The Rolling Stones - Back, Behind and In Front (1966)

Could You Walk on the Water is an unreleased album by The Rolling Stones, which was supposed to have come out in March 1966 through Decca Records. It was recorded at RCA Studios in Hollywood, during the span of three days between the 8th and the 10th of December, 1965. Something that was a considerable departure for the band was the fact that the nine songs they had recorded during those sessions were Jagger/Richards originals, with their previous five studio albums featuring a mixture of original material and covers. The planned album was pretty close to being released, with even a cover photograph being chosen, and a final tracklist being decided on, with only one small issue preventing its eventual release: the band's label, Decca, was uncomfortable with the album's name and its pretty obvious Christian connotations. This was 1966 America, after all, and with John Lennon saying that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus, they'd be smart to avoid such controversy. After some back and forth between the label and Stones manager Andrew Oldham, it became clear that they would not be able to release the record with the title they had wished to, and with the band booking additional sessions for the week of March 6th, it was decided to shelve such a project, with a new compilation and the "19th Nervous Breakdown" single being released instead.

With that, the band went back into RCA Studios on March 6th with seven songs (the entire Could You Walk on Water album minus the single and b-side) under their belt, instead of starting with a clean slate as they originally thought they would. That and the fact that it had barely been three months since the Stones had last recorded, all that while maintaining a very tight touring schedule, would seem to mean that the band could take it easy and only record about half a dozen additional songs, mix them together with the ones they already had, and call it a day. That wasn't what happened, though, as from March 6th to 9th, 1966, The Rolling Stones recorded twelve songs, including some songs that would later be known as classics. The material recorded during these sessions was so strong, as a matter of fact, that when the Aftermath album came out, songs from these later sessions outnumbered the December recordings nine to five in the final tracklist. That was not all the band did during that tumultuous winter of '66, however, with plans being made for the Stones to follow in the Beatles' footsteps and record their first feature film, to be titled Back, Behind and In Front, with their next album serving as the film's soundtrack when released. The project was quickly abandoned, though, as Jagger disliked director Nicholas Ray, and the band decided to focus their energy on other endeavors.

With all of that out of the way, we can finally answer the question: what would the Stones have released next, had Could You Walk on the Water not been shelved? And to answer that question, we'll first have to decide on what to include in the follow-up to CYWOTW, which I will not be tackling here because someone else did a much better job at it than I possibly could. Firstly, only songs from the March 1966 sessions are to be included here, with one track with an uncertain recording date being used here and explained later on. We will also be using the UK and USA versions of the album as a rough guideline when assembling the tracklist, not many radical changes being made to their sequence. Also, as to the album title, I decided to call it Back, Behind and In Front, since according to bassist Bill Wyman, the film's title was supposed to be the album title, and when the film was shelved, so was this working title. However, I find that to be a really interesting title, and since the idea was still being considered while these songs were recorded, I decided to use the name anyway. Other than that, Back, Behind and In Front will feature 12 songs, as had become standard for them by this point, and no non-album singles will be taken from this record, with both sides of the eventual single making its way into the album. Finally, not to stretch this out any further than we already have, here's our tracklist:

Paint it, Black (Singles 65–67)
Stupid Girl (Aftermath UK)

Lady Jane (Aftermath UK)

Under My Thumb (Aftermath UK)

If You Let Me (Metamorphosis)

Long Long While (Singles 65–67)

-

Flight 505 (Aftermath UK)

High and Dry (Aftermath UK)

Out of Time (Aftermath UK)

It's Not Easy (Aftermath UK)

I Am Waiting (Aftermath UK)

What to Do (Aftermath UK)

Bonus tracks:

Out of Time (Metamorphosis)

Con Le Mie Lacrime (In Mono)

The Rolling Stones performing live in Sweden, April 3rd, 1966.

Side one starts off the same way the American pressing of Aftermath does, with the hit single "Paint it, Black", then followed by the trio of "Stupid Girl", "Lady Jane" and "Under My Thumb", which were featured both on the UK and USA versions of the album. After that pretty much undebatable first four, we enter some more doubtful territory with "If You Let Me", from outtakes collection Metamorphosis. There is much speculation as to when this song is from, with some claiming it to be from the August 1966 Between the Buttons sessions, while some others claim it to be from the March 1966 Aftermath sessions. In terms of session logs and data, the Rolling Stones don't have nearly as much documentation on what was recorded when and where as the Beatles do, for example, which can lead to some pretty tough situations like this one, where there's serious doubt as to when a song is from. Two things led me to include it: the fact that it sounds great when put together with the Aftermath material, not sounding even the slightest bit anachronistic, and the fact that there's some evidence to back up the idea of it coming from 03/66. So, to do all of that and also avoid releasing an 11-track album, it's included here. Closing off side one is "Long Long While", which had only seen release before as the non-album b-side to "Paint it, Black", finally being given a home here, being a more than adequate side closer.

Side two starts off with the one-two punch of "Flight 505" and "High and Dry", with the two songs being sequenced as side opener and track two respectively on all versions of the LP. It is then followed by "Out of Time", which was only released on the British version of the album. For a bit, I considered using the Metamorphosis version of this tune, where Jagger sings over the orchestral backing track for Chris Farlowe's hit version, seen as it's pretty good and was even used in a couple of film soundtracks. I decided against using it, however, as it didn't fit in very well with the rest of the album and wasn't what the band had intended for at the time, which we'll be respecting. It is followed by "It's Not Easy" and "I Am Waiting", which were also featured on both versions of the album, and also get to keep their spots on the tracklist. Finally, the album ends the same way as the original British version does, with "What to Do", also taken off from the American version of the album and only released in 1967, in the Flowers compilation. For bonus tracks, we have the aforementioned orchestral version of "Out of Time", as well as a strange, Italian-sung version of "As Tears Go By", which was recorded between sessions in January 1966. It is just a curiosity though, as Mick's Italian is frankly not very good. With that, we have our sequel to Could You Walk on Water done, pretty much ready for release.

With one 19 minute and one 21 minute side, Back, Behind and In Front can hold the argument of being one of the Stones' strongest albums, being able to hold its own with the whole 1968/1972 classic run of the band with ease. When comparing this sequence to the album that was eventually released, I was actually surprised by how much stronger of an album it is, managing to present this material undiluted by previous material while also sounding much more cohesive and concise than Aftermath. We also keep "Paint it, Black" as the album's main single, with "Long Long While" as its b-side, as there's no real reason to change this. One thing that would change is the release date, with CYWOTW coming out on March 10th, BB&IF would have to be delayed to sometime in late August, in order not to clash too directly with its predecessor. Very little is known about the Back, Behind and In Front project itself, let alone the details of its plot, script, and which songs were earmarked for potential use in the film. What we do know is that the Stones were on such a creative roll back then, and they managed to create such memorable songs using so little time, that there is no doubt that they'd fit in perfectly with the film. It's interesting to think of all the unfinished projects an almost 60-year-old band has, especially now that we've lost one of their most important members unexpectedly.

Sources:
The Rolling Stones - Aftermath [UK Version]

The Rolling Stones - Singles 1965–1967

The Rolling Stones - Metamorphosis

The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones In Mono

Neil Young - Last Dance (1972)

Neil Young released Harvest, his fourth studio album, in February 1972 through Reprise Records. Its release marked a commercial breakthrough for Young, who for the first time saw more considerable commercial success, with the record spawning a massive hit in "Heart of Gold" and going on to become the best-selling album of 1972 in the United States. Due to his newly found stardom, a tour in support of the album was planned for the early months of 1973, where he would be backed by the Stray Gators, augmented by Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten. However, during rehearsals for the tour in late 1972, it soon became clear Whitten was too unreliable and unable to function, due to his drug abuse and alcoholism, and he was fired in early November. A few days after, on the 18th, he was found dead of an apparent overdose in his Los Angeles hotel room. Young, who was a very close friend of his and had tried to delay his firing as much as possible, felt he was responsible for the guitarists' death, and felt much guilt over it. With that, it seemed that a dark cloud hung over the approaching tour, with the combination of personal turmoil and the daunting task of playing sold-out Arenas for months on end taking its toll on him and his band. The fact that drummer Kenney Buttrey demanded a higher salary to compensate for lost studio work and the rest of the band followed suit certainly didn't help matters, and strained considerably the relations between NY and the Gators.

With the prolific streak that had begun in 1969 nowhere near finished, Neil was still writing many songs throughout this period, many of which were much darker both in tone and in arrangement when compared to Harvest, even though he maintained the same backing band. With a solo acoustic session in mid-November 1972 and a band session at Broken Arrow Ranch in December, about nine songs were recorded, with the highlights being some of the best of his career. With those songs on the can, he even had the time to draft a preliminary tracklist and give the album a working title, Last Dance, before embarking on the tour. The tour itself was rather challenging, with Young drinking heavily and performing in an erratic manner, and audiences failing to connect with his newer, heavier material. More importantly, Stray Gators drummer Kenney Buttrey was replaced mid-tour, as NY wasn't happy with his playing and clashed constantly with him. With a new drummer and the addition of Crosby and Nash on backing vocals, the final shows of the tour served as the basis for Time Fades Away, which featured live recordings of some of the new material recorded in late 1972, alongside some Harvest outtakes and other new material written on the road. With that, all those studio recordings were shelved indefinitely, with some of them finally surfacing in 2020 with the release of his Archives Vol. 2 box set.

With that, today's post answers the question: what if Neil Young had gone ahead and released the Last Dance album, as he originally planned? And to answer that, we need to set up some ground rules. First, I will follow his original tracklisting for the album as closely as possible, only removing one song that wasn't recorded during the sessions and was actually a Harvest outtake, and substituting it with one that was from the sessions but for some reason wasn't included in that preliminary tracklist, keeping the rest of the track sequence intact. Obviously, we will try to use studio versions of the songs as frequently as possible, seeing as that was NY's intention for this project. However, in some cases, those studio versions are not available to us, in which case we're able to substitute them with live versions, but only those from the TFA tour, obviously. Different studio versions from later periods exist for some of the songs in this album, but we will try to keep our choices confined to the late 1972 sessions and early 1973 Time Fades Away tour, in order to produce an album that's as cohesive as possible. That would also imply in this album being released shortly after the tour ended in April 1973, which would open up space for Tonight's the Night getting released late in the year as well. With all of that in mind, let's have a look at what I came up with for this unreleased 1972 studio album:

Time Fades Away (Archives Vol. 2)

New Mama (Tuscaloosa)

Come Along and Say You Will (Archives Vol. 2)

The Bridge (Archives Vol. 2)

Don't Be Denied (Time Fades Away)

-

Lookout Joe (Tonight's the Night)

Long Walk Home (Archives Vol. 2)

Last Dance (Time Fades Away)

Goodbye Christians on the Shore (Archives Vol. 2)

Bonus tracks:

Journey Through the Past (Archives Vol. 1)

Come Along and Say You Will (Archives Vol. 2 Outtake)

Monday Morning (Archives Vol. 2)

Download link:
Neil Young - Last Dance (1972)

Tim Drummond, Jack Nitzsche, Neil, Kenny Buttrey, and Ben Keith, September 1971

We start off the proceedings with the former title track "Time Fades Away", as recorded at the Broken Arrow Ranch on December 15, 1972. Apart from using a different drummer and having a jumpier rhythm, this version differs from the one on TFA by having a guitar solo instead of a harmonica solo, which honestly fits much better. No studio recordings of the electric version of "New Mama" are available to us, even though we know the song was recorded on the same day as "Time Fades Away", so this live version from Tuscaloosa will have to do. Considering it features Buttrey on drums, this is probably pretty close to that studio version anyway, so there really isn't a problem. The studio version of "Come Along and Say You Will" from the December band session, and "The Bridge" from the November solo session come next, with the former easily being one of my favorite NY songs. How wasn't it included in the original album? Another case of Neil being Neil and keeping his best material in the vault. Finally, "Don't Be Denied" from Time Fades Away closes out side one. It suffers from the same problem as "New Mama", as it was recorded in December but that version has not yet surfaced. A version of it with Buttrey on drums exists, as released on Tuscaloosa, but it is honestly sub-par, with the TFA take being the definitive version, and the version we use here.

Side two opens with "Lookout Joe", from Tonight's the Night. A studio take from the same 12/15/72 session as all other band tracks, it was the first song from these sessions to get an official release, even though it was on the wrong album. In Neil's original tracklist, track two on side two was "Journey Through the Past", a Harvest outtake he revived for the tour. However, seeing as it wasn't recorded for the album, we replace it with "Letter from 'Nam", here retitled to "Long Walk Home", as it would later be released. I honestly don't see why this number wouldn't be included on the album, as it's one of the strongest numbers from the sessions. Another song that was recorded in December '72 but has only been released as a live performance is "Last Dance", included here on the version released on Time Fades Away. Seen as it's the only high-quality version of the band arrangement that's circulating, we don't have much of a choice, which unfortunately means we're dealing with a version of the song with John Barbata on drums and with vocal help by Crosby and Nash, though it still fits in better than the acoustic version released on Archives Vol. 2. The album ends with the magnificent "Goodbye Christians on the Shore", a song most of us hadn't even heard of, let alone heard, before release on Archives Vol. 2. A great unreleased song is a more than appropriate end to a great unreleased album, I think.

Clocking in at almost 39 minutes with a slightly longer side two, Last Dance would be as much of a radical departure from the Harvest sound as Time Fades Away ended up being, but it's honestly the superior album out of the two. For one, it features all the songs he wrote in '72, while TFA only features about half of them. We gain immensely by finally being able to hear songs as great as "Come Along and Say You Will" and "Goodbye Christians on the Shore", as well as benefiting from gaining context for songs like "Lookout Joe", which honestly always felt out of place on Tonight's the Night. As much as this is an improvement, the one thing that doesn't change is that releasing this material just after Harvest is plain commercial suicide, which is the reason I won't bother picking a single from this, as I usually do. As for the cover, I picked an image of Neil and the Stray Gators rehearsing at his barn on Broken Arrow Ranch sometime in 1971/72. I thought it was a good photo, and since most of the LP had been recorded there, it fit in nicely. All it needed was the album title and some color, and voila. With the belated release of Archives Vol. 2, fans have had glimpses into different paths, alternate scenarios that might've happened had he simply chosen differently, and today we've managed to glimpse into one, where Neil could've made one of his best albums had time not kept fading away.

Sources:

Neil Young - Archives Vol. 2

Neil Young - Time Fades Away

Neil Young - Tuscaloosa

Neil Young - Tonight's the Night