UK - "Third World"

The band UK started off as a prog rock supergroup, whose members had been in King Crimson and Roxy Music.

But after one album and tour, the group split into two camps: drummer Bill Bruford and guitarist Allan Holdsworth formed Bruford, and bassist John Wetton and keyboardist Eddie Jobson soldiered on with new drummer Terry Bozzio.

However, after yet one more album and tour, UK fractured again. Reportedly, Wetton wanted to take the band in a more pop direction and Jobson wanted to record longer songs. These irreconcilable differences led to the breakup of the band and Wetton and Jobson to record solo albums.

I wanted to create what could have been UK's third studio album had the band stayed together.

SIDE A

1.      Turn It Over

2.      Get What You Want

3.       Night After Night

4.       Nostalgia

5.       Caught in the Crossfire

SIDE B

1.      Turn On the Radio

2.       As Long As You Want Me Here

3.       Walking from Pastel

4.       When Will You Realize?

5.      Listen to Reason

After the band broke up, a live album was released that featured two songs that hadn't been on the studio LPs: "As Long as You Want Me Here" and "Night After Night," both co-written by Jobson and Wetton. Also, "Night After Night" was released as a single with a previously unreleased studio track, Wetton's "When Will You Realize?" on the b-side. So we have three actual UK tracks to include. For the rest of the music, I looked to Wetton's and Jobson's solo albums for material.

Somewhat surprising is that although the reports were that Jobson wanted UK to record longer songs, when it came time to release his first solo album, The Green Album, the longest tracks were around six minutes -- not exactly epics. And the lead single (for which a video was produced for MTV) was the poppy, Prog Rock meets New Wave song "Turn It Over," which clocks in at 4:15. I felt that this was a good song to kick off the album.

The second track is "Get What You Want" from Wetton's Caught in the Crossfire album, which was co-written by Wetton and co-written by onetime King Crimson lyricist Pete Sinfield. The title track from Wetton's album ends the first side. In between we've the aforementioned "Night After Night" followed by "Nostalgia." From what I've read, both Jobson's "Nostalgia" and "Walking from Pastel" had been performed by UK on their last tour, and that makes them prime candidates for this album.

The second side starts with Wetton's un-ironic radio-friendly "Turn on the Radio," followed by the second live UK track, "As Long as You Want Me Here," and another Jobson tune, "Walking from Pastel."

Wetton's "When Will You Realize?" has been labeled as the song that broke up UK -- apparently Jobson didn't like it. Wetton re-recorded it for his own solo album, but we use the UK version here. Finally, the album concludes with Jobson's "Listen to Reason."

For cover art, I chose a satellite image of Britain I found online and added the words. I picked Third World for the title as a play on this being the band's third studio album and the shot of the planet from space.

Frank Zappa -- "Zoot Allures" double album

An article in the Oct. 12, 1976, issue of Circus Magazine features Frank Zappa giving a track-by-track description of a test pressing for his upcoming double album. Eleven songs are described, including:

• Disco Boy
• Friendly Little Finger
• Wonderful Wino
• Night of the Iron Sausage
• Sleep Dirt
• Zoot Allures
• Ms. Pinky
• Filthy Habits
• Find Her Finer
• Black Napkins
• The Torture Never Stops

But when the Zoot Allures album was released only eight days later, it was a single album, three tracks were missing, and a new track was included. I don’t know when Zappa actually gave the interview for the story, but it’s quite clear that some drastic changes had been made between then and when the album finally came out. For one thing, due to a lawsuit with his former manager, Zappa's contract was temporarily reassigned from DiscReet Records to Warner Bros. This change may have affected the length of the LP.

Also, Zappa was a constant tinkerer, forever recording and editing, and this has led to some confusion on at least two of the tracks. First, no song has yet been released by Zappa or his heirs titled “Night of the Iron Sausage,” which was described as a live set piece "trimmed down to a basic guitar solo." Some speculate that this tune may have been retitled “Zoot Allures,” which became the title track of the album.

Second, many Zappa fans believe that the song titled “Zoot Allures” on the test pressing is actually the song “The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution,” which appeared on a later Zappa album, Sleep Dirt. This makes sense as the released song “Zoot Allures” is only a little more than four minutes, and that would give the album’s second side a total of less than six minutes, which of course is ridiculous (even by Zappa’s satirical standards). But “The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution” is more than 13 minutes long.

Finally, the fourth side of the album would have only come to 14 minutes total with the two listed songs. But if we add the one song from the released Zoot Allures album that wasn’t listed, “Wind up Workin' in a Gas Station,” the side is extended to about 16½ minutes, making it similar to the other three sides. And that gives us:

SIDE A – 17:37

1. Disco Boy

2. Friendly Little Finger

3. Wonderful Wino

4. Night of the Iron Sausage (Zoot Allures, Part I)

SIDE B – 16:40

1. Sleep Dirt

2. The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution (Zoot Allures, Part II)

SIDE C – 15:20

1. Ms. Pinky

2. Filthy Habits

3. Find Her Finer

SIDE D – 16:29

1. Wind up Workin' in a Gas Station

2. Black Napkins

3. The Torture Never Stops

I still think some of these sides are too short, especially the third side, but it's quite possible that Zappa trimmed down some of these songs in order to make a single album.

All tracks are available on either the Zoot Allures or Sleep Dirt albums. 

The original cover of Zoot Allures features Zappa and three other members of his “band,” but of them only drummer Terry Bozzio actually plays on the tracks. So in creating a new cover I tracked down a copy of the original photo, cropped out the others and rearranged the name and title (and whatever that little symbol is).