Other Albums - Fripp/Gabriel/Hall, David Bowie, Rolling Stones, Beatles

Well, I don't plan to really restart this blog, but the end of the blog hasn't ended my continued interest in creating interesting ideas for albums that could have been. So, here's what I've worked on lately, without the previous long explanations of past blog entries.

Fripp * Gabriel * Hall - "Exposure"

SIDE A

1. Preface

2. You Burn Me Up Like a Cigarette

3. Perspective

4. Disengage II

5. North Star

6. Chicago

7. New York, New York, New York

8. Urban Landscape

SIDE B

1. Exposure

2. White Shadow

3. NYCNY

4. Here Comes the Flood

5. Postscript

David Bowie - "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" [double album]

SIDE A

1. Five Years

2. Soul Love

3. Moonage Daydream

4. Round and Round

5. Amsterdam

SIDE B

1. Starman

2. It Ain't Easy

3. It's Gonna Rain Again

4. Star

5. Lady Stardust

SIDE C

1. Hang Onto Yourself

2. Looking for a Friend

3. Velvet Goldmine

4. Holy Holy

5. Sweet Head

SIDE D

1. Suffragette City

2. Shadow Men

3. The Supermen

4. Ziggy Stardust

5. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide

The Rolling Stones - "Ghost Town"

1. Living in a Ghost Town

2. One More Shot

3. Doom and Gloom

4. Keys to Your Love

5. Losing My Touch

6. Stealing My Heart

7. Don't Stop

8. Any Way You Look at It

The Rolling Stones - "Senseless Crimes"

1. I'm Gonna Drive

2. Jump on Top of Me

3. So Young

4. The Storm

5. Highwire

6. Fancy Man Blues

7. Sex Drive

8. I Wish I'd Never Met You

9. Cook Cook Blues

The Beatles - "Rainbows"

SIDE A

1. All I Want is You

2. A Pillow for Your Head

3. Window Window

4. Gimme Some Truth

5. Suicide

6. Madman

SIDE B

1. Sour Milk Sea

2. Heather

3. Brian Epstein Blues

4. Circles

5. Watching Rainbows

6. The Last [aka Paul's Piano Piece]

"Catch .44" soundtrack

This is a really short and quick entry. I have friends in the band Deadbolt, and one of their songs is played in the 2011 Forest Whitaker/Bruce Willis movie "Catch .44." The film was a box office bomb, although it’s a fairly entertaining crime flick.

No soundtrack album was released for the movie, but the featured songs are a real grabbag of genres and times. From the spaghetti western “Ride ‘Em,” glam rock from David Bowie and Sweet, rap en español by Vakero, plus country, alt-rock, psychobilly, gospel, etc. Even a track by Willis. Think of it as a crazy mix tape.

1. Ride ‘Em – Ben Zarai

2. Fox on the Run – Sweet

3. Choose Me – The Debonettes

4. Queen Bitch – David Bowie

5. Between Midnight and Day – Corey Harris

6. I’ll be All Smiles Tonight – Mac Wiseman

7. Dead Sound – The Raveonettes

8. Respect Yourself – Bruce Willis

9. Sweet Rock and Roll – Vibrolux

10. Se Partio de Lapiz – Vakero

11. Zulu Death Mask – Deadbolt

12. Silver Piano Man – Cotton Jones

13. Believer – Viva Voce

14. Fair and Tender Ladies – The Osborne Brothers

15. Running Bear – Johnny Preston

16. U R A Fever – The Kills

17. Hot Ashes – Jordan Klassen

18. Living, Forgiving – Paul Burch

I’m not going to go through all the sources, but suffice it to say you probably won’t find two songs on any one album. Let Amazon, iTunes, etc. be your friend. 

For a cover, I simply took the movie poster and cropped and edited it.

David Bowie - "The Gouster"

 

When Parlophone released the David Bowie boxset Who Can It Be Now? (1974-1976), which included the long-lost / long-rumored The Gouster album, many people were surprised at the track listing. Primarily, it was missing several songs that some people had expected to be included, especially what would have been the title song, “I am a Lazer (The Gouster).” But producer Tony Visconti who assembled the “new” album insisted that this was the intended track list.

I have no proof whatsoever of this, but my theory is that the track listing is actually for an early version of the album that became Young Americans after The Gouster name and title cut had been dropped.

So, if this original configuration had been released as Young Americans, there would have been plenty of tracks left for a quick follow-up album, which I’m calling The Gouster.

SIDE A

1. I am Divine

2. Win

3. Shilling the Rubes

4. I am a Lazer (The Gouster)

SIDE B

1. After Today

2. Across the Universe

3. Fascination

4. Fame

From the actual released version of Young Americans, we have four songs to include here: “Win,” “Across the Universe,” “Fascination” and “Fame.” Thanks to better music editing software, old demos from this time period are showing up on bootlegs and YouTube. These include “I am Divine,” “Shilling the Rubes,” “After Today” and the previously mentioned “I am a Lazer (The Gouster).”

The album opens with the rockin’ “I am Divine” and closes with the monster hit “Fame.” Both “I am Divine” and “I am a Lazer” were destined also (along with other Bowie-penned songs) for the debut album of The Astronettes (Bowie’s backup singers), which was recorded around the same time, but was shelved and didn’t get released until 2009. But I definitely think Bowie originally planned to release these songs himself. My reasoning for that is that the recording Bowie made of “I am Divine” includes the Astronettes on backup with Bowie singing lead, and “I am a Lazer” is also a full band workout, although without the backup singers. So, why go to all that trouble if it was simply meant as a demo to give to the group?

Here's a Playlist on YouTube.

Now, if you want to go the extra mile and create a double album with all the tracks from this period, you could simply take the boxset’s The Gouster and add the version above to create this:

SIDE A

1. John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)

2. Somebody Up There Likes Me

3. It’s Gonna be Me

SIDE B

1. Who Can I be Now?

2. Can You Hear Me?

3. Young Americans

4. Right

SIDE C

1. I am Divine

2. Win

3. Shilling the Rubes

4. I am a Lazer (The Gouster)

SIDE B

1. After Today

2. Across the Universe

3. Fascination

4. Fame

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.

David Bowie - "1984"

I made an attempt many moons ago to put this together, but wasn't happy with the way it was going and set it aside. After seeing PJ's Albums I Wish Existed blog with his version of David Bowie's 1984, I decided to take another crack at it.

SIDE A
1. 1984
2. Candidate (Part 1)
3. Sweet Thing
4. Candidate (Part 2)
5. Sweet Thing (Reprise)

SIDE B
1. Dodo
2. We are the Dead
3. Big Brother
4. Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family
5. 1984 / Dodo (Reprise)

In 1973, Bowie wanted to adapt George Orwell's novel "1984" into a play and record music for it. But Orwell's widow refused to give Bowie the rights to the novel. So Bowie took some of the music he'd already written, added unrelated songs and released Diamond Dogs instead.

I've no idea what Bowie's original plan was or if he even completed writing and recording the music for his play. But taking what's been released, I've put together a possible version of 1984.

From Diamond Dogs, we use seven of the 11 tracks, including "1984," "Candidate," "Sweet Thing," "Sweet Thing (Reprise)," "We are the Dead," "Big Brother" and "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family." With a lot of previously unavailable Bowie music continually being released, we also have some additional tracks to use, including an alternate version of "Candidate," as well as "Dodo" and "1984/Dodo (Reprise)."

With the collection of songs at our disposal, I arranged the tracks in a way I thought flowed and took into consideration the time constraints of what would have been two sides of a vinyl album. I renamed the alternate version of "Candidate" as "Candidate (Part 1)" and the originally released version as "Candidate (Part 2)." So after the title song, we have the alternating Candidate/Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing to complete the first side.

Side B opens with "Dodo" with "1984/Dodo (Reprise)" closing out the album. I honestly don't know if I prefer this to Diamond Dogs, but I think it works thematically as a concept. However, I can't help but believe that to have enough music for an entire stage production this would have to be twice as long.

For a cover, I spotted this book cover for a pulp paperback version of the novel, cropped it and added Bowie's name.

"Wam Bam: Glam Rock, 1971-75" compilation

A couple of years ago I was reading about old glam rock hits, and I realized there were a lot that many people considered important to the genre, but that I'd never heard. That led me to search for a good, comprehensive compilation, but I was surprised that there really isn't one.

This may be due to key tracks being on different record labels. Or it could be that glam rock is more closely defined by what it looks like than it sounds like. Indeed, the fashion of its stars was often far more outrageous than the music.

And what songs are considered "glam rock" by one person are often categorized as "bubble gum," "power pop," or any number of other sub-genres by another. So this imagined five-CD box set includes tracks that I gathered from a number of "top glam rock songs" lists I found online. Some you'll undoubtedly agree with, others you may not.

DISC 1 - SHINING
1. Hot Love - T. Rex
2. Co-Co - The Sweet
3. Bang a Gong (Get It On) - T. Rex
4. Coz I Luv You - Slade
5. Funny, Funny - The Sweet
6. Jeepster - T. Rex
7. Alexander Graham Bell - The Sweet
8. John, I'm Only Dancing - David Bowie
9. All the Young Dudes - Mott the Hoople
10. Stay With Me - The Faces
11. Clap Your Hands and Stamp Your Feet - Bonnie St. Claire & Unit Gloria
12. Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to be a Long, Long Time) - Elton John
13. Standing in the Road - Blackfoot Sue
14. School's Out - Alice Cooper
15. Changes - David Bowie
16. Telegram Sam - T. Rex
17. Little Willy - The Sweet
18. Rock and Roll (Parts 1 & 2) - Gary Glitter
19. Virginia Plain - Roxy Music
20. Mama Weer All Crazee Now - Slade
21. Starman - David Bowie
22. Children of the Revolution - T. Rex
23. Walk on the Wild Side - Lou Reed
24. Elected - Alice Cooper
25. Son of My Father - Chicory Tip
26. Wig-Wam Bam - The Sweet
27. 10538 Overature - Electric Light Orchestra

DISC 2 - SPARKLING
1. The Jean Genie - David Bowie
2. Metal Guru - T. Rex
3. Poppa Joe - The Sweet
4. Crocodile Rock - Elton John
5. Gudbuy T'Jane - Slade
6. Suffragette City - David Bowie
7. Solid Gold, Easy Action - T. Rex
8. Ballroom Blitz - The Sweet
9. Cum on Feel the Noize - Slade
10. I'm the Leader of the Gang (I am) - Gary Glitter
11. See My Baby Jive - Wizzard
12. 20th Century Boy - T. Rex
13. Do You Wanna Dance - Barry Blue
14. Saturday Night - Bay City Rollers
15. Tiger Feet - Mud
16. Dancin' (On a Saturday Night) - Barry Blue
17. 48 Crash - Suzi Quatro
18. Block Buster! - The Sweet
19. Rock On - David Essex
20. Street Life - Roxy Music
21. Dynamite - Mud
22. The Groover - T. Rex
23. Angel Fingers (A Teenage Ballad) - Wizzard
24. Can the Can - Suzi Quatro
25. Hellraiser - The Sweet
26. Life on Mars? - David Bowie
27. Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting) - Elton John
28. Do You Wanna Touch Me There (Oh Yeah) - Gary Glitter

DISC 3 - GLITTERING
1. My Coo Ca Choo - Alvin Stardust
2. Skweeze Me Pleeze Me - Slade
3. Looking for a Kiss - New York Dolls
4. Truck On (Tyke) - T. Rex
5. Wired Up - Hector
6. All the Way from Memphis - Mott the Hoople
7. No More Mr. Nice Guy - Alice Cooper
8. All Because of You - Geordie
9. Rebel Rebel - David Bowie
10. This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us - Sparks
11. Do the Strand - Roxy Music
12. Teenage Rampage - The Sweet
13. Killer Queen - Queen
14. Jealous Mind - Alvin Stardust
15. Angel Face - The Glitter Band
16. Devil Gate Drive - Suzi Quatro
17. The "In" Crowd - Bryan Ferry
18. Bennie and the Jets - Elton John
19. Seven Deadly Finns - Brian Eno
20. Teenage Dream - Marc Bolan & T. Rex
21. Horror Movie - Skyhooks
22. Summerlove Sensation - Bay City Rollers
23. Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth - Sparks
24. Sugar Baby Love - The Rubettes
25. Magic - Pilot
26. Needle in the Camel's Eye - Brian Eno
27. Light of Love - T. Rex

DISC 4 - FADING
1. Diamond Dogs - David Bowie
2. Dance with the Devil - Cozy Powell
3. Seven Seas of Rhye - Queen
4. The Six Teens - Sweet
5. The Bitch is Back - Elton John
6. You You You - Alvin Stardust
7. Rebels Rule - Iron Virgin
8. Va Va Va Voom - Brett Smiley
9. Action - Sweet
10. Once Bitten, Twice Shy - Ian Hunter
11. Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) - Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
12. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
13. January - Pilot
14. Give Me a Little Love - Bay City Rollers
15. Nothing to Do with Us - Jet
16. All My Friends Are Getting Married - Skyhooks
17. New York Groove - Hello
18. Get Down and Get With It - Slade
19. Love is the Drug - Roxy Music
20. New York City - T. Rex
21. Glass of Champagne - Sailor
22. Bye Bye Baby - Bay City Roller
23. Fox on the Run - Sweet
24. Sky High - Jigsaw
25. The Tears I Cried - The Glitter Band
26. Roxy Roller - Sweeney Todd
27. I Love Rock n Roll - The Arrows
28. Rock and Roll All Nite - Kiss

The general consensus seems to be that glam rock began when Marc Bolan appeared on "Top of the Pops" in 1971 in glitter makeup. And the genre seems to have pretty much run its course by 1976 and the punk explosion. So I included only songs from 1971 through 1975. The songs are presented here in mostly chronological order. And what a collection it is -- it's really all over the place musically.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to me is that it remained a British phenomenon that never seemed to catch on elsewhere in the world—although the styles would greatly influence later musicians, most notably the L.A. metal scene in the 1980s.

I found the glitter background and a sparkly guitar online and used them for this box set cover and added titles.

David Bowie -- "Bowie-ing Out"

Tuesday is David Bowie's birthday -- he would have been 72 -- so I thought this would be a good time to offer this idea of a covers album.

Bowie's 1973 album Pin Ups was supposed to be the first of two collections of 1960s cover versions. While Pin Ups featured covers of British songs, the second was to be made up of songs by American artists. One tentative title for the second album was Bowie-ing Out although that title was being considered for a live album as well.

Why the plan for the second album fizzled is not really clear. What is known is that Bowie loved Bruce Springsteen's then-new debut album Greetings from Asbury Park and recorded two of the tracks. However, since Springsteen's album was a 1973 release, the two tracks didn't really fit the original concept of covering 1960s songs.

But while Bowie never released Bowie-ing Out, he did continue covering 1960s/early 1970s songs throughout much of his career. 

1. Growin' Up - Bruce Springsteen [Pin Ups - 1990 reissue]
2. I Keep Forgettin' - Chuck Jackson [Tonight]
3. Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan [Heaven and Hull (Mick Ronson)]
4. God Only Knows - Beach Boys [Tonight]
5. I'm Waiting for the Man - Velvet Underground [Bowie at the Beeb]
6. Knock on Wood - Eddie Floyd [David Live]
7. Alabama Song - The Doors [Scary Monsters (and Super Freaks) - 1992 reissue]
8. White Light/White Heat - Velvet Underground [Bowie at the Beeb]
9. I've Been Waiting for You - Neil Young [Heathen]
10. America - Simon and Garfunkel [The Concert for New York]
11. I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship - Legendary Stardust Cowboy [Heathen]
12. I Wanna Be Your Dog - The Stooges [Glass Spider]
13. It's Hard to be a Saint in the City - Bruce Springsteen [The Best of David Bowie 1974/1979]

Since the Springsteen songs were from 1973, I used only covers of tracks that were from that year and prior. The rip-roaring version of "Like a Rolling Stone" actually comes from Mick Ronson's Heaven and Hull album and features Bowie on lead vocals.

Yes, I know that "Alabama Song" was written in the 1920s, originally in German and translated into English soon afterward. But let's face it, the version most people know is that of The Doors. 

I mixed up the songs from different years as well as studio and live tracks. Although it doesn't really mirror Pin Ups, I think this is an interesting compilation that forgoes the usual songs found on hits collections (and Bowie certainly has plenty of those already). This collection could have been a compilation album released during the 10-year gap between Bowie's Reality and The Next Day albums.

For a cover, I wanted something contemporary but also somehow mimicked the Pin Ups cover, where Bowie appears with supermodel Twiggy. I found it when I spotted a series of photos of Bowie posing with supermodel Kate Moss in (I think) 2003. I liked this photo best and added titles. 

Interestingly (at least to me), the Pin Ups cover shoot was photographed for Vogue Magazine, but Bowie requested the use of it for his album instead. The picture of him and Kate Moss was also part of a photo shoot for Vogue. So it all comes together.

David Bowie - "Atomica"

David Bowie surprised a lot of people when he released the album The Next Day in 2013. It had been recorded in relative secrecy and was his first album of new material in 10 years.

Soon after its release, a special “extended edition” of the album was released with eight more songs, plus two remixes. It seems a shame that the eight songs, all of which are great, were relegated to a special edition.

The following year (2014), Bowie released a two-song digital single. Paired with the eight songs we could have had a nice new album between The Next Day and Bowie’s final release Blackstar.

I titled this imagined album Atomica after one of the tracks. Since this would have been a 2014 release, I didn't arrange it like a vinyl album like I usually do with these posts. However, theoretically you could equally divide it with five songs on each side and both would be just under 20 minutes long.

1. Atomica
2. Plan
3. The Informer
4. Like a Rocket Man
5. 'Tis a Pity She was a Whore
6. Born in a UFO
7. I’ll Take You There
8. God Bless the Girl
9. So She
10. Sue (or in a Season of Crime)

The album kicks off with the title tune, and ends with “Sue (or in a Season of Crime),” which I think is a good segue since Bowie ended up re-recording it for Blackstar (as he did for “Sue” as well). Overall, I think this makes a great package of songs. I especially like “Like a Rocket Man” for its poppy sound that to my ears hearken back to Bowie’s '70s material. This album clocks in a bit under 40 minutes.

Tracks 1-4 and 6-9 are available on the extended version of The Next Day. Tracks 5 and 10 are available as a single, or the Nothing Has Changed box set.

For a cover, Bowie seems to have liked minimalist artwork for The Next Day and Blackstar so I wanted something simple. Taking a cue from the title song, I used a fallout shelter symbol and turned it 180 degrees. And the result was an unintended face, and I thought it was perfect.