Steely Dan - Gaucho Outtakes

The Dan, you either get 'em or you don't, but if you do you're in for a treat, otherwise it's like going to see Star Wars and expecting Spock. Fagen and Becker knew this was a high standard to live up to, although their personal standards were higher, and as such, following the success of 77's Aja, they finally returned to the studio to record the infinitely complicated Gaucho. The "infinitely complicated" part is simply a fact, nothing derogatory inferred, though their then label, MCA, might not have found it favorable. Rumors abounded that the group, having recorded material closer in style to that of the aforementioned Aja, decided to leave off the more commercial sounding fare in favor of more obscure pieces like the title cut. This is purely speculation of course, but it's true that much more material was recorded that never saw the light of day, including the almost lost jewel that is The Second Arrangement.

If you're not familiar with the debacle that is The Second Arrangement, it was the first song the band had finished for the album and they were reportedly thoroughly pleased with it. Unfortunately, on a short leave while an assistant engineer prepared the track for playback, it was discovered that this employee had accidentally erased three-fourths of the finished recording. Of course, Fagen and Becker were broken-hearted. They were persuaded to attempt a re-recording, which they did and completed, but they weren't satisfied and left the track to languish somewhere in a studio vault.

You could say the sessions for Gaucho almost seemed cursed, what with the Arrangement fiasco, but any curse could probably be blamed on the band themselves. Their studio perfectionism drove people insane, immense amounts of late seventies money was spent on recording equipment including an early full frequency drum machine, Becker and Fagen reportedly had substance issues, and this was all on their last album for MCA. MCA was trying to squeeze every dime they could out of the group, understandably, but the band was upset to learn MCA was going to try to charge extra for their new album, and even if only a dollar it was a dollar they didn't want to see charged.

In the end, Gaucho emerged a wondrous beast all the same, earning kudos across the board for years to come and featuring the wonderful Hey Nineteen, forever a yacht-rock staple and held in such acclaim that John Belushi reportedly wanted to write a movie based on its story. Of course, this was the last Steely Dan album that would appear for many years to come, caused by the failing of the partnership between Becker and Fagen as well as personal issues in Becker's life. Fagen would record The Nightfly, not terribly distant from the sound of the Dan probably in part from so many of their associates participating in its recording, and it would go on to be recognized as a classic both for its musical content and its recording quality, making it an essential testing benchmark for sound systems the world over.

Below you'll find a link to thirteen outtakes from the Gaucho sessions. There are a few piano demos that circulate with most of the tracks but I've left them out because they're not really from the album's sessions, they're more like songwriting demos. Some of these tracks are alternate takes or mixes, some are completely unreleased tracks and some are familiar in some ways but not others. You'll also find the enchanting Second Arrangement, good enough it could be released on its own as the long-lost Dan number that it is. It may never see the light of day officially, but at least you can hear it. Damn, these guys were really good!


Steely Dan - Gaucho Outtakes

01 Were You Blind That Day?
02 The Second Arrangement
03 The Bear
04 Glamour Profession
05 Kind Spirit
06 Gaucho
07 Talking About My Home
08 My Rival
09 I Can't Write Home About You
10 Time Out Of Mind
11 Babylon Sisters
12 Kulee Baba
13 Gaucho (Instrumental)

Adrian Belew - Lone Rhino Outtakes

Since my asking about Fripp and Belew, I've received a ton of great advice which I really appreciate. I haven't done a Belew post though, and yotte reminded me the other day, so this one's for yotte and anyone else hoping for one.

Initially I wanted to post Adrian's first three albums as they appear to be long out of print but I couldn't confirm that so I decided to wait. Good thing about the waiting though because I found a collection of outtakes and roughs from the Lone Rhino sessions over at Dime A Dozen. Gotta give credit to sdc for sharing these gems, you're awesome man!

If you're unfamiliar with Adrian Belew, let me start by saying that he's just as incredible a guitarist as Fripp although he's more blatantly fun. Belew seems to have a zoo living in his guitar and he uses that to bring birds, rhinos, whales and all kinds of other beasts into his songs. On top of that, his goofy sense of humor really shines through just about every aspect of his songwriting. Goofy voices, ridiculous topics, a wide variety of instrumentation, Belew throws it all against the wall and most of it sticks. Songs like The Momur, pronounced mom-er, is about Belew's wife going buckwild and destroying his favorite guitar. The Lone Rhinoceros is sung from the perspective of the song's titular character, as it lives in a zoo dreaming of returning to it's wild home. I couldn't even tell you what Adidas In Heat or Stop It are about, but they're catchy as hell. And Naive Guitar is a stunningly beautiful instrumental of backwards and processed guitar. The man knows how to mix a catchy song and his off the wall humor with marvelous results. He's also got a voice best described as David Byrne minus the paranoia. Seriously, he sounds like Byrne, doesn't he?

Regarding these tracks, I've heard speculation that they're rough mixes from before additional overdubs were recorded. That sounds about right as it's clear that none of these tracks are anywhere near finished. There are vocals throughout but quite often they're barely audible. Belew's effects are all over the tracks but they're far more present in the final mixes. All in all, nothing here bests the finished Lone Rhino album but it's fascinating to hear Belew and his band working these tracks and having, to these ears, lots of fun.

If I can confirm that Belew's first three albums remain out of print I will share them here, but until then I hope you enjoy these gems. Thanks again to sdc over at Dime for sharing these wonders!


Adrian Belew - Lone Rhino Outtakes

01 The Lone Rhinoceros
02 Big Electric Cat
03 The Man In The Moon
04 Animal Grace
05 Naive Guitar
06 Pigs and Cars
07 Party Time
08 Adidas In Heat
09 Stop It
10 Swingtime
11 Bass and Drums (Nobody Monger?)
12 The Momur

David Bowie - Outside Outtakes

Growing up, my father always talked about how great Bowie was. My first real experience with Bowie's music was 1995's Outside, and boy was I confused. In retrospect, it was clearly the wrong place to start, and I'm sure many other Nine Inch Nails fans have figured that out as well, but at the time I kept replaying Outside in hopes that I would figure something out. There is a lot of great music there but it's difficult to get through, so despite loving tracks like The Motel and A Small Plot Of Land, Outside has never been a favorite of mine.

Years later, having better familiarized myself with Bowie's catalog, I'm really into the trio of albums he did with Eno and a big fan of records like Scary Monsters and Station To Station. With that, after hearing the version of I'm Afraid Of Americans from the Showgirls soundtrack which is an Eno production from around the same time as the 1995 recordings, and reading about the then-proposed trilogy of albums with Eno that Outside was supposed to begin, I thought it was time to re-explore that album. Sadly, the results were about the same, but it did lead me to find some outtakes from those sessions.

Much has been said about the circulating Outside outtakes, so I'll spare you a reiteration and point you directly to this page which has lots of details. If you want the skinny though, these recordings feature some of the improvisations from those sessions, parts of which became interludes on the final album. There is some seriously "proggy" stuff going on with Bowie's truly strange storyline, so don't expect the unreleased pop version of Outside, this is for those who enjoyed that corner of Bowie's universe.

I went to college in 1996 and heard Bowie's next album, Earthling, while djing at one of the school's radio stations. It had a much larger impact on me as I was really into jungle at that time, but then I got to hear "Heroes" which changed everything. Great songwriting, real passion in the performances and such an engrossing atmosphere, all of which led me to discover what was really great about Bowie. Even when he stumbles, his songwriting chops and ability to conjure a sense of time and space are wonderful, and no matter what one thinks of Outside, he still had and still has a lot of life in him. Now if only someone would leak the Toy album.


David Bowie - Something Really Fishy (The 1. Outside Outtakes)
UPDATE: The download got nixed by the DMCA. Sorry guys.

01 Hello Leon
02 I Am With Name / Hide Me / We Creep Together (Part 1)
03 Hide Me / We Creep Together (Part 2)
04 I Wanna Be
05 The First Time
06 I Am With Name / We Creep Together (Part 3)


PS - Usually I'm on top of these things, but I've really got to explore Fripp and Belew's recordings. I'm more familiar with their appearances with Talking Heads than anything else they've done. So, can someone give me some advice as to some albums where their guitar pyrotechnics really get shown off? Please?

Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box Outtakes

I have been waiting for this for so long! But first, massive credit must be given to plymwhites for hooking things up and Tony for getting me copies of the recordings, I am eternally grateful to you guys and if there is anything I can do, please let me know!

So, a year or two ago I found the wonderful Fodderstompf site and read about these recordings. I started hunting them and the Commercial Zone outtakes, and I eventually found those CZ tracks which are shared here, but I had no luck with the Metal Box Outtakes until plymwhites and Tony came into the picture. After plymwhites connection, Tony got me the three disc set known as Metal Box Demos, although that label isn't exactly correct. Not to be confused with the vinyl boot that contains b-sides and radio sessions, this set contained the ten tracks featured here, three tracks from an unknown radio session, and a ton of tracks that sound like they were recorded with a handheld tape recorder. Those "handheld" tapes aren't necessarily different from the finished versions, although it's hard to really determine if there are differences due to the lack of fidelity, but it's quite likely they were recorded while being played through the monitor at the mixdown sessions. As for the ten tracks featured here, they are legitimate, unreleased, alternate mixes and takes of songs from the Metal Box sessions. That said, the quality of these recordings isn't the greatest as they sound like they've been copied twenty or thirty times and the final cassette might have been stored under the seat of an ancient chevrolet before someone digitized them and shared them with other collectors, but that doesn't matter because the tracks are great!

The Fodderstompf review of these tracks covers most of the details, but a quick run down follows below the tracks in the list below. Also, I've included an eleventh track with excerpts from a few of the "handheld" tracks and some entertaining tape glitches. I know not everyone is necessarily interested in that sort of thing, but I find it very entertaining so I figured I share these bits with you. It reminds me of trading tapes via the mail back in the day before MP3s became so common. Hope you enjoy!

UPDATE: I got reported again for this post, and there isn't even a download link attached to it anymore! Well, tough, I'm not getting rid of the text. I wrote it, it's my post, there is nothing that shouldn't be here any longer, I won't remove it. Anyone that has a problem with that, TOUGH SHIT.

Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box Outtakes

01 Socialist (Alternate Mix)
This isn't terribly different from the released version, although you can hear Wobble at the end of the track chanting socialist. He almost sounds robotic. There are also some keys and mixing differences throughout the track that I found interesting.

02 Death Disco (Alternate Take)
This may not be the complete take, but it's great nonetheless. It's a little bouncier and, dare I say, more "disco friendly" than the released version. Very cool!

03 Beat The Drum For Me (Alternate Mix)
04 Beat The Drum For Me (Alternate Mix)
I can't vouch that there are any huge difference here.

05 Beat The Drum For Me (Dub Mix)
The Fodderstompf review lists this track as two different takes stuck together. I could be wrong but I took it as one dubby mix version, and that's how I'm presenting it to you here. This is a really cool version.

06 No Birds Do Sing (Alternate Mix)
The differences here are pretty minimal, but the track goes on a little longer than the released version.

07 No Birds Do Sing (Alternate Mix, incomplete)
08 No Birds Do Sing (Alternate Mix, incomplete)
These two tracks are probably meant to be one track. It sounds like whomever was taping these tried to continue the second version very close to where the first ended. For the record, these two tracks were combined into one on the discs I received, but I separated them here.

09 No Birds Do Sing (Alternate Mix)
Like the other versions, the differences are minimal.

10 Socialist (Alternate Take)
Not terribly different from the released version, this one starts with someone hitting the foghorn-sounding keyboard. This version also fades out.

11 tape excerpts
Just what the title says, there are bits of Bad Baby, The Suit and Chant in here, as well as a track that probably isn't PiL that I don't recognize. If you were wondering what the "handheld" stuff sounds like, this should give you a good idea, and if enough people want those I can post them, but I don't think anyone is going to care. Those "handheld" tapes are nearly unlistenable, and if you do listen to them you might get tinnitus. You have been warned.


PS - Gotta say it one more time, HUGE thanks to Tony and plymwhites! You guys rule!

PS2 - Happy Birthday Dad!

PS3 - Game system I don't own because the 360, for me at least, is better. I don't believe in BluRay either. Also, a really dumb joke I'm making that I hope you can all forgive me for.

Miles Davis - More Seventies Sessions

Man, this one was supposed to happen a while ago. I actually included one of these tracks in the earlier Miles Sessions post I did, but regardless, I think you'll find this post very interesting.

I received these tracks as two separate collections, one marked Jabali Sessions and the other 11/6/74, although there was a text file included which also listed them as October 74 sessions. The text file showed that these tracks had all been traded together at one point or another, so I put them back in the order they were originally presented and tried to figure out which takes were which and what the correct dates were. This wasn't easy and some information is still missing, but Peter Losin at Miles Ahead cleared some things up. The first seven tracks are definitely the Jabali sessions, although apart from takes 4 and 11, it's unclear what takes or rehearsals the other tracks represent. As for the last six tracks, they are untitled originals from April 1973. None of these, apart from Take 4 of Jabali, have been posted on the site prior to this, so enjoy some interesting Miles goodies.

By the way, I do have to apologise for the awful editing on these tracks, but I cannot claim responsibility. Apart from having retagged the files I have not altered these tracks in any way, including leaving the empty sounding ninth track in. As I said to Peter and he later restated to me, "whomever released this seems to have chopped up the start points rather badly". Sad but true.


Miles Davis - More Seventies Sessions

01 Jabali session
02 Jabali session
03 Jabali session
04 Jabali session
05 Jabali (Take 4)
06 Jabali session
07 Jabali (Take 11)
08 Untitled Original 730424a (Take 2)
09 (nothing?)
10 Untitled Original 730424a (Take 3)
11 Untitled Original 730424b (Take 1, Part 1)
12 Untitled Original 730424b (Take 1, Part 2)
13 Untitled Original 730424b (Take 1, Part 3)

Public Image Limited - Commercial Zone

Public Image Limited is difficult to explain even when you know the facts. Started with John Lydon, after leaving the Sex Pistols, and his buddy Keith Levene, an early member of The Clash, PiL, as it was abbreviated, was said to be a company, not a band. Despite this statement, they nonetheless performed and toured as a band and wrote songs which were released for public consumption. Jah Wobble, a childhood friend of Lydon's, was brought on as the bass player despite lacking any knowledge of how to play the instrument, although he did rather well for himself. Martin Atkins later became the drummer and blew people away on a regular basis. Jeanette Lee was also a member of PiL, although she worked with visual aids rather than writing music or performing. Eventually, everyone got fired or left on their own volition leaving Lydon the sole active member. PiL went from being corporate minded to being what would generally be identified as a late-eighties and early-nineties alternative rock-band. The band, or company, or Lydon, depending on how you like to think of PiL, hasn't recorded or released any new material since the early nineties, leading many to believe that it is over and finished, although Lydon has went on record to state that PiL is on "hiatus" and may eventually return. Since said "hiatus", he has released one solo album, in which he played just about every instrument and wrote every song, and is working on a second one when he's not doing whatever he normally does.

I hope I didn't come off rough about Lydon in my brief history of PiL as I actually like the guy. I think he's genuinely creative, interesting and intelligent, despite what many people say or what his "public image" says about him. That said, as obvious as it may be that PiL would never have existed without him, the participation of ex-members Keith Levene, Jah Wobble and Martin Atkins is just as important and should not be discounted. Keith is just as essential, if not more so, to the origins of PiL than Lydon, and his playing and use of then-new technologies like samplers inspired a lot of the post-punk and post-rock sounds coming out of the early eighties. He is also the party responsible for the existence of "Commercial Zone" as we know it.

In 1981 and 1982, PiL had reconvened to begin recording a new album. Lydon had a role in a film called "Copkiller" starring Harvey Keitel and began writing a piece named "The Slab" which was later renamed "The Order Of Death" to possibly be used in the film, or at least that's what is commonly accepted at the truth. During this period, Lydon and Atkins were doing more of the writing and production on the new recordings, leaving Levene out or removing his contributions. Levene, understandably, was not happy with this and decided to leave the band, but not before making off with a copy of the masters for the then unfinished album. He tried to get Richard Branson, head of Virgin Records, to release the material as the new PiL album, but Lydon intervened and Branson refused, leading Levene to move back to the US and release it there as "Commercial Zone". Lydon and Atkins were furious, claiming they owned the rights to the recordings which they probably did. Levene didn't seem too bothered by it and, when the then-current PiL lineup decided to release their new album, "This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get" in 1984, Levene reissued "Commercial Zone" as a limited edition release with a slightly altered track order and at least one song shortened. PiL successfully forced "Commercial Zone" out of print permanently shortly after it's reissue, but it became fodder for bootleggers and mythical to anyone interested in the band, Lydon or Levene.

What I'm posting here today is a copy of the original issued version of the "Commercial Zone" album. I quite enjoy this album and feel it's a shame it most likely won't ever see an official release, but there are high quality copies floating around so at least we have those. I am also posting a collection of unreleased recordings from this same period of time that showed up online in 2006. Initially, this collection consisted of a live show from an unknown date, a rehearsal for the 1983 lineup's tour, and the aforementioned unreleased recordings which are clearly from the same era as the recording of the "Commercial Zone" album. Some of the tracks are alternate versions of the CZ tracks, many of them are untitled instrumentals. There has been speculation that these CZ tracks and instrumentals may have been intended for the "Copkiller" film, but this has never been verified. There is an alternate version of the "This Is What You Want..." track "1981" and the full "Flowers Of Romance" single despite it having been officially released. I've also included a track generally identified by fans as "Vampire", an instrumental featuring Martin Atkins' percussion with sound effects described by him as sounding like "dinosaurs". These sounds were achieved by Atkins recording the sound of him drinking bottled water and then slowing it down significantly. Also, this track was, for reasons unclear, included on the rehearsal recording, but is definitely a studio recording and actually dates from the "Flowers Of Romance" sessions. So calling this second collection "Commercial Zone Demos" or outtakes isn't quite accurate, since while the majority of them are from that period, several of them have nothing to do with that album, but the name sticks since that is what it is commonly referred to as online.

If you want to learn more about Public Image Limited, Lydon, Levene, Atkins, Wobble and anything else related to the PiL universe, I suggest you visit the astoundingly detailed Fodderstompf site. I'm sure you will find their details of the "Commercial Zone" debacle far more detailed than my own, but as I'm not running a PiL-specific site I think I can be forgiven. Enjoy!

Public Image Limited - Commercial Zone

01 Love Song
02 Mad Max
03 Bad Night
04 Solitaire
05 The Slab
06 Lou Reed Pt. 1
07 Lou Reed Pt. 2
08 Blue Water
09 Miller Hi-Life


Public Image Limited - Commercial Zone Demos and Outtakes

01 The Slab
02 Instrumental #1
03 Instrumental #2
04 Bad Night
05 Instrumental #3
06 Instrumental #4
07 Bad Night/Love Song
08 Instrumental #5
09 Instrumental #6
10 Instrumental #7
11 1981
12 Flowers Of Romance (Single Version)
13 Flowers Of Romance (Instrumental)
14 Vampire