The Byrds - "Gene Tryp"

In 1969, Roger McGuinn and friend Jacques Levy conceived of a play that would be based on Henrik Ibsen's "Peer Gynt." Titled Gene Tryp, the Ibsen storyline would be loosely followed, but set in the American southwest instead of Norway. According to McGuinn, Gene Tryp would include 23 songs, and supposedly, most if not all would be recorded by The Byrds.

It is unknown how many songs were actually written. What is known is that The Byrds recorded six songs originally intended for Gene Tryp. Four of the songs appeared on the band's "(Untitled)" album, and two more would end up on their next album, Byrdmaniax. So not only was Gene Tryp not completed, but what songs were recorded for the project didn't even end up on the same album.

It wasn't until 1992 that "Gene Tryp" the play was finally performed at the Colgate University Theater, and directed by Jacques Levy. For that performance, apparently only the songs known to have been recorded by The Byrds were included. So perhaps that's all that was actually completed before McGuinn and Levy gave up and moved on to other projects.

This is my attempt to create an album that features all known songs for Gene Tryp.

SIDE A
1. Chestnut Mare
2. All the Things
3. Lover of the Bayou
4. I Wanna Grow Up to be a Politician
5. Kathleen's Song
6. Just a Season

SIDE B
1. Yesterday's Train
2. Hungry Planet
3. Take a Whiff on Me
4. You All Look Alike
5. Well Come Back Home

For this recreated Gene Tryp album, I made all of the first side the "Gene Tryp" concept. From what I've read this is the order the songs were performed in the 1992 production. It's impossible to determine what a 23-song, double album version of Gene Tryp would have sounded like, but I actually like the idea of a truncated version anyway.

I used most of the remaining studio tracks from "(Untitled)" on the second side. This includes songs written by other members of The Byrds and allows the album to be more of a group effort than simply a McGuinn/Levy production.

And I used the cool cover design from http://idesignalbumcovers.tumblr.com.

Bee Gees - "Night Fever"

The Bee Gees have at least four unreleased albums, including three solo LPs and one group album. But the album I'm showing off here was one that was never actually completed. I'm calling it Night Fever.

In early 1977, the Bee Gees began work on their follow-up album to the previous year's Children of the World. But before they got too far, their manager, Robert Stigwood, approached them to provide songs for a film he was producing. Plans for a new studio album were set aside as the group focused on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Of the eight songs the group recorded, half appeared on the soundtrack. Another song, "If I Can't Have You," was covered by Yvonne Elliman for the soundtrack. The Bee Gees' version appeared as the B-side to the "Stayin' Alive" single. Of the three other songs, two were covered by brother Andy Gibb ("(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away" and "Warm Ride") and the third, "Emotion,"  was covered by Samantha Sang. 

The Bee Gees' versions of these four songs eventually popped up. "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away," "If I Can't Have You" and "Warm Ride" appeared on the album Bee Gees Greatest, and "Emotion" appeared on Their Greatest Hits: The Record.

The only problem with trying to create a Bee Gees album as originally intended is that it's short, even when including the extended promo version of "Stayin' Alive," which I do. It could use at least one more song, and preferably two or three. But after doing a bit of research, I can't find any other songs from this period that could be included. I think the Bee Gees became so involved in assembling the soundtrack and working on other people's albums at the time, that they never got around to writing and recording additional music for themselves. So we just have to be content with a fairly short album. [*]

SIDE A

1. Night Fever

2. How Deep is Your Love

3. Emotion

4. (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away

SIDE B

1. More Than a Woman

2. If I Can't Have You

3. Warm Ride

4. Stayin' Alive

This collection kicks off with "Night Fever" and then slows down for the ballad "How Deep is Your Love." Then, those are followed by "Emotion" (the only song with lead vocals by Robin Gibb) before ending the first side with "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away." Side A is about 15 minutes, which is pretty short. It should be at least 17 or 19 minutes long. Maybe someday another song will surface to make it more complete.

The second side starts with "More Than a Woman" and continues with "If I Can't Have You" and "Warm Ride." The album ends with the 12-inch promo version of "Stayin' Alive," which runs 7 minutes, making an epic ending. That puts the second side at just shy of 17 minutes. Still a little short, but what can you do?

I put together the album cover using various images I found on the web. Here's a playlist of the album on YouTube.

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* Post Script:
Months after publishing this blog entry, I came upon extended versions of both "Night Fever" and "More Than a Woman" that clock in at 6:43 and 4:41, respectively. Now, the first side is 18:33, and the second side is 18:16. Yippee!

Chuck Berry - Discography, 1956-59

Because singles were king in the 1950s, not much consideration was made when assembling albums of rock 'n' roll and pop acts. At the time, albums were usually just another way to make some cash on mostly already-released songs. Chuck Berry's LP discography was no different, and it's quite frankly a mess.

Chuck signed with Chess Records in 1955, and he recorded his first single, "Maybellene" b/w "Wee Wee Hours" that year. Chuck's first album was After School Session, the title of which is kind of ironic because not all the songs were recorded during the same session, or even the same year. In fact, After School Session was released in May 1957, and by that time Chuck had recorded some 22 songs. And he would go into the studio that month and record five more.

All the Chuck Berry albums released in the 1950s are a mix of various sessions, and some songs that were recorded during this time sat in the vault for decades before being released. So what I've done here is take all the songs Chuck recorded in the 1950s, and reorganize them with albums that could have been released and would have better reflected the recording sessions and the times.


HERE IS CHUCK BERRY
His three recording sessions in 1955 produced 11 songs, enough for an album on its own that could have been released in early 1956. Since this would have been a debut album, I chose to call it Here is Chuck Berry. I found an existing cover for a Berry compilation album and redid it a bit in Photoshop.

SIDE A
1. Maybellene
2. Thirty Days
3. I've Changed
4. Wee Wee Hours
5. Roly Poly

SIDE B
1. No Money Down
2. You Can't Catch Me
3. Berry Pickin'
4. Together We Will Always Be
5. Down Bound Train


AFTER SCHOOL SESSION
Chuck also recorded 11 songs in 1956 over the course of three recording sessions. Among the tunes recorded was "School Days," which gives us a good enough reason to use the After School Session title and original artwork. The original album's first three tracks remain the same here, but then it changes quite a bit. In all, the original and this remake share six of the 11 songs. I wish there was a better title for "Untitled Instrumental," but it appears it was never properly named.

SIDE A
1. School Days
2. Deep Feeling
3. Too Much Monkey Business
4. La Juanda (Espanola)
5. Blue Feeling

SIDE B
1. Roll Over Beethoven
2. Brown-Eyed Handsome Man
3. Untitled Instrumental
4. Havana Moon
5. Low Feeling
6. Drifting Heart


ONE DOZEN BERRYS
Chuck recorded a dozen songs during two recording sessions in 1957, providing us with another full album. Below is a reorganized One Dozen Berrys (using existing cover) that could have been issued in early 1958. Like the previous entry, the original One Dozen Berrys and this re-imagined album share six songs.

SIDE A
1. Sweet Little Sixteen
2. Thirteen Question Method
3. How High the Moon
4. Rockin' the Philharmonic
5. Oh, Baby Doll
6. Guitar Boogie

SIDE B
1. Reelin' n Rockin'
2. Night Beat
3. Rock and Roll Music
4. How You've Changed
5. Time Was
6. Chuckwalk


CHUCK BERRY IS ON TOP
Chuck's first recording session of 1958 included his trademark hit, "Johnny B. Goode." In three sessions in January, February and June, 11 songs were recorded. Again, below is an existing album that has been reorganized track-wise to better reflect what Chuck was recording at the time. I use the existing cover (boy, they really loved the pun on his name). The original album and this new version share nine of the 11 songs.

SIDE A
1. Oh Yeah
2. Carol
3. Beautiful Delilah
4. House of Blue Lights
5. Vacation Time
6. Johnny B. Goode

SIDE B
1. It Don't Take But a Few Minutes
2. In-Go
3. Around and Around
4. Hey Pedro
5. Blues for Hawaiians


BACK IN THE U.S.A.
1958 was a prolific recording year for Chuck. There are enough tracks to create an all-new album when added to newer 1959 recordings to close out the decade. I created a simple cover with a nice portrait I found on the web and added the name, title and Chess logo.

SIDE A
1. Back in the U.S.A.
2. Do You Love Me
3. Little Queenie
4. That's My Desire
5. Anthony Boy
6. Memphis, Tennessee

SIDE B
1. Almost Grown
2. Blue on Blue
3. Jo Jo Gunne
4. Fast B 6
5. Sweet Little Rock and Roller


LET IT ROCK
Chuck's final recording session of the '50s was in July 1959. Only eight songs were recorded, enough for a very short album—more like an EP. But if you consider this to be an end-of-year release (just in time for holiday shopping), you could include the two Christmas songs Chuck recorded for a single the previous year. I found this cover for a compilation album and modified it.

SIDE A
1. Let It Rock
2. County Line
3. I Just Want to Make Love to You
4. One O'Clock Jump
5. Too Pooped to Pop

SIDE B
1. Betty Jean
2. Childhood Sweetheart
3. Broken Arrow
4. Merry Christmas Baby
5. Run Rudolph Run

So, the final count for Chuck's 1950s discography is three reorganized albums and three new ones. I will tackle Chuck's 1960-66 Chess discography in a future blog entry. Stay tuned.

NOTE:
 Information about Chuck Berry's recording sessions was provided by
    The Chuck Berry Database at http://www.crlf.de/ChuckBerry/cbdb
    © 2018 by Dietmar Rudolph, Fred Rothwell, Morten Reff

The Ladders

A lot of people have created the “what if?” Beatles album if the band had stayed together. The usual outcome is to take the best songs from each of the four members' solo albums and assemble them into one cohesive album.

I take a different approach here. After the Beatles broke up, the members split into two sides—Paul on one and John, George and Ringo on the other. There were rumors that John, George and Ringo would form a new band with old friend Klaus Voormann taking up bass duties. There was even a name for the band, The Ladders, floating around. The idea didn’t get very far. John, in particular, wasn’t interested in joining another band after departing the Beatles so recently.

However, both John and George utilized the rhythm section of Ringo and Klaus on both their solo albums. There was a lot of uncertainty lingering about what to do next for the band members. The fact that John and George could have used pretty much any musician in the world and still chose Ringo as their drummer speaks volumes, I think. They wanted to leave the Beatles but weren’t quite secure enough to let go completely just yet.

If you take John’s seven songs with Ringo and Klaus, George’s six songs with Ringo and Klaus from their 1970 solo albums, plus one Ringo song with George and Klaus and you get two sides of a potential Ladders album. John gets his side and George gets his. John had even suggested a similar arrangement for the Beatles’ Abbey Road, with his songs on one side and Paul’s on the other. Think of this album as a stop-gap measure before everyone went completely solo. 

SIDE A

1. Mother

2. Hold On

3. I Found Out

4. Isolation

5. Remember

6. Well Well Well

7. God

SIDE B

1. My Sweet Lord

2. Isn’t It a Pity

3. Wah-Wah

4. If Not for You

5. All Things Must Pass

6. I Dig Love

7. It Don't Come Easy

John’s songs are from the album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, George’s are from the album All Things Must Pass, and Ringo's was a single and available later on the Blast from the Past compilation album

There’s also a potential non-album single with “Instant Karma!” (featuring John, George and Klaus) backed with “Beware the Darkness” (featuring George and Ringo).

For the Ladders album cover, I used a picture of an old playing board from the game Snakes and Ladders. I thought the theme would work with the band’s name and might be something John, George and Ringo would be familiar with from their childhood. Plus the game’s Indian roots might especially appeal to George.