Donovan - Moon in Capricorn (1969)

Donovan released his sixth studio album in October 1968 through Epic Records. Titled Hurdy Gurdy Man, it was again produced by Mickie Most and came on the heels of the highly successful "Hurdy Gurdy Man" single. Centered around pop songwriting and some drone-influenced tracks, it followed the steps of previous Donovan albums such as Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow, with a nice mix of folk music and psychedelic pop. Following its release, Donovan toured the United States extensively in late 1968, appearing in many TV shows and performing live throughout the country. In between his appearances, the singer booked time at the American Recording Company in LA that November to begin recording his next LP. There, he recorded such songs as "Moon in Capricorn", supposed to be the title track to the follow-up to Hurdy Gurdy Man, as well as other unrelated songs such as "I Love My Shirt" and "To Susan on the West Coast Waiting", which would end up in Barabajagal. Recording sessions meant both for the Moon in Capricorn project and for singles and different projects continued into early 1969. However, at the same time, Donovan's relationship with producer Mickie Most was quickly deteriorating, with the two severing their professional collaboration for good in mid-1969. 

As a result of the breakup between the artist and producer, the Moon in Capricorn album was then left unfinished, and Donovan quickly gathered together an album made up of May 1968 outtakes, some early 1969 recordings with the Jeff Beck Group and other odds and ends and released as Barabajagal in August 1969. Most of what we now know to have been a part of the project was later released on HMS Donovan in 1971 or left unreleased until the To Try for the Sun box set came out. That leaves us with the question: what if Donovan had released Moon in Capricorn? To answer that, we first need to set up some rules. Nothing that was later made part of Barabajagal can be included, in other to make the two companion pieces and standalone albums. Other than that, we'll include everything we know was meant for the album and is available to us at the moment, as most songs were short, acoustic children's songs, and that way you can comfortably fit seven or more tracks on one side. Preferably Mickie Most-produced tracks, even though due to the more stripped-down nature of the album you can't really tell who produced most of these songs. Anyway, not to further extend myself, here's the album:

Celia of the Seals (HMS Donovan)
Moon in Capricorn (To Try for the Sun)
John Riley (Buried Treasures)

The Unicorn (HMS Donovan)

She Moved Through the Fair (To Try for the Sun)

Wily O'Winsboro (Buried Treasures)

Can Ye Dance (HMS Donovan)

-

In an Old Fashioned Picture Book (HMS Donovan)

Song of the Wandering Aengus (HMS Donovan)
The Travelling People (To Try for the Sun)
Lord of the Reedy River (HMS Donovan)

The Owl and the Pussycat (HMS Donovan)

The Ferryman's Daughter (To Try for the Sun)

Mr. Wind (HMS Donovan)

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (HMS Donovan)

Bonus track:
The Walrus and the Carpenter (HMS Donovan)

Download link:
Donovan - Moon in Capricorn (1969) 

Donovan at his farm, sometime in 1969.

Out of the sixteen songs that we know were meant for the Moon in Capricorn album, only one hasn't been released in any form, "A Jewel Day". Of the remaining fifteen, a whopping nine were released in the double HMS Donovan in 1971, including the minor hit "Celia of the Seals". Because of that, we will be mimicking whenever possible the tracklist to HMS Donovan, as most songs were included there and the context of the album highlighted those nine tracks very well. As for the other six, four were released on the To Try for the Sun box set, including the title track, while the remaining two, were only released on the Buried Treasures series after versions recorded in 1970 at Morgan Studios were discovered. Not from these sessions, but for the time being, close enough. As for outtakes, even though he demoed "The Walrus and the Carpenter" alongside "Mr. Wind" and "Unicorn" with Paul McCartney in 1968, we aren't sure the song was meant for the album. And since the album is well over forty minutes without it, I'm comfortable enough to leave it out, just to be safe. With that, we only need to add those new six songs in between our HMS Donovan cornerstones and we have a finished album.

Clocking in at 42 minutes with two sides that are roughly the same length, Moon in Capricorn is a gentle, acoustic album that more closely resembles the For Little Ones disc of the A Gift from a Flower to a Garden double LP than any other Donovan album up to that point. It's a departure from his psychedelic pop sound to be sure, but a welcome one at this stage of his career, certainly making for a much more concise listen than Barabajagal. I have little doubt the lead single off the album would be "Celia of the Seals", a nice catchy song that had no trouble becoming a minor hit three years after being recorded in 1971. I'm sure "Celia" would have done even better at a time Donovan was an established artist and guaranteed presence at the top of the charts, helping the album to a very respectable chart position. The faux-psychedelic and astrology-inspired front cover is courtesy of myself, as I couldn't help making the cover be a goat surrounded by stars. And I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out! It's a shame Donovan couldn't realize his vision for this project, as he surely had some great songs ready before his estrangement from Most put a stop to this. Oh well, maybe the stars weren't right.

Sources:
- Donovan - HMS Donovan

- Donovan - To Try for the Sun

- Donovan - Buried Treasures

- Donovan - Moon in Capricorn

The Moody Blues - Look Out! (1966)

The Moody Blues released their debut album, The Magnificent Moodies, in July 1965 through Decca Records. The very first record by this Birmingham band, it was also their only LP to feature their original founding lineup of Denny Laine, Mike Pinder, Ray Thomas, Clint Warwick, and Graeme Edge. In addition to featuring a very different lineup to the so-called classic era of the group, their sound was very different as well, a Merseybeat sound with strong Rn'B influences, a good example of which is "Go Now", this lineup's sole hit single, which then-band leader and chief songwriter Denny Laine still sings on concert up to this day. The album itself was a bit of a rushed affair, and neither Laine nor Mike Pinder, the other chief songwriter of the band, were very satisfied with it, feeling their music was still underdeveloped. Despite the considerable success of the "Go Now" single, the band struggled when it came to releasing a second hit single, and the possibility of becoming a one-hit-wonder loomed large. The Magnificent Moodies album did well commercially, mostly because of the success of the single, and the band toured non-stop throughout 1965 and early 1966 to promote the record, and the band changed considerably during this short period of time, and in more ways than one.

The first of these changes was related to personnel. Founding bass player Clint Warwick quit the band in early 1966 and was replaced by Rod Clark, who in turn only lasted for another few months before being replaced by John Lodge. But besides that, the Moodies were developing into a more mature band, leaving their now outdated Merseybeat sound behind for a more mature, folkier, and more baroque pop sound, which also put the Laine-Pinder songwriting duo in the forefront, with the pair contributing the majority of songwriting for the band from this point onward. And so, in April 1966 with Denny Cordell again in the producer's chair, the Moody Blues started work on their second LP, provisionally titled Look Out. Throughout September, the band recorded on an on-and-off schedule, allowing for touring commitments in-between sessions. In order to test the waters, their label released singles with the material, with none of them being particularly successful. Dissatisfied with the fact that the band seemed unable to replicate the success of their first hit and with the band's internal issues following Clint Warwick's departure, Denny Laine left the group to try for a solo career in October 1966, leaving the Moodies' proposed second album unfinished and the band to reinvent themselves in the years to come, essentially becoming a completely different band with Justin Hayward and John Lodge.

That leads us to wonder: what if the quintet of Laine, Pinder, Thomas, Edge, and Clark had gotten to release the album they were working on throughout most of 1966? We'll have an easier time answering that than we do with most of our reconstructions, as the band only recorded roughly an LP's worth of material that year, leaving us only with the task of organizing the recording sessions into a cohesive album. No hard choices about which songs to include or not to include, just putting together a solid tracklist that highlights what they had up their sleeve. Still, it's only fair we should explain that we'll be using exclusively material from those 1966 sessions with Denny Cordell as the producer, excluding any outtakes from their first record or miscellaneous singles from earlier on in their career from making the record. Also, nothing from the Hayward/Lodge lineup of the group or by Denny Laine solo will be included, for obvious reasons. Even though the band, as did most British bands at the time, had the habit of releasing non-album singles, the dearth of material we're dealing with means we'll be using every track we have available on the album, singles notwithstanding. Not to extend myself any further, here's what I think The Moody Blues' Look Out! would have looked like:

Boulevard De La Madeleine (The Magnificent Moodies)

Hang on to a Dream (The Magnificent Moodies)

Jago & Jilly (The Magnificent Moodies)

Sad Song (The Magnificent Moodies)

We're Broken (The Magnificent Moodies)

This is My House, But Nobody Calls (The Magnificent Moodies)

-

Life's Not Life (The Magnificent Moodies)

Red Wine (The Magnificent Moodies)

He Can Win (The Magnificent Moodies)

Send The People Away (The Magnificent Moodies)

I Really Haven't Got the Time (The Magnificent Moodies)

Download link:
The Moody Blues - Look Out! (1966)

Laine, Warwick, Thomas, Edge, and Pinder, sometime in early 1966.

Side one starts off with what can be described as one of the highlights of the album, Pinder and Laine's magnificent "Boulevard de La Madeleine", an exercise in baroque pop that was released as a single in late 1966, making for a more than adequate opener. Following is the only non-original in the album, a very well-arranged and performed cover of Tim Hardin's "Hang on to a Dream", where we use the superior remake from July 15, 1966, with Rod Clark on bass. It's followed in turn by "Jago and Jilly", another Pinder/Laine original, this time a very pretty waltz with some clever lyrics. Another highlight of the album which goes to show how far they'd come from their R'n'B roots. The only song on the album to feature Clint Warwick, "Sad Song" was also the first song recorded for the project in April 1966, featuring some great flute playing by Ray Thomas. Easily the heaviest song in this reconstruction, "We're Broken"'s arrangement features some great fuzz guitar courtesy of Denny, as well as some very inventive drumming by Graeme Edge. Side one ends with another album highlight, the September 1966 remake of "This is My House (But Nobody Calls)", far superior to the April version recorded while Warwick was still in the band, ending a whole side of melancholic songs in a similarly gloomy way.

Side two similarly starts off with a song that was released as a single, "Life's Not Life". The only difference is that it was released in January 1967, when the band's future was uncertain and Laine had already left. The band did seem to hold it dearly though, including the song in their live repertoire before the guitarist's departure. Another song that was performed on stage is "Red Wine", itself a rarity with Ray Thomas providing lead vocals, something he didn't seem to do very often. Up next is the b-side to the aforementioned "Life's Not Life" single, "He Can Win", is another very good song that goes to show the songwriting maturity Pinder and Laine were achieving in 1966. The second to last song in the album is "Send the People Away (People Gotta Go)", a song that was notoriously hard to get before the release of the 50th Anniversary Edition of the Moodies' debut, only available on a French EP from late 1966. The final track on the album is "I Really Haven't Got the Time", the missing link between the Laine and Hayward lineups of the band. I say that due to the fact that the song was recorded with Laine for the Look Out! album and re-recorded with Hayward for the b-side of the "Fly Me High" single. And it's only fair we should end the album with a sign of things to come, right?

Clocking in at a paltry thirty minutes, the fact that side two is a song and three minutes shorter than side one was not lost on me. Unfortunately, these eleven songs are everything we have available, all that was recorded before the band splintered. I would have liked an additional song to make this a standard 12-track album, as was the norm in the 60s, but this album is pretty good as it stands. The switch from R'n'B to baroque-influenced pop, heavily focused on original songwriting, suited the band's strengths very well, as the quality of this album clearly shows. As for the cover, I quickly came up with this as they didn't seem to make one at the time. Maybe they didn't get that far along with it. It's a painting of the Boulevard de la Madeleine in Paris, in homage to the leadoff track on the album, and I'm honestly pretty satisfied with how it turned out. It suits the artsier quality of the material. When listening to this, it's hard not to be both impressed with how the band involved during this short span of time, as well as sorry that this particular lineup of the band didn't manage to go forward. Some kind of compromise between the work Laine did with the Electric String Band and the orchestral direction the Moodies went into with Days of Future Passed would have been fantastic, it's a shame they didn't have the time.

Sources:

- Brumbeat - In Search of the Lost Moody Blues Album

- The Moody Blues - The Magnificent Moodies (50th Anniversary Edition)

David Crosby - David Crosby (1968)

David Crosby got fired from the Byrds in October 1967. This came after a long period of instability within the band, which lasted for the greater part of the year and culminated in the band's disastrous appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival. In it, Crosby constantly talked in between songs about conspiracy theories involving John F. Kennedy's assassination, and to further the other members' annoyance, sat in for a revolting Neil Young at the Buffalo Springfield's performance as a favor to his friend Stephen Stills. Tensions furthered when the band refused to record his song "Triad", objecting to its' sexually charged lyrics, and when Crosby in turn refused to participate in the recording of "Goin' Back", believing the band should record only original material. Because of that, Crosby was finally fired and original member Gene Clark was invited to rejoin the band and finish the album they were working on, The Notorious Byrd Brothers. While Clark himself wouldn't last long, David found himself aimless for a few months, spending most of his time sailing, writing songs, and staying with friends, without any definitive plans going ahead. In March 1968, armed with a few songs and with the idea to begin a solo career of some sort, David entered the studio with The Doors, Love, and Janis Joplin producer Paul Rothschild at the helm, planning on recording some demos to see if any record labels would be interested in signing him. Although label interest proved slow, Crosby came out of this session with about four songs or unfinished ideas that showed great promise, such as "Games".

In April of 1968, Buffalo Springfield, the band Crosby had sat in with just a few months prior, had finally split up for good, which meant that his friend Stills was also unemployed. The two proceeded to reconnect and start working together in earnest, collaborating with the Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kantner to write lyrics to David's "Wooden Ships", and record a studio demo for a song of Crosby's called "Long Time Gone", as well as some other songs written by Stills sometime in June. Meanwhile, the Croz kept on recording solo demos in the hope of getting picked up by a label, recording the first versions we know of the great "Guinnevere" and "Laughing" right about this time. However, everything changed in July, when at a party at former Mamas & Papas member Cass Elliot's Laurel Canyon home, the two met Graham Nash from the Hollies. Jamming together to one of Stills' new compositions and immediately noticing a musical bond, especially when it came to three-part harmonies, the three quickly get together and become one of rock's very first supergroups, the very creatively titled Crosby, Stills & Nash. With that, any plans David had of recording a solo album became secondary to the new group, which very quickly took priority over them. With the trio succeeding in attracting major label interest and recording one of the most successful debut albums of all time in early 1969, those plans became virtually non-existent, with DC only returning to the idea of recording a solo album by the time CSN(and Y!) had spectacularly disbanded in late 1970, with If I Could Only Remember My Name.

This whole story leaves us with the question: What if David Crosby had succeeded in recording his first solo album in mid-1968? In order to answer that, we must first gather together all of the songs he had available to him at this moment, either in finished form or that he had begun writing during this period and would finish at a later date. After that, we must select the version of said song that most closely matches Crosby's vision circa 1968, and that features the least involvement from Stills and Nash. While Stills and possibly Nash would have most likely guested on the record on guitar and vocals, we're talking about an actual solo album here, meaning this is a timeline where CS&N either didn't happen or happened later than it did in ours, giving him the time to release this album. Considering Crosby's songs are relatively long at about 4 to 5 minutes each, and it was becoming en vogue within the rock world to release albums with fewer and fewer songs starting at about this time, I reckon an eight-song, 40-minute long record would be plenty. And considering he probably didn't have any more songs than that written, it'll have to do nonetheless. Because of that, songs written before The Byrds' breakup can also be considered for inclusion, if he continued performing them regularly after his break from them and they weren't released elsewhere by the band, and solo songs that weren't in a particularly advanced state of completion will also be given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to inclusion here. With all of that out of the way, here's what I think Croz's first solo album could have looked like:

Wooden Ships (Crosby, Stills, and Nash)

Tamalpais High (If I Could Only Remember My Name)
Guinnevere (CSN)

Laughing (If I Could Only Remember My Name)

-

Triad (Deja Vu)

Games (Graham Nash, David Crosby)

Long Time Gone (CSN Demos)

Kids and Dogs (If I Could Only Remember My Name)

Download link:
David Crosby - David Crosby (1968)

The Croz, pictured sometime in early 1968 in California.

We start off this album with a blast, with "Wooden Ships" from the first CSN record. Although co-written by Stephen Stills and the Airplane's Paul Kantner, the original idea for the melody of this song came from David, as can be seen in his solo demo, which makes it fair game for inclusion here. He'd sing lead on the full song, as he did live with the Lighthouse band, but other than that the song would be unchanged. A great opener to any album, it starts things off strong for David. Up next is "Tamalpais High", demoed during the March 1968 Rothschild session as an acoustic guitar instrumental with scat singing, the kind of song he seemed to be very keen on writing around this time. The arrangement on the 1971 album is a bit different from what I envision for this album, but it'll have to do as no other versions exist. In the third slot, we have "Guinnevere", from a studio session in mid-1968 with Cyrus Faryar of the MFQ on bouzouki and Jack Casady of the Airplane on bass. The only real glimpse we get of what this theoretical album would actually sound like, and by this sample, it would be pretty amazing. Easily the high point of this reconstruction. "Laughing", inspired by a conversation he had with his friend George Harrison, finishes off side one. It was demoed in the studio in May 1968, shortly after the others, warranting its inclusion here. Two completed studio versions of the song exist, one on his first record in 1971 and one on the shaky Byrds reunion album from 1973. Out of the two, the one that sounds the most like Croz circa 1968 is the first, which means it gets to be included here.

Side two starts off with his ode to menage a trois "Triad". Since this song was (allegedly) the reason Croz got kicked out of the Byrds, it's only fair we should include it in his first solo album, right? Presented here in a beautiful solo acoustic arrangement from the Deja Vu sessions, David gets to sing it instead of giving it away to the Jefferson Airplane. Next comes album highlight "Games", another song that was performed for Paul Rothschild in March '68, this time presented in completed form, before being inexplicably shelved for another four years. We can use the Crosby & Nash version as its arrangement is pretty close to the original and sounds like something Croz would come up with back then, Graham's harmonies notwithstanding. We follow it up with the only other rocker on the album alongside the opener, which is "Long Time Gone". Demoed in the studio in July 1968 with help from Stephen Stills, we use this demo version to provide the album with yet another authentic recording that comes from the 1968 sessions, alongside "Guinnevere". Again, as would be the case with "Wooden Ships", David sings the full song instead of sharing the lead with Stephen. "Kids and Dogs", the final song on the album and also the last from the March 1968 demo session, is another haunting song with scat vocals, which was inexplicably left off the If I Could Only Remember My Name album in 1971, despite being recorded in a beautiful 7-minute version with guitar by Jerry Garcia and some fantastic multitracked vocals by David. And it's that very version that ends our album.

This hypothetical debut is 40 minutes long with two roughly 20-minute sides, about what you'd hope for in length for an album back then. One shortcoming this album does have is its absolute lack of potential singles, but since David's material was probably meant for the album-oriented FM radio format that was beginning roughly at this time anyway, that isn't that much of a problem. Self-titled for the lack of a better title, it features a painting of him by his friend Joni Mitchell as the cover, the two of them spending a lot of time together at this point as he had produced her debut album for Reprise Records. Speaking of which, this album would've probably been released by either Reprise, due to the Joni connection and the fact other similar artists were also signed to them, or by Elektra Records, of which Rothschild was an employee. This album probably wouldn't sell that much, but would be rightly lauded as a great record by the critics, with Crosby's jazzy melodies and beautiful voice propelling the songs, and great songwriting throughout. A moody album without many fast-paced songs, it provides a great continuation to the sound Croz had already been hinting at with songs such as "Everybody's Been Burned" and "Tribal Gathering" with the Byrds. I honestly believe that grouping together to form Crosby, Stills and Nash might've been detrimental to Crosby and Stills as songwriters, as illogical as that sounds. That move might've prevented him from getting the individual praise he so deserved as a singer and songwriter, something we've tried to do right by in this reconstruction.

Sources:

- David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name

- Crosby, Stills & Nash - Crosby, Stills & Nash

- Crosby, Stills & Nash - CSN [Box set]

- Crosby, Stills & Nash - CSN Demos

- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Dejá Vù [Box set]

- Crosby & Nash - Graham Nash David Crosby

Guns n' Roses - Chinese Democracy (2001)

After four years of demos, rehearsals, and the departure of all members of the band with the exception of Dizzy Reed and Axl Rose, recording in earnest for the sixth Guns n' Roses album began in early 1998 at Rumbo Recorders. Alongside Axl and Dizzy, guitarists Paul Tobias and Robin Finck, keyboardist Chris Pitman and drummer John Freese completed this new lineup of the band. Recording with the seven of them went on for a while, with Axl being described as "a couple of weeks on, a couple of weeks off" during this period, and the band being in "writing mode", with much more writing than recording going on at that time. Producers such as Youth were considered, with him doing some pre-production work on the album right around this time, before being replaced by Sean Beavan, who'd produced Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails before joining the project in July 1998. During this timeframe the band wrote and recorded much new material, filling many CDs with ideas and fragments of songs, as well as recording many fully fledged songs, such as "Madagascar" and "Prostitute", which Pitman and Rose had begun writing early in '98. This new material was very inspired by hip hop and industrial music, with the influence of Nine Inch Nails clearly showing in the music, but not many vocals were recorded during this first year of recording, though, with Axl mostly laying down ideas rather than finished vocals, leaving the material unfinished until then.

So it seems that between mid-1998 and early 1999, the band was now in "recording mode", recording the basic tracks to many songs that would be worked on further during this period. By mid-1999, work had slowed down a bit, with work on the instrumental parts being mostly done by then but no finished vocals in sight just yet. Guitarist Robin Finck left to tour again with Nine Inch Nails, while Axl finally began recording lead vocals for the album in August 1999, practically finishing recording them by November. With Finck gone, Axl had Queen guitarist Brian May overdub guitar solos onto three or four songs the band had been working on at the time, without yet focusing on finding a full-time replacement for Finck. At roughly the same time, the first results of the sessions were released, the very industrial "Oh My God" on the soundtrack to the film End of Days in November. It seems that by the time 1999 ended, the basic tracks of the record were virtually finished, with only some overdubbing and mixing left to be worked on. Even the album title was decided at this instance, with Axl commenting on interviews that the new album had been christened Chinese Democracy, after the song of the same name. Songs such as "Catcher in the Rye", "I.R.S.", "If the World" and "There Was a Time" were even previewed for Rolling Stone magazine that November, most of them seemingly in an advanced state of recording and showing a lot of promise for the future of the band.

With 2000 coming, more lineup changes came: guitarist Buckethead joined the band as Finck's replacement, while drummer Josh Freese finally got fed up with waiting for the album to get ready and left to form A Perfect Circle, replaced with frequent Buckethead collaborator Brain a few months down the line. Buckethead joined the project and immediately started recording demos and ideas for new songs at his notoriously fast pace, while Brain seemingly didn't replace Freese's drum tracks then. In April, and with the album apparently in its final stages of completion, producer Sean Beavan was replaced with former Queen and The Cars producer Roy Thomas Baker, with label Interscope Records and their boss Jimmy Iovine seemingly unhappy with the sound of the album under Beaven's helm. Further mixing and overdubbing took place from then until November, with Bucket adding guitar to songs worked on previously such as "Madagascar" and "Rhiad and the Bedouins". Plans were even made for the band to tour in the summer of 2001, with warmup shows scheduled at the House of Blues in Las Vegas and the Rock in Rio 3 festival in Rio de Janeiro that January. It seemed like a mid-2001 release with a tour to follow in the Summer was slowly becoming a reality for Chinese Democracy, with the record seemingly only needing mastering and artwork to be ready. But as you probably already know, things weren't going to be that simple for Axl and his bandmates.

In November 2000, Bob Ezrin, formerly producer of Alice Cooper and Pink Floyd, signed on as A&R man for the album and listened to what the band had made so far. He came out of it claiming they had only come up with "three good songs". The album proceeds to go into development hell for eight years, with Axl essentially losing his sanity in the process. That leaves us with the question: what if Axl had released Chinese Democracy in the summer of 2001? Luckily for us, four discs of Rough Mixes in varying degrees of completion dating from both Beavan's March 2000 and Roy Thomas Baker's October/November 2000 mixing sessions, as well as instrumental demos and other curios were created in March 2001, and very infamously leaked in 2019. That means whatever was under consideration for GnR's sixth record was probably in those CDs, leaving for us the mission of making an album out of those. The first disc is clearly the ten most finished songs at the time, with a couple of other finished songs sprinkled throughout the other three discs, some of which would even make the album in 2008, in a heavily different form. Speaking of which, one of the few things Axl eventually got right in '08 was the album's sequencing, which means we'll emulate it as much as we can here, replacing eventual absentees with available songs that have the same vibe. We'll also be aiming at about 14 songs to make the album, as most GnR releases do. With all of that, let's have a look at what we've come up with:

Chinese Democracy (Rough Mixes CD-1)
Hard School (Rough Mixes CD-3)
Perhaps (Rough Mixes CD-1)
Street of Dreams (Rough Mixes CD-1)
If the World (Rough Mixes CD-2)
There Was a Time (Rough Mixes CD-1)
Catcher in the Rye (Rough Mixes CD-1)

State of Grace (Rough Mixes CD-3)
Rhiad and the Bedouins (Rough Mixes CD-1)
Silkworms (Rough Mixes CD-1)
I.R.S. (Rough Mixes CD-3)
Madagascar (Rough Mixes CD-1)
Atlas Shrugged (Rough Mixes CD-1)
Prostitute (Rough Mixes CD-1)

Bonus tracks:
Oh My God (The End of Days OST)

Eye on You (Rough Mixes CD-2)

Nothing (Rough Mixes CD-4)

Axl Rose and Buckethead performing during the 2002 VMAs

Starting off the album the only way we possibly can we have the great version of "Chinese Democracy" mixed by Roy Thomas Baker in November 2000, starting off the album with its title track and with a great rocker, that would sound right at home with some of Guns n' Roses' more famous output. Released a couple of years ago by the Axl/Slash/Duff lineup by all people, "Hard School" serves the function of being one of the few authentic rockers on the album, that being the reason I pulled this November '00 Baker mix off the third CD and slotted it into the equally aggressive "Shackler's Revenge"'s place. Following is the first song on the album that's still officially unreleased, "Perhaps" was mixed in March 2000 by Beaven and is the closest this version of the album can come to an obvious first single. Sequenced as track no. 3 as it's equally as poppy and accessible as "Better", and it works well in that role. Since Sean Beavan confirmed that "The Blues" was only a working title in an interview this year, we can retitle this to its eventual name, "Street of Dreams". An October 2000 mix by Roy Thomas Baker, this ballad was already one of the highlights of the 2008 album, and is even better here. As track five we have another song that would eventually make the album in a superior, earlier version, "If the World" was mixed in November 2000 by Roy Thomas Baker and taken from the second disc of Rough Mixes, taking up the same spot it always did in CD's tracklist.

While many fans miss Buckethead's solo that we got in the song's finished version, I like this mix of "There Was a Time" just fine, in an October 2000 mix by Roy Thomas Baker, a nice change of pace from the hip hop weirdness of "If the World". As the seventh song on the album, "Catcher in the Rye" is another power ballad with the services of Brian May on guitar,  given to us in a March 2000 mix by Sean Beavan, which again is much better than the eventual replacement. Given that we have thirteen more or less finished songs, we have one spot open. And out of the remaining unfinished songs that have vocals ("Eye on You", "Nothing" and "State of Grace"), the one that's most release-worthy and finished-sounding is by far "State of Grace", which grants its spot as the eighth track on the album, replacing the similarly industrial "Scraped". Mixed in March 2000 by Sean Beavan. Up next is "Rhiad and the Bedouins", in a November '00 Baker mix which is miles better than the Chinese Democracy version and the best rocker of the album. A song that was given a rather atrocious reworking by Slash and Duff, "Silkworms" comes in a November '00 mix by RTB from CD1 of Rough Mixes. By far the song that's most far removed from the original Guns n' Roses sound, it takes the place of Buckethead oddity "Sorry" in the tracklist. It's missing its bridge vocals, as we'd grown used to in the 2001 Rock in Rio version, but other than that it's a pretty solid mix. About half an hour's work is needed!

Taken from CD3 of the Rough Mixes in a March 2000 Sean Beavan mix, "I.R.S." is a much-needed rocker, which alongside "Hard School" breaks the rather slow pace of the CD1 material and gives us some authentic Gn'R rock. The song earmarked to be "the epic" of the album comes next in the form of "Madagascar", in a November '00 Baker mix which closely resembles the version of the song performed at Rock in Rio in 2001, MLK speech and all. As the second to last track of the album, we have the last song in this reconstruction that is still officially unreleased "Atlas Shrugged", in a March 2000 Beavan mix. Also, the last song to feature a Brian May solo, it takes the place of the ballad "This I Love", which in turn was only added to the album at the eleventh hour, replacing "Atlas Shrugged". Historic reparations! Closing things off is "Prostitute", coming again in a much superior version to what we ended up getting in 2008. Coming in a March 2000 Beavan mix, it delivers a pretty balanced album, with an 8 to 6 ratio between Baker and Beavan mixes, respectively. Released nearly two years before this album would hypothetically come out, "Oh My God" didn't make much of an impression on anybody, and wasn't worked on further as demonstrated by the Rough Mixes CDs. All of that leads me to think this song wasn't meant for inclusion on the album at this stage. It's still good enough for a bonus track and non-album B-side, though, which is what it becomes here.

Clocking in at about an hour and four minutes, this version of Chinese Democracy would most certainly benefit from the timing of its release. Hip Hop and Industrial-influenced based bands like Limp Biskit were all the rage back in '01, and this album would sound right at home on modern rock radio at the time, both hip and nostalgic. Critically, seven fewer years of hype and unrealistic expectations would certainly soften the reception to the album, and releasing an album that's actually way better than the one we got would also help things too. There's no understating what damage the eight years of promises and delays did to Guns n' Roses Mk II, turning the album and the new lineup into a joke before anyone even heard a note from them. We also use one of the many alternate covers proposed for Chinese Democracy before the record's release, and the one that I've always liked best, as corny as it is. One of the main problems of the album, and what's probably the reason that Interscope didn't want to release it, is that it has no clear lead single. If I had to nominate one, though, I'd be tempted to go with "Atlas Shrugged" or "Perhaps", the two poppiest songs on the album. It really is a shame what was supposed to be a creative rebirth to one of the most successful bands of the world ended up essentially becoming its death sentence and transformation into an "oldies" act through a further eight years of misery and promises. Both this material and the fans deserved a lot better.

Sources:

- Guns n' Roses - Rough Mixes (CDs 1 - 4)

- Music From the Motion Picture End of Days

- Chinese Whispers - The Secret History of the New Studio Album

The Monkees - More of the Monkees (1966)

The Monkees' first self-titled album was released in October 1966 through Colgems Records, a month after the debut of the TV series of the same name, and two months after the release of the hit single "Last Train to Clarksville". When released, the music from the TV show became a bigger success than the show it was created to promote, with more people buying the records than watching the show on NBC. In a move controversial to this day, the band members themselves were not allowed to contribute instrumentally to the album, and while Monkee Mike Nesmith produced a couple of sessions, and even used Peter Tork as a guitarist on the sessions, the group was mostly left to contribute only vocally, with most of the playing and writing coming from the Boyce & Hart duo and their backing band, the Candy Store Prophets. This displeased the band to some extent, as they were led to believe they were to be making instrumental contributions to the band's recordings, especially the two musicians of the lineup, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith. This arrangement, which was chalked up to the hectic schedule they were subjected to in order to make an album as fast as they could, was however maintained when the time came to record their second album, which would be titled More of the Monkees and was also to be the source of much discord between the band and their management.

A rushed release, released quickly in order to capitalize on the massive and surprising popularity of their first record, the four Monkees weren't even aware that the album had been released, let alone been given any say on the sequencing or artwork of the album. The band learned that MoTM had been released while on tour, when they saw copies of it on a record store window, and were furious with it's artwork, a promotional piece for a department store which saw them wearing their clothes, as well as its self-congratulatory liner notes, courtesy of musical director Don Kirschner, which lathed praise onto the songwriters involved while only mentioning the Monkees in passing. Even more egregious in fact was Kirschner's job at song selection: such horrible schlock as "The Day We Fell in Love" was selected for the album while much stronger material was left in the bin, which even lead Mike Nesmith to call the album "probably the worst album in the history of the world". It was this incident and the horrible job their management did at creating a sophomore album that infamously led Nesmith to punch his fist into a hotel room wall and together with the other three members basically demand artistic control over the Monkees, which gave us such great albums as Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, where they played their own instruments themselves and were allowed to produce their own albums.

That leaves us with the question: what if the Monkees' second album was better? Considering the fact that the album was so badly compiled it lead to the revolt that yielded the Monkees' most creative and free period, you'd think the sheer lousiness of the second LP was the price to pay for it. However, the sheer amount of quality material left in the cutting room floor practically begs us to improve on it, and I believe that the key to better quality control could be following the TV show's musical choices. A whole four songs from the mid-to-late 1966 sessions that gave us MoTM appeared on the series without making it to the album, while conversely three songs that did appear on the album were nowhere to be seen on NBC. That's pretty counter-productive, as you'd think promoting a song on national television without it being released anywhere is a waste of resources, especially when you consider all but one of the songs from the debut album were used in the show. That means only songs that were part of the show or strongly considered for it will be included, with us only subbing in the new songs where the more subpar tracks are removed. There's also no problem with adding songs that were later re-recorded for future albums, with those re-recordings simply being substituted by different songs further down the road. Without further ado, here's what our revamped sophomore album looks like:

She (More of the Monkees)
When Love Comes Knockin' (More of the Monkees)

Mary, Mary (More of the Monkees)

Words (More of the Monkees)

You Just May Be the One (The Monkees)

I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone (More of the Monkees)

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Look Out (More of the Monkees)

The Kind of Girl I Could Love (More of the Monkees)

I'll Be Back Up on My Feet (More of the Monkees)

Sometime in the Morning (More of the Monkees)

Valleri (More of the Monkees)

I'm a Believer (More of the Monkees)

Bonus tracks:
Laugh (More of the Monkees)

Your Auntie Grizelda (More of the Monkees)

I Don't Think You Know Me (More of the Monkees)

The Monkees performing live for the first time in Honolulu, December 3, 1966

Side one starts as usual, with the 1-2-3 punch of "She", "When Love Comes Knockin' (At Your Door)" and "Mary, Mary". Of those, "She" and "Mary Mary" were both featured in a couple of episodes of the TV show, while "Knockin'" was meant to be featured in the "Monkees at the Movies" episode of the series, but was replaced at the last minute by "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You", which means it also qualifies by our parameters of following the TV show, or at least makes for a sensible exception, since it's a pretty good song. Speaking of which, "Words", which was featured in the TV show in its original version, replaces "Hold on Girl", which wasn't featured at all and frankly isn't very good. As for the fifth track, we could keep "Your Auntie Grizelda", as it was featured in the TV show a couple of times and even is a fan favorite. However, since in my opinion, it's a pretty mediocre novelty track, and Peter already has a lead vocal spot on the LP in "Words", I decided to replace it with a second Mike Nesmith lead vocal, the original version of "You Just May Be the One", which was even featured with more prominence on the show than "Grizelda" ever was. Finally, side one ends as it usually does, with "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone", one of the most prominently featured songs on the TV series, and the b-side to the "I'm a Believer" hit single, closing out the first half of the album.

Side two still opens with "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)" and "The Kind of Girl I Could Love", as the two songs were featured in episodes of the series. However, we use an extended mix of "Look Out", which brings its length to 2:50 due to an instrumental bridge and was the version of the song that was used in The Monkees, to begin with. Following that, we substitute the hideous "The Day We Fall in Love", which thankfully wasn't used in the show, with "I'll Be Back Upon My Feet, which was. And curiously enough, those two songs were written by the same two people! Who knows what accounted for the gap in quality between those two. The fantastic "Sometime in the Morning" still has the same spot as it did before, being used in a couple of episodes, and it's followed by Boyce & Hart's "Valleri", the greatest omission of the original album. The song was featured in the TV show, and was so popular in that, that DJs started taping the song straight off the TV and playing it on air, making it one of the few songs to become a radio hit without even being released! It replaces the very weak novelty track "Laugh", which despite being featured twice in the TV show, doesn't hold a candle to "Valleri". It's followed by album closer and hit single "I'm a Believer", which was featured more than five times on the series and is quite literally the only song you cannot remove from this album.

Clocking in at slightly shorter than 30 minutes, this revamped version of More of the Monkees presents a considerable upgrade in quality and consistency, feeling much more cohesive and whole. A duo that definitely benefits from these swaps is Boyce and Hart, who go from a measly two songs on the record to a more respectable four. Still a far cry from the seven they got on the debut, but already much better. This album also features three Nesmith songs, of which he sings two, which I would mirror in my alternate The Monkees album, by substituting "I'll Be True to You" with "All The King's Horses", and making three songs per album his standard quota. Besides the tracklist, the other main objection of the band with the album was its artwork, which we fix using a still photo from the "Find the Monkees" episode, to which we add their logo. We also get a second single off it, with "Valleri" backed by "Mary, Mary" getting released right after "I'm a Believer". Also, as bonus tracks, we have the aforementioned "Laugh" and "Your Auntie Grizelda", as well as "I Don't Think You Know Me", which was meant for the "One Man Shy" episode but left unused. It's a shame The Monkees were kept from releasing the best of what they had available due to external influence and band politics, since we would all have benefited if the best-selling album of 1967 was of better quality than it ended up being.

Sources:
- The Monkees - More of the Monkees

- The Monkees - The Monkees

- The Monkees First Season Episode Index