Cream - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1967-1968

Here's the second of two volumes of Cream performing for the BBC. The songs are in rough chronological order. So while the first album covers 1966 to 1967, this covers 1967 to 1968.

As I did with Volume 1, avoided the use of versions from the official BBC album, as the sound quality is poorly regarded by serious fans. Instead, I relied on the versions used by Prof Stoned from his blog whenever possible. He worked with other serious Cream fans to figure out the best sounding versions, despite the fact they're all unreleased ones.

Also, as I explained with Volume 1, I don't like having two versions of the same song on the same album. So I've created another album called "More BBC Sessions," and I've put the best sounding versions on Volume 1 and here, and the lesser versions on the "More" album. 

However,  there are four songs here that also are on Volume 1. That's due to the fact that these albums are ordered chronologically, and the band played some of the same songs at widely different times, often resulting in significantly different versions. For instance, "Steppin' Out" was played at the BBC in 1966, and again in early 1968. The other songs found of both volumes are "Sunshine of Your Love," "White Room," and "Crossroads."

Boy, how I dislike Brian Matthew! He's the smarmy sounding BBC DJ who loved to talk over BBC broadcasts of great 1960s and 1970s bands like the Beatles, the Who, the Kinks, Led Zeppelin, and many more. He reminds me of a real life version of Troy McClure, a Z-list actor and product promoter voiced by Phil Hartman in the first few years of The Simpsons TV show.

Matthew's voice mars nearly every archival BBC release out there. Luckily, he only spoke over one song on Volume 1. However, he marred four songs in this volume, which are marked with
"[Edit]" in their titles. I used the X-Minus audio editing program to wipe those vocals while keeping the underlying music.

Two more songs have "[Edit]" in their titles for different reasons. An excellent sounding version of "We're Going Wrong" only lasted about three minutes out of the expected four and a half. There's a lesser quality version for the last minute an a half. I edited the two versions together so one can hear the complete thing with the best sound quality. There's a very noticeable drop off between versions though. Also, the lead vocals to "White Room" were too quiet for my tastes in places, so I used X-Minus to boost those vocals.

Unfortunately, although Cream stayed together until around the end of 1968, their last BBC session was in January 1968. This predates their last two albums, "Wheels of Fire" and "Goodbye." So to get more of their later songs represented, I used alternate sources for the last six songs. The first three of those come from the French TV show "Bouton Rouge." You shouldn't notice the change in terms of sound, because they performed for the show without an audience present. 

The last three songs do come from a concert. Technically, these are sourced from the BBC, because they come from a BBC documentary about the band called "Farewell Concert" that extensively used film footage of their last concert as a band in November 1968. This documentary was heavily criticized when it came out for its poor sound, as well as having talking over parts of the songs, and generally having poorly shot video footage. Furthermore, the band members didn't think much of their final show performance. Luckily, this documentary was released on DVD many years later, and that version improved the sound and got rid of the talking over the music. So I've used those versions. The poorly shot video footage doesn't matter to the audio. As to the performances being disappointing, I've only chosen three of the better played songs for that reason.

By the way, technically the song "SWLABR" doesn't have a subtitle, but I added one - "She Walks like a Bearded Rainbow" - because so few people know what the band intended "SWALBR" to stand for. Don't ask me what the heck it means though!

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 Born Under a Bad Sign (Cream)
02 Take It Back [Edit] (Cream)
03 Outside Woman Blues (Cream)
04 We're Going Wrong [Edit] (Cream)
05 Politician [Edit] (Cream)
06 SWLABR [She Walks like a Bearded Rainbow] [Edit] (Cream)
07 Steppin' Out [Instrumental] (Cream)
08 Blue Condition [Edit] (Cream)
09 Spoonful (Cream)
10 Sunshine of Your Love (Cream)
11 Tales of Brave Ulysses [Edit] (Cream)
12 White Room (Cream)
13 Crossroads (Cream)
14 Sitting on Top of the World (Cream)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15904818/Crea_1967-1968_BBSessionsVolume2_atse.zip.html

For Volume 1, I used a photo of the band playing on the "Ready Steady Go" TV show in 1966. I believe this is also from that show, but for an appearance in 1967.

Cream - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1966-1967

The vast majority of the Cream BBC performances here have been officially released. Unfortunately, the versions on the band's official BBC album don't sound very good. A blogger named Prof Stoned has found and mixed much better unreleased versions of the same performances. So I've used his versions whenever possible.

I don't like having more than one version of the same song on one album, unless they're very different from each other. In total, there's enough material for three BBC albums. So I took the best versions of each song and used those to make up Volumes 1 and 2. Then all the other versions of songs, sometimes with lower sound quality, were put on a third album called "More BBC Sessions." The end result is that the sound quality for this volume is generally excellent.

All but one of the songs here are from actual BBC sessions. Surprisingly, there's no BBC version of "White Room," one of the band's best known songs. However, I found an unreleased studio version that's quite good, so I've included it. I find it interesting that this version dates from July 1967, which would have given the band plenty of time to include it on their "Disraeli Gears" album released in November 1967. However, they kept tinkering with it and didn't release it until their "Wheels of Fire" album in June 1968.

"Rollin' and Tumblin'" has "[Edit]" in the title due to the usual problem of BBC DJs talking over the music. I was able to fix this using the X-Minus audio editing program. Luckily, that was the only song affected like that on this album (though there's a bunch more on Volume 2).

"Sunshine of Your Love" is edited for a different reason. The version available has excellent sound quality, but it stopped before the proper end point, during the last part of the last chorus. So I patched in a section from earlier in the song to finish off that chorus. Then it fades out using the same chords that followed the first appearance of the chorus earlier in the song. A fade out isn't an ideal way to end the song, since the band finished it differently, but using the ending from a different version would have had its own problems. As it is, this edit only affects about the last 15 seconds of the song.

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 Sweet Wine (Cream)
02 Wrapping Paper (Cream)
03 Steppin' Out [Instrumental] (Cream)
04 Sleepy Time Time (Cream)
05 Rollin' and Tumblin' [Edit] (Cream)
06 Crossroads (Cream)
07 Cat's Squirrel (Cream)
08 Traintime (Cream)
09 Hey Lawdy Mama (Cream)
10 I'm So Glad (Cream)
11 I Feel Free (Cream)
12 Four until Late (Cream)
13 N. S. U. (Cream)
14 Toad [Instrumental] (Cream)
15 Strange Brew (Cream)
16 Tales of Brave Ulysses (Cream)
17 White Room (Cream)
18 Sunshine of Your Love [Edit] (Cream)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15904628/Crea_1966-1967_BBSessionsVolume1_atse.zip.html

The album cover uses a photo of the band playing on the TV show "Ready Steady Go," in November 1966. Note how unusual it is that the drums were out in front, as if they were the lead instrument.

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fight Fire - Non-Album Tracks (1965-1969)

I think Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) was a great band. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has seen the kind of music I've been posting here. However, they're not a band that left a lot of stray tracks off their official studio albums. In fact, almost none whatever! I'm guessing that CCR put out albums at such a remarkable rate - three classic studio albums in the year of 1969 alone! - that they used every song they could come up with.

However, there is one notable exception to this: the music CCR made in the years leading up to and including their first album in 1968. The group had a surprisingly long "pre-history," with the four musicians on the first CCR album having played in a band together all the way since 1959! They put out their first singles in 1961 and 1962 when they were still known as the Blue Velvets, but, to be honest, their music was highly derivative and not very good.

In 1964, they changed their name to the Golliwogs and started putting out more singles. Unfortunately, many of these weren't very good either. However, they did have some gems here and there. I've listened to all of this early music and separated the wheat from the chaff so you don't have to. The songs on this album are in rough chronological order. All the songs from the first one through "Call It Pretending" were first released under the Golliwogs name. ("Call It Pretending" was released as a B-side in mid-1967, then the exact same recording was released a few months later under the CCR name. The A-side, "Porterville," was put on the first CCR album.)

The last four songs here are stray tracks after the CCR name change. The very last one, "Suzie Q," is kind of a bonus track. It's the single version, instead of the album version. It's just the album version edited down. But I think it's quite different when it's only a four minute long song instead of a nine minute one.

01 You Better Be Careful (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
02 Fight Fire (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
03 Fragile Child (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
04 You Better Get It Before It Gets You (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
05 Tell Me (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
06 You Can't Be True (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
07 Call It Pretending (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
08 Crazy Otto [Instrumental] (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
09 Before You Accuse Me (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
10 Glory Be [Instrumental] (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
11 Susie Q [Single Version] (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15100313/CreedCR_1965-1969_FightFre_atse.zip.html

The cover was made by Peter at his Albums I Wish Existed blog. It's based on the cover of a CCR compilation.

Kirsty MacColl - Desperate Character (1981)

I'm a big, big fan of Kirsty MacColl's music. Some women get famous because they're beautiful. Some get famous because they have remarkable voices. Some get famous because they're excellent songwriters. But MacColl was a rare case of a woman was all three of those things. I especially appreciate her songwriting talent. Her murder in 2000 was a particularly great loss, because her last album was her best one in my opinion, and she was just starting down an exciting path of mixing her English pop with Latin music.

"Desperate Character" is MacColl's first album, from 1981. I normally don't post official studio albums, but I'm doing so here for two reasons. One, the album remains unfairly obscure and out of print. And two, I've added four songs at the start which are from two singles she put out in 1979. This makes a big difference, because all four songs are very good, and the first one, "They Don't Know," is an all-time classic (and a good example of her songwriting ability).

Unfortunately, MacColl was half-hearted about her solo career for about the first ten years of it, rarely playing concerts and doing little promotion otherwise. She was shy, and spent more of her time singing backing vocals on dozens of famous records instead. So she helped Tracey Ullman have a top ten hit with "They Don't Know" in 1983. She even re-sang the "Baby!" yell near the end of the song when the music stops for a couple of seconds, because Ullman couldn't sing that high.

I'm also posting this here because it was MacColl's only album until 1989. Once I post the next couple of stray tracks albums, you'll have all of her music prior to 1989, which has never been properly collected in one place.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 They Don't Know (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Turn My Motor On (Kirsty MacColl)
03 You Caught Me Out (Kirsty MacColl)
04 Boys (Kirsty MacColl)
05 Clock Goes Round (Kirsty MacColl)
06 See That Girl (Kirsty MacColl)
07 There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis (Kirsty MacColl)
08 Teenager in Love (Kirsty MacColl)
09 Mexican Sofa (Kirsty MacColl)
10 Until the Night (Kirsty MacColl)
11 Falling for Faces (Kirsty MacColl)
12 Just One Look (Kirsty MacColl)
13 The Real Ripper (Kirsty MacColl)
14 Hard to Believe (Kirsty MacColl)
15 He Thinks I Still Care (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693388/KIRSTYMCCLL1981_DsperteChractrAlternte_atse.zip.html

The cover art is just the official album cover.

Paul McCartney - Goodnight Tonight - Non-Album Tracks (1979-1980)

Here's the next in a long series of stray track albums from Paul McCartney.

This one covers 1979 to 1980, which is my opinion was a strong time for him musically after he'd coasted a little bit in the late 1970s. It contains three songs which were considered hits in the sense that you can still hear them played on the radio sometimes: "Goodnight Tonight," "Daytime Nighttime Suffering," and "Wonderful Christmastime."

Since this is still in his Wings period, a couple of the songs aren't mainly by him, but by his Wings cohort Denny Laine ("Weep for Love" and "Say You Don't Mind") and his wife Linda McCartney ("Love's Full Glory"). I could have added a lot more by these two, but these are the only songs I felt rose to being as good as Paul's songs from around this time. One of the Laine songs, "Say You Don't Mind," actually dates from around 1967 or so, and it was played live by Wings since 1972. But it wasn't until the late 1970s when a quality studio version with Wings personnel was recorded. By the way, even Paul's daughter Heather gets in the act, singing some on the song "It's Not On," despite being only about 16 years old at the time.

The time period of this album includes when McCartney was recording the "McCartney II" album. That included some musical experiments, mostly with synthesizers. Two such experiments here were way, way too long for my tastes. The official version of "Secret Friend" goes on for ten minutes, and the official version of "Check My Machine" goes on for nine minutes. I edited those way down, to three and a half minutes and three minutes respectively.

By the way, note that I have a lot of John Lennon solo material to post too. But I don't want to get lost posting albums from too many different artists at once. His stuff, and that of many other artists, will come later.

01 Goodnight Tonight (Paul McCartney)
02 Daytime Nightime Suffering (Paul McCartney)
03 Weep for Love (Denny Laine with Paul McCartney)
04 Cruising Ahead (Paul McCartney)
05 Wonderful Christmastime (Paul McCartney)
06 Blue Sway [Instrumental] (Paul McCartney)
07 Secret Friend [Edit] (Paul McCartney)
08 Check My Machine [Edit] (Paul McCartney)
09 Say You Don't Mind (Denny Laine with Paul McCartney)
10 Give Us a Chord, Roy (Paul McCartney)
11 Love's Full Glory (Linda McCartney with Paul McCartney)
12 It's Not On [Demo] (Paul McCartney with Heather McCartney)
13 Seems like Old Times (Paul McCartney)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16696795/PALMCCRTNY1979-1980_GodnghtTonght_atse.zip.html

The cover was supplied to me by The Lighthouse. I edited it by removing the word "Wings" and replacing that with "Paul McCartney" at the top.

The Talking Heads - Gangster of Love - Non-Album Tracks (1986-1992)

I've had a problem with making albums out of the Talking Heads' stray tracks. When I looked at their career, such tracks came in three clusters: one in their formative years, 1975 to 1977, one during a big gap between official albums, 1982 to 1983, and then a mere four songs in the tail end of their career, 1986 to 1992. But those four songs are too good to ignore.

So I've made an album with those four songs, plus the best solo songs from that time period. Is it a Talking Heads album. Only sort of. But it is an album of solid music? Definitely!

The Talking Heads ended with a whimper instead of a bang. They stopped touring entirely in 1983 (with the tour stretching a little bit into 1984), but they released three more studio albums after that. The last album, "Naked," came out in 1988, but they got together to finish off a "Naked" outtake, "Sax and Violins," for a 1991 movie soundtrack. Then they finished off another outtake in 1992, "Gangster of Love," for a best of compilation. And that was it. They've done nothing together since (except for a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame appearance in 2002) and bad blood between members makes it likely there never will be a reunion.

So of course I included those two songs, plus two more "Naked" outtakes that were released years later, "Lifetime Piling Up" and "In Asking Land." Personally, I think all four of these songs, which were at least attempted during the "Naked" sessions, are better than most of the songs that made the final cut of that album.

But I'm still left far short of an album's worth of music. So I chose my four favorite songs from David Byrne's first solo album, 1989's "Rei Momo." One of those, "Loco D'Amor," was actually released three years earlier for a movie soundtrack. I also included the one minor Jerry Harrison hit from this time period, "Rev It Up," and one Tom Tom Club song, "Love Wave." Tom Tom Club released two albums during this time, but didn't have any real hits. However, I think that one song is my favorite from those albums.

Someone else putting an album like this together may well have selected different songs. Especially with the Byrne material, there aren't four songs that are universally considered the best of that album. But these are the ones I like the most. I think if all these solo songs would have been done by the Talking Heads, it would have made for a very excellent final album.

By the way, the songs are in chronological order. I think it works pretty well, even though it results in three solo David Byrne songs in a row.

01 Loco D'Amour (David Byrne with Celia Cruz)
02 Lifetime Piling Up (Talking Heads)
03 In Asking Land (Talking Heads)
04 Rev It Up (Jerry Harrison)
05 Dirty Old Town (David Byrne)
06 Good and Evil (David Byrne)
07 Lie to Me (David Byrne)
08 Sax and Violins (Talking Heads)
09 Love Wave (Tom Tom Club)
10 Gangster of Love (Talking Heads)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376810/TTALKNGHDS1986-1992GngsterofLve_atse.zip.html

Thanks to Peter at the Albums I Wish Existed blog for the cover art.

Richard & Linda Thompson - Together Again - Non-Album Tracks (1975-1976)

Here's the next in a long series of Richard Thompson albums. I'm still chronologically working through the Richard and Linda Thompson years before getting to his solo years.

The album is a grab bag of different things. A good chunk of it is cover songs from concerts (with the audience noise removed, as usual). But probably the highlight is a live version of "The Calvary Cross." It was on the 1974 album "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight," but that was a four minute version, and this is a 13 minute version with some epic guitar soloing. So I figured that was different enough to warrant its inclusion here, even though I don't like to repeat songs released on official studio albums.

There also are some songs from "(guitar, vocal),"  a curious Richard Thompson odds and sods compilation that was released in 1976. There are two instrumentals done specifically for that album. In addition, there's the curious case of "Poor Willy and the Jolly Hangman." That was an unreleased Fairport Convention outtake from 1970, when Richard was still in that band. But in 1975, Linda added her vocals to that version, making it both a Richard and Linda Thompson and Fairport Convention recording at the same time. (By the way, one of the "covers" elsewhere on this album, "Now Be Thankful," is actually another Fairport Convention song, but done differently in the Richard and Linda Thompson version here.)

I've added one song only as a bonus track: "A Heart Needs a Home." That's because it's a popular  Richard and Linda Thompson song, first done on the 1975 "Hokey Pokey" album. But this is an alternate version with notably different instrumentation that first came out on the "(guitar, vocals)" album, so I'm including it for completists.

01 I'm Turning Off a Memory (Richard & Linda Thompson)
02 Wishing (Richard & Linda Thompson)
03 The Dark End of the Street (Richard & Linda Thompson)
04 Last Chance (Richard & Linda Thompson)
05 Wanted Man (Richard & Linda Thompson)
06 Together Again (Richard & Linda Thompson)
07 Why Don't You Love Me (Richard & Linda Thompson)
08 Now Be Thankful (Richard & Linda Thompson)
09 It'll Be Me (Richard & Linda Thompson)
10 Flee as a Bird [Instrumental] (Richard Thompson)
11 Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman (Richard & Linda Thompson & Fairport Convention)
12 The Pitfall - The Excursion [Instrumental] (Richard Thompson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15851967/RichnLinT_1975-1976_TogethrAgin_atse.zip.html

I made the cover, which comes from a 1975 concert video.

Robyn Hitchcock - Queen Elvis - Acoustic Versions (1989)

It's time to post another Robyn Hitchcock album.

Usually, I have two albums for every officially released album, one of stray tracks from that time period, and one of acoustic versions of the songs from the official albums. In 1989, Hitchcock released the excellent "Queen Elvis" album. I already released the stray tracks (as "Mr Thrusty's Fruit Club"), so this is the acoustic versions album.

As it happens, I was able to find acoustic versions of nine out of ten songs on the "Queen Elvis" album. (The one is missed is "Knife.") I also found a version of one of the songs from the stray tracks album I made of the time, so I added that towards the end. (It's the cover song "Polly on the Shore.")

Note that I'm not sure about the song "Consider Her Ways." That would seem the logical title based on the lyrics, but the only other time he played the song other than this one that I know of was for a radio show where he introduced it as "Mr. Thrusty's Fruit Club." I'd assumed that was a joke name, but if you listen to the lyrics a "Mr. Thrusty" actually does get mentioned, though a fruit club does not. So maybe that's the real name, who knows. I've included that as an alternate title.

01 Madonna of the Wasps (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 The Devil's Coachman (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 Wax Doll (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Swirling (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 One Long Pair of Eyes (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 Veins of the Queen (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 Freeze [Solo Electric Version] (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 You've Got (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 Superman (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Polly on the Shore (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 Consider Her Ways [Mr. Thrusty's Fruit Club] (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15271919/RobynH_1989_QueenElvAcousticVersions_atse.zip.html

I made the album cover from an obscure Hitchcock compilation from 1989 called "Chronology." I changed the text at the bottom, of the name of the album.

David Bowie - Velvet Goldmine - Non-Album Tracks (1971-1972)

In 1971, Bowie released "Hunky Dory," followed by "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" in 1972. Both albums are considered all-time classics. Personally, this is my favorite Bowie era. So it's no surprise to me that the stray tracks from this time are high quality too.

If this had been a real album, I think it would be a  really solid one. The only snag is that it contains four cover songs ("Around and Around," "Amsterdam," "I'm Waiting for the Man," and "White Light-White Heat,") plus a remake of a song, "The Supermen," that had been first released only a year earlier. The remake came out at the time on a various artists compilation.

The famous hit song "All the Young Dudes" isn't a cover song, since it was written by Bowie. He gave the song to Mott the Hoople, and they had the hit with it. There are a few different versions from the time period sung by Bowie, live or studio. This version actually is the same as the hit version, except Bowie is singing guide vocals on it.

I've added one song only a bonus track, "I  Feel Free." It's another cover version. But my main problem is that is it's taken from an audience concert bootleg, and the sound quality is only okay.

01 All the Young Dudes (David Bowie & Mott the Hoople)
02 Around and Around (David Bowie)
03 Holy Holy (David Bowie)
04 Amsterdam (David Bowie)
05 Bombers (David Bowie)
06 The Supermen [Alternate Version] (David Bowie)
07 I'm Waiting for the Man (David Bowie)
08 Velvet Goldmine (David Bowie)
09 John, I'm Only Dancing (David Bowie)
10 Sweet Head (David Bowie)
11 White Light-White Heat (David Bowie)

I Feel Free (David Bowie)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17362478/DAVDBWE1971-1972VelvtGldmne_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1Mmrvixu

In November 2021, I changed the artwork for this album. I realized the previous version looked too similar to the cover for the Ziggy Stardust acoustic demos album. So instead, I used a different photo from 1972.

Larkin Poe - Reskinned - Alternate Version (2016)

I love Larkin Poe, and you need to go buy all their albums right now. ;) So I'm happy to tell you they just released a new album a few days ago, called "Venom and Faith." I heard it and it's great, so go get it! ;)

That said, Larkin Poe frustrates me because they seem determined to release their music in a way that gets the last amount of attention, if they release it at all. For instance, they are champions of the EP format, having released six EPs of all new material in their relatively short career, compared to only four full albums.

Furthermore, one of those albums hardly counts as an album. In 2014, they released the "Kin" album, which is fantastic. If you buy just one album from them, I suggest that one, especially because it contains "Stubborn Love," which I think is one of the very best songs by anyone this decade. Then in 2016, they released "Reskinned." But it only had five songs of new music, a measely 17 minutes. The rest were repeats of songs from "Kin." That would have been okay if they redid those songs in some different way, but they were the exact same versions!

So, to celebrate the release of their new album and hopefully turn some new people on to this great musical duo, I've made my own version of "Reskinned." The first five songs are the exact same versions of the five new songs on the official version. But then I flesh the album out with five more songs, for a total of 41 minutes of music. Four of the five additional songs are originals that haven't been officially released anywhere, and the fifth, "New Pony," is a cover of an obscure Bob Dylan song that sounds just like an original. Why they repeated so many songs from "Kin" when they had these quality originals available at the time is beyond me!

Three of the additional songs come from a concert, but it was one that was played in a recording studio of sorts, so the sound quality sounds just as good as studio recordings, in my opinion. I was able to completely eliminate even a hint of audience noise. The other two were done live in the studio for radio shows, and sound just as good.

By the way, their new album is also only 32 minutes long. Larkin Poe, what's your deal with so many EPs and short albums?! And then all sorts of good original songs that go unreleased? Sigh!

01 Sucker Puncher (Larkin Poe)
02 Trouble in Mind (Larkin Poe)
03 When God Closes a Door (Larkin Poe)
04 P-R-O-B-L-E-M (Larkin Poe)
05 Blunt (Larkin Poe)
06 Thief in the Night (Larkin Poe)
07 Mad as a Hatter (Larkin Poe)
08 I Hate the Way You... (Larkin Poe)
09 New Pony (Larkin Poe)
10 Hey Sinner (Larkin Poe)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15262033/LarkinP_2016_ReskinndAlternte_atse.zip.html

In keeping with Larkin Poe's seeming effort to try to get you to NOT buy their albums, the official cover of "Reskinned" is exactly the same as "Kin" in every way, except for the different title, plus it's in black and white. That makes it both confusing and worse than the nice color cover. It deserves a different cover, so I've made one here using a publicity photo from around the time of the album release. 

Van Morrison - Pacific High Studios, San Francisco, CA, 9-5-1971

I said there are three great Van Morrison full concert recordings from 1970 to 1971, and I'm going to post them all here before I start posting my compilations of his best live songs from other shows around that era. Here's the third of those three shows.

The first show was kind of a live version of the "Moondance" album. The second show was notable for having lots of cover versions and other rarities, such as acoustic versions. This show doesn't really stand out in any particular way. It dates from less than a month from the second show (at the Lion's Share in San Anselmo, California), so it's not surprising that the song selection isn't that different. However, the performance is excellent and the sound quality is too, so the show is a must-have because there are so few concert recordings this good from this early in his career. Also, at one hour and 35 minutes it's a long show, 20 minutes longer than the Lion's Share one.

It was recorded in Pacific High Studios, a recording studio in San Francisco, in front of a small audience. That studio was used by the Grateful Dead to record "Workingman's Dead" in 1970, and Morrison used it around this time to record "St. Dominic's Preview." Local radio station KSAN used it to record live shows and play them over the radio, which is how this got bootlegged. So the sound quality is about as good as a live album from 1971 could possibly get.

01 Into the Mystic (Van Morrison)
02 I've Been Working (Van Morrison)
03 Friday's Child (Van Morrison)
04 Que Sera Sera [Whatever Will Be, Will Be] - Hound Dog (Van Morrison)
05 Ballerina (Van Morrison)
06 Tupelo Honey (Van Morrison)
07 Wild Night (Van Morrison)
08 Just like a Woman (Van Morrison)
09 Moonshine Whiskey (Van Morrison)
10 Dead or Alive (Van Morrison)
11 You're My Woman (Van Morrison)
12 These Dreams of You (Van Morrison)
13 Domino (Van Morrison)
14 Call Me Up in Dreamland (Van Morrison)
15 Blue Money (Van Morrison)
16 Bring It on Home to Me (Van Morrison)
17 Buona Sera (Van Morrison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zAX4zYK2

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/YAaNNTXP62FV4Iy/file

I used the cover of a popular bootleg for this concert, called "The Inner Mystic." I changed the text.

Paul Weller - Shine On - Non-Album Tracks (2004-2005)

Here's yet another Paul Weller stray tracks album. The man is so prolific! As usual, I'm alternating between posting all acoustic albums and stray studio tracks. This is the latter.

In 2004, Weller put out the all cover versions album "Studio 150." The first six songs are a continuation of that. They're B-sides of singles from that album, and they're six more cover versions.

Then there are three songs Weller did live at a memorial concert for Ronnie Lane of the Small Faces and the Faces. Lane is one of Weller's musical heroes. He wrote a tribute song about Lane called "He's the Keeper." There's an acoustic version of it on the last Weller album I posted ("Tales from the Riverbank.")

The remaining four songs are mostly B-sides, with two more covers. So there are only two Weller originals on this album. But all the songs sound uniquely Weller, as usual.

By the way, the version of "Come Together" here is different from the one he did in 1995 as part of the Mojo Filters, a one-off band with Paul McCartney and Noel Gallagher.  This one is just Weller.

01 Coconut Grove (Paul Weller)
02 Corrina, Corrina (Paul Weller)
03 Family Affair (Paul Weller)
04 Let It Be Me (Paul Weller)
05 Needles and Pins (Paul Weller)
06 Don't Go to Strangers (Paul Weller)
07 Ooh La La (Paul Weller, Ronnie Wood & Slim Chance)
08 Spiritual Babe (Paul Weller & Slim Chance)
09 The Poacher (Paul Weller & Slim Chance)
10 Come Together (Paul Weller)
11 Alone (Paul Weller)
12 Love (Paul Weller)
13 Shine On (Paul Weller)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15849484/PaulW_2004-2005_ShneOn_atse.zip.html

I made the cover based on a 2004 bootleg. I changed the text under Weller's name.

The Beatles - White Album Era Demos (1968)

The Beatles are my favorite musical act of all time, easily. But I haven't posted any Beatles albums here until now because they're so very popular, lots of other bloggers have posted just about every sort of album one could think of, many times over. But a few days ago, the 50th Anniversary Edition of "The White Album" was released, and that gave me an idea on how to celebrate that while posting that hopefully a lot of Beatles fans would find useful.

First off, I need to say that the White Album's 50th Anniversary Edition is great, and everyone who really likes the Beatles should get it. I'm especially happy that it includes all of the Esher Demos. It's a shame those weren't a stand-alone release decades ago - I think that would have sold millions. But better late that never. Plus, there are no less than three more albums of outtakes.

However, the release could have been even better, because there were lots of great tracks that weren't included. In particular, for some reason, 1968 was a year the Beatles recorded a lot of acoustic demos, many more by far than any year before or after. So my goal here was to make an album of all the acoustic demos not included on the 50th Anniversary Edition. I couldn't use anything from that release, or any other official releases.

One challenge was to find acoustic demos of the songs that made it on the White Album that weren't included as part of the Esher Demos. These are the ones I found:

Helter Skelter
Why Don't We Do It in the Road

And here's all the ones I didn't find:

Wild Honey Pie
Don't Pass Me By
I Will
Birthday
Long, Long, Long
Savoy Truffle
Revolution 9
Good Night
Hey Jude (not a White Album track, but it was recorded at the same time)

So I didn't have much success there. For some of those songs, there can't be any demos because the songs were made up on the spot in the studio. That's the case with "Wild Honey Pie," "Birthday," and "Revolution 9," at least. With "I Will," there are a couple of alternate takes included on the 50th  Anniversary Edition that serve as acoustic demos, since it's an acoustic song. For the others, if you are aware of demos/acoustic versions that I missed, please let me know, and I'll update this album.

Since I only found two songs that made it on the "White Album," the vast majority of songs here are other songs written in 1968 that got on later releases, including solo releases, or never got officially released at all. The Beatles are said to have written between 30 and 48 songs during their stay in India between February and April 1968. Then add to that all the other songs written the rest of that year, and you have a lot more songs than could even fit on the double LP "White Album."

Some of the songs I've included here were recorded by one or more of the Beatles as part of the "White Album" recording sessions. But more of them were recorded essentially as solo works, including some from the tail end of 1968, after the "White Album" record sessions ended in mid-October 1968. But I label all of them Beatles songs because I consider virtually everything the four of them did in 1968 to be Beatles material since their solo careers hadn't started yet, and any of these could have wound up as Beatles songs. However, in the mp3 tags I make clear which demos were done by whom.

A few of these songs deserve some explanation. The 50th Anniversary Edition included Take 18 of "Revolution 1." It's a very interesting 10 minute long take, because it starts out sounding like the song "Revolution," but by the end it morphs into "Revolution 9." This actually was recorded first, then John Lennon used the second half of it as his starting point for "Revolution 9." That's why there are parts that are exactly the same as on the final version of "Revolution 9," such as Yoko Ono saying "Then you become naked."

However, it's a shame the 50th Anniversary Edition didn't include Take 20 instead, because I like that even better than Take 18. They're the same basic track, except that more sound effects were added. The main difference is a loud, alarm-like whooshing sound effect that gets repeated a lot and makes the whole thing sound very different than Take 18. So I've included Take 20 here, as it is mostly acoustic, even though it's not really a demo.

"Spiritual Regeneration" is an original song done performed by all the Beatles while they were in India. It's done in homage to the Beach Boys style, because it was a birthday present to Beach Boy Mike Love, who was with them in India. I had to edit this song to make it shorter though, because the only version of it I could find includes a spoken section by famous D.J. Wolfman Jack, since the song was played on his radio show once. He talked right over a guitar solo in the middle of the song, explaining the details of where and when it was recorded, so I just cut that solo out. If anyone has the complete version without Wolfman Jack's talking, please let me know.

Around the Thanksgiving of 1968, George Harrison visited Bob Dylan where he lived in Woodstock, New York. The two of them wound up co-writing two songs, "Nowhere to Go," and "I'd Have You Anytime." I wasn't going to include these, because the only recordings I'd ever heard of them had extremely poor quality. (Better sounding demos of both songs were recorded by Harrison later, which I've included in some Harrison albums I've posted here.)

However, while putting this together a few days ago, I found versions that sounded significantly better, so I've included them after all. But there still were parts that sounded horrible, due to lots of crackling noise. In the case of "Nowhere to Go," the recording already missed all of the first verse, then there was about ten seconds of that crackling before the chorus came in. So I just cut out the crackling part and faded the song in from that point. Trust me, you're not missing anything. Luckily, with "I'd Have You Anytime," the crackling takes place during some fiddling about before and after the song is performed, so nothing was missed there when I cut those bits out. What's left for both songs has almost no crackling whatsoever.

I'm not a big fan of Dylan's backing vocals on the two songs, but hey, it is Dylan and a Beatle recording together, so it's of historic interest, if nothing else.

There are still other songs written by the Beatles in 1968 that I could have included, except I couldn't find any demo recordings of them from 1968. "Dehra Dun" by George Harrison and "Teddy Boy" by Paul McCartney are examples, where I only know of versions from 1969. Again, if you know of any recordings that I missed, please let me know.

All together, there's 46 minutes of music here. Not all of it great. Some of the songs are just goofs, or needed more work, for instance. But I think it's all interesting, and it's all stuff that could have been included on the 50th Anniversary Edition if they were more inclusive.

By the way, I've added one bonus track. It doesn't fit the acoustic demo theme, and it's an "outfake" or mash-up, but I think it's worthy of hearing. George Harrison wrote the song "Sour Milk Sea" in India, and it's included as one of the Esher Demos. During the "White Album" sessions, he produced a version of the song for a single by little-known singer Jackie Lomax. That was practically a Beatle recording, because it had Harrison on lead guitar (including playing the guitar solo), Paul McCartney on bass, and Ringo Starr on drums. In addition, Eric Clapton added lead guitar fills, and Nicky Hopkins played piano.

It's a very good song, and a good performance. Record Collector magazine has called it "the greatest record the Beatles never made." It's actually much more of a Beatles song than lots of songs on the "White Album" since only 16 of the 30 songs on it have all four Beatles on them, and many of those other 14 were essentially solo tracks. The problem was that Jackie Lomax did the singing. However, somebody, I don't know who, removed Lomax's vocals and replaced them with Harrison's vocals from his Esher Demo of the song. So it is a mash-up, but it's like discovering another great Beatles song you never knew existed.

01 Spiritual Regeneration [Edit] (Beatles)
02 The Maharishi Song (Beatles with Yoko Ono)
03 Revolution 1 [Take 20] (Beatles)
04 Helter Skelter (Beatles)
05 Gone Tomorrow, Here Today (Beatles)
06 Brian Epstein Blues (Beatles)
07 Look at Me (Beatles)
08 The Way You Look Tonight [Improvised Variant of I Will] (Beatles)
09 Why Don't We Do It in the Road (Beatles)
10 Oh My Love (Beatles)
11 Nowhere to Go (Beatles with Bob Dylan)
12 I'd Have You Anytime (Beatles with Bob Dylan)
13 Heather (Beatles with Donovan)
14 How Do You Do (Beatles with Donovan)
15 Everybody Had a Hard Year [Early Version of I Got a Feeling] (Beatles)
16 Don't Let Me Down (Beatles)
17 A Case of the Blues (Beatles)
18 Goodbye (Beatles)

Sour Milk Sea [Merged Version] (Beatles)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15126978/TBeatls_1968_WhiteAlbmEraDemos_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/tfafQwZE

I made the cover art using a photo of John and Paul playing guitar in Rishikesh, India, with Ringo looking on. There are some diagonal whitish areas due to the photo being shot through a chain link fence.

The Indigo Girls - Love by You - Various Cover Versions (1988-1994)

Here's a companion to the Indigo Girls album I posted last week. That one covered mostly original songs done in the studio from 1988 to 1990. This is all live performances, from concerts, TV, or radio show appearances, and all cover versions. It also covers a longer time period, from 1988 to 1994.

I like the Indigo Girls both because of their songwriting and their musical talent, especially their intertwining harmonies and Emily Salier's tasteful lead guitar playing. Unfortunately, their songwriting can be hit or miss, in my opinion. But when they cover great songs, you can't go wrong with their performances, especially since they usually play the songs in the acoustic style that they excel in. This is mostly an acoustic album, with a few exceptions, like their rocking version of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer."

This album has two types of cover songs, in my opinion. Mostly, they do famous, classic songs, such as "Summertime," "American Tune," and "Melissa." But they also do a lot of covers of much less well known songs, often by artists from Georgia that they know personally.  This includes "White House Blues," "Love by You," and "Tired of Talking."

The sound quality is generally excellent, even though all of the songs come from bootlegs. One partial exception is their version of "Good Times (Let the Good Times Roll)." Since it's a bit rough, I've included it as a bonus track.

01 Summertime (Indigo Girls)
02 White House Blues (Indigo Girls)
03 Love by You (Indigo Girls)
04 Love of the Common People (Indigo Girls)
05 American Tune (Indigo Girls)
06 Melissa (Indigo Girls)
07 In the Bleak Midwinter (Indigo Girls)
08 Daddy's All Gone (Indigo Girls)
09 Bartender's Blues (Indigo Girls)
10 The Water Is Wide (Indigo Girls)
11 Cortez the Killer (Indigo Girls)
12 Tired of Talking (Indigo Girls)
13 Duncan (Indigo Girls)

Good Times [Let the Good Times Roll] (Indigo Girls)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15271273/TIngidoGs_1988-1994_LovebyYouCoverVersions_atse.zip.html

I have no idea when or where this photo for the cover art is from, but I'm guessing it fits the time frame of this album.

Van Morrison - The Lion's Share, San Anselmo, CA, 8-8-1971

Here's the second of three Van Morrison concerts in the 1970-1971 time period that I want to post before I start posting my compilations of his live songs from the early 1970s. As I mentioned previously, I consider all three concerts "must have" recordings, both in terms of sound and performance quality.

This concert is from the Lion's Share, a club in San Anselmo, California, on August 8, 1971. The previous concert I posted, from the Fillmore West in April 1970, was over a year earlier, and mostly considered of live version of songs from the "Moondance" album. This song list is surprisingly different, with only one song ("These Dreams of You") played in both shows. There are a lot of rare cover versions ("Que Sera Sera," "Hound Dog," "Let It Be Me," "Just like a Woman" and "Buona Sera"), plus many songs from the "His Band and Street Choir" and "Tupelo Honey" albums. (The latter would be released two months later.) There's an additional treat in that the first four songs are performed acoustically.

Morrison actually performed two shows at the Lion's Share that night. However, the songs played in the two shows were nearly exactly the same. Thus, I've only included the second show here, plus one unique song from the first show, "I Wanna Roo You," placed at the beginning. A cover of "Tennessee Waltz" was also played in the first show, but I didn't include that because I've already included that exact performance in my album of Morrison's country songs from this time period, "Down by the Riverside," which you can find here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/05/van-morrison-down-by-riverside-various.html

This album is an hour and 16 minutes long.

01 I Wanna Roo You [Acoustic Version] (Van Morrison)
02 Sweet Thing [Acoustic Version] (Van Morrison)
03 Street Choir [Acoustic Version] (Van Morrison)
04 Tupelo Honey [Acoustic Version] (Van Morrison)
05 Que Sera Sera [Whatever Will Be, Will Be] (Van Morrison)
06 Hound Dog (Van Morrison)
07 These Dreams of You (Van Morrison)
08 When That Evening Sun Goes Down (Van Morrison)
09 Let It Be Me (Van Morrison)
10 Moonshine Whiskey (Van Morrison)
11 Just like a Woman (Van Morrison)
12 I've Been Working (Van Morrison)
13 Gloria (Van Morrison)
14 Domino (Van Morrison)
15 Buona Sera (Van Morrison)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15257178/VanMrsn_1971_LionsShreSnAnselmoCA__8-8-1971_atse.zip.html

Thanks to Peter at the Albums I Wish Existed blog for the cover. Apparently, it's based on the cover of a bootleg of the show.

Van Morrison - Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 4-26-1970

A few days ago, I posted "Live in Boston 1968," a newly available recording of a legendary "lost" Van Morrison concert. It's gotten more attention than anything else I've posted at this blog so far, so I'm going to post some more great Morrison material while some of his fans are here.

I've already posted a series of mostly unreleased Morrison studio albums from 1969 to 1977 that any Morrison fan should check out. The sheer quantity and quality of his non-album material from that era is incredible. I still have more of his studio work from after 1977 to post, but I'm going to focus more on his live material from the early 1970s. I've created a series of compilations of his best live songs from that time.

However, before I get to posting that, I want to make sure every serious Morrison fan has three excellent shows from 1970 and 1971. In the live compilations I've made, I've been careful to avoid including any songs from these three shows, since they should be heard in their entirety.

Here's the first one, from the Fillmore West in San Francisco, in April 1970. The sound quality is excellent, as good as any officially released live album from that time, and the performance is just as great. Essentially, it's a live version of the classic "Moondance" album, released in January 1970. All but one of the ten songs on that album are played here. (The one that isn't, "Brand New Day," apparently wasn't played by him in concert until about 1973.) Add to that two songs from "Astral Weeks" and his 1967 hit "Brown Eyed Girl."

01 Moondance (Van Morrison)
02 Glad Tidings (Van Morrison)
03 Crazy Love (Van Morrison)
04 Come Running (Van Morrison)
05 The Way Young Lovers Do (Van Morrison)
06 Everyone (Van Morrison)
07 Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)
08 And It Stoned Me (Van Morrison)
09 These Dreams of You (Van Morrison)
10 Caravan (Van Morrison)
11 Cyprus Avenue (Van Morrison)
12 Into the Mystic (Van Morrison)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701216/VANMRRSN1970c_FillmorWestSnFrncscoCA__4-26-1970_atse.zip.html

The cover is the exact cover used on a bootleg of the show.

The Indigo Girls - Thin Line - Non-Album Tracks (1988-1990)

I've posted two albums by the Indigo Girls, covering their years in the early to mid-1980s, before they hit it big. This album deals with their unreleased studio outtakes right around they hit it big, with their 1989 album "Indigo Girls." Nearly all the songs here are outtakes from that album.

As I mentioned in those previous posts, I really like the Indigo Girls' music in the 1980s and through most of the 1990s, but I'm much less impressed by what they've done since. I'm not sure why, but in my opinion, they peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s - right when these songs were recorded. I'd rather hear their unreleased songs from this time period that most of what they've done since about 2000 or so.

Even though none of the songs here have been officially released, not even on their "Rarities" album (except for a different version of "Thin Line" on the "1200 Curfews" live album), I think this makes up one of their strongest albums. All of the songs are original, except for "Thin Line" and "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters."

By the way, I consider this a 1989 album. It contains one song, "The Ballad of Squeaky Fromme," from 1990, but that song was written a couple of years earlier and I only picked that version due to sound quality.

01 I Should Have Never Crossed Your Path (Indigo Girls)
02 Cold as Ice (Indigo Girls)
03 Draw the Line (Indigo Girls)
04 Life's So Strange (Indigo Girls)
05 Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (Indigo Girls)
06 Half Moon Cafe (Indigo Girls)
07 Thin Line (Indigo Girls)
08 No Way to Treat a Friend (Indigo Girls)
09 Up in Smoke (Indigo Girls)
10 The Ballad of Squeaky Fromme (Indigo Girls)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15271241/TIngidoGs_1988-1990_ThinLineVariousSongs_atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I used the cover of the 1988 "Land of Canaan" single. I merely changed the text.

Jimi Hendrix - Snowballs at My Window (Edited Song) (1968)

A couple of days ago, the 50th Anniversary Edition of Jimi Hendrix's classic "Electric Ladyland" was released. It has a bonus disc of outtakes, most of which are unreleased. I'm not going to post that, because you should buy it, which leads to more similar releases. However, I am posting one song from it, because I've made a significant edit to it that I think improves the song.

The song in question is "Snowballs at My Window." It's just Hendrix on an acoustic guitar, apparently with his friend Paul Caruso helping out. Before the official release, I already had a copy of the song, because it had come to light due to it being up for auction. As part of that auction, a 40 second long snippet was released to reveal what was for sale. I was happy to see that it was included in the new "Electric Ladyland" release, so I could hear the full song. But I was disappointed to find out that a second or two after that fade out, the song completely breaks down after Hendrix made a flub. So there was no rest of the song. And it seems it was the one and only time he recorded the song, even though it's a song with lots of promise.

As I've shown elsewhere in the blog, I'm not afraid to make edits to songs if I feel it's an improvement for my listening enjoyment. (I'm surprised I haven't gotten flak for that from musical purists, at least not yet.)  In this case, with the song being only 40 or so seconds long, it ends before it can get very far, making it a frustrating listening experience. The second broke down midway through the second verse. So what I did was patch in the rest of the first verse right where the breakdown happens, then the chorus again. Then, using pieces of the intro, I cobbled together a short outro to give the song an ending.

This is less than ideal. It would have been much better if he'd made it through all of the second verse before the break down. The lyrics don't logically follow each other from the part of the second verse to the repeat of the rest of the first verse. But the words rush by too fast to really catch anyway, in the style of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues," so I don't think it matters much unless you really pay close attention.

As it is, even with this edit lengthening the song, it still ends up being only one minute and five seconds long. There just wasn't much there to work with. But still, at least now it sounds like an actual song, if a very short one, instead of a mere snippet.

https://www.upload.ee/files/15239500/JimiH_SnowballsatMyWindwSongEdit.zip.html

By the way, I used the 50th Anniversary Edition version of the song for this edit. Although it didn't matter much because the song quality was pretty much identical to the existing bootleg version, at least to my ears.

Van Morrison - Live in Boston 1968 (The Catacombs, Boston, MA, 8-1968)

Here's something very new, very great, and very unexpected. In November 1968, Van Morrison released the album "Astral Weeks," which is so acclaimed that on an average of greatest albums of all time lists, it ranks number 15. He spent most of 1968 living in Boston and developing the unique sound that would result in that album. There never have been any publicly available audio recording of his time in Boston that year... until now!

A few days ago (early November 2018), Morrison's record company released the album "Live in Boston 1968" that has long been the unattainable holy grail for Morrison fans. Unfortunately, they only released it on iTunes in Britain for about 24 hours, and it's already gone! This apparently was done to maintain legal rights to the recording, given that there is a European copyright law that says the rights are lost after 50 years unless the recording is made available for sale to the public somewhere in Europe, if only briefly. Since this recording dates from 1968, the deadline would be the end of 2018. This appears to have been an attempt to make the recording public but in the most low key, unnoticed method possible. Here's an article about it:

https://www.spin.com/2018/11/van-morrison-catacombs-1968-legendary-recording/

Here's another very interesting article from March 2018 on what Morrison was doing in Boston in 1968, and how this concert was recorded:

http://www.wbur.org/artery/2018/03/06/ryan-walsh-van-morrison-astral-weeks

It turns out that the show was recorded by none other than Peter Wolf, who was a Boston D.J. at the time, but would become the long time lead singer of the J. Geils Band. He used a reel-to-reel machine set up on the stage, at a small Boston club called The Catacombs in August 1968. So while it is an audience recording, to my ears it sounds as good as many soundboard recordings, especially considering the concert recording standards of 1968. If you're a fan of Morrison's music, you need to hear this!

It contains three songs that would appear on "Astral Weeks" later that year: "Beside You, "Madame George," and "Cyprus Avenue." Also, there's a version of a legendary still unreleased "Astral Weeks" outtake previously known as "Train," but which appears here under the title "Train, Train." He also does a Them song ("One Two Brown Eyes"), a song that would appear on a 1970 album ("Virgo Clowns"), and songs he released in 1967: "He Ain't Give You None," "T. B. Sheets" and "Brown Eyed Girl." The band consists of just Morrison on acoustic guitar plus a double bass and a flute, so the whole recording has an "Astral Weeks" vibe, even including "Brown Eyed Girl."

Unfortunately, the recording ends at the end of the last song, "Madame George," as one can hear the sound of the tape running out. So it's too bad we don't have the rest of the show. But still, it's a miracle that at least this much of Morrison live in 1968 was recorded at all, and with such quality sound.

This album needs to be heard by lots of people. If and when it's ever for legal sale in the U.S, I'll take this down. But it's quite likely that it's going to stay in the vaults after this one brief appearance in Britain, done for legal purposes only.

01 Virgo Clowns (Van Morrison)
02 Cyprus Avenue (Van Morrison)
03 Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)
04 He Ain't Give You None (Van Morrison)
05 One Two Brown Eyes (Van Morrison)
06 Beside You (Van Morrison)
07 T. B. Sheets (Van Morrison)
08 Train, Train (Van Morrison)
09 Madame George (Van Morrison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2TGAdDEV

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/WsZIyWB26w6HQMq/file

For the cover, I used a handbill of the Morrison shows at The Catacombs where this was recorded. (For a very short time in 1968, his band was going by the name the "Van Morrison Controversy.") I resized the top left drawing of a female head so the best of the rectangular handbill could fit on a square album cover. I also replaced some text relating to other shows at the club on the upper right with the title of the album.

My version is posted above. I'm also posting an alternate cover, based on the same handbill, done by Reddiffusion. This one repositions things slightly and don't have the extra text I added.

On a different note, if you're new to this blog, please check out the many other Van Morrison albums I've posted here. There pretty much is an entire album of quality stray tracks for every year between 1969 and 1977. It's almost like a second career of prime Morrison material.

The Talking Heads - Melody Attack - Non-Album Tracks (1982-1983)

Out of all the albums I've posted here so far, this is one of my top favorites. If you're a Talking Heads fan at all, you should give this a listen.

In 1980, the Talking Heads released "Remain in Light," which is their most acclaimed album and frequently included on the best albums of all time lists. In 1983, the band released "Speaking in Tongues," which is widely considered another five star album. This era was the peak of the band's career, yet there was a three year gap between the two album releases. That was a long time for the band back then, when they generally released about an album a year. What happened during that long gap?

This album happened. The band members stayed busy, with David Byrne releasing two solo albums, Jerry Harrison releasing one, and Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth forming a side project, Tom Tom Club, that released two albums. I could do a lot with all that solo album material, but luckily I found enough material for me to make an album containing nothing but actual Talking Heads songs! So this really is the band's lost album that covers those gap years.

The reason I have all actual Talking Heads material for this is because the best of those solo songs were played live by the band in concert in 1982 and 1983. Four songs from Byrne's 1981 solo album "The Catherine Wheel" were done by the band live. Most of that album is made up of quirky instrumentals, but these four songs have lots of vocals and are very Talking Heads-like. ("What a Day that Was" in particular is one of my favorite Talking Heads songs, period.)

Additionally, the band did one song, "Slink," from Jerry Harrison's 1981 solo album that is the best song from the album, and was a minor hit. Harrison sings on the Talking Heads live version, but he sounds a lot like Bryne to begin with, and Bryne adds prominent backing vocals.

The situation with the Tom Tom Club songs I've included here is a bit more complicated. In 1981, Tom Tom Club released an album (also called "Tom Tom Club"). It resulted in two hits, including "Genius of Love," which is now considered an all-time classic that has been covered or sampled by dozens of artists, including a shameless rip-off by Mariah Carey called "Fantasy" that was a number one hit. What happened in 1982 and 1983 concerts is that Bryne would leave the stage for a while and the Talking Heads would temporarily "turn into" the Tom Tom Club. But it was the exact same band (complete with all the extra musicians and backing vocalists), just minus Byrne and plus two of Tina Weymouth's sisters helping on vocals. Generally, they only did "Genius of Love," but sometimes they were allowed more songs, and that's how I got a Talking Heads version of the other hit, "Wordy Rappinghood," from the first Tom Tom Club album.

On top of all that, I've also included a couple of Talking Heads studio outtakes that are really good songs. I edited one of them, "Two Note Swivel," by cutting the last three minutes or so. That's because the recording was never finalized, and while the first half of the song contained a lot of singing and interesting stuff, the second half was just the band going over the same two chords without any soloing or variety. I'm sure it was never intended to be released like that.

Although most of the songs here are from concert bootlegs, luckily I was able to find some high quality soundboard sources and eliminate all the audience noise, so it sounds like a studio album. For the song "Genius of Love," I decided to use the version from the "Stop Making Sense" official live album because the sound quality was a notch better than any other version I could find.

It's too bad David Byrne dominated the Talking Heads as much as he did, singing all the songs. The other three band members were very talented too, and this represents an alternate path the band could have taken, where the others were allowed songs on Talking Heads if they were strong enough. "Genius of Love" certainly would qualify! Chances are the band would have lasted longer and made stronger albums overall.

Now, I should explain the curious album title I've chosen, "Melody Attack." I went with this because it was the original intended album title for "Remain in Light," and the band came very close to using it. Look at the artwork on the back of that album, of three fighter planes flying over some mountains. That was originally planned for the front side, and was meant to illustrate the "Melody Attack" concept. That title was dropped at the last minute due to worries that it sounded too arrogant. But I think it's a fun title, and it fits here since the music on this album isn't far from the "Remain in Light" sound.

By the way, I've added one song as a bonus track, "The Man with the 4-Way Hips." It's only a bonus track because it's the actual Tom Tom Club and not the Talking Heads pretending to be that band. But it was a hit in 1983, which fits this time frame, and I think it's as solid as the other songs here. As far as I know, the Talking Heads never played this song in concert, probably because the band stopped doing any concerts at all after the 1983 tour, even though they continued as a studio band until 1988.

01 What a Day that Was (Talking Heads)
02 Big Blue Plymouth [Eyes Wide Open] (Talking Heads)
03 Wordy Rappinghood (Talking Heads)
04 My Big Hands [Fall through the Cracks] (Talking Heads)
05 Slink (Talking Heads)
06 Big Business (Talking Heads)
07 Genius of Love (Talking Heads)
08 Two Note Swivel [Edit] (Talking Heads)
09 Popsicle (Talking Heads)

The Man with the 4-Way Hips (Tom Tom Club)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701087/TTALKNGHDS982-1983_MlodyAttck_atse.zip.html

Thanks a lot to The Lifehouse for the cover art.

Peter at the Albums I Wish Existed blog has taken the back cover to "Remain in Light" that I mentioned above and altered it to make an alternate cover option.

Robyn Hitchcock - Mr. Thrusty's Fruit Club - Non-Album Tracks (1988-1989)

Here's the second part of the double Robyn Hitchcock posting. As I just explained in the other post, for each of his official albums, I generally am able to come up with an album of acoustic versions and an album of stray tracks. This is the album of stray tracks to go with 1988's "Globe of Frogs."

Probably the first thing I need to address is the strange album title I've chosen! That's due to Hitchcock's spoken introduction to one of the unreleased songs here. Logically, the song should be called "Consider Her Ways," but he jokingly and randomly titles it "Mr. Thrusty's Fruit Club." That tickled my funny bone, so I couldn't resist giving the album that title too. ;)

There's a lot of variety on this album. About half of the songs are with a full band, and I tried to cluster those in the first half. The rest are acoustic. About half have been officially released as B-sides and such, and the other half are from bootlegs of concerts. Many, many times, I've been able to find acoustic versions of songs done with a full band, but this contains a rare case of the opposite: a full band version of the song "Globe of Frogs," which is done acoustically on the official "Globe of Frogs" album.

Three of the songs here are cover versions: "Kung Fu Fighting," "Wild Mountain Thyme," and "More than This." I've included them here instead of on my long album series of his acoustic covers because they're full band versions or officially released studio versions, or both.

01 Someday My Love (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 Legalized Murder (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 A Globe of Frogs [Band Version] (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Kung Fu Fighting (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 Ruling Class (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 More Chinese Boys (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 Consider Her Ways [Mr. Thrusty's Fruit Club] (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 Wild Mountain Thyme (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 Space Odessey (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 You're an Angel (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 Element of Air (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 More than This (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15122127/RobynH_1989_MrThrustyFruitClub_atse.zip.html

I made the cover using a drawing made by Hitchcock. He drew it as the cover art for another musician, John Hegley and the Popticians, and their 1988 single "I Saw My Dinner on TV."

Robyn Hitchcock - Globe of Frogs - Acoustic Versions (1988)

As I often do, for each of Robyn Hitchcock's official albums, I've been able to find acoustic versions of most of the songs, plus another album's worth of stray tracks from that time. Here's the acoustic versions for the 1988 album "Globe of Frogs."

This is pretty straight forward, if you've been following my other Hitchcock postings. Out of the ten "Globe of Frogs" songs, I was able to find acoustic versions for seven of them. In addition, I found acoustic versions of three of the stray tracks from that time period, for a total of forty minutes of music.

The sound quality is uniformly excellent. All songs come from soundboard live recordings (with the audience noise removed, as usual), except for one song from the official "You and Oblivion" compilation that best fits here.

01 Vibrating [Solo Electric Version] (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 Balloon Man (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 Sleeping with Your Devil Mask (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Unsettled (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 Chinese Bones (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 A Globe of Frogs (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 Flesh Number One [Beatle Dennis] (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 September Cones (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 The Ghost Ship [Demo] (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Mr. Rock 'n' Roll (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 Evil Guy (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 Luminous Rose (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15271928/RobynH_1988_GlobeofFrAcousticVersions_atse.zip.html

I made the cover using a Hitchcock concert poster from 1988. I added the album title at the bottom.

Elliott Smith - Miss Misery - Non-Album Tracks (1997)

Here's the next Elliott Smith stray tracks album to help you understand the method to my madness of splitting the "New Moon" official compilation up.

Two of the songs from that compilation were recorded in 1997 (with the rest from 1995 or 1996), so I've put those here, with all the other stray tracks from 1997. I'm sure when he recorded those he had no idea they would be singled out and lumped in with a bunch of earlier songs. It makes a lot more sense to be to organize things chronologically instead of the random whim of record company executives years after Smith died.

It so happens the number of stray tracks in 1997 is relatively small, so this album is only 30 minutes long. But the songs on it are strong, which should be no surprise since it's the same year he released "Either-Or," widely acclaimed as one of his best albums, and on some best albums of all time lists.

1997 was also the year Smith hit the big time, due to some of his songs appearing in the "Good Will Hunting" movie. One of the songs from that movie, "Miss Misery," didn't appear on "Either-Or," but did win Smith a Grammy Award! So it seemed fitting for me to name this album after that song, which of course is included here.

"Bottle Up and Explode" would appear on his next album, "XO." But this version is significantly different, and it's one of my favorite Smith songs, so I had to include it.

01 Miss Misery (Elliott Smith)
02 Division Day (Elliott Smith)
03 No Name No. 6 [This Time We Can't Lose] (Elliott Smith)
04 All Cleaned Out (Elliott Smith)
05 First Timer (Elliott Smith)
06 Bottle Up and Explode [Alternate Version] (Elliott Smith)
07 Punch and Judy [Other Version] (Elliott Smith)
08 The Enemy Is You (Elliott Smith)
09 Misery Let Me Down (Elliott Smith)
10 Unlucky Charm (Elliott Smith)
11 My New Freedom (Elliott Smith)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16522891/ELLITTSMTH1997MssMisry_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I used a photo of Smith playing "Miss Misery" at the Grammy Awards ceremony.

Elliott Smith - New Moon - Alternate Version (1996)

Normally, I'm against posting officially released albums. We'll get less good music released if record companies aren't making money. However, I'm making an exception in this case because Elliott Smith's double album "New Moon" works better if it's broken up into chunks.

I'm more interested in gathering songs that fit together due to chronology or musical theme or the like. "New Moon" is kind of too much of a good thing. It gathers up all the unreleased songs covering the time Smith was signed to a particular record company, from 1995 to 1997. Smith's music evolved during that time, so it makes more sense to be to sort the music by year. I've already posted the 1995 stuff, together with some other songs he did from then, here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/10/elliott-smith-angel-in-snow-various.html

This album covers all the "New Moon" songs just from 1996. But Smith was so prolific that year that I made an entire album of other stray tracks from 1996, here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/10/elliott-smith-i-figured-you-out-various.html

Then I'm putting the rest of the "New Moon" songs on a stray tracks album cover 1997. You can find that here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/11/elliott-smith-miss-misery-various-songs.html

So that's the reasoning. As for the content, the songs that remained unreleased until after his death are generally as good as the ones that were released when he was alive. That's the case here. But Smith is pretty emotionally powerful music, so I think it's better appreciated in limited doses of a normal album length, which is roughly 45 minutes. Remarkably, this album is 44 minutes and 59 seconds long1 ;)

01 New Monkey (Elliott Smith)
02 Looking Over My Shoulder (Elliott Smith)
03 Going Nowhere (Elliott Smith)
04 Go By (Elliott Smith)
05 Thirteen (Elliott Smith)
06 Placeholder (Elliott Smith)
07 New Disaster (Elliott Smith)
08 Seen How Things Are Hard (Elliott Smith)
09 Fear City (Elliott Smith)
10 Either-Or (Elliott Smith)
11 Pretty Mary K [Other Version] [Early Version of Everything's OK] (Elliott Smith)
12 Almost Over (Elliott Smith)
13 See You Later (Elliott Smith)
14 Half Right (Elliott Smith)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16375924/ELLITTSMTH1996NwMonAltrnte_atse.zip.html

The album cover is just the same as the official one.

Paul Weller - Tales from the Riverbank - Non-Album Acoustic Tracks (2003-2005)

I still have a ton of Paul Weller stray tracks albums to post, so here's the next one. As in the past, I've split his stray tracks into all acoustic albums and everything else. This is another all acoustic one.

This album covers 2003 to 2005, and right in the middle of that time, 2004, Weller released an all-covers album, "Studio 150." So cover versions were very much on his mind. Some of the songs here are acoustic versions of songs from that album, such as "Wishing on a Star" or "Early Morning Rain." Others are no doubt from that same album project but not on the album, such as "Corrina, Corrina" and "Let It Be Me."

But most of the songs are Weller originals. There are a couple of songs from his days with The Jam - "Tales from the Riverbank" and "In the Crowd." More are versions of songs from his recent albums "Illumination" in 2002 and "As Is Now" in 2005.

All in all, it adds up to a fairly long album at 53 minutes. But it's musically coherent, due to the all-acoustic nature of the songs.

01 Going Places (Paul Weller)
02 Who Brings Joy (Paul Weller)
03 Thinking of You (Paul Weller)
04 Wishing on a Star (Paul Weller)
05 Tales from the Riverbank (Paul Weller)
06 Corrina, Corrina (Paul Weller)
07 Early Morning Rain (Paul Weller)
08 Paper Smile (Paul Weller)
09 Come On-Let's Go (Paul Weller)
10 Oranges and Rosewater (Paul Weller)
11 All on a Misty Morning (Paul Weller)
12 Savages (Paul Weller)
13 He's the Keeper (Paul Weller)
14 In the Crowd (Paul Weller)
15 Bag Man (Paul Weller)
16 Let It Be Me (Paul Weller)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15265275/PaulW_2003-2005_TalsfromRivrbankAcoustc_atse.zip.html

I made the cover from a 2005 concert photo.