in my music buying days so even those I knew I had little to none of in my collection. Consequently this album got a lot of play time.

I still have the album but it is worn and skips on some songs. Any vinyl rip I could make would at best satisfy some nostalgic longing so when I moved into the digital realm I started tracking down the songs to reconstruct the album that way. I was successful in all but The Peace Song. Every version I found was a live rendition, I needed the studio album version. I finally found a copy of that album a few weeks ago so I put this together to share with you. (I never did see a Volume 2)

Side One
01 Gordon Lightfoot - Sit Down Young Stranger
02 Grateful Dead - Ripple
03 Jesse Colin Young - The Peace Song
04 Van Morrison - Virgo Clowns
05 Dion - Your Own Back Yard

Side Two
01 T.Rex - Ride A White Swan
02 Jimi Hendrix - Castles Made Of Sand
03 The Faces - Had Me A Real Good Time
04 Jethro Tull - A Time For Everything
05 Fleetwood Mac - The Green Manalishi
06 Tony Joe White - A Night In The Life Of A Swamp Fox

Reality Notes

It's weird how a song or a group of songs can affect, inform, influence or mirror our own psyche. The songs on side one did all of that to me. Each song seemed to reflect upon some aspect of my personality and ideals.

• Sit Down Young Stranger tells the story of a young man who has just spent some time "on the road" and is now facing his parents as they question and lecture him. The road has called to me many times but my own fears and anxieties and basic laziness kept me rooted in my place. A theme that has popped up in a few of my own songs over the years.
• Ripple just seems to encapsulate the hippie ideal. The first time I was called a "f'n hippie" at work I took it as a badge of honor and on my way home from work that night I sang this song.
• The Peace Song is a call for racial harmony and general anti-violence/anti war. While some of the ideas in the song might still be a bit heavy on stereotypes for 1970, it was very forward thinking.
• Virgo Clowns is on the surface at least about keeping a positive attitude and laughing and enjoying yourself but this is Van Morrison so it could be about something completely different.
• Your Own Back Yard is the anti-drug song. This song and the many "war stories" of O.D.s kept me away from the heavier narcotics, psychedelics are a different story but it did help me keep it all in proper perspective.

If ever there was a case for music as therapy this album is it. It helped me get through my formative teen years with fewer troubles than some of the kids around me. This album also became the root inspiration for my Melancholia mix tape series that I keep threatening to post.

Side two still turned out to be enjoyable and was my introduction to The Faces and pre-Buckingham/Nicks Fleetwood Mac and was the first time I had heard a Jethro Tull song that was not on the Aqualung album.  Still, side one received more plays by at least 3 to 1.

The cover is the actual cover of the original album because why change it?

I am declaring next month "YouTube star" month. Over the next four weeks of September I will present an artist that I first discovered on YouTube. Stay tuned.

The Mother of Pearl Love Dog Bone Temple Jam

Here's another mixtape. First made when these CDs were new and later recreated as a playlist in my library.

This collection works on two levels. On the surface it looks like the evolution of Pearl Jam but deeper it's really a tribute to Andrew Wood.

Andrew Wood, AKA Landrew the Love Child, was the lead singer and bassist for Malfunkshun. A Seattle based power trio that mixed hard rock, glam and a pinch of punk. Formed in 1980 with his brother Kevin Wood on guitar and Regan Hagar on drums the band is often cited as the godfather of grunge.

While still working with Malfunkshun, Andy started working with Jeff Amet and Stone Gossard from Green River. With the addition of Bruce Fairweather (also from Green River) and drummer Greg Gilmore, Mother Love Bone was born. After Andy passed away from a drug overdose just days before their debut album was released Amet and Gossard picked up the pieces and formed Pearl Jam. In between they joined with Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden and recorded Temple of the Dog in tribute to Andy. Pearl Jam's first album weighs heavy with Andy's influence.

Andrew Wood made a huge impact on the Seattle music scene before his death. In some ways musically but more so for his personality and charm. Temple of the Dog was not the only tribute to Andy. Alice in Chains, War Babies and Faster Pussycat are among the many bands who have songs dedicated to or written in Andy's memory. If the Seattle grunge scene had a heart and soul, it was Andy. He was only 24 when he passed.

01 Gentle Groove
02 Reach Down
03 Alive
04 Stardog Champion
05 Hunger Strike
06 Breath
07 Holy Roller
08 Say Hello To Heaven
09 Black
10 Bone China
11 Pushin Forward Back
12 Even Flow
13 Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns
14 Wooden Jesus

Reality Notes

A simple mash-up of Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog and the first Pearl Jam album. At the time I made the mixtape that was all I had. To properly fill the playlist out as a full on tribute to Landrew or a fuller evolution of Pearl Jam you would have to add tracks from Malfunkshun, Green River, Solo Andrew Wood and maybe a few tracks from Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger album.

Before I decided to post this as it was I toyed with the idea of adding songs from the other related groups or at least some tracks from Badmotorfinger which was released about the same time. But I would have had to remove some songs to make room or push the collection bigger so it no longer would fit on a single CD. (I did include in the archive three songs from each as last minute, unlisted bonus tracks. I did not run them through the process that I normally do so volume levels may not match and there may be some pre or post song stuff that I would normally edit out.)

The cover features a photo of Andrew.

Guns N' Roses - Perfect Crime - 1992

While the last two albums showed growth in both production and songwriting, Perfect Crime is a return to form of sorts.While production flourishes are still present the songs themselves are all full on hard rock/heavy metal. No ballads here. This is the album many hard core fans were waiting for.

Recorded almost simultaneously with the previous album The Garden it was held back to be released at the mid point in the upcoming mega tour. Whether or not they appear on every song is uncertain but this is the last album to feature all of the original members.

Side One
01 Locomotive
02 Perfect Crime
03 Right Next Door To Hell
04 Shotgun Blues
05 You Could Be Mine

Side Two
01 Garden Of Eden
02 Pretty Tied Up
03 Double Talkin' Jive
04 Coma
05 My World

Reality Notes

The third and final installment in my breakdown and reconstruction of the Use Your Illusions CDs. As I mentioned in the last post, I could not find any reliable documentation that would have helped me group the post '90 tracks chronologically so I made the decision to divide them by style. After the acoustic Lies and the ballads found on the last two albums it's a bit refreshing to hear the guys just full out rocking.

I wanted to keep the cover heavy and straight forward to match the contents. Nothing too fancy.

So, what have I learned from this? Even with the smaller doses there is still a lot here that I would probably still skip. I did find some songs that I passed on before that I find I do like. If I had to cull a single disc from the two it would probably look something like this (in no particular order):

Civil War
Don't Damn Me
Dust N' Bones
Yesterdays
November Rain
The Garden
You Ain't The First
Bad Apples
Locomotive
Bad Obsession
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Garden Of Eden
Perfect Crime
Double Talkin' Jive
Shotgun Blues
You Could Be Mine

Of course if I did this next week it would most likely come out different. We had some discussion about what to do about Chinese Democracy. My opinion was that I have a hard time accepting it as a GN'R album, but I am ok viewing it as an Axl Rose solo album. It is a good album though not always my style. To complete that idea, I threw together a few covers to replace and rebrand the album. I settled on the one here. I used a picture that was floating around as a fake cover for the album before it was released. I make no mention of GN'R or Axl beyond his initials in the logo which gives the impression that Chinese Democracy could be the name of the band.

Thanks for listening and now on to other things.

Guns N' Roses - The Garden - 1991

Part two of our Use Your Illusions breakdown.

The success of Use Your Illusions and the brief tour that followed gave the band enough momentum to push them through the recording of the next album. So much momentum that after wrapping up one album they recorded another quickly before hitting the road again. Unfortunately that momentum was not enough to fix some of the problems the band was having and by the time the sessions were done so were Adler and Stradlin.

Adler and Stradlin were replaced by Sorum and Clarke and with the addition of Dizzy Reed a massive tour was launched. The plan was to tour in support of this album and halfway through the tour release the next album (already in the can) to give the tour an added boost.

Side One
The Garden
Dead Horse
14 Years
So Fine
Breakdown

Side Two
Get In The Ring
You Ain't The First
Live And Let Die
Bad Apples
Estranged

Reality Notes

For the remainder of tracks from Use Your Illusions I & II I divided them into two groups. Because the documentation I found does not indicate a chronology of when each song was written and they were all recorded at roughly the same time, I split them according to style. This album contains the more accessible and mature songs as a follow up to UYI and the next album is a proper "back to basics" heavy follow up to Appetite.

The cover features an illustration I found on an old clip art CD (remember those?).

Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion - 1990

In 1991 Guns N' Roses released two CDs simultaneously titled Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. Both CDs were full at over 70 minutes each. Essentially two double albums or a triple album spread across two discs, either way it's a lot of music to digest at one time. Too much for me.

By the end of 1989 they had more than enough material in the works for an album. So, what if they released all of that music in more digestible chunks over a three year period instead of all at once? I've divided the tracks into three albums. I'll be posting them one at a time (as they should have) over the next few weeks starting with this one.

The one big suspension of belief that we must accept to make this work is that the band managed to set aside enough of their dysfunction to record and release this album before the close of 1989. All of the songs were written but some of the members were still struggling with the substance abuse that plagued their early years and recording proper for UYI did not start until 1990.

Side One
Civil War
Bad Obsession
Don't Cry (Alt. Lyrics)
Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Side Two
Don't Damn Me
Dust N' Bones
Yesterdays
November Rain

Reality Notes

Anyone who has read through this blog will be aware of my feelings towards double albums (live albums excluded). They are either concept albums that got out of hand or a strong case for the artist not being able to edit oneself. I've taken apart a few of those here on this blog and will most likely take apart a few more but there are some cases where a double album is justified. Sometimes an band or artist has so much material that they have to get it all out before they can move on (think All Things Must Pass). These albums usually have a higher percentage of great songs and less filler which makes them harder to break apart. You're never going to please everyone.

For these double albums my only complaint can be that there is too much music to digest in one sitting. Doubly so for Use Your Illusions as we have two double albums to go through. I really cannot see cutting any songs to turn this into one single album. Anything I come up with will end up being a personal favorites, best of album. Your mileage will vary. So, inspired by my conversation with Fredrick Beondo in the comment section for the GN'R indy debut I decided to dive in and see what I could come up with without sacrificing anything.

I started by dividing the tracks into two groups using January 1990 as the separating line. Anything that was written or in the works or thought to be from before that time is fair game for inclusion on the first of the three resulting albums. I used this timeline to determine my song pool. I dropped Don't Cry (Original Lyrics) and Back Off Bitch because they were used in earlier incarnations on the indy debut. I'll discuss how I divided up the remainder when I post the next album.

I ended up with a great eight song, 45 minute album for a proper follow up to Appetite/Lies. I wanted to keep this one within vinyl album length to be the last GN'R album to have a vinyl release. The remainder will be CD/cassette only. I will say that in this configuration I have grown to appreciate many of the songs that I tended to skip on the official releases.

For the cover I used elements from the Use Your Illusion covers with some modifications.

Melanie - Creative Workshop

Sunset and Other Beginnings is one of my favorite Melanie albums. Not so much for the songs themselves which are typical average Melanie but more because of the production style. Something about the overall feel of the album seems to draw me in. So when I came across a bootleg that collected 31 tracks of outtakes and alternate mixes I was thrilled.

I spent some time with the collection and as always I started to wonder if there was enough unique material to construct a new album. There was and here are my results. A nice, twelve song LP just as nice as the album the sessions officially produced.

Side One
01 Secret Of The Darkness
02 Deep Down Under My Bed
03 Dream Lover
04 Another You
05 Raindance
06 When The Saints Go Marching In

Side Two
07 Darling Be Home Soon
08 White Man Sings The Blues
09 Ain't Nobody's Business
10 Another Side
11 Little Maggie
12 Any Day Now

Reality Notes

Melanie was never the type to sit on her laurels. She was always trying new things and chasing new sounds as she still does today. She had many successes in the first part of her career up to the early 80s. She was the first women solo act to have three singles on the top 100 at the same time. She played all of the major festivals at the time including Woodstock and Monterey. In fact many cities banned her because of her association as a festival act. In spite of all this Melanie never made it past the lower end of the top tier of performers.

By the time of Sunset and Other Beginnings, Melanie's career had plateaued. She was still selling but the industry was changing. Singer/songwriters were on the way out to make room for disco and punk/new wave with MTV just around the corner. Melanie would soon begin a slow dance to maintain relevancy in a changing environment, changing her image and sound to try and fit in with the new guard.

So how does this collection of outtakes measure up to the album they came from? Pretty darn good if you ask me. It must have been difficult to choose which tracks to use and which ones to set aside. I can see this being released as a quick follow up to Sunset. It feels complete and just as charming.

Two songs, Secret Of The Darkness and Raindance, were re-recorded and appear on the next album Photograph. While Secret Of The Darkness is just as good on that album (maybe better), I much prefer Raindance here. The simplicity of the guitar/voice demo lets the soul of the song come through. That album was later re-released as a double album with plenty of worthy songs that can take the place of these.

The name of the album is derived from the name of the bootleg - Creative Workshop Sessions - which is in turn named after the studio where the songs were recorded - Creative Workshop.

The cover picture was featured on the cover of the Madrugada album but was small and set in the corner and twisted into a perspective view. I have always loved the picture and found an unedited version and used it here.

Guns N' Roses - Gn'R - 1986

With the release of Guns N' Roses debut album Appetite for Destruction We saw the decline of Hair Metal and the brief rise of Sleaze Rock and a brief two year period when hard rock was stripped of the glam and returned to its roots. In 1989 that all collapsed with the emergence of Grunge and the Seattle invasion.

Before the release of Appetite, Gn'R released a four song EP made up of two original songs and two covers with crowd noise dubbed in to make it sound like a live recording. Released on a vanity label backed by Geffen Records to maintain interest in the band while they recorded their debut album.

But could they have released a full independent first album?

Side One
01 Shadow Of Your Love
02 Nice Boys
03 Don't Cry
04 New Work Tune
05 Move To The City

Side Two
01 Reckless Life
02 Mama Kin
03 Back Off Bitch
04 Ain't Goin' Down No More
05 The Plague

Reality Notes

Another installment of my alternate debut album series. Gn'R's record label Geffen spent two years polishing the band and songs for Appetite. During this time they recorded a lot of demos. Four of these songs were released on Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, the EP mentioned above. With the recent release of the Super Deluxe Edition of Appetite we have three discs of outtakes from those two years of development. I had most of these on a cassette bootleg back in the late 80s. While most of those outtakes are alternate versions of album tracks there is a small handful of unused songs alongside those songs used for the EP but without the crowd noise of the faux live EP.

So, are there enough songs to flesh out the EP to album length? Almost. And how does this affect Lies? I'll address that in a moment. I ended up with a ten song LP of mixed quality songs. Fortunately most of those songs are pretty darn good. Unfortunately, two of those, New Work Tune and Ain't Goin' Down No More are instrumentals. Another song, The Plague, is only 47 seconds long and all together the LP clocks in at 33 minutes and 16 seconds. Not exactly a full album which is probably why they released an EP instead of a LP.

Because this is an independent release we have some leeway in quality control. If I took out the instrumentals the album becomes barley 26 minutes long so I had to keep them in. I buried one on each side of the album and removed the gaps between the songs before and after to make them feel a part of them so they don't stand out. I also took a few of the spoken intros from a few songs and attached them to other songs. Overall the flow is pretty good.

The four songs from the EP but without the crowd noise comes from a bootleg. I preferred the sound of the tracks from there, the versions on the deluxe discs sounded a bit too polished. The last song to address is Back Off Bitch. While it sounds like a fun song to play in the clubs, its quality is questionable, obviously an off the cuff throw away type song. But hey, this is an indy release so it works here in a way.

There are two more songs I could have used in place of the instrumentals but they are crappy obvious covers of Heartbreak Hotel and Jumping Jack Flash. As much as I would have liked to remove the instrumentals, I also wanted to avoid an album that is almost half covers. If they were better song choices I might have included them but how many versions of Heartbreak Hotel do we need? I could have also used versions of Knocking on Heaven's Door and Whole Lotta Rosie but I would have had to resort to live versions which I didn't want to do and again, too many covers.

For the cover I utilized the logo found on the EP against a black background. Now what can we do about Lies?

There are a few acoustic tracks we can use to expand side two of Lies to a 30 minute mini LP. there are two versions of November Rain, a 9 minute piano version and a 5 minute acoustic version. I went with the acoustic version. Move to the City comes from 1988 and was most likely in the running to be included on Lies. An acoustic run though of Jumping Jack Flash rounds it all out.

Lies
01 One In A Million
02 November Rain
03 You're Crazy
04 Patience
05 Used To Love Her
06 Jumpin' Jack Flash
07 Move To The City

The last change in future albums is I see no need to include two versions of Don't Cry on Use Your Illusions. We can drop the "Original Lyrics" version. November Rain can stay, this version is different enough for both to exist.

Sources
Appetite For Destruction (Super Deluxe Edition)
Lies
Suicide Demos '86 (Bootleg)