Elliott Smith & Heatmiser - Mic City Sons (Elliott Smith Edition) (1996)

I've been on another Elliott Smith kick lately, so here's something else from him. This is an officially released album, the last album of a band he was in early in his music career called Heatmiser. But that band had two singer-songwriters, and split their output roughly evenly. Due to some recently released bonus tracks, I was able to make an all-Elliott-Smith version. That original version is still out there for those who want it this way. But for those especially keen on Smith's songs, here's an option for you. I would argue that if this was actually one of Smith's solo albums, it would be considered one of his best.

Heatmiser was founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1991. The two main singer-songwriters were Smith and Neil Gust. The two of them were friends, as well as being roommates for several years. 1991 was the year that grunge started to make it big up the coast in Seattle. Thus, at the time, there was a lot of incentive to ride the popularity of the grunge sound, and that's what Heatmiser did. The band's first two albums in particular, "Dead Air" in 1993 and "Cop and Speeder" in 1994, really rock in a way that can sound shocking for those only familiar with Smith's later acoustic-based style. They were heavily influenced by bands like Husker Du and Fugazi.

Heatmiser found a lot of popularity in Portland, and performed there practically constantly. But their albums came out on an indie label and didn't make much impact elsewhere. At one point, they played a laudromat in Cleveland, and their entire "audience" left when that person's laundry was finished.

Smith later dismissed the band's music as "loud," and complained that being in Heatmiser changed the songs he was writing at the time into "loud rock songs with no dynamic." Furthermore, in a later interview, he said of his time in the band:

"I was being a total actor, acting out a role I didn't even like. I couldn't come out and show where I was coming from. I was always disguised in this loud rock band. [In the beginning] we all got together, everyone wanted to play in a band and it was fun, then after a couple of years we realized that none of us really liked this kind of music, and that we didn't have to play this way. You didn't have to turn all these songs you wrote into these loud... things. [...] It was kinda weird – people that came to our shows, a majority of them were people I couldn't relate to at all. Why aren't there more people like me coming to our shows? Well, it's because I'm not even playing the kind of music that I really like." 

In 1994, Smith released his first album, "Roman Candle," in a drastically different, semi-acoustic style. His solo career soon began to find a growing audience. Then in 1995, he released a second solo album in that style, "Elliott Smith," and his following continued to grow even more.

However, while that was going on, Heatmiser was working on their third album. The band's other main singer-songwriter, Neil Gust, was going through a similar musical transformation, moving away from a punk and/or grunge influenced rocking style to a more melodic one. Their 1996 album, "Mic City Sons," was a big musical leap forward, in my opinion, and many other people agree. 

For instance, here's part of the album's AllMusic.com review, by Michael Frey: "The quartet's finest and final album, 'Mic City Sons' features a decidedly more pop feel than its predecessors and marks Smith's maturation into the role of the band's visionary. From the opening notes of the swaggering, bass-heavy 'Get Lucky' to conclusion of the album with a soothingly soft hidden track ['Half Right'], 'Mic City Sons' is an outstanding collection of diverse and invigorating tracks. Songs like 'Plain Clothes Man' and 'You Gotta Move' exhibit the interplay of soulful, smooth vocals over gentle guitar strumming that has been so evident in Smith's solo work. The Gust-penned tunes, like 'Cruel Reminder' and 'Eagle Eye' are more rugged and aggressive, but complement Smith's songs brilliantly. ... Despite the success Heatmiser's members have achieved since their disbanding, it's unfortunate that this collective decided to split up just when they had reached such a creative peak."

As that review points out, Gust's songs are very good. One should hear the original version of this album, with an even number of Smith and Gust songs. But, in my opinion, it's also nice to listen to this Smith-centric version. The first seven songs here are from the original album. The remainder are from a deluxe edition released in 2025. That edition also contained two demos, but I didn't include them because they were full-band demos that didn't sound that different, and they were of songs from the original album. 

It would have been really interesting if Heatmiser could have kept going, along with Smith's solo career. But Smith's growing popularity basically made that impossible, especially due to some record company intrigue. For their third album ("Mic City Sons"), the band signed with a major label, Virgin Records, for the first time. Smith later explained what happened next:

"It was kind of ridiculous to carry it up to a certain point and then drop the ball or the bomb, like quitting the band right after we had signed to Virgin. I was the guy who made that gravy-train crash so to speak, and it was a gravy-train at the time. The breakup happened almost immediately after the contract was signed. I watched myself put my paw in the bear trap on that one because there was this clause about leaving members. In the event of the band dissolving, any members could be kept to that contract with or without their consent under the same terms. They didn't pick up Neil's option, only mine. It turned out to be a fucked-up situation because they said the reason they had signed Heatmiser was that they'd been hoping this [the breakup] would happen - or something to that effect. They said that right in front of Neil and I couldn't believe it."

Basically, the record company didn't want Heatmiser to succeed because they were only interested in Smith's solo career material. A 2018 article about the band by the Oregonian newspaper commented that "at some point in [late] 1996, the band fell apart. 'Mic City Sons' was released on a smaller Virgin sister label, Caroline, and slipped into the world quietly." In my opinion, the album really is a lost classic, be it the original version or this Smith-centric version.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Get Lucky (Heatmiser)
02 Plainclothes Man (Heatmiser)
03 The Fix Is In (Heatmiser)
04 You Gotta Move (Heatmiser)
05 Pop in G (Heatmiser)
06 See You Later (Heatmiser)
07 Half Right (Heatmiser)
08 I'm Over That Now (Heatmiser)
09 Burned Out, Still Glowing (Heatmiser)
10 Everybody Has It (Heatmiser)
11 Christian Brothers [Rock Version] (Heatmiser)
12 Untitled Instrumental (Heatmiser) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gESih8e4

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/RdUa17d8B2tapaI/file

The cover image is almost identical as the original. However, I changed the text at the top from "Heatmiser" to "Elliott Smith & Heatmiser." 

Suzanne Vega - Close-Up on Suzanne Vega Album (2012) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

This was an idea of guest poster Mike Solof. Between 2010 and 2012, Suzanne Vega rerecorded many of her earlier songs in acoustic mode, and then released them as four albums, each with different themes. Mike noticed that all of the songs from her 1985 self-titled debut album were included. So he gathered them all, then reordered them to the same order as the original album. Finally, he added "Left of Center," which was only released on a movie soundtrack in 1986.

The result is an alternate version of her 1985, with a more acoustic sound. So it's just a nice option if you want to hear that album in a different way sometimes. 

As usual, Mike has more info (and photos) in the PDF file included with the download. 

This album is 42 minutes long. 

01 Cracking (Suzanne Vega)
02 Freeze Tag (Suzanne Vega)
03 Marlene on the Wall (Suzanne Vega)
04 Small Blue Thing (Suzanne Vega)
05 Straight Lines (Suzanne Vega)
06 Undertow (Suzanne Vega)
07 Some Journey (Suzanne Vega)
08 The Queen and the Soldier (Suzanne Vega)
09 Knight Moves (Suzanne Vega)
10 Neighborhood Girls (Suzanne Vega)
11 Left of Center (Suzanne Vega)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oJ5agEih 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/devWB7lK6MqdMWd/file

For the album cover, Mike and I wanted something similar to the original album cover, but different. That one had a black and white photo of Vega in the middle, with the names of the songs on the sides. I colorized the photo, using the Kolorize program. Then I enlarged it instead of keeping the song titles. Finally, I made some changes to the text.

Donald Byrd - A New Perspective (On a New Perspective) (1964) (A Mike Solof guest post)

I'm not that into serious jazz, and that's still the case. But this is a guest post by Mike Solof, so here's a rare jazz album for this blog.

Donald Byrd released the album "A New Perspective" in 1964. As I write this in September 2025, it's one of about four of the best rated albums he did, according to the crowd-sourced reviews on rateyourmusic.com. However, it's also a controversial album. If you read some of those reviews, people tend to love it or hate it. That's because Byrd had the idea of overdubbing wordless gospel-styled vocals over the band's jazz improvisations. It's those vocals that divide people on the album. It so happens Mike just wanted to hear the instrumentation without those vocals, and he realized the technology now exists to wipe them away. So that's just what he did.

If it so happens you prefer the album with the vocals, no problem, just listen to the official version instead. 

There's more information in the PDF he's included in the download file, including profiles of the other jazz musicians who played on this. 

By the way, just to be clear, the real album title is just "A New Perspective," but Mike added the "On a New Perspective" part. 

This album is 39 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On January 27, 2026, the mp3 download file was updated. For some reason, six minutes of the song "The Black Disciple" was cut off. So that got fixed.

01 Elijah (Donald Byrd)
02 Beast of Burden (Donald Byrd)
03 Cristo Redentor (Donald Byrd)
04 The Black Disciple (Donald Byrd)
05 Chant (Donald Byrd)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GTRUJzSR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/9DMp5Dlara8mJip/file

The cover photo is the same as the original, with a couple of key changes. One, Mike asked me to add the word "no" before "voices," so I did, squeezing the other words a bit to make room. And the original was mostly in black and white (everything but the lettering), but Mike wanted it colorized, so I did that too, using the Kolorize program. 

Billy Joel - Cold Spring Harbor (Original Mix) (1971) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Billy Joel's 1971 debut album, "Cold Spring Harbor," has issues. It's a long and tangled tale. But the gist of it is because Joel was just starting his music career, he didn't have much control over the production of the album. And he had wound up signed to a marginal record label that did a lot of dumb things, including forcing a producer on him he didn't get along with, who produced his songs in ways he didn't want. But the worst thing of all was that the final master was accidentally sped up by three percent for all the songs! That may not sound like much, but it made his voice sound strangely high. Joel hated it with a passion, but there was nothing he could do. In retrospect, his voice was naturally higher at that time, since it was still changing in his early 20s, so that made the problem worse. He would sound noticeably different on his next album, just two years later.

Joel also signed a terrible record contract, though luckily it ended up being for just that debut album. That means that, even until now in 2025, he's had no control over that album. In 1983, after Joel became a superstar, the record company remixed the album to fix the speed problem. But they made lots of changes Joel didn't approve of as well, including hiring musicians to add new parts to some songs. The kicker though was that the version that finally got rereleased with those changes STILL hadn't fixed the speed problem! Seems like that was a clown car of a record company.

And that's how things still stand today, with the original version having issues, and the remix version having other issues, and both versions running too fast. In short, there's no good version of this album.

So guest poster Mike Solof decided to fix this. He took the original version and adjusted the speed of all the songs. But he also lowered the pitch of the songs by six to ten percent, depending on the song. That was an effort to make Joel's high voice at the time sound more like the voice he's had for all his other music. 

There's a lot more to the story behind this album and its problems. I recommend you watch the HBO Max Billy Joel documentary "And So It Goes," released just a week or so ago as I write this in August 2025. It has a whole section about it. Also, here's the Wikipedia article on the album, which explains a bit:

Cold Spring Harbor (album) - Wikipedia 

But mostly, check out the PDF Mike made that's included in the download file. It has some interesting quotes from Joel himself about the problems with the album and its remix, and Mike explains more about the things he did to fix those problems. 

This album is really a gem that has never gotten its due because of all the problems mentioned above. It's still not perfect, since some production choices can't be undone. But hopefully you'll be able to hear it in a brand new light with this improved version. 

This album is 33 minutes long.

01 She's Got a Way (Billy Joel)
02 You Can Make Me Free (Billy Joel)
03 Everybody Loves You Now (Billy Joel)
04 Why Judy Why (Billy Joel)
05 Falling of the Rain (Billy Joel)
06 Turn Around (Billy Joel)
07 You Look So Good to Me (Billy Joel)
08 Tomorrow Is Today (Billy Joel)
09 Nocturne [Instrumental] (Billy Joel)
10 Got to Begin Again (Billy Joel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/H7Kon97T

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/03UwPXPdpG7f1Bc/file 

This is the official cover of the album. However, that's in black and white. I used the Kolorize program to colorize it, since I wanted to make it a little different to show this is an alternate version.

The Police - Unsynced- An Alternate Version of Synchronicity (1983) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's an alternate version of the blockbuster 1983 album by the Police, "Syncronicity." This was one of the best selling albums of the era. It also wound up fairly high on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the top 500 albums of all time.

Guest poster Mike Solof recently got himself the 6 CD super deluxe edition of the album, which was released in 2024. It has some less interesting stuff on it, as well as a full concert from that time period. Mike boiled down the best studio outtakes to one album, which he presents here. Please read his PDF included in the download zip for more information, plus lots of photos.

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

01 Synchronicity I [Demo] (Police)
02 Walking in Your Footsteps [Alternate Version] (Police)
03 O My God [Demo] (Police)
04 Mother [Alternate Version] (Police)
05 Miss Gradenko [Alternate Mix] (Police)
06 King of Pain [Demo] (Police)
06 Synchronicity II [Demo] (Police)
07 Every Breath You Take [Demo] (Police)
09 Wrapped Around Your Finger [Demo] (Police)
10 Tea in the Sahara [Alternate Mix] (Police)
11 Murder by Numbers [Demo] (Police)
12 I'm Blind [Demo] (Police)
13 Three Steps to Heaven (Police)
14 Truth Hits Everybody [Remix Outtake] (Police)
15 I Burn for You (Police)
16 Every Bomb You Make (Police)
17 King of Pain [Alternate Version] (Police)

https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/svaUGHYTWD

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/BkbDYtOOdXlH9tk/file

The cover image was found by Mike. It's from some photo shoot the Police did around the time of the release of the Syncronicity album. A couple of the photos made it onto the artwork for singles related to the album.

Gary Walker and the Rain - Album No. 1 - Alternate Version (1968)

A commenter recently posted on this blog that singer-songwriter Joey Molland died two months ago, on March 1, 2025, and suggested I should post something in his memory. (Molland is one of a few key singer-songwriters in the early 1970s band Badfinger.) I thought that was a good idea, so I'm posting this.

This album has a curious history, especially because it's credited mainly to Gary Walker, who is mainly just the drummer in the band. Walker, whose real name is Gary Leeds, was one of the three members of the 1960s American band the Walker Brothers. None of the band's three members were related to each other, though at least the lead singer, Scott Walker, really had "Walker" in his name. In 1965, the band moved to Britain and found massive success there, including two Number One singles hits. But in early 1968, while still at the peak of their popularity, the band broke up.

Gary Walker was just the drummer in the Walker Brothers. He hadn't done any singing or songwriting at all. But he realized he could take advantage of his "Walker" name and connection. This was especially true in Japan. The Walker Brothers toured Japan shortly before breaking up, and were treated like the Beatles there, with screaming fans following them everywhere. So Walker resolved to quickly form a new group made up of British musicians, since he was still living in Britain. For the band's main lead singer, he picked Charlie Crane. Crane had been the lead singer to the Cryin' Shames, which had a minor hit single in 1966 before breaking up. He also picked Joey Molland as lead guitarist. This would prove crucial. Molland had been in a couple of bands up until this point, but none of them had done much. It turned out not only was Molland a talented lead guitarist, but he also could sing well and write songs. Rounding out the band was John Lawson on bass, who had previously been in the band Plastic Penny. It consisted mostly of songs by Molland, plus a few covers, though Crane also contributed a couple. Walker was credited as co-writer with Molland on three songs, though I wonder how much he contributed considering his lack of songwriting credits before or after this album.

The album was surprisingly good, especially considering the way it was quickly put together to take advantage of Walker's involvement in the Walker Brothers while the public still had that in mind. I like it quite a lot. One can definitely see the connection with Molland's songs and involvement in Badfinger.

The band put out a single in Britain, and performed a short tour there. However, the single didn't make the charts. The band didn't have enough credibility for the album to even get released there, or in the U.S. But it did get released in Japan. So they went there to tour and promote it. That's when Gary Walker's Walker Brothers connection paid off. They were met at the airport by thousands of screaming girls, with Walker being treated like a big star. Molland later commented that it was like being in a band with Elvis Presley. But when they returned to Britain, they were basically nobodies again. Their record company released another single, which also flopped. Walker decided the game was up, so he broke up the band and moved back to the U.S.

What I'm posting here is an alternate version of the band's sole album. In my opinion, this is a case where less is more. The official album has 13 songs on it. There was a later edition that added three bonus tracks from singles. I cut that down to ten songs from the album, plus one of the bonus tracks. A few of the songs just aren't that good. 

Ironically, two of the songs I cut are the two that the record company decided to release as singles in Britain. One was a cover of "Spooky." It had just been a big hit and there was nothing special about the cover. The other was "Come In You'll Get Pneumonia," a song by the Easybeats. I love the Easybeats, but that was one of their weakest songs. So it's no wonder those singles failed. I also didn't include "I Can't Stand to Lose You" (a song co-written by Walker and Crane), "I Promise to Love You" (another Crane song), and "Gary's Theme" (a cover of an instrumental).

In retrospect, I wonder if the record company deliberately sabotaged the band by selecting those songs for singles, or if it was just the usual stupidity. I could see how they would have been unimpressed by a band led by a drummer with no known singing or songwriting skills, and wanting just to have them go away. The fact the band happened to contain a serious talent in the form of Joey Molland was basically a lucky fluke, especially since Walker hired him after only speaking to him for a few minutes, without any proof of his singing or songwriting abilities. 

But the bottom line is we're left with this quality album. Especially if you're a Badfinger fan and had never heard of this album, you really should give it a listen.

This album is 38 minutes long.

01 Magazine Woman (Gary Walker & the Rain)
02 The Sun Shines (Gary Walker & the Rain)
03 Doctor Doctor (Gary Walker & the Rain)
04 Market Tavern (Gary Walker & the Rain)
05 Take a Look (Gary Walker & the Rain)
06 The View (Gary Walker & the Rain)
07 If You Don't Come Back (Gary Walker & the Rain)
08 Thoughts of an Old Man (Gary Walker & the Rain)
09 Francis (Gary Walker & the Rain)
10 Whatever Happened to Happy (Gary Walker & the Rain)
11 Cutie Morning Moon (Gary Walker & the Rain)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/omNaWNJz

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/q9Xwp6JqPr40x4w/file

The cover is the same as the original cover. However, I noticed there are slightly different versions, for instance with record company logos and boasts of "stereo" sound and so forth. I combined parts from a couple of versions to create the cleanest version.

John Lennon - Some Time in New York City - Alternate Version (1972)

For some reason, I've posted very little music from John Lennon's solo career so far. I have lots of albums planned, with many of them basically ready to go (minus tidying up and making the cover art). But then again, there's tons of music I plan on posting and I can't get to it all at once. But this particular album has come to the front of my posting priorities due to a song edit a friend of mine made. I'll explain more about that below.

"Some Time in New York City," released in 1972, was John Lennon's third proper solo album. His first two solo albums, "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" and "Imagine," were critical successes, and did reasonably well commercially. Both have made it on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the top 500 albums of all time. So expectations were high for this, his third album. But it was considered a compete bust. One reviewer at the time called it "artistic suicide." Even decades later, a reviewer for Uncut Magazine said it was "a contender for the worst LP by a major musical figure" in all of music history. That's pretty bad! Sales were so bad that Lennon was stunned and he suffered songwriter's block for about a year.

So this is an album that's ripe for an alternate version, which I'm making here. In my opinion, there are three reasons this album did so poorly, both critically and commercially. First, it was a very political album, with every original song expressing radical leftist political opinions. The general public wasn't ready for that. 

Second, it wasn't really a John Lennon album, but instead a John Lennon and Yoko Ono album. Three of the songs on the first album were written and sung by Ono, and she sang some lead vocals on some of the other songs as well. People really didn't like that, especially since many at the time blamed Ono for the break-up of the Beatles. (In retrospect, she probably played some role in that Lennon was having more fun making music with her than with the Beatles, but there were many other factors that came to a head, especially financial ones, and basically everyone in the band being sick of everyone else.)

Third, it was a double album, and while the first album was made up of conventional songs, the second album consisted of live musical jams, and it was pretty terrible. It was a lot like the third album of George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass," consisting of jams that most people played just once. Except it was even worse since while Ono sang conventionally on the first album, she did her unusual screaming style over most of the jams. For many people, it was painful and unlistenable.

So here are all the things I did to improve the album:

1) I got rid of nearly all of the second album of jams. I'm one of those people who find it painful and unlistenable. The only song I kept from it was "Well (Baby Please Don't Go)." Unlike pretty much everything else on the second album, this is an actual song. It's a cover of an obscure song by the Olympics, from 1958.

2) Speaking of that song, "Well (Baby Please Don't Go)," I'm using a version created a couple of days ago by my musical friend Lil Panda. He, like me, has been tinkering with the audio editing programs that have advanced greatly in recent years, thanks to AI technology. Both he and I had previously tried to get rid of Ono's screaming from some songs, but found it impossible. But Lil Panda figured it out: it turns out that Ono's screams are so unusual that they're interpreted by the AI program he uses as a saxophone! Unfortunately, Ono's wailing was all over this song. But the saxophone filter got rid of at least 90 percent of it. Thanks, Lil Panda! Note also, that Lil Panda used the version of this song that appeared on the Frank Zappa album "Playground Psychotics." It's the exact same performance as the one on "Some Time in New York City," recorded at a concert in the Fillmore East in New York City in June 1971, but it's about a minute longer.

3) For the first album of conventional songs, I got rid of two out of three songs that were mostly Ono's, "Sisters, O Sisters," and "We're All Water." For this album, Ono actually sings conventionally most of the time, except for about half of "We're All Water." By and large, she did decently when she stuck to conventional singing. It's a far cry from her screaming on the second album of live jams (and some of "We're All Water"). So these two songs aren't terrible. I just don't think they're that strong. Plus, let's face it, nearly everybody puts on an album like this to hear Lennon songs, not Ono songs. 

4) I kept one mostly Ono song, "Born in a Prison." I consider it the best of the Ono songs on the album. It's not fantastic, but it's as good as a couple of the Lennon ones. However, I made a slight edit. Lennon sings backing vocals on the choruses. I used the same editing tool Lil Panda used for the "Well" song to separate out Lennon's vocals from Ono's. Then I boosted his vocals some. I couldn't do more because the two voices didn't completely separate. But you can at least hear him better. That's why this is the other song that has "[Edit]" in the title.

5) I used a live version of "Luck of the Irish." To be honest, I made the alternate version of this album years ago, except for the two recent song edits mentioned above, so I have long forgotten why I chose that version. I listened to both this live version and the studio version again today, and I didn't see much difference at all. Both versions have lead vocals by Lennon and Ono in different parts, and even Ono sang very competently in a live setting. In case you're curious, this version was recorded during a concert/rally on behalf of political activist John Sinclair (who was imprisoned at the time), that took place University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, in December 1971.

6) For "Angela," I used the "Ultimate Mix" that came out on the archival album "John Lennon: Gimme Some Truth" that was released decades later. It brings up organ playing that was completely buried in the original album version, and it has less reverb on it.

7) Finally, I added the song "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" to the end of the album. This was a hit single that was released in December 1971, about six months prior to the release of this album. It was only a minor hit in the U.S. because it was released very late in the holiday season. But it was held back a year in Britain to maximize Christmas sales, and it made it to Number Four in the singles charts there. Since then, it has become a Christmas standard, being rereleased many times, and going back into the charts many times around Christmas. It has been widely covered as well. Being a classic, hit song, it really elevates the whole album, and ends it on a high note. Note that the 2005 reissue of the album included it at the end as well.

8) All the other songs are the same versions as on the original "Some Time in New York City" double album.

Ultimately, only so much can be done with this alternate version. This album is still a step down from the greatness of "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" and "Imagine." Some of the songs are a bit slapdash and generic musically. There was nothing I could do about the radical leftist political content, since that's a key part of every song. (Even "Happy Xmas" has an anti-Vietnam War message woven into it.) But being a political progressive myself, I'm in pretty close agreement with most of the political sentiments expressed here anyway. Lennon was going through a political phase and got a little carried away with his enthusiasm at times, but I think most of his political points have been proven right with the passage of time. 

Consider, for instance, the song "John Sinclair," complaining about how Sinclair got sentenced to ten years in prison for being caught with two joints of marijuana. Not only was Sinclair released early due to political pressure (and largely due to Lennon's high-profile involvement, it seems), but now marijuana is legal in half of the U.S. states as I write this in 2025, and medical marijuana is legal in many more. The ten-year prison sentence seems absurd in retrospect.

This album is 40 minutes long. The original double album version is 90 minutes long.

01 Woman Is the Nigger of the World (John Lennon)
02 Attica State (John Lennon)
03 Born in a Prison [Edit] (John Lennon & Yoko Ono)
04 New York City (John Lennon)
05 Luck of the Irish (John Lennon & Yoko Ono)
06 Sunday Bloody Sunday (John Lennon & Yoko Ono)
07 John Sinclair (John Lennon)
08 Angela [Ultimate Mix] (John Lennon & Yoko Ono)
09 Well [Baby Please Don't Go] [Edit] (John Lennon with Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention)
10 Happy Xmas [War Is Over] (John Lennon)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/WAUDdste

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/Dhlj0Bk5HcZ5Ofv/file

For the album cover, I wanted something similar to the official cover, but different. Luckily for me, the cover was done in the style of a newspaper front page, with song lyrics instead of articles. There were two newspaper pages included in the album art to get all the lyrics, so I just kept the title parts and used lyrics from the second page for the rest. 

Joni Mitchell - Hejira - Acoustic Version (1976) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

I previously posted acoustic versions of Joni Mitchell's 1974 album "Court and Spark" and 1975 album "The Hissing of Summer Lawns." Here comes an acoustic version of her 1976 album "Hejira." This is a Mike Solof guest post.

As usual, Mike has included a PDF file in the download with his own thoughts. So I don't feel the need to say more much here, since he says a lot there. But if you love Mitchell's early music yet had trouble with her jazzier albums, this is a good opportunity to hear this excellent album done in her earlier acoustic style.

The track order is the same as on the official album, but Mike threw on a couple of extra songs, "Jericho" and "Help Me," at the end.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Coyote (Joni Mitchell)
02 Amelia (Joni Mitchell)
03 Furry Sings the Blues (Joni Mitchell)
04 A Strange Boy (Joni Mitchell)
05 Traveling [Hejira] (Joni Mitchell)
06 Song for Sharon (Joni Mitchell)
07 Black Crow (Joni Mitchell)
08 Blue Motel Room (Joni Mitchell)
09 Refuge of the Roads [Early Mix with Horns] (Joni Mitchell)
10 Jericho [Rehearsal Version] (Joni Mitchell)
11 Help Me [Rehearsal Version] (Joni Mitchell)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/sdJh1pg4

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/Eln5ixhya1FbRqa/file

Luckily for my purposes, there are some outtakes from the photo session for the cover of the "Hejira" album. I selected one of those, and replaced the image on the cover. I also made a slight change to the album title.

Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns - Acoustic Version (1975)

Some months ago, I posted an acoustic version of Joni Mitchell's 1974 album "Court and Spark." Basically, that was the album when Mitchell switched from recording solo acoustic to recording with a band, so that version imagined that she just kept going with her original acoustic style. Recently, guest poster Mike Solof expressed interest in posting an acoustic version of her 1976 album "Hejira," which he likes quite a lot. Before, I post that, I thought it would make sense to create and post an acoustic version of her album after "Court and Spark" but before "Hejira," which is "The Hissing of Summer Lawns." So here it is.

For decades, there was a widely available bootleg called "Demos of Summer Lawns." It consisted of acoustic demos of most of the songs that would go on "The Hissing of Summer Lawns," though not all of them. Then, in 2023, the box set "Archives, Volume 3" was released. It contained most of the demos from the bootleg, though not all of them, and had previously unknown one.

I've put this together mostly using the demos from the box set. I rearranged them into the exact same order as the original studio album. However, I had trouble with a couple of songs. I couldn't find any alternate version of the song "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" anywhere. So I took the album version and edited it with the MVSEP program to remove the drums. That's why that's the sole song with "[Edit]" in the title. The demo of "Sweet Bird" wasn't included in the box set, but I was able to use the one from the Demos bootleg. For "Shadows and Light," I used a live bootleg version taken from the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. 

Finally, there's a bonus track of sorts. "Dreamland" was not actually included on "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" album. It wouldn't appear on one of her albums until "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" in 1977. However, a stripped down version was recorded in the spring of 1975, at the same time as most of the other demo versions here. So I included that one here as well. It has some drums on it, but it's still mostly acoustic.

In my opinion, "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" is an underrated album. If you don't like the increasingly jazzy style Mitchell was evolving into at this time, perhaps you'll like this acoustic version instead.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 In France They Kiss on Main Street (Joni Mitchell)
02 The Jungle Line (Joni Mitchell)
03 Edith and the Kingpin (Joni Mitchell)
04 Don't Interrupt the Sorrow (Joni Mitchell)
05 Shades of Scarlet Conquering (Joni Mitchell)
06 The Hissing of Summer Lawns [Edit] (Joni Mitchell)
07 The Boho Dance (Joni Mitchell)
08 Harry's House (Joni Mitchell)
09 Sweet Bird (Joni Mitchell)
10 Shadows and Light (Joni Mitchell)
11 Dreamland (Joni Mitchell)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/aX8N9FYX

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/HMnoSnKqYxygRR8/file

For the cover art, I wanted to find something similar to the official cover, yet slightly different. I Googled the name of the album, and found an advertisement for it in a magazine. Indeed, it was similar but different. Note for instance the church on the far left in the line of buildings, which isn't in the official cover. There's also a line of text quoting a song lyric near the people carrying the snake. The ad was black and white, but I colorized it a bit to better match the official album, and I added the text at the top. 

The Aerovons - Resurrection - Alternate Version (1969)

Here's an interesting rarity. If you've heard of the Aerovons, I'd be impressed. They're an obscure 1960s band that worshipped at the altar of the Beatles, on the Hollies pop side of things. I'm not saying this is a lost classic, but if you're interested in music that evokes that era, this one has it in spades.

The Aerovons hailed from St. Louis, Missouri of all places. They have a very interesting history, so I've included the liner notes from the official album in the download files. Long story short is they got an incredible opportunity to record a debut album at Abbey Road Studios in London, England. By chance, this happened right at the time the Beatles were recording their "Abbey Road" album in mid-1969. Not only were they able to meet and hang out with their idols, but they got to watch parts of the classic "Abbey Road" album get recorded.

Unfortunately, their fairy tale story didn't completely come true. A couple of their singles got released, but didn't bother the charts. As a result, the record company decided not to release their debut album, "Resurrection." The band broke up a short time later. Their album only came out decades later, in the early 2000s. 

This consists of my alternate version of that album. I've removed some songs, but also added some bonus tracks, including the A- and B-sides from the band's lead singer and songwriter Tom Hartman. It came out in 1971 in total obscurity. I believe it was the only thing he released outside of the Aerovons. 

In this case, I strongly believe less is more. The biggest problem with the Aerovons was that they were too influenced by their musical heroes, especially the Beatles. Oftentimes, you can play "spot the influence" on their songs. I removed some songs that were too derivative, in my opinion. The worst offender was a song that sounds so much like "Oh! Darling" by the Beatles that it annoys me to hear it.

Hartman quit the music business after that failed single mentioned above, and went to college instead. But he never stopped writing songs. In 2021, a new album billed to the Aerovons called "A Little More" was released. It's surprisingly good, probably stronger song for song than the 1969, and less derivative, though only 21 minutes long. If you like this, you should definitely check that out.

By the way, I stumbled across this article about the band that was published only last month (as I write this in May 2024), due to the "Resurrection" finally being released on vinyl. It's an interesting read, with photos:

After 55 Years, the Aerovons Are Finally the Next Big Thing (riverfronttimes.com)

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 World of You (Aerovons)
02 Resurrection (Aerovons)
03 With Her (Aerovons)
04 Quotes and Photos (Aerovons)
05 Words from a Song (Aerovons)
06 Bessy Goodheart (Aerovons)
07 Something of Yours (Aerovons)
08 She's Not Dead (Aerovons)
09 The Years (Aerovons)
10 Everything's Alright (Aerovons)
11 The Children (Aerovons)
12 The Train (Aerovons)
13 Song for Jane (Aerovons)
14 Here (Aerovons)
15 World of You [Demo] (Aerovons)
16 Sunshine Woman (Tom Hartman)
17 A Little More (Tom Hartman)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16651228/AEROVNS1969Rsrrcton_atse.zip.html

The cover is just the photo of the original cover, without any changes.

The Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue - Alternate Version (1980)

I've been gradually posting Rolling Stones stray tracks albums, working my way chronologically through their long music career. Starting at this point with their 1980 album "Emotional Rescue," I'm going to take a different approach. In my opinion, from 1980 onwards, their albums were usually hit and miss (with occasional exceptions, such as their 1981 album "Tattoo You"). So instead of more stray tracks albums, I'm making alternate versions of most of their albums from 1980 and after. (I'm also making some cover versions albums and some other things.) In this way, I hope to make versions of these later day albums that are solid all the way through, just like nearly all of their output prior to 1980.

The Stones put out a classic album in 1978, "Some Girls." Their 1981 album "Tattoo You" is also a classic. So it's a bit strange that the album in between, "Emotional Rescue" in 1980, was considered both a commercial and critical disappointment. (It reached Number One in the charts in many countries, but that was momentum from the previous album, and it didn't stay high in the charts for long.) For instance, if you look at the crowd-sourced ratings at rateyourmusic.com, it was their lowest rated album in their career up until then, and far below the ratings of "Some Girls" and "Tattoo You."

The Rolling Stones Albums: songs, discography, biography, and listening guide - Rate Your Music

In retrospect, I think there are two reasons this was a disappointing album. The first is that there was increasing conflict between the two main creative forces in the band, singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. Richards had been heavily using drugs through most of the 1970s, if not earlier, but he cleaned himself up in time for this album, after having narrowly dodged a long prison term for drug possession in Canada in 1978. During his drug years, he'd been content to let Jagger lead the band. But once he cleaned up, he wanted to take a bigger role. That should have been a good thing, but Jagger was used to being in charge by then. The songwriting suffered, since Jagger and Richards had often written songs together, much like the Lennon-McCartney songwriting team in the Beatles.

But even with that, the album should have been a really solid one, except for poor song selection. Most critically, three songs were rejected for this album, but were included on their next one, "Tattoo You," when the band all but stopped coming up with new songs for a while due to the Jagger-Richards conflict. Those three were "Hang Fire," "Little T&A," and "No Use in Crying." In my opinion, had those songs been included instead of the weakest ones that ultimately made it on the album, its reputation would be much, much better. Unfortunately for my purposes though, I don't want to use any of those three, since they work great as part of "Tattoo You."

That said, it still can be greatly improved by removing some songs and adding others. The ones I removed are: "Dance (Part 1)," "Send It to Me," "Indian Girl," and "Where the Boys Go." I'm sure other people would pick different ones to remove. In my opinion, some of these are less fully fleshed out songs and more riffs with dance beats added. The band wasn't afraid to dabble with disco, which was super trendy at the time, but I don't think many of their disco experiments look that good in retrospect (with the obvious exception of their big 1978 hit "Miss You").

Anyway, I've kept six songs from the album, and I've put those as the first six tracks here, in their original order. The remaining four come from elsewhere. "I Think I'm Going Mad" was an easy add. It was a B-side, released in 1979. That's another case of poor song selection, since I think it's better than many songs they chose to include on the album. 

You might recognize "Lonely at the Top," because it was a single from Jagger's 1985 solo album "She's the Boss." However, it started out as a Rolling Stones song in 1979. The version here is unreleased. The sound quality is a bit rough, and some of the lyrics hadn't been worked out yet. But I figure it's interesting enough to merit inclusion.

The last two songs are more examples of poor song selection for the album. They did get released, but not until decades later. Both were recorded in 1979 and could have been included on the album. But "Troubles A-Comin'" wasn't released until the 2021 super deluxe edition of "Tattoo You," and "We Had It All" wasn't released until the 2011 super deluxe edition of "Some Girls" (despite the fact that it was actually recorded a year after "Some Girls" was released). 

This album is 40 minutes long. By comparison, the original version was 41 minutes long.

01 Summer Romance (Rolling Stones)
02 Let Me Go (Rolling Stones)
03 Down in the Hole (Rolling Stones)
04 Emotional Rescue (Rolling Stones)
05 She's So Cold (Rolling Stones)
06 All about You (Rolling Stones)
07 I Think I'm Going Mad (Rolling Stones)
08 Lonely at the Top [Edit] (Rolling Stones)
09 Troubles A-Comin' (Rolling Stones)
10 We Had It All (Rolling Stones)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/5amzMzjj 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/Rc7IdxuvqHKsfuj/file

The original cover used a thermal camera to take pictures of four members of the band. (I think drummer Charlie Watts got cut out.) I wanted something similar but different. Since the cover was already so strange, all I did was invert the colors for everything but the text at the top. You have to know the cover well to even tell the difference.

Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine - The Jon Brion Version (2005) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Mike Solof is back with another guest post. This time, it's an alternate version of Fiona Apple's 2005 album "Extraordinary Machine." The released version is excellent. However, there was a different, still entirely unreleased version all ready to go earlier in the year that was never released. Produced by Jon Brion, it was basically the same bunch of songs, but drastically different takes of nearly all the songs.

Wikipedia has a very good explanation:

Extraordinary Machine - Wikipedia

Furthermore, Mike has written up the whole story in his PDF notes, which I recommend you read. Everything else you need to know should be in those notes. 

Oh, one last thing I should mention: although this is a bootleg, the sound quality is just as good as an official album.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Not About Love (Fiona Apple)
02 Red Red Red (Fiona Apple)
03 Get Him Back (Fiona Apple)
04 Better Version of Me (Fiona Apple)
05 Oh Well (Fiona Apple)
06 O' Sailor (Fiona Apple)
07 Used to Love Him (Fiona Apple)
08 Window (Fiona Apple)
09 Waltz [Better than Fine] (Fiona Apple)
10 Extraordinary Machine (Fiona Apple)
11 Please Please Please (Fiona Apple)
12 Better Version of Me [Alternate Version] (Fiona Apple)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16163219/FIONAPL2005_ExtrrdinryMchnealt_atse.zip.html

The cover uses the same text and font as the original version, but the image is different. The official cover has some plant life on it, and there's a picture on the back of more plant life. This is just that back image moved to the cover.

Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen - Alternate Version (1967) (NEW TO PUBLIC CIRCULATION)

Two months ago (as I write this in January 2024), I posted three albums that came from a 1970 Leonard Cohen copyright extension release. In brief, that's an extremely limited official release record companies sometimes to do retain the legal rights to music, based on a law in the European Union. After discovering all that great 1970 music that had never been in public circulation before, I found out that there were 1967 and 1972 copyright extension releases as well. I'm very happy to say that some kind souls gave me copies. This is the first of several albums I'm making to get this material to a wider audience.

For starters, I'm focusing on the 1967 copyright extension release. 1967 was the year Leonard Cohen put out his first album, "Songs of Leonard Cohen," which came out just a few days before the end of the year. It's an undisputed classic. For instance, Rolling Stone Magazine has ranked it Number 195 in its 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Because this was Cohen's first album, and he was a total novice when it came to recording music, there were many takes done of nearly all the songs. Plus, he brought in many more songs than could fit on a single album. The 1967 copyright extension release apparently includes all the different takes of each song in the 1967 recording sessions, other than the final versions that made the album. There are so many takes, in fact, that it would get too repetitive for all but the most die-hard Cohen fan. For instance, in the most extreme case, there are 22 takes of the song "Love Calls You by Your Name."

So, to make this release more palatable for most listeners, I've broken it into two albums. The first one is this one here. With the assistance of another Cohen fan, 21st Century Schitzoid Cat, I've picked the most interesting version of each song that made it onto "Songs of Leonard Cohen." Then I put them in the exact same order as the released album, giving you an interesting alternate version of that album. I've also made another album that consists of the best of the 1967 recorded songs that didn't make that album. I'll be posting that album right after this one.

Next, I need to explain that the recording of this album was difficult and contentious. Initially, legendary producer John Hammond was supposed to produce the album. He had signed Cohen, and understood his music. But Hammond got sick and had to drop out. He was replaced by producer John Simon. Here's a quote from the Wikipedia entry about the album:

By all accounts, Simon and Cohen clashed over instrumentation and mixing; Cohen wanted the album to have a sparse sound, while Simon felt the songs could benefit from arrangements that included strings and horns. Writing for Mojo in 2012, Sylvie Simmons recalls, "When Leonard heard the result, he was not happy; the orchestration on 'Suzanne' was overblown, while everything about 'Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye' felt too soft. Several tracks had too much bottom, and there were even drums; Leonard had clearly stipulated no drums." The singer and producer also quarreled over a slight stop in the middle of "So Long, Marianne" – a device Cohen felt interrupted the song. According to biographer Ira Nadel, although Cohen was able to make changes to the mix, some of Simon's additions "couldn't be removed from the four-track master tape."

---

So, while the 1967 copyright release didn't come with any notes to explain things (as far as I know), it's pretty clear that many of the songs were often done in different styles that fit more with Simon's vision of what he thought would be commercially successful. 

Often, this meant more instrumentation, while Cohen wanted things more stripped back. Sometimes, the difference between these versions and the final released versions are dramatic. For instance, the version of "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" here has a fast drumbeat through the whole song, while the released version has no drums at all. But rather than spell everything out, I'll let you be surprised by discovering the differences yourself. 

Often times, the first take was the most different. Note that the first five songs are all the first takes. Many of the takes are incomplete, since something like a flubbed lyric would cause the song to stop before it was finished. In case you're curious, here are the numbers of takes for each song:

Suzanne: 4
Master Song: 1
Winter Lady: 3
The Stranger Song: 2
Sisters of Mercy: 4
Come On, Marianne: 6
Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye: 12
Stories of the Street: 9
Teachers: 3
One of Us Cannot Be Wrong: 12

I made significant edits to five of the songs. One of the most drastic was to "Suzanne." The first take is very different from all the other takes, and the album version, so I wanted to use that one. However, it ended after the second verse, missing all of the second chorus as well as the third verse and chorus (with each chorus having different lyrics). I repeated the first chorus after the second verse. Even though they don't match lyrically, I felt that was better than having no chorus at all there. 

"Come On, Marianne" (the early name for "So Long, Marianne") also got a drastic edit. For both Takes Two and Four, there were entire verses that were not used on the album version, but some of them made it to Take Two, and others made it to Take Four. Since the backing music was basically exactly the same for both takes, I merged them together so one got all the different verses from both takes, without any repeats. The result is two minutes longer than the album version.

The edits of the other three songs were more minor. In all three cases, the songs ended abruptly, only a couple of seconds after the last words. For "Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye," I used Take Four for nearly all of the song. But Take Two had an instrumental ending that went on for about 15 seconds. So I patched that ending onto Take Four. With "Winter Lady" and "Teachers," I just repeated some instrumental bits to make the songs last five or ten seconds longer, giving them a less abrupt ending.

This album is 45 minutes long. By contrast, the official album is 41 minutes long. Most of the difference in the times is due to the two extra minutes added to "Come On, Marianne/ So Long, Marianne."

Note that I plan on posting the other 1967 album here tomorrow or thereabouts. After I do that, I will share the full 1967 copyright release, including every single take, via SoulseekQT, for the really die-hard fans. (It's seven hours long!) Then I will get to the 1972 copyright extension release.

01 Suzanne [Take 1] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
02 Master Song [Take 1] (Leonard Cohen)
03 Winter Lady [Take 1] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
04 The Stranger Song [Take 1] (Leonard Cohen)
05 Sisters of Mercy [Take 1] (Leonard Cohen)
06 Come On, Marianne [Early Version of So Long, Marianne] [Takes 2 & 3] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
07 Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye [Take 4 plus Take 2] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
08 Stories of the Street [Take 5] (Leonard Cohen)
09 Teachers [Take 2] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
10 One of Us Cannot Be Wrong [Take 8] (Leonard Cohen)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16141676/LENRDCHN1967_SngsfLnrdChnAltrnte_atse.zip.html

The cover is very closely based on the official cover. However, I added the words "alternate version" at the bottom, and I used a different picture in the middle. This picture is from an August 1967 photo shoot that probably was meant for the album cover. It was a black and white photo, but I tinted it the same way as the version on the official album.

Chris Isaak - Beyond the Sun - Alternate Version (2011)

It seems that singer Chris Isaak was born in the wrong era. He managed to be a pretty big star in the 1990s, but due to his musical style, I'm sure he would have been a much bigger star if he'd been of the right age in the 1950s and 60s. In 2011, he finally did the obvious thing and released an album consisting entirely of cover versions of 1950s and 60s songs, called "Beyond the Sun." But while this album is pretty good, I'd like to think that I made it even better simply by making it shorter.

Let me explain a bit more. "Beyond the Sun" was first released as a relatively short album, just 35 minutes long. But later, a deluxe edition was released that more than doubled the album length. If you consider all the songs from this version, about half are covers of classic hits and the others are covers of lesser known songs. (There's even one original on the deluxe edition only, "My Baby Don't Love Me No More," that fits the style of the others.) In my opinion, most of those classic hits have been overplayed already. The world doesn't really need more versions of "Can't Help Falling in Love," "It's Now or Never," "I Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire," and the like. So I removed all the really well known songs, and it left me with an album's worth of songs. I think this is a more interesting listen for people like me who know those other songs backwards and forwards.

This album is 37 minutes long.

01 Dixie Fried (Chris Isaak)
02 How's the World Treating You (Chris Isaak)
03 Miss Pearl (Chris Isaak)
04 Live It Up (Chris Isaak)
05 So Long I'm Gone (Chris Isaak)
06 My Happiness (Chris Isaak)
07 Doin' the Best I Can (Chris Isaak)
08 Your True Love (Chris Isaak)
09 Lovely Loretta (Chris Isaak)
10 Everybody's in the Mood (Chris Isaak)
11 I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry [Over You] (Chris Isaak)
12 Doncha' Think It's Time (Chris Isaak)
13 My Baby Don't Love Me No More (Chris Isaak)
14 Bonnie B (Chris Isaak)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16122617/CHRSISK2011_ByndthSunAltrntVrsin_atse.zip.html

I got lucky with the cover art. Searching the Internet for the artist name and album name, I stumbled across this art done as a pretend poster, in the style of many 1950s posters. I had to crop some things to get the rectangular poster to fit into a square space, but every bit of this, including all the text, was in the original. I tried to figure out who did it, to give credit, but the website is originated from appeared to be defunct.

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Mardi Gras - Alternate Version (1972-1973)

Today, I got a comment that four bonus tracks I'd put on the 1976 unreleased John Fogerty album "Hoodoo" were missed. I checked, and this is true. When I was redoing all the links a few months ago, those were gone from that album because I'd moved them in my music collection. I could have just put them back, but I thought about it, and figured out something better to do with them.

Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) had a great run of albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but they ended on a bum note with the 1972 album "Mardi Gras." They broke up shortly after that album was released, and it's not hard to understand why if you listen to the album. At the time, Rolling Stone Magazine even called it the worst album ever released by a major rock act. I think I've made a much better alternate version. 

But before I get to that, let me explain why the officially released version is considered so bad. John Fogerty was the clear leader of CCR, writing all the songs, singing them, and producing them. He even did things like the backing vocals on the recordings. But as the band's fame grew, the other three band members - rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty (John's brother), bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford - chafed under John Fogerty's musical domination of the band.

In late 1970, the other band members told John Fogerty they wanted more creative involvement. John said no. His brother Tom then left the band in early 1971 for a solo career (which wasn't that successful). Then what happened next is disputed. John claims the remaining two band members, Cook and Clifford, demanded they be given more creative control, and he was forced to agree or break up the band. However, Cook and Clifford claim John demanded that they each write and sing an equal portion of songs on the next album.

Personally, although John was known to be controlling and stubborn, I believe his side of the story. The evidence is right there in the lyrics of the "Mardi Gras" song "Take It like a Friend," written by Cook:

If maybe you'd move over, gave someone else a chance to try their luck
Instead, you run up closer, tryin' to grab a page before they close the book

Clearly, the whole song, and that bit in particular, is about Cook (and Clifford) wanting more creative involvement in the band, with John resisting and being controlling.

But in any case, when "Mardi Gras" came out, the album was basically divided into songs written and sung by Fogerty, Cook, and Clifford. Fogerty's songs were of a high standard, as usual, including two hit singles, while Cook's and Clifford's were... well... not so good. Neither of them were blessed with great singing voices, and their songs were generally subpar. 

That said, while John Fogerty was put in a tough spot of giving them more creative control or breaking up the band, he was kind of an ass to put the album out like that and watch it fall on its face. But tensions were high, and everyone involved made mistakes. In retrospect, it probably would have been better for everyone involved if John had just let the band break up before recording "Mardi Gras." As it was, the break up was so painful that John never truly reconciled with Cook, Clifford, or even his brother Tom.

From what I understand, the real villain in the story is Saul Zaentz, the owner of their record company. Before getting famous, CCR had signed a very bad record deal, forcing the band to release albums quickly (the released three in 1969 alone!) while getting only a small percentage of royalties. By 1971, CCR wanted to renegotiate their contract in light of the band's massive success. But Zaentz played the game of divide and conquer, flattering Cook and Clifford that they could be solo stars, and promising to give them solo record deals. In that way, Zaentz stopped the band from presenting a united front in their financial battle against him. But in so doing, he killed the goose that laid the golden eggs, by helping to break the band up entirely. (Needless to say, the promised solo album deals never happened.)

Anyway, let me get to what's on this alternate album. The official "Mardi Gras" album is short, only 28 minutes long. I cut it down even more by getting rid of nearly all the songs written and/or sung by Cook or Clifford: "Take It like a Friend," "Need Someone to Hold," "Tearin' Up the Country," "Sail Away," and "Door to Door." The only one I kept is "What Are You Gonna Do," written and sung by Clifford, who at least was a better singer than Cook.

As for the Fogerty songs, "Someday Never Comes" and "Sweet Hitch-Hiker" were hit singles, so those were no-brainers to keep. "Hello Mary Lou" is a serviceable cover of a Gene Pitney song sung by Fogerty, so that was good enough to keep. "Lookin' for a Reason" is a rather weak and generic Fogerty song, but it's still a Fogerty song, so I kept it. Besides, the lyrics are interesting in that they're his take on the slow collapse of the band.

If that was the entire album, it would only be 15 minutes long, which would be way too short. But remember those four bonus tracks I mentioned at the beginning of this write-up? In 1973, Fogerty released the album "The Blue Ridge Rangers." It consisted entirely of covers of country songs, and all the instruments and vocals were done by Fogerty alone. That's a separate thing entirely, so I didn't include any songs from that. 

However, still in 1973, Fogerty released two stand-alone singles containing original songs on the A- and B-sides. Those are the four bonus tracks I'd put on "Hoodoo" that I'm moving here. True, they're not CCR, but they're a better fit chronologically on a 1972 album than a 1976 album. Besides, they sound exactly like CCR songs. They're also really good songs, even though both singles stiffed. I'm sure they would have done much better if they'd been released under the CCR name.

But that's not all I included. Remember, John's brother Tom left CCR in 1971 to pursue a solo career. Unlike Cook and Clifford, he had singing talent and songwriting talent, although he struggled mightily to come up with enough good songs to fill entire albums. His first two albums, released in 1972, didn't have any stand out tracks, in my opinion. But I've included two from this third album, the songs "Joyful Resurrection" and "Mystic Isle Avalon," and one song from his fourth album, "What Did I Know." For all three of the songs, he was backed by Cook and Clifford, so one could argue that those were still CCR songs, just led by Tom instead of John. "Mystic Isle Avalon" even has some guitar parts by John. He recorded his parts separately from the others, but still, it was the one and only time after CCR broke up that all four original band members played on the same song.

For all three of those Tom songs, it's pretty easy to think they're CCR songs sung by John. Being brothers, they had very similar voices. (Tom died in 1990, which is why I use the past tense.) Plus, while lots of Tom's solo stuff was done in different styles, these three songs clearly were done in the general CCR style.

So there you have it. Admittedly, this album is pretty far removed from the official version of "Mardi Gras." But that album needed serious help. Also, this is a fitting place to put those four songs Fogerty only put out on singles. (By the way, to this day they still haven't been re-released as bonus tracks or anything like that, although Fogerty did perform one of them, "Comin' Down the Road," on a live album.)

This album is 36 minutes long, not including the bonus track.

01 Someday Never Comes (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
02 Lookin' for a Reason (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
03 What Are You Gonna Do (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
04 Hello Mary Lou (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
05 Sweet Hitch-Hiker (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
06 Joyful Resurrection (Tom Fogerty & Creedence Clearwater Revival)
07 Mystic Isle Avalon (Tom Fogerty & Creedence Clearwater Revival)
08 You Don't Owe Me (John Fogerty)
09 Back in the Hills (John Fogerty)
10 Comin' Down the Road (John Fogerty)
11 Ricochet [Instrumental] (John Fogerty)
12 What Did I Know (Tom Fogerty & Creedence Clearwater Revival)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16025208/CreedCR_1972_MrdiGrsAltrnatVrsion_atse.zip.html

"Mardi Gras" has such a bad reputation that merely looking at the official album cover gave me bad vibes. So I decided to make a new one using the same general style. I kept the circular shape of the band's name, and the font colors. "Mardi Gras" had been written in small letters on a tambourine in the original. I kept the lettering but enlarged the words greatly and made them black. Then I took a photo of the three remaining band members from late 1971 and put it in the center of the cover, over a picture of a girl holding the tambourine.

Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark - Acoustic Version (1974)

Joni Mitchell's five studio albums from 1968 to 1972 were basically solo acoustic, with only occasional additional instruments added in. But her 1974 album "Court and Spark" was much more of a full-band recording, as she moved into a jazzier direction. The public responded very positively. It sold over two million copies in the U.S., making it her best selling album of her entire career.

There's no doubt that "Court and Spark" is a classic album that's great exactly how it is. But what if she'd recorded it in the solo acoustic mode of all her previous albums? If nothing else, that would make for a nice alternate listen from time to time. In October 2023, the rarities box set "Archives, Volume 3" was released. I realized that contained solo (or almost solo) acoustic demos of nearly every song from the album. So I resolved to try to make an alternate acoustic version out of that material.

I mostly succeeded. The only major problem I faced was that there was no alternate version of "Free Man in Paris" to use. So I used the album version. However, that has a full band on it. So, using the audio editing program UVR5, I removed the drums and bass, making a unique acoustic mix. Also, the songs "Down on You," "Car on a Hill," and "Same Situation" were all part of a medley. I did more editing to separate them out, so I could have every song here in the exact same order as the official album.

There are some prominent drums on the last song, "Twisted." But that's a very stripped down version, with drums being the main instrument aside from her voice. So I figure that's acoustic in nature, and I kept it that way.

This album is 37 minutes long. The original album is also 37 minutes long.

01 Court and Spark [Demo] (Joni Mitchell)
02 Help Me [Demo] (Joni Mitchell)
03 Free Man in Paris [Acoustic Mix] (Joni Mitchell)
04 People's Parties [Demo] (Joni Mitchell)
05 Same Situation [Alternate Vocal Piano Mix] (Joni Mitchell)
06 Car on a Hill [Demo] (Joni Mitchell)
07 Down to You [Early Alternate Take] (Joni Mitchell)
08 Just like This Train [Demo] (Joni Mitchell)
09 Raised on Robbery [Demo] (Joni Mitchell)
10 Trouble Child [Demo] (Joni Mitchell)
11 Twisted [Early Alternate Version] (Joni Mitchell)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15987140/JoniMchl_1974_CourtSprkAcoustcVrsion_atse.zip.html

Since this is an alternate album, I wanted to make a cover similar to the original album cover, but somewhat different. So I used Mitchell's drawing, but enlarged it so it filled most of the cover. Then I rearranged her written words, and added the word "Acoustic."

The End - Retrospection - Alternate Version (1968)

Last week, I posted the album "Introspection," which was the sole album released by the British band the End while they were still together. Although it was released at the end of 1969, it was recorded in the middle of 1968. It turns out the band recorded many other songs at that same time, enough for a second album. 

Decades later, in 1997, these outtakes were gathered up and released as the album "Retrospection." The band had built up a large backlog of original songs before they finally had the chance to record an album. What impresses me is that not only is "Introspection" an excellent album, but even this collection of outtakes is better than most albums released in this era.

I made some additions and removals compared to the 1997 version of this album. The songs I removed were alternate versions of songs that appeared on the "Introspection" album, that weren't that different, such as versions of "Shades of Orange" and "Loving, Sacred Loving." I did include "Building Up a Dream," which is an early version of "Cardboard Watch," but was different enough to merit a different title. By the way, note that all the songs here were originally done by the End, with the exception of the covers of "Morning Dew" and "Black Is Black."

I added a couple of songs as well. Unfortunately, the End did a bunch of BBC sessions, but the vast majority has been lost. Only two BBC performances have survived, and they happen to probably be the band's best known songs: "Shades of Orange" and "Loving, Sacred Loving." So I've included those at the end. They have been officially released, but on an obscure album ("Shapes and Sounds, Volume 3") that compiles late 1960s BBC performances by lesser known bands.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Building Up a Dream [Early Version of Cardboard Watch] (End)
02 Little Annie (End)
03 Morning Dew (End)
04 Tears Will Be the Only Answer (End)
05 Today Tomorrow (End)
06 Lady Under the Lamp (End)
07 Black Is Black (End)
08 Mister Man (End)
09 Call Me [Instrumental] (End)
10 Mirror (End)
11 We've Got It Made (End)
12 Bypass the By-Pass (End)
13 Stones in My Banana (End)
14 Shades of Orange [BBC Version] (End)
15 Under the Rainbow [BBC Version] (End)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15847291/TEnd_1968_Rtrospction_atse.zip.html

The album cover is the official cover, unchanged.

Midnight Oil - The Real Thing - Alternate Version (2000-2002)

In 2000, Midnight Oil released an album called "The Real Thing." But it was a rather odd album. It had four new songs, and the rest were live acoustic versions from 1993 and 1994, when the band played on MTV's "Unplugged" show and did some acoustic concerts after that. (Although it's more accurate to call them semi-acoustic performances, since they played with all their band members, including their drummer.)

I've already posted the four new songs on the stray tracks album "Spirits of the Age." And I've also already posted the full version of the 1993 "Unplugged" concert. However, I happened to be able to make a VERY alternate version of this album, using entirely different performances, but keeping to the same acoustic-y concept.

The main reason I'm able to do this is because, after not playing in acoustic format for a bunch of years, the band played six songs in that format for a US radio show in 2002, shortly before the band broke up. So that makes up a majority of this album, tracks three through eight. The first song, "The Real Thing," was played on a TV show in 2000. The second song, "No Man's Land," was released in an acoustic version in 2001.

So that's all acoustic-y stuff done from 2000 to 2002. But that alone only makes for 33 minutes of music. It so happens I have a few songs from earlier years (1994 to 1996) that were also done in acoustic format but weren't included in the "Unplugged" show I posted. So I added them near the end. 

Finally, the last song is from yet another different time, 2009. It only features the band's lead singer, Peter Garrett, with Jimmy Barnes, who is a famous rock star in Australia. It's an acoustic version of the Jethro Tull classic "Locomotive Breath."

All in all, this ends up being a grab-bag of all the worthy acoustic versions the band did that didn't make it to the "Unplugged" album. The sources may be from different years, but it still makes for a nice, cohesive listen.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 The Real Thing (Midnight Oil)
02 No Man's Land [Acoustic Version] (Midnight Oil)
03 Golden Age (Midnight Oil)
04 Beds Are Burning (Midnight Oil)
05 Luritja Way (Midnight Oil)
06 The Dead Heart (Midnight Oil)
07 Short Memory (Midnight Oil)
08 Tone Poem (Midnight Oil)
09 Tin Legs and Tin Mines (Midnight Oil)
10 U.S. Forces (Midnight Oil)
11 Surf's Up Tonight (Midnight Oil)
12 Locomotive Breath (Peter Garrett & Jimmy Barnes) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7csSKdGE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/awpmtQZ1dEO4Cjr/file 

Just like the music in the album, the cover is only very loosely based on the original "Real Thing" album. I used the same text style for the top and bottom. But the original cover is just more of that background yellow to red pattern. So instead I found a photo of band in acoustic mode. Unfortunately, the photo was done way later, in 2015, around the time the band started to reunite. But I guess that's kind of fitting, since the music here is from a bunch of different years.

And by the way, while I was looking for a good picture for this cover, I found a better one for the "Unplugged" album I already posted. So I've changed the cover for that album as well.

The Band - Islands - Alternate Version (1977)

Having just posted my alternate version of the Band album "Northern Lights - Southern Cross," I might as well post the last album of theirs that I've made an alternate version for, "Islands."

I post a lot of stray tracks albums here, and that's essentially what the official album "Islands" is. Robbie Robertson, the band's main songwriter, disbanded the group in 1976, with their last concert (called "The Last Waltz") taking place near the end of the year. However, they still owed one more studio album to their record company. So they cobbled together some older outtakes and a few leftover new songs and made the album. 

Given that background, it's no surprise that it's considered one of their weaker albums. It's also rather short, at only 35 minutes. That said, there are some very good songs on it, as well as some forgettable ones. Plus, there were some other songs done around that time that can be added to strengthen it quite a lot. 

There are ten songs on the official version of the album. I've removed three of them: "Street Walker," "Ain't That a Love of Love" (a cover), and the instrumental "Islands." Instead, I've added seven songs, making this a significantly longer album.

The first added song here is "Twilight." It's a very good song, but for some reason was only released as a single in 1976. It's puzzling why it wasn't included on "Islands," especially since the album was short. 

Three more songs come from the soundtrack to the movie "The Last Waltz." The vast majority of that triple album consists of the concert performed in 1976 with lots of famous guests. But there were some studio tracks included as well. Some are remakes of older songs that don't fit here. But there are three really good previously unreleased ones: "Out of the Blue," "Evangeline," and "The Well." Logically, those should have gone on "Islands." But it seems the Band had troubles with their record company. "The Last Waltz" was put out by a different record company, and the songs going on that album probably had to do with that record company dispute.

Another added song is "Home Cookin'." It was unreleased at the time, but was released much later on the box set "Across the Great Divide." 

Finally, there are two songs that come from a bootleg of a recording session: "Hard Times" and "Steppin' Up in Class." These are both covers. Eric Clapton was recording a studio album in 1976, and he had the Band play on a couple of his songs. So these are outtakes from that, which means Clapton plays on them too. The vocals to the song "Steppin' Up in Class" were somewhat buried in the mix, so I used the audio editing program X-Minus to make them clearer and cut out some rambling parts.

The official version of "Islands" is just a so-so album. But I think this version is much stronger.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Twilight [Single Version] (Band)
02 Out of the Blue (Band)
03 Evangeline (Band with Emmylou Harris)
04 The Well (Band)
05 Hard Times (Band with Eric Clapton)
06 Home Cookin' (Band)
07 Right as Rain (Band)
08 The Saga of Pepote Rouge (Band)
09 Livin' in a Dream (Band)
10 Knockin' Lost John (Band)
11 Georgia on My Mind (Band)
12 Steppin' Up in Class [Edit] (Band with Eric Clapton)
13 Christmas Must Be Tonight (Band)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15910375/TBnd_1977_IslndsAlternate_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I simply used the official cover. But I wanted it to be somewhat different, to show this is an alternate versions. So I made two changes. One, I zoomed in a little more, so there's less black area around the edges. And two, I made the letters of "The Band" in the middle mostly see-through. (I used some Photoshop tricks to fill in that area with more sunset colors.)

The Band - Northern Lights - Southern Cross - Alternate Version (1975)

Putting the Wild Honey Orchestra tribute concert to the band together the other day put me in the mood for more music from the Band. So here's something directly from them. It's my alternate version of their 1975 album "Northern Lights - Southern Cross."

Actually, this album is already a very good one, one of their best. But there are a few stray tracks from that time period one can add to make it even better. I removed one so-so song, "Ring Your Bell." Then I added three songs originally from "The Basement Tapes:" "Ain't No More Cane," "Don't Ya Tell Henry," and "Bessie Smith."

Now, you may well ask, "Why the heck add those three? 'The Basement Tapes' are a collection of songs Bob Dylan and the Band recorded in 1967." That's true, except for those three songs I mentioned. I believe there's been kind of conspiracy about the origins of these songs. In 1975, Robbie Robertson, the main songwriter for the Band, was given the task of putting "The Basement Tapes" together. Even though the vast majority of the songs were written and sung by Dylan, apparently Dylan wasn't interested in being involved in putting the archival album together. 

My theory is that Robertson saw an opportunity to beef up the percentage of Band songs by recording a few new ones and pretending they were from 1967 with the others. That way, "The Basement Tapes" were seen as more of a collaborative effort between Dylan and the Band, when in fact the vast majority of songs were Dylan's. As it was, eight of the 24 songs on the album were by the Band. Without those extra three, it would have been a partly five by the Band compared to 19 by Dylan. (Many, many more excellent Dylan songs not included, enough for me to have made a double album that I've posted here called "More Basement Tapes.")

I'm supported in my theory by an account by engineer Rob Fraboni. He was intimately involved in the production of "The Basement Tapes" in 1975. He claims the three songs I mentioned were in fact recorded in 1975, plus one more, a cover of the Chuck Berry song "Going Back to Memphis," which remained unreleased. Fraboni also says the Band overdubbed many vocal and instrumental parts to other Basement Tapes songs at that time, again making them sound more like collaborative efforts instead of Dylan-dominated ones.

The song "Don't Ya Tell Henry" was written by Dylan, and a version was recorded in 1967 as part of the Basement Tapes sessions. But it was a sloppy, drunken version with Dylan on lead vocals. It seems the Band basically took the song for their own by recording a 1975 version with Band members doing the lead vocals.

"Ain't No More Cane" is a traditional song. But it has a similar story in that Dylan sang the lead on it in the actual Basement Tapes sessions. The Band liked both of these songs, and performed them in concert as far back as the Woodstock Festival in 1969. The 1975 version again has Band members doing the lead vocals instead of Dylan.

"Bessie Smith" is a greater mystery. The Band never played it in concert, so it could have been written as late as 1975, even though it fits in perfectly with other Basement Tapes songs.

If that's what they did, that's fine with me. "The Basement Tapes" are a great album, including the newly recorded Band songs and overdubs and all. But what's silly is that the pretense continues that those songs were recorded much earlier. For instance, in 2000, an expanded version of the 1971 Band album "Cahoots" was released. "Bessie Smith" was added to it, and the liner notes state it was recorded in 1970. But it's the only song on that re-release that lack any recording details. Similarly, when the Band box set "Across the Great Divide" was released in 1994, the liner notes claim that "Don't Ya Tell Henry" and "Ain't No More Cane" were recorded in an "unknown studio" on an unknown date in either 1967 or 1968. 

Those three songs are literally the only ones with such vague recording details, and they're also the exact ones that Fraboni claims were actually recorded in 1975. I believe Fraboni, especially since the motive of wanting to secretly beef up the Band's involvement in the Basement Tapes makes perfect sense. If that's the case, then these three songs were recorded around the same time as the "Northern Lights - Southern Cross" ones and belong as bonus tracks or the like with that album. So that's why I've included them here.

This album is 48 minutes long.

I've included "Twilight" as a bonus track. The sound quality is just as good as the others. The reason it's a bonus track is because this is an early version. The song would be released as a stand-alone single in 1976, and in my opinion that version is very different, more rocking, and better. So I'm including that in my alternate version of the Band's "Islands" album.

01 Ophelia (Band)
02 Forbidden Fruit (Band)
03 Ain't No More Cane (Band)
04 Acadian Driftwood (Band)
05 Jupiter Hollow (Band)
06 Don't Ya Tell Henry (Band)
07 Rags and Bones (Band)
08 Bessie Smith (Band)
09 Hobo Jungle (Band)
10 It Makes No Difference (Band)

Twilight [Early Version] (Band)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700645/TBND1975_NrthrnLghtsSuthrnCrssAltrnate_atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I used the exact same photo as that on the official cover. However, I zoomed in more, allowing the band members and the fire to be larger. I also redid the lettering, using the same font and color.