David Bowie - "Magic"

There were three years between the release of David Bowie's Tonight album in 1984 and his follow-up Never Let Me Down album in 1987. In fact, Bowie released songs on three soundtracks in 1986. I thought that if those tunes were collected together, we could have a Bowie album for that year.

In all, there are 10 Bowie tracks that appeared on the Labyrinth, Absolute Beginners and When the Wind Blows soundtracks.

1. Opening Titles – Underground
2. Absolute Beginners
3. Magic Dance
4. Chilly Down
5. As the World Falls Down
6. When the Wind Blows
7. Within You
8. Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu)
9. That’s Motivation
10. Underground

Of the three soundtracks, Labyrinth has the most Bowie songs with six, Absolute Beginners has three and When the Wind Blows has just the title track. I decided to mix the sequence of the songs and I think the result is generally satisfying, although the '80s production can be annoying. Then again, it's that shared mid-'80s production that allows all the tracks to gel as an album.

The album's length is 39:42, longer than Tonight (35:47) but much shorter than Never Let Me Down (53:07—although this album would later be shortened to 48:06 when one of the songs was jettisoned from re-releases). So, although short by today's standards, this imagined album actually measures up lengthwise with the times.

For a cover, I chose the slip sleeve for the "Magic Dance" single and altered it a bit, including spelling out the title in the Flood font. I decided to call the album Magic as I thought calling it Magic Dance was too much like the Let's Dance album title. Plus I liked the simplicity of the title. All tracks can be found on the aforementioned soundtracks. They're also all on the Loving the Alien (1983-1988) box set.

To hear how this album would sound, check out the YouTube playlist.

Boston - "Third Stage" [reimagined]

Following the end of Boston's tour in 1979, lead guitarist, producer and principal songwriter Tom Scholz announced to the band that he was going to take a break for about a year, according to rhythm guitarist Barry Goudreau. Goudreau got together with bandmembers singer Brad Delp and drummer Sib Hashian and recorded a few tracks. According to Goudreau, they brought them to Scholz hoping he'd be interested in using them for a new Boston album. However, Scholz said he'd simply like to produce the record, and Goudreau felt that the record company wasn't going to allow Scholz to do anything other than a Boston album. So more music was recorded and eventually released as Goudreau's self-titled solo album.

To promote the album, the record company inferred in advertisements that Goudreau's guitar was the sound behind Boston, which infuriated Scholz. Reportedly, Scholz contacted the record company (CBS) and told them to either stop promoting the album or they'd never see another Boston album. Not only was the promotion of Goudreau's album discontinued, but soon after, Scholz fired Goudreau from the band. 

Sometime in 1980, the remaining members of Boston recorded four tracks. But it wouldn't be long before other members, including Hashian and bassist Fran Sheehan, were kicked out of the band. This basically left only Scholz and Delp along with hired sidemen. Then Scholz broke a finger, there were various lawsuits, Boston signed with a different record company, etc. etc. Finally, Third Stage was released in 1986, more than eight years after the band's previous album Don't Look Back. By that time, music trends had changed dramatically and it was a case of too little, too late. 

I wanted to see what could have been had Goudreau's tracks and Scholz's 1980 tracks been used on a new Boston album circa 1980/1981.

SIDE A

1. We're Ready

2. Dreams

3. Mean Woman Blues

4. Life is What We Make It

5. Amanda

SIDE B

1. The Launch

• Countdown
• Ignition
• Third Stage Separation

2. Cool The Engines

3. Hard Luck

4. What's a Fella to Do?

5. Shattered Images (Help Me) [live]

I used five tracks from Goudreau's album, all but one of which were co-written with Delp and all feature Delp on lead vocals and Hashian on drums. From Third Stage, I used the four tracks that were recorded in 1980, which all feature Delp and Hashian. And then I went about determining a track order.

First of all, I've always found "Amanda" to be an odd choice to lead off the album. It's a ballad and just doesn't seem to be the right way to kick off a Boston album. The second song, "We're Ready," seems tailor-made as the album opener and so that's what I went with here. Next, I used a song that was the single from Goudreau's solo album, "Dreams." Another track from Goudreau's album, "Mean Woman Blues," adds a bit of boogie to the mix and allows for some musical variety. One more Goudreau track, "Life is What We Make It," follows. Then we close out the first side of the album with the ballad "Amanda."

The second side opens with the three-part instrumental "The Launch," which then leads into "Cool the Engines." Two Goudreau tracks follow with "Hard Luck" and "What's a Fella to Do?"

I chose something not on either Third Stage or Barry Goudreau for the final track. Instead, I picked a track Boston played in concert often between 1976 and 1979, but never (as far as I know) recorded in the studio: "Shattered Images (Help Me)." There are quite a few recordings available from different shows, but I liked the one recorded at a show in Long Beach, Calif., in 1977. This track provides a big, enthusiastic ending for the album. You can find this version on a bootleg called Permission to Land, and it can also be found on YouTube.

Interestingly, at least for me, Hashian is the only person who performs on all the tracks.

I take no credit for the cover art. I found it being used for Boston songs on YouTube uploaded by ColdFrixion, and I thought it would make a nice alternative to the original cover and show that this is a different version.

Here's a YouTube Playlist of what the album could sound like.

Arthur Lyman -- The Exotic Worlds of Arthur Lyman

The "big three" of tiki exotica music are Les Baxter, Martin Denny, and Arthur Lyman. A few years ago I got two double-CD compilations of works by Baxter and Denny titled The Exotic Moods of Les Baxter and The Exotic Sounds of Martin Denny that were released in 1996. Both featured cover art by Mark Ryden. I play them as background music for our home tiki bar.

However, there wasn't a similar release for Arthur Lyman, and I felt it was lacking from the collection, so I created one myself.

DISC 1

01 - Isle of Golden Dreams

02 - Ebb Tide

03 - Black Orchid

04 - Afro Blue

05 - Jungle Drums

06 - Akaka Falls

07 - Blue Hawaii

08 - Fire Down Below

09 - Aloha No Honolulu

10 - Jungle Fantasy

11 - Harbor Lights

12 - Bolero

13 - Hawaiian War Chant

14 - Bahia

15 - Jungle Jalopy

16 - Bwana A

17 - Beyond the Reef

18 - Caravan

19 - Hawaii Tattoo

20 - Ke Kali Nei Au

DISC 2

01 - Sweet Leilani

02 - Koni Au I Ka Wai

03 - My Tane

04 - The Limbo Rock

05 - Pele

06 - La Paloma

07 - Sweet Someone

08 - Theme from Adventures in Paradise

09 - Mapauna

10 - Quiet Village

11 - Taboo

12 - The Moon of Manakoora

13 - Midnight Sun

14 - Return to Paradise

15 - Whispering Reef Lullaby

16 - Taboo Tu

17 - Misirlou

18 - Ringo Oiwake

19 - The (Jungle) Cat

20 - Yellow Bird

In deciding what tracks to include by Lyman, I searched through various "best of" collections but focused mainly on songs featuring titles about the South Pacific or exotic locations. Both the Baxter and Denny compilations include 40 tracks each, with 20 tunes per disc. So, in keeping with the format, I chose 40 songs of Lyman's music.

The collection begins with "Isle of Golden Dreams," originally released in 1958 on Lyman's Hawaiian Sunset LP. It's a rather slow, "dreamy" piece that I thought would allow the listener to drift into the mood. All the instrumentals presented here can transport you to a mythical tropic island with their use of vibraphones, marimbas, ukuleles and exotic bird calls. I ended the collection with probably Lyman's best-known tune, "Yellow Bird." I recommend you shake up a mai tai and relax.

For the cover artwork, I wanted to use another painting by Mark Ryden like the ones used for the Baxter and Denny compilations, but I couldn't find anything suitable. So, instead, I chose an image of a velvet painting by Robb Hamel, cropped it, and added titles. The title I chose, to go along with the other two compilations, was The Exotic Worlds of Arthur Lyman.

U2 - "Bersantai Honey"

 

It wasn't until recently that I discovered there were so many outtakes from U2's Achtung Baby -- which happens to be my favorite album by the band. Some of the extra tunes ended up being reworked into songs for the follow-up Zooropa or released elsewhere as B-sides, etc. 

I thought it might be interesting to take all the outtakes and assemble them into a theoretical follow-up to Achtung Baby instead or perhaps in addition to Zooropa.

1. Alex Descends into Hell for a Bottle of Milk - Korova 1

2. Blow Your House Down

3. Salomé

4. Everybody Loves a Winner

5. Oh Berlin

6. Lady with the Spinning Head (UV1)

7. Down All the Days

8. Near the Island

9. Where Did It All Go Wrong?

10. Heaven and Hell

I kicked off the album with the mostly instrumental "Alex Descends into Hell for a Bottle of Milk - Korova 1," which was originally released as a B-side of "The Fly" single. Both "Salomé" and "Where Did It All Go Wrong" were B-sides to the "Even Better than the Real Thing" single. The remaining tracks went unreleased until 2011.

The combined 10 tracks for this album come to just over 42 minutes, a very respectable length, even in the CD era. The result is an album that doesn't sound like a bunch of leftovers, but rather a complete album. I consider Achtung Baby U2's high point, and I think the quality of the songs left off the album just goes to show that U2 was on a roll during these sessions.

There were even more tracks recorded that I didn't use, but that's because they were cover tunes and I wanted this album to be made up of all originals.

When it came time to create the album's cover, I chose some random photos that reflected some of the song titles—some more obvious than others—and looked similar to the cover for Achtung Baby. I again took inspiration from Achtung Baby for the album's title. "Achtung" is German for "danger." "Bersantai" is Indonesian for "relax."

All tracks can be found on the "Super Deluxe" and "Uber Deluxe" versions of Achtung Baby.

Here's a YouTube Playlist of the album.

Led Zeppelin - Post Breakup Albums

For the first five albums, the tracks were left in the vault whenever Led Zeppelin had additional songs that didn’t fit. But with the recording of Physical Graffiti, instead of cutting songs that didn’t fit they decided to instead expand to a double album and include unused songs from the past to fill it out.

However, I wondered how things might have turned out if the band had gone its usual route and, after the band's end, continued issuing albums of leftover tracks into the 1980s.

So first, I had to cut Physical Graffiti down to a single disc:

SIDE A

1. Custard Pie
2. Trampled Underfoot
3. In My Time of Dying

SIDE B

1. Kashmir
2. Ten Years Gone
3. Sick Again

To keep both sides around 20 minutes, I was forced to cut “In the Light” and “The Wanton Song.” I like both songs, so it wasn't easy—and that's essentially why Zeppelin chose not to cut them and turned the album into a double.

Then, knowing what we know now from compilations and the remastered albums with bonus tracks, I worked backward and created three new albums that could have been released following Led Zeppelin’s breakup.

TRIANGULUM

SIDE A

1. Ozone Baby
2. Darlene
3. Bonzo’s Montreux
4. Wearing and Tearing

SIDE B

1. In the Light
2. 10 Ribs & All/Carrot Pod Pod (Pod)
3. The Wanton Song

If the first side looks familiar, that's probably because it's the same track list and order as the second side of Coda, including three outtakes from In Through the Out Door and John Bonham's drum track from 1976. The second side here has my two Physical Graffiti outtakes as well as a long instrumental outtake from Presence. I chose Triangulum as the title because the Triangulum Galaxy apparently has a lot of hydrogen, which is the gas that filled the Hindenburg. How's that for random? For a cover, I used a chart by German astronomer Johannes Hevelius from 1687 of the constellations of Pavo, Ara and Triangulm Australe and surrounding constellations, and added titles. 

CLOUD SERENADE

SIDE A

1. Walter’s Walk
2. The Rover
3. Down by the Seaside
4. Friends (Bombay version)

SIDE B

1. Black Country Woman
2. Houses of the Holy
3. Four Hands (Bombay version)
4. Boogie with Stu
5. Night Flight

Here we have an all-“new” album featuring outtakes from the fourth album and Houses of the Holy, as well as Page and Plant's experiment with the Bombay Orchestra where they re-recorded two Zeppelin tracks. For a cover, I used this image of a bunch of zeppelins from Dissolve, cropped it and decided to leave off any titles as the band often did with album covers. Assume that the band name and album title would have been a sticker on the plastic wrap. I chose the title because I thought the zeppelins looked a bit like clouds.

ALBION REVISITED

SIDE A

1. Sugar Mama
2. Jennings Farm Blues
3. Poor Tom
4. St. Tristan’s Sword
5. Key to the Highway/Trouble in Mind

SIDE B

1. Baby Come Home
2. Bron-Yr-Aur
3. Hey, Hey, What Can I Do?
4. La La
5. Medley: I Feel So Bad/Travelling Riverside Blues/32-20 Blues/Diving Duck Blues/Fixin' to Die/That's All Right (Mama)

These tracks include outtakes from the first three albums, but primarily from III, including also "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" which was originally released as a b-side to "The Immigrant Song." The last track has not actually been officially released but is available on various bootlegs and on the web, sometimes titled “Blues Medley.” For cover art, I used a stock photo of the abandoned English village of Tyneham and added titles. Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain and is sometimes used poetically to refer to the island. So I titled the album Albion Revisited yet showing a ruined, abandoned town, which I thought was sort of symbolic.

And there you have it: three albums of outtakes arranged close to reverse chronologically. I think the release of these would have been better than the somewhat haphazard way the tracks popped up over the years. I also think it would have been interesting if these had been released each year beginning in 1982 as it would have continued the band's album releases into the mid-'80s.

 

 

Elvis Presley - "Moody Blue" (full studio album)

 

With the recent release of the film "Elvis," I thought this would be a good time to present this optional Moody Blue.

In early 1977, RCA faced a problem. The record company had scheduled a new Elvis Presley album, but the singer showed no interest in recording new material. A studio session was scheduled in January 1977, but Elvis either never showed up or dropped by the studio briefly and left (reports differ). 

Producer Felton Jarvis had six songs recorded by Elvis in 1976 that had not yet appeared on an album, although two tracks (“Moody Blue” and “She Thinks I Still Care”) were issued as a single in November 1976.

To complete the album, Jarvis selected three songs that had been recorded live in concert in April 1976, as well as one other live song that had already appeared on the album Elvis Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis released in 1974 – a somewhat bizarre choice. The result, Moody Blue, was a fairly sad affair, especially when it ended up being the last new album released before Elvis died. The album included two live covers of Olivia Newton-John hits, a silly live version of The Diamonds' "Little Darlin'" as well as a good live version of "Unchained Melody," the best-known version of which was recorded by the Righteous Brothers.

There was, however, another option. Had Jarvis reviewed earlier studio sessions, he would have discovered four tracks that could have been used instead.

SIDE A

1. Way Down

2. She Thinks I Still Care

3. Pledging My Love

4. Tiger Man

5. My Way

SIDE B

1. Moody Blue

2. He’ll Have to Go

3. It’s Easy for You

4. A Hundred Years from Now

5. For the Good Times

I used three of the 1976 songs to begin each side of the album and used the four older tunes to end each side. The album kicks off with what would be the new single, “Way Down.” Of the six "new" tunes, it’s the closest thing to a rock song. I followed it with "She Thinks I Still Care" and "Pledging My Love," respectively, the B-sides of the “Moody Blue” and “Way Down” singles.

Despite having recorded it live a few times, this impromptu jam from 1975 is the only known studio version of “Tiger Man” that Elvis recorded. And unlike the live versions, this one is slower and funkier. “A Hundred Years from Now” is also a studio jam, this one recorded in 1970.

Both sides end with outtake recordings that seemingly should have been released much earlier. “My Way,” a song that basically became Frank Sinatra’s anthem, was recorded in 1971; and Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times,” had been recorded in 1972.

While these changes don’t make Moody Blue a great album by any means, it would have seemed like a more complete album if it had been released. And theoretically, some new overdubs could have been made to give the older songs modern production touches to match the rest.

All tracks are available on the box set Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential ‘70s Masters. I used cover art for an alternative version of the Moody Blue album I found online.

Sweet - "The Sweet" and "Ballroom Blitz"

After releasing their debut album Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be in 1971, The Sweet issued a big batch of singles before releasing their second LP Sweet Fanny Adams three years later in 1974. In between those two albums, a couple of compilation albums were issued, and their discography in North America and the UK rarely matched. The result is kind of a chaotic mess, so I devised to rectify that with two imagined albums.

THE SWEET

SIDE A

1. Little Willy

2. New York Connection

3. Wig-Wam Bam

4. Poppa Joe

5. Be with You Soon

SIDE B

1. Block Buster!

2. Need a Lot of Lovin’

3. Man from Mecca

4. Alexander Graham Bell

5. You’re Not Wrong for Loving Me

In the U.K., a compilation album titled The Sweet's Biggest Hits was released in December 1972, and it's very strange in that it includes five tracks that had appeared on Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be, which had just come out the year before. Imagine how ripped off a fan must have felt if they wanted all the band's songs up to that time, but had to buy two albums that shared tracks!

In the U.S. and Canada, a compilation album titled simply The Sweet was released in July 1973. It was self-titled because it was actually the band's debut LP in North America. Surprisingly, it only shares three tracks with the British compilation. 

In putting this "new" album together, I took tracks the band released prior to early '73 that would have been better than either compilation. It's made up of the A and B sides of five singles released mostly in 1972, plus one outtake ("Be with You Soon"). And the tracks are all more bubblegum than glam. For a cover and a title, I chose to take the one used for the U.S./Canada compilation, removed song titles and enlarged the group photo a little.

THE BALLROOM BLITZ

SIDE A

1. Ballroom Blitz

2. Restless

3. Someone Else Will

4. Burning

5. Teenage Rampage

SIDE B

1. Miss Demeanor

2. Rock and Roll Disgrace

3. Own Up, Take a Look at Yourself

4. Burn on the Flame

5. Hell Raiser

This The Ballroom Blitz album I would expect could have been released in late 1973. Now we can see (and hear) the band moving to a harder rock glam style. "Hell Raiser" is the only track that appeared on one of the compilation albums (North America). I chose "Ballroom Blitz" as both the lead-off track and the album title since it was such a big hit. And I used a cover of the single for the album cover.

These two albums pick up all the miscellaneous tracks between Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be and Sweet Fanny Adams. And if you go with the British version of Desolation Boulevard, you'll be all caught up through 1974. 

There are loads of Sweet compilations from which to get these tracks. One comprehensive source is Sensational Sweet Chapter One: The Wild Bunch box set.

Richard Berry discography

Richard Berry is today primarily known for writing two songs that practically every garage band since the 1960s has at least performed if not recorded as well. Neither “Louie Louie” nor “Have Love Will Travel” were big hits for Berry when he originally recorded them. Although he did have some early success with groups, he never really had a big hit on his own. However, that didn’t stop him from recording music and releasing a string of singles beginning in the early 1950s through the early 1980s. Along the way, he produced a lot of good R&B, doo-wop and ballads.

 

The first attempt to produce an album of Berry’s music under his name was in 1963 when Crown Records issued Richard Berry and the Dreamers, which included tracks from singles he had recorded for both Flair and RPM record labels. In truth, Crown, Flair and RPM were all owned by the Bihari brothers and based in Los Angeles. By 1963, Berry was no longer recording for the Bihari companies. But the album was likely created in an attempt to capitalize on the fact that “Louie Louie” had become a hit for The Kingsmen (even though Berry didn’t record “Louie Louie” for any of the Bihari labels and it didn't appear on this album). 

But Berry recorded enough music between 1953 and 1963 on various record labels to make four full albums.

Richard Berry and The Dreamers (1955) 

SIDE A 

1. Daddy Daddy 

2. Don't Cha' Go 

3. Next Time 

4. What You Do to Me 

5. At Last 

6. God Gave Me You 
 

SIDE B 

1. Together 

2. Crazy Lover 

3. Baby Darling (Baby Baby) 

4. The Big Break 

5. Jelly Roll 

6. Bye Bye 
 

The Crown Records version of the album from 1963 included tracks that had been issued on both Flair and RPM labels. I redid this album using only tracks that were recorded for Flair. Therefore, my version only includes five tracks from the one actually released. However, while the real version only included three tracks that featured the female backup singers The Dreamers, this version includes all six tracks he did with them, making the album title more appropriate. And finally, while the original had 10 songs, I've included a dozen. All of these songs were originally released from 1953 through 1955. 
 

One question I pondered is what label these albums would have or could have been issued on. Trying to untangle the Bihari record label businesses and make sense of it all is a chore. But basically, in the 1950s they released singles (45s and 78s) on their Modern, Flair, RPM, Meteor and Kent labels. LPs were released on the Modern label beginning in 1950, but they were mostly by jazz performers or collections by various artists. There was a plan for LPs on RPM beginning in 1957, but that ended after only one album. A new Bihari label, Crown Records, began issuing budget LPs, but not until 1957. I decided with few options in 1955, that had it been released at the time, the first Berry album would likely have been on the Modern label, and I used that label's logo on the cover. 

Rockin' Man (1957)

SIDE A 

1. Rockin’ Man 

2. Big John 

3. I am Bewildered 

4. Pretty Brown Eyes 

5. Angel of My Life 

 

SIDE B 

1. Yama Yama Pretty Mama 

2. Wait for Me 

3. Good Love 

4. Oh! Oh! Get Out of the Car 

5. Please Tell Me 

 

This is a second imagined album from Berry, using mostly tracks he recorded for RPM, but also two leftovers from Flair. And since both labels were owned by the same company, that shouldn’t be a problem. In fact, I predict this would have been issued on the Crown Records label in 1957. This album is shorter by two songs than the previous album and without the backup of The Dreamers. For the cover, I used a picture sleeve from an EP issued by El Toro Records in 2017 and changed the record company logo.

Richard Berry and The Pharoahs (1960) 

SIDE A 

1. Louie Louie 

2. You are My Sunshine 

3. Take the Key (And Open Up My Heart) 

4. No Kissin' and a Huggin' 

5. Rock, Rock, Rock (This Dance Is Crazy) 

6. Sweet Sugar You 

 

SIDE B 

1. Have Love Will Travel 

2. You Look So Good 

3. You're The Girl 

4. No Room 

5. I'll Never, Ever Love Again 

6. Somewhere There's a Rainbow 
 

Berry left the Bihari organization in 1957 for Flip Records. While primarily a singles label, Flip did release two LPs (in 1959 and 1960) that were collections of the singles they’d released from a variety of performers. So at least in theory, we could have this third Berry LP issued on Flip that included all his singles with his backing group The Pharaohs. 

 

There was one Flip single with the songs “The Mess Around” and “Heaven on Wheels” from this time period credited to Richard Berry and The Lockettes, a group of female singers. And another Flip single credited solely to Berry including the songs “Besame Mucho” and “Do I Do I.” Since the Pharaohs aren’t credited on these tunes, and since we already have 12 tracks that are, I left them off this LP. Which is kind of a shame, because I really like them all, especially “Heaven on Wheels,” a rockin’ car song. For a cover, I used one made for an Ace Records compilation and edited it a little.

 

In a Real Big Way (1963)

SIDE A 

1. I'm Your Fool 

2. Well Done

3. Everybody's Got a Lover But Me 

4. I'm Learning 

5. Empty Chair 

6. I Want You to Be My Girl 

7. Dreams of an Angel
 

SIDE B 

1. Give It Up 

2. It's All Right

3. What Good is a Heart 

4. Weep No More

5. Tell Me Why

6. In a Real Big Way 

7. Walk Right In

 

Although Flip Records continued to issue a couple more Berry singles in 1961 and 1962, Berry appears to have left the label in 1960. Over the next several years he released a number of singles on a wide variety of tiny labels, including Paxley, K&G, Hasil, Smash, Ray Co., AMC, Arc and C-Ray. These were likely records made to sell at shows. I collected 14 songs from singles released through 1963 to create this album, In a Real Big Way.

All the tracks for these four imaginary albums can be found on compilations: Yama Yama! The Modern Recordings 1954-56 and Have "Louie" Will Travel: The 1956-62 Recordings.

Berry released a few more singles throughout the 1960s and the early 1970s, and a final one in the early 1980s. He died in 1997.