The Beach Boys - Do It Again (1968)

The Beach Boys released Friends, their 14th studio album, on June 24, 1968 through Capitol Records. A slow seller, it became their worst-selling album ever up to that point, which came as a disappointment to the band. And in a year with releases as dark as Beggars Banquet and the White Album, and as politically charged as 1968, the relaxing and amicable vibes of the Friends album stuck out as a sore thumb, which certainly couldn't have helped sales or critical reception. However, it has since emerged as the cult classic it's always deserved to become, adored by many Beach Boys fans as one of the highlights of their post-Pet Sounds career and one of the best records of the 1960s. However, since they still needed to bounce back commercially from the album's failure, chief songwriters Brian Wilson and Mike Love wrote and recorded "Do It Again", a throwback to their earlier surf rock sound with a nostalgic theme, in May 1968. From there, it was quickly released as a single and proved to be their first hit in quite some time, a relief for the band but not for Brian, who was hurt by the fact that their only recent hit was a reworking of their old formula, and whose mental health continued the slow deterioration that had begun in 1966. Still, between May and June 1968, Brian wrote and produced music as he had done for Friends, recording such originals as "All I Wanna Do", "Sail Plane Song" and "I Went to Sleep", and covers of songs such as "Old Man River" and "Walk on By".

Brian then spent most of July 1968 trying to finish "Can't Wait Too Long", an ambitious song that he'd been playing around with since the Wild Honey sessions. A big production that harkened back to the Smile days, Wilson once again was unable to finish the song even after spending countless sessions trying to perfect it. By this time, the fact that Brian was clearly unwell became quite clear to the rest of the group, and he admitted to having suicidal urges. And so with their support, it was decided that he would be institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital. Once he returns, he is unable to either finish what he'd started in the previous months or record any new material, and with that, the band (now led by his brother Carl) are forced to take Smile outtakes "Cabin Essence" and "Our Prayer" to pad out the album. Most of what he recorded before his institutionalization remains unfinished, and he only manages to arrange a cover of Leadbelly's "Cotton Fields", which was suggested by Al Jardine. Because of that, for the first time ever a Beach Boys album was primarily written, produced, and sung by members of the band other than Brian, and the album's uneven quality and disjointed nature shows. It was once again a commercial disappointment, even while featuring a hit single, and began a period of non-involvement from Brian which would only be broken by the Brian is Back campaign and the 15 Big Ones album. But what if Brian had managed to finish his follow-up to Friends?

In this reconstruction, we will be trying to piece together the album Brian Wilson was working on in mid-1968, before his mental health deteriorated further and he was institutionalized. This record would be the lost third part of a trilogy with Wild Honey and Friends, the last Beach Boys album to feature Brian at the helm until Love You in 1977. Much like those two, the album would feature eleven or twelve songs, and not be over thirty minutes in length, continuing the subdued, lo-fi sound of its two predecessors. As with Friends, this album would be mostly written and produced by Brian, but with one or two songs by the other band members, such as "Be Still" and "Little Bird", showing their growth as songwriters and Brian's slow distancing from the producer role. Only songs recorded before Brian's institutionalization will be considered, meaning we will have to cull our album from the May 1968 to July 1968 sessions. Of course, there will be one exception to that rule, which we will explain later. Likewise, nothing from before this batch of sessions will be considered, meaning things like Friends outtakes or "Time to Get Alone" can't be a part of the album, for better or worse. There really isn't much wiggle room with this material, so we'll be cutting really close to the bone, and making some pretty controversial decisions along the way, but that's the only way we can make something good out of this. All of that being said, here's what our lost 1968 Beach Boys album looks like:

Do It Again (20/20)

Sail Plane Song (I Can Hear Music)

We're Together Again (Made in California)

All I Wanna Do (I Can Hear Music)

Walkin' (I Can Hear Music)

The Nearest Faraway Place (20/20)

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Old Man River (I Can Hear Music)

I Went to Sleep (20/20)

Mona Kana (I Can Hear Music)

Walk on By (I Can Hear Music)

Can't Wait Too Long (I Can Hear Music)

Download link:

The Beach Boys - Do It Again (1968)

Carl, engineer Stephen Desper, and Brian in the studio, sometime in 1968.

With that out of the way, all we need to do is take everything recorded between May and July 1968 and try to turn it into an album. We can start with the only two Brian Wilson productions from the Summer of 1968 that made the 20/20 album: the hit "Do It Again" and "I Went to Sleep". Along with those, Bruce Johnston's instrumental "The Nearest Faraway Place" features no involvement from Brian, but was recorded concurrently with most of this material, meaning it makes the album. Next, we have the most finished sounding outtakes of this era, those being "Walkin'" and "Sail Plane Song", from the I Can Hear Music box set, and "We're Together Again", from Made in California. While probably not release-ready yet, those songs were pretty far along and would take minimal overdubs to get released. Going into the more unfinished material, we have an edit of "Can't Wait Too Long", courtesy of Three Score and Five,  that collects exclusively the sections recorded in July 1968 for a possible single release. Clocking in at three and a half minutes, it's a reasonable length and is as close as we have to a finished version of the song, as it could have sounded like when included on the 20/20 album. We also have an edit of "All I Wanna Do", which puts together the June 1968 backing track of the song with the 1969 lead vocals of the finished Sunflower version. Again, this version was made by the great Three Score and Five, helping us get as close as possible to a finished version of it, as you'd hear in 1968.

Controversially, next we have AI-enhanced versions of "Walk on By" and the "Old Man River"/"The Old Folks at Home" medley, two unfinished covers from these sessions. While I have many ethical reservations towards the use of Artificial Intelligence, this was very tastefully done by the great Dae Lims, who has previously used this technology to create a custom mix of Smile. Besides, this sounds amazing and helps us get much closer to the album we're trying to piece together than would otherwise be possible. However, I understand if this is not something you are comfortable with, and if that's the case, feel free to replace them with their unfinished versions, as found on the I Can Hear Music box set. Finally, this version of "Mona Kana" was recorded in November 1968, which is out of the limits of our reconstruction. However, that same song was demoed by Dennis during the "Can't Wait Too Long" sessions in July, which in my mind makes it fair game as it at least dates to the Summer of '68, and gives us the eleventh song we needed to stretch this out to album length. With that, all that's left to do is to sequence the album. I took some cues from 20/20, such as starting the album with the single "Do it Again", finishing side one with Bruce's song, and having "I Went to Sleep" early on side two. Other than that, I figured that as the album's magnum opus, "Can't Wait Too Long" has a deserved spot as the album closer, while the others were just distributed based on where I thought they'd flow the best.

Since "Do It Again" was the band's first hit single in ages, I figured it would make sense to turn it into the title track of the album. Sure, it's not very representative of the rest of the album's sound, but Capitol would certainly consider it a good idea. "Can't Wait Too Long" b/w "I Went to Sleep" would probably be the second single, as that was Brian's intention while working on the former in July 1968. The cover is something I found on the internet, courtesy of u/skullman4289 on Reddit. It features a photo from the 20/20 shoot, which of course doesn't feature Brian. Now, normally this would have been a problem, since Brian is the main creative force behind the record, but given that photos of all six Beach Boys in 1968 are nigh-on impossible to find, it will be allowed. It clocks in at 29 minutes, with a slightly longer side one because of the extra song it features, another short album from the Beach Boys. While this is certainly a weaker album than Wild Honey and Friends, it's superior in almost every way to 20/20, a hodgepodge of songs by the other members of the Beach Boys and of earlier outtakes. This album actually feels like the logical step forward from Friends, and has the consistency to prove it. Given Brian's mental state at the time, the fact that he made as good as this is a testament to his talent as a songwriter and producer. It's just a great pity that the final Beach Boys album with Brian Wilson as the main creative force couldn't be finished, and we had to wait almost ten years for him to do it again.

Sources:

- Bellagio 10452 - Shows and Sessions: 1968

- Peter Ames Carlin - Catch a Wave

Bruce Springsteen - Light of Day (1984)

Bruce Springsteen released his sixth studio album, Nebraska, on September 30, 1982, through Columbia Records. A batch of acoustic demos recorded between December 1981 and January 1982, it came out after Bruce shelved an entire electric album, deciding the demo tape better captured what those songs should sound like and where his head was at at that moment. Once the album was out, he decided not to tour in support of it, deciding to promote the album as little as possible. Instead, he spent his time hanging around the Jersey shore and appearing randomly at bars to sing oldies with bar bands. The shelving of the Murder Incorporated album also had other ramifications, with guitarist Steve Van Zandt deciding to leave the E Street Band and pursue a solo career. For the moment, his vacancy was unfilled, as the band had already recorded an album's worth of material and were on hiatus for the time being, but the departure of one of Bruce's best friends and confidantes was sure to be felt. As soon as he left, he formed the Disciples of Soul and released a very successful solo album, while still remaining in touch with Bruce and keeping their friendship alive. It was at this point that Bruce, having long struggled with his mental health and used his work as a form of escape, entered into a major depressive episode that culminated with him going into psychotherapy for the first time in his life, which he still frequents to this day, and moving out from his New Jersey home to the West Coast. 

Once living in Los Angeles, the first thing he did was install a home studio in his garage, which was ready by January 1983 and became the hub of most of Bruce's recording early in the year. He recorded roughly twenty songs there, tracking them completely alone with a drum machine. The material he recorded was of some quality, so much so that at some point he even considered releasing them as the followup to Nebraska, another solo acoustic record. However, he was quickly dissuaded from that and instead focused on another round of E Street Band sessions, trying to strengthen what he'd recorded with them the previous year, recording another album's worth of songs at New York's Hit Factory that May. Still paralyzed by his indecision, he couldn't decide what to release or if to release anything at all, and by July 1983 he had put together a new album sequence, only to once more shelve it and carry on recording. By the time February 1984 rolled around, even manager Jon Landau had put together a tracklist, eighty songs had been recorded, and Bruce was still dissatisfied and looking for the lead single for the album. At the eleventh hour, Bruce recorded "Dancing in the Dark", which seemed to be the hit he was looking for, finally allowing him to put together an album and release it in June 1984. With only four songs in it coming from after May 1982, and all four being absolute highlights of the album, it makes you wonder if the Hit Factory sessions don't deserve an album of their own.

But what if Bruce Springsteen made an album out of the songs he recorded between 1983 and 1984? This reconstruction is a sequel to the second half of my Murder Incorporated post, much in the same way my Unsatisfied Heart album was a sequel to Nebraska. It will be roughly twelve songs long, and feature the highlights of the sessions that immediately followed the shelving of the 1982 recordings, building an album around them for the very first time. Because of that, songs that were only meant to embellish the main BITUSA sessions now will become their own thing, a new Springsteen record that could've been released in 1984. Only songs known to have been recorded during the May 1983 to February 1984 sessions at the Hit Factory in New York will be considered, which means that songs such as "Seeds", written in November 1984 during the BITUSA tour and debuted live in 1985, won't qualify for this album. If a song was recorded as part of the 1983 solo demos and later re-recorded in the studio, it's fair play for inclusion, as long as the said re-recording is available to us. The two songs this applies to, "Cynthia" and "My Hometown", were part of my Unsatisfied Heart reconstruction, which I've since updated and which no longer features the two tracks. We will be basing ourselves on which songs Bruce felt were the best of the sessions instead of our own personal tastes, as it will create the most realistic album. With that out of the way, here's what our new album looks like:

Light of Day (Live 1987)

Cynthia (Tracks)

None But the Brave (Unsatisfied Heart)

Drop on Down and Cover Me (Unsatisfied Heart)

Man at the Top (Tracks)

Stand on It (Tracks)

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No Surrender (Born in the USA)

Bobby Jean (Born in the USA)

Pink Cadillac (Tracks)

My Hometown (Born in the USA)

Dancing in the Dark (Born in the USA)

Janey Don't You Lose Heart (Unsatisfied Heart)

Bonus tracks:

Car Wash (Tracks)

TV Movie (Tracks)

Brothers Under the Bridges (Tracks)

Rockaway the Days (Tracks)

Download link:

Bruce Springsteen - Light of Day (1984)

Springsteen performing live during the Born in the USA tour, 1984.

Our first inclusions are relatively easy, all four songs from the 1983-84 Hit Factory sessions songs that made the BITUSA album: "No Surrender", "Bobby Jean", "Dancing in the Dark" and "My Hometown". All four are absolute highlights of the record, and cornerstones of our reconstruction. Following those, come the songs that made it to the 1983 preliminary tracklist but not the album itself: "Cynthia", "None But the Brave", "Drop on Down and Cover Me" and "Janey Don't You Lose Heart". Even though they lingered in the vaults, these are pretty good songs, and both "None But the Brave" and "Janey Don't You Lose Heart" would have been within the best songs on the album, so the fact that at one point Bruce thought these songs were good enough for the album makes them worthy of inclusion. Following those are the 1984/5 b-sides, as chosen by Bruce himself: "Stand on It" and "Pink Cadillac". The fact that he chose those two out of the nearly one hundred songs he'd recorded for the album tells us that he saw something in them, and we'll respect that by including them on the album. Most remaining songs from the 1983/84 period that made it to Tracks are fun, but inessential, certainly not good enough to stand with the other songs. So they become b-sides, those being "Car Wash", "TV Movie", "Brothers Under the Bridges", and "Rockaway the Days", helping us to present a full picture of the Hit Factory sessions and giving the fans who bought singles more value for their money. 

With that, we have ten album songs and five b-sides, leaving us with two vacancies on the album. How will we fill that? Luckily for us, two songs from the Hit Factory sessions were later performed live by Bruce during the 1980s: "Man at the Top" and "Light of Day". The first of those is relatively straightforward, a song recorded in January 1984 and performed live twice during the BITUSA tour to commemorate the album reaching #1, "Man at the Top". A good song that seems to be pretty dear to Bruce, given the circumstances. The other was "Light of Day", written in 1983 for filmmaker Paul Schrader, who used it as the title song to the 1987 movie of the same name. It was a hit single for Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox, the two stars of the film. By the time of the Tunnel of Love tour in 1988, it had taken the spot of "Rosalita" as the show closer for Bruce shows, where it would stay until 2002. If anything, that goes to show how much Bruce liked the track, and had it not been for the fact that he had already stolen the "Born in the USA" title from a Schrader script, he might've kept that one for himself too. Because of that, not only does it make the album, but it becomes the title track, in "Born in the USA"'s absence. Now, a studio recording of it has yet to surface, so for now a live version from a gig in Asbury Park in 1987 with the whole E Street Band will have to do. Does it sound out of place? Absolutely, but there's no way that song wouldn't make the record, so that's what we'll do.

The sequencing for this will be a mix of the final Born in the USA sequence, the lost 1983 album, and some guesswork, with our first guess being the new title track "Light of Day" in the lead-off spot. With that, all songs from the BITUSA album are on side two, making it insanely strong and featuring the best songs Bruce wrote in this period, and side one is mostly stuff that didn't make it to an album, while still being strong nonetheless. "Dancing in the Dark", "No Surrender", "My Hometown" and "Light of Day" would be the aforementioned five singles off the album, all with the capacity of becoming massive hits. As an album, Light of Day is a much poppier and lighter album than the original record, fusing the energy of The River's happier moments with the 1982 Murder Incorporated sound and rockabilly influences, making for a worthwhile successor to the aforementioned albums, and a nice companion to Unsatisfied Heart. With the album clocking in at more than 50 minutes, side one is much too long to fit on an album as it is, but counting on the fact that the studio version of "Light of Day" would be about a minute shorter, giving us a 49-minute record. The cover is a photo of Bruce in 1984, taken by Annie Leibovitz, the same photographer of the BITUSA cover, to which I superimposed the album title. It's quite interesting to hear the songs Bruce was writing during this strange period in his life, going through many changes and transformations before finally becoming the man at the top.

Sources:

- Brucebase: Born in the USA - Studio Sessions

- Clinton Heylin - E Street Shuffle