A Historical Recreation?
I went yesterday and bought a copy of the newly reissued
Exile on Main Street. Even though I have a couple CDs of outtakes from the
Exile sessions, I wanted to hear how those tracks cleaned up.
Those of you familiar with the
Exile session bootlegs know that many of the tracks are either basic, rough tracks or just instrumentals. For the re-release Jagger added vocals to some tracks. He mentioned to Larry King (part one of the interview is
here) that he had to write lyrics for a couple of the songs, but didn’t say which ones.
While most of the “new” songs sound like they fit perfectly with the original material, there are a couple where Mick’s voice sounds, as Charlie Watts told
Rolling Stone, “like it was recorded yesterday.” The track “Plundered My Soul,” for example, sounds like it could just as easily have came from
A Bigger Bang.
No one has been secretive about the Stones enhancing these tracks for the
Exile re-release. Engineer Bob Clearmountain told
Rolling Stone he electronically “tweaked” Jagger’s voice to make it sound more like it had four decades ago. Jagger even got Mick Taylor to participate in the effort.
I like that some of the leftovers from the
Exile sessions are finally seeing commercial release. I’m just not sure if I like that they’ve basically been recreated. Like when I used to go see a historical building and find out the only thing original is a scrap of wallpaper encased behind glass and hanging on the wall of a “historically accurate” recreation. These 10 “new” tracks are at least as good as anything the Stones have released recently, but I do get the feeling I’m listening to a historic recreation, rather than to tracks that have just been cleaned up for release.
The song I have today comes in two versions, which should pretty much sum up what I just said: The first one, which is titled “I Ain’t Signifying,” is from a boot called
I Gave You Diamonds, You Gave Me Disease. It is completely unadorned, starting as a bluesy shuffle, gradually picking up steam until the end, where Mick Taylor steps out front for a solo.
The musically (and grammatically!) cleaned up “I’m Not Signifying” retains the blues, but adds Nicky Hopkins’ piano as well as Mick on harmonica. Taylor takes a slide solo in this version, but it’s pushed back under a layer of horns.
I Ain’t Signifying.mp3 I’m Not Signifying.mp3 Labels: classic rock, outtakes, rereleases, Rolling Stones
'We'll Park At 7-11 And Look For Some Beef'
I have, over the past couple of months, gotten a lot of hits on
a Runaways post I did more than two years ago (the links are still up if you want to check it out). Oddly, the referrals are almost exclusively from Google images, which made it hard for me to figure out at first. The conclusion I finally came to is that the spike in hits has more or less coincided with the attention to The Runaways, which opens nationally April 9, and people searching images for the band.
Whatever the reason for the uptick, as always, I welcome it and, as always, I hope that people visiting my blog for that particular post will look around and decide to come back.
With that, never let it be said that I’m not a whore: If one Runaways post is good, two has got to be even better.
I did some searching and found
Flaming Schoolgirls, an oddly named disk that is a collection of outtakes from the
Queens of Noise and
Live in Japan albums. Originally available as a Japanese import, the Cherry Red label released it in the U.S. in 1980.
Flaming Schoolgirls features the classic Runaways lineup of Lita Ford, Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, Jackie Fox, and Sandy West.
I picked a couple of what I think are pretty representative songs from the album: “Don’t Abuse Me,” a Joan Jett-penned song, features Cherie Currie on vocals (Joan would rerecord it later for her
Bad Reputation album); Joan herself is out front on the live version of “I Love Playin’ With Fire.”
In an interesting choice, there are two Beatles covers on
Flaming Schoolgirls – “Strawberry Fields” and “Here Comes the Sun.” Yeah, that’s what I thought too. But Joan’s version of “Here Comes the Sun” is really not bad and it’s a rare occasion to hear her accompanied by just piano and strings. What kept going through my mind as I listened is, Thirty years down the road, there would be kids the same age Joan was then, singing their little hearts out on American Idol, maybe trying the same song, and not even coming close to turning in as good a performance. Yet ironically, I doubt Joan could have even “made it to Hollywood.”
Don’t Abuse Me.mp3 I Love Playin’ With Fire.mp3 Here Comes the Sun (Beatles cover).mp3 Labels: Beatles, covers, glam, outtakes, rock
'Buried Alive'
I can’t even count the number of times I’ve posted up some Aerosmith and tried to qualify the post by saying something like, “Well, back when they were good...”
Despite all qualifications, I happened recently to run up on some newer Aerosmith that’s pretty good. So I think I’ve found the problem: They need to cut out the shit in the studio. I found a couple of disks of demos and damned if even the crap songs from the later albums sound decent when they’re unadorned by studio fluffery. Prime example: “Living on the Edge,” which was, in my opinion, a typical late model, Aerosmith pop song. The demo shows the song stripped down and raw, before Bruce Fairburn glossed it up and turned it into mainstream mediocrity.
This collection, which was probably assembled by a fan, is titled
Divers Aerosmith. I don’t know if that’s meant to be “Diver’s” or “Diverse.” Regardless, the original set had 32 songs, some of which had been released commercially, some of which had poor sound quality, and some of which just sucked (i.e. an orchestral version of “Crazy”). I trimmed the fat and ended up with 11 songs that I think are pretty quality. With the exception of “Mama Kin” and “Walk This Way,” everything comes from
Permanent Vacation or newer. And, to the best of my knowledge, nothing here has been commercially released.
Bottom line: Here’s yet another Aerosmith post. You know we're all still fans.
Buried Alive.mp3 ~
Pump outtake
Crazy.mp3 ~ acoustic version
Guilty Kilt.mp3 Hollywood.mp3 ~
Permanent Vacation demo
Line Up.mp3 ~ smoky bar mix
Livin’ on the Edge.mp3 ~
Get A Grip demo
Mama Kin.mp3 ~ live, with Guns ‘n’ Roses
Once is Enough.mp3 ~
Permanent Vacation demo
Samurai.mp3 Permanent Vacation demo
Sedona Sunrise.mp3 ~
Pump demo
Walk This Way.mp3 ~ live, with Bon Jovi
Labels: Aerosmith, classic rock, demos, live music, outtakes
Scorpions Calling It Quits
After more than 40 years, German metal-meisters the Scorpions are calling it quits.
The Scorpions, which Rudolf Schenker formed in Hanover, Germany, in 1965, posted a message on their
Website today announcing the end of the band following their upcoming world tour:
“We are extremely grateful for the fact that we still have the same passion for music we’ve always had since the beginning. This is why, especially now, we agree we have reached the end of the road.”
The Scorpions are wrapping up their eighteenth and final studio album,
Sting In the Tail, which is due out March 19. Their farewell tour kicks off in Moscow on the 15th. Tour dates and streaming snippets from a couple of new songs are on the band’s
MySpace.
I
wrote not long ago about my history as a Scorpions fan, so I won’t bore you again with details. Suffice to say they deserve their place near the top of the metal pantheon.
For today’s music, I’m going to reach all the way back to the Scorpions debut album, 1972’s
Lonesome Crow. This version of “I’m Going Mad” is an alternate take from a German re-release of that disk. Although the Scorps seem to be headed in a Black Sabbath direction, you can hear traces of what would later become their signature sound.
I’m Going Mad (alt version).mp3 It All Depends.mp3 Labels: current events, metal, outtakes
'Youth Nabbed As Sniper'
While the Licorice Pizza interns were hard at work on Christmas posts last week, I was busy searching for other things that I thought might entertain you. In my quest, I happened to pick up a couple of pretty cool albums: The first I’ll post from today; one of the others I may get into in a few days.
Plastic Letters, Blondie’s 1978 sophomore release, has never been one of my favorites from the band. Although it does have a couple of decent songs – i.e. “Denis” and “(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear” – I’m mostly inclined to agree with the scribe who said it sounded like leftovers from their debut disk.
But here’s why I was happy to get my hands on the 2001 re-released version: It contains “Once I Had A Love,” which is the original version of “Heart of Glass.” Blondie recorded this much slower version in 1975, and would sometimes play it live, but never released it. It wasn’t until
Parallel Lines in 1978, when Mike Chapman would pump up the bass and increase the beats to 120 per minute, that the song was officially released.
This original version is more in keeping with the pop-oriented Blondie songs, while it also looks forward to the funky reggae that would come with “The Tide is High” in 1980.
Once I Had A Love.mp3Labels: new wave, outtakes
This is Hell
Lemme get a couple orders of business out of the way before we get to the music.
First, I’m already –
already – seeing hits here for Christmas music. If you’re one of those people, you know now those links are dead. They have been for almost a year and I have no plans on resuscitating them. I probably will post Christmas music at some point, but I promise you it will
not be before Thanksgiving.
Next are these annual end-of-year best of / worst-of / who-gives-a-shit-about-it lists. I plan to continue my tradition of non-participation in this list making. If you’re into that sort of thing, the
LargeHearted Boy blog has already began aggregating lists.
I thought I had one other item on my curmudgeonly agenda, but it slips my mind at the moment so we’ll move on to the real reason we’re all here.
Apropos of nothing, I’ve got some Elvis Costello tonight, from his 1994 album
Brutal Youth. Or, more accurately, from the 2002
Brutal Youth reissue bonus disk.
I originally bought
Brutal Youth excited that Elvis was reuniting with the Attractions. Fifteen years later, the album has become one of my favorites. While it doesn’t have the angry energy of the first three albums, it shows a more mature Elvis who wields his words like scalpel instead of a blunt edged instrument
One of my favorite tracks on the album is “This is Hell.” I’ve always liked the wordplay in the song and the way it seems to describe one of my worst nightmares: douchey nightlife (“The bruiser spun a hula hoop while all the barmen preen and pout ... This is hell, this is hell ... It never gets better or worse”).
The version here was recorded in December 1992 at Church Studios in London. It might almost be considered a demo take; the final version wouldn’t be done until early the following year. While Elvis plays bass on this version, Bruce Thomas returned to the band to play on the final album version.
The second song, “A Drunken Man’s Praise of Sobriety,” is a Yeats poem that Elvis set to music.
This is Hell (Church Studios version).mp3 A Drunken Man’s Praise of Sobriety.mp3 Labels: outtakes
Steven Tyler Done With Aerosmith?
The gossip around the Internet is that Steven Tyler is leaving Aerosmith. That move, which would for all intents and purposes break up the legendary band, seemed to be confirmed in an interview Joe Perry gave the
Las Vegas Sun newspaper.
“Steven quit as far as I can tell,” Perry told the paper in an interview published Friday. “I don’t know anymore than you do about it. I got off the plane two nights ago. I saw online that Steven said that he was going to leave the band. I don’t know for how long, indefinitely or whatever. Other than that, I don’t know.”
Most of Aerosmith’s recent world tour was canceled in August after Tyler fell from the stage at a Sturgis, S.D., concert and broke his shoulder. The band members were unhappy with Tyler over the incident. However, Aerosmith salvaged the final leg of the tour, including two shows in Hawaii and one at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix before more than 50,000 fans.
Perry told the
Sun he hopes to keep Aerosmith together, with or without Tyler, but he was so stunned by recent developments he doesn’t know what’s going to happen.
Meanwhile, talk on the
AeroForceOne message boards was mostly about Tyler’s selfishness and the idea that “he's not Rod Stewart that split from the Faces while still in his 30's and had a whole career ahead of him.”
There’s no confirmation or denial from Steven Tyler at this point, other than a statement he made in an interview with
Classic Rock magazine regarding his future plans: “It's definitely going to be something Steven Tyler, working on the brand of myself — Brand Tyler.”
In my opinion, Aerosmith is past their prime and would do well to call it a day. They haven’t been able to keep it together like the Stones have and they haven’t been able to consistently turn out rock music on a par with their earlier successes. The slick pop of albums like
Just Push Play is an embarrassment to the band and to those of us who used to be fans.
Here are a couple of things from the 1991
Pandora’s Box compilation.
Lord of the Thighs (live-1978).mp3 I Wanna Know Why (live-1978).mp3 Chip Away the Stone (alt version).mp3 Helter Skelter.mp3 Labels: Aerosmith, classic rock, covers, current events, live albums, outtakes
‘This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles...’
For my entry in the macabre post of the month sweepstakes, it was 40 years ago tonight that Charles Manson sent four of his followers to Cielo Drive in Los Angeles to commit the gruesome murders that were supposed to lay the groundwork for his vision of Helter Skelter.
As Manson interpreted it, Helter Skelter would be an apocalyptic war that would arise from tension over racial relations between blacks and whites. In his courtroom testimony, prosecution witness and Family hanger-on Paul Watkins explained how it would happen: “There would be some atrocious murders; that some of the spades from Watts would come up into the Bel-Air and Beverly Hills districts and just really wipe some people out, just cut bodies up and smear blood and write things on the wall in blood.
“So, in retaliation,” Watkins continued, “this would scare; in other words, all the other white people would be afraid that this would happen to them, so out of their fear they would go into the ghetto and just start shooting black people like crazy.”
The resultant rampage by frightened whites would be exploited by militant blacks to provoke a war of mutual near-extermination between racist and non-racist whites over the treatment of blacks. The militants would arise to finish off the few whites that had survived.
In this holocaust the members of Manson’s Family would have little to fear; they would wait out the war in a secret city underneath California’s Death Valley. As the sole remaining whites, they would emerge from underground to rule the now-satisfied blacks, who, as the vision went, would be incapable of running the world.
When you’re discussing how Manson managed to twist the Beatles’ lyrics into these bizarre ideas, your guess is as good as mine. We’re obviously not dealing with a rational mind. According to Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor on the Manson case and author of the book “Helter Skelter,” Manson believed that the lyrics “When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide / Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride” was an obvious reference to the Family's emergence from “the Bottomless Pit” – the underground hideaway. Manson also twisted “Helter Skelter... She's coming down fast” to mean that race war was imminent.
Of course, the Beatles were shocked to learn of Manson's interpretation of their lyrics. As Ringo Starr would later say, all the Beatles ever stood for was peace, love, and harmony.
Helter Skelter.mp3 ~
The BeatlesHelter Skelter (take 2).mp3 ~
The BeatlesHelter Skelter (live).mp3 ~
U2 Helter Skelter.mp3 ~
AerosmithHelter Skelter.mp3 ~
Motley CrueHelter Skelter (live).mp3 ~
Motley CrueMy Monkey (demo).mp3 ~
Marilyn MansonHelter Skelter.mp3 ~
Henhouse ProwlersHelter Skelter (Dizmaster remix).mp3 ~
Sam Punk~~~~~
By the way, if you haven't read
"Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi, it's a fascinating and very readable account of the events leading up to the Tate/LaBianca murders and the subsequent trial. I fully recommend it to you.
Also, if you're wondering, the bottom picture is an actual
Helter Skelter.
Labels: alt.country, Beatles, classic rock, covers, glam, industrial, live albums, metal, outtakes, remix
You Say You Want A Revolution...
Got something tonight that I just read about yesterday and had the good fortune to find in my inbox today.
A supposedly unreleased Beatles track, “Revolution 1 (Take 20),” surfaced a couple of weeks ago, having been leaked from source(s) unknown. So I’m a little late, but better late than never. But if I’m only just now hearing this, maybe a few of you are, too.
Anyway, this is a 10-minute version of
The White Album’s “Revolution 1,” which, according to
Rolling Stone, “makes it clear why seemingly unrelated ‘Revolution 1’ and the maniacal ‘Revolution 9’ sound collage share the same name.”
The ultimate source of the recording seems to be a mystery: “According to Mark Lewisohn’s book The Beatles: Recording Sessions, only two copies of the take were made when recording the song was completed on June 4, 1968,” the
Rolling Stone article continues. “One copy left the studio with Lennon that day, and the other remained behind. It’s unclear which copy appears on the bootleg, nor how the
Revolution (my note: refers to an upcoming, Europe-only bootleg
Revolution: Take… Your Knickers Off) makers even acquired it.”
Richie Unterberger, author of The Unreleased Beatles, speculated on the possibility of someone lifting the recording from Lennon’s Dakota apartment. “Who knows if it was someone rummaging through Yoko's stuff in an unauthorized capacity,” he said. “But it's possible that she still had that tape.”
Naturally, this seeming new recording has brought out the doubters. Here are a couple of comments I read in some forums discussing the track:
-The Lennon ‘knickers’ dialogue is not John Lennon speaking, rather a sped up imitator placed to give the whole thing a semblance of plausibility. The actual music is the White Album track gutted, looped + dubbed by obvious use of digital drop in plus samples.
-Rumor is that it was leaked by Paul, trying to convince other Beatles (families) to release [the] album called Long Long Long.
-I'm not convinced. Seems too easy to construct an out-fake. I'd be quite happy to be wrong, though.
My guess is that it’s a real outtake, but who am I to say? Give it a listen and see what you think.
Revolution 1 (Take 20).mp3 Labels: Beatles, classic rock, outtakes
A Stripped Companion
My friends, this is my
FIVE HUNDREDTH POST.
As such, I thought it might be appropriate to dig around the back corners of my hard drive and see if I could find something kind of special to mark the occasion.
What I came up with is a Rolling Stones boot, known as the
Stripped Companion. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that
Stripped was the Stones’ 1995 acoustic live album. This unofficial “companion” album is a compilation of outtakes, “B” sides, and a couple of other miscellaneous unplugged tracks, all from the 1993-1995 era. A listener review written on
Bootleg Zone called the
Companion disk “Amazing,” and said, “This is what boots should always do: Surpass the original.”
Recording info:1-6: Toshiba-Studio sessions: Tokyo. March 3-5, 1995
7: Backstage rehearsals, Olympia, Paris. July 3, 1995
8: Paradiso, Amsterdam. May 26, 1995
9-10: Brixton Academy, London. July 19, 1995
11-13: Paradiso, Amsterdam. May 27, 1995
14-15: Brixton Academy, London. July 19, 1995
1.
Honest I Do.mp3 2.
Let’s Spend the Night Together.mp3 3.
No Expectations.mp3 4.
Beast of Burden.mp3 5.
Memory Motel.mp3 6.
Let It Bleed.mp3 7.
Tumbling Dice.mp3 8.
Gimme Shelter.mp3 9.
Live With Me.mp3 10.
Black Limousine.mp3 11.
All Down the Line.mp3 12.
Dead Flowers.mp3 13.
Shine a Light.mp3 14.
Sweet Virginia.mp3 15.
Rip This Joint.mp3Labels: live music, outtakes, Rolling Stones, unplugged
Thanksgiving and Hendrix's Birthday. All at once.
To those of you who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving. To the rest of you, today is Jimi Hendrix’s birthday, so you, too, should join in the party.
Had Hendrix lived, he would have been 66 years old today. Hard to imagine what the flamboyant guitar god would be doing now. Would he have mellowed into an elder bluesman? Or would he have become a nonstop touring nostalgia act? Sadly, we’ll never know.
To mark Jimi’s birthday, I dug out a box set released in 1990 on what would have been his 48th birthday. It’s called
Lifelines: The Jimi Hendrix Story. I skipped this back when I was doing the “Saturday Boxing” series because of the way this collection was put together.
Over the 1988 Labor Day weekend, the Westwood One Radio Network aired a program called “Jimi Hendrix – Live & Unreleased,” hosted by Bruce Gary. This
Lifelines collection is from that program and includes excerpts from several interviews with Hendrix. To me, the dialogue was annoying, interrupting the flow of some great music. As such, I’ve only listened to the entire thing once or twice, and I decided to skip it when I posted selections from my box sets.
When I was thinking about posting something for Hendrix’s birthday, I thought back to this set. I gave it another listen and decided that not only is the music great, but it’s interesting
now to hear Jimi’s thoughts. The dialogue also provides you some information about the tracks you might not otherwise have known.
With that in mind, here are a few tracks from
Lifelines: The Jimi Hendrix Story, dialogue and all. I’ve also included the liner notes for each track.
I’m a Man (live).mp3 ~ with Curtis Knight and the Squires
Recorded live in Hackensack, NJ, in December 1965. One of the earliest examples of Hendrix singing in front of a band, this Bo Diddley classic demonstrates Jimi’s blues and R&B roots – as well as how his guitar playing was already becoming quite stylized.
Drivin’ South.mp3 Recorded in the BBC’s London studios on Oct. 17, 1967, this may well be the guitar showpiece of this collection. Jimi used to perform this in the early days with Curtis Knight, but he never released his own version.
Voodoo Child (Slight Return).mp3 The original version appeared on 1968’s Electric Ladyland album. This alternate take is take four of eight takes recorded at The Record Plant in New York on May 3, 1968. Of the eight takes of “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” take four (this one) was the longest run-through before the selected master take (number eight).
Angel (home demo).mp3 Recorded on Jimi’s portable tape deck in early 1968, while he was composing songs for the Electric Ladyland project. “Angel” wasn’t recorded properly until 1970, during sessions for what would become The Cry of Love. A very intimate glimpse into Jimi’s songwriting process.
Send My Love to Linda.mp3 Recorded at The Record Plant in New York in August 1970, this comes from one of Jimi’s last recording sessions.
I Don’t Live Today (live).mp3 Recorded live at the Los Angeles Forum – Apr. 26, 1969
[No dialogue in this track.]
Labels: classic rock, demos, guitar heroes, holiday, live albums, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 12)
Well my friends, here we are at long last. The final chapter of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
When I kicked this off, I had intended to post one part per week. That was almost four months ago to the day. Well, I came close. I doubt I’ll undertake again anything of this magnitude; it stopped being fun after the first few weeks! Judging from the hits I get for these posts, though, I think most of you liked it and I do appreciate you checking it out.
Fittingly enough, these last 10 songs come from some of the last stuff Zeppelin would do: The first three tracks, recorded in May 1978 at Clearwell Castle in England, are early rehearsals for
In Through the Out Door. The remaining tracks were recorded in April and May 1980 at the Rainbow and the New Victoria Theatres in London, just prior to the band kicking off its European tour. That tour started June 17 in Dortmund, Germany; three months later, John Bonham would tragically die, effectively bringing to an end one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands to ever exist.
The only real stand out here is a song called “Fire,” the first track. I couldn’t find any information about this song, where it came from, or what the story is behind it. It could be a cover, but I don’t immediately recognize it. Of the other tracks, there is nothing really special, other than the chance to hear Led Zeppelin together one final time.
Per usual, I’ve posted the individual songs and also Zipped them all up for you. I’ve also provided links to the 11 previous posts. Of those previous posts, I know the individual song links are still active, but I’m not sure about the RapidShare links – they expire after 30 days if they’re not used. Let me know if you come across something you can’t live without and the link is dead.
Fire.mp3 Carouselambra.mp3 Carouselambra.mp3 Carouselambra.mp3 White Summer.mp3 White Summer/Black Mountain Side.mp3 Kashmir.mp3 Achilles Last Stand.mp3 Achilles Last Stand.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 Unzip it all
here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 11 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 10 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 9 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 8 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 7 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 6 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 5 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 4 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 3 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 2 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 1Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
"Carnival of Light" May See Light
So.
Word is Paul McCartney is thinking of issuing a track considered the Holy Grail of unreleased Beatles tracks.
According to various reports, Sir Paul is mulling over releasing a 14-minute piece of improvisation called “Carnival of Light,” which the Beatles recorded in 1967 during the overdubbing sessions for “Penny Lane.” The actual recording has long been considered a Beatles “myth,” but McCartney confirmed in an interview the recording is real. “It does exist,” he says on a BBC Radio 4 program to be broadcast Thursday.
McCartney told program host John Wilson that he still has a master tape of the song and he suspects that “the time has come for it to get its moment.” “Carnival of Light” was created for The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, an event held at London’s Roundhouse Theatre on Jan. 28 and Feb. 4, 1967.
“I said all I want you to do is just wander around all the stuff, bang it, shout, play it, it doesn't need to make any sense,” McCartney told Wilson about the track's origin. “Hit a drum then wander on to the piano, hit a few notes, just wander around. So that's what we did and then put a bit of an echo on it. It's very free.”
In order for Carnival of Light to be released, McCartney would have to get the agreement of Ringo Starr and the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison. According to the BBC, McCartney had wanted to include the track on The Beatles’
Anthology compilations in the mid-1990s, but the rest of the band vetoed the idea.
I searched around to see what I could find and came up with what is supposed to be a snippet (one minute) of the track. There is absolutely no way I can verify if this is really part of “Carnival of Light” or not. What you’ll hear is plain old-fashioned cacophony. I’ll withhold final judgment until Macca authorizes the full release. But if the whole thing sounds like this, I’m inclined to agree with what McCartney said was the reaction of the other Beatles: “The guys didn't like the idea, like ‘this is rubbish.’”
Carnival of Light (partial).mp3Labels: classic rock, outtakes, rereleases
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 11)
I know, I know – I’m a lazy sod and it’s been another two weeks since the last installment of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks. I’d like to think that the gaps would keep people checking in to see if I’ve posted the latest chapter, but things don’t seem to work that way in the blogosphere.
But here we are, with the penultimate disk, this one covering a little of
Presence and a lot of
In Through the Out Door. Sessions for both of these albums took place during tumultuous times in the Zeppelin camp. Recording for
Presence started while Robert Plant was recovering from injuries sustained in a 1975 car accident. Plant was convalescing in Malibu, Calif., and writing lyrics when Jimmy Page joined him. The two fleshed out the music Plant was working on, before being joined by John Paul Jones and John Bonham at SIR Studios in Hollywood for rehearsals. The album would ultimately be recorded at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany.
The first three tracks of today’s post are from the sessions in Hollywood.
By late 1978, when Zeppelin set about recording
In Through the Out Door, the band had divided into two camps: Jones and Plant, who were actually trying to record an album; and Page and Bonham, who were both reportedly battling addictions. Often Plant and Jones would record during the day and Page and Bonham would show up at night to record their parts.
In Through the Out Door is the only Zeppelin album with original compositions (“South Bound Suarez” and “All My Love”) that Jimmy Page had no part in writing. The resulting album was much more keyboard-oriented than any of the previous Led Zeppelin disks.
These sessions took place during November and December 1978 at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. Some things to note: This version of “All My Love” has an alternate ending with a “twangy” guitar solo and additional vocals. Plant also did all of the vocals in one take, so, other than the ending, this is the same version as on
In Through the Out Door.
The title of “South Bound Suarez” seems to be a point of contention among Led Zeppelin fans. Some think the title contains a typographical error; it is thought by some that “suarez” is a misspelling of the French word for an evening party,
soirée. More likely, though, is that it’s just a play on words, as the lyrics reference “flying down” (southbound), being happy to have his feet on the ground again, watching a woman walk and talk, heavy rhythm, and “con carne,” a Spanish dish prepared with beef.
Since there are only 14 songs on this disk, I posted them all, but also Zipped them all up for you. And I’ll try to get to the final disk sometime before Christmas!
1.
Royal Orleans.mp3 2.
Tea for One (aka Hootchie Cootchie version.mp3 3.
Don’t Start Me Talking / Blues Medley / All My Lovin’.mp3 4.
Carouselambra (inst).mp3 5.
unknown song (intro only).mp3 6.
Wearing and Tearing.mp3 7.
Fool in the Rain.mp3 8.
Hot Dog.mp3 9.
In the Evening.mp3 10.
South Bound Suarez.mp3 11.
Darlene.mp3 12.
Fool in the Rain.mp3 13.
Carouselambra.mp3 14.
All My Love.mp3 Unzip it
here.
Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 9)
Welcome to the Columbus Day weekend installment of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
Back to the entire band with this post: Music dating from the January and February 1974
Physical Graffiti sessions. As I mentioned in
Zep post number eight, recording for
Physical Graffiti began in November 1973. However, according to Dave Marsh’s “The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin,” John Paul Jones “had wanted to quit the band and take up a position as choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral.” Ultimately Jones would return after the holidays and the band would reconvene in January at Headley Grange Studios.
At Headley Grange, the band recorded eight new songs. Robert Plant later referred to these eight tracks as “the belters.” “We got eight tracks off,” Plant said, “and a lot of them were really raunchy. We did some real belters with live vocals, off-the-wall stuff that turned out really nice.”
The decision to record at the informal surroundings of Headley Grange provided an opportunity for Zeppelin to improvise and develop material along the way. Plant is quoted in Marsh’s book as saying, “Some of the tracks we assembled in our...way of running through a track and realizing before we knew it that we had stumbled on something completely different.”
You’ll notice this in the song titled “In the Morning,” which would evolve into “In the Light.” Some other notes: Check out track 7, which is mainly studio chatter and noodling, but at about the 1:01 mark, Bonzo plays around with starting “Trampled Underfoot” with the “Rock and Roll” intro. Zeppelin also exeriment with a version (track 11) of the song that’s much funkier than what would finally appear on the album.
This disk (number nine of 12 if you’re keeping score) is right up there with the best of what I’ve posted so far. With that in mind, I’ve pulled more songs to post, but, for your listening convenience, I’ve also zipped up the whole thing for you.
Track List1.
The Wanton Song.mp3 2. The Wanton Song
3. Take Me Home
4.
Take Me Home.mp3 5.
In the Morning.mp36. Trampled Under Foot
7.
Trampled Under Foot.mp38-10. Trampled Under Foot
11.
Trampled Under Foot.mp312-14. Trampled Under Foot
15. In The Light
16. Sick Again
17. The Rover
18. untitled instrumental
19-25. In My Time of Dying
26.
The Wanton Song.mp3 (w/count-in)
27.
Trampled Underfoot.mp3 (w/long ending)
Unzip it all
hereLabels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 8)
I suppose this would be the “oops-two-weeks-have-slid-by-since-the-last-installment” of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks. Apparently 12 parts of any one thing is too much for me to stay on top of.
Much like
Part 7, this is all Jimmy Page. And, like the recordings Page did for Lucifer Rising, these tracks were recorded during October – November 1973 at Boleskine House in Loch Ness, Scotland, and at Headley Grange Studios in Hampshire, England, during November 1973 and January – February 1974. This is also the time when Zeppelin began recording
Physical Graffiti.
As these sessions began, the band almost lost John Paul Jones. According to Dave Marsh’s “The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin,” Jones “had wanted to quit the band and take up a position as choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral.” Fortunately, Jones was convinced all he needed was a break, and he returned after the holidays.
While there are 41 tracks in this set, there are only three different songs. The first one, “untitled instrumental,” sounds like the same type of thing Page was working on for Lucifer Rising. Listening to it, though, it also sounded like I was picking up some “Stairway to Heaven”-type chords. But that may have been my imagination.
The 12 short “Ten Years Gone” takes are all mostly recognizable as the song that would appear in its final form on Side 3 of
Physical Graffiti. This song may have been a reworking of an unreleased Zeppelin song called “Swan Song,” according to Dave Marsh.
The final 27 tracks are something called “Midnight Moonlight.” This track may have also started life as “Swan Song.” (Or may have grown out of whatever else Page was working on under that title.) Zeppelin never recorded this song, although a decade later, Page would record it while he was a member of The Firm. I don’t have a recorded version, but you can see a live version
here.
Once again, I’ve pulled a couple of the more interesting tracks, and then zipped the rest up for you.
Track1: untitled instrumental
Tracks 2-13: Ten Years Gone
Tracks 14-41: Midnight Moonlight
1.
untitled instrumental.mp3 13.
Ten Years Gone.mp3 14.
Midnight Moonlight.mp3 36.
Midnight Moonlight.mp3 41.
Midnight Moonlight.mp3 Unzip it all
here.
Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 7)
Consider this the Jimmy Page edition of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
There’s nothing on these recordings but Page, and while there are a couple of tracks with piano or keyboard in the background, primarily you’ve got the erstwhile Zeppelin axe-meister strumming away on an acoustic guitar.
The notes that came with the recordings indicate that the first three tracks, all titled “Lucifer Rising,” were recorded at Boleskine House, in Loch Ness, Scotland, during October and November 1973. The remaining 28 “untitled instrumentals” were recorded either in 1971 at Jimmy Page's home studio in the U.K., or at Headley Grange Studios during November 1973.
Here’s some additional information I found about the origin of the Lucifer Rising tracks: For a one-year period, starting in mid-1973, Page worked on the soundtrack of a film called Lucifer Rising. The film's director, Kenneth Anger, premiered the initial film rushes (accompanied by Page's score) at a movie theater in Los Angeles during September 1976.
Anger, who had a falling-out with Page before the film's completion, eventually commissioned a new soundtrack from an early protégé with whom he'd reconciled, Bobby Beausoleil. (You may recognize Beausoleil as also being one of Charles Manson’s protégés.) It was Beausoleil’s soundtrack that appeared in the commercially released version of the film. An audio recording from Page's score was later released as a bootleg titled
Solo Performances.
In the early 1980’s, Anger sold one of the early prints to a collector, who proceeded to copyright both the film and soundtrack. He had the audio from the soundtrack transferred and digitally enhanced before releasing it on his own Boleskine House Records label. The 23 minutes of audio was split in two, and pressed onto a clear blue vinyl 12-inch 45 RPM EP, in an edition of 1,000 copies.
The remaining tracks, may have come from 1971, as many of them bring to mind the riffs from The Rain Song, which was released in 1973 on
Houses of the Holy.
Bottom line – much of this is only going to appeal to the serious Zeppelin die-hards. I’m a huge fan and even I got a little tired of hearing Page just riffing on the guitar. No pyrotechnics here. Per usual, I’ve pulled a couple of the more interesting tracks, and then zipped the rest up for you.
Tracks 1-3: Lucifer Rising
Tracks 4-32: untitled instrumentals
1.
Lucifer Rising.mp3 9.
untitled instrumental.mp3 10.
untitled instrumental.mp3 22.
untitled instrumental.mp3 30.
untitled instrumental.mp3 32.
untitled instrumental.mp3 Unzip ‘em all right
here.
Labels: classic rock, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 6)
At long last, it’s the long-delayed, finally got home, waiting on Ike to flatten Miami edition of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
Of the disks I’ve posted so far, this sixth disk is the most fun to listen to. Zeppelin sounds like a garage band, running through loose versions of old fifties songs and trying out songs that would appear on
Physical Graffiti.
According to the notes that came with these files, these tracks come from two different sound checks: 1-4 were recorded at the Gaumont Theatre in Southampton, England, on Jan. 21 1973. The note on the remaining tracks is unclear. It says, “Sound check, unknown venue May 3 '73 - not Chicago Auditorium, Chicago, Ill. July 6 '73.” If this means the recordings come from May 3, that would have been the day before Zep’s North American tour started at Fulton County Arena in Atlanta, so they may have been recorded there.
This 1973 tour was Zeppelin’s biggest to date, ultimately grossing more than $4 million. At the same time, the marathon performances were draining to the band, as Jimmy Page noted in a 1975 interview with William Burroughs for
Crawdaddy magazine: [W]e were playing [sets] for three hours solid, and physically that was a real...I mean, when I came back from the last tour I didn't know where I was,” he said. “I didn't even know where I was going. We ended up in New York and the only thing that I could relate to was the instrument onstage. I just couldn't...I was just totally and completely spaced out.”
Like usual, I’ve pulled some of the more interesting tracks, and then zipped the whole thing up for you.
Complete Track List:1. Drums and Mellotron Tuning/Love Me
2. Frankfurt Special
3.
King Creole.mp3 4. Love Me (reprise)
5.
Sugar Baby (aka Strawberry Jam).mp3 6-7. Sugar Baby (aka Strawberry Jam)
8. The Wanton Song
9-12. The Rover
13-16. Night Flight
17.
School Days.mp3 18.
Nadine.mp3 19.
Round and Round.mp3 20.
Move On Down the Line.mp3 21.
Please Don’t Tease.mp3 22-23. Move It
24. Dynamite
25.
Shakin’ All Over.mp3 26. Hungry For Love
27. I'll Never Get Over You
28.
Reelin’ and Rockin’.mp329. Drums and Mellotron Tuning
Unzip it all hereLabels: guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 5)
We’ve got today the Tropical Storm Fay edition of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
This is a particularly different group of recordings. While I was listening to these tracks, something came to light that I had not known before. Apparently, during the
Houses of the Holy sessions in 1972, Page and Plant made some recordings with the Bombay Symphony Orchestra.
The first 18 tracks of today’s post are from those sessions, which were never officially released. The songs are heavy with tabla drums and sitars. When I listened to them for the first time, I thought someone had pranked me and those were actually outtakes from the
No Quarter album. It turned out the recordings were never used because Page was unhappy with the results. He reportedly complained that the orchestra didn't keep time in the Western style and some of them drank a lot.
What is interesting about these takes is the markedly different version of “Friends.” A lot of the takes are just the orchestra noodling around, trying to get the song down. You can also hear a lot of back and forth in Hindi. But the introduction of an Indian symphony changes the song in a dramatic way.
Page and Plant also worked on a version of “Four Sticks” with the orchestra. There is a take here that includes Plant’s vocals.
Of the remaining tracks, the seven versions of “No Quarter” come from June 1972 sessions at Electric Lady studios in New York, where Zeppelin went to complete recording the
Houses of the Holy album. Take a listen to track 26 and you can hear some slight differences from what would be the final version of the song.
“Walter’s Walk” was recorded May 1972 at Stargroves in England. It remained unreleased until 1982 when it was included on
Coda. The date of Plant’s performance on the song is debatable, according to Dave Lewis’ The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin. Plant's tone in this track is far more reminiscent of
In Through the Out Door than the rest of the material recorded during the
Houses of the Holy era, Lewis says. He further suggests Plant's vocals may have been recorded at Jimmy Page's Sol Studios in 1982. It is quite possible that the song existed only as a basic backing track until
Coda was assembled.
Again, because of the number of tracks and the amount of just tuning up and fooling around, I’ve posted just a few individual songs then made the entire disk available via the magic of zip.
Complete Track List:1-11. Friends
12. Four Sticks
13-14. Friends
15.
Friends.mp3 16. Four Sticks (Take 1)
17.
Four Sticks (take 2).mp3 18. Four Sticks (Take 3)
19.
Walter’s Walk.mp3 20-25. No Quarter
26.
No Quarter.mp3 Unzip the whole thing
hereLabels: guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 4)
On with the Olympic edition of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
Of the four disks posted so far, this is right up there with the best. There are limited “untitled instrumentals,” and you get to hear the band working through early versions of some classics. The versions of “Stairway to Heaven” alone are worth the price of admission: Listen close and you can hear alternate lyrics as Zeppelin puts the song together. Classic stuff.
These tracks all come from sessions at Headley Grange Studios in England, during January and February 1971, while Zeppelin was recording the fourth album. These songs are all so well known they really need no introduction or additional information. I did, however, come across some interesting trivia about the album itself:
• The painting on the front of the album, showing an old man carrying a bundle of sticks, was supposedly purchased by a Led Zeppelin roadie from a junk shop in Reading, Berkshire, (although Jimmy Page has said it was actually Robert Plant who bought it). The painting was affixed to the internal, papered wall of a partly demolished house for the photograph to be taken.
• At one time, Led Zeppelin had considered releasing the fourth album as four EPs, but because of various delays, they ultimately decided to release the single album.
Stairway to Heaven.mp3 untitled instrumental.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 No Quarter.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 untitled instrumental.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 The Battle of Evermore.mp3 When the Levee Breaks.mp3 Four Sticks.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 UnZip 'em all
here.
Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Those of you familiar with the Exile session bootlegs know that many of the tracks are either basic, rough tracks or just instrumentals. For the re-release Jagger added vocals to some tracks. He mentioned to Larry King (part one of the interview is here) that he had to write lyrics for a couple of the songs, but didn’t say which ones. 
I like that some of the leftovers from the Exile sessions are finally seeing commercial release. I’m just not sure if I like that they’ve basically been recreated. Like when I used to go see a historical building and find out the only thing original is a scrap of wallpaper encased behind glass and hanging on the wall of a “historically accurate” recreation. These 10 “new” tracks are at least as good as anything the Stones have released recently, but I do get the feeling I’m listening to a historic recreation, rather than to tracks that have just been cleaned up for release. 
