The Ballroom were a band that Curt Boettcher put together in 1966 and included Sandy Salisbury, Michelle O’Malley and Jim Bell in the lineup. I came across the CD, ‘Preparing For The Millennium’ by accident in a second hand record shop near where I use to work. I cannot remember if I had bought the CD reissue of The Millennium’s ‘Begin’ album before this, but it would make sense if I had done. The word millennium on The Ballroom CD used the same font as that used on ‘Begin’ so that might have been why I connected the two and bought it. When I got home and gave it a play, there were some really good tracks but it did not have the consistency of the Millennium album even though both records share a number of songs. This CD contained what was said to be 11 of the 13 songs that had been put forward for that album. It also included a number of other songs which purported to be related to Curt Boetthcer. At the time, the rest of the songs were stuck in some sort of music licensing limbo.
The notes for the CD were quite extensive and showed Boettcher as being ahead of the game by trying to produce music that would recreate the psychedelic experience. The band did not have a record deal when the record was recorded but Warner Brothers showed an interest and pressed up a single with the songs ‘Spinning, Spinning, Spinning’ and ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go’ on it. The record never made it past promo stage and it would seem Warners went cold on the group. Nothing more came out under The Ballroom name for another 30 years, but that did not mean that their records were there for everyone to hear if you knew where to listen.
When Boettcher was bought out of his Our Productions contract so Gary Usher could take him to Columbia as a staff producer, a number of as yet unissued masters came too. Columbia felt it was time to make good on their investment so a number of these songs were used on the Sagittarius ‘Present Tense’ album. Some would later receive some remixing and/or additional instrumentation and see the light of day on The Millennium’s ‘Begin’ album.
The original versions and a number of other songs would remain in the vaults until 2001 when Sundazed Music released the ‘Magic Time’ compilation, which contained music from this period in Boettcher’s life. These included a number of Ballroom songs. Looking at when these songs were recorded, it could argued that the band had enough material to release an album in 1966 and another in 1967. This is what you are presented with here.
The Ballroom – the Ballroom
Side 1
Would You Like To Go
You Turn Me Around
Love’s Fatal Way
Lead Me To Love
Forever
Crazy Dreams
Side 2
I’ll Grow Stronger
It’s A Sad World
Magic Time
Musty Dusty
Baby Please Don’t Go
The Ballroom – Returns
Side 1
Spinning, Spinning, Spinning
A Time For Everything
Kepper Of The Games
5 A.M. (Original Version)
The Island (Original Version)
Wild Mountain Thyme – Lee Mallory (& The Ballroom)
Sunshine Today
Side 2
I’m Not Living Here
Opus To A Friend
Believe You
Another Time
Karmic Dream Sequence #1 (Original Version)
Sun Arise
Both albums are under 20 minutes a side, but this was the 60’s. Labels were interested in how many songs were on the album; not how long they were. They do hold up as albums but they don’t quite have the polish of The Millennium or Sagittarius recordings.
I was really surprised that both of these Ballroom albums could be reproduced on Spotify.
The covers for these Ballroom albums come from the great but no longer maintained site Through A Vast Crystal Sphere.
For this years first Record Store fantasy release, I thought I would take a look at one of the most successful albums ever released. That album is ‘Rumours’ by Fleetwood Mac which celebrated its 45th Anniversary in February of this year. The figures connected to this album are truly astounding. 40 million units sold which has earned it a Diamond certification in several countries, number one in numerous countries on its initial release, over 800 weeks on the UK album chart, winner of the 1978 Grammy for album of the year and it was the biggest selling vinyl album in the UK in 2020. Not bad for an album that details the break up of the relationships between four of the band members, three of whom wrote the songs.
Plenty of words and hours of films have been dedicated to the making of this album and the stories behind the songs. I am going to take a slightly different slant on this and using the 2013 Deluxe Edition of the album, I wondered what this album could have sounded like it if those involved had chosen different songs or takes. Before I go any further, I thought it would be good to stick as closely to the original album as I could. That meant having eleven tracks, five on Side A and six on Side B. I would also look to have an outtake as a single B-Side, much in the way the ‘Silver Springs’ was used. I would also look to have a minimum of three songs each for the three principle song writers.
So what do we have.
Second Hand News (Buckingham) – It was the opening track on the oregional album and it retains its place here. This is an early take of the songs but the structure is already in place.
Keep Me There (McVie) – An outtake that did see the end section and some of the song structure recycled for the group composition, ‘The Chain’. Pretty much the finished article and if this had been released, it would most probably have had some additional production before seeing the light of day.
The Chain (Nicks) – Not the more famous version released on the original ‘Rumours’, but the original Stevie Nicks demo. Nicks felt that some lyrics from this song fitted quite nicely over the bass section of ‘Keep Me There’. This would lead to the version of ‘The Chain’ that we know today, but here is the original version that could have been fleshed out if Nicks (and the rest of the band) hadn’t produced a completely co-operative song instead.
Songbird (McVie) – A different version of this song, where the acoustic guitar is a lot higher in the mix all the way through
Silver Springs (Nicks) – Described by album co-producer Richard Dashut as the best song never to make it to a record album, this was regionally released as the B-Side to ‘Go Your Own Way’. The song was originally slated to appear on ‘Rumours’ but was dropped as it was as it didn’t fit with the sound of the record and for timing reasons. It is a nice way to finish Side-A though.
You Make Loving Fun (McVie) – A different version of this song. The production is a lot more basic as though this was a run through before another take was attempted or embellished with additional production.
Go Your Own Way (Buckingham) – An early take of this song. Missing some of the guitar overdubs and my ears might be deceiving me, but I am sure there is an absence of keyboards.
Don’t Stop (McVie) – A different version of this song. The duet between McVie and Buckingham is here, but once again, this lacks some of the instrumentation of the version that would come out on ‘Rumours’. The guitar solo is missing completely.
Never Going Back (Buckingham) – The original version was just Lindsey Buckingham singing and playing guitar. This version though has a lovely duet between him and Stevie Nicks. It also includes some embellishments with precision, piano and a lead guitar part. This is arguably better than the version on the original album.
Think About It (Bittan/Nicks) – Co-written with Roy Bittan (who is most famous as being a member of the E-Street Band), even though the section he is credited with is the middle eight that was absent from this version. The song would later appear on Nicks’ debut album ‘Bella Donna.
Oh Daddy (McVie) – Either written about Mac drummer, Mick Fleetwood (who pretty much managed the band as well as being the person who kept it all together during the wilderness years before the era of Buckingham/Nicks) or Mac’s Lighting Director, who McVie was seeing at the time. This is a different version of the song.
Planets Of The Universe (Nicks) – Just to show that Stevie Nicks never seems to waste a song idea, this would be re-recorded for her 2001 album ‘Trouble In Shangri-La’.
Nicks certainly brought a lot of material to the table with this album that would not be ultimately used. There was two songs that would be re-recorded later and one that had elements sacrificed for ‘The Chain’. McVie also had one song that was sacrificed for ‘The Chain’ but other than that, all the songs here were released on ‘Rumours’. I was most surprised by Buckingham, because the outtakes of ‘Rumours’ show is that he did not bring a lot to the album. Even his contribution to the chain was borrowed from the introduction of ‘Lola (My Love), a song on the ‘Buckingham Nicks’ album from 1973. Only a snippet of a song called ‘Nothing Ever Lasts’ was included with the other outtakes. Whatever the reason, this album is still pretty solid and what could have been if certain decision (the production of ‘The Chain’) and other songs had not been available.
Side A
Second Hand News (Early Take)
Keep Me There (Vocal Version)
The Chain (Demo)
Songbird (Session)
Silver Springs (Outtake)
Side B
You Make Loving Fun (Session)
Go Your Own Way (Early Take)
Don’t Stop (Session)
Never Going Back Again (Acoustic Duet)
Think About It (Outtake)
Oh Daddy (Session)
B-Side
Planets Of The Universe (Demo)
Cover comes from https://www.monkeon.co.uk/albumcoveralsorans/
I’ll wrap up my posts that have a Nirvana connection with this what-if EP. In 1990, Kurt Cobain and Screaming Trees lead singer, Mark Lanegan decided to make a record and wrote a number of songs together. They told Sub-Pop, their record label, that they wanted to work together on making an album out of these songs. However, by the time they got to the studio, they had forgotten how the songs they had written actually went. Cobain and Lanegan had neglected to record any demos to help them later on. Instead of wasting the studio time, they decided to record an albums worth of Leadbelly covers. They were joined in the studio by Screaming Trees drummer Mark Pickerel and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic. This collective was to be known as The Jury.
Four tracks were recorded but interest in the project soon dwindled. It would seem that the problem was neither Cobain and Lanegan wanted to take the lead on the project. The first song recorded was ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night’. This ended up being released on Mark Lanegan’s first solo album, ‘The Winding Street’. The other three didn’t appear until 2004’s ‘With The Lights Out’ box set. ‘Grey Goose’ was left as an instrumental because the vocals were never added, even though Lanegan notes that he was meant to add them at a later date which never happened.
This is a case of what if the record company had not sat on these recordings but put these out as an EP, especially as both singers on this project would become quite well known in the next couple of years.
For my second Nirvana related release of the month, I have made an album made up of what I consider to be the best of their rare and archive recordings. Now, there was ‘With The Lights Out’ box set that came out in 2004. 3CDs worth of music and a DVD of video. This box set had been talked about for five years before it eventually came out, with the planning process bogged down in litigation. What we eventually got was a pretty comprehensive overview of the band and their music, taking in the bands first live show in 1987 right up some home demos from 1994. There was also a single disc version which included three songs not previously released on the box set. Theres nothing like fleecing your fan base now is there?
Reviews of her box set were mixed, with some praising it for being a valuable look at the band’s evolution, whilst others felt there was too much second rate material which would not have seen the light of day under other circumstances. I would have agree with the latter, whilst also feeling that there were some rarities which should have included. Therefore, here is my attempt at a more condensed version of ‘With The Lights Out’, but going under the title of ‘Verse Chorus Verse’, the name that was originally attributed to the live compilation that did not see the light of day in 1994.
Most of the songs that I have included here come from the ‘With The Lights Out’ with some help from ‘Sliver: The Best Of The Box’. I also wanted to include a number of songs that were released but had not been included on any Nirvana album before. I also used the template set by the vinyl version of ‘From The Muddy Banks Of The Wiskah’. That is, the forth side included material that was not available on any other format. In the case of ‘Muddy Banks’, this material was stage banter. In this case, it is material that were rougher demos (mostly recorded at home by Cobain) that were not sonically up the standard of the rest of the album. Being a vinyl nut, I like the idea that this format should get some bonuses every so often.
The songs not included on either of the aforementioned compilations are:
Love Buzz – The 7” version had a sound montage that had been put together by Cobain. This does not appear on the album version.
Sappy – Originally this song was to be called ‘Verse Chorus Verse’, but this title was shared with another song so the original title of ‘Sappy’ was used instead. This was originally release on a AIDS benefit album called ‘No Alternative’. For legal reasons, the songs could not be listed on the album artwork and was therefore placed at the end of the running order as a hidden track. It did not take long for word to get out that there was an otherwise unavailable Nirvana song on a compilation album which meant that its popularity was greatly increased.
Smells Like Teen Spirit – This was 20 seconds shorter than the version found on ‘Nevermind’.
Pay To Play (Smart Studios Version) – This version was recorded at the first attempt the band made at recording their second album. Even though those sessions would not see the light of day (initially), this version of the song had a video recorded with drummer Chad Channing. Channing might not have had the power of future drummer, Dave Grohl, it does shows how close Grohl was to this original version when laying down his drum parts. The band even recorded a video but after Channig was fired form the band, these sessions ended up acting as a demo to shop the band around to the major labels, with Geffen eventually taking the bait. After Channing left the band (or was fired depending on the source you read), the song was re-recorded and this version would eventually see the light of day on the compilation ‘DGC Rarities Vol.1’. The video itself had been released on the ‘With The Light Out’ Box Set.
Pennyroyal Tea – Cobain was unhappy with the version that had been released on ‘In Utero’ and so a remix was prepared by Scott Litt. He had done a bit of remixing on some other ‘In Utero’ songs, but as they album was already out, it was decided that it would be released as a single instead. Even though production of the single was in the advanced stages in many countries around the world, it would not be released in 1994 due to Cobain’s death.
I Hate Myself & I Want To Die – Recorded during the ‘In Utero’ sessions, it was left off of the album due to Cobain feeling that there was enough noise songs not he album already. It would eventually see the light of day on ‘The Beavis & Butt-Head Experience’ album.
You Know You’re Right – The last song recorded by the whole band at their last recording session. For this compilation, it would have been released as a single as well to promote the release of this album.
Down In The Dark – Cobain provided backing vocals to this song which was released on Lanegan’s first solo album ‘The Winding Sheet’. Not strictly Nirvana I know but it made for a nice addition here.
Here She Comes Now – The A-Side of a split single with The Melvins. It was also included on a compilation album ‘Heaven & Hell: A Tribute To The Velvet Underground’.
As a promotional device for this release, I would have had ‘You Know You’re Right’ as a single, with two additional songs that would not have been included on the compilation album. A little bonus for anyone who would have bought it.
Side A
Love Buzz (7” version)
Blandest (Studio Recording 1989)
Pen Cap Chew (Nirvana First Studio Recording 1988)
If You Must (Nirvana First Studio Recording 1988)
Clean Up Before She Comes (4 Track Home Recording 1987-8)
Sappy (No Alternative Charity Album Release 1993)
Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Home Demo 1990)
Side B
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Single Edit 1991)
Even In His Youth (Music Source Studio Session 1989) This is not the same as the recording that was released as a B-Side to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam (Band Rehearsal 1994)
Pennyroyal Tea (Scott Litt Remix 1994)
Old Age (Nevermind Outtake 1991)
I Hate Myself & I Want To Die (The Bevis & Butt Head Experience Album 1993)
Side C
You Know You’re Right (Studio Matter 1994)
Pay To Play (Smart Studios Sessions 1990)
In Bloom (Smart Studios Sessions 1990)
Verse Chorus Verse (Nevermind Outtake 1991)
Down In Dark (The Winding Street 1990)
Here She Comes Now (Smart Studios Sessions 1990)
Side D
Spank Thru (1985 Fecal Matter Demo)
White Lace & Strange (Radio Session 1987)
About A Girl (4 Track Home Recording 1987-8)
Sliver (Home Demo 1990)
Opinion (Kurt Cobain Solo Radio Session 1990)
Token Eastern Song (Music Source Studio Session 1989)
Do Re Mi (Home Demo 1994)
MV (Studio Session 1993)
You Know You’re Right (Home Demo 1993/4)
Single B-Sides
Anoexorcist (Radio Session 1987)
Sappy (Studio Session 1990)
The cover is based upon the self titled compilation from 2002. The single is a straight copy of the one of the covers used or the promo single of ‘You Know You’re Right’ which also came out in 2002.
I did not feel the need to complete a Nirvana live album as ‘MTV Unplugged In New York’, and ‘From The Muddy Banks Of The Wiskah’ did a good enough job here, and there has been a number of live archival releases since then.
A Spotify playlist could not be created for this compilation due to one or more of those songs not being available on that platform.
I don’t normally make posts to mark the passing of a musician, but when it comes to Kurt Cobain, I am going to make an exception. That is because Nirvana were one of the first bands I got into where we didn’t already have some records of theirs in the collection. I remember their performance of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ on Top of the Pops, and even though I was not exactly enamoured with what I heard as I did not realise that Cobain was singing the song in a lower register. The rest of the band were to taking their performance too seriously either. I’m sure it is on Youtube if you want to see for yourself. Once I heard ‘Nevermind’ though, I knew this was a band I needed to examine further.
Even though ‘Nevermind’ was the album everyone else was buying, I thought I would buck the trend and I bought ‘Bleach’, their first album. For a long time, I preferred this one. The rawness of the production was the polar opposite to the sheen of ‘Nevermind’ and it was easy to see why Cobain felt that his artistic vision had been compromised some what by his success. He was a punk at heart, even though his songs were full of memorable melodies not normally associated with that style of music. It could be argued that Cobain would have preferred to stay an underground artist making albums in the vein of ‘Bleach’ instead of trying to keep his record company happy by producing more albums that did not deviate too far from ‘Nevermind’. However, this was not to be and on 5th April, Cobain took his own life leaving a legacy as one of the most influential musicians of the alternative rock scene.
The remaining members of Nirvana set about securing Cobain’s legacy by releasing a live compilation called ‘Verse Chorus Verse’ and though this album was all but ready (it just need some final mixing), the project was scrapped. This was down the Bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl finding the whole project overwhelming, considering how close it was what to Cobain’s death. With this, the first of an alternative history of posthumous releases, this looks at a compilation that Geffen, the bands record label could have put out as a stop gap whilst the live material project was put on the back burner for the time being.
The music had all been released before and it would have included every B-Side not included on an album or compilation release before Cobain’s death. There was easily enough material, even though ‘Been A Son’ is on here twice. Once, as a studio cut and the second, a live performance. I have tried tried to keep the songs in the order in which they were released, but did have to move a couple around as the playing sides were too different in terms to playing time. This is because vinyl and more importantly, cassette releases needed to be catered for in the mid 90s so making sure that the playing sides matched up as closely as they could in terms of timing would have been a consideration that would have needed to be taken into account.
I missed off ‘Big Cheese’ which was the B-Side of their debut single and not originally on the ‘Bleach’ album, it was on every subsequent (as far as I can tell) repressing. In the UK, it was there from the start. ‘Dive’, the B-Side of Sliver but would later appear on Incesticide. With ‘Oh, The Guilt’, I had got so use to hearing the remixed version from the ‘With The Lights Out’ box set that I had forgotten that there were clicks throughout this that was the sound of a lighter being struck. For a moment, I thought that my CD copy had developed a fault down the years.
Both Endless, Nameless and Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip appeared on the CD versions of ‘Nevermind’ and ‘In Utero’, but where not included on the vinyl pressing (which were the versions I bought at the time). The two noise boys tracks have been included as a bonus 7” single as these would have made the LP far too long and would have been a nice bonus for this buying the vinyl version. As it is, this record is just over 50 minutes long, which is pushing it for a vinyl record.
Side A
Been A Son – Blew EP
About A Girl (Live) – Sliver EP
Spank Thru (Live) – Sliver EP
Molly’s Lips (Live) – Candy (Split Single with The Fluid)
Even In His Youth – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Aneurysm – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Drain You (Live) – Come As You Are
D7 – Lithium
Side B
School (Live) – Come As You Are
Been A Son (Live) – Lithium
Curmudgeon – Lithium
Polly (Live) – In Bloom
Sliver (Live) – In Bloom
Oh, The Guilt – Puss (Split Single with Jesus Lizard)
Marigold – Heart Shaped Box
MV – All Apologies
I Hate Myself & I Want To Die – Pennyroyal Tea
Bonus Single (Vinyl Only)
Endless, Nameless (Hidden Song on ‘Nevermind’)
Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip (Hidden Song on ‘In Utero’)
The artwork uses an image that I found on the Behance website by contributor Julia Ro.
This ‘lost’ album could not be replicated on Spotify.
Record Collector magazine, a magazine that I have been buying since since the very early 90s when I saw a picture of there Syd Barrett line up on the front cover. I had only just bought ‘Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’ and wanted to find out more about the band during the Barrett era. Anyway, Record Collector has always been a great resource for information on all sorts of artists. In an article from at least eight, if not ten years ago, it mentioned a number of acetates Pink Floyd had recorded before they adopted their famous name. Before they were the Floyd, they went by numerous monikers such as Sigma 6, The Meggadeaths, The Abdabs, The Screaming Abdabs, The Tea Set and then The Pink Floyd Sound. There would also be a number of members who would leave before the band found fame. These would include Juliette Gale, who would later marry Floyd keyboard player Rick Wright and a guitar player who went by the name of Rado Klose.
One acetate which contained the songs ‘Lucy Leave’ and I’m A King Bee’ would appear on bootlegs over the years, but the other two did not and it was only with the release of a vinyl EP going by the name ‘1965: Their First Recordings’ that fans finally got to hear them. These songs are nothing like the Floyd of ‘Arnold Layne’ or ‘See Emily Play’, but a more R&B/Blues based sound that was the rage at the time. These songs would also be released on the ‘The Early Years 1965-1972’ box set.
Whilst trawling through fan made Pink Floyd LP sleeves, I came across this sleeve. The photo includes Rado Klose (he is the chap on the left) and I think it was taken in the back garden of 39 Stanhope Gardens, Crouch End, where Roger Waters and Nick Mason lived at the time. I thought it would be a nice bonus to present this as an EP the band could have put out if they had signed a contract with Columbia earlier than they did in reality. After all of the other Pink Floyd bits and pieces that have been presented this month to include this one as well.
Side A
Double O Bo
Remember Me
Side B
Walk With Me Sydney
Butterfly
As I was at it, I thought I might as well make a picture sleeve for the other two tracks. ‘Lucy Leave’ and ‘I’m A King Bee’. I thought I would use the name the band were using at the time these tracks were recorded which was The Tea Set. If this were to have been made back in 1964/5 for a UK releases, it is possible that only the promo version would have had a picture sleeve like this. We in the UK didn’t seem to warrant picture sleeves back in the day. If we were on the continent though, they did produce picture sleeves so let’s pretend it comes from Germany.
Side A
Lucy Leave
Side B
I’m A King Bee
As was mentioned earlier, I found this cover online but I did not make a note of who made it. The same with the ‘Lucy Leave’ single which was adapted from someone else work. Thanks whoever you are. Good job on both fronts. I was also surprised to find all of these songs on Spotify.
This is another what-if album I put together because of the mock up sleeve that was on the website https://idesignalbumcovers.tumblr.com. ‘The Man & The Journey’ was a suite of music the band performed during their tour of 1969. The songs in this concert included some that had already been released, some that would appear on some future releases (like ‘Ummagumma’, ‘More’ & ‘Relics’), and some would stay unreleased. Even though a live album was considered at the time, it didn’t happen due to the overlap of material with ‘Ummagumma’. One of the shows from the tour was widely bootlegged as it was take from a show played in Amsterdam, but it was missing some of the material.
An almost complete show was eventually released in 2016 on ‘The Early Years 1965-1972’ box set. It was almost complete because in the set list, there was a performance called Teatime which was positioned between Work and Afternoon. It was removed because it was during this time that the band would not play anything but instead be served with cups of tea. This was essentially 3 mins and 36 of near silence. The estate of John Cage would most probably sue.
The loose concept of the album is that the first disc follows the man during his everyday life, but the second disc is the journey. What this journey is and where it goes is unclear. However, what is clear is that this was the beginning of Pink Floyd as a band that would produce music based on a theme which would be developed over the next few years until it culminated in the release of Dark Side of the Moon.
If it had actually been released in 1969 as suggested, it would have worked as a double vinyl album because the timings of the sides actually match up quite closely. The timing was also helped with Teatime being removed. On reflection, it is a shame that this wasn’t released in place of ‘Ummagumma’ because even though it is a definite period piece, The Man & The Journey works better as a piece of music and as an album. ‘Ummagumma’ may have its fans but I am not one of them.
Side A
Daybreak (Grantchester Meadows)
Work
Afternoon (Biding My Time)
Side B
Doing It
Sleeping
Nightmare (Cymbaline)
Labyrinth
Side C
The Beginning (Green Is the Colour)
Beset by Creatures of the Deep (Careful with That Axe, Eugene)
When Pink Floyd released their debut album ‘Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’, there was one driving force behind it. That was original guitar player/vocalist Syd Barrett. However, but the time they were ready to record their second, Barrett’s days in the band were numbered. His behaviour had becoming more erratic throughout 1967 to the point where he was detuning his guitar on stage. His material which once managed to break the Top Ten in the UK Singles chart was now failing to make the grade. By the time of ‘Apple & Oranges’, the last single he wrote for the band, their days as a chart band were gone and it would remain that way for another twelve years. The fact that they did not realise many singles in the UK in those twelve years might have played a part in that also. Anyway, as his ability to perform live diminished, Dave Gilmour, an old friend of Barrett’s was brought in as cover. The band thought that as Barrett had been responsible for most of the bands material up until this point, they would keep him on as a writer and non touring member along the lines of Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys.
This situation did not last long and by the end of January 1968, Barrett was no longer in the band. Even though he contributed to the playing on a couple of songs as a player, only one of the songs he had written for the group was used on the album that would be known as ‘A Saucerful Of Secrets’. ‘Jugband Blues’ was not like the joyous songs that had been included on the debut album but many have seen it as a self diagnosis of what he perceived was happening to him. Was it schizophrenia, a wry sense of humour, too many drugs, the fact that he longer wanted to be a star or a combination of all of them. Barrett had recorded a number of other songs but these would not seen an official release until 2016 and the Early Years box set. So, what if the second Pink Floyd album had sounded like it if it had used more of the material the band had recorded with Syd Barrett?
I’ll start by looking at the one track that did not make the cut. I did not want to use Saucerful of Secrets as it is the only the third section that I can actually listen to repeatedly. Wikipedia has that part listed as Celestial Voices and it is beautiful. It is shame that the rest of it was a load of psychedelic noodling that in any other era would have been seen as self indulgent. Seeing as this is quite a long song, that leaves plenty of room to fill on this LP. More on that later. Side A is the same as the album that was actually released. I did play around with this, moving songs around and trying to place the songs in a different order but it just didn’t work.
It is Side B that is very different from the album that was ultimately released. It starts off with ‘See-Saw’ was listed on the recording sheet as ‘The Most Boring Song I’ve Ever Heard Bar Two’. It its not the most memorably of songs but it is not terrible. I would love to know what the two songs the band thought were more boring than this though. I have followed this with one of the unreleased Barrett songs that was officially released in 2016. ‘Vegetable Man’ is not an easy listen and the lyrics show Barrett looking in on himself. This and the other unreleased Barrett number, ‘Scream Thy Last Scream’ were considered as the A and B side of a single, in lieu of anything else in the can. This, as we know did not come to pass and I suspect that it would not have returned the band to the top of the single chart. The band did perform these songs on a BBC session in December 1967.
‘Painbox’ was originally released as the B-Side of the Apple & Oranges single, and is one of a number of songs that band recorded that show the Barrett influence whilst not being written by him. ‘Jugband Blues’ is another song with lyrics that could be said to be Barrett looking in on himself and I almost finished this album in the same way it did on the original LP did. However, I decided to throw a little bonus in there, because otherwise my sides would not match up time wise. That track is an instrumental that has been bootlegged under the name as Sunshine, but supposedly the track is officially known as ‘Experiment’. Even though this track is meant to be 15 minutes long, only the first 90 seconds have escaped the studio. The track does sound a little rough, it fits into the sound of the album. I put a fade in and out and added some echo to the first 20 seconds.
The original Saucerful of Secrets was possibly the most democratic album the band ever made. Each of the five members take a lead vocal and this is the only album where Keyboardist Rick Wright vocal performances outnumber everyone else. I have used the same artwork as Saucerful of Secrets but I took out the original photo to include one with all five Floyd members in it.
Side A
Let There Be More Light
Remember A Day
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Corporal Clegg
Side B
See-Saw
Vegetable Man
Paintbox
Scream Thy Last Scream
Jugband Blues
Experiment
A Spotify playlist could not be created for this play list due to one or more songs not being available on that platform.
Now, normally I create a playlist and then try to put together a piece of artwork to go along with it. With this what-if album, this was the complete opposite in that I had the piece of artwork and wondered how I could find a playlist to go with it.
Now, this piece of artwork was is another one taken from the site https://idesignalbumcovers.tumblr.com and is for an album that would have been an overview of American popular music throughout the 20th Century. This was meant to be a follow on from the band’s previous album, ‘The Notorious Byrd Brothers’ which had already laid the template by expanding the genres of music the band was looking to incorporate into their repertoire. The ‘Notorious Byrd Brothers’ was an end of an era album though as drummer Michael Clarke and guitar player David Crosby had been fired before the record had been released. Pulling in new drummer in the from of ex-Rising Sons member Kevin Kelley, the band thought that they needed a jazz pianist to achieve the sound they required for their 20th Century album. In came Gram Parsons who did not waste anytime in turning this project into the album he wanted to make which would be released under the name ‘Sweetheart Of The Rodeo’. This is considered to be one of the first country rock albums and would be an influence on many bands that came after this. The 20th Century album was never revisited and as far as I can tell, not one recording session took place.
So, why use this cover when no material was recorded for it? Well, it is a really good cover and it is a shame that it does not have a what-if album to go with it. I took inspiration from the sleeve itself and wondered if I could produce an album that followed a space theme. Not quite, but with some songs thrown in that have a flying theme (and Mind Gardens as it could be argued that the song is about travelling through inner space), there was enough material recorded between 1965 and 1967 to get an album of sorts. Most of the songs on this record were written or co-written by Jim McGuinn who was fascinated by aeronautics, so much so that he started using the name of Roger instead of Jim. Roger being used by pilots as part of the signalling protocol to say that the last message has been received satisfactorily. Like many of the what-if records I put together, this one would never have come out as the songs had already been used on other records but it did mean that that wonderful piece of artwork found a home.
Side A
Artificial Energy – The Notorious Byrd Brothers
C.T.A.-102 – Younger Than Yesterday
5D (Fifth Dimension) – 5th Dimension
Stranger in a Strange Land (Vocals by Blackburn & Snow) *(See Below)
Eight Miles High – 5th Dimension
Side B
The Airport Song – Preflyte
Mr. Spaceman – 5th Dimension
Mind Gardens (Alternative Version) – Younger Than Yesterday
Space Odyssey – The Notorious Byrd Brothers
2-4-2 Fox Trot (The Lear Jet Song) – 5th Dimension
* The Byrds did not finish their version of ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ and the instrumental backing track was released on the 1996 reissue of the ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ album. However, in 1966, the duo of Blackburn & Snow recorded their own version of the song with vocals included. Paul from the Albums That Should Exist website took the vocals from the Blackburn & Snow recording and added them to the Byrds backing track. To find out more, follow the link.
It is always nice to come across a gem of a film that I knew nothing about beforehand. One of those which I saw over the Christmas period was Boss Level. It doesn’t have the most original of premise in that the hero of the film must relive the same day over and over again until he figures out what he needs to do to end this event from repeating itself. However, the action, acting and kick arse soundtrack made this 100 minutes of my time that I did not feel was wasted. Time being the operative word here because the majority of the songs on this soundtrack are concerned with it.
Even though a soundtrack album was released for the music, this was the incidental music by Clinton Shorter. There wasn’t one for the songs that were used throughout the movie so I thought I would put one together. This includes nineteen of the twenty songs included in the film. The only one missing is ‘Sixties Airport Lounge’ by John Plowright which does not seem to be available anywhere. There were enough songs for a short double album so so here it is, the soundtrack to Boss Level.
Side 1
Working For MCA – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Alcohol Part 1 – Robert Jay
Mean Little Mama – Roy Orbison
Time Has Come Today – The Chambers Brothers
Baby I Don’t Care – Carl Mann
Side B
Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me) – The Gap Band
Got My Mojo Workin’ – Billy Adams
Slow Down – Jack Earls
Foreplay/Longtime – Boston
Side C
Fine Time – Genie Brooks
Fix Me – Black Flag
Destroy Everything – The Helltones
That’s Why I Love To Call His Name – Village Singers
