The Beau Brummels - Winter (1966)

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

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

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

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

I Grow Old (Turn Around)

Dream On (Turn Around)

This is Love (Turn Around)

Down on Me (Turn Around)

-

Good Time Music (Turn Around)

She Sends Me (Turn Around)

Cry Some (Turn Around)

Let Me In (Turn Around)

Hey Love (Turn Around)

Love is Just a Game (Turn Around)

Bonus tracks:
One Too Many Mornings (Turn Around)

She Reigns (Turn Around)

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

Download link:

The Beau Brummels - Winter (1966)

The Beau Brummels, pictured here sometime in late 1965.

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

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

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

Sources:

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

The Kinks - The Kinks Are Four More Respected Gentlemen (1968)

The Kinks released their fifth studio album, Something Else by the Kinks, in September 1967 through Pye Records in the UK. It was also released in the US by Reprise Records, failing to go beyond #89 in the Album charts and seeing its main single "Waterloo Sunset" failing to chart entirely. However, with their commercial and critical success at an all-time high in the UK, The Kinks carried on recording, finding time to record and release the "Autumn Almanac" and "Susannah's Still Alive" singles before the end of the year. Once 1968 rolled along, a new idea became the main focus of chief songwriter Ray Davies: the Village Green project. Using Something Else outtake "Village Green" as a starting point, Ray began to record a collection of songs that dealt with nostalgic and pastoral subjects, childhood memories, and idyllic visions of the English countryside. The band spent the best part of early 1968 stockpiling songs for the project, before Pye selected "Wonderboy" out of their most recent sessions and released it as a single. A song Davies didn't consider good enough for a single, the record-buying public in the UK seemed to agree with him, with the song being the band's worst commercial showing since 1964. Unphased, the band carry on recording, with brother Dave Davies recording and releasing his solo "Lincoln County" single backed by the Kinks, and the band regained their hit-making footing with the fantastic "Days" single becoming a moderate hit that June.

That same month, the Kinks are told that due to differences in their contract with Reprise, they were contractually obligated to deliver an album's worth of songs to them by June. Complying with this, Ray assembled a fifteen-song collection consisting of some of the songs they had recorded for the Village Green project so far, plus some of their more recent single A and B-sides. Given the title Four More Respected Gentlemen, this compilation featured the "Days", "Susannah's Still Alive" and "Autumn Almanac" singles, plus songs that would eventually make the Village Green album and other songs that would remain unreleased for the time being. Reprise went as far as designating it with a production number and scheduling a November 1968 release date, shortening the album from the planned fifteen songs to a more concise (and American) 11 songs. The album was announced, promoted, and hyped, only to end up being canceled when the band, who had already turned their September expected release date for the UK album to a November one, took the opposite route and expanded the record from 12 to 15 songs, making Four More Respected Gentlemen mostly redundant. With that, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society was released with the exact same tracklisting and album cover in both the US and the UK, making sure Ray Davies' masterpiece and one of the greatest British albums of all time was identical in both sides of the Atlantic.

However, the idea of a complementary album to The Village Green Preservation Society is still way too good to be wasted that way. So what if we put together a 15-track album that serves as a companion piece to TVGPS, expanding on its themes and giving its many high-quality outtakes a home? We scrap the original tracklisting and concept for the album, and instead take the many songs that were meant for the original Village Green album or released/recorded between it and Something Else by the Kinks, and put them under the same roof, giving them the context and conceptual continuity they so deserve. For our purposes, anything recorded from September 1967 to October 1968 is fair game, including non-album singles. Since the original Village Green album allowed for earlier outtakes, we will be allowing for some too, provided they fit well into the general themes of the album and weren't released in singles or whatever form before September 1967. Since the Village Green album doesn't feature any Dave Davies writing credits, Four More Respected Gentlemen provides the perfect outlet to allow his 1968-era songwriting a home, meaning all of his solo singles backed by the group can be included. Songs recorded after the Four More Respected Men master tape was sent overseas are also fair game, as long as they were recorded before October. With all of that out of the way, here's what our re-conceptualized Four More Respected Gentlemen album looks like:

Till Death Us Do Part (The Great Lost Kinks Album)

There is No Life Without Love (The Great Lost Kinks Album)

Lavender Hill (The Great Lost Kinks Album)

Pictures in the Sand (The Great Lost Kinks Album)

Rosemary Rose (The Great Lost Kinks Album)

Misty Water (The Great Lost Kinks Album)

Mr. Songbird (The Great Lost Kinks Album)

-

Lincoln County (Hidden Treasures)

Wonderboy (The Kink Kronikles)

Polly (The Kink Kronikles)

Berkeley Mews (The Kink Kronikles)

Autumn Almanac (The Kink Kronikles)

Susannah's Still Alive (The Kink Kronikles)

Did You See His Name? (The Kink Kronikles)

Days (The Kink Kronikles)

Bonus track:

Mr. Pleasant (The Kink Kronikles)

She's Got Everything (The Kink Kronikles)

Good Luck Charm (Hidden Treasures)

Download link:
The Kinks - The Kinks Are Four More Respected Gentlemen (1968)

Quaife, Ray Davies, Dave Davies, and Avory, somewhere in the countryside in 1968.

Side one of our reconstruction is a first, being lifted almost entirely out of The Great Lost Kinks Album compilation from 1973. I grew up listening to this album and hearing these songs in this format, so this particular sequencing of the songs is very intuitive to me. All I had to do was replace the song "Groovy Movies", which didn't conform to the rules, with "Pictures in the Sand" from side two, and I had essentially lifted side one of the Great Lost Kinks album for myself. Of these tracks, Dave's "There's No Life Without Love", "Mr. Songbird" and "Misty Water" were part of the original Four More Respected Gentlemen, while "Pictures in the Sand" was part of those pre-June 1968 sessions it was culled from, but wasn't included for some reason. "Till Death Us Do Part" was recorded in September 1968 as the theme for the film of the same name, before being rejected and left unreleased for the next five years. Since it was recorded during the same timeframe as the Village Green album, it's fair game for inclusion. As for the pair of "Lavender Hill" and "Rosemary Rose", they were recorded late in the sessions for Something Else in mid-1967, and although fantastic, weren't even considered for the album they were recorded for. However, since the band had already used one 1967 outtake in the form of "Village Green" in the original album, I find it's only fair we use these two on Four More Respected Gentlemen, considering how well they fit in with the whole concept.

Unfortunately for me, side two isn't just lifted from some random compilation album, even though all but one of the songs are sourced from The Kink Kronikles. Looks like I'll actually have to do my job and sequence them! Six out of the eight songs on this side actually come from the original master tape for Four More Respected Gentlemen: "Polly", "Berkeley Mews", "Autumn Almanac", "Susannah's Still Alive", "Did You See His Name?" and "Days". The only two songs not from FMRG are Dave Davies' "Lincoln County", which fits in remarkably well with his brother's Village Green concept despite quite obviously not being written with it in mind, and the flopped single "Wonderboy", which despite its considerably weak commercial showing is a very interesting and well-written song. It's just not a hit! Its non-inclusion is even more confusing when we factor in that its b-side, "Polly", made it, and "Wonderboy" didn't. Oh well, it's a mistake but one we've just corrected. As for songs that didn't make it, we have one that made the original 15-song list, "She's Got Everything", which is just too early, from the 1966 Face to Face sessions, and doesn't fit in at all with our concept, and the many instrumental outtakes from the VGPS deluxe set, which are all way too unfinished. "Mr. Pleasant" was released as a single in April '67 and so is disqualified, and "Good Luck Charm" is another Dave song that had to be set aside as four Dave songs are much more than he'd ever get on a Kinks album.

I've taken the liberty of adding "The Kinks Are" to the album's title, in order to bring it even closer conceptually to the Village Green album. It is a 40-minute, 15-track album just like its companion, with side two being slightly longer than side one by about three minutes, which is honestly nothing to worry about. The album cover is another VGPS connection, being the cover of the 12-track European version of the album with the Four More Respected Gentlemen title superimposed over it. A simple cover but a good one nonetheless, it fits this collection of songs pretty well and works alongside the eventual album cover. When compared to the album that birthed it, it's certainly not as consistent, with the highs being as high as on Village Green (see the delightful "Autumn Almanac" or "Days"), but the lows being a bit lower, not managing to hit the same quality song after song. But that's to be expected on a collection of outtakes, isn't it? I found when listening to one straight after the other, that this works remarkably well as some sort of sequel or extended version of Village Green, expanding on its themes and giving the album a much-needed depth, making the two truly one-of-a-kind. It's a shame many of these songs were left on the cutting room floor, and even when they were released, didn't get the kind of attention they deserved, like other material that did make it into an album did. I'm glad to have finally given them a home, creating a very respectable album in the process.

Sources:

- The Kinks - The Kink Kronikles

- The Kinks - The Great Lost Kinks Album

- Dave Davies - Hidden Treasures

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)

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Triad (Deja Vu)

Games (Graham Nash, David Crosby)

Long Time Gone (CSN Demos)

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

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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