Melanie - The Kind of Night - 1993

As an amateur recording engineer and record producer I have a short list of big names that I would love to work with. Among the top three are Chuck Berry (sadly no longer with us) Crosby Stills Nash and Young (sadly no longer speaking to each other...again) and Melanie.

I wanted to bring Chuck out of recording retirement. For CSNY I wanted one album of new material done with minimal instrumentation to showcase the harmonies. For Melanie I wanted a simple low key recording that shows off her quiet voice as much as her powerhouse vocals.

While I can't do much about the first two, Melanie did record an album that was produced in a way that I would have done. Unfortunately, that album is as much of a mess as her later discography is. It is a mix of new songs, covers and remakes of old songs. Fortunately, there are 29 songs from the sessions. Plenty to pick and choose from to make one great album.

[If Melanie wanted to release a special vinyl issue for record store day this construction would get my top vote.]

Side One
01 The Natural Man
02 Freedom Knows My Name
03 If I Needed You
04 Taking A Bath
05 Count The Days You're Gone
06 Life Will Not Go Away

Side Two
01 Live Coal
02  Arrow (Cheryle Wheele)
03 Ballerina
04 Tonight's The Kind Of Night
05 Friends and Company

Reality Notes

Melanie is at the top of my guilty pleasure list (though I don't feel too guilty). My biggest issues with Melanie has always been on the production side. More often than not her albums are heavy with strings and other MOR nonsense. I like things simple and clean. Which is why I tend to gravitate to her live albums which are usually just her and maybe one or two other instrumentalists.

My other issue with Melanie comes from her later years. Simply put, Melanie's later discography is a mess. It started with the double album Ballroom Streets which had a few new songs and a lot of remakes. In later years she got into the habit of rerecording her early songs. While I have no real qualms about this practice, many artists revisit old material from time to time, in Melanie's case she often sacrificed space on albums that could have benefited from one or two new songs in order to include the remakes. As a result, we have enough alternate versions of songs to fill at least two albums.

Which brings us to Silver Anniversary. Recorded in the early 90s and released only in Germany and the Netherlands in double CD packages, each with slightly different tracklists. To confuse matters further, six songs were tacked on to the US version of the European only release Silence is King renamed Freedom Knows My Name after one of the songs from Silver Anniversary.

So what good can be found here? The new songs are all great songs. The remakes are good and some even rival the originals. The covers are imaginative even if they don't all live up to expectations. But most of all is the production. Primarily acoustic with sparse instrumentation, no strings or orchestras and almost no drums and some great background vocals. Just great songs. Of the 29 songs, ten originals and four covers make their first appearance on this album. Some of these were rerecorded for later albums but these are the original versions according to timeline. I wanted to include only those songs that make their first appearance on this album.

Because we have ten originals that time out to just over 36 minutes I only needed to include one of the new covers. Melanie's covers have always been hit and miss. Sometimes she manages to truly make the song her own, other times it just feels awkward. I could take two or three of the remaining new covers and pair them with three of the best remakes and have a fine EP but at the moment, I'm fine with this.

I did some light editing, cutting out excessive studio chatter and song title announcements. I left some lighthearted moments in but not enough to get in the way of the flow and overall enjoyment.

One song, Tonight's The Kind Of Night, which I named the album after, is actually a Christmas song that she later rerecorded for a full Christmas album. I could have dropped it and still have had a full album but this version is better than the remake and it's not an all out Christmas carol and only mentions Christmas during the chorus. It's more of a mood piece than a seasonal piece so I kept it in.

For the cover I used the picture from the Freedom Knows My Name album. Now about that discography, I think I may need to go and make some charts.

[Edit: I was just poking around Melanie's discography and noticed that Friends and Company previously appeared on Ballroom Streets and before that on Photograph so technically should not appear here. My view is that even though what we do here is revisionist in nature I feel once I have posted a project that is the final and definitive version. Also, given the timeline, this would not be the first Melanie album to have a remake on it. Plus, this is the better version. And I'm lazy. The purist can just delete that song from the folder. Thanks for listening. [Really? Same goes for If I Needed You. I need a break.]]

T.Rex - There Was A Time - 1971-1973

Between the release of T.Rex's Hot Love single in 1971 and the Truck On (Tyke) single in 1973 Marc Bolan released 17 non-LP songs. Almost enough songs for two albums. When you arrange those songs in chronological order they give an evolving picture of Marc that listening to the albums only gives in snapshots.

Marc had always insisted on giving his fans their money's worth by having at least one unique song on each single. Between 1971 and 1973 Marc was on a roll and released four singles that contained all non-LP tracks.

When you look at Marc's non-LP output from this period it almost seems like he was releasing a new album a few tracks at a time. Similar in the way writers would serialize a novel by releasing a chapter at a time in a magazine. If we gathered those tracks together we could make a fine album that would rest easily along side the three albums he released during that time.

This could be done in one of two ways. Gather all of the best songs that will fit on one vinyl LP or gather everything and put them all on one CD. There is too much material for a single album but not enough songs for a full double album. I played with option one but went with option two and filled out the CD with some rare bonus material.

01 Hot Love (Non-LP Single A Side)
02 King Of The Mountain Cometh (Hot Love B Side)
03 Woodland Rock (Hot Love B Side)
04 There Was A Time_Raw Ramp  (Get It On B Side)
05 Sailors of the Highway  (BBC recording. Never recorded for LP)
06 Cadillac (Telegram Sam B Side)
07 Thunderwing (Metal Guru B Side)
08 Lady (Metal Guru B Side)
09 Children Of The Revolution (Non-LP Single A Side)
10 Jitterbug Love (Children Of The Revolution B Side)
11 Sunken Rags (Children Of The Revolution B Side)
12 Solid Gold Easy Action (Non-LP Single A Side)
13 20th Century Boy (Non-LP Single A Side)
14 Free Angel (20th Century Boy B Side)
15 The Groover (Non-LP Single A Side)
16 Midnight (The Groover B Side)
17 Truck On (Tyke) (Non-LP Single A Side)
18 Sitting Here (Truck On (Tyke) B Side)
19 Children Of The Revolution (Born To Boogie soundtrack feat. Elton John and Ringo Star)
20 Children Of Rarn Suite (Unreleased)

Reality Notes

In 1971 Marc released Hot Love. If the previous single, Ride A White Swan, brought Marc to the edge of stardom, Hot Love pushed him over the edge. In the three short years following Marc had ten singles reach the top ten in the charts. Most of those reached the number one slot. T.Rex was everywhere. Hailed has the next Beatles, Trexstasy reached a fever pitch and in the eyes of the fans, Marc could do no wrong. Former Beatle Ringo Starr even directed a concert film for Apple Films.

My own Trexstasy reached its height in the late 70s and early 80s. I would scour the cutout bins (remember those?) and used record stores for anything that I had not heard yet. Occasionally I would come across a compilation with a new song and on rare occasions I would find a completely new album I had never seen before.

For this comp I gathered all of the non-LP tracks released between 1971 and 1973. I added three bonus tracks to bring it up to double album length. Sailors of the Highway was never recorded for a T.Rex album or single. It was released by Gloria Jones on her Vixen album which Marc produced. This T.Rex version comes from a BBC studio performance. The second version of Children of the Revolution comes from the Born To Boogie soundtrack for the film directed by Ringo Starr, It's an in studio performance featuring Ringo and Elton John. This version was recorded before the single version and is my preferred go to version.

The Children of Rarn Suite comes from this period but was not finished until the eighties by producer Tony Visconti. Originating in 1970 two short excerpts bookended the T.Rex album. This demo was recorded in 1971. The Children of Rarn was an ambitious project that at one time was planned to be a double album with an accompanying novel. Set in a Tolkienesque mythology it tells the story of two races that war with each other for control of their planet. This version first appeared on the compilation The Words And Music Of Marc Bolan 1947-1977. There are other versions out there, some more complete than others but Marc never really finished the piece.

The cover turned out nice.

Sources
Marc Bolan and T.Rex: The Hits and More
The Words And Music Of Marc Bolan 1947-1977
Marc Bolan and T.Rex: Across the Airwaves
Marc Bolan and T.Rex: Born to Boogie Soundtrack

The Rutles - Lunch - (C) Rutle Corps 2010

[I didn't want to post this without the permission of the original creator but it's been a while since I tried to contact him and still no answer. If he sees this and wants me to take it down I will.]

LUNCH is a unique collaboration between Rutle Corps and Circle of Hay celebrating the musical legacy of The Rutles. A legacy that will last long after other musical legacies have ended.

Born from a personal friendship and mutual admiration between now-retired Stig O'Hara and Circle founder Captain Liberty, LUNCH brings the manic energy of Circle of Hay together with the spirit and trousers behind the semi-legendary Prefab Four to create a vivid, intimate and powerful entertainment experience.

The southwestern cast of actors, riders and dancers channel a raw, amateur energy underscored by performance, rodeo and country square dance. With stereophonic sound and stereoscopic visuals, the audience experience The Rutles as not-quite before...

01 Lunch
02 Unfinished Words
03 Lonely-Phobia
04 Now She's Left You (transition)
05 Piggy in the Middle/Hold My Hand
06 Goose-Step Mama / It's Looking Good / Blue Suede Schubert
07 Ouch!
08 Another Day
09 Nevertheless/Joe Public
10 Good Times Roll
11 I Love You (transition)
12 Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik / Let's Be Natural
13 Questionnaire (transition)
14 Hey Mister!
15 We've Arrived! (And to Prove It We're Here)
16 Cheese and Onions
17 Shangri-La
18 Major Happy's Up And Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band (reprise)
19 Love Life

Reality Notes

Full Disclosure: I did nothing to this except split the full album MP3 into separate tracks. All credit goes to the original creator of this wonderful mashup and artwork (and the opening paragraphs of this post). Please visit the official website to get the full story.

Lunch is one man's loving attempt to create a Rutles equivalent to The Beatles Love album. If you liked Love and like The Rutles you will love Lunch. My only complaint is that the album is only available as a single video. While this is fine, the album is best to listen to in one go, the OCD in me wants the audio only with the tracks split to sit in the library better.

To accomplish this I downloaded the video and ripped the audio so that I could separate the tracks. I used the track by track description on the website to locate where I should mark the tracks (I hope I got them right). For the purists, I included the uncut MP3 file with the archive.

I've been wanting to do this for some time but only now got around to doing it. This is something special and I felt it should be shared. Please direct all praise for the incredible efforts and talent that went into the creation of this amazing work to the man who put it all together. The backstory alone is worth a hello to the author.

From the creator's website:

Disclaimer

This is a tribute...
Perhaps the most meta, niche tribute imaginable.

I've created this because I sincerely love these songs and the senses of humor that led to the creation of The Rutles.
I hope those people still have senses of humor.

This is not a for-profit enterprise - I make no money from this website.
I have expended tremendous amounts of time and effort (and money) on the production of the LUNCH audio, artwork and website.

It is my hope that this site and my effort will act as a tool of discovery, leading to the purchase of legitimate Rutles merchandise.

Legal

The Rutles were created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes.
The Rutles music was written by Neil Innes and is controlled by copyright.

The first Rutles album, The Rutles is controlled by Warner Music Group.
The second Rutles album, The Rutles Archaeology is controlled by Virgin/EMI.

The Beach Boys - Vocals Only

I've been working on this for a while and I think I finally have things where I like them. This is a collection of vocals only tracks. I had started this a while ago and decided to finish it up after my previous Alternate Universe post which features a song found here.

The goal of this comp was to present the best and most interesting tracks while also maximizing the listening experience by removing anything I felt got in the way and took me out of the moment. This is not a career spanning comprehensive collection though it does cover a good chunk of their output.

If you're looking for more, head on over to Paul's Albums That Should Exist blog. Shortly after I started working on this he posted two fine collections over there. There might be some overlap between mine and his but each of us took a different approach.

Side One
01 Wouldn't It Be Nice
02 She Knows Me Too Well
03 Surfer Girl
04 Farmer's Daughter
05 You Still Believe In Me
06 Girl From New York City
07 Catch A Wave
08 In My Room
09 Help Me Rhonda
10 Little Deuce Coupe
11 Be True To Your School

Side Two
01 Sloop John B
02 Good Vibrations
03 Fun Fun Fun
04 God Only Knows
05 California Girls
06 Loui Loui
07 Surfers Rule
08 Wonderful

Reality Notes

The Beach Boys have released several vocals only mixes in recent years including the entire Pet Sounds album. There are also many unofficial tracks to be found on various bootlegs. I have a three disc collection that gathers as many of these as possible that I no no longer recall where I found them.

That three disc boot sounds like a mix of vocals only mixes, reverse karaoke (OOPS, Out Of Phase) and what could be surround sound channel isolation tracks. The success rate for isolating the vocals is hit and miss so I went through them all and chose the best and most interesting to fill out this comp.

Once I had my tracklist I took each track and I trimmed and edited each one to remove or minimize any between vocal noise and pre/post song chatter and intros/outros. Even some of the cleanest mixes were tightened up by shortening any long quiet passages to make the listening experience smoother. Overall, eight of the nineteen tracks here recieved internal edits and most tracks had the beginnings and endings trimmed.

I included two songs that I found interesting but do not really fall in the same area as the rest. Good Vibrations features only the lead vocal and prominent jaw harp and sounds like an early take before the harmonies and final lead vocal were recorded. Wonderful, which closes the album, features an isolated overdub track full of strange sounds and noises and some background vocals.  I thought it gave the album a nice fun ending.

The three disc bootleg did not have a cover when I found it so I made one for it. I reused that cover here.

Sources
Good Vibrations: 30 Years box set
Pet Sounds: A Cappela
Vocals Only (bootleg)

Michael Hedges - Dreaming Out Loud

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

~ Michael Hedges ~

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

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

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

Reality Notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reality Notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alternate Universe - Various Artists

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

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

Track by Track

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

14. Brian May – ’39
From the Making of A Night At The Opera edition of the Classic Albums DVD series. This is a solo performance. Ripped from DVD special features.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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