The Black Crowes have apparently broken up

I owned BYS on CD, and then, after a while, I didn't own it. I wanted to like it, but a lot of it I didn't like. All of their albums from BYS backward hit me with at least a few songs that I just didn't like, which is why I started to think of them as a singles band, because those tended to be very strong. But to my ears BTF is consistent throughout, and until today I didn't know they were capable of that.

 

BYS is absolutely my least favorite of all the studio releases.

The songs were much better in the live setting, but that album is simply too sterile, loud as ****, compressed, Caveman Shirley drums...and no guitar foil for Rich -they recorded as a 5 piece (+ horn section on Goodtimes and OAF)

My personal fave is 3 Snakes, but their best album may be Southern Harmony...

I dig the latter day Crowes too though. Warpaint and BTF/UTF was a good way to go out strong, along with the live FNR and archival Lost Crowes. All those are essential. Don't sleep on LC. IT'S AMAZING.
Actually...at this point, it's usually the 1st one I grab these days.

Oh the Jimmy Page thing is good. Everyone plays their asses off.

I take you're a Dead fan??

You'd REALLY dig on live TBC shows. Shoot me a PM

 

I really like Croweology a lot. Great double album IMO.

 

While many fans don't like it because the style is so different from their peak years, many other fans consider Before the Frost...Until the Freeze one of the best things they've ever done. Far fewer (if any) feel that way about Lions or Warpaint, and while those 2 aren't in the same league as their best 3 or 4 albums, they're still solid, both with a few individual moments that could stand up to their best work. They can be depressing to listen to in comparison to the heights the Crowes reached on their best albums, but taken on their own, it's still real good stuff.

 

BYS is my least favorite of their studio albums, though it still has a few good tracks - Go Faster, Kickin' My Heart Around and Virtue & Vice which is a legit Crowes classic, imo. But there are some very good b-sides from that period that bettered plenty of the album tracks. If you can, take a listen to Grows A Rose and Peace Anyway. They were b-sides to one of the By Your Side singles.

 

Yeah I totally forgot about that one.

Yeah wavethatflag would dig Croweology, same lineup as WP/BTF...UTF

 

That's pretty much true of their output continually -

Amorica B-sides/outtakes :

Tied Up And Swallowed
Feathers
Song of the Flesh
Title Song
Painkiller
Tornado
Sunday Buttermilk Waltz

3 Snakes B-sides :

Spider in the Sugar Bowl Blues
Just Say You're Sorry
Somebody's on Your Case
PASTORAL*
Mellow Down Easy

BYS B-sides

Grows A Rose
Night Comes Falling
Peace Anyway
You Don't have to Go
Smile

Lions B-sides
Pretty Gurl Song
Sleepyheads**
Baby

Warpaint B-sides :

Here Comes Daylight
It Takes One To Know One
Hole in Your Soul

BTF/ATF :

Little Lizzie Mae
Oh Sweet Nuthin'

*parts of Pastoral became Grows A Rose, Then She Said My Name and You Don't Have To Go. PASTORAL is way better than any of them.
**this song is terrible

 

I've grown to like Warpoint more and more. I like the rockers and I like the acoustic numbers. I actually think one of the categories in which the Crowes have suffered the biggest drops in quality since their 92-97 peak is Chris Robinson's lyrics.

 

I love Pastoral, but it sounds too much like CSN's "Predawn Roads" to me.

 

I don't know Pretty Gurl Song or Baby. I remember Last Time Again (which was okay, but Chris's voice sounds shredded) and Love Is Now, which I really liked.

 

Forgot about those two, they're pretty good - I could've easily dropped, say, Come On and Ozone Mama from Lions and replaced them with the two songs you mentioned.

 

For me, Pastoral is the best unreleased, unrecorded/booted song they ever had. The one live 12/19/95 performance with lyrics is very powerful for me, and was always a favorite. At their peak many of their unreleased songs were as good as the ones that ended up on the albums.1992-1996 was a magical time for me loving TBC.

 

Too bad Lost Crowes is loud as **** too...

That original "Band" that circulated a few years earlier sounded much better and had a better tracklist.

 

More Lost Crowes
(aka More Unreleased Gems from 1990 - 1997)

Side A
Charming Mess
Mercy Sweet Moan
You're Wrong
Miserable

Side B
Bewildered
Exit
The Fear Years
On That Hollow Day

Side C
Girl From The Pawn shop
Thorn's Progress
Bitter Bitter You
Grinnin'

Side D
One Cop Story
Painkiller
Title Song
Wind and Wood Heart

Side E
Pastoral
Name Like Music
Everybody Has Scars
Nothing Love Everything

Side F
Spider In The Sugar bowl
Unlikely To Believe
Oh Sister
Downtown $ Waster (electric)

All these tracks are confirmed as having been recorded in the studio and would make a hell of a release.

But as they can't even re-release the official albums on vinyl, there's no chance this could ever happen!

 

Yeah I just found that disc a few days ago actually - it KILLS the official version

 

I found those files -

Be expecting a link via PM soon (this week)

 

There's more, I need to update Crowesbase with these - will do that soon.

"Souled Out" recording sessions (Los Angeles, Spring 1991)

Thorn In My Pride (original version)
Darling Of The Underground Press (original version)

"The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion" sessions

Three Little Birds (Bob Marley cover, Rich & Marc vocals)

"Tall" rehearsals

Exit (shorter arrangement with no intro section)
Painkiller (electric version)
Wind And Wood Heart (electric version)
Kind

"Three Snakes & One Charm" sessions

Hot Burrito #2 (Flying Burrito Brothers cover, unreleased b-side)
The Runt (original acoustic version of Everybody Has Scars)
Exit (remake - verses similar to Somebody's On Your Case, original chorus retained with different lyrics)
Clothes And Food (aka Food, a Sweet Pickle Salad song - instrumental only)

"Band" sessions

Boomer's Story (with Donnie Herron on mandolin)

"By Your Side" sessions

Absent Mindedly
Delta Lady (Joe Cocker cover)
Soul Deep (Box Tops cover)
It's Only Rock N' Roll (Rolling Stones cover)

 

I didn't see "Pimper's Paradise" from 'Three Snakes...' mentioned amongst all those listed above. That's a good one.

 

Incredible information nbadge, thanks!

(PS - Badge from the Amorica board? We traded as few time back in 05/06 ...)

 

Yep, that's me.

 

The list I made are forthcoming additons to the Crowesbase songlist and session information. We had a server crash a while back and some of the updates that contained this information was lost. Appreciate the thought though, we've got Pimpers covered

 

the band really needs a compilation of unreleased stuff and b-sides

 

IMO the best 3 Snakes B-sides are the covers of Pimper's Paradise and Somebody's On Your Case.

I've never heard the studio version on Pastoral. Always dug that piece of music though when the BC played it in the MFF-era shows.

 

I'd love to hear that studio recording of Boomer's Story.

The studio recording of Darling Of The Underground Press was released in 1992 or 1993. It's been so long since I last rummaged through my collection of Crowes' CD singles that I can't recall which of the singles it was included on. I'm thinking DOTUP was on (one of the) CD singles for Remedy, but again, my memory ain't what it used to be...

 

Those were 2 killer B-sides!