'Improving' an album's tracklist?

I have a similar Pink Floyd mix I made to Lazenby's except I call mine The Real Relics. It has everything that's on The Early Singles disc from the Shine On box, plus the french EP version of Interstellar, Nick's Boogie from the London '66 - '67 EP, Scream Thy Last Scream and Vegetable Man, Biding My Time from Relics, Embryo from Works and one of the radio ads for Relics.

Genesis - Duke

Replace Misunderstanding, Alone Tonight and Please Don't Ask with Evidence of Autumn and Open Door. This basically turns Duke into an entirely Prog album.

The Beach Boys - Friends

Replace Transcendental Meditation with I Went to Sleep, A Time to Live in Dreams and Walk On By.

 

Beck - Mutations

Drop “Cancelled Check”. Replace with “Electric Music and the Summer People”.

Drop “Sing it Again”. Replace with “Runners Dial Zero”.

Now it's even better.

"Cold Brains" 3:41
"Nobody's Fault but My Own" 5:02
"Lazy Flies" 3:44
"Electric Music and the Summer People" 3:35
"We Live Again" 3:05
"Tropicalia" 3:20
"Dead Melodies" 2:36
"Bottle of Blues" 4:56
"O Maria" 3:59
"Runners Dial Zero" 4:06
"Static” 4:20
( “Diamond Bollocks” 6:02)

 

Yes, the Dennis tracks and the unreleased full version of Til I Die with the additional vibraphone interludes are absolute musts. I've always loved Surf's Up but there was more potential for it. I decided to come up with my own tracklisting based on the recommended 20 minute side limitations of vinyl. Cut out Don't Go Near The Water (a poor opener IMO), Take A Load Off Your Feet (better in its "Landlocked" context) and Student Demonstration Time (garbage), removed the far too Dylan-esque Lookin' At Tomorrow and the short Til I Die to make way for the extended Til I Die. I think it is thematically much better.

1. Sound Of Free
2. Disney Girls
3. Long Promised Road
4. Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again
5. 4th Of July

6. Feel Flows
7. A Day In The Life Of A Tree
8. Til I Die (7 minute version)
9. Surf's Up

 

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy (slightly tweaked)

The Song Remains the Same
Over the Hills and Far Away
Dancing Days
Rain song
Houses of the Holy
The Rover
No Quarter
The Ocean

 

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (1974 tracks)

Custard Pie
In My Time Of Dying
Trampled Underfoot
Kashmir
In The Light
Ten Years Gone
The Wanton Song
Sick Again

 

Led Zeppelin - Coda Remade

Baby Come On Home
Travelling Riverside Blues
White Summer / Black Mountain Side
We're Gonna Groove
Poor Tom
Bron-Yr-Aur
Hey Hey What Can I Do
Night Flight
Boogie with Stu
Down By The Seaside
Black Country Woman

 

Rubber Soul
Out - What Goes On
In - We Can Work It Out (What Goes On to the b-side of DT)
= perfect album

 

Let It Bleed: Replace "Country Honk" with "Honky Tonk Women."

White Album: Replace "Revolution 1" with the "Revolution" single.

 

Bob Dylan - Infidels

1. Jokerman
2. License to Kill
3. Man of Peace
4. Neighborhood Bully
5. Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight
6. Blind Willie McTell
7. Sweetheart Like You
8. I and I
9. Foot of Pride

 

Imagine that Fool's Day, Under the Westway and the Puritan were released on the Magic Whip instead of as non-album singles.

Blur - The Magic Whip
1. Lonesome Street
2. Fool's Day
3. Go Out
4. Ice Cream Man
5. Thought I Was a Spaceman
6. The Puritan
7. I Broadcast
8. My Terracotta Heart
9. There Are Too Many of Us
10. Ghost Ship
11. Under the Westway
12. Pyongyang
13. Mirrorball

Singles:
Go Out/Y'all Doomed
Under the Westway/Ong Ong
Lonesome Street/New World Towers

 

The Rolling Stones - Some Girls - replace Far Away Eyes with Everything's Turning To Gold or So Young

The Rolling Stones - Goats Head Soup - replace Can You Hear The Music with Criss Cross

 

Blue Oyster Cult - Spectres:
replace Celestial The Queen or Goin' Through The Motions with Night Flyer.

 

ABACAB - Genesis (like a fracking shot!)

Pick yer cover....


ABACAB
No reply at All
Me and Sarah Jane
Keep it Dark
Dodo/Lurker
Paperlate
You Might recall
Me and Virgil
Man on the corner
Like it or not

 

Would you put it 4th like My Wife, or in another slot?

 

4th

 

The Rolling Stones - Black & Blue - replace Cherry Oh Baby and Melody with Slave and Worried About You

The Rolling Stones - It's Only Rock 'N' Roll - replace Luxury with Drift Away

The Rolling Stones - Flowers - replace Let's Spend The Night Together, Ruby Tuesday and Lady Jane with Sad Day, What To Do, Who's Driving Your Plane? and Long, Long While.

 

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
1. Five Years
2. Soul Love
3. Moonage Daydream
4. Starman
5. It Ain't Easy
6. Velvet Goldmine
7. Lady Stardust

8. Star
9. Hang Onto Yourself
10. John, I'm Only Dancing
11. Ziggy Stardust
12. Suffragette City
13. All the Young Dudes
14. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide

 

Aftermath - Expanded Mono Edition
Disk 1: RCA studios, March 1966

- side 1
1. Paint It Black
2. Stupid Girl
3. Lady Jane
4. Under My Thumb
5. What To Do
6. Long Long While
- side 2
1. Flight 505
2. High And Dry
3. It's Not Easy
4. Out Of Time
5. I Am Waiting
6. Take It Or Leave It

Disk 2: RCA studios, December 1965

- side 3
1. 19th Nervous Breakdown
2. Sad Day
3. Mother's Little Helper
4. Think
5. Ride On, Baby
6. Sittin' On A Fence
- side 4
1. Doncha Bother Me
2. Goin' Home

 

I've been making custom edition Cassettes, MiniDisks and CDR's from the time I got my first cassette deck. It's always been a great interactive music hobby.

It's interesting that many of us do the same albums, I've tinkered with a lot of albums already listed on this thread:

- Beatles: rejigged track-listings with the non-LP singles knit-in
- Bee Gees: rejigged track-listings with the non-LP singles knit-in
- Who's Next/Lifehouse: hypothetical double-album
- Bob Dylan Infidels: hypothetical double-album
- Bob Dylan Self Portrait: hypothetical single-album
- Barrett-era Pink Floyd: combining the first album with singles and a few unreleased tracks
- Houses of the Holy: dropping D'yer-ker and The Crunge, adding the title track, The Rover and Black Country Woman
- The Clash: a complete overhaul of Sandinista! and Combat Rock.
- Black Market Clash: hypothetical LP gathering the Cost of Living EP and the non-LP 45's from after the first album.
- The Beach Boys SMiLE
- The Byrds: first four albums with non-LP singles and outtakes knit-in (and adios to David Crosby's version of Hey Joe).
- The Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo: Gram Parsons' vocals substituting for McGuinn's and a few outtakes added-in.
- Jimi Hendrix First Rays of the New Rising Sun... I've done lots of custom edition versions through the years.
- My Bloody Valentine Loveless: hypothetical double-LP version with Tremelo and Glider tracks knit-in, including full-length version of Glider.

...man, I could go on-and-0n with this...

 

Cheap Trick, Lap of Luxury:

out: "No Mercy" and "Space" (neither written by even a single member of CT)
In: "You want it" and "Through the night"

The result is a much more typical CT album that uses the band as its primary writers.
Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/user/122909551/playlist/3rzaTWdE7hB8XAgZmJWK7o

 

Definitely prefer The Rover to D'Yer Mak'Er but it sounds very different to the rest of the tracks on HotH.

 

Here's mine, a coulda/woulda/shoulda double-album...

Bob Dylan ~ Infidels

Jokerman
Someone’s Got A Hold Of My Heart
Neighborhood Bully
License To Kill

Foot Of Pride
Blind Willie McTell
Don’t Fall Apart On Me Tonight

Man Of Peace
Union Sundown
Lord Protect My Child
Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground

I And I
Tell Me
Sweetheart Like You
Death Is Not The End

 

I would take a masterpiece like Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland and make it even better (IMO) by replacing Noel Redding's Little Miss Strange with Somewhere to start side B.

Replace Easy Ride with Who Scared You on The Doors' The Soft Parade.

 

How about Street Legal?

As released in 1978:

Side A
Changing Of The Guards
New Pony
No Time To Think
Baby Stop Crying

Side B
Is Your Love In Vain?
Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
True Love Tends To Forget
We Better Talk This Over
Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)

My problem with this album is that it leads off with one of his best songs, followed by 3 of his weakest. My solution is to flip the songs following the leadoff track on each side, thus:

Side A
Changing Of The Guards
Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
True Love Tends To Forget
We Better Talk This Over
Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)

Side B
Is Your Love In Vain?
New Pony
No Time To Think
Baby Stop Crying

With this sequence, Side A becomes very strong, and Side B leads off with the last decent song on the album. After that...hey, knock yourself out, listen to as much as you can stand...

 

"Somewhere In England" - George Harrison


Side 1:

1. Blood From A Clone
2. Writings On The Wall
3. Flying Hour (1980 Edit/Mix)
4. Lay His Head
5. Unconsciousness Rules (Full Length Version)
6. Life Itself

Side 2:

1. Teardrops
2. That Which I Have Lost
3. Sat Singing
4. Tears Of The World
5. All Those Years Ago