There's a live moment that's always amused me, I forget which concert, maybe one of the Hollywood Bowls, where John introduces a song and quips, "I think it's on a new album over here. I don't know. I haven't got it."
Although Chapman gave his consent to release a remastered and expanded edition in 2015, he was less than thrilled when the original vinyl record was released in 1970 while he was on tour. He felt the album was unfinished and he was planning to correct what was not up to his liking. I love the album as is and I think it may very well be Chapman at his peak as acoustic guitar virtuoso. Not sure how to label this one: somewhere between singer/songwriter and unplugged prog rock. No matter, check it out - you won't regret it.
After leaving the band in '83, guitarist Keith Levine self released some work-in-progress studio tracks. 40,000 copies made it out before Virgin Records shut him down. Commercial Zone - PiL
The basic tracks were the same on both versions. But Mushroom overdubbed some non-Heart people to finish the tracks; the official version replaces that with new overdubs by the band. Also Ann W. replaced some of the lead vocals.
The first album of Bang masters released was Blowin' Your Mind (Van referred to it as "Blowin' Your Nose") and later, The Best of Van Morrison (more Bang masters released without his consent), and later, TB Sheets, long after he had signed with Warner/Reprise. Lots of overlap on those releases.
Motorhead - On Parole Was originally going to be their debut but wasn't released when completed in 1976. Following the success of Overkill and Bomber the label (United Artists) released it to cash in without the bands permission. Which as the band had move to a new label (Chigwick?) by 1979 was a big issue. The band didn't consider it an official release.
A compilation album called Folksingers of Washington Square was released in 1959 as a limited edition local release. Most of the tracks were by Joan Baez, but there were a couple of other artists' songs on it as well. After Joan Baez became famous, the album was re-released as The Best of Joan Baez. It conflicted with her authorized release. 2 albums of 1963 Richie Havens demos (The Richie Havens Record and Electric Havens) were released after he became well known. They were Alan Douglas productions featuring the original acoustic demos with electric overdubs added. The 1979 Emus reissue of Emmylou Harris' debut Gliding Bird was released without her consent in 1979. All of the above were pulled from the market by the artists, but I just happened to get my hot little hands on all of them. The Baez and Havens albums still turn up with some frequency in used bins. Gliding Bird doesn't seem to be quite as easy to find.
Nah it was originally conceived as a collab between Bill Wyman & ABKCO and was gonna be almost like the Beatles Anthology. "the Black Box" or something. Some memos and letters exist about it online. So i doubt anyone is pissed in the Stones camp about it. In the end the album ended up being the paltry Metamorphosis. It is pretty official as Bill Wyman was originally involved (and was gonna include all of his unreleased compositions he penned for the Stones in 1963 LOL)
The Elusive Bob Lind is a collection of acoustic audition demos he made for Verve Folkways when he was 21 but the label passed on them. After he had a hit with "Elusive Butterfly", Verve released the demos with electric and orchestral overdubs that were often out of sync with the basic tracks. They titled the album deceptively, apparently to make record buyers think it included "Elusive Butterfly." It didn't. As you said, it has some really good songs, but Lind said, "It was really unconscionable, what they did. It's such a piece of s--- that I just cringe every time I see it."
The Velvet Underground - Live At Max's Kansas City The band under Lou's control had a 2 album deal with Cotillion/Atlantic but he left before the 1st record of that deal was released. The tape Brigid Berlin made on August 23rd 1970 was of no interest to her so when she sold to Atlantic for $10,000 (it being Lou's last show) they sneakily used it as a way of completing the deal as the 2nd album without consulting the band - they wanted to make a stab at a new album without Lou. The fact they didn't release it until Lou started to get traction with Transformer in 1972 just shows how shady Atlantic was towards the band. Luckily, the expanded edition of the album is superb (at least they kept the original tape intact!).
I doubt Alice Cooper approved of all those repackagings of the Toronto 1969 show, with the wrong song titles and two Ronnie Hawkins tracks to fill up the album. What's sad is that until the 1999 box set, it was the only way to get Freak Out Song and Nobody Likes Me on cd.
Van had little say on anything Bert Berns released or what Bang put out after he left. The Monkees staring at a September of 1966 J.C. Penney shot in a park in Chicago blew their minds. Kirshner's bean counter Herbie telling Nesmith at the Beverly Hills Hotel in January of 1967 "Read your contract" got the F bomb "your head" to Moelis by Nesmith. The wall was 1920's plaster, easy Texas fist through it. Pat Benatar and Blondie haven't stopped the dozens of comps through the years.
True, so not the entire album. I'd forgotten that. Still a huge emotional and legal hassle for the band. At least the whole experience caused Ann to write a killer song about it. Otherwise we wouldn't have "Barracuda."
Any number of Hawkwind albums, live and demos and outtakes. I think there was a dodgy licensing deal at the heart of it. I don’t know the details, but there are several albums that have been repackaged multiple times with different names. Motörhead: On Parole The band recorded this with the original lineup with Larry Wallis on guitar and Lucas Fox on drums. Phil Taylor replaced Fox during recording and Taylor overdubbed most of the drums. The label shelved it and the classic lineup with Eddie Clarke re-recorded all of the songs for Chiswick and most of it came out on the first album. Liberty released this one a few years later when the band started to get successful.
And by all indications, Little Queen is a way better album that Magazine would have been, even if they'd added more songs to it.
I suppose you could also mention The Fall in this way too. To get some quick cash Mark would often sign away various live recordings or studio off-cuts to obscure or one-off labels (which would then be passed on, repackaged etc). Unfortunately, this led to a plethora of semi-official or unauthorised releases of anything the band in any of its guises was doing when a tape was rolling nearby. There is a thread on the endless releases here and probably 30% of it discusses these sort of albums. A mess.
Another one from Curb Records (surprise) - they took the Sparks album Music That You Can Dance To (generally considered one of their worst albums) and re-titled it The Best Of Sparks. I don't know if the Maels ever commented on this. Even though they have a delightfully zany sense of humor, I don't think they would have approved this decision.
There's a whole 'nother thread on this from about a month ago - lots more examples in here: Albums known to have been released against the artist's explicit will
Morrissey- My Early Burglary Years(M.E.B.Y), He owed the label another record & they knew he wouldn't give them one, so they released it & he got *\/%= afterwards, as he claimed he didn't get a cent of the $$$ from it.
And that's too bad. It's a unique thing in his discography, including some really nice acoustic guitar. I still view it as essential to his story.
