The Monkees - The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees (1968)

The Monkees released their third album, "Headquarters", in May 1967, on Colgems Records. What some regard as their first "real" record, it saw them play and sing on all songs, and having a say on what the finished product would sound like. They had ex-Turtles bass player Chip Douglas on the producer's chair, who was invited by Mike Nesmith, even without any considerable producing experience for himself. They managed to record a hit record, which was only behind "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in sales during that summer, and that way proved themselves out of their "fabricated" image. Talk about an achievement! Chip also played bass on most songs, freeing up de-facto bassist Peter Tork to play keyboards or banjo on them and spice up the arrangements. The only considerable weak link was Micky Dolenz's drumming. He had few, if any, experience behind the kit until then, and it really shows. However, he was solid enough to not harm the record, and despite having to record a lot of takes for some of the songs, it all turned out ok. Reviews back then were positive, and gave new confidence to the four of them, after fighting to be able to record their own LPs. The group even managed to act on their very successful TV show and tour the US and Europe after the album's release, somehow managing all that at the same time.

During the breaks in touring, they regrouped with Chip and recorded a follow-up record, "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.". Due to the deadlines involved with providing music for the TV show, they had a lot less time to prepare themselves for such a thing. That led to them using a session drummer, Eddie Hoh, and Douglas to a greater degree than they had before, as sort of a "mixed approach" to the band. It worked, as the album was a huge hit, propelled by the non-album single "Daydream Believer", hitting #1 in the Billboard album charts. Believer was discovered by Chip, and its demo had been passed around quite a while, without anyone taking on it before he did. With him arranging it, it became a surefire hit, as he had done with the Turtles' "Happy Together". As a result, the band had much more confidence and knowledge of the studio, and that resulted in a much more polished record, with psychedelic undertones and even a fair bit of experimentation. All that while still keeping up with a hectic schedule and having great input from the band members. Impressive, to say the least. However, one member, in particular, Tork, wasn't as happy with the end result. Both the fact that CD did most of the keyboard arrangements for him, and that he failed to contribute an original to the record left him a bit hurt.

However, after the end of the TV show, the band members ended up drifting apart considerably. As a consequence, they became much more interested in recording by themselves, with session musicians filling in for the other Monkees and much less focus on original material. Peter, especially, being the one most dissatisfied by Chip's approach, ended up recording most of his material this way. That meant that, despite them doing some initial work on the follow up to Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones with him, they ended up sidelining Douglas and doing each their own thing. He tried to still keep himself involved, by producing some sessions with session musicians, recording a backing track for "We Were Made for Each Other", which went unused. So from December 1967 to March 1968, they recorded their own material, with a couple of songs by each being compiled into a Monkees album, The end results of said sessions was 1968's "The Birds, the Bees, and the Monkees". The beginning of their commercial decline, it was the first of their albums not to feature a #1 single, with "Valleri" going to #3 on the charts. A solid album, but mostly inessential, it went to show how much he was their "hidden weapon", and that his absence created a drop of quality, as well as of commercial success, alongside the end of the show.

But what if they had kept Douglas, and therefore their collaborative system? To answer that question, we must first take a look at the "tropes" from that era of the band. The two albums of the Douglas era of the band formed a clear pattern of how they chose and sequenced material. We will discuss that further later on, but let's start with the basics: 12-ish song albums, alongside a non-album single and b-side, to be released more or less at the same time as the album, if not slightly earlier, with a majority of outside-written tunes, but also giving space for a couple of band originals. I'll use those as sort of a blueprint of what they would most likely have done with the next album. I'll obviously use the session musician versions of the songs, but explain how the group would interfere in the song's arrangement and so forth. All tunes will also be from the November '67/March '68 timeline, as to keep us limited to what they actually were working on back then. We will also follow the assumption that the same hybrid-band system of PAC&J will be kept, if not expanded on, on certain occasions. We will keep the same album title and cover, as I was always a fan of the artwork, and it fits in rather well with its predecessor, as opposed to Headquarters' rather dull cover art. Anyway, to not extend this any further than I already have, here's our tracklist:

Through the Looking Glass (The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees)
Circle Sky (Head)
We Were Made for Each Other (The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees)
Tapioca Tundra (The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees)
Alvin (The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees)
Daddy's Song (Head)
Can You Dig It? (Head)

I'll Be Back Upon My Feet (The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees)
Dream World (The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees)
Auntie's Municipal Court (The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees)
Carlisle Wheeling (The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees)
Valleri (The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees)
Zor and Zam (The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees)

Bonus tracks:
You Showed Me (The Battle of the Bands)
P.O. Box 9847 (The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees)

Davy, Mike, Jack Nicholson, Micky, and Peter backstage in early 1968

 

The Chip-era Monkees albums had a couple of basic tropes and characteristics, which we will explore here to create the most likely followup to Pisces. The first of those was the recycling of Boyce/Hart and Brill Building material from the More of the Monkees era, redone in psychedelic arrangements. As had been done before with songs such as She Hangs Out, Words, and Mr. Webster, they would probably have at least a couple of songs in that fashion. Considering that, we can pick out five tunes to fit this bill: Through the Looking Glass, Valleri, and P.O. Box 9847, from Boyce and Hart, and We Were Made for Each Other and I'll Be Back Upon My Feet by the Brill Building writers. All of those songs would most likely feature pretty similar arrangements to the ones we actually got, with the exception of We Were Made for Each Other, featuring Chip's fantastic unused backing track. It sounds almost like a completely different song! Other songs by outside writers would also probably be used, as was the case of Cuddly Toy, written by Harry Nilsson, and many others. Therefore, it's safe to assume the same would happen, and include Nilsson-penned Daddy's Song and Bill Chadwick's "Zor and Zam". Both would keep more or less the same arrangements, too, and in Daddy's Song's case, give the album a good "controversial" track!

Another trope from the era was the albums being heavy on Mike Nesmith originals to serve as deep cuts, such as Don't Call on Me, Sunny Girlfriend and many more. They generally were the weirder, more experimental tracks, featuring a mix of country and psychedelia. So we follow suit adding what I consider the best Nesmith originals of the era, touching on psychedelic rock with Tapioca Tundra and Circle Sky, and country with Carlisle Wheeling, giving us some fantastic digressions of their more pop leanings. They would all feature nearly identical arrangements, as the Monkees did perform Circle Sky as a four-piece, and as for the others, Mike was pretty sure what to do with his tunes back then, Chip notwithstanding. Speaking of originals, it was also standard, as seen in songs such as For Pete's Sake, Daily Nightly and The Girl I Knew Somewhere, to see Mike and Peter giving a couple of their songs for Micky to sing. And following that, we have Tork's Can You Dig It?, first demoed during the PAC&J sessions, and Mike's Auntie's Municipal Court. Both were given to Dolenz and recorded with their writers as producers, so I don't see why the arrangements would be any different. With six self-penned songs, it's in second place after Headquarters as the album with the most band originals, and has a couple more than its predecessor, which shows their growth quite well.

We would also have, unfortunately, some sub-par material added. As with Hard to Believe in Pisces, there would probably be one self-produced Davy Jones song, with no involvement from the others. For that role, we go with the song co-written by Steve Pitts and Davy, Dream World, as it fits in rather well with the rest of the material. This is the one song which would be the exact same recording as on the album, so no changes needed. Finally, we have what The Monkees missed the most from Chip: his ability to find a #1 single like no one. He took and arranged obscure and rejected songs such as Happy Together and Daydream Believer, turning them into hits. So we ask, what song can fill that role? Well, after he was fired from the band, he went back to his old job with The Turtles, and produced their Battle of the Bands album, which featured You Showed Me. This was an old Byrds song written by Gene Clark and Jim McGuinn, redone in a slow arrangement, complete with organ and fantastic harmonies. I do believe he would have given this song to them, had he stayed, and recorded it with them, maybe with Davy on lead. As it wasn't recorded by the band, I relegated it to a bonus track, but I could easily see it being a non-album single, like Daydream Believer, with P.O. Box 9847 as its b-side. Oh well, we can dream, can't we?

As an album, this would be as much of an evolution as its predecessor was from Headquarters, and hopefully would establish them as a great psychedelic pop act. When compared to the two albums that come before it, it fits in really well, featuring songs and performances of the same caliber, if not sometimes better. With Valleri and You Showed Me as lead singles, it would be sure to perform well, and hopefully, sell as much as the albums before it. It was sequenced to alternate between lead singers and styles as much as possible, taking cues from how they were sequenced in other albums. Despite that, the LP doesn't sound too jarring, and would sound even less had it been recorded as a real group effort, as advocated here. Clocking in at some 34 minutes, with even length sides, it and its lead single aren't that off the norm for albums back in 1968. It would be released sometime in early May of the same year, with the You Showed Me single being released a couple of weeks before. With such great material and talent available, it's a shame that the band couldn't make take advantage of that and release many more great albums together, and suffered from poor sales and a lack of deserved critical acclaim. Now more than ever, it's a shame they couldn't turn their time with Douglas into a trilogy.

Sources:
- The Monkees - The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees
- The Monkees - Head (Original Soundtrack)
- The Turtles - Present the Battle of the Bands

Bruce Springsteen - Murder Incorporated (1982)

 

Bruce Springsteen's tour in support of his The River album ended in September 1981, at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio. The year-long tour, which began in early October 1980, was his most successful up to then. It saw him perform his first significant tour outside the USA, touring western Europe in the first half of 1981. This tour also marked a significant growth in his political involvement, in regard to music, with him asking for silence when singing more serious songs, and even covering artists such as Woody Guthrie and Jimmy Cliff, who featured a lot of political messages in their material. So it was only natural that, soon after a time off, he started writing new songs, many of a more political nature. One of them was this lament about a Vietnam veteran, Born in the USA. Along with some fourteen others, it was demoed by Bruce in a four-track recorder in his New Jersey home. All fifteen songs dealt with more "obscure" characters and scenes than his previous songwriting, and featured him alone on acoustic guitar, and occasional harmonica.

And it was those demos that he showed his backing group, the E Street Band, in January 1982 during their first studio sessions together since May 1980. Coming off straight from backing fellow New Jersey singer Gary US Bonds in his newest album, they started learning that material and other songs, in order to record a follow up to The River, at New York's Hit Factory. Among the other songs were some of a more "personal" tone, although still dealing with hardship. All in all, Bruce totaled some 45 new compositions, and they were all recorded, from those early January sessions until late May of the same year. As compared to his previous output, those new recordings were a considerable departure, both in style and content. The production on those tracks, courtesy of manager Jon Landau, band member Steven Van Zandt and BS himself, was much more poppy and accessible, with huge sounding gated reverb-laden drums, and the predominance of synthesizers alongside Springsteen's guitar playing. You could tell that the 80's had gotten to him, so to speak.

But Springsteen wasn't too happy with the way his demo tape songs got treated. He didn't feel the heavy themes and messages conveyed in the lyrics of the songs matched such pop arrangements, and decided to scrap all band versions of those acoustic tunes. Only three of them were kept: "Born in the USA", "Downbound Train", and "Working on the Highway". As for the other twelve, Bruce decided to release them as they were, in those more intimist arrangements. As for those three saved songs, and the rest of the sessions, he then decided to compile an album out of them, to serve as a companion to the acoustic album. In his own words: "I had these two extremely different recording experiences going, I was going to put them out at the same time as a double record. I didn't know what to do." And so, he compiled two acetates, one with each of those "recording experience". The first got released on its own as Nebraska. The second, however, became nothing, and would endure two more years of sessions until half of it was released as Born in the USA in 1984.

So, what you're probably already asking yourself by now: what if he had indeed released both albums as one double LP? First off, we know more or less what both of them would consist of, and as far as the electric album was concerned, it even had a defined tracklist, compiled in May 1982, soon after the end of those early sessions. So our work here won't be that excessive after all. We will basically keep the two pre-defined sequences, with only some slight changes, that will be explained later. The first disc will be the acoustic recordings, with the second disc featuring the band songs. That is most likely the order he would follow, putting the more difficult, less accessible songs first and the poppier band tunes later as a "reward" to his listeners. The album will be titled "Murder Incorporated", as he had created a later compilation in mid-1983 with some of the same songs, and that title fits in well with the themes of the album. And as an album cover, I used the maxi-single cover for the song, released in 1995. Now without any further ado, here is our tracklist:

Nebraska (Nebraska)

Atlantic City (Nebraska)

Mansion on the Hill (Nebraska)

Johnny 99 (Nebraska)

The Losin' Kind (The Lost Masters I)

State Trooper (Nebraska)

-

Used Cars (Nebraska)

Open All Night (Nebraska)

My Father's House (Nebraska - Japanese CD)

Highway Patrolman (Nebraska)

A Reason to Believe (Nebraska)

-

Born in the USA (Born in the USA)

Murder Incorporated (Greatest Hits)

Downbound Train (Born in the USA)

I'm Goin' Down (Born in the USA)

Glory Days (Born in the USA)

My Love Will Not Let You Down (Tracks) 

-

Working on the Highway (Born in the USA)

Darlington County (Born in the USA)

Frankie (Tracks)

I'm on Fire (Born in the USA)

This Hard Land (Tracks)

Bonus tracks:

The Big Payback (The Essential)

Wages of Sin (Tracks)

A Good Man is Hard to Find (Tracks)

Bruce at his living room in Colt's Neck, April 1982

We start off alone with Bruce in his Colts Neck home, with side one of Nebraska. Here, we revise it to better reflect the running order of the original Nebraska demo tape, with outtake "The Losin' Kind" being put in "Highway Patrolman"'s place. A fantastic song, it still puzzles me to this day it wasn't included in the original Nebraska album, fitting in lyrically and in instrumentation like a glove. Considering it wasn't released as a b-side or re-recorded later, and that it was recorded in the very same sessions as the rest of the album, we can add it with no great consequences to the album. And on side two, "Highway Patrolman" is slotted in between "My Father's House" and "Reason to Believe", once again restoring the original tape's sequence. This means the once 25+ minute side one is now slightly shorter, and the once 15-minute side two has a proper length as well. Other than that, we add an alternate version of "My Father's House", only found in the Japanese 1985 CD pressing. It features an additional 30-second keyboard coda, which was cut god-knows-why on the regular album. The first half of the album came together pretty easily, I must say!

The electric album, straight from the Power Station in New York, starts off as we are used to, with "Born in the USA", in its regular album version. There are a couple of extended versions of it, but I don't think those would have been used on the album, so the regular one stays. "Murder Incorporated" from the Greatest Hits, follows, being one of the greatest songs from the sessions, and inexplicably left off BITUSA. The next three songs, "Downbound Train", "I'm Going Down" and "Glory Days", are all featured on their regular album versions. The original recording of "Glory Days" featured an edited verse and ran something like 45 seconds longer, with the rest being as it is. We will not include that as that edit dated from the 1982 sessions, and most certainly what Bruce intended to be on the album. The side ends with what was their most common show opener on the 1999 reunion, "My Love Will Not Let You Down" found on the "Tracks" compilation. Also inexplicably left off his 1984 hit album, it's a fantastic song, and makes for a fantastic side closer on Murder Incorporated.

"Working on the Highway", one of the Electric Nebraska songs, open side two of the electric album. Originally titled "Child Bride", it was reworked for the Born in the USA album, and it's that rockabilly-infused version we will use in here. Following is "Darlington County", also from BITUSA, and "Frankie". Dating back to the 1977 Darkness on the Edge of Town sessions, the seven-minute epic is one of the only representatives of the "classic" Springsteen sound in here, and is easily one of the best songs on the album, sourced then again from the Tracks comp. "I'm on Fire", once more from Born in the USA, and the Tracks version of "This Hard Land" finish off the works, with the whole disc clocking at a slightly long 47 minutes, as with the first disc. As bonus tracks, we have the solo recording of "The Big Payback", which was the b-side to "Atlantic City", and two outtakes from the same April/May 1982 sessions that gave us the electric album, "Wages of Sin" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find". Those would be used as b-sides here, being the best session outtakes.

As an album, Murder Incorporated does a pretty good job of portraying where the Boss' mind was at at the time. The first disc is a fantastic representation of his more politicized work, showing the darker side of Reagan-era America, as well as paying tribute to his folk music roots. And the band album does a fantastic job of following the chart success of "The River", as well as being a much better representation of those sessions than BITUSA could ever be. As well as that, they both could easily co-exist without each other, but work much better when paired. One provides more depth to the other, somehow, and that makes listening to the whole affair much more intense. Not bad at all! And finally, it's a great comment on the duality of his persona, separated between a serious singer-songwriter, worried about social issues and focused on folk music, and an MTV-era popstar, with synth-full arrangements and anthemic songs. His second double LP in a row, it probably wouldn't have sold as much as his later blockbuster. But if this is the price to pay, then so be it.

Sources:

- Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

- Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA

- Bruce Springsteen - Tracks

- Bruce Springsteen - The Lost Masters I

- Bruce Springsteen - Greatest Hits

- Bruce Springsteen - The Essential

Guns n' Roses - Gardens City (1995)

Guns n' Roses first attempted to record a follow-up to their massive Use Your Illusion albums in late 1993, with Slash putting together riffs and ideas he had written on tour with the aid of other members, recording in a studio in his basement in Los Angeles. He then presented the band with fourteen instrumental demo tunes in January 1994, of which both Axl Rose and Duff McKagan weren't much fans of. Rose called it "southern rock", and wanted the band to go on a more experimental route, such as his beloved Nine Inch Nails and other bands of the period, while Slash mostly stuck to his hard rock roots. But after a couple of months, Axl apparently changed his mind on the songs and decided to call Slash up to talk about them, now showing some interest. The only problem was he had already recorded, with Eric Dover (also a member of Jellyfish) providing lyrics, his first solo album, with the aforementioned demos used as a foundation for it. Rose got mad at Slash for that reason, which sparked a rivalry between both the band never quite recovered of.

After firing rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke in June '94, they started trying to write a new album, without a second guitarist and with quite a lot of in-fighting happening between them. Due to that, the only recording made during that year was a cover version of the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil", for a movie soundtrack. Axl had his old friend and collaborator Paul Tobias replace Slash's solo in that song without the lead guitarist's permission, which further upset him, afterward calling the cover "the sound of the band breaking up". After a couple of attempts at finding the substitute member (names such as Zakk Wylde and Dave Navarro were considered, with Wylde even attending a band rehearsal), and some failed attempts at songwriting, which only produced the instrumental for Velvet Revolver's "Fall to Pieces", Gn'R found themselves caught up in the conflicts between band members and unable to record a new album, and one by one all members except Axl and Dizzy Reed quit, leaving them to begin Chinese Democracy in 1997.

But that left all of their fans wondering: what if? After the great Appetite and Illusion albums, the expectations were high for a new album of the classic lineup, and the band simply couldn't answer their fans' request for more. Well, considering that, the closest we got was the first Snakepit album, being of course written for Gn'R, and featuring 4/6 of the band (Gilby Clarke, Matt Sorum, Dizzy Reed, himself, and Mike Clink in the producer's chair), as well as Mike Inez on bass and Eric Dover on vocals. In order to create a hypothetical album, we will have to base ourselves off from that, removing only a couple of tracks for other additions. I do believe that, had they gone further into the making of this fourth LP, the songs would have been virtually the same, except with Axl's lyrics instead of Dover's. The "Gilby Clarke situation" would also have to be turned around for this, because he was a big contributor to It's Five o' Clock Somewhere, co-writing a little less than half the album and also contributing backing vocals and rhythm guitar to it.

For this imaginative effort, we'll just pretend he still has the job. Seen as Axl was the only one who had any issues with him, our effort wouldn't be that far removed from the truth, as well as helping to keep the Paul Tobias incident from happening. In addition to IFOCS, the foundation of our album, we will have other 3 songs: Velvet Revolver's "Fall to Pieces", due to its instrumental parts and general structure being written/finished during those aborted '94 sessions, and that it's final recording features 3/6 of their then lineup. Duff's "Six Feet Under", released with the Neurotic Outsiders, also begun during the failed sessions, with ex-Pistol Steve Jones giving McKagan some help with it for it's final release, ending up in what we got. And finally, we have our only real Axl tune, "This I Love", begun as early as late '91, and even rumoured to have been demoed during the "The Spaghetti Incident?" sessions, with one of their engineers telling of tapes of the song in Sydney, Paris, and London, while they recorded on tour.

In order to include those, we will have to exclude some weaker stuff from the album (we don't want that "two double albums" thing all over again!), with my picks being "Jizz da Pit", for being an instrumental and Axl openly hating it, nicknaming it "redneck". "Monkey Chow", because it was written entirely by Gilby Clarke, and considering Axl's disliking of him, it would most likely not be included. Finally, we have "Be the Ball", written entirely by Slash, cut because it was written at the request of a pinball company, and had little to do with the Guns project. Throughout several interviews in '96, Duff and Matt mentioned the project they were working on featured about twelve songs, with few ballads and a more roots approach, "not as heavy as AFD and not as complex as UYI". Here we accomplished just that, with fourteen tunes (you can't blame me for keeping two more!), with few ballads indeed, and a great roots rock n' roll sound, fitting its description of being a mix of their earlier albums, and a development of both's ideas.

The only setback of this project would be Rose's lyric writing, which had by that point stagnated, and led to his next full song being released only in 1999. To blame are the many lawsuits he had to face during this time, being related to the band or his personal life. Zakk Wylde remembers, when rehearsing with the band, they only had instrumentals and no lyrics whatsoever. When asking their frontman about this, he got as an answer that if he tried to write any lyrics, they would all be about those lawsuits, which by then were tormenting his life. So, for the sake of this album, we'll just have to pretend it's Axl who's singing and the one who penned the lyrics, instead of Eric Dover and Scott Weiland. "Six Feet Under" would be the exception, being Duff's vocal solo spot, the only of its kind on the album. Duff's absence is also notable, only being fully present on four songs, due to his touring of his Believe in Me album during the making of the Snakepit album, with Mike Inez trying to fill his shoes and doing okay, although McKagan is missed in this. So without further ado, here's our tracklist:

Neither Can I (It's Five o' Clock Somewhere)

Dime Store Rock (It's Five o' Clock Somewhere)

Beggars and Hangers On (It's Five o' Clock Somewhere)

Good to Be Alive (It's Five o' Clock Somewhere)

What Do You Wanna Be? (It's Five o' Clock Somewhere)

This I Love (Chinese Democracy)

Soma City Ward (It's Five o' Clock Somewhere)

Fall to Pieces (Contraband)

Lower (It's Five o' Clock Somewhere)

Take it Away (It's Five o' Clock Somewhere)

Doin' Fine (It's Five o' Clock Somewhere)

Six Feet Under (Neurotic Outsiders)

I Hate Everybody But You (It's Five o' Clock Somewhere)

Back and Forth Again (It's Five o' Clock Somewhere)

Bonus track:

Dead Flowers (Pawnshop Guitars)

Our new album begins with "Neither Can I", a story about depression and suicide, featuring some inspired guitar work by Slash, as well as guest Teddy Andreadis (who was on their UYI tour) playing the harmonica. Eric Dover does a fantastic job singing this one, but we can't help to imagine Axl singing his part on this, which I think he would do really well. Up next, we have the fast paced "Dime Store Rock", a collaboration between Slash, Dover and Gilby Clarke, him being the one who wrote the main riff to it. It's an aggressive song in the best Gunner fashion, complete with a hard-rocking backing track and mean lyrics about fame and partying. Track three is "Beggars and Hangers On", a song that alternates between loud and heavy parts throughout itself, featuring then again some inspired Slash guitar playing (it is his album, after all!). It has Duff McKagan receiving a co-writing credit, even though he didn't play on the album sessions. That makes 5/6 of GN'R members to contribute to a song, and considering this is supposed to be their album, not bad at all.

Next up we have "Good to Be Alive", then again with the aid of Clarke on the songwriting. Once more, pretty much a standard tune of theirs, with most of their typical characteristics featuring in it. A good song, but nothing phenomenal, making for a good "deep cut" for the album. Up next is "What Do You Wanna Be?", featuring Matt Sorum receiving a co-writing credit. He features on the credits of five of this album's songs, something that didn't happen before, seen as when he arrived on the Illusion sessions, all material was completed, and here he has the chance to contribute. If you were missing a certain someone, now we have "This I Love", a power ballad of the best kind, written by Axl alone. If it were to be recorded in this moment in time, I believe it would feature a more "stripped down" arrangement: none of the orchestration it has, and more "heaviness" during the full-band section of it. Otherwise, it would sound as much as a fish out of water with its lush production as it does when you listen to it along with the Snakepit tunes, even though it's great as it is.

The seventh song in this collection is "Soma City Ward", featuring the illustrious Mr. Izzy Stradlin giving Slash a hand on writing the song, which is itself quite good, and while Izzy was a driving force on the composition camp of theirs, it's his only appearance on this album, having left the band some 5 years before. Up next comes "Fall to Pieces", yet another "softer" tune, a song about heroin addiction, which features Slash, McKagan, Sorum, and the great Scott Weiland on vocals, being a more than fair replacement for Rose. Up next is "Lower", a more mid-tempo song with Sorum once more providing songwriting aid. The song is again a good "deep cut", being a good song, but not enough to stand out on the album. "Take it Away" is next, a song with a great loud/quiet dynamic, while also being one of three tunes in this LP to not need our imaginations when regarding the lyrics, them being written by Slash with the aid of Matt. With all that combined we are almost able to hear Axl's voice in the song. We can dream, can't we?

Following that, we have "Doin' Fine", a great song about partying with an instrumental part that only helps to reinforce the party atmosphere of it. I sincerely could see this become some sort of "live staple" of theirs, such as "Mr. Brownstone" before it. Serving as track twelve on Garden's City is Duff's time to shine, "Six Feet Under". Although he is the only Guns member in it, it does sound like them, and it adds a nice "punk" edge to the album. The second to last tune of the album is "I Hate Everybody But You", and as was the case before, the lyrics are entirely by Slash, so no need to put our creativity to work on that one. As number fourteen on the album, we have probably my favorite song from it, "Back and Forth Again". A strong song, reminiscing of "Breakdown", it's a fantastic way to calm down the mood of the album, before building it up again for its chorus. We can add some credibility points for the fact that Axl and Slash are seen performing an acoustic early version of the song in the Making of Estranged video, and there we have a great finale to the album.

Those of you who pay a lot of attention to detail have noticed the lack of cover songs in this, something they had in abundance for UYI and "TSI?". Before you start wondering why and complaining about it, my reasoning for this is that their aforementioned cover album wasn't that well received and sold less, and given that their public was already saturated of cover songs by then, they decided to stick with original tunes. However, we will add one as a bonus track. "Dead Flowers", from Gilby's solo album, features Axl in the backing vocals and was played during their then latest tour, so it was an obvious recording choice, and possibly as a b-side to a "Fall to Pieces" single. Regarding the album's name and cover art, a couple of years ago, a rumor started spreading in internetland of the so-called Gardens City demos, recorded in 1996. Unfortunately for us, it turned out to be a hoax, but as I liked the title, I stuck with it and made some cover art with a painting I found elsewhere, doing some album title recycling, so to speak.

Simply to be able to see this band back together, after nearly a billion drug overdoses, lawsuits and fights is unbelievable, and while their semi-reunion doesn't release anything studio related, all we have to do is try to cobble together fan comps like this. While we endure that wait, we're left imagining Rose's possible lyrics and vocals to them, most certainly motivated by his then contemporary lawsuits and divorces. And this collection of songs, although really dependable of hypothetical scenarios, shows that they could produce some very strong material and great rocking songs, even while the band slowly fell to pieces.

Sources used:

- Slash's Snakepit - It's Five o' Clock Somewhere

- Velvet Revolver - Contraband

- Guns n' Roses - Chinese Democracy

- Neurotic Outsiders - Neurotic Outsiders

- Gilby Clarke - Pawnshop Guitars

The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society (1968)

The Kinks first recorded the song "Village Green" during the sessions for their Something Else LP, in late November 1966. However, instead of including the song in the album it was originally meant for, leader and main songwriter Ray Davies decided to store the song for a future project he had envisioned, where it would be its' centerpiece. At first, it would be a solo project by Davies, centered around the "village green" and nostalgia concepts, based on his childhood memories and experiences in England, scheduled for release sometime in late '67. However, with the others becoming interested in the concept, he decided to scrap such plans and turn the then-titled "Village Green" album into a band effort. So, recording for this new project started soon after they released the Something Else album, in September of 1967. They tracked three new songs, one of them being released as a non-album single ("Autumn Almanac", which managed to hit #3 in the UK charts), and the other two being reserved for the new record, alongside VG. Recording followed, with sessions happening throughout 1968, until August, when they finished a 12-track master.

Scheduled for release on September 27th, this 12 song "Village Green" album was soon canceled under Ray's wishes. He had asked Pye, their label, to have some additional time to track new songs, and perhaps even expand it into a 20-track double LP. The label reluctantly agreed, and so in September, they recorded an additional two songs for the record, them being "Big Sky" and "Last of the Steam Powered Trains", and started to mix the new double LP. However, Pye weren't that confident in the band back then. The failure of their latest single, "Wonderboy", which barely made the top 30 in England, had left a bad taste in their mouths, and a double LP by them would be a big bet. They decided to nix the idea, much to Davies' anger and insisted on it being a single album. As a compromise, however, they decided to allow the album to feature fifteen tracks, instead of the original twelve. That meant two tracks would be removed, them being "Days" and "Mr. Songbird", and the two newly recorded songs and three outtakes would be added. That gave "Sitting By the Riverside", "Animal Farm", and "All My Friends Were There" the spots they now have in the LP.

So, what did they do with the rest of the material? The band ended up releasing the fantastic "Days" as a non-album single, ending up with a big hit (#12 in the singles charts) and one of their best-remembered tracks. And the band's American label, Reprise, alongside Ray, had scheduled to release an 11-song album titled Four More Respected Gentlemen compromising of some of the outtakes and some album songs. Titles like "Misty Water", "Polly" and "Berkeley Mews" were featured, and the compilation was even given a serial number, and release was imminent. However, once more it seems luck wasn't on their side, and the label ended up scrapping it and releasing only the regular 15-track album instead, based on its strength. That way, the songs ended up released on a mess of rarities comps, greatest hits records, and some other very peculiar releases, instead of in their home, Ray's concept of the Village Green. Despite having that many difficulties in the making, the released album was almost unanimously acclaimed, and although selling poorly, managed to become a classic of the 1960's British music scene, and to some their greatest record.

So you might be wondering, by now: what if their wishes of releasing a 20-track double album had come to fruition? First of all, we would have to address one of the main problems of that idea: the album's length. If one were to follow that song limit, he'd end up with a terribly short and brief record. My many attempts at that ended up clocking in at a paltry 54 minutes, and left out quite a lot of fantastic tracks, which would certainly have impacted the commercial potential of the album. Donovan's "A Gift from a Flower to a Garden", also released on Pye, was criticised for just that, only featuring 22 songs in 60 minutes, selling considerably less than his two previous outings. So I think that had Pye Records greenlit the project, they'd ask Davies and the band to try to expand the record into more ideal 25-ish tracks, as a bare minimum. They certainly had enough quality tunes to turn that into a reality, and a minimal amount of work would be needed for such a thing to happen. Hence, that's the format we are going to tackle on this reconstruction, with the best 1968 songs that fit the album's theme. So, not to stretch this out any more than I already have, here is the tracklist:

The Village Green Preservation Society (The Village Green Preservation Society)
Do You Remember, Walter? (The Village Green Preservation Society)
Picture Book (The Village Green Preservation Society)
Johnny Thunder (The Village Green Preservation Society)
Mr. Songbird (Four More Respected Gentlemen)
Last of the Steam Powered Trains (The Village Green Preservation Society)

Animal Farm (The Village Green Preservation Society)
Big Sky (The Village Green Preservation Society)
Did You See His Name? (The Kink Kronikles)
Polly (Four More Respected Gentlemen)
Misty Water (Four More Respected Gentlemen)
Sitting by the Riverside (The Village Green Preservation Society)

Starstruck (The Village Green Preservation Society)
Phenomenal Cat (The Village Green Preservation Society)
Rosemary Rose (The Great Lost Kinks Album)
All My Friends Were There (The Village Green Preservation Society)
Berkeley Mews (Four More Respected Gentlemen)
Wicked Annabella (The Village Green Preservation Society)
Days (Four More Respected Gentlemen)

Village Green (The Village Green Preservation Society)
Pictures in the Sand (The Great Lost Kinks Album)
Wonderboy (The Kink Kronikles)
Lavander Hills (The Great Lost Kinks Album)
Monica (The Village Green Preservation Society)
People Take Pictures of Each Other (The Village Green Preservation Society)

Dave and Ray Davies, Mick Avory and Pete Quaife in late 1968, England

As the Kinks recorded a great number of songs on those year-long sessions, we first need to decide what songs were meant for the album, in the first place, and what weren't. First of all, we know that any songs penned by fellow Kink Dave Davies weren't meant for the concept, and yes for his solo album, "Lincoln County". They also don't really fit into the album's concept, which makes sense considering that. Secondly, I tried to include all songs meant for the album that were in either version of the album, as well as on Four More Respected Gentlemen. The only songs cut were "She's Got Everything", the b-side for "Days", which was only intended for that and recorded two years earlier, and "Autumn Almanac", which was released a whole year earlier than the VGPS album. I did include "Wonderboy", as it was released close enough to the record, and fits in really well into the concept. Four songs from the sessions were also scrapped: three sub-par instrumentals that sort of went nowhere, as well as "Till Death Do Us Part", that, although fantastic, was neither part of the concept or meant for the album, being featured in a movie later in the year.

In sequencing the album, I tried my best to preserve the 15-track album's sequence, as it's nearly perfect, and sort of "sandwich" the outtakes in between album songs, to maintain sonic unity. The whole album is in mono, as two of the songs ("Pictures in the Sand" and "Did You See His Name?") weren't given dedicated stereo mixes back in the day. I believe that, had they carried on with the double album project, those songs would be mixed to stereo, most likely on those final September '68 sessions. And all the mono mixes are the original 1968 ones, with only two exceptions. The first being "Village Green", featured in a version with no orchestra. As it was the only song in the album to feature orchestration, it sort of stuck out alongside the rest of the material, which features the mellotron playing of session man Nicky Hopkins instead. The second is the closing track, "People Take Pictures of Each Other". Featured in its regular mono mix, but with the addition of 30 seconds of Big Band music, as an outro to the album. Ray Davies said in an interview that he had intended to do such a thing, but ended up not doing so due to copyright issues. Go figure.

Side one keeps the first five tracks intact, but adds 12-track reject "Mr. Songbird" to the mix. It's a pretty good song, with a very different arrangement compared to the others, which helps add some variety to it. As for side two, we can keep "Animal Farm" as a side opener, and add "Big Sky" and "Sitting by the Riverside" from the original side one, with the latter as the closer. Added are "Did You See His Name?" (not featured in any of the albums, but a great song that fits within the theme), "Polly" and "Misty Water", both from FMRG. Side three turns "Starstruck" into a side opener, alongside three other album tracks. Added are "Rosemary Rose", from the original 1967 session, "Berkeley Mews", from the Gentlemen album, and the "Days" single as the side closer, as I don't believe a song like that can be followed. For the last side, "Village Green" becomes an opener, and the final two tracks from the original, "Monica" and "People Take Pictures of Each Other" remain in that function. Added are "Pictures in the Sand", shortlisted for the album but later scrapped, the "Wonderboy" single, as well as "Lavander Hill", from the first late '67 sessions.

All in all, as an album, The Village Green Preservation Society doesn't suffer from being a double LP. Ray Davies was in his songwriting peak, back in the day, and had written more than enough quality songs for a double, thematic album. The longer running time also allows us to add more depth to the concept, with different songs and points of view, which is beneficial for it. Clocking in at 65 minutes, with all sides ranging in between 16-17 minutes, the album would no doubt have sold poorly, confirming Pye's fears, but I do think the inclusion of "Days" would have helped the sales at least slightly. The cover, created by me, replaces the rather bland and uninteresting original, using a painting of an actual village green instead. It's really a shame that their inconsistent chart success ended up compromising Ray's artistic vision, despite the end result still being fantastic. Now with the 50th anniversary of the album nearing, it is a possibility that they compile a two-LP version of it in the upcoming deluxe edition, although unlikely. Hopefully, Davies' remembering of the village greens, childhood friends and happiness can be released in full soon.

Sources:

- The Kinks - Village Green Preservation Society (Deluxe Edition, 2004)

- The Kinks - The Anthology 1964 - 1971 (Box Set, 2014)

George Harrison - Portrait of a Leg End (1992)

George Harrison released the album Cloud Nine in November 1987, his first release in five years. His previous outing, Gone Troppo, was an absolute failure, not managing to impress critics and failing to sell enough to make an impact on the charts. Such rejection prompted him to take a break from the music industry, focusing on his son's raising and gardening, only taking part on recording a soundtrack for one of his Handmade Films movies in the meantime. A surprise hit for him, Cloud Nine featured the hit single "Got My Mind Set On You", a cover of a Rudy Clark song from the late fifties, and the album sold remarkably well, managing to finally spark some interest on George's then overlooked solo career. One of the differentials of this album, as compared to his previous LPs, is the presence of a producer alongside him, namely Electric Light Orchestra's Jeff Lynne, his longtime admirer, and recently converted record producer. It gave C9 a sense of unity and form not seen on any of his albums in a long time. In order to cash in with the album's success and popularity, he recorded a couple of music videos for his songs (we're talking about the middle of the MTV era, mind you!) and released some singles off the LP, alogside GMMSOY.

One of those singles happened to be "This Is Love", and it needed a b-side. Having had some ideas for a track to fulfill that position, he asked Lynne to produce it over dinner with him and their friend Roy Orbison, who was asked to tag along. Soon after, they ended up in Bob Dylan's home studio with Tom Petty, and the rest is history. The finished song, "Handle With Care", was considered too good by George's label to be tossed off as a b-side, and so the five of them decided to form a group, named The Travelling Wilburys. They ended up releasing two albums, titled funnily enough Volume 1 and Volume 3 in 1988 and 1990, respectively. The second was recorded without Roy, who unfortunately had passed away in late 1988, due to a heart attack. They all took on nicknames/personas for the albums, which were warmly received and critically praised, being considered one of the most famous "supergroups" of their time. After the group entered a hiatus following the release of their 2nd album, he did a short tour of Japan with Eric Clapton in 1991, and went back to not recording much and being more of a recluse, only regaining interest in recording shortly before his death in 2001.

However, with the success of his comeback record, it was expected that he would soon record a followup to it, to try and keep his newfound popularity as high as it was back then. And so he did, with Lynne back in the producer's chair, recording sporadically throughout 1989. They managed to track three new songs: "Poor Little Girl", "Cockamamie Business" and "Cheer Down", all three meant for his next album. Despite recording some good songs, Harrison was a bit too burdened with recording and writing for the Wilburys, to manage to record an album to his liking, and he ended up scrapping his plans for a new record. The new tunes ended up finding a home in one of his Greatest Hits compilations, later in the year, with "Cheer Down" also being released on the soundtrack to the movie Lethal Weapon 2, which made it a quite successful single. That left some top notch already written tunes in his pocket for either a future release, or to be used by one of his many musician friends on their albums. The ex-Beatle's long-awaited followup wouldn't happen until almost 15 years after this first attempt, when he released his posthumous Brainwashed album in 2002.

However, what that might have left you wondering was: what if he hadn't given up on recording the album? To answer that question, we have to look at the songs George had available by then, as he had kept on writing after C9 was released, and would continue to do so on and off for the next couple of years. As the writing dates for most of his output is known, we will limit the songs to 1991, which is a likely date for its release, for him to be able to record sporadically between his commitments with TW. Speaking of them, no songs featured on their two albums will be a part of this, as that would end up screwing the timeline, and they really don't mix in well with the rest of the material, due to the great deal of collaboration on them. And it's not as if we need it, as we are supplied with enough material for a really top-notch album. One outtake from Vol. 1, however, will be included: "Maxine", which was mostly written and sung by him, making it fair game for this reconstruction. As well as that, one of the songs only features George on slide and backing vocals, despite having written it, something that will be addressed later. Without making you wait even longer, here is our LP: 

Any Road (Brainwashed)
Last Saturday Night (Brainwashed)
Cheer Down (Best of Dark Horse '76-'89)
Poor Little Girl (Best of Dark Horse '76-'89)
Cockamamie Business (Best of Dark Horse '76-'89)
That Kind of Woman (Still Got the Blues)
-
Stuck Inside a Cloud (Brainwashed)
Run So Far (Brainwashed)
Never Get Over You (Brainwashed)
Maxine (Travelling Wilburys Vol. 1)
Rocking Chair in Hawaii (Brainwashed)
In the Rising Sun (Brainwashed)

Harrison playing at the National Law Party benefit concert, April 1992

George's self-portrait begins with "Any Road", from Brainwashed. It was written during a break on recording the "This Is Love" music video, in early 1988. It predates the whole Wilbury thing by a couple of months and is one of the highlights off the album, being rightfully brought back in the late nineties to be the opener in his posthumous record. "Last Saturday Night" began life as a Cloud 9 outtake, being recorded during the original album's sessions in '87. However, he and Lynne deemed this satirical, Christianity bashing song too good to sit in the vaults forever, and brought it back with some minimal overdubs for his next album, something we guess they would still do in this timeline. Serving as track no.3, we have the first of the 1989 session songs, "Poor Little Girl". One of the most underrated songs in his back catalog, it suffered a lot from being put in a forgotten compilation, something we hope to manage to avoid here. Up next is "Cheer Down", co-written with Wilbury Tom Petty. The most probable lead single from Portrait of a Leg End, due to its popularity and inclusion on the Lethal Weapon movie, it's also a great tune, something this album has its fill of.

Following the lead single is the quirky "Cockamamie Business", the third from the '89 sessions. They are put together because they sound good segueing from each other, especially in the order I put them. Next is one of the trickier songs from the album, "That Kind of Woman". Written by Harrison, and featuring his trademark slide guitar playing and backing vocals, no version with him on lead vocals has surfaced yet. That being said, Gary Moore's original 1990 version with him really comes close to being a GH recording. If you close your eyes and squint your ears a bit, it almost sounds like him. Opening up side two is "Stuck Inside a Cloud", the most probable 2nd single from the record. According to drummer Jim Keltner, it was a pretty old song, from the mid-eighties, with it being brought back, later on, to be included on Brainwashed. We will do the same here, as it is a great tune, and was already in the can for him to use. Following it up, "Run So Far" was given to his buddy Eric Clapton to be used on his Journeyman album, in 1989. The second of his "giveaway" tunes, he would later record it, showing he saw potential on the song, and that's a decision we will respect.

Up next is "Never Get Over You", written more or less in the same era as "Stuck Inside a Cloud", during the mid-eighties, and brought back later when there came the time for Harrison to compile BW. The second anomaly on the record, the nice "Maxine" comes next. An outtake from the Volume One sessions, it's basically a solo George song, with him handling most writing and singing. And as the Travelling Wilburys and him shared the same producer and backing band, it's only fair enough that we put it in here. The oldest song of the bunch, "Rocking Chair in Hawaii" had its origins during the All Things Must Pass sessions in 1970. Sometime later, it was re-written and re-recorded by him for his new album, with the arrangement being considerably similar to the original one from ATMP. What else could follow the oldest tune on the LP, and also end the record? The newest of the bunch, and one of his best, of course! "Rising Sun" was mostly written during the 1991 Japan Tour, according to his son Dhani. The track would be a pretty strong contender for this record, once he returned, and ends the album in a great majestic fashion, as it should be.

As an album, "Portrait of a Leg End" is a pretty good record, managing to pick up where its predecessor left out and even evolve on its ideas. It manages to have a consistent quality and sound throughout, and functions as sort of a "missing link" between Cloud Nine and Brainwashed, something that is pretty interesting to hear. Although some inevitable and constant overlap with the latter, it doesn't detract from the album at all, to my ears, and both can co-exist peacefully in my iTunes library. It is a respectable record by an already aging rock star, with much more high points than lows. Clocking in at about 47 minutes, with sides of similar lengths, the album would most probably be released in mid-1992, to both give him time to finish it, and to coincide with his last concert appearance in April. As for the album's name, it is based on an early working title for his final album, being both a pun on bootlegs, and a piss-take on his legendary status as an ex-Beatle. Despite the name being a bit exaggerated, this record paints a really nice picture of where he stood in this point of his life, with his not considering himself a legend not mattering much.

Sources:

- George Harrison - Brainwashed

- George Harrison - Best of Dark Horse '76-'89

- Travelling Wilburys - Travelling Wilburys Vol. 1

- Gary Moore - Still Got the Blues