Tracy Chapman - Where the Soul Never Dies - Non-Album Tracks (1988-1991)

In 1988, Tracy Chapman released one of the most remarkable debut albums of all time, simply titled "Tracy Chapman." It went on to sell nearly 20 million copies. Wouldn't it be great if she'd done another album just like that, which hasn't been made public until now?

Well, that's kind of the case with this album. It turns out that Chapman actually wrote many songs prior to her first album, and just about all of them have remained unreleased. I remember some years ago, when I was putting this album together, lists of dozens of her songs from before 1988, nearly all of which have never even been bootlegged. Hopefully, someday she'll be willing to share what she has in her private archives. In the meantime, luckily, there are an album's worth of songs that have been bootlegged, and even more luckily, nearly all of them were recorded in very high quality.

Are these songs as good as the ones on her debut album? Unfortunately, no. But still, I prefer these over the songs on most of her later albums. Eight of the songs here are Chapman originals. The rest are generally covers of all-time classics ("Imagine," "A Change Is Gonna Come," "Amazing Grace") or lesser known covers ("Where the Soul Never Dies" and "Troubles, Troubles, Troubles"). I included her song "Give Me One Reason," which would become a big hit for her in 1995, because this song is done in solo acoustic style.

Unfortunately, for one song, "When We Talk," I could only find a version with middling sound quality. So I've added that as a bonus track at the end.

01 Where the Soul Never Dies (Natalie Merchant & Tracy Chapman)
02 No Time (Tracy Chapman)
03 Why You Do Me Wrong (Tracy Chapman)
04 Be My Baby (Tracy Chapman)
05 Sweet One (Tracy Chapman)
06 Troubles, Troubles, Troubles [Leaving Blues] (Tracy Chapman)
07 Give Me One Reason (Tracy Chapman)
08 What Child Is This (Tracy Chapman)
09 A Change Is Gonna Come (Tracy Chapman)
10 Missile Blues (Tracy Chapman)
11 Still I Cry (Tracy Chapman)
12 Imagine (Tracy Chapman)
13 Amazing Grace (Tracy Chapman)

When We Talk (Tracy Chapman)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15126433/TracyC_1988-1991_WheretheSoulNevrDies_atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I used the cover to the "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution" single, and changed the text.