The Who - White City: A Novel (1985)

Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, passed away in September 1978, at the age of 32. He overdosed on a pill prescribed by him to combat his alcohol withdrawal, as he was an alcoholic trying to kick his habit. His band had just released their Who Are You album, which Moon had recorded with some difficulty, only managing to get himself together enough to record his drum parts during the last two weeks of production. Considering his integral role in the band's sound, and the fact that the band was unsure about their future even before his untimely passing, it would be obvious to think the band would break up immediately after that, as Led Zeppelin did after their drummer suffered the same fate the next year. However, that wasn't the case with The Who. The band, convinced by bandleader and songwriter Pete Townshend to carry on (as his "completely irrational, bordering on insane" way of coping with Keith's death, in his own words), went on to tour again a couple of times and release two studio albums, before their first Farewell Tour and breakup in 1982.

However, that period of the band's history is pretty controversial between fans and critics alike, who felt the band simply couldn't live up to their past glories and wasn't the same anymore. Either due to replacement drummer Kenney Jones' inability to fill Moon's shoes, the rather lackluster quality of the two albums the band released with him, or the more "modern" direction they were heading on, many were dissatisfied with how things were going with the group. And that even includes band members, as singer Roger Daltrey felt Townshend was safeguarding his best songs for his solo career, and didn't feel Jones truly fit in with The Who, style-wise. All in all, those were strange times to be a Who fan, and even more to be a member, as Townshend battled with addiction and his ever-present personal demons, and horrible things such as the tragedy of Cincinnati happened. It's safe to say that all parts were satisfied, if not relieved, when the whole debacle finally ended in 1982, and they would come back a very different band, by the time they reunited again in 1989.

In retrospect, Daltrey, Townshend, and Entwistle all say it would have been best for the band's legacy and standing to simply break up after Moon's death, and reunite sometime later, as other bands did. And although the 1979/1982 period has some fans, myself included, we certainly wouldn't lose much had those tunes been released as a Pete Townshend solo album, would we? While it's certain that they would come back sometime (it is The Who we're talking about, they're on their seventh Farewell Tour right as we speak!), they certainly would benefit from a couple of years to sort their shit out, and let the dust settle on the fact that they'd just lost arguably their most important musician. One could easily see the band breaking up in 1978, with the band members pursuing their own interests and solo careers, and come back sometime in the mid-'80s, right when Pete's solo career was starting to die down a bit, and right on time for Live Aid. They'd return (relatively) sober, without the burden of replacing Moon, and free of any expectations or hype, making it easily the best of both worlds. I mean, if it has to happen sometime, why not then?

So that's what we will be discussing today: what if The Who had made a comeback in the mid-1980s? And to answer that question, we need to assemble an album that both sounds like them, and has some kind of conceptual togetherness, be it a proper opera or just a regular concept album. Luckily for us, we have exactly that. While both Face Dances and It's Hard were criticized for not sounding like The Who at all, Pete's 1985 solo album White City ironically has the most Who-like material he had written in those seven years since Moon's last stand. The songs are at the same time anthemic, have some adventurous production, and have an overarching concept that makes little to no sense, just like the good old Who we all love. That, allied to the fact that he gave one of its songs for Daltrey to sing, makes our job quite easy, actually. We just need to arrange all those little pieces into an actual record, and make the whole thing make sense, as well as throw in the obligatory Entwistle track in there. So, not to make this any longer than it needs to be, here we go:

Give Blood (White City: A Novel)
Brilliant Blues (White City: A Novel)
Face the Face (White City: A Novel)
Hiding Out (White City: A Novel)
Life to Life (Playing for Keeps)
Secondhand Love (White City: A Novel)
-
After the Fire (Under a Raging Moon)
Crashing by Design (White City: A Novel)
I Am Secure  (White City: A Novel)
Love Doesn't Last (The Rock)
Come to Mama  (White City: A Novel)
All Shall Be Well (The Iron Man: The Musical)

Bonus track:
Night School (White City: A Novel)

Entwistle, Jones, Daltrey, and Townshend backstage at Live Aid, June 1985.

As you can probably tell by the fact that we borrowed its title for this comeback Who album, we will follow the White City concept and format rather faithfully in here, as in this case Pete would have almost total control over the songwriting, theme, and production of the album. We only end up removing one track, and adding four others. The track we end up deleting is "White City Fighting", which despite being a semi-title track, was almost entirely written by David Gilmour, with only lyrics by Townshend. As it was rejected for the former's About Face album, it ended up being included the latter's, something I doubt would happen here. The additions are of course "After the Fire", which according to Pete's original 1984 White City script was a part of the concept all along, as well as "All Shall Be Well" from the Iron Man musical, "Life to Life", from the Playing for Keeps soundtrack, both also meant for WC but left unfinished. And JE's "Love Doesn't Last", of course. With that, we end up with a 12-track album, that is honestly pretty close to what we would end up with.

You might also be wondering who would end up being the drummer for the band, as Kenney Jones would never have landed the gig if the band had ended way back in 1978. Well, considering he played in John Entwistle's The Rock album, recorded in 1985, and has been the only constant alongside Daltrey and Townshend in the band since 1996, one could easily see Zak Starkey behind the drumkit. If we're being honest, he's the only true heir to the position, all things considered, and it would certainly be nice to see him in direct succession from Keith. It would also certainly be the least controversial solution. As for the keyboards, "Rabbit" Bundrick is also the obvious candidate, as he held the spot from '79 to 2009, and is probably Pete's keyboardist of choice. All you need to do is add the ever-present Simon Townshend on backing vocals and rhythm guitar, and you've got yourself a touring lineup, far from the bare bones of '76, and still a far cry from the overproduced and overstaffed 1989 tour. A sort of halfway point between those two extremes, really.

How would that affect the sound of the album, then? Not much, I reckon. Seen as Townshend would still be the producer and mastermind behind it, the only real changes would be different basslines by Thunderfingers, and Roger's powerhouse vocals instead of Pete's often reedy singing. He would still sing lead in "Brilliant Blues" and "I Am Secure", the two more intimate songs that really fit his style of singing. And I sincerely think that the bombastic, synthy production fits the material well, and the songs still sound much more like the 'Oo than most of Face Dances. But other than that, songs like "Give Blood" and "Hiding Out" would largely benefit from Daltrey's voice, and the only two songs that would see some change in arrangement are "Face the Face" and "Love Doesn't Last". The first because I honestly doubt they'd succeed in tackling Big Band, with their take on it being faster paced and more guitar-driven (and at least a minute shorter), and the second would sound more in line with the rest of the album, production-wise, and be sung by Entwistle.

Impressively enough, "Love Doesn't Last" fits in rather well alongside something like "Secondhand Love", exploring the theme of failed relationships. The three unfinished songs we added are also very useful in fleshing out the White City concept of urban and social issues, giving the record a lot more depth than before. The cover is just a little something I made to go along with this post, and I thought it fit in well with the album's vibe. "After the Fire" would obviously be the single, and bonus track "Night School" would be its b-side, as it doesn't make it due to time constraints, seen as this LP is almost 49 minutes long. One would imagine this would sell at least half a fuck ton, and considering Pete's version of it was already well-received, the Who's take of it would get some positive reviews, I reckon. Is this better than Face Dances or It's Hard? I honestly think it sounds more like them than those two, but better is too strong of a word. But being perfectly honest, no matter how much things could have been different, it's just great to still have them with us, getting old before they die.

Sources:
- Pete Townshend - White City: A Novel
- Roger Daltrey - Under a Raging Moon
- John Entwistle - The Rock
- Pete Townshend - The Iron Man: The Musical
- Various Artists - Playing for Keeps [Soundtrack]

Band of Gypsys - Gypsy, Sun and Rainbows (1970)

The Jimi Hendrix Experience broke up after a gig at the Denver Pop Festival, in June 1969. The breakup came after some prolonged tension between Hendrix and the band's bass player, Noel Redding, with whom he'd been having personal and professional problems for at least a year. The reasons for that were many, but the final straw was the fact that Jimi planned on expanding the band's lineup without consulting the bassist first, and when Redding discovered that plan, he immediately quit and returned to England. Jimi's plans of playing with a larger ensemble of musicians still came to fruition soon afterward, though, with a new rhythm guitar, a bassist (both of them old army friends of his) and two percussionists, under the name Gypsy, Sun and Rainbows. That group wasn't exactly long-lasting, and according to drummer Mitch Mitchell, they never quite gelled together well, especially when you consider that this six-piece group was together for less than three months. Either way, it was this band that backed him on his seminal Woodstock performance, and it was also their style that planted the seeds that would lead to a different project by the ever influential guitarist.

However, it wasn't only musical problems that were affecting Hendrix's career at that time. He was under pressure from his management and label to release a followup to his double-LP masterpiece, Electric Ladyland, and hadn't progressed much in that, if at all, during the year of 1969. Most of that can be blamed on the fact that it was his first album without producer Chas Chandler, and that he and the Experience were touring on a frenetic pace for most of the year. He was also dealing with legal issues, since former manager from the pre-Experience days Ed Chalpin was being sued for releasing questionable material from Hendrix's time as his client through his label, in direct competition with the JHE's releases. In order to settle that dispute, both parties agreed that Jimi should release a record on Chalpin's label, PPX (distributed by Capitol) the following year. And so Hendrix, who was for the second time in less than a year without a band and nowhere near done with recording his fourth studio LP, formed a group called the Band of Gypsys.

The Band of Gypsys consisted of bassist Billy Cox, who had been in Jimi's previous band and was Redding's longtime replacement, and drummer Buddy Miles, who had been a member of the Electric Flag and was a fantastic soul singer and percussionist. JH's return to the power trio format, they went for a much more soul and funk-oriented sound, mostly due to Miles' influence and the fact that for the first time, Jimi was in an all-black group. The trio began jamming and recording in October of 1969, and played their first live performances that December. Despite their relative recency, the band's original repertoire was growing, with some great songs coming out of their jam sessions and studio recordings, with the majority of those also being played live. With that in mind, Jimi decided that the easiest way to both settle the Chalpin dispute and introduce the BOG to the world was to quickly cobble together a live album, and keep on recording without having to worry about deadlines. However, with the band breaking up in February due to Miles' being fired after a catastrophic show, the Fillmore recordings remained the only glimpse of the BOG the public ever got.

What you might be wondering by now is: what if they managed to finish the studio album they were working on back then? And to answer that question, we need to settle some ground rules first. First of all, we will only include songs that were played live or recorded in the studio by the band during their October/February existence, and will also make it so that the studio album was released instead of the Band of Gypsys live album, as to not make both albums have repeated songs. The band would have to last a little bit longer, to finish recording some of the pieces and oversee some overdubs, but even just a couple of months would do. The album would be a double LP, due to the fact that they had more than enough good songs and long pieces to make such a thing work. Also, all of the material they played live, with the exception of jam number "Who Knows?" and their cover of "Stop" will be included, to paint the best possible picture of the Band of Gypsys both live and in the studio. But since we've managed to cover that all, here's what that would look like:

Power of Soul (Both Sides of the Sky)
Lover Man (Both Sides of the Sky)
Hear My Train a-Comin' (People, Hell, and Angels)

Room Full of Mirrors (Rainbow Bridge)

-
Them Changes (Them Changes)

Izabella (Voodoo Child)
Machine Gun (Band of Gypsys)

-
Ezy Ryder (The Cry of Love)

Bleeding Heart (People, Hell, and Angels)

Message to Love (West Coast Seattle Boy)

Stepping Stone (Voodoo Child)

Earth Blues (Purple Box)

-

Burning Desire (Loose Ends)
We Gotta Live Together (We Gotta Live Together)

Bonus tracks:
Astro Man (Purple Box)
Stop (Live at the Fillmore East)

Hendrix, Miles and Cox performing their New Years' Eve Fillmore East gig in 1970

With only four exceptions, all songs were recorded in NY's Record Plant between December 1969 and January 1970 by the trio. Those are the Fillmore "Machine Gun", which honestly could not be improved on in the studio (even though they tried recording it a couple of times), which would receive minimal overdubs and have its live ambiance removed for a studio album release. It would be a first for Hendrix, that's for sure, but the song doesn't sound out of place at all, sound-wise, and is one of his finest pieces, so it merits inclusion. The others are two May 1969 versions of "Bleeding Heart" and "Hear My Train a-Comin'", which were performed before the band was formed, but by Hendrix, Cox and Miles! The only song that doesn't feature Miles on drums is "Valleys of Neptune", first recorded in September 1969 but presented here in a May 1970 version. As his revenge, we have his studio version of the fantastic "Them Changes", which features Billy Cox on bass but no Hendrix. Then again, with this song, the horns would obviously be removed and Hendrix would record his own guitar part, but since that's the only studio version available, we'll have to take it. The same goes for the BOG "We Gotta Live Together", which is the only version of the song with less than ten minutes, which is how we hope it'd be tackled in the studio, staying at about 5 minutes.

As for the rest of the songs, some of them feature some overdubs done after the band's demise, but considering they were rather minimal (rhythm guitars and backing vocals, mostly), and all still featured the main three members, they are fair game. We use alternative versions of "Earth Blues", "Stepping Stone" and "Izabella", since the versions released in Rainbow Bridge and War Heroes had Mitch Mitchell erasing Miles' drum parts and overdubbing his own, which obviously wouldn't be the case here. As for the album's sequencing, I took my cues from their Fillmore setlists and the posthumous albums' tracklists. Seen as they often started concerts with "Power of Soul", and often had "Izabella" leading into the epic "Machine Gun", we can assume those would retain their positions. But other than that, the end of side one is the only place where "Them Changes" would make sense in the tracklist, and "Hear My Train a-Comin'" would make for the perfect side closer, as would "We Could Be Together", performing the same role it did on the live album. All in all, all sides range between 18 and 20 minutes in length, and with sixteen songs, the exact same number as Electric Ladyland, this all makes for one hell of a double record!

Considering the fact that we're mostly using alternative mixes and rare takes, you might be wondering how many of these songs actually sound like a finished product. And the answer is surprisingly, a lot of them! "Power of Soul" and "Message to Love" sound a lot more developed than their live counterparts, and these mixes of "Izabella" and "Stepping Stone" were even part of a canceled single in February 1970. "Earth Blues", "Room Full of Mirrors" and "Ezy Ryder" were actually finished back then as well, and with the exception of a drum overdub on the former, they would be released as-is. So the only unfinished tracks are "Machine Gun", which would only undertake minimal overdubs before being ready for consumption, "Them Changes", which would feature guitar overdubs by Hendrix and no trace of the horn section, and the most unfinished of all, "Hear My Train a-Comin'", which would necessitate a new lead vocal, drums by Buddy and some guitar overdubs, even though it's already a fantastic take already, as well as lead vocals for "Burning Desire", and a proper studio take of "We Gotta Love Together". But such changes would necessitate less than a month of studio work, which means it's perfectly viable, all things considered.

The album is named "Gypsy, Sun, and Rainbows" after the band that came before them, and I think it really fits in with the album and the album cover I selected for it, which was painted by Mati Klarwein, the same guy who painted the cover for Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. It's a bit heavy on Jimi, I know, but Capitol would probably insist on having a cover that reassured buyers that the Band of Gypsys was just Hendrix under a different name, as to not affect the record's sales. The leadoff single would be "Stepping Stone" backed with "Izabella" in April 1970, as was the case in real life, followed by the album in May, and "Them Changes" backed with "Earth Blues" right afterward. As for how it stands when compared to the rest of Jimi's recorded output, it shows a transitional phase of his, intermingling soul, funk and RnB influenced music with his more familiar material. Its songs are as good as the ones on the albums that came before it, and its sound points to places Jimi, unfortunately, wouldn't be able to get to. It's really a shame this ambitious project didn't go any further, and got tangled in all them changes that were going on in Jimi's life at the time.

Sources:
Band of Gypsys - Band of Gypsys
Buddy Miles - Them Changes
Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection [Compilation]
Jimi Hendrix - Both Sides of the Sky
Jimi Hendrix - West Coast Seattle Boy
Jimi Hendrix - The Cry of Love
Jimi Hendrix - People, Hell, and Angels
Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge
The Jimi Hendrix Experience [Box set]

The Rolling Stones - Tropical Disease (1971)

The Rolling Stones released their ninth studio album, Sticky Fingers, in April of 1971 through Rolling Stones Records. It was their first release after leaving Decca Records and firing former manager Allen Klein, and also their first to have guitarist Mick Taylor as a full-time member of the group. They started recording it as far back as December 1969, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, during a break on their American tour, which yielded three songs: "Brown Sugar", "You Gotta Move" and "Wild Horses". Not bad! The rest of Sticky Fingers was recorded sporadically between March and October of 1970, in London's Olympic Studios. In September of the same year, the Stones played their first European tour in three years, and debuted many of the album's tracks during it, including the aforementioned "Brown Sugar" and "Dead Flowers". Along with the ten tracks that ended up on the finished album, those Olympic sessions also produced demos of songs that would be polished up and finished later, with some fantastic tunes being started during those fruitful sessions.

However, despite the band's prolific nature that year, they would end up not releasing a studio album in 1970, the first time such a thing happened in their career. That would end up happening due to the fact that they were involved in a mess of legal issues with former manager Klein and former label, Decca. As for the former, the band discovered they had signed off the copyrights of all the material they had released so far to ABKCO, and were also forced to give "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses" to make matters worse. And so, rather than risk losing the rights to any more songs, they decided to keep them all under wraps until things were settled. Also put on hold were their plans of recording yet another album almost right after that one, as was praxis when it came to the Stones back then, as they had a finished record they couldn't release. They only managed to release it in April 1971, by which time they'd spent a year and a half between starting point and release, with almost half of that time being spent in court rather than in the studio.

Before the album was released, they even managed to tour the UK in March 1971, as a way to properly say goodbye to their British fans. They had to become tax exiles in France and the USA due to some six years of unpaid taxes (courtesy of Allen Klein) and England's absurd taxes. Once in France, they installed their mobile recording unit in Keith's basement that summer and started recording the now legendary Exile on Main Street, which would be finished in December at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles. The infamous double album was made from two clear batches of songs: the half started at Olympic and written during the sessions for Let it Bleed and Sticky Fingers, which they could finally release, and the half written at Nellcôte's horribly ventilated basement in late 1971, which sounded considerably different when compared to the other group of songs. This whole debacle of legal issues and problems made for a double album which was itself two different albums together in a single package, creating what's probably the greatest Stones album of all time.

So, what I ask you is: what if the whole ABKCO issue hadn't happened, and they managed to record the album they wanted to in early 1971? That would obviously mean Sticky Fingers would have to be released sometime after the European Tour, in November 1970, and they would record in London, sometime between January and July of 1971, with the UK tour taking place in August. It will only feature songs known to have been started during the 69/70 period, with one exception which will be explained later. We will also limit our options to songs that were officially released back then, which bars songs such as "Dancing in the Light" from the deluxe version of EOMS and all the period songs from the Metamorphosis album. Considering that most of the songs on the album are pretty short, and the fact that Sticky Fingers was pretty long, at 47 minutes, I felt comfortable making this into a 12 track album, to both match the length of the former, but also to make room for all the great material we have available. Not to stretch this any longer, here's our tracklist:

All Down the Line (Exile on Main Street)

100 Years Ago (Goat's Head Soup)

Shake Your Hips (Exile on Main Street)

Let it Loose (Exile on Main Street)

Sweet Virginia (Exile on Main Street)

Tumbling Dice (Exile on Main Street)

-

Silver Train (Goat's Head Soup)

Loving Cup (Exile on Main Street)

Hide Your Love (Goat's Head Soup)

Sweet Black Angel (Exile on Main Street)

Stop Breaking Down (Exile on Main Street)

Shine a Light (Exile on Main Street)

Bonus tracks:
Alladin Story (Exile on Main Street)
Dancing in the Light (Exile on Main Street)
Leather Jacket (Mick Taylor)

Jagger, Taylor, Richards, and Watts playing at the Marquee, March 1971

Starting off the proceedings is live staple and workhorse, "All Down the Line", which is the obvious choice when it comes to starting off the album. It was first recorded during the Let it Bleed sessions as an acoustic number, in June 1969, sounding a bit like "Street Fighting Man". By 1970, it had evolved to become the rock and roll tune we all know and love, which means this version of it would sound a hell of a lot like the EOMS version, only with some prominent acoustic guitar, like "Brown Sugar" had from the previous year. Soon after, comes "100 Years Ago", which according to Mick Taylor in a '73 interview, was at least two years old when they recorded it definitely, which makes it fair game in our timeline, adding a touch of R'n'B and Funk to the proceedings. Its arrangement stays largely the same, only being a bit more fast-paced than it was on Goat's Head Soup. As for "Shake Your Hips" its master take was actually recorded during the SF sessions in June 1970, only missing definitive lead vocals and a proper mix, making it an obvious addition to the album.

The downbeat "Let it Loose" follows, being first demoed in May 1969 during the LIB sessions, and also being worked on throughout 1970. Its backing track was done in June 1970 and the song only needed vocals and a proper mix, which means no absurd changes involved. As for "Sweet Virginia", it was fully written in early 1970 and its backing track was recorded back in June 1970, with the vocals and saxophone solo being added in LA, which means it stays the way it is. Closing off side one, as it did in Exile, is "Tumbling Dice". First worked on in April 1970 under the title Good Time Women, which was a bit quicker and had different lyrics, with them only settling on the final lyrics and arrangement in Nellcôte. However, I still think they'd end up with at least pretty similar results to the finished version, if not exactly the same, with a rather slow tempo and gambling lyrics. "Silver Train" was first recorded in October 1970, and was already finished, only missing a couple of lyrics here and there, sounding almost exactly like its GHS counterpart, a great way to kick off side two.

Up next is "Loving Cup", played during their infamous Hyde Park concert in June 1969, also being first recorded that month. The lyrics were all in place, as was most of the arrangement, only slowed down and minus its piano intro, two issues they'd probably correct in the sessions we are discussing. "Hide Your Love" was first worked on in October 1970. A pretty simple song, it would sound almost exactly the same as it does now, but feature shorter solos and be a bit sped up as well, due to the album's time constraints, and the fact that it honestly drags on a bit. Both "Sweet Black Angel" and "Stop Breaking Down" were recorded during the SF sessions, both being a lead vocal and a mix away from being finished, making them natural additions. Speaking of natural additions, "Shine a Light" is the obvious closer for Tropical Disease, being first written way back in 1968 under the name Get a Line on You. By 1970, they had settled on the finished lyrics, but the arrangement would only come with the help of Billy Preston adding a gospel flair to it, which would also happen here.

As for the album title, Tropical Disease was one of the working titles for the EOMS album, and I thought it somehow fit in with the album, especially considering the nature of some of its songs. The album cover comes from an October 1971 photoshoot for Exile's promotional postcards, which honestly looks like a bunch of Europeans disembarking in a South American country in the forties. It's a pretty long album, with both sides hitting the 24-minute mark, and the whole thing makes up for a great listening experience. It's a more concise LP than Exile, and as much of a good listen, especially considering that if you take the second batch of material, you can make an album as good as this one. It would be released sometime in November 1971, with "All Down the Line" and "Shine a Light" acting as it two main singles, and maybe "Tumbling Dice" as a third option, seen as it didn't sell well in our timeline. Despite all the missed opportunities, the Stones were truly unbeatable up to 1973, and whichever way they chose to release their material, I'm sure we'd be satisfied.

Sources:
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street

The Rolling Stones - Goat's Head Soup
Mick Taylor - Mick Taylor

The Byrds - 1320 North Columbus (1968)

The Byrds released their fifth album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, in January 1968, through Columbia Records. It featured rhythm guitarist and vocalist David Crosby's final recordings with the band, after he was fired in late 1967, due to his often unbearable behavior (a pretty nice, formal way of saying he was a dick!), which culminated in him promoting conspiracy theories about JFK onstage during their appearance on the Monterey Pop Festival that same year. Curiously, it also features ex-member Gene Clark, who had left the band in mid-1966 and was in the midst of a failed solo career, singing backing vocals on a couple of the album's tracks, which makes it their first LP since Fifth Dimension to feature all five of the original Byrds. He even co-wrote one of the album's tunes, "Get to You", and all that tension and stive made for a sometimes brilliant, but rather unfocused album, that also didn't sell as well as the ones that came before it. More than ever, it was obvious they needed a strong songwriter and a new sense of direction.

So it should come as no surprise that Clark was supposed to come back to the band once his ex-bandmate Crosby had flown away to form CSN. He and the other three Byrds even played a couple of gigs together in late 1967, before the same old problems that had plagued him in his first tenure with the band (which included a fear of flying and anxiety attacks) came back and he was once again booted, and the band soldiered on as a trio. After yet another band member leaving, this time ever-problematic drummer Michael Clarke, the group started rebuilding themselves after bassist Chris Hillman encountered singer and pianist Gram Parsons at random in a bank, and the two stuck up a friendship. Parsons, alongside Hillman's cousin, drummer Kelvin Kelley, would form a brand new Byrds lineup alongside the two remaining Byrds in 1968, and they would quickly record an album of their own. The result, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, is a landmark in the foundation of Country Rock as a genre, and an overall fantastic album, despite only featuring two originals.

Meanwhile, Clark was also pretty busy doing his own things back then, joining forces with banjo great Doug Dillard and guitarist Bernie Leadon to form Dillard & Clark. Despite not touring, due to Gene's many issues, they recorded a fantastic, bluegrass-tinged album in late 1968, with some fantastic songwriting by the ex-Byrd throughout its nine cuts, as well as some inspired playing by the other two. At the same time, the latest Byrds lineup splintered, as Parsons and Roger McGuinn battled for control of the group. As McGuinn obviously won that battle with ease, Parsons and Hillman deserted to go form the Flying Burrito Brothers, and the former once again soldiered on with yet another Byrds lineup. The Burritos went on to write and record their debut album still in late 1968 (that's one busy year for this band!), this time much more focused on Parsons/Hillman penned material than covers. The Mk. III lineup of the Byrds also did the same, with the messy, but sometimes great, Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, which also featured some McGuinn-written gems.

So, what that all has been leading up to is: what if Gene Clark had stayed with the Byrds for a second term as a chief songwriter? To make that possible, we'll need to take a look at how such a thing would be feasible. For starters, a sort of Brian Wilson arrangement would have to take place, as in Gene would write and record with the band, but not tour, with someone else taking his place on the road. And our pick for that person could very well be Dillard & Clark bandmate and future Burrito, Bernie Leadon, who is one hell of a guitar player, a great singer (who can interpret Gene well, as proved by his version of Train Leaves Here This Morning) and all-around easy to deal with guy, as well as being an old friend of Chis Hillman's. And our task is finding and arranging all the material this five-man lineup would have brought to the table for an album, to be released sometime in November or December of 1968, as they had already released an album that year and weren't that much in a hurry. So here's what we've got going for this alternate Byrds lineup:

Out on the Side (Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark)
She Darkened the Sun (Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark)
King Apathy III (Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde)
Juanita (The Gilded Palace of Sin)
Don't Come Rollin' (Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark)
Train Leaves Here This Mornin' (Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark)
-
With Care from Someone (Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark)
Sin City (The Gilded Palace of Sin)
The Radio Song (Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark)
In the Plan (Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark)
Bad Night at the Whiskey (Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde)
Something's Wrong (Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark)

Bonus track:
High Fashion Queen (Burrito Deluxe)
All I Have Are Memories (Sweetheart of the Rodeo)

Clark, McGuinn, Hillman, and Clarke backstage on the Smothers Brothers, Nov. 1967

One of the first questions we have to ask is: which songs are included, and why? And to answer that, eight of the songs here are primarily written by Clark, who was by far the most successful songwriter out of the five, who is occasionally helped by Leadon in that department. Doug Dillard's role in those eight was mostly as an arranger, which warranted him credit on a couple of them. Effectively, he would be replaced by McGuinn in that task, who would then take those co-writing credits for himself. Other than that, we have available the two Burritos songs that are known to be mostly written by Hillman, which are "Juanita" and "Sin City", as well as Roger's two best songs from Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde. As you may have noticed, no cover songs are included, as the band now had four great composers and it would be pointless to add outside material, given the strength of the tunes they were writing. As is the norm, we are talking about a twelve-track, forty-minute album, with mostly evenly divided lead vocals between the three main members, which will be explained shortly.

As for the arrangements, I don't see either the Burrito or Byrds songs changing all that much, given that the former was already in a style the band showed they could cover before, and the latter could have their guitar parts easily covered by Leadon. However, when it comes to the D&C songs, things would change considerably, as those songs would most certainly be "electrified" and brought back to a rock (or at least country rock) style. Another change is that the vast array of session musicians employed for Notorious would be gone, them using just their core band members and a session keyboardist on the LP. Bernie would handle all pedal steel/lead duties, and mostly only sing live, leaving harmonies to the other three. Speaking of vocals, Clark would obviously not sing lead on eight of the album's 12 tracks, and so a bit of shuffling is needed. Two of them, "Don't Come Rollin'" and "In the Plan", are given to McGuinn, being well suited to his voice and featuring a co-writing credit by him, while "The Radio Song" is given to co-author Bernie Leadon, as his sole vocal spot.

On a more song to song basis, songs like "She Darkened the Sun", "With Care from Someone" and "In the Plan" would definitely sound a hell of a lot more like their Gilded Palace of Sin counterparts, while a song like "Don't Come Rollin'" has great potential to be a rocker, McGuinn's 12-string replacing the banjo. As for "Train Leaves Here This Morning" and "Something's Wrong", the arrangements would obviously stay acoustic, and considering Chris played the mandolin on the latter, we've almost halfway there already! The one full-band Clark song, the fantastic "Out on the Side" stays largely the same as well, giving the album a great, slow start ala "Tears of Rage". For b-sides and outtakes, we have one mostly-Hillman song from the same first batch as the FBB's first album, "High Fashion Queen", which was recorded on their followup and features Michael Clarke on drums. A nice, pedestrian song, and given that Parsons and Hillman didn't include it on their album at first, I feel like we shouldn't either. We also have drummer Kevin Kelley's Ringo moment, "All I Have Are Memories", which is pretty much ok, and comes from the Sweetheart sessions.

1320 North Columbus, named as such due to the lyric from "Train Leaves Here This Morning", makes for a great Byrds record, featuring stellar songwriting and a more focused feel than others that came before it, although it misses the variety and scope of previous Byrd records. It features great acoustic pieces, some heavy rockers, and everything in between, managing to unite the musicianship of the later Byrds with the great songwriting of the early Byrds. It clocks in at about nineteen minutes per side, which is pretty much the norm by the standards of the day, and the obvious lead single would be "Train", with either of the bonus tracks as its b-side. The cover is my attempt at emulating the style of most of Columbia's mid-60's artwork, and I'm pretty happy with the results. Given the amount of talent involved, the Byrds' future could have been very different than it ended up being, and with the right choices, instead of slowly fading away from the public consciousness, they could have taken the place of another bird-related band as one of the great bands of the seventies.

Sources:
- Dillard & Clark - The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark
- The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin
- The Byrds - Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde
- The Flying Burrito Brothers - Burrito Deluxe
- The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo

Grateful Dead - Rambling Rose (1972)

The Grateful Dead released their seventh album (and third live album), Europe '72, in November 1972 through Warner Bros Records. It featured live recordings from their April/May European tour of that same year, and the album is also notable in that it's their first release after keyboardist Keith and singer Donna Jean Godchaux joined the band, late in 1971. As was the case with the previous year's Skull and Roses, the album featured a couple of brand new compositions that were never recorded in the studio, as the band was pretty busy releasing solo albums and touring incessantly in the USA and, for the first time, Europe and the UK. Some of those even feature a couple of studio overdubs and other touch-ups, making those live versions the fan-approved definitive versions of the songs and live/studio hybrids. However, that wasn't always the plan on what to do with the material, according to the band themselves and people close to them.

That particular batch of songs, started with the live debut of "Brown Eyed Women" in late August 1971 and finished during the European tour, was supposed to become a studio record named Rambling Rose, according to the band's main lyricist, Robert Hunter. However, as was the case with my previous reconstruction, the band was simply too divided between touring and making solo albums (this time Bob Weir's album, also named Ace) to go into the studio and give these songs a proper recording. And since Skull and Roses had already sold a lot, it seemed that live albums with new material were a smart decision to make, especially when it comes to a band as notable for its live performances as the Dead were back in the day, and the little expense it provided when compared to a couple of months locked away in a studio somewhere in California. It was a win-win situation for both the band and it's fans, or at least so it seemed.

Plans were even made for them to enter the studio sometime after the tour, in June 1972, but seen as the band was exhausted from the two-month-long tour of Europe they'd just come out of, they were scrapped and the band focused on turning the tour's recordings into a live album instead, which was tentatively titled Steppin' Out. After that, the band's next studio album would only be released a full year later, as Wake of the Flood, leaving many live staples, possible hits and overall classic songs orphans of studio recording, stranded among twenty-minute jams and older songs in a live album. Because of that, what Deadheads all over the world still wonder is: what would a 1972 Dead studio album look like? Is it possible to take that fantastic group of songs and turn them into a cohesive whole? That's what we will be doing today, all that while taking care not to overstep our previous reconstruction of Thunder and Lightning, of course. Here's what we've got going:

Jack Straw (Europe '72)
He's Gone (Europe '72)
Chinatown Shuffle (Europe '72)
Ramble On Rose (Europe '72)
-

Brown-Eyed Women (Europe '72)

Comes a Time (Reflections)

One More Saturday Night (Europe '72)
Tennessee Jed (Europe '72)

Bonus tracks:
Empty Pages (Dick's Picks Vol. 35)

Pigpen, Weir, and Garcia playing live in April 1972

First of all, we need to comb through the available material and see what can and can't be used in the Rambling Rose album. Unlike with the 1971 album, there is enough material so that both Bobby's record and a GD album could be released, so we need to select where each song goes. First of all, both "Greatest Story Ever Told" and "Playing in the Band" were already in the last album, so they are both excluded. "Jack Straw" and "One More Satuday Night", as the only Weir/Hunter compositions of the batch, stays with the Dead, and all other Weir/Barlow songs go to the solo album. As "Mr. Charlie" has also been used in the last album, it is replaced with another Pigpen song, "Chinatown Shuffle", which was in rotation with the former during the tour. All of Jerry's new songs played during the tour are included, even those that weren't selected for the live album, as was the case with "Comes a Time", later recorded solo by Jerry for his "Reflections" album. And considering this is supposed to be a studio album, having a studio-recording song is not too bad!

In all, all the material they debuted between August 1971 and the end of the European Tour in May of 1972 amounts to eight tracks, and we need to sequence them in a fashion that makes sense and flows well together. We can start off with "Jack Straw" as the album opener, as it was a pretty common first set opener for the band from '77 onward. And hey, if it's good enough for a gig, it's good enough for an album! I took some cues from the Europe '72 album as well, sequencing "He's Gone" as track two, and having "Brown Eyed Women" and "Tennessee Jed" as side two opener and closer respectively. Other than that, I went with what flowed well together and made sense together, amounting to two sides of 22-ish minutes each. Had these songs been recorded in the studio, they'd probably have some acoustic touches to them, as the studio versions of the '71 material had in the Garcia LP, but other than that, they'd mostly stay the same. They'd also have shorter solos as well, bringing the lenght of the album closer to Workingman's Dead territory, at some 38 minutes.

As for the album cover, we can use one of the many Stanley Mouse paintings of Bertha, a skeleton with a crown of roses (a coincidence we will use in our favor, of course), as it fits the material and the general themes of the songs pretty well. As an album, Rambling Rose can stand alongside any other GD studio album from their songwriting peak and still make a run for being the best of them all, which is quite a feat in my view.  This sequencing really gave the songs a nice, cohesive form, which it desperately needed in its original release, and the studio track of "Comes a Time" really doesn't feel out of place at all. It really is a shame songs so great as "Tennessee Jed", "Brown Eyed Women" and quasi-title track "Ramble on Rose" weren't given the opportunity to have their own LP, as they certainly deserved it (more so than many other songs they committed to recording after that, that's for sure!). But that's the way things are, and we're really lucky to even have these songs (to fill the air), no matter how and where they were recorded.

Sources:
- Grateful Dead - Europe '72
- Grateful Dead - Wake of the Flood
- Grateful Dead - From the Mars Hotel
- Jerry Garcia - Reflections
- Grateful Dead - Europe '72, Vol. 2
- Grateful Dead - Dick's Picks, Vol. 35