Pete Townshend - Sacred Animal (1980)

Pete Townshend released his second studio album, Empty Glass, in April 1980 through Atco Records. His first studio album of original material, as opposed to a collection of demos, it was recorded in late 1979 in between The Who's touring commitments. At the time, the band was undergoing their first tour after drummer Keith Moon's death and the remaining member's controversial decision to carry on as a band. That of course means that right after recording his solo album, Pete would be encumbered with the task of writing the next Who LP, with him being the band's chief songwriter. Undaunted, he spent the first two months of 1980 writing and recording demos of new material intended for his band, all while having just recorded an album and completed an American tour mere months before. Overworked and increasingly unreliable due to his ever-worsening substance abuse issues, Townshend presented the other three Who members with a nine-song demo of new material intended for their upcoming album. Once they heard it, they were less than excited with the material, especially lead singer Roger Daltrey. Although singling out some of the songs for praise, the band, in general, seemed to think the material didn't suit their style or strengths very well, even claiming material from Empty Glass such as "Rough Boys" to be more befitting of the Who than what had been given to them.

With that, a frustrated Townshend was left to keep working on new songs for the band until July, when recording would begin in earnest for the next Who album since Who Are You two years prior. When the album did eventually come out in 1981, it still had many of the faults seen on that February 1980 demo: the songs simply weren't suited for the band. For sure, the record's production and the fact that it was the band's first release after Keith Moon's death didn't help, but Pete's suspicion he couldn't write for the band anymore couldn't help but grow after Face Dances' failure. With that in mind, the central question to today's reconstruction is: What if The Who had broken up in 1978? By taking the inverse route to my previous Empty Glass reconstruction, we will be imagining a world where Pete Townshend released a follow-up to his solo Empty Glass instead of working on Face Dances with The Who. As far as rules go, considering Pete was working at an absurdly fast pace, this album is limited to early 1980, meaning songs from late 1980 such as "Popular" or "Somebody Saved Me" aren't going to be included. Having roughly the same ten tracks as Empty Glass would also be ideal, to maintain consistency, and we will only be considering songs with Pete on lead vocals, for obvious reasons. With that out of the way, here's what Pete's second solo album of the eighties could have looked like:

Teresa (Scoop 3)

It's in You (Scoop 3)

How Can You Do it Alone? (Scoop 3)
Daily Records (It's Faces Demos)

You're So Clever (Scoop)

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You Better You Bet (Another Scoop)

Dirty Water (Scoop)

Don't Let Go the Coat (Another Scoop)

Dance it Away (Chinese Eyes)

What is Love (It's Faces Demos)

Download link:

Pete Townshend - Sacred Animal (1980)

Pete Townshend in a London pub, sometime in 1980.

When putting this album together, the nine-song demo assembled for The Who on February 18th, 1980 consisting of "Teresa," "It's In You," "How Can You Do It Alone," "Daily Records," "You Better You Bet," "Dirty Water," "Don't Let Go The Coat," "Dance It Away" and "What Is Love" will be used as a base tracklist, with us avoiding having to sequence this from scratch. These were mostly recorded in London, at AIR Studios and Eel Pie, as well as Pete's home studio in Soho, with further recording and assembly done in Los Angeles, with the song "Teresa" being entirely written and recorded in one night. Not to say that we didn't change anything from the original demo, we will add Pete's demo of "You're So Clever" in between "Daily Records" and "You Better You Bet". Since the Empty Glass album had Who Are You rejects such as "Keep on Working" and its title track itself, it's only fair we should include an Empty Glass reject to pad out this album and make it ten tracks long. And that's how the strange "You're So Clever" ends up as the fifth track on side one, with "You Better You Bet" now opening side two. Finally, since this is not just a collection of demos but an imaginary studio album, any of the songs with a studio version can be upgraded. That's the case with "It's in You", "Dirty Water" and "Dance it Away", with the first two being studio rehearsals and the last being a fully-fledged studio recording.

Sacred Animal was apparently one of the working titles for the Empty Glass album, while it was being recorded. I liked it a lot, so I decided to use it for this album, as Face Dances would be too obvious and it's always good to reuse a good title, isn't it? Accompanying it is a cover, which edits Face Dances' cover to only feature the paintings of Townshend's. As an album, the best songs on it are great, but the lesser songs are considerably weaker than the ones on its predecessor, making this into what is overall a less concise album than Empty Glass. The songs do benefit considerably from being outside the Who context, however, so even if the songs aren't fantastic, they sound more at home on a Pete Townshend solo record than they did on Face Dances. As far as side length goes, things are pretty unbalanced, with side one being a lot longer than side two and coming close to the 25-minute mark. However, since the exact same thing happened with Empty Glass, we'll allow it. Maybe Pete doesn't care much about side length! And as for the lead single, "You Better You Bet" coming hot on the heels of "Let My Love Open the Door" would be interesting to see, with the possibility of having two top 10 hits in a row. This just goes to show that Pete's songs would be much better suited by his solo career, especially since with his previous album, he'd already proved that he could do it alone.

Sources:

- Pete Townshend - Scoop

- Pete Townshend - Another Scoop

- Pete Townshend - Scoop 3

- Pete Townshend - All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes

- The Who - It's Faces Demos [Bootleg]

- The Who This Month! 1980

The Beatles - Off the Beatle Track (1964)

The Beatles had what's quite probably the most hectic schedule in show business in the early 1960s. Having to record two fourteen-track albums and eight singles a year, touring around the world with a show almost every single night, as well as making TV appearances, starring in movies, and writing their own songs. The fact that one of them didn't simply collapse from exhaustion during those first and wild years of Beatlemania is impressive, and a testament to their professionalism. So it's quite surprising that in between all of that, chief songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney found the time to give away original songs for other artists to record, in an attempt to establish themselves as a songwriting duo. In all, about twenty songs written by either Lennon or McCartney were recorded by other artists first, with many hits coming from that. The bulk of those songs were released between 1963 and 1964, as by 1965 they were recording fully self-written albums, they couldn't spare the luxury of giving many songs away anymore. The vast majority of those tracks were also given out to other acts managed by Brian Epstein or to friends of the band, such as Billy J. Kramer, Cilla Black, and even Peter & Gordon.

Even though some of the songs were considered sub-par for The Beatles' standards, John and Paul gave away some fantastic tracks, which clearly shows when we take a look at how some of the songs charted when released by other artists. And while John and Paul's little Goffin-King adventure didn't last long, it gave us many great quasi-Beatles songs we wouldn't have heard otherwise, which is always a good thing, if you ask me. And while some of those songs were recorded in the same Merseybeat style which made The Beatles popular, some were recorded in very different styles to those the band was used to, such as the two songs they gave to Cilla Black. That problem was solved in the mid-1990s when cover band The Beatnix recorded most of those songs in the style of the Beatles, complete with revamped arrangements and some very interesting choices being made. They released their recordings in a compilation called It's Four You: 19 Lennon & McCartney Songs the Beatles Gave Away, in which they also recorded versions for solo McCartney tracks such as "Goodbye" and "Come and Get It". All in all, it really sounds a lot like a lost batch of Beatle tracks waiting for a home, and a very good one at that.

So, the goal of this reconstruction is just that: finding a home for those lost Beatle songs, and making an album out of the songs John and Paul gave away. For that, we will focus exclusively on the 1963/64 period, as that's when the bulk of the given-away songs come from. Focusing on that period also helps keep this album concise and of a piece, and it also helps that we have exactly 14 songs from this era to choose from, between given-away songs and outtakes. That also means that, unlike some of the Beatles' early albums, there won't be any covers here, with this album being a fully self-written effort just like A Hard Day's Night. Of course, no versions of these 14 songs performed by the group exist, but this is more of an imaginative exercise than anything else, trying to envision a world where they did record these songs. So, we will be using cover versions that try to emulate what possible Beatles versions of these songs would sound like, almost as templates to what could have been. Some songs work more than others, that's true, but if you try hard enough, you can almost hear what the band themselves would sound like with those arrangements. With that out of the way, here's what our reconstruction looks like:

A World Without Love (The Beatnix)

Nobody I Know (The Beatnix)

I'm in Love (The Beatnix)
Like Dreamers Do (The Beatnix)

From a Window (The Beatnix)

You Know What to Do (Nick Martellaro)

Bad to Me (The Beatnix)

-

I'll Keep You Satisfied  (The Beatnix)

It's for You (The Beatnix)

Hello Little Girl (The Beatnix)

Tip of My Tongue (The Beatnix)

I Don't Want to See You Again (The Beatnix)

One and One is Two (The Beatnix)

Love of the Loved (The Beatnix)

Download link:
The Beatles - Off the Beatle Track (1964)

Paul, John, and George in Paris, sometime in March 1964.

The first thing you'll notice about this album is the sheer amount of McCartney-sung tracks here. He is the majority writer of 10 of the 13 Lennon/McCartney songs, which reverses exactly the ratio seen on the A Hard Day's Night album, with 10 Lennon-led tracks and 3 McCartney-led tracks in it. And just like one of John's AHDN songs was given to George, we will also have to give one of them away, this time to Ringo. And since "One and One is Two" was rejected by both Billy J. Kramer and the Fourmost, only being recorded by a foreign band that really wasn't too successful, it's perfect for a Ringo song. Even though McCartney clearly dominates here, the fact that many songs would probably be arranged as John and Paul singing together, in the fashion of the Everly Brothers, helps hide this imbalance pretty well. One problem that arises is a lack of a George Harrison lead vocal in the album, seen as he didn't give away any songs back then. We will solve that by adding his AHDN outtake "You Know What to Do", as performed by Nick Martellaro. Nick's version of it is fantastic and it fits in pretty well with the album's sound and the Beatnix's performances, bringing our album to the standard 14 tracks.

Despite being released in a very short span of time in 1963/1964, the songs here were written during a period of seven years, with the first being the first song John Lennon ever wrote, 1957's "Hello Little Girl". From early 1959 we have Paul's "Like Dreamers Do" and "Love of the Loved", which curiously means all of the originals they played in their Decca audition were written really early on in the Lennon & McCartney partnership. From 1960, comes Paul's "A World Without Love", which did see some revision in the lyrical department before release in 1964, but was still mostly written back then. From 1961 comes John's "I'm in Love" and Paul's "Nobody I Know", and finally from mid-1962 comes Paul's "Tip of My Tongue", rejected in favor of "Please Please Me". That means the only songs contemporary to their release were 1963's "Bad to Me" and "I'll Keep You Satisfied", and 1964's "One and One is Two", "From a Window", "It's for You", and "I Don't Want to See You Again". And as to how these songs were sequenced, I tried to follow George Martin's rule of no three lead vocals by the same singer in a row, and other than that, just tried to put the songs where I felt they fit best within the album.

Our reconstruction is titled Off the Beatle Track, after one of the unused working titles for the band's debut album, before they settled on the Please Please Me name. Considering the nature of this album, it's only fair we should use an unused title on an album of unused songs. The LP's cover is courtesy of AndrewskyDE from the Steve Hoffman forums, who really nailed that specific early 1960s Parlophone look. Clocking in at a reasonable 34 minutes with two roughly 17-minute sides, Off the Beatle Track makes for a much more concise listening experience than I'd anticipated before. Allied with that, is the fact that there's lots of quality material here. It's simply inexplicable how great songs like "Bad to Me" and "It's for You" were considered inferior to something like "Litte Child" by the group. And while these soundalike covers are very competent and sometimes a lot of fun, these songs would have been elevated even further had they been performed by The Beatles themselves, with the typical studio magic and pixie dust their albums are notable for coming into play. One thing is for sure: songs like "A World Without Love" deserved a chance to become Beatles songs, before being locked away from fans.

Sources:
The Beatnix - It's Four You

Nick Martellaro's Youtube Channel

Television - Kingdom Come (1979)

Television released their second album in April 1978, through Elektra Records. Titled Adventure, it came on the heels of the classic Marquee Moon, a critically successful album that established them as one of the premier bands of the burgeoning Punk/New Wave movement. The band toured to promote it for most of 1977, recording their follow-up Adventure very hurriedly later that year. It consisted of a mix of newly written material and older songs which were part of the band's repertoire and were written even before Marquee Moon was released. It even showed some evolution in the band's sound, showing a softer, slower side of the band and giving more focus to ballads such as "Carried Away". Critical reception of the album was more muted than to Marquee Moon, but still positive. "Foxhole" was even a minor hit in the UK, but commercial success still eluded them. Later in 1978, they toured the album, debuted new song "The Grip of Love" during some concerts, and played theatres all over the US. By the end of the Adventure tour in 1978 however, creative differences between Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine had come to a breaking point, with infighting between the band members no longer sustainable. And that, allied to Lloyd's worsening drug use, led the band to fold after only two records, going on to have solo careers and become one of the biggest cult bands in rock history.

That leaves us with the question: What if Television had released one more album? Had they done so, I believe they would have followed the Adventure formula pretty closely, a mix of some newly written material and a couple of the band's live staples. At that point, the group had a considerable amount of songs written in 1975/76 that they were yet to release, and there's a good chance some of them would have ended up in this third album. To determine which ones would have, we will only include older songs that were still part of their live roster in 1978, which seems to me to be an indication of whether the band still considered those songs good enough for them by their final year together. That means other unreleased Television songs such as "Double Exposure", "Come on In", "Let Me Out", "Hard on Me" and "Judy" will be left out, as they were dropped a lot earlier than that. One song that very well could be included on this album as it meets all criteria but won't is "Adventure", retroactively added as the final song on the Adventure album for obvious reasons. We're also dealing with very long live takes of songs, which means we'll have to limit ourselves to as little as seven songs on the album, to keep the album under a reasonable length. With all of that out of the way, here's what our album looks like:

The Grip of Love (Live in New York 1978)

Poor Circulation (Live in Portland 1978)

Kingdom Come (Live in New York 1978)

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Fire Engine (Live in New York 1978)

O Mi Amore (Live in Portland 1978)

Last Night (Tom Verlaine)

Breakin' in My Heart (Live in Cleveland 1975)

Bonus tracks:

Piano Song (I Need a New Adventure)

Download link:
Television - Kingdom Come (1979)

Ficca, Lloyd, Verlaine, and Smith backstage, sometime in 1978.

When considering which songs to include, we have our first clue when we consider that Tom said in an interview during the Adventure tour that "Breakin' in My Heart" would be on his next album, be it solo or with Television. So, despite the song not having been played live for a couple of years by that point, it gets included here. Another song that wasn't performed live in '78 was "Last Night", demoed during the sessions for Adventure as the instrumental "Piano Song". We use the Tom Verlaine album version since it's the only one with vocals, and sounds like what a finished version of the song by Television would probably be like. All other songs were in the band's live rotation in 1978, with only "The Grip of Love" being newly written, and performed in an arrangement nearly identical to the one found on Tom's debut album. "Poor Circulation", "Fire Engine", "O Mi Amore" and "Kingdom Come" are all older songs that were still regularly found in the band's setlists during the Adventure tour, with the latter being a completely different song to the one of the same name found on the Tom Verlaine album. All songs, with the exception of the aforementioned "Last Night" and "Breakin' in My Heart" are culled from live versions from 1978, the best possible representation of what this album would sound like, and show a band at the peak of their powers, performance-wise, even if the sound quality isn't great.

The final part of a trilogy, Kingdom Come is a very welcome sequel to Marquee Moon and Adventure. It might not reach the same heights as Marquee Moon but it's a great album, of roughly the same quality as the Adventure album before it, and would most certainly further establish Television as easily one of the greatest bands to come out of the late 70s. Clocking in at 46 minutes, with two roughly equal sides, it would have probably been recorded in the studio sometime in late 1978 and released in early 1979. As for singles, either the poppy "O Mi Amore" or the newly written "The Grip of Love" would be the album's ideal single, both even having the capacity of becoming modest hits and maybe even bringing them the commercial success that so eluded them. I titled this reconstruction Kingdom Come after what I consider to be one of the highlights of the album, a 10+ minute jam that rivals "Marquee Moon" in both length and improvisational guitar awesomeness. For the cover, I made one that could look of a piece with the first two Television records, with the same framing and a third color to drive the point home that this is a trilogy and all three albums are connected. It's really heartbreaking that Television couldn't stick around for at least one more album, to help cement their reputation as one of the most talented and unique bands of all time, and let their own personal problems get in the way.

Sources:

- Tom Verlaine - Tom Verlaine

- Television - I Need a New Adventure [Bootleg]

- Doom and Gloom from the Tomb: Television - Kingdom Come

The Beatles - Get Back (1969)

The Beatles' infamous Get Back sessions ended on January 31st. After a whole month of rehearsals and recording, more than 150 hours of audio and video, more than 400 different songs being played, and the band's first live performance in almost three years, the sessions came to an end with a final day of recording at the basement of Apple Studios. With that, the band was left with the question: what to do with this material? They had already released the "Get Back" b/w "Don't Let Me Down" single, but their own lack of interest in the sessions made it hard for them to decide what to do. By April 1969, it was decided that engineer Glyn Johns, who had overseen the whole thirty days of sessions, would be the one to assemble the album. He came up with a "fly on the wall" approach to the album, using it almost as a portrayal of the band's recording and songwriting process, essentially deconstructing the album into an audio documentary. He had first tried this concept while the sessions were still ongoing, and the band decided to let him try it once again with the full sessions at his disposal. He was left all alone at Olympic Studios with the monumental task of reviewing 150 hours of tape and creating an album out of it. By the following month, he was done with it, and submitted his initial Get Back mix to the band for approval. A cover for the album was shot, liner notes were written, and it seemed that by July 1969 the album would be hitting record stores all over the world.

However, those plans were soon ground to a halt. The LP was delayed because the band wasn't satisfied at all with his mix, considering the album a very unflattering portrayal of the band at times. There was some doubtful song selection, with many superior takes being left in the can for some that weren't release-worthy or even complete, the inclusion of a horrible version of "Teddy Boy" which was played for laughs by Lennon, who later nicknamed Johns' version of the album "the Beatles with their pants down". With all of that, the album was rejected and they were back at square one. And because the documentary had been delayed until early next year, the project was put on hold for the foreseeable future, with the Beatles busying themselves by recording Abbey Road for the time being and seemingly forgetting about the whole Get Back project for now. By January 1970, a rough cut of the movie was finally available and Johns tried again, removing "Teddy Boy" and subbing in two new songs that had been featured in the movie: "Across the Universe" and "I Me Mine". However the main flaws with his original version remained, and it was once again rejected because of its sub-par choices of performance, which remained the same since May. By April 1970, producer Phil Spector, who had already worked with Lennon, was infamously brought in, proceeding to overproduce the album (but mostly choose the right takes), infuriate McCartney, and put the final nail in the Beatles' coffin.

With all of that out of the way, the main question of today's reconstruction is: What if we could improve on the 1969 Get Back concept, using Glyn's mix as a guideline? The rules are as follows: the general structure and tracklist of Johns' album is maintained, with all of the between-song chatter and informal jams kept, as they give his mix the loose, spontaneous, and fun vibe we're looking for. We will try to only use material dating from the December 1968/January 1969 period, writing-wise (with "One After 909" the obvious exception), meaning we'll be avoiding earlier songs such as "Across the Universe" or "Teddy Boy". I took that measure to ensure this album remains consistent and older songs that the band tried to rehash during the sessions don't get thrown in with the actual Get Back material. That might lead to some controversial song choices further down the road too, which will be explained in time. We will also adhere strictly to the "no overdubs!" rule if the songs come from the January 1969 sessions, with only editing and comping of takes being accepted. All we have to do is replace the songs that don't fit in with our restraints with ones that do, and switch out some of the sub-par takes Johns selected with the superior versions, creating a hybrid Johns version of some sort, the album that he should have compiled instead of the one that he did compile, which hopefully would have been approved by the band. With that out of the way, here's what the album looks like:

One After 909 (1969 Glyn Johns Mix)
I'm Ready/Save the Last Dance for Me (1969 Glyn Johns Mix)
Don't Let Me Down (Original Single Version)
Dig a Pony (The Rooftop Performance)

I've Got a Feeling (The Rooftop Performance)

I Me Mine (1970 Glyn Johns Mix)

Get Back (1969 Glyn Johns Mix)

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For You Blue (1969 Glyn Johns Mix)
Two of Us (Let it Be... Naked)

Maggie Mae (1969 Glyn Johns Mix)

Dig It (1969 Glyn Johns Mix)

Let it Be (Take 28)

Oh My Love (Raw Studio Mix)

The Long and Winding Road (Let it Be... Naked)

Get Back [Reprise] (1969 Glyn Johns Mix)

Bonus tracks:
Teddy Boy (1969 Glyn Johns Mix)

Across the Universe (1970 Glyn Johns Mix)

Download link:
The Beatles - Get Back (1969)

Starkey, McCartney, Harrison, Lennon, and Ono in January 1969.

Starting off with side one, the title track "Get Back" and the oldie "One After 909" are maintained as is, as Glyn used the correct versions of both songs, the single version from the 27th and the rooftop take, respectively. The spontaneous jam of 50s oldies "I'm Ready"/"Save the Last Dance for Me", recorded on January 22, is also kept, as it adds a sense of spontaneity to side one. But aside from those three, side one will need a whole lot of changes going forward. We'll start by editing in the single version of "Don't Let Me Down", recorded on the 28th, which we'll use instead of the sluggish take from the 22nd used on the Johns mix. Also included is the unedited rooftop take of "Dig a Pony" with the full "All I want is you" intro not found on any album versions, on the spot of another subpar take from the 22nd of January. Up next is the superior take one of "I've Got a Feeling" found on the complete Rooftop Concert release. It replaces a take that wasn't even complete and broke down during the song's final section, again from the 22nd. Our final addition actually comes from the 1970 Johns mix, his own mix of "I Me Mine", lodged in right before the "Get Back" single. I decided on that as five-and-a-half songs is too little for a side, and Glyn's original side two was much longer than side one, anyway. It's also, due to the way it was recorded after the fact, the only song on the album to feature overdubs, but since the song was written and rehearsed in January 1969, I couldn't help but include it.

As with side one, side two starts with a song we won't need to change: the master take of "For You Blue" from the 25th, minus the overdubbed lead vocal recorded in January 1970. There's also nothing wrong with Glyn's mix of the "Maggie Mae" cover snippet, the four-minute long "Dig It" jam, or the "Get Back" reprise, which might not be the greatest thing in the world but add to the ambiance of the album. However, some changes and a bit of lateral logic will be required going forward. The first few changes are rather easy, replacing the mediocre take of "Two of Us" from the 24th Johns chose with the correct take from the 31st, used by both Spector and the Let it Be... Naked project. Take 28 of "Let it Be" from the 31st, as seen in the original movie, replaces the overdub-ridden single and album versions. The same goes for "The Long and Winding Road", with the take from the 31st used in the movie being edited in. Finally, with both "Teddy Boy" and "Across the Universe" ruled out, and no real Lennon lead vocals on side two, I made the controversial choice of including his solo song "Oh My Love", in between the album's two big ballads. Mostly written at the same time as "Don't Let Me Down" and "Everybody Had a Hard Year" in December 1968, it was inexplicably not worked on during the Get Back sessions, despite the dearth of material John had back then. Considering we have a live-in-the-studio take of it available, and it features George on guitar, it fits in the album like a glove.

Clocking in at a fair 44 minutes with two 22-minute sides, our version of Get Back manages to walk a middle ground between the overproduced, slick, and sometimes even distasteful Let it Be and the undercooked, raw, and spontaneous Glyn Johns mix, providing us with a more accurate portrayal of the sessions than the both of them. This hypothetical album, had it been released a month after the "Get Back" b/w "Don't Let Me Down" single in May 1969, would have certainly been well received, seen as the roots rock fad had been in full swing ever since the release of The Band's Music from Big Pink the previous year. Does it reach the same heights as the White Album or Abbey Road? Most certainly not, but when reviewing the circumstances (write, rehearse, and record an album live in a single month), it's a wonder that they even managed to make something decent, not to mention a really good LP like this one. Considering a single off the album had already been released, I don't think they'd release another one, with the "The Ballad of John and Yoko" b/w "Old Brown Shoe" single still serving as the follow-up to "Get Back" in mid-1969. The cover is the usual photo taken in May 1969 by Angus McBean, as there really isn't any alternative to it. It would've been great to have a version of the album that both faithfully adheres to the main principles of the album and presents the material with quality, ensuring we have the best document possible of the Beatles getting back to their roots.

Sources:
- The Beatles - Let it Be: Special Edition

- The Beatles - Let it Be... Naked

- The Beatles - The Rooftop Performance

- John Lennon - Imagine: Ultimate Collection

The Beau Brummels - Winter (1966)

The Beau Brummels released their second album in August 1965 through Autumn Records. Very appropriately titled Vol. 2, the album featured the hit single "You Tell Me Why", and was the follow-up to their very successful debut record. However, despite the chart success of both the album's lead single and of the album that came before it, Volume 2 failed to chart in the US. That surprising turn of events can be mostly blamed on the band's label, Autumn Records, being on the verge of bankruptcy at the time of release, rendering the promotion and distribution of this LP nearly non-existent. A continuation of the folk-rock sound of their first album, the Brummels' sophomore effort showed that the combination of guitarist Ron Elliot's inventive songwriting and vocalist Sal Valentino's distinctive singing style was the band's advantage over the many other bands on the LA scene back then. Besides "You Tell Me Why", another single was released by the group at this time, the fantastic "Don't Talk to Strangers". Another victim of Autumn's failing fortunes, the song did manage to chart, making it to a measly #53 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1965 after three straight Top 40 hits. Undeterred, Elliot carried on writing and the band carried on touring, only without their guitarist as his diabetic seizures had gotten the better of him and he'd retired from the road by late 1965. 

Even with the chaos surrounding their label at the time, the Beau Brummels began work on their third album, recording more than an album's worth of songs. Some were nearly finished, such as the gorgeous "Gentle Wandering Ways", while others were only tracked in rough demo form. A melding of the band's trademark folk-rock sound with some acoustic and country influence, I'd dare to say this material represented the blueprint to what the Brummels would achieve later with Triangle and Bradley's Barn, melding their pop roots with rootsier sounds. All was put on hold, however, when Autumn finally folded and Warner Bros bought their whole roster. Plans for the band's third album were aborted as Warner did not own the publishing rights to the group's original material. Because of that, the label notoriously insisted the band record a quick all-covers album to cash in on their success. Without a choice, the band quickly hashed out low-quality covers of lazily selected Top 40 material, releasing Beau Brummels '66 as their major label debut in July 1966. A critical and commercial flop, it very nearly killed the band's career, who wouldn't have another hit after its release and would have to reinvent themselves with the fantastic Triangle to regain acclaim. This became the turning point of their career, going from one of the most promising American bands of their day to essentially has-beens.

That made me wonder: what if the Beau Brummels had gotten to release the third album they had been working on in early 1966? Is it possible to assemble a coherent and listenable album out of the songs the band recorded before Autumn ended? And to my surprise, there was more than enough to do so! In assembling this reconstruction, I actually had the opposite problem, that of having to figure out which songs to include and which not to, trying to figure out which songs the band would have actually included themselves on the album. In order to make my life and my choices easier, I decided on only including songs that were specifically known to have been meant for the album, or that were approved for release by the band themselves. The Brummels were notable for recording many demos and outtakes for their first two albums, not having space for all of their songwriting on a single record, and I figure this third album would be no different. We'll end up with many great tracks being left on the cutting room floor, used only as bonus tracks. Speaking of their first two albums, I will again assemble a 12-track, 30-minute album written mostly by Ron Elliot and Sal Valentino, with at most a single cover song, following the pattern set by their first LPs and the norm at the time for pop groups. To not extend myself any further, here's what our third album looks like:

Fine With Me (Turn Around)
Gentle Wandering Ways (Turn Around)

I Grow Old (Turn Around)

Dream On (Turn Around)

This is Love (Turn Around)

Down on Me (Turn Around)

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Good Time Music (Turn Around)

She Sends Me (Turn Around)

Cry Some (Turn Around)

Let Me In (Turn Around)

Hey Love (Turn Around)

Love is Just a Game (Turn Around)

Bonus tracks:
One Too Many Mornings (Turn Around)

She Reigns (Turn Around)

Go Away (Turn Around)
Find a Place (Turn Around)

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The Beau Brummels - Winter (1966)

The Beau Brummels, pictured here sometime in late 1965.

Now that we have set up all of our rules, it's time to select the songs that will make it to the album. Six songs are known to have been planned for the album: "I Grow Old", "Gentle Wandering Ways", "Dream On", "Love Is Just a Game", "This Is Love", and "Hey Love". Following some further research, the liner notes of the Turn Around box set have a further five tracks listed as potential songs on their third Autumn album: "Fine With Me", "Down on Me", "She Sends Me", "Cry Some", and "Let Me In". With that, we already have a solid backbone of eleven songs that we know for sure would have been at least considered for the album. Of those, "Love is Just a Game" is a demo from April 1965, but all the other songs were recorded between late 1965 and early 1966 during the sessions for their third album. So our task now becomes finding this 12th track and sequencing this album accordingly. Since they'd never released a non-album single before, I'd be tempted to include their cover of "Good Time Music" by John Sebastian. It's far from being the best thing the Brummels ever did, but their debut album also included cover tracks so we can allow for it here. That way, everything released after Volume Two finds a home in this album. All that's left to do is sequence the album so that it starts with what was supposed to be it's single, and has a nice mix between Valentino and Elliot compositions.

As for outtakes, we have both sides of the "One Too Many Mornings" b/w "She Reigns" single, which to my surprise were both recorded while under contract to Autumn, but was only released by Warner Brothers later on in 1966. That surely explains why, unlike Beau Brummels '66, those songs are actually pretty good, and even made me tempted to include them, but I ran into the issue of lack of space, as we already have twelve songs. Two other outtakes are "Go Away", which is also sourced from those same late 1965/early 1966 sessions that spawned most of the album, but was seemingly not considered for the album, for whatever reason. And finally, "Find a Place" is another demo from the period, this time featuring both Sal and Ron in a pretty stripped-down arrangement. "Fine With Me" and "Let Me In" were later re-recorded in admittedly superior versions to the rather rough takes we have here once the band was signed to Warner, but I decided against exchanging those for two reasons. Firstly to keep this album accurate, and secondly because if I did, the more polished versions of the two tracks would make the roughness of the rest of the album very much apparent. So it's the more intelligent thing to do to keep things as they are, even though quality suffers slightly. That's also why our album closes with the song that's furthest away from being finished, Sal's "Love is Just a Game".

A very short thirty-minute album with both sides being roughly the same length, Winter is an upgrade in comparison to Beau Brummels '66 in every conceivable way, and would be a more than welcome addition to the band's discography. Upon listening, I found that this album could very well be the missing link between the folk-rock of the two albums and the rootsier, countrified sound of their two classic albums for Warner Brothers. We also witness the emergence of Sal Valentino as a songwriter here, with him getting his first solo writing credits on a Beau Brummels album, showing that he also possessed some very interesting writing talent. As for singles, aside from the already released "Good Time Music", we'll have "Gentle Wandering Ways" b/w "Fine With Me" as the lead single since that was originally planned before the label was extinct. One hell of a single, with the b-side probably even having more commercial potential than the a-side. And if you've been wondering where the album title came from, it's just a lame pun, as Winter is what comes after Autumn ends. The accompanying artwork was done by me, as there really weren't many photos of them from this era in good quality. It's a shame we were denied access to this chapter of the band's development for so long, unable to see them create the gentle wandering ways that would lead to some of the best albums of the 1960s.

Sources:

- The Beau Brummels - Turn Around: The Complete Recordings 1964-1970