Re-doing Bowie's Never Let Me Down - any precedents?

Do we know when this was re-recorded?

Of course, there was Brian Wilson's Smile, but that never got a full release originally. I can think of several others who have gone back and revisited their back catalog in the studio, but usually not an entire album like this.

 

There’s also versions with Greg Lake and Jakko singing over the same backing track too. Alas, I don’t think Boz or Wetton ever got a chance with it.

This year or late last year.

 

Then who exactly is overseeing this project? Is it more of a remix or a full re-recording by original band members?

 

To quote an earlier post of mine from another thread:

I see no-one’s yet mentioned Otis Spann’s The Blues Of Otis Spann (1964) and Cracked Spanner Head (1969). They’re essentially the same album with instrumentation added - not by Mr. Spann, I should add - and dramatically changed track titles.

Both albums were reissued on CD by BGO in 2005:



The Blues Of Otis Spann
Rock Me Mama
I Came From Clarksdale
Keep Your Hand Out Of My Pocket
Spann's Boogie
Sarah Street
The Blues Don't Like Nobody
Meet Me In The Bottom
Lost Sheep In The Fold
I Got A Feeling
Jangleboogie
T 99
Natural Days

Cracked Spanner Head
Crack Your Head
Iced Nehi
Wagon Wheel
No Sense In Worrying
Dollar Twenty-Five
Everything's Gonna Be Alright
Lucky So And So
Sometimes I Wonder
Mr. Highway Man
What Will Become Of Me

(Hmm. A couple of instrumentals were left out...)

 

Nilsson - Aerial Pandemonium Ballet.

 

Add 'I Was Born To Love You' to that trio. Terrible album, despite the effort.

 

You're missing nothing. I dislike the original album but the 2 redux tracks [so far] are not an improvement, IMO.

 

The first thing that comes to mind is Yes' Fly From Here: Return Trip. 2017 Trevor Horn remixing the album and redoing Benoit David's (perfectly fine) vocals, with the late Chris Squire's 2011 bass and vocals still intact.

I believe in 1977 Elvis Costello went into the studio with The Attractions to re-record "My Aim Is True" barely a few months after it came out, with the intention of having the new recordings on all subsequent pressings (and presumably erasing the Clover versions from history), but for some reason it didn't happen. (Which is fine by me.)

Granted, to my knowledge Clover was still alive at the time, so it's not quite the same.

I know there's a horrific remix album of the Jackson 5's 1967/1968 Steeltown-era sessions (which first surfaced in 1996) with cheap-sounding modern instrumentation dubbed over the bad-sounding original tapes, and although I first heard it a few months after MJ passed away in 2009, I don't know if it predates his death or not. Either way, still hideous.

 

Mario McNulty. New musicians, new arrangements with some old parts left over.

 

How David Bowie’s Biggest ‘Disappointment’ Became a Posthumous, Reworked Album – Rolling Stone

 

Natalie Cole sang a "duet" with her father, Nat King Cole. I'm not sure if she was the first though.
Maybe Hank Williams Sr/Jr?


I normally wouldn't like what they are doing with Bowie's Never Let Me Down, but supposedly Bowie--in an interview or notes--had expressed his desire to re-do that at some point, so they are taking that as license. And at least it's being done with people who worked with Bowie.
Finally, they are presenting it alongside the original version of the album and being very up front about what they are doing.

 

[QUOTE I believe in 1977 Elvis Costello went into the studio with The Attractions to re-record "My Aim Is True" barely a few months after it came out, with the intention of having the new recordings on all subsequent pressings (and presumably erasing the Clover versions from history), but for some reason it didn't happen. (Which is fine by me.)
.[/QUOTE]

I never knew that - and I am so glad it didn't happen. That LP is perfect as is!

 

That has a direct antecedent in Let It Be... Naked and the Lennon CD reissues with remixed audio. I don't think any of the instrumentation was re-recorded, as it was in this case with Never Let Me Down

 

Things like that happen all the time in various arts - the author channging his mind later in his life, his editors redoing or finishing stuff in various ways. In RnR the earliest case might be Buddy Holly recordings. So it depends how strict you want to be when talking about precedents.

 

In a loose way even the original Let It Be could be considered to satisfy OP.

 

and the question "why?" begs and answer. her prerogative though, i guess

 

I never hated this album the way others do. In the big picture, second or third rate Bowie is still better than most others’ first rate work.

 

Tom Wilson's adding the electric band to the acoustic song Sounds of Silence might be considered the most successful case in rock. The original author and performer did not know, actually S+G had been disbanded at the time.

 

I thought the Q was pretty clear: are there precedents for this Bowie album - a whole album getting redone after the artist's death? I think the Elvis and S&G examples above are the closest as far as I can see. Your Buddy Holly example falls into the 'finishing off' category I think.

 

ok, how about the Zenph Studios computer-robot re recordings of Gould, Tatum, and Cortot?

 

Ray Sings, Basie Swings album counts?

 

Not after death, but Robyn Hitchcock’s album Groovy Decay was reworked and became Groovy Decoy. And then many years later those two versions were merged together into Gravy Deco. And then later still, all of those versions were conspicuously left off of an otherwise complete, career-spanning cd box set series, because he never really liked any version of that album.

 

Neither was "Which artists had their unfinished and previously unreleased vault recordings exhumed and overdubbed for their first ever commercial release?" like was done with Hendrix. This thread is asking about re-recorded albums, and since AYE, Axis and EL were never re-recorded posthumously, Hendrix doesn't apply. Plus I'd imagine that very few (if any) previously released in the artist's lifetime albums that were re-recorded after an artist's death, were actually commissioned and sanctioned by the artist prior to his death as NLMD had been, since its been reported that he not only wanted it done, but he also chose the producer and musicians he wanted to do it.

 

Silly idea.

 

Wasn't Prince, during his problems with Warner said that he wanted to re-record all his Warner albums to put them out under his control? (Or something like that...)