The Beatles - Liverpool Childhood (1967)

The Beatles performed their final show at San Francisco's Candlestick Park, in August 1966. The group decided to call it quits from the touring business after a hectic few years, mostly because they could barely hear themselves because of the screaming girls, and decided to become a studio-only band. Their relief was such, that by the end of that tour (which involved death threats, LPs being burned in bonfires and almost being left for dead in Manila), George sat back on the plane ride home and said "well, I'm not a Beatle anymore", and they all decided to take an extended break. The group spend the next few months each doing their own thing, with Ringo staying at home to take care of his one-year-old kid, George traveling to India to study the sitar, Paul either dying or going on a holiday in Africa (we haven't quite figured that out yet, sorry) and John shooting a movie in Spain. And by the time they regrouped, in November 1966, the rumors that they'd broken up were many, and they were all considerably different than what people last saw them as, four nearly identical moptops. It was with all of this in mind that they went into their familiar grounds of Abbey Road Studios in December 1966 to craft the followup to their latest album, Revolver. And they would only be done in April of the following year.

The first few songs they worked on were "Strawberry Fields Forever", which John had written in Spain while shooting his movie, "Penny Lane", which Paul had been working on for the past few months, and "When I'm Sixty Four", which was written in 1958 and even played at the Cavern Club when the electricity died down. Inspired by Freak Out!, by The Mothers of Invention, the band had intended on making a concept album for a while, and decided that now was the time to do so, since they wouldn't need to tour on such complex material anymore. The first concept they'd thought of, because of the lyrical themes of the three songs, was a concept about working-class life in their hometown of Liverpool, and what growing up there was like. With work on those three songs taking up most of the month of December, the release of an album was put to somewhere in the middle of the following year, and EMI got desperate for material. Considering that back then albums were released every six months, waiting a whole year for a new album was unthinkable, and so they decided to release a compilation and demand a single be released by February. Considering they only had three songs ready, George Martin made "the worst mistake of his recording career" and released "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" as a single.

Now left without the two songs that defined the album's concept, the band decided to scrap said concept and start anew. And with that, Paul came up with a new concept: a fake old-timey military band, which would serve as an alias to the Beatles themselves. With that in mind, they quickly composed a theme for that band, "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band", and set on to work on adapting the material they had to fit into the record. And well, the rest is history. Yes, I know it's almost a sin to mess with perfection, but what I'd like to know is: what if they had managed to work with their original concept? If that non-album single hadn't happened, they would be able to make use of the "Liverpool childhood" idea and shape the album around it, with no need for a different idea. Well, to see how such an album would come together, we first need to set up some rules. Only songs from the original Pepper sessions that fit in with the overarching concept of the album will be considered, and even songs written after the album changed concepts will be considered, as there is not much pre-Pepper material to work with. I'll be working with seven songs a side, considering that was the norm back then, and will obviously not include either the title track or its reprise. With all of that in mind, here's what I've come up with:

Strawberry Fields Forever (Magical Mystery Tour)
Getting Better (Sgt. Peppers)
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (Sgt. Peppers)
Fixing a Hole (Sgt. Peppers)
Piggies (The White Album)
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (Sgt. Peppers)
She's Leaving Home (Sgt. Peppers)
-
Penny Lane (Magical Mystery Tour)
Good Morning, Good Morning (Sgt. Peppers)
Lovely Rita (Sgt. Peppers)
When I'm Sixty Four (Sgt. Peppers)
Only a Northern Song (Yellow Submarine)
With a Little Help from My Friends (Sgt. Peppers)
A Day in the Life of... (Sgt. Peppers)

Bonus track:
Isn't it a Pity? (All Things Must Pass)

The four Beatles in December 1966, at Abbey Road Studios' doostep

First of all, we need to figure out which songs work well within the idea of the album. For our luck, most of the songs fit in pretty well, and in an honestly less hamfisted way than they did with Pepper. All of the album songs, minus the title track and "Within You, Without You" (can't see where Indian mysticism fits in with English working-class experiences!) are then included here, although in a different fashion. Also, a different running order is adopted, mostly based on an alternative side A sequence from early 1967 that had "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" as the third track is used. Obviously, we switch the opener for "Strawberry Fields Forever", as its mellotron intro serves for a great, suspenseful start to the record, and pull in "Getting Better" as the second track in the album. Other than that, we follow the alternative sequence to the letter, only adding another song to make up for the latter's absence. Side two is a bit more complicated, as I add "Penny Lane" as the side opener, move "Good Morning Good Morning" up to the second spot, and then shuffle around the remaining tracks, with "With a Little Help from My Friends" repurposed as the track that leads to the finale, which is still "A Day in the Life", also trying not to have more than two songs from the same singer in a row, and to have evenly timed sides.

As for differences in the songs themselves, I don't see much changing. Honestly, the only thing that linked "Little Help" to the Pepper concept was the Billy Shears intro, which can easily be substituted for an instrumental version from the Pepper deluxe edition, making it just a song about how having friends goes a long way in making life better, which fits in 100% with the Childhood concept. "A Day in the Life" has a clean intro, as it doesn't segue from the crowd noises of the reprise, and doesn't have the weird hidden track in the end, as it sounds better that way. And now that we are left without a George track, I decided on adding two: "Only a Northern Song" (with its chorus being a direct reference to Liverpool, even though the lyrics are pretty nonsensical), and the more controversial one, "Piggies". Having been written all the way back in late-1966, but only finished for the White Album, its lyrics deal with capitalism and class struggles in a lighthearted and fable-like way, which certainly fits in with the more child-like songs in the album, and materialistic critique certainly fits in with the working class concept. And considering its lead by a harpsichord and orchestral backing, "Piggies" is certainly psychedelic enough to fit in the album, sound-wise. Ideally, a psychedelic take on "Isn't it a Pity?", also from '66, would be featured there, but as it is, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

With two sides clocking in at about 22 minutes, Liverpool Childhood is a fantastic album, with some of the best Lennon/McCartney compositions ever written. When compared to the album it went on to become, I honestly feel it's superior on a song-by-song level, even though Pepper still takes the lead on consistence. Of course, adding two of the band's greatest songs to the album they belong to is obviously going to improve it, but songs like "Lovely Rita" and "Good Morning, Good Morning" honestly feel much more at home in a concept about everyday Scouse life than in a fictional marching band, which is understandable. As for the album cover, it was created by John Hunt over at I Design Album Covers, depicting what it would look like if Peter Blake designed a cover for this earlier concept. Alongside it came the title of Liverpool Childhood, which is honestly pretty good not to use. And as with Pepper, no singles would be released, to maintain the whole "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" mythos. Considering we got one of the greatest albums of all time out of it, it's honestly not too bad that this album happened to transform itself into a different concept. However, it's still nice to wonder how things could have been, had fate not decided on having Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band perform on record.

Sources:
- The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
- The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
- The Beatles - The Beatles

Paul McCartney & Wings - Tug of War (1981)

Wings released their seventh and final album, Back to the Egg, in June 1979. It was recorded during the period of almost a year, and reflected Paul's desire to reflect some of the then-current trends in his work, most notably punk and new wave. The album ended up being an exceptional failure in all fronts, both in critical acclaim and in commercial performance, failing to soar to the heights their albums usually did. However, the band still toured the UK in late 1979, making plans for a Japanese tour in January 1980 and an American tour later that year as well. The British tour was well received, with the band's newest additions of Laurence Juber and Steve Holley gelling quite well, and closing off the year with a charity concert for Cambodia, in which Wings saw themselves performing alongside The Who, Queen, and newer acts such as The Pretenders and Rockpile. Despite a rocky start with a rather sub-par album, this new lineup seemed like a new beginning for the band, a breath of fresh air for a group that had been through a lot throughout its almost ten years of existence. And with dates planned in the States and in the Far East, the future looked bright for them. And then, of course, the Japan drug bust happened. And after McCartney was caught with some "recreational herbs" while entering Japan, activity within the band died down considerably.

After getting out of prison in February, he decided to release his solo, experimental recordings from the previous summer as his second solo album, appropriately titled McCartney II. Meanwhile, sideman Denny Laine also released his, rather ironically titled, album Japanese Tears, which included brand new recordings and some Wings outtakes, spanning all the way back to 1972, and making for a good retrospective of his time in the band, as well as his talents as a songwriter. The band would only finally reunite in June 1980, for rehearsals at a place called Pugin's Hall, in Kent. There, they'd spend the following months, with solo demos from June being used as a reference, rehearsing a batch of new songs written by Macca, apparently meant for a new LP by the band. In all, those amounted to eight songs, with the tapes we have of those rehearsals being very skeletal and simple versions of those songs, most likely because the band hoped to flesh out the songs in the studio, as they usually did. But by the time they hoped to enter the studio, in November 1980, with producer George Martin, Paul had decided to record that material as a solo album. Apparently motivated by Martin, who didn't like working with groups (how ironic!) and felt Macca should record with session musicians and with who fit the songs, instead of having to limit himself within the band's limitations.

Sessions started in December 1980 with only himself, his wife Linda, and Denny Laine from the band contributing. He managed to record an embryonic version of "Tug of War" and his collaboration with Laine, "Rainclouds" (which they rehearsed in Pugin's Hall in October), before tragedy struck, and the sessions were temporarily abandoned. By the time they returned, in February 1981, Denny only stuck around for another month before quitting, citing Paul's reluctance to tour in support of the album they were making, among other factors such as his desire to start a solo career. That prompted the official breakup of Wings, in April of that year, and Tug of War becoming a real McCartney solo album, with him inviting 10cc's Eric Stewart to the sessions to serve as second-in-charge, with no further involvement from any Wings members. However, what many were left wondering back then was: what if Wings had managed to record their final album, before George Martin interfered and decided on a solo album instead? Well, as always, we need to set up some rules first. We will include all the songs they debuted during those rehearsal sessions, and some of the songs Denny contributed to during the Tug of War sessions in 1981, with only one major exception which will be explained later, as usual when it comes to this blog. But other than that, here's our tracklist for Tug of War:

Tug of War (Tug of War)
Take it Away (Tug of War)
Keep Under Cover (Pipes of Peace)
Average Person (Pipes of Peace)
Be Together (Anyone Can Fly)
No Values (Give My Regards to Broad Street)
-
Ballroom Dancing (Tug of War)
The Pound is Sinking (Tug of War)
Wanderlust (Tug of War)
Rainclouds (Single B-Side)
Dress Me Up as a Robber (Tug of War)
Ebony and Ivory (Tug of War)

Bonus tracks:
Love's Full Glory (Wide Prairie)
Sweetest Little Show (Pipes of Peace)

Laine, the McCartneys and Martin at Montserat Studios, February 1981

In order to turn this hybrid of the Pugin's Rehearsals and the early ToW sessions into a proper album, we first need to select which songs are fair game to be used, out of the available few we have. All the new songs from those final rehearsals, which are "Take it Away", "Keep Under Cover", "Average Person", "No Values", "Ballroom Dancing", "Rainclouds", and "Ebony and Ivory", are included, as is "Dress Me Up as a Robber", which is based on an older Wings song from the BTTE sessions and has Denny playing the guitar synthesizer. But other than that, we are left with four blank spots, considering a new album would have more or less twelve tracks. And taking a look at which songs Laine performed in, we have "Tug of War", which was recorded during those early December sessions, and is an obvious addition to the album, as are "Wanderlust" and "The Pound is Sinking", which were demoed by the band in 1977, during the sessions for the London Town album. The fact those three were also demoed during solo sessions in June 1980 certainly helps! Not included, however, will be two songs Laine contributed to, "Somebody Who Cares", which was written after the rehearsals and demos at Martin's insistence, and "Hey Hey" was written in collaboration with bassist Stanley Clarke, who obviously wouldn't perform on the album had it been an actual Wings record.

Well, what about Denny's song, then? Luckily for us, he demoed a song with that exact title during both the Pugin's rehearsals and the Tug of War sessions, which is the closest we'd get to his solo spot on the album. And since "Denny's Song" is an embryonic version of "Be Together", from his Anyone Can Fly album, we can include that song here, even though it features no input from Paul. But other than that, if Wings had performed as a band on this record, or even in a sort of Band on the Run fashion (only the main three assisted by studio musicians), the arrangements would end up being different. And the main differences I see are the harmonies, which in the TOW album sound one hell of a lot like 10cc, because of Eric Stewart's presence and input, would have that classic Paul/Linda/Denny sound we'd all grown accustomed to over the years. And some of the songs, such as "Take it Away" and "Average Person", would have a more guitar-based sound, instead of relying on the piano too much, which in my view is always a positive. And "Ebony and Ivory" would not feature Stevie Wonder, of course! As for sequencing, I maintained the general shape of the album as much as I could, only filling in the gaps with the available songs, ending up with two evenly-timed sides at about 22 minutes, which is fair enough.

All in all, this certainly feels like a step up from Back to the Egg. With McCartney less preoccupied in being hip, we end up with a batch of very strong songs ("Average Person" notwithstanding), with mature arrangements, courtesy of George Martin, and overall good listening experience, if not a brilliant album. And in my humble opinion, this is even better than the released Tug of War album, with the exception of the great "Somebody Who Cares" and "Here Today". As the former is brought down by subpar collaborations with Stevie Wonder and Carl Perkins, it's nice to see Paul only receive input from his own band members, and not have to listen to "What's That You're Doing" ever again! And as for the album cover, I decided I wanted something visually similar to what ended up on the finished product, and ended up with this. It keeps the mostly red color palette, while substituting that picture of Paul with a painting of an actual tug of war, which remains the title of the album as well. The main single off the album would most likely still be "Take it Away", with "Ballroom Dancing" as the second single. This is a great look into how things could've been different, had Paul chosen to keep his longtime backing band together into the eighties. Considering it's his "lost decade", and not much good came out of it, I feel like he probably could've used their opinions, instead of playing a creative tug of war with himself.

Sources:

- Paul McCartney - Tug of War

- Paul McCartney - Pipes of Peace

- Paul McCartney - Give My Regards to Broad Street

- Denny Laine - Anyone Can Fly

Bruce Springsteen - Unsatisfied Heart (1983)

Bruce Springsteen released his sixth album, "Nebraska", in October 1982 through Columbia Records. His first truly solo album, it features Bruce playing all the instruments and was recorded in a single week, from late December 1981 to January 3rd, 1982. Its release came after a couple of frustrating sessions with his group, the E Street Band, who were having some difficulty turning those Dec. '81 demos into a finished product, as well as tracking many other "electric" songs not from the Nebraska tape, as you saw in an earlier reconstruction by yours truly. In a move that is as bold, unpredictable and puzzling as The Boss can sometimes be, he decided he'd simply release the demo tape and shelve those other songs for the time being, with plans to hold further sessions the following year. Before 1982 ended, he also had the time to buy a house in California, and play a couple of gigs as a guest in some New Jersey bars he used to frequent. And as for the album, it sold as little as his management expected it to sell, despite getting rave reviews and critical acclaim.

In January 1983, Bruce moved to L.A., settling in a house equipped with a brand new home studio, which was much more professional and of quality than the cheap Tascam recorder he used to make Nebraska. Now with the ability to record studio-level demos from the comfort of his home, he started recording a new batch of songs in preparation for the E Street sessions that would begin the following May. In just four months, he managed to record some fifteen tracks there, with just the aid of a drum machine and recording all the parts alone. Unlike Nebraska, the arrangements weren't as sparse and much more thought out, with most songs being given keyboards and one or two keyboard parts, actually sounding like a one-man-band. Given the quality of these recordings, Bruce gave serious consideration into either releasing them as a standalone album, just like the album that came before it, or integrating these songs to the May 1982 leftovers. Even though a tracklist for the latter was made, he decided on neither, and shelved almost all of these songs.

Since it would be another year until he could make up his mind on how he would release Nebraska's followup, and 1983 saw virtually no activity from him, we can ask ourselves: what if he had released these L.A. Garage demos as their own album? And to answer such a question, we will need to cull the best 10/12 songs from these pretty prolific sessions, and turn them into a cohesive listening experience, following Bruce's preferences whenever possible. Also, only songs that were started and finished during these early '83 sessions will be considered, with one major exception that will be explained later. And even though this is a solo recording, I do believe he'd take a more "mixed" approach with these songs, as he did with the Tunnel of Love, bringing his bandmembers to make occasional overdubs and finishing touches, about which I'll get into more detail later. Because honestly, this album sounds like a midway point between The River and ToL, which in a way, it is. But not to stretch this out any further, this is what Unsatisfied Heart looks like:

Don't Back Down (Lost Masters 16)

Unsatisfied Heart (Lost Masters 17)

County Fair (Lost Masters 18)

The Klansman (Lost Masters 16)

Shut Out the Light  (Lost Masters 18)

Johnny Bye Bye (Lost Masters 17)

-

Sugarland (Lost Masters 19)

Follow that Dream (Lost Masters 18)

One Love (Lost Masters 16)

Little Girl Like You (Lost Masters 17)

Richfield Whistle (Lost Masters 18)

My Hometown (Born in the USA)

Bonus tracks:

Betty Jean (Lost Masters 16)

Delivery Man (Lost Masters 17)

Seven Tears (Lost Masters 16)

Download link:

Bruce Springsteen - Unsatisfied Heart (1983) 

Bruce pictured in a different photo from the same photoshoot, late 1982.

In mid-1983, Springsteen put together a provisional tracklist for an album called Murder Inc, which consisted of 10 out of the 11 main songs from the '82 sessions, plus "Johnny Bye-Bye", and five other tunes earmarked as b-sides. Since those were Bruce's picks from the sessions, we will include all six on the record, which makes our work half-done already! And as for the rest of the tracks, I include a mix of songs he tried-out in the studio later in the year (the title track, "Richfield Whistle", and "My Hometown"), songs that managed to get themselves released ("County Fair", "Shut Out the Light"), and the song I honestly consider to be the highlight of these sessions, the haunting "The Klansman". In all, that gives us 12 songs and forty-odd minutes to work with, and I sequenced the album in a way that it opened with the closest thing we have to a rocker, followed by the title track, and closed with the most "epic" song on the record, followed by the album's only non-demo recording. And filled out the rest with what flowed together well, taking BS's sequence as a basis.

The only real editing work I needed to do was cut out his count-ins, which make sense since these are nothing but demos, but tend to get annoying on repeated listening. Because of that, some of the songs end up having rather abrupt beginnings, which I tried to smooth out as much as possible. And as for the band's additions and sweetening, I can see Max overdubbing drums/percussion to most of the tracks, with the notable exceptions of "The Klansman", "Shut Out the Light", "Johnny Bye Bye" and "Follow that Dream". Roy and Danny could add some piano/organ to most of the more band-like songs, such as a nice piano part on "Richfield Whistle", or organ in "County Fair" and even Gary can add in a couple of different bass parts. Even though we're dealing with some nineteenth generation cassette copies of most of the songs, if you try you can actually hear where their individual parts would go. And considering "Follow that Dream" and "Sugarland" were played live back then, in some cases you don't even have to use your imagination that much!

As for the cover, I tried to go for a The River meets Nebraska kind of look, by combining a photo taken by the same photographer who did the latter, with a similar font to the former. We end up with a 47 minute record, with evenly timed sides and a tracklist that manages to keep things interesting, and less unidimentional than when compared to Nebraska. Sound quality and unfinished state aside, this is  a fantastic collection of songs, capable of rivalling with the albums that came before it and would come after it with ease. Even though it would obviously not become some fantastical blockbuster, this is the kind of album we should've gotten back then, and hopefully will get, with a BITUSA box on the horizon. The only song with something remotely similar to commercial potential here is the title track, so it'll have to be our single. To think that songs as good as "Unsatisfied Heart" and "Richfield Whistle" have not yet been released, and are still better than some artists' whole career! If this is not a testament to Bruce's sheer creativity and unsatisfied spirit, I truly don't know what is.

Sources:

Bruce Springsteen - The Lost Masters [Bootleg collection]

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)

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Them Changes (Them Changes)

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

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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)

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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]