'Lost songs' from major artists

What I'm looking for is original songs by legendary bands that are essentially lost to time. In other words, songs that were written, rehearsed and played live but no recordings are known to exist.

I'll start with three.

The Beatles - Pinwheel Twist.

I'm sure others can provide more details but this is an original Lennon/McCartney song that was on the list of songs Brian Epstein gave to George Martin to consider for their 1962 EMI audition. IIRC a vehicle for Pete Best to sing with Paul playing drums and derivitive of the Peppermint Twist. It sounds awful but I'd like to hear it all the same.

Brian Wilson - Sunflower Maiden. A Smile era collaboration with Van Dyke Parks not known to have been recorded. Supposedly Brian was going to teach it to Redwood. Not sure if we know much more about it than that.

Pink Floyd - She Was A Millionaire.

A Syd original recorded by the band during the Piper sessions. Was strong enough to be considered as a follow up single to See Emily Play (see my sig line) and remembered by Floyd co-manager Andrew King as one of Syd's best songs. The Piper recording only got as far as the backing track stage and no longer exists in any form. No demos, cover versions or printed copies of the lyrics are known to exist. King went on to say it was in waltz time.

During the Barrett LP sessions a loose instrumental "bar room" rehearsal was recorded with Syd on acoustic, Dave on bass, Rick piano and Jerry Shirley drums. Described by someone that heard it as a "jolly, tuneful, piece with a strong mid tempo melody" and even with the loose rehearsal one could tell it was a "corker of a song". The "I'm trying, to find you" end section of Opel served as the chorus and "she was a millionaire, they had some time to spare" is all that is known of the lyric.

 

How about ones like Carnival of Light that do exist?

 

Doesn't count. I'm looking for original songs where no known recording exists. I cheated a little with the Syd song since there is a loose instro jam of it (unbooted) but the vocal melody and lyrics are unknown.

 

If we're including solo artists, then there may be a dozen-or-so in the early Joni Mitchell repertoire that apparently never reached tape.

 

GREAT idea for a thread, btw.

 

The Byrds' repertoire provides many examples:

* Many unrecorded Gene Clark compositions, some of which have titles in the BMI (I think) database.
* "Words and Pictures" from the Mr Tambourine Man era - I'm not sure of the composer
* "The Flower Bomb Song" and "Circle of Minds" (?unrecorded and reputedly awful Crosby songs ca. Turn Turn Turn)
* "Milestones" (a cover of the Miles Davis song, recorded but lost since 1967)

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There are literally dozens of otherwise unrecorded original John Coltrane compositions that were lost in ABC vault fires in the 70s. If we want to be stricter and limit ourselves to songs that were never recorded in any form, there are several original songs of his that he never even bothered to record once, but played live many times (including "Thing in D Flat" and "Something Chinese") from around 1960 that survive, either in Trane's own hand or in manuscript transcriptions by others, notably the pianist and fan Zita Carno. Lewis Porter's book reproduces some of these.

 

What ABC vault fires? FireS (plural)??!??

 

I know this is stretching the definition of "major artist" considerably, but in mind Artful Dodger is quite "major" to the Power Pop scene of the 1970s. Just a fantastic band.

I snuck a tape recorder into a 1976 show of theirs in my hometown. My tape reveals three songs that the band never recorded studio versions of: "I Don't Need You at All," "Too Bad" and "Everything's Been Did."

When Artful Dodger did their first reunion show in 1991 after having broken up ten years earlier, they did a fantastic acoustic number entitled "Never a Day Goes By" that has also never been recorded.

I love this song so much that I made it a part of my own repertoire and have sung it for many years now.

If there were any justice in the world, Artful Dodger would be "major"!

 

There must be dozens of copyrighted compositions by Barry, Robin and/or Maurice Gibb for which no recording is known to exist, going back to at least 1964.

 

"Dogs in the Kitchen" by Elton John ...

Bernie Taupin's lyrics to this song appeared in the booklet that accompanied Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, but Elton evidently never set them to music.

 

Fascinating. I've heard of the Flower Bomb Song but not the others. Any additional info on the Miles cover and how it was lost would be appreciated.

 

Aren't there supposed to be a raft of early Lennon-McCartney tunes, for which Paul had the lyrics, which were thrown out by Jane during a mid-60's housecleaning? I'm thinking of titles like :

I fancy me chances
If tomorrow ever comes
Too bad about sorrows
Wake up in the morning (Because I know you love me so)
Won't You Please Say Goodbye

But I'm guessing these don't count, as we have snippets from the Get Back sessions.

There's a whole web site listing some additional tunes:

Keep Looking That Way
Looking Glass
That's my Woman
Years Roll Along
Winston's Walk

 

Given all the mythology surrounding its existence - and the fact that it still hasn't surfaced, despite being recovered following an interview with Mitch Mitchell - I would be tempted to lump Hendrix' Black Gold suite into this category....

- M.

 

Velvet Underground have a bunch of songs never properly recorded or finished.

Bowie kept a tight lid on outtakes after Ziggy.

Hendrix real MLK instrumental done at a show after his death never has any known recording.

Cobain may have some songs nobody knows about.

Dylan must have some songs that never made it to tape.

 

In 1970, Gram Parsons tried to record an album with Terry Melcher producing. They both were more interested in drinking and getting messed up, and the project was never completed. From the memory of the participants, the songs recorded were all covers, except for "Brass Buttons" and a GP original entitled "These Blues Have Made a N*gg*r Out of Me." The tapes are no longer in the A&M vault and no one knows their whereabouts. Based on the song title and his state of mind at the time, I'm guessing this lost Gram song is about as good as the Pinwheel Twist. We're probably not missing much.

Maggie, a brief clip of the Byrds performing Milestones does survive. Check out this clip, where the Milestones clip is attached to something purported to be the backing track of The Flower Bomb Song. Whatever this is, it definitely seems to be the Byrds. Can you place it?

 

Not sure about fires, but they tossed a lot of outtakes.

 

A selection of Gene Clark compositions:

All for Him
Along the Way
Bakersfield Train
Big City Girl
Chicken Bones
Doctor Doctor
Don't Let it Fall Through
The Emptiness
I'll Miss You For a While
I Was Alone
If There's No Love
It's Easy Now
Jimmy Christ
Just One More Kiss and Then Go
Maybe You Think (Possibly 'Past Tense' from the Sings for You demos)
No Wonder
On Tenth Street
On the Bright Side
Please Mr. Freud
Seventh Avenue Train
She's Made up Her Mind
She Told Me
So Much More
Sometime and Again
That Girl
That's What I Want
That's Why
The Way I Am
The Way That I Feel
Too Many Days
Translations
Understand Me Too
While You're Here
Worried Heart

 

There was an Atlantic vault fire in the 1970s where a lot of valuable tapes were stored. If the titles Maggie is citing are indeed from 1960, Coltrane was still recording for Atlantic in 1960. I think he signed with ABC/Impulse in 1961.

 

What about Neil Young's "Slowly Burning"? Yes there's the backing track, but it was never finished with vocals, so the melody of the song is unknown. Gorgeous track though.

 

I seem to recall reading Joe Strummer and Mick Jones wrote a bunch of songs together about a year or so before Joe's early demise that were never recorded. I'm sure one of our CLASH experts can confirm this.

Do John Lennon's Dakota demos meet this threads definition of "recordings"? If so, I bet a lot of this thread's submissions have unknown casssette recordings somewhere.

 

The Power Station (Duran Duran off-shoot) performed an original "new" song called "Too Good To Be Bad" during their 1985 U.S. tour and to date has never been recorded.

 

Dylan wrote an album's worth of songs in the wake of his divorce from Sara. He played the songs for friends, who were stunned by their darkness. The only song title that I believe to have been documented is "I'm Cold." Sadly, there is no indication any of this material was recorded. The known information on these songs is detailed in Clinton Heylin's Dylan biography.

 

Has there ever been confirmation about the supposed 1995 Harrison/McCartney 'Anthology' collaboration, "All For Love"?

 

'til Tuesday performed a great song titled "It's Just Like Me" during their first national tour, in support of the Voices Carry album. To my knowledge, they never recorded a studio version.

 

A World Without Love-The Beatles