Bands/artists who disown their own album(s)

I think this thread reinforces that much of the time, artists are not the best judge of their own work.

 

Co-producer Stanley "Bear" Owsley: "It was made from totally screwed-up master tapes... We spent months on it, almost overdubbing the entire multitrack tape in the studio. There was never any possibility to salvage any of it, and the movie was a total disaster as well as the album. The performances sucked, and no one could change that."

But Phil Lesh overrode him and picked out a double-album of songs that mostly hadn't been on albums before, covers and new songs - some of them things that had slipped through the cracks on the last couple live albums. Unfortunately, he also decided to leave out any of the jams that had made those shows notable! So this record of leftovers came out in '76 to massive disapproval.

Even Garcia admitted, "None of us liked it. I'm sure even Phil and Owsley didn't like it that much ... I think part of it was that we were not working, and we didn't have anything else to deliver." [Deadessays]

 

The most obvious one I can think of is Billy Joel disowning Attila.
I'm not sure he has done the same for The Hassles LPs or for the badly-mastered 1st solo LP Cold Spring Harbor, but he has almost always had a well-known disdain for Attila. If he didn't, he would have reissued it properly by now. I'm guessing the same goes for The Hassles' discography.

I know that for a time The Who disowned My Generation the debut album (This had been mentioned in Richard Barnes' book The Who Maximum R&B) presumably because their sound and style had changed much just during the making of that record, and by the time they got to A Quick One they dropped the R&B style and had also started phasing out the Mod image.

 

In his autobio, Phil Lesh dismissed it as "abysmal." I don't think it's their best live album by a long shot, but I find it quite listenable (except for their total trashing of Marty Robbins' classic "El Paso"). It's a good one for the people who like the Dead's songs but don't care for the long jams.

 

Even the liner notes on the reissue of them as a double set begin with "The music on these 2 records is not very good." I understand Gregg's dislike for them since the band was not allowed much creative control, but I find them enjoyable.

 

I think Joe Jackson disowned Beat Crazy if I'm not mistaken. Didn't they print some sort of disclaimer on the jacket?

 

One unmentioned and is perhaps not so well-known is Scott Walker having disowned his 1969 soundtrack Scott: Scott Walker Sings Songs From His TV Series and his 1970s albums ‘Til the Band Comes In, The Moviegoer, Any Day Now, , Stretch and We Had It All. With the exception of ‘Til the Band Comes In, which Walker may have become more generous toward in the past decade, Scott has completely ignored those albums since he reunited with the Walker Brothers in the late 1970s.

 

Julian Cope hates St Julian, which is a fabulous lp, one of only two things by him I own

 

U2 - Pop. They were never happy with it and later reworked some of the tracks for a compilation. Despite that, it was a lot better than the albums they've come up with in recent years.

 

Daryl Hall used to say how much he detested War Babies, there's even an old story that he humiliated someone in the late 70's who asked him to sign it. But he might have softened somewhat, he did agree to perform one song with Todd. His comments on the Rhino collection are very measured and very vanilla--no hate, but no compliments.

 

10 years later... of course they are part of the catalog

 

Gary Louris - Jayhawks - Mockingbird Time

 

I hate it when artists do this. They all need to learn from Alanis on this one. You can make a clear distinction between works, but have some respect for it. And for the fans who like that material. Who bought it. Nobody wants to be made to feel like a sucker.

 

That would be odd. He included Mad at You and the title-track on his latest compilation (he picked the tracklist).

 

That was about his mixed feelings on rock & roll, not about the album. He's played less of it than the first two, but the title track and "One on One" were both done during the reunion (as well they should've been).

 

Judas Priest's first album, kind of understandable, it's more embryonic than full-on

As stated before, 1st 3 Kraftwerk albums which is a true shame

 

Pink Floyd disowned 'Atom Heart Mother'.

The Who disowned 'It's Hard'(with the exception of the song 'Eminence Front').

The Rolling Stones disowned 'Their Satanic Majesties Request'.

 

Cyndi Lauper calls her third album "A Night to Forget".

Mariah Carey doesn't perform any material from Glitter.

 

George Harrison seems to disown Sgt. Pepper's based on one his Anthology interviews.

 

I know he and Mark have fallen out again, where has he dismissed MTime? Has he dismissed Ready For The Flood also?

 

Gary Louris on the Jayhawks' new post-Mark Olson reissues »

In 2011, the lineup of Louris, Olson, Perlman, O'Reagan, and Grotberg reunited for a slew of shows and a new record, Mockingbird Time. Fans were ecstatic, but one man was not: Gary Louris.

"I felt burned out after that last time, and I did not like that record at all," he says. "It takes away from our catalog."

 

The record Cope has most vehemently disowned is not Saint Julian but the follow-up My Nation Underground.

Saint Julian had been something of a commercial success, falling just short of the Billboard Top 100 and the UK Top Ten, with a hit single in ‘World Shut Your Mouth’ (whose relationship with the 1984 album of the same name I do not understand) reaching #19 in the UK, #84 in the States and #50 here in Australia (though I never heard it on the radio and was not impressed by it on YouTube). For My Nation Underground Island were no doubt hoping for a major breakthrough in the charts, and the record was thus made as state-of-the-art funk pop, but it failed to do nearly as well as Saint Julian had (#42 UK and #155 Billboard), and Cope felt that it was simply not the album he wanted, saying of My Nation Underground in a later interview:

 

Though he didn't exactly disown the record, J Mascis has stated that "Bug" is his least favorite Dinosaur Jr album (us fans like it a lot) and yet he and the reunited band recorded the entire album as "Bug Live at the 9:30 Club" and it's killer stuff! Great DVD, great vinyl!

 

I think thats maybe more a case of the fans disowning it.

 

Scott Walker is embarrassed by some of the work he did in the early 70s and while I appreciate such an honest artist I still wish he would make them available. He can sing any song and it's well worth a listen.