Eric Clapton - "Edge of Darkness"

Happy New Year!

In 1985, Eric Clapton released one album, Behind the Sun, and one EP, Edge of Darkness, which was a soundtrack for a British TV series of the same name.

The recording sessions for Behind the Sun included six tracks that weren't on the album. Since the Edge of Darkness EP also included six tracks, it seemed to me that a complete album could have been released if all of the dozen tracks had been collected together.

SIDE A

1. Edge of Darkness

2. Loving Your Lovin'

3. Shoot Out

4. Heaven Is One Step Away

5. Obituary

6. Too Bad

SIDE B

1. Escape from Northmoor

2. Jailbait

3. Oxford Circus

4. You Don't Know Like I Know

5. Northmoor

6. One Jump Ahead of the Storm

There are a few ways you can go when combining the songs. You can have all the tracks from one project on one side of the album, and the rest on the other side. Or you can intermingle them in some way. The tracks from the soundtrack are all instrumentals, and I liked the idea of intermingling them with the songs with vocals. I think it both breaks up the two groups and manages to tie the whole album together.

I opened the album with the title track "Edge of Darkness." It's a very cool, atmospheric track and I think it acts as a nice beginning that also puts the spotlight on Clapton's guitar playing.

The next track is "Loving Your Lovin'," which was featured on the Wayne's World soundtrack. From there, we alternate as stated between instrumentals and the leftover Behind the Sun songs. I think the instrumentals make for interesting, dark interludes. "Heaven is a Step Away" was originally released on the Back to the Future soundtrack and later on Clapton's Crossroads box set. "Too Bad" was also eventually released on Crossroads.

"Jailbait" was a B-side of the "She's Waiting" single. "You Don't Know Like I Know," a Sam & Dave cover, is a duet with Phil Collins and was released as a non-album single in Australia. "One Jump Ahead of the Storm" was a cover of Kiki Dee's hit. Unfortunately, Clapton's version has never been officially released and is therefore very difficult to find. Alternatively, if you discover that this track is impossible to find, you could use "Wanna Make Love to You," a B-side of the "Behind the Mask" single from the following year, and also available on Crossroads.

The rest of the songs, of course, can be found on the Edge of Darkness EP.

For a cover, "edge of darkness" made me think of a lightning storm, and that image of course goes well with the track "One Jump Ahead of the Storm." I found this dramatic lightning photo online and added words.

Los Lobos - "...And a Time to Dance"

Los Lobos had been performing around L.A. for nearly 10 years before the band released the EP ...And a Time to Dance in 1983. 

I remember it well, as I was the entertainment editor of my college's newspaper at the time. I received lots of new releases from record companies, and the EP was one of several I took home one day to listen to. Even though I lived in San Diego (only two to three hours from L.A., depending on traffic), I'd never heard of them. When I played the record, I was immediately hooked. And a few months later I saw them perform live at a music festival -- the first of many, many live performances of theirs I've seen.

Needless to say, I'm a big fan of the group. But the fact that this is an EP has always led me to play it less and less over the years as the group issued full albums.

It was a rather lengthy EP with seven songs, and I wanted to add some songs from the period that could have made it a full album.

SIDE A

1. Let's Say Goodnight

2. Walking Song

3. Diablo con Vestido Azul

4. We're Gonna Rock

5. Under the Boardwalk

6. Anselma

SIDE B 

1. Come On, Let's Go

2. How Much Can I Do?

3. Volver, Volver

4. Why Do You Do?

5. Farmer John

6. Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio

In expanding the EP into an album, I wanted to augment the original rather than do a major reorganization of it. Paul's Albums That Should Exist blog did a good version of it some time ago, but he included live recordings from the time period. I decided I'd rather keep it a studio-recorded release. Thankfully, there are five such recordings from the two years prior to this EP that weren't originally included.

In 1981, the group issued two singles with cover tunes: "Under the Boardwalk" b/w "Volver, Volver" and "Farmer John" b/w "Anselma." Both A-sides had been hits in 1964, the former by The Drifters and the latter by The Premiers. I've no idea why the band picked those two particular songs. While "Farmer John" seems like an obvious tune for the band to cover, "Under the Boardwalk" seems less so. "Volver, Volver" is a mainstay for the band's live performances to this day (and this studio version includes a bunch of yelping to mimic a live performance). "Anselma" was already included on ...And a Time to Dance. 

In addition to these three tracks, Los Lobos recorded a Spanish version of "Devil in a Blue Dress" (titled "Diablo con Vestido Azul") for the soundtrack of the 1983 film "Eating Raoul"; and the original song "We're Gonna Rock" for the 1982 compilation album L.A. Rockabilly.

To Side A of  ...And a Time to Dance, I added "Diablo con Vestido Azul," "We're Gonna Rock" and "Under the Boardwalk," and to Side B, I added "Volver, Volver" and "Farmer John." This is about as even as it comes, with six songs on each side and each side is approximately 15 1/2 minutes long.

I didn't see any reason to change the cover or the title, so they're kept the same. 

Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan - "Cash & Dylan"

Both fans of each other's work, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan recorded together in Nashville over two days in February 1969. The plan seems to have been to regroup at a later date for additional recording that would result in a duet album. But the later session never came about, and all but one track of what had been recorded was left to bootlegs and rumor. The only other known time the two performed together was on Cash's TV show later that year.

Finally, last year, the latest in Dylan's "Bootleg Series" was issued as Travelin' Thru, 1967-1969, and it includes the Cash/Dylan sessions of 50 years earlier. In truth, the recordings seem more like rehearsals than actual songs for release. But we have what we have, and I tried to assemble the tracks in what could have been released as a duet album.

SIDE A

1. One Too Many Mornings 

2. I Still Miss Someone

3. Mountain Dew

4. Careless Love

5. Matchbox

6. That’s All Right, Mama

7. Mystery Train/This Train Is Bound for Glory

8. Big River

SIDE B

1. Girl from the North Country

2. I Walk the Line

3. Guess Things Happen That Way

4. Five Feet High and Rising

5. You Are My Sunshine

6. Ring of Fire

7. Wanted Man

8. Just a Closer Walk with Thee

9. Jimmie Rodgers Medley No. 2

The songs are mostly ones previously recorded by either Cash or Dylan, with a few old chestnuts thrown in. Many are first takes, and you can't help but think that if the two men had come together again, they might have produced a good album of old country and folk songs. It was never to be, but this remains an interesting curio if nothing more.

For the cover, I chose a frame from a film of the two playing together at the time and added names and a record label logo.

The Band - "Once Upon a Time"

The usual storyline when a band breaks up involves a lot of acrimony and bitterness. That wasn't the case with The Band. Yes, there were some grumblings toward the end of the original lineup, but in general, the members remained on good terms. They even threw a farewell concert bash in 1976 with a bunch of celebrity friends.

Eventually, some of the band members would reunite, but I wanted to consider what an album might have been like had The Band not bid adieu.

SIDE A
1. Washer Woman
2. What a Town
3. New Mexicoe
4. Blues So Bad
5. Sing, Sing, Sing (Let's Make a Better World) 

SIDE B
1. Java Blues
2. Sip the Wine
3. Milk Cow Boogie
4. Shake It
5. Once Upon a Time

Rick Danko was the first Band member to issue a solo album (self-titled), and each of his former band members performed on one song each. So I've included all four. Garth Hudson played accordion on "New Mexicoe," Robbie Robertson played lead guitar on "Java Blues," Richard Manuel played piano on "Shake It," and Levon Helm sang harmony on "Once Upon a Time."

Levon Helm's 1977 solo debut, Levon Helm and the RCO All-Stars included the track "Sing, Sing, Sing (Let's Make a Better World)," which featured Robertson on guitar and Hudson on accordion. 

Robertson didn't record a solo album until 1987, Hudson didn't release a solo album until 2001, and Manuel never released a solo album while he was alive, so we don't have anything from them other than the contributions they made to the above-listed tracks. 

So, to complete the album, we need to use more Danko and Helm songs. Since both of their albums had 10 tracks, I decided to keep this Band album that way.

From Helm's album, I included "Washer Woman" because it was the opening track, "Blues So Bad" because it's the only song on the album that Helm co-wrote, and a cover of "Milk Cow Boogie," which Helm arranged and was issued as a single.

From Danko's album I also included "Sip the Wine," the only other tune he wrote alone; and "What a Town," which is the opening track.

This is a pretty good album, and I think it offers a little more variety than the two solo albums provide on their own. The only problem with it is the lack of writing credits from Robertson, who had written a bulk of The Band's songs. But since Robertson was the lone holdout when the group reformed in 1983, maybe think of this as a prelude to The Band 2.0.

I named the album Once Upon a Time, the only track that has both Helm's and Danko's vocals. For a cover, I cropped a photo I found on the web of the Bodie, Calif., ghost town.

Jefferson Starship - "Freedom at Point Zero" (Balin/Slick version)

Jefferson Starship rose from the ashes of Jefferson Airplane in 1974. After substantial initial success, things came apart in 1978. Singer Grace Slick was battling alcoholism and eventually asked to leave the group. And singer Marty Balin had been reluctant to tour, and left the group later that year as well.

Mickey Thomas (formerly of the Elvin Bishop Group) was hired to replace the group's lead singers. In 1979, the band issued the album Freedom at Point Zero. It was the first (and only) Jefferson Starship album without either Slick or Balin. But with the hit single "Jane," the album was a big success.

However, I wanted to see what a Jefferson Starship album could have been if Slick and Balin had remained and Thomas had not been hired.

SIDE A
1. Freedom at Point Zero (Climbing Tiger Mountain through the Sky)
2. Hearts
3. Do It the Hard Way
4. Lightning Rose (Carry the Fire)
5. Lydia!

SIDE B
1. Seasons
2. Girl with the Hungry Eyes
3. Atlanta Lady (Something About Your Love)
4. Things to Come
5. Garden of Man

To recreate this album, I removed songs that prominently featured Thomas on lead vocals. I then looked to Slick's and Balin's solo albums for additional material.

Slick released her second solo album Dreams in 1980. From this, I chose three songs (all written by her): "Seasons" (which was released as a single), "Do It the Hard Way" and "Garden of Man." "Seasons" has a kind of "Those Were the Days" type of chorus and certainly adds a bit more dimension to the album. "Do It the Hard Way" is a rock ballad, and "Garden of Man" has a mystical quality.

Balin didn't release his first solo album until 1981, titled simply Balin. The material would have been recorded a little late for a 1979 Jefferson Starship album obviously, but maybe the band would have needed some time to get its act together had both Balin and Slick remained. Despite the fact that Balin had been a fairly prolific songwriter with both Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, he only had one writing credit on this album: "Lydia!" (which he co-wrote), a relatively uptempo pop-rock song. I also included the two songs that were released as singles, "Hearts," a hit at the time; and "Atlanta Lady (Something About Your Love)," a fairly standard ballad. Both were written by Jesse Barrish, who also wrote "Count on Me," a hit song from Jefferson Starship's Earth album, so I figured they were good candidates for this.

The songs I kept from the original Freedom at Point Zero album are ones written by Paul Kantner ("Lightning Rose" was co-written with his and Slick's daughter, China). Besides "Lightning Rose" I also included the title song, "Girl with the Hungry Eyes" and "Things to Come." Kantner obviously likes three-part harmony lead vocals and all the tracks feature this. I think kicking off the album with the title song is an improvement overall. All are more rocking than Slick's or Balin's songs.

I think that this version offers a lot more variety than the actual album -- not just because there are three lead singers, but also because there's just more variety in the songwriting.

Since I'm including the title song, I didn't see a reason for changing the title of the album. And if we're not changing the album title, I didn't see the need to change the album's artwork.

Cream - "Goodbye" (double album version)

Hey, it's my birthday! Let's get through this quickly so I can get back to eating cake.

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Note: I had essentially completed this entry for the blog several months ago, and added it to the queue. In the meantime, The Reconstructor created his own version of this album. I only point this out to show that this is a case of "great minds...." rather than me just piggybacking on other people's work. Enjoy.

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Cream sort of stumbled to the finish line. The band's last tour had triumphs and pitfalls, and its last album was completed with live renditions as filler. In fact, the original plan for the band's final album, Goodbye, was to have it be a double album like its predecessor Wheels of Fire -- with one disc of studio tracks and one disc of live tracks. 

However, bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker often feuded, and guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton was ready to move on to something else. So, to fulfill the band's contract, Goodbye featured just three studio tracks, and the rest of the album was filled with tracks recorded live in October 1968 at the L.A. Forum.

I decided to take a stab at creating a double album as originally envisioned.

SIDE A

1. The Clearout

2. Presence of the Lord

3. Anyone for Tennis

4. The Coffee Song

5. Lawdy Mama

6. Weird of Hermiston

7. What a Bringdown

SIDE B

1. Badge

2. Doing that Scrapyard Thing

3. Do What You Like

SIDE C

1. I'm So Glad

2. Politician

3. Rollin' and Tumblin'

SIDE D

1. N.S.U.

2. Sleepy Time Time

3. Sitting on Top of the World

Even when gathering the studio tracks from Goodbye, a non-album single track and a couple of outtakes, I found myself still not having enough songs for the studio sides. This is because, despite Cream's live interpretations of songs that could run as long as 20 minutes or more, their studio tracks were often almost comically short. So to fill out Sides A and B, I decided to raid Blind Faith's and Bruce's debut albums.

Since Blind Faith included both Clapton and Baker, as well as Steve Winwood (whom Clapton had earlier tried to bring into Cream to revitalize the band), the inclusion of a couple of their songs is not that far-fetched. The two songs I chose from Blind Faith were Clapton's "Presence of the Lord" and Baker's "Do What You Like." 

From Bruce's Songs of a Sailor solo album, I picked two tracks that had originally been intended for Cream's Disraeli Gears album: "The Clearout" and "Weird of Hermiston."

Besides "Badge," "Doing That Scrapyard Thing" and "What a Bringdown" from Goodbye, I also included "Anyone for Tennis" and "The Coffee Song," from non-album singles, and "Lawdy Mama," the one studio track on Live Cream. Tied together, these tracks make up the "studio sides" of the album.

Although a box set of live tracks recorded at four shows (Oakland, L.A., San Diego and London) during the 1968 tour was recently released, I decided to concentrate on only those tracks that were initially released from this tour. My reasoning is that the band, record company or both considered them the best of the bunch. About a year after Goodbye was released, an album with four live tracks (all recorded in March '68 in San Francisco) and one studio track (recorded in '67) was released called Live Cream.

For Sides C and D (the "live sides") of this album, I took all the live tracks from Goodbye and Live Cream, except one: "Sweet Wine." At 15:16, the song was simply too long to fit in if we were going to work within the time constraints of a vinyl album.

The final result is pretty good, I think. The Bruce and Blind Faith tracks don't jump out as being so completely different from Cream. And considering both albums came out about the same time and so very soon after Goodbye, it's reasonable to assume that they could have been included had the group lasted longer.

I kept the cover the same as the released version of the album.

The Byrds - "Blackbyrd Pye"

Gram Parsons' time in The Byrds was short, and it's difficult to discern how much of an impact he really had on the band. He did convince the rest of the band, specifically Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, to record a country album rather than McGuinn's idea of one that took on multiple music genres (see our earlier post).

The result was Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and while that album is highly rated today, it was a commercial disappointment at the time. Byrds fans didn't want a country album, and country music fans didn't care for The Byrds. After Parsons refused to take part in the Byrds' tour of South Africa, McGuinn and Hillman fired him.

Strangely, a few months later Hillman quit The Byrds to join Parsons in a new band called The Flying Burrito Brothers. That band's debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin, came out in February 1969. By the time a new Byrds album Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde was released a month later, McGuinn was not only the last original member of the band but the only one remaining from the lineup that recorded the previous album.

For this outing, I wanted to put together an album that might have come out had McGuinn, Hillman and Parsons remained together for another Byrds album.

SIDE A

1. Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man

2. Sin City

3. My Uncle

4. Child of the Universe

5. Bad Night at the Whiskey

6. Christine's Tune 

SIDE B

1. Wheels

2. King Apathy III

3. Old Blue

4. Juanita

5. Hippie Boy

6. Stanley’s Song

I took songs from both The Gilded Palace of Sin and Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde for material. I didn't include any tunes written by other members of the respective bands, and I didn't include any cover tunes other than "Old Blue," a traditional song McGuinn arranged.

The album opens with "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man," a Byrds song McGuinn and Parsons co-wrote before Parsons was shown the door. This is followed by two Parsons-Hillman songs from the Burritos' album: "Sin City" and "My Uncle." Two songs McGuinn co-wrote with friends come next ("Child of the Universe" and "Bad Night at the Whiskey"), and the first side closes with another Parsons-Hillman song, "Christine's Tune."

The second side opens with "Wheels," just as it does on The Gilded Palace of Sin. McGuinn's "King Apathy III" and the previously mentioned "Old Blue" follow. Two more Hillman-Parsons penned songs, "Juanita" and "Hippie Boy," come next before the album closes with "Stanley's Song," an outtake from Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde.

Since neither The Gilded Palace of Sin nor Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde sold very well, it's doubtful that this album would have made a bigger dent in the charts. However, it might have been welcomed by critics at the time and might be well-regarded today.

All tracks are from either The Gilded Palace of Sin or the expanded version of  Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde.

For a title to this album, I did a lot of pondering. I don't like the name Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde and I assume The Gilded Palace of Sin is related to the song "Sin City" and Vegas, but it doesn't really do anything for me. I started thinking about country music and that led me to think about comfort food, and for some reason, I thought of the line "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" from the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence." So I titled this album Blackbyrd Pye.

While searching Google images I came across the one above for a San Clemente, Calif., pie shop and used that with new titles, including using y's for i's as the Byrds often liked to do.

Here's a YouTube playlist of the album.