Great Albums cobbled together from leftovers from previous album sessions

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Aar Gal, Feb 20, 2021.

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  1. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    :righton:
     
  2. Aar Gal

    Aar Gal Monkberry Moon Delight Thread Starter

    Location:
    Virginia
    Oh yeah definitely
     
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  3. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Yep. I'm pretty sure those two tracks were rerecorded 1981 versions though, rather than the original versions from 1980. I wish they'd included 1980 Yoko recordings on M&H, since it would have made the album sound more coherent and the 1980 DF band was better than the guys Yoko used on her 1983 recordings. There were at least three 1980 Yoko tracks available... Nobody Sees Me Like You Do, Silver Horse, and Don't Be Scared. And they could have stuck Walking on Thin Ice on there also.
     
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  4. Mal

    Mal Phorum Physicist

    [​IMG]

    Islands was cobbled together in the sense that they weren't specifically working on an album project after Northern Lights-Southern Cross but none of the material on Islands came from earlier album sessions (except maybe an embryonic version of the title track).

    Having their own studio meant that they could just work on stuff without being focused on an album but once they had come up with the concept for "The Last Waltz" film and album on Warner Bros. they needed to give Capitol a final album before changing label so pulled Islands together from the stuff they had been doing since the previous LP.

    All the more impressive since they went ahead and rehearsed and performed The Last Waltz in the middle of pulling this one together!

     
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  5. adadad

    adadad Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Diego
    Elvis Costello- Taking Liberties


     
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  6. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Yeah, I think the claim that Islands was a collection of outtakes strikes me as typical Robbie Robertson revisionism. He knows the album is rated poorly relative to most of the rest of the catalog, and reframing it that way lowers the bar for critique. But like you said, the only song on there that predates NLSC is the title song, so nothing besides maybe that can realistically be called an outtake. When the recording of the rest of the album was done, they knew they were creating and assembling material for a contractual obligation album.
     
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  7. Mal

    Mal Phorum Physicist

    I think Robbie's point is valid - it was a mish mash of tracks including the previously issued "Georgia On My Mind", a Christmas song that was written and considered for a single in 1975, the title track which began in 1973 [same with the previous album's "Jupiter Hollow", incidentally], etc..

    He's is just pointing out that it differs from the other Band albums ("Jupiter Hollow" notwithstanding) in that they were not thinking in terms of an album of songs when the various tracks were first laid down. "Outtakes" might be a bit strong but if that's how he sees it who am I to argue.

    I see that Wikipedia has it that Robbie Robertson compares the album to Odds & Sods in the [2001] CD liner notes but that was Rob Bowman!


     
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  8. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Was just talking about this one on another thread concerning soundtracks. Peter Gabriel manufactured the soundtrack for Birdy out of remixed versions of older material.
    [​IMG]
     
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  9. Colocally

    Colocally One Of The New Wave Boys

    Location:
    Surrey BC.
    Surely that was classed as a compilation.
     
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  10. MrGrumpy

    MrGrumpy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Burbank
    And unauthorized product like the Stones' Metamorphosis - and maybe the Julie Felix album mentioned earlier (but I don't know the history of that).
     
  11. SunSon

    SunSon Lucky Boomer

    Location:
    Sea Of Holes
    Absolutely, Let It Be
     
  12. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Well, Robertson referred to the tracks as "b-sides and outtakes" and of course none of them were b-sides (prior to the release of Islands) and only one could be described as an outtake. They may not have been thinking of a specific album project when the recorded the songs, but they knew they owed Capitol one more album and they certainly didn't think all those songs might be singles, so they knew they would likely end up on an album. Robertson is a guy who plays fast and loose with facts sometimes (eg his sleight of hand regarding the Band tracks on The Basement Tapes album) and this strikes me as another example of that.
     
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  13. Mal

    Mal Phorum Physicist


    "To me, it was a record of B-sides and outtakes" - in the context of the full quote I take it to mean that in his mind Islands is different from the other albums due to the way it was put together without any significant forethought.

    He actually seems rather fond of the album and, as he explains, is just being a little defensive about it (he says the others felt the same way).
     
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  14. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Exactly - and mostly previously released material, not discarded songs that'd remained in the can...
     
  15. MrCJF

    MrCJF Best served with coffee and cake.

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Not totally from previous sessions, but Fairport Convention's Rosie album sessions began when the band was reduced to two members - Dave Pegg and Dave Swarbrick calling in favours from ex-members and associates (Richard and Linda Thompson, Sandy Denny, Dave Mattacks, Ralph McTell, most of Fotheringay).

    They ran out of money, so when Trevor Lucas and Jerry Donahue had agreed to join, they took two sets of multi-tracks from the abandoned sessions for the 2nd Fotheringay album, removed Pat Donaldson's bass part and put on a new Dave Pegg bass part. Hey presto - two new Fairport songs.

    [​IMG]
     
  16. flaxton

    flaxton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Uk
    What a shame Fotheringay broke up. Loved their album.
     
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  17. Aar Gal

    Aar Gal Monkberry Moon Delight Thread Starter

    Location:
    Virginia
    fantastic album!
     
  18. MrCJF

    MrCJF Best served with coffee and cake.

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Jerry D prepared a reconstructed "Fotheringay 2" album a few years back, that was semi successful - but almost all the songs had already appeared on other projects by Sandy and Fairport.

    Andy Batt (forum member @AndyB ) put both albums, a live disc and many outtakes into a 3CD/1DVD box called Nothing More which I highly recommend if it can still be found.
     
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  19. [​IMG]
    Hawkwind's PXR5 cobbled together from previous album session leftovers, demos and some live songs overdubbed in the studio. Amazingly it all works to make a good album.
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2021
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  20. MarcS

    MarcS Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I think some of those Fotheringay 2 sessions were also reused on Sandy Denny's first solo album.
     
  21. mbrownp1

    mbrownp1 Forum Resident

    Oh look honey, another RR hater.
     
  22. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Yep. Anyone who says something even remotely critical of an artist you like must invariably be be a “hater.”

    The Internet: home of thin-skinned fans and black and white thinking.
     
  23. Headfone

    Headfone Nothing Tops A Martin

    Although he himself always had great disdain for it, I always enjoyed the Blue Thumb album Headkeeper by Dave Mason. Some pretty decent table scraps on that one.
     
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  24. mbrownp1

    mbrownp1 Forum Resident

    Nope...only small minded people who are gratuitously nasty about them. Especially when they don't know ANYTHING about the subject and his/her motivations.
     
  25. MarcS

    MarcS Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    The Blues Project Live at Town Hall only had 3 live tracks (and two of them weren't even recorded at Town Hall) and the rest were studio from sessions that predated the Projections albums plus a couple of singles with applause appended.
     
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