George Harrison - George Harrison (1969)

George Harrison left the Beatles on January 10, 1969. Many factors weighed heavily on his decision, such as the creative clashes he was having with both John and Paul over the arrangements of songs on the Get Back project, the increase in his songwriting quality from 1968 onwards not being followed by an increase of his quota of songs on the albums, and others. The fact that he spent Thanksgiving 1968 in Woodstock with Bob Dylan & the Band and came out impressed with their communal attitude towards making music and general camaraderie, only to be greeted by the tensions of Apple and the supremacy of Lennon/McCartney certainly didn't help, with his long-held feelings of being a second-class Beatle coming to a boil. He was convinced to return a week later under certain stipulations, such as moving the sessions from Twickenham film studios to their own Apple Studios and nixing any plans of performing live. The sessions then see renewed enthusiasm and newly cordial relations from there onward, with the Get Back project coming to a satisfying closure on the 31st. Shortly afterward, Harrison considers the idea of releasing a solo album, following the advice given to him by John Lennon. That way, he'd return reinvigorated to the newest Beatles project and have a creative outlet where he could use all of his surplus material. He took a tentative first step toward that on his birthday, February 25, 1969, where he recorded demos for three songs that weren't used in the previous month's sessions alone on his guitar.

Unfortunately, plans didn't get much further than that. His dedication was instead given to producing many Apple-related projects and artists such as Billy Preston and Doris Troy, and recording the Abbey Road album with the Beatles. During those sessions, he is given a considerably larger role creatively, since John is sidelined due to a car crash. He collaborates much closer with Paul and contributes the two songs which are arguably the highlights of the album, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun". The former even warranted George's first A-side of a Beatles single, showing how far he'd come since he wrote 1963's "Don't Bother Me". Because of this newly found prestige, it seems that after the tentative February session, George decided against releasing a solo album while the Beatles still existed, shifting his attention elsewhere. After the Abbey Road album is finished Harrison again dedicates himself to producing Apple signees and tours as a sideman with Delaney and Bonnie, still seemingly not worried about starting a solo career. He talked about it but didn't seem to commit to it completely, maybe due to a bit of lingering self-doubt because of the years of being taken for granted. He only started work on the All Things Must Pass album the month after the McCartney press release, when there was absolutely no doubt that the Beatles had split and he basically had no option but to become a solo artist. But what if he had recorded his first solo album while the Beatles still existed?

This reconstruction is an update to my George Harrison solo debut essay from April 2019. But this time around, George doesn't quit the Beatles, and follows John's advice of simply recording a solo album concurrently with the band to "let all of the songs out". Because of that, songs released by the Beatles will not be considered for this album, as we aim to create a simple, standalone solo album that could fit alongside the Beatles' recorded output in late 1969. Another change is that the deadline for the songs to be written is shortened to May 1969 from the original August 1969, meaning this album would have been recorded during a break in the recording of Abbey Road, from May to June 1969. Songs that were released later on when George actually started his solo career are obviously given the preference, as he thought of them highly enough to record less than a year later. We'll be aiming at about ten tracks for the record, as was the norm by then, and we've got some pretty long songs on our shortlist. As Harrison hadn't met or worked with Phil Spector yet, we will try to avoid using his Wall of Sound as much as we possibly can, which means we will be using the alternate takes of the songs as released on the deluxe edition of All Things Must Pass. It was a last resort, as the 2020 remixes are, well, horrible, and those alternate takes provide us with the only quality reverb-free alternatives to the original album versions, something that's a prerequisite for our goals. With that out of the way, here's what the album looks like:

What is Life? (Take 1)

Let it Down (Take 1)

The Art of Dying (Take 1)

All Things Must Pass (Day 1 Demo)

Isn't it a Pity? (Take 27)
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I'd Have You Anytime (Take 5)

Wah-Wah (Take 1)

Window, Window (Day 2 Demo)

Run of the Mill (Take 36)

Hear Me Lord (Take 5)

Download link:
George Harrison - George Harrison (1969)

George as photographed in his Esher home, April 1969.

Of the ten songs I selected for this reconstruction, nine were eventually released on All Things Must Pass and the other was offered/played to the Beatles during the Get Back sessions four times, which I considered indication enough that it was a contender and worthy of inclusion. "Isn't it a Pity?" and "The Art of Dying" possibly date all the way back to late 1966, while "Let it Down", "All Things Must Pass" and "I'd Have You Anytime" are the fruit of his visit to Dylan & the Band in upstate New York on Thanksgiving 1968. "Wah Wah", "Window Window", and "Hear Me Lord" are all from the January 1969 Get Back sessions, "Run of the Mill" dates to February 1969, and finally the late inclusion "What is Life" comes from the May 1969 sessions for Billy Preston's first Apple album. I didn't consider others known to date from this period such as "Dehra Dun" or "Nowhere to Go" as they were seemingly forgotten by Harrison himself, who never seemed to consider them good enough to record or suggest to the Beatles. These alternative versions range from radically different interpretations ("Let it Down", "Art of Dying", "Run of the Mill"), to virtually unchanged with just about everything in between, with varying degrees of success. The more subdued "Let it Down" is beautiful, while the faster "I'd Have You Anytime" sounds somewhat clunky. But something that every single song here does benefit from is the lack of the obnoxious amounts of reverb added by Spector to the finished product.

The two songs that are straight-up demos, "All Things Must Pass" and "Window Window" do stick out some from the rest due to their especially unfinished sound, but not in a particularly intrusive way. The fact that the latter is such a simple song certainly helps, as there's not else much you could do with it. And as we're dealing with outtakes, some amount of editing was needed, which mainly consisted of cutting out studio chatter and fading out the tracks before they ended abruptly. Once that was done, this sounded pretty much like a finished album! The rougher, less polished sound seems much more like a conscious choice, inspired by his obsession with Music from Big Pink, than anything else. When it comes to sequencing, I chose to have "What is Life" as the album opener, as it's as close to an energetic album opener as we have, with the rest taking their cues from ATMP. It's a no-brainer to finish side one with "Isn't it a Pity?" and side two with the nearly nine-minute epic "Hear Me Lord", and "I'd Have You Anytime" works pretty well on side two. As to the sessions themselves, this album would've been recorded with a smaller group of friends, such as keyboardists Nicky Hopkins and Billy Preston, bassist Klaus Voormann, and drummers Ringo Starr and Tony Newman, with Delaney and Bonnie and their friends nowhere to be seen. His buddy Eric Clapton was on tour with Blind Faith at this moment, meaning George would tackle all of the guitar parts himself.

A self-titled album to signify the beginning of a solo career, this alternate debut is 44 minutes long with two 22-minute sides, a little bit on the long side for the era but nothing too worrisome. The album cover, as edited by myself, is a photo of George's dating from April 1969, with the Apple Records logo added on top. "What is Life" b/w "Isn't it a Pity?" would make for the ideal lead single in my view, with both a rocker and a ballad that have the potential to become hits, propelled by his name. As for technical details, this album would have probably been self-produced by Harrison and recorded from February to August 1969, which means its sound would have been much closer to, say, Living in the Material World than to the overblown, epic sound of the All Things Must Pass album, something I find we've managed to mimic here. The material as presented in this reconstruction also seems much more like a logical next step from the White Album and Abbey Road than the starkly different sound of the All Things Must Pass, and the more laid-back, stripped-down sound benefits these songs significantly. In terms of quality, it is as consistent and can withstand repeated listening with the same ease as something like the Abbey Road album, which is quite an achievement in itself. It's both a shame and a pity that George couldn't find a way to reconcile his growing prowess as a songwriter with his duties as a Beatle, an alternate path that could've preserved the band and many friendships within it.

Sources:

- I Me Mine: George Harrison
- All Things Must Pass [50th Anniversary Edition]

Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys (1970)

After his now legendary Woodstock performance, Jimi Hendrix was left to figure out what to do next. Performing with the short-lived Gypsy, Sun and Rainbows, a much larger ensemble than he had ever performed with, Hendrix's iconic set included new songs such as "Message to Love" and "Izabella", the first hint audiences got of new material since the  Electric Ladyland LP was released in October 1968. However, this new band was nothing more than a temporary experiment for Jimi, who for a long time wished to go beyond the power trio format. This specific was one of the reasons Experience bassist Noel Redding, who already had a fractured relationship with the guitarist, left the band, to be replaced by Billy Cox. His management, keen on using the well-established Jimi Hendrix Experience name, would carry on pressuring Hendrix to reform the band until his death, with him never conceding to it. Pressure also came from his label, Reprise Records, concerned with the fact that a year had gone by since his last album and he didn't seem to be anywhere near delivering a new one. He didn't seem preoccupied, recording at a leisurely pace, jamming with his friend Buddy Miles, drummer of The Electric Flag, and recording embryonary versions of new songs and assorted jams. However, this would change significantly once an event from the past and its consequences came to light.

In October 1965, while he was still a backing musician to Curtis Knight, Jimi signed to a three-year deal to PPX Enterprises and its owner, Ed Chalpin. That means that Hendrix was in breach of it by recording with Reprise Records, which led to Chalpin suing Jimi, with the case being settled out of court after two years with the agreement that the guitarist would deliver an album of original material to Capitol Records in order to fulfill his PPX contract. With the deal in mind, Hendrix then formed the Band of Gypsys with Cox and Miles, his first all-black band, and started writing and recording new material with the new trio, starting on November 1969. Having decided a live album was the easiest way of fulfilling his commitment, they were then booked for four engagements at New York's Fillmore East, with all four being recorded and becoming the legendary Band of Gypsys album, capturing their funky sound in all of its glory. This November 1969/February 1970 period was also Jimi's first of focused studio recording since Electric Ladyland came out, with nearly an album's worth of releasable recordings being made by the Hendrix/Miles/Cox trio, many of which became serious contenders for his unfinished First Rays of the New Rising Sun album. But what if he wasn't tied up to Capitol and could focus on releasing the best album possible with the material and band he had at hand?

This reconstruction provides us with an updated version of my previous Band of Gypsys studio album, three years on from my first attempt at this. Taking a cue from Jimi's rivals and contemporaries Cream, this will be a half-live, half-studio double album, an approach I find manages to group together the best recordings the Hendrix/Miles/Cox trio ever did better than fully fledged live or studio albums. So apt is the comparison with Cream's Wheels of Fire that the live material in both was even recorded at the same venue, meaning we won't even change the names given to both discs: In the Studio and Live at the Fillmore. As far as the studio part goes, even though Jimi had already recorded with Buddy and Billy in June 1969, the Band of Gypsys didn't become a real entity until October 1969 at the earliest. Because of that, we will be focusing on material recorded between November 1969 and February 1970, selecting the most finished-sounding songs available from the time period when the BOG was active. Songs overdubbed at later dates are still fair game, as long as the basic track was recorded then and the finished product still features Buddy Miles on drums. As for the live disc, we will try to keep the original Band of Gypsys album as intact as we possibly can, only replacing songs when a superior studio take exists for use in the studio disc. Here's what the album looks like:

Disc 1: In the Studio

Power of Soul (Both Sides of the Sky)

Lover Man (Both Sides of the Sky)

Room Full of Mirrors (Rainbow Bridge)

Stepping Stone (Voodoo Child)

Izabella (Voodoo Child)

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Ezy Ryder (The Cry of Love)

Message to Love (West Coast Seattle Boy)

Earth Blues (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

Burning Desire (Loose Ends)

Disc 2: Live at the Fillmore

Who Knows (Band of Gypsys)

Machine Gun (Band of Gypsys)

-

Them Changes (Band of Gypsys)

Hear My Train a-Comin' (Band of Gypsys)

We Gotta Live Together (Band of Gypsys)

Download link:
Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys (1970)

Hendrix, Miles, and Cox performing live at the Fillmore East, December 31st, 1969.

Taking a cue from the first Band of Gypsys show at the Fillmore East, we open the studio album with "Power of Soul". Mixed on August 22nd, 1970 on one of Jimi's final mixing sessions, this is the definitive version of one of the highlights of the shortlived trio's stage act, as recorded at the Record Plant in January 1970. As on New Year's Eve, "Lover Man" follows, a song that was in Jimi's live rotation since 1967 but was never released in an album. While the definitive version of the song was recorded with Mitch Mitchell in 1970, this take from December 15, 1969 is no slouch, fitting in well with the more finished material. Up next is "Room Full of Mirrors", a song that dates back to the Electric Ladyland era, but was only recorded successfully in November 1969, in the version we find here. As with "Power of Soul", an authentic August 1970 Hendrix mix of the song exists, and it's that version that makes it to the album. Closing out the first side is both halves of a shelved single, which was supposed to be issued on April 1970: "Stepping Stone" and "Izabella". Recorded in December and January, they would have been the first studio releases to feature the Band of Gypsys and credit them as such, and the fact that Jimi himself mixed the two songs and greenlit them for release gives us a nice glimpse of what this album would sound like, had he mixed the rest of the material then.

Opening side two we have a trio of songs that were mixed during Jimi's final mixing sessions of August 1970: "Ezy Ryder", "Message of Love" and "Earth Blues", all three recorded between December and January at the Record Plant. We again take a cue from the famous first Fillmore performance when it comes to sequencing, grouping "Ezy Ryder" and "Earth Blues" close together near the end of the album and adding "Message to Love" in place of a cover version. Closing out the studio disc is "Burning Desire", recorded in a single take in December 18, 1969. As the only real studio version of this song doesn't feature lead vocals, and this nine-minute rehearsal is an amazing take, we will be adding it to the album. Here, it serves the same purpose as "Voodoo Chile" served in Electric Ladyland: the epic of the album, performed live in the studio without overdubs. And as for the live half of this reconstruction, we will be replacing "Power of Soul" and "Message to Love", both of which were added to the studio half, with one of Jimi's best-ever live performances: "Hear My Train a-Comin'", from the first Fillmore show. Another song that was unreleased at the time, it fits like a glove among the rest of the album. Given how iconic the Band of Gypsys album has become over the years, it feels wrong to mess with it any further, with the inclusion of "Hear My Train a-Comin'" being the only change we'll make to it.

Our expanded Band of Gypsys manages to capture both the fantastic, funky live side of the band and the intricate studio work JH was creating with their help, creating what would end up being a very commercially successful album, and given the sheer strength of the material seen within these four sides, critical success is almost a given as well. With the exception of two live-in-the-studio songs, the entirety of disc one consists of authentic Hendrix mixes, which is quite an impressive feat when it comes to Jimi's fourth album. For a couple of songs, earlier Hendrix mixes from February exist, but the fact that they don't sound that great and that Jimi kept on tinkering with them made me use the final mixes he made. Both discs are around 40 minutes long and the original, iconic Band of Gypsys artwork is kept. "Stepping Stone"/"Izabella" is still the album's lead single, respecting Hendrix's original vision. 1969 was a transitional year for Jimi, where he found himself for the first time without a band and searching for a new musical direction. And as far as transitional albums go, it can't get much better than putting together a supergroup with a few friends and dishing out some of the best songs the nascent genre of Funk Rock had ever seen. It's just a shame that only half of Jimi's vision was released before his death, and the general public couldn't witness the power of soul through the lens of Hendrix's guitar.

Sources:
- Ultimate Hendrix: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Live Concerts and Sessions

- Jimi Hendrix's unfinished fourth studio album [Thread]

Stephen Stills - Songs for Judy (1968)

Buffalo Springfield released their final album, titled Last Time Around, in July 1968 through Atlantic Records. The band's final effort, it came when the strained relationship between Neil Young and the rest of the band finally dissolved, after Young left and rejoined the band a number of times starting in mid-1967. Other issues such as the deportation of Canadian bass player Bruce Palmer after being arrested on drug charges and the band's untrustworthy management also helped accelerate the band's breakup. That left the band's three singers and songwriters to figure out their next steps in the music business. Out of those, Stills seemed to be the one with the easiest path ahead, having written the band's breakthrough hit "For What it's Worth", as well as other minor successes such as "Rock and Roll Woman" and "Sit Down, I Think I Love You", which was a hit for the Mojo Men in 1967. His name was also prominently featured in the very successful Super Session album by Al Kooper, which featured Stills' guitar playing on a side's worth of songs. This certainly further helped his chances at a post-Springfield career, as Super Session made it to the top 20 and was certified Gold, with "Season of the Witch", on which he played, becoming a perennial FM hit. All through this period, Stills never stopped writing, stockpiling new material while still taking the time to plan his next move as a solo artist.

Our first sample of those new songs comes from an archival release called Just Roll Tape. When a studio session by Judy Collins, his then-girlfriend and muse to much of his songwriting during this time period, finished early with studio time still remaining, Stills recorded twelve demos alone with a guitar, which were then presumed lost for the next 35 years. After that, he recorded some demos with his friend David Crosby, who had also been left without a band after the Byrds kicked him out, and with whom he'd been friends for a while, with Croz sitting in at the Buffalo Springfield's Monterey concert (deputizing for Young) and singing backing vocals on "Rock and Roll Woman". Under the monicker Frozen Noses, after the duo's drug of choice at the time, were unsure of which direction to take and if they should work together, when a house party at Cass Elliot's mansion changed everything. There the two met Graham Nash from the Hollies, who upon hearing Stills' new composition "You Don't Have to Cry", as performed by Stills & Crosby, instinctively added his harmony vocals, with the now classic CSN sound being born in a matter of minutes. That proved to be a seismic shift for Stills and Crosby, canning whatever plans they had for solo careers and having them focus full-time on the newly born trio. Crosby, Stills and Nash recorded their first album in early 1969, and the rest is history.

What if that fateful meeting between Crosby, Stills, and Nash in July 1968 had never happened? To find out what it would be like if Stephen Stills had started his solo career two years in advance, we'll have to first put together some rules. There'll be roughly ten songs on the album, as with the first two CSN(&Y) and Stills solo albums, and anything written before the first CSN album was recorded in early 1969 is fair game. No covers, only originals, and this would have been recorded in late 1968 in New York as opposed to early 1969 in California. When it comes to the material itself, "Wooden Ships" is already used in David Crosby's album, and Stephen had more than enough songs to fill an album without it, so we'll be skipping it. And out of the Just Roll Tape session, we will only be considering songs that were later tackled in the studio properly afterward, as the sound quality of the tape itself is not great and features Stills alone on acoustic guitar and vocals. David Crosby would probably still guest on the album to do some harmonies alongside other of Stephen's friends, such as John Sebastian from The Lovin' Spoonful or even Judy Collins herself. But I can see him overdubbing most of the guitar, bass, and keyboards of the album himself, as he did with the first Crosby, Stills, and Nash album, earning the nickname of Captain Many Hands. With that out of the way, here's what the album looks like:

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

Do for the Others (Stephen Stills)

You Won't Have to Cry (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

Know You Got to Run (Stephen Stills 2)

Bumblebee (Manassas)

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Change Partners (Stephen Stills 2)

Black Queen (Stephen Stills)

Helplessly Hoping (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

So Begins the Task (Manassas)

49 Bye-Byes (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

Download link:
Stephen Stills - Songs for Judy (1968)

Stephen Stills, as photographed by Linda McCartney sometime in early 1968.

The April 26, 1968 date for the Just Roll Tape demo session is incorrect, as Stills couldn't possibly have been recording in New York at the same time as he played live with Buffalo Springfield in Arizona. It's suggested the session actually dates to August 26, 1968, making it firmly post-BS and certainly making a great deal more sense, timeline-wise, coming after the Springfield folded for good and Stills was already considering the options for his career. Alongside other songs that weren't taken further after that, "So Begins the Task", "Change Partners", "Know You Got to Run", "Black Queen", "The Love Gangster", "Suite Judy Blue Eyes", and "Helplessly Hoping" were recorded that day. Out of those, "Know You Got to Run" was considerably rearranged before being recorded for the Stephen Stills 2 album in 1971, but still resembles this demo enough for us to consider including it. Alongside it, "The Love Gangster" was retitled from its original (and much superior) "Bumblebee" title from 1968 before being recorded by Manassas, something we will be undoing in this reconstruction, restoring its original title. Meanwhile, all other songs from this August demo recording remained similar enough in lyrics, melody, and arrangement that we could substitute them for their finished versions from 1969/1972 without any problem, with only minor details left to be corrected.

With that, we already have seven songs set for the album, and all we have to do is find three other suitable Stills originals from the same time period to use here. The first and most obvious is "You Don't Have to Cry", which we already know to have been the first song Crosby, Stills and Nash sang together in July 1968 at Cass Elliot's house. At roughly the same time period,  "49 Bye Byes" was demoed as "49 Reasons" by Stills and Crosby in mid-1968, making it also eligible for inclusion on this album. Our final addition was slightly more difficult to find, but the demo of "Do for the Others" found in the deluxe edition of CSN's debut apparently dates to late 1968, giving us the right to include it as well and make it to ten songs. David Crosby and John Sebastian guest on harmony vocals in "Suite Judy Blue Eyes", "Helplessly Hoping", "You Don't Have to Cry" and "49 Bye-Byes" as a sort of surrogate CSN, with Crosby taking the high harmony as he did with the Byrds. "So Begins the Task" and "Change Partners" also don't feature the pedal steel guitar, as Stills hadn't yet befriended Jerry Garcia, but other than that the arrangements remain untouched. Session musicians such as bassist Harvey Brooks from Super Session and Paul Harris from the John Sebastian sessions would also make appearances, with Dallas Taylor playing drums throughout the album, as Stills' main collaborator.

A 40-minute long album with two 20-minute sides, Songs for Judy is a very strong album, featuring many of the greatest songs Stephen Stills ever wrote, certainly ranking alongside other classic albums of the late 60s. I can see the seven-minute-long "Suite Judy Blue Eyes" becoming an FM radio hit, as it was when released by Crosby Stills and Nash. But "Change Partners" would most likely be the actual lead single off the album, and I can see it (and the album for that matter) doing pretty well in the charts. Not CSN numbers, of course, but it'd hit the top 40 for sure. Our album title is shamelessly stolen from a Neil Young live album released a couple of years ago, as it applies pretty well to this collection of songs too. This is also a means of differentiating this reconstruction from Stephen's 1970 self-titled album. To reflect that, our album cover even features Judy Collins herself! If Stephen had managed to establish himself as a solo artist before being eclipsed by the megastardom brought on by CSN(&Y), I can see him becoming much more of a household name both critically and commercially, as did his former bandmate, Neil Young. He certainly had the talent to achieve even more than what he eventually achieved as a solo artist, as one of the finest singer-songwriters of the 70s. As it stands, his post-Buffalo Springfield career is a story of lost potential, drug abuse, and changing partners.

Sources:
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Crosby, Stills & Nash

Stephen Stills - Stephen Stills

Stephen Stills - Stephen Stills 2

Stephen Stills - Manassas

The Velvet Underground - Archetypes (1968)

The Velvet Underground released their second album in January 1968 through Verve Records. Titled White Light/White Heat, it was their first release not to feature singer Nico, and their first after leaving the management of Andy Warhol, who produced their debut LP. Recorded in two weeks in September 1967, it took inspiration from the band's lengthy live improvisations and heavy distorted sound, with "Sister Ray" clocking in at 17 minutes long. As with its predecessor, commercial success still eluded the group, with the album barely scraping the Billboard Hot 100. The changes in personnel that preceded its making were also accompanied by changes in management, with Andy Warhol giving way to the controversial and slimy Steve Sesnick. Right out of the gate, this choice angered bass guitarist and viola player John Cale, who not only didn't trust Sesnick, he believed he wanted to push Lou Reed as their sole frontman to the detriment of band cohesion. Despite the growing tension within the band, the Velvet Underground carried on touring, spending much of late 1967 and early 1968 on the road, playing the White Light/White Heat material and road-testing other new songs live, mostly to clubs and smaller venues. A brand-new endorsement deal with Vox allowed the band to acquire Vox amps, guitars, and other equipment for free, making it so that they were able to bring an organ out on tour for the first time, something which the band would embrace, adding the organ to many of their new songs.

The band also lost no time at all in returning to the studio after the album's release, recording two songs meant for a single at New York's A&R Studios: "Stephanie Says" and "Temptation Inside Your Heart". Why that single was left unreleased is unknown, but that didn't seem to deter the band, recording yet another two songs that May, "Beginning to See the Light" and two versions of "Hey Mr. Rain". With neither of them seeming suited for a single release, and the fact that "Stephanie Says" wasn't released tells me that they weren't recording yet another single and were actually starting to record a new album. Amid all of this touring and recording, however, it seems like intra-band tensions were coming to their highest. To blame were the creative tensions between the experimentalist and avant-garde Cale and the more conventionalist Reed, with a notable anecdote being that Cale wanted to record the following VU album with the band's amps underwater, but it's not known how much of that is factual rather than myth. Adding fuel to the fire, the band was also frustrated that chart success still was nowhere to be seen, and with Sesnick purposefully pitting one against the other, thinking the band with only Reed would be much easier to control, it was only a matter of time before tensions came to a head. In a meeting with guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker, Lou gave them the option of firing Cale or folding the group, with the two begrudgingly choosing the first option.

With that, you might be wondering: what if Cale hadn't been fired from the Velvet Underground? What would their next album look like? It certainly is possible to put together an album, but we will need a lot of lateral logic to complete a full record. No setlists exist from Cale's final few months with the band, which could give us great insight into what material the band was working on immediately before the split. Since that doesn't exist, we will be focusing on songs known to have been written before the events of September 1968, even if they weren't part of the band's repertoire, and songs that John Cale is known to have been involved in, songwriting-wise. Also, due to the dearth of material available, we will be working under the assumption that the four songs they recorded in February and May 1968 were meant for a new studio album, and not simply one-offs. As for the rest of the six songs, they would have been recorded sometime in June/July 1968 in New York City with Cale, as opposed to November 1968 in Los Angeles with Doug Yule, as ended up happening. The album would most likely still be ten songs long, as the side-long jams and experimental tracks of the second album are nowhere to be found, and we will try to limit the inclusion of songs later found in the 1969 self-titled album as much as possible, as the overlap would make two albums that are way too similar, which would be a disservice to this reconstruction. With all that out of the way, here's what our third Velvet Underground album looks like:

Beginning to See the Light (White Light/White Heat)

Stephanie Says (White Light/White Heat)

Temptation Inside Your Heart (White Light/White Heat)

Hey Mr. Rain (White Light/White Heat)
Ocean (Loaded)

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Walk and Talk (Loaded)

Pale Blue Eyes (The Velvet Underground)

I'm Gonna Move Right In (The Velvet Underground)

Countess from Hong Kong (Peel Slowly and See)
Ride into the Sun (Searchin' for My Mainline)

Download link:
The Velvet Underground - Archetypes (1968)

Cale, Morrison, Reed, and Tucker playing live in late 1967.

Side one opens with the Cale version of "Beginning to See the Light", recorded in June 1968. It sounds like a midway point between the heavily distorted and compressed sound of WL/WH and the softer sound of the self-titled album, making the transition from one style to another considerably less jarring. Following it is a song that was originally meant to be released as a single, but was inexplicably left unreleased until the 80s, "Stephanie Says", recorded in February 1968. The aforementioned single's b-side, "Temptation Inside Your Heart", comes next, another poppy song with commercial potential. The song on which Cale plays the most central role to by far, "Hey Mr. Rain" comes next. Recorded during the same session as "Beginning to See the Light", this droning song driven by Cale's viola is the closest the group will get to the experimentalism of their first two records here, featured in the superior version I of the track. For a slightly more controversial inclusion, we have the 1970 Loaded version of "Ocean". We know for a fact that "Ocean" dates back to the Cale lineup of VU, as there exists a tape of Lou and John working on the song in July 1968. But the legend goes that manager Steve Sesnick invited Cale to play on the song in 1970, something which some band members confirmed and some band members (especially Doug Yule) denied. Did he or did he not? We cannot be sure, but if give it the benefit of the doubt, we've just managed to cobble together an entire side of songs featuring Cale! Not bad at all.

Having used up all of the early 1968 sessions, we will have to move on to some sketchier choices for side two, where we'll be having to use our imaginations much more. Starting with "Walk and Talk", a song written in 1967 and often performed live while Cale was still in the band. The demo version from the Loaded sessions can be used, as to me it sounds a lot like it could have sounded in 1968, with a Cale version probably just being slightly faster and more distorted, ala "Beginning to See the Light". Another song written early on and performed with Cale is "Pale Blue Eyes", written in 1965. Arrangement-wise it'd stick pretty closely to the studio version, with a viola part added to the song, as can be heard on the Live MCMXCIII album. Following is a trio of songs that Cale either co-wrote or was credited along with the other band members: "I'm Gonna Move Right In", "Countess from Hong Kong" and "Ride Into the Sun". The first of those would probably stick close to the arrangement VU played live in 1968, a long guitar-driven song with much room for improvisation, only with vocals. "Countess from Hong Kong" exists only on a demo, complete with annoying harmonica, and one can only hope a version with the original four would be much better than that. Finally, we have the great "Ride into the Sun", again from a 1969 studio version. I can't see the arrangement changing that much, with Cale maybe adding some organ to it, but nothing that would cause much impact to it, easily one of the best VU songs ever.

Archetypes is by nature a transitional album, sounding like the midway point between the aggressive White Light/White Heat and the pastoral self-titled album in terms of sound. Personally, I find that what we ended up getting with Doug Yule is still a superior record, but this would have made for a fine VU album nevertheless. Speaking of which, there's thankfully not much overlap between this reconstruction and the Velvet Underground album, making for two nearly distinct albums, with the band's mythical lost fourth LP only giving us two songs as well. The album is titled Archetypes after one of the working titles for the White Light/White Heat album, as also seen on an MGM re-press of WL/WH in the mid-70s. Its album cover is pretty anachronistic with 1968, though, so we'll make our own album cover using a late 1967 photo of the band, as pictures of them in this era are pretty hard to come by. A forty-minute album with a slightly longer side two, the lead single off this album would be the one chosen by the band themselves, which is "Stephanie Says"/"Temptation Inside Your Heart". It certainly wouldn't set the charts on fire, but would do better than their previous singles did, with maybe "Pale Blue Eyes" or "Ride into the Sun" released as a follow-up. It's hard to find fault in Cale and Reed going separate ways when both of them produced such great music for the following decades, but we can't help wondering what if those two had seen the light that their music partnership brought and insisted on it.

Sources:
The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat [45th Anniversary Edition]

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground [45th Anniversary Edition]

The Velvet Underground - Loaded [Fully Loaded Edition]

The Velvet Underground - Peel Slowly and See [Box set]

The Velvet Underground - Searchin' for My Mainline [Bootleg]

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