Faces - Open to Ideas (1975)

Ronnie Lane left the Faces in June 1973. This departure was a long time coming, seen as many issues plagued the band by the time 1973 rolled around: Lane's folkier tendencies were incompatible with the rest of the band, who much preferred to play rock and roll, and lead singer Rod Stewart's neglected the band due to his concurrent solo career, which was starting to take off in the US. Such was his neglect that the last Faces album to feature Lane, Ooh La La, was almost entirely led by him, with Stewart's contributions few and far between. As if that wasn't enough, soon after the record was released, Rod gave an interview where he badmouthed the album and criticized its songs, which incensed Ronnie and became the final straw: he quit the band and started a solo career. Wasting no time, the group replaced him with Japanese bassist Tetsu Yamauchi, who had already replaced bassist Andy Fraser in Free, and toured for the better part of 1973. For the next year, the band recorded some non-album singles but seemed directionless, with sessions for a purported fifth studio album in January 1975 going nowhere and plans ending up scrapped. After a final US tour in December 1975, Ronnie Wood quit to join the Rolling Stones, with whom he'd already toured, and replace Mick Taylor, and the band finally ended for good. But what if the Faces had managed to release a final studio album?

This post is an update to my June 2018 fifth Faces album, titled Open to Ideas. This time around, we will try to create an album that doesn't feature anything that's already on any albums by Ronnie Wood or Rod Stewart. That way, we'll have something that can coexist with the rest of the Faces' discography as well as their members' solo careers without any issues or overlap in songs. To do so, anything they recorded or released after Ooh La La is fair game for our intent. That means songs from the August 1973 to January 1975 period will be considered, which admittedly is a pretty long span of time. But it's pretty much the only way we could make this work, given the dearth of material available from this time period. All songs will feature Tetsu Yamauchi on bass, as he replaced Ronnie Lane right after the release of Ooh La La, with one notable exception which will be explained later. Again, since there's not much material up for consideration and all the songs are pretty long, I figured eight songs and 35 minutes is more than enough for a full-length Faces album, given their track record. We will be including covers, as the band had the habit of including those in their albums, but the majority of songs on the album will be originals. But even with two songs less, it's still a couple of minutes longer than its predecessor! With that out of the way, here's what our updated Open to Ideas album looks like:

You Can Make Me Dance, Sing, or Anything (Five Guys Walk Into a Bar)

As Long as You Tell Him (Five Guys Walk Into a Bar)

Gettin' Hungry (Five Guys Walk Into a Bar)

Rock Me (Five Guys Walk Into a Bar)

-

Pool Hall Richard (Five Guys Walk Into a Bar)

Jodie (The Mercury Collection)

Hi Heel Sneakers/Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Five Guys Walk Into a Bar)

Open to Ideas (Five Guys Walk Into a Bar)

Download link:
Faces - Open to Ideas (1975)

Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart performing during the Faces' final US tour, late 1975.

Ooh La La outtake "Jodie" was re-recorded shortly after the album's sessions were finished in August 1973 and issued as the b-side to a Rod Stewart solo single. It does feature Ronnie Lane on bass, but given that it was recorded after Ooh La La was finished and wasn't included in any album either by the Faces or Rod, I decided to include it. From November 1973 is the single "Pool Hall Richard", and from nearly a year afterward in October 1974 comes another single, "You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything", along with its b-side "As Long as You Tell Him". All three are pretty good, poppy songs that were probably never meant for an album in the first place, but given our limitations have to find their homes here. From January 1975, come the proper fifth album sessions themselves, which yielded originals "Rock Me" and "Open to Ideas", as well as covers of the Beach Boys' "Gettin' Hungry", and as a rhythm and blues classics medley consisting of Tommy Tucker's "Hi Heeled Sneakers" and Solomon Burke's "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love". Sure, featuring four previously released songs in an album is a bit excessive, but by having those singles serve as side openers and the newly recorded material filling up the record, we can strike a pretty good balance between the old and the new through sequencing, and what we end up with is a pretty cohesive album in spite of its issues.

The album is titled Open to Ideas after the strongest of the original songs, which is accompanied by original artwork I put together with a photo of the band from 1974. Good pictures of the Faces with Tetsu are pretty hard to come by, so it was a lucky thing that photo was available. No new singles would be pulled out from this album as three songs were already released as singles, and frankly, there really aren't any songs left that could do well in the charts. The band certainly suffers from Ronnie Lane's absence, as his songwriting, singing, and bass playing were integral to the band's sound, and however serviceable Yamauchi was as a bass player, he wasn't able to replace Lane to that level. However, this proves that even without him they'd be able to create a perfectly able farewell album that featured what the band could do best: play some good rock and roll. This certainly doesn't reach the heights the Faces reached with their classic records, but I don't think anyone was expecting anything of the sort from a band that was, at that point neglected by their lead singer and double-timed by their lead guitarist, who would become a Rolling Stone later that year. This reconstruction is a great glimpse into an often-forgotten era of the band, giving a home to outtakes and hit singles alike, and chronicling their dysfunctional final days before they either joined the competition or crossed the Atlantic.

Sources:
- Faces - Five Guys Walk Into a Bar

- Rod Stewart - The Mercury Collection

- Woodworks 1957/1975: Ronnie Wood Chronology

Pink Floyd - Spare Bricks: Music from the Film "The Wall" (1982)

"Pink Floyd – The Wall", released in 1982 through MGM Studios, is a feature film based on the album of the same name. Directed by Alan Parker with a screenplay by band member Roger Waters, the film project first started out as a concert film of the band's Earls Court residency, to be interceded by newly filmed footage, such as Gerald Scarfe animations and dramatical scenes starring Roger Waters as Pink. However, at some point, the live footage was deemed unusable (it was apparently "too dark") and so the film became a straight adaptation of the original album, with Bob Geldof taking on the role of Pink and any live music being dropped. From then, the film had a considerably troubled production, with Parker and Waters constantly clashing over the direction of the film, and both describing the experience as extremely unpleasant and miserable by the end of it. However, by its release, The Wall was a success, managing to receive generally positive reviews and to gross 22 million dollars at the box office by early 1983. Said success led to a renewed interest in the record, already three years old by that point, which made Pink Floyd's label EMI become interested in releasing a soundtrack album to the movie. After all, some of the songs were altered or re-recorded to be featured in the movie, and two new tracks were featured in the movie: "When the Tigers Broke Free", newly recorded and split into two parts, and outtake "What Shall We Do Now". However, Waters and the rest of the band decided against the idea, as that wasn't enough to warrant a soundtrack. But they did become interested in a different approach: combining the re-recordings with outtakes and new songs related to the concept to form a new album.

That new project, the adequately titled Spare Bricks, would be able to give a home to the re-recorded soundtrack songs while simultaneously giving a home to songs meant for The Wall but left unreleased, or new songs meant to flesh out the album's narrative, essentially a best of both worlds scenario. The sessions for it began in July 1982, with the band managing to record the basics to some six new tracks, all of them in some way related to the Wall concept. However, Roger Waters was still not fully satisfied with the direction of the album. The Falklands conflict, which started earlier that year, weighed heavily on his mind, as did his dissatisfaction with how the film turned out, which combined spelled disaster for the Spare Bricks concept. It led Waters to write new material inspired by his feelings about the conflict and the state of English politics in the age of Thatcherism, adapting the previously recorded songs and creating the highly personal concept of Requiem for the Post-War Dream, later retitled simply to The Final Cut. This decision was also one that further alienated Floyd member David Gilmour. He also wasn't very enthusiastic about the Spare Bricks concept, but The Final Cut barely even features any contributions by him, be it by songwriting, singing, or even guitar playing. He did ask for some time to write some material of his own to contribute to the album, but was denied by Waters, who felt he was on a roll and could finish the album quickly and to his liking alone. With Gilmour thrown to the side, Richard Wright long gone by this point, and Nick Mason a secondary presence, the band had essentially broken up by the time the album was released. But what if Pink Floyd had released Spare Bricks?

This reconstruction is an upgrade to the very first post on the blog, dating from January 2018. We will be tackling the unreleased Spare Bricks album, again trying to put together the best possible version of this lost Pink Floyd album. Between re-recordings and film exclusives we have "When the Tigers Broke Free", "Mother", "What Shall We Do Now?", "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 3", "In the Flesh", "Bring the Boys Back Home" and "Outside the Wall". Of those, most are pretty safe bets for inclusion, with the exceptions of "In the Flesh" and "Mother", which Waters thought didn't translate well going from the soundtrack to the album, and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 3" was surplus to requirements. While I disagree when it comes to the gorgeous version of "Mother" used in the film, the other two are pretty fair assessments, especially considering no version of "In the Flesh" without film noise obscuring most of the song exists. The songs recorded before Spare Bricks became The Final Cut were "The Hero's Return", "Paranoid Eyes", "Your Possible Pasts", "The Fletcher Memorial Home", "The Final Cut" and "The Post-War Dream". Again, not all of those would have been included, and songs that go beyond both lists and could have been recorded for the project had world politics gone a different way won't be considered, even those that have a clear and indisputable link with either the album or the movie. Our goal then is to create the closest approximation we possibly can to what an accurate version of Spare Bricks would look like in 1982. With that out of the way, here's what I've managed to come up with:

When the Tigers Broke Free (The Wall Soundtrack)

Mother (The Wall Soundtrack)

The Hero's Return (The Final Cut)

Paranoid Eyes (The Final Cut)

What Shall We Do Now? (The Wall Soundtrack)

-

Bring the Boys Back Home (The Wall Soundtrack)

Your Possible Pasts (The Final Cut)

The Fletcher Memorial Home (The Final Cut)

The Final Cut (The Final Cut)

Outside the Wall (The Wall Soundtrack)

Bonus tracks:

Another Brick in the Wall, Part 3 (The Wall Soundtrack)

In the Flesh (The Wall Soundtrack)

The Post-War Dream (The Final Cut)

Download link:

Pink Floyd - Spare Bricks: Music from the Film "The Wall" (1982)

Roger Waters as pictured during the filming of Pink Floyd - The Wall, early 1982.

Starting off with two songs that are practically guaranteed to have been part of the Spare Bricks album, both sides of the "When the Tigers Broke Free" b/w "Bring the Boys Back Home" are featured here, the only official release of any songs from the film. All other movie pieces will be sourced from cleaned-up DVD rips of the soundtrack. Sure, they're not release quality or anything but the work put behind them by fans is admirable and they're quite usable. Most, like "Mother", "In the Flesh" and "Outside the Wall" have new, completely different arrangements, while "What Shall We Do Now?" was cut from the album at the last minute but restored for the movie because of its narrative importance. Spare brick "The Hero's Return" is featured in an extended version, as released on the b-side of the "Not Now John" single, presenting the complete story of the teacher as a WW2 veteran suffering from PTSD.  "The Fletcher Memorial Home" is featured without the spoken word interlude, which tied it down too much with the concept of the Final Cut and 1980s politics. Other than those two, all other spare bricks are featured in their regular album versions. Roger Waters's solo track "The Moment of Clarity" wasn't recorded during these sessions, but was recited by Bob Geldof following "Stop" during the movie, later being featured in Roger's first solo LP. Unfortunately, as the song is a core part of the Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking concept and wasn't recorded by Pink Floyd, it cannot be included on the album. Coming from later on in the Final Cut sessions is "One of the Few", a song that dates back to the original Wall demos as "Teach", with its absence owing to the fact that it wasn't recorded in time for Spare Bricks.

Speaking of songs that won't make the cut, "In the Flesh" isn't included as it was sung by Bob Geldof and features no members of Pink Floyd, which wouldn't make sense in a Pink Floyd album, and Roger didn't consider it one of the main contenders for the Spare Bricks album in the first place. In addition, "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 3" is so similar to its album version that there's no point in including it in this reconstruction, and Roger didn't have many plans for it either. When it comes to the mid-1982 sessions, "The Post-War Dream" is also omitted from the album, even though it hailed from the Spare Bricks era, as its lyrics are way too tied up with the critique of Thatcherism or the general conceptual narrative of the Final Cut album. "Sexual Revolution", which got as far as being demoed by the band in late 1978, wasn't considered for the Spare Bricks project, as Waters was probably already holding it back for use in the Pros and Cons album. As for the tracklist, the album is sequenced within the rough narrative structure of the album and movie, as it's the only way this combination of new songs and re-recorded soundtrack pieces could ever make sense as a cohesive record. This also helps show the narrative function of the newer songs, be it to humanize the Teacher and connect him to the impact of WW2 in young Pink's life ("The Hero's Return"), to portray Pink's fragile psyche and insecurities through a lens of "stiff upper lip" English culture ("Paranoid Eyes"), or to further document Pink's descent into self-destruction and reminiscing ("Your Possible Pasts", "The Fletcher Memorial Home", "The Final Cut"), fleshing out the album's narrative and giving it depth it didn't previously have.

A 40-minute album that's divided evenly into five songs from the film and five newer unheard songs, Spare Bricks is the realization of a very interesting concept, that most certainly would lead to the newer songs being much better received than they ended up being. The Final Cut album is already heavily criticized for consisting of "The Wall leftovers", so admitting to it up front and giving the songs the necessary context certainly eases the criticism, even if some of the highlights of the album aren't featured here. If you wanted to you could shoehorn "The Post-War Dream" into side two, but I find the selections I've made create the strongest possible album. I'm also not sure what would happen to the rest of the Final Cut's material, written after the Falklands conflict began, with them being shoehorned into The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking to turn it into a double album or not written at all. But maybe Waters could have written a new album from scratch about the Falklands War, with more involvement from Gilmour as he'd have time to write some songs, something he complained about quite a bit during the TFC sessions. The second single off this project would probably be "Your Possible Pasts" b/w "The Final Cut", a planned single off The Final Cut that for whatever reason never ended up being released. It obviously wouldn't be a hit single, but I could see it doing ok. The great album cover seen here is taken from the I Design Album Covers Tumblr, which is much more Hipgnosis than Gerald Scarfe but still works great. Given that forty years have passed and the soundtrack to The Wall remains unreleased, this might be the closest we'll ever get to seeing these spare bricks slotted back where they belong.

Sources:

- The Wall Soundtrack - Sequenced and Extended by }{eywood

- Pink Floyd - The Final Cut

- Pink Floyd - When the Tigers Broke Free [7" single]

- Pink Floyd - Not Now John [7" single]

- Pink Floyd - Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd

- The Wall Complete: The Missing Songs from Pink Floyd the Wall

George Harrison - George Harrison (1969)

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

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

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

What is Life? (Take 1)

Let it Down (Take 1)

The Art of Dying (Take 1)

All Things Must Pass (Day 1 Demo)

Isn't it a Pity? (Take 27)
-

I'd Have You Anytime (Take 5)

Wah-Wah (Take 1)

Window, Window (Day 2 Demo)

Run of the Mill (Take 36)

Hear Me Lord (Take 5)

Download link:
George Harrison - George Harrison (1969)

George as photographed in his Esher home, April 1969.

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

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

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

Sources:

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

Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys (1970)

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

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

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

Disc 1: In the Studio

Power of Soul (Both Sides of the Sky)

Lover Man (Both Sides of the Sky)

Room Full of Mirrors (Rainbow Bridge)

Stepping Stone (Voodoo Child)

Izabella (Voodoo Child)

-

Ezy Ryder (The Cry of Love)

Message to Love (West Coast Seattle Boy)

Earth Blues (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

Burning Desire (Loose Ends)

Disc 2: Live at the Fillmore

Who Knows (Band of Gypsys)

Machine Gun (Band of Gypsys)

-

Them Changes (Band of Gypsys)

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

We Gotta Live Together (Band of Gypsys)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stephen Stills - Songs for Judy (1968)

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

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

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

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

Do for the Others (Stephen Stills)

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

Know You Got to Run (Stephen Stills 2)

Bumblebee (Manassas)

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Change Partners (Stephen Stills 2)

Black Queen (Stephen Stills)

Helplessly Hoping (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

So Begins the Task (Manassas)

49 Bye-Byes (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stephen Stills - Stephen Stills

Stephen Stills - Stephen Stills 2

Stephen Stills - Manassas