Best of the Blogs - Albums That Never Were

[Ojai Sam]

Music blogs have managed to survive, despite years of suppression and millions of take down notices. In simple terms, they offer a place for fans to share music of varying degrees of legality, some public and some private.

Here at Music Gourmets, we always stay on the right side of the law. So this new series will present only public blogs that, to the best of our knowledge, present completely legal music that is not in violation of applicable copyright laws. Use appropriate caution when visiting these sites or any sites to which they may link.

Name: "Albums That Never Were" (albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com)

Host: soniclovenoize

Year started: 2012

Focus: reconstructions of "famous unreleased albums" such as The Who's "Lifehouse" and Buffalo Springfield's "Stampede"

 

[Ojai Sam]

The Rolling Stones - Could You Walk On The Water?

The blog sez:

After Decca Records refused to release such a blasphemous album title, the band restructured the album into their seminal Aftermath album. This reconstruction gathers all of the best sounding masters of the source material and is presented all in mono, as it was meant to be heard.

[snip]

While on their fall North American tour in 1965, the band filed into Hollywood’s RCA Studios in December to record the new material they had been composing. At least nine songs were finished during these fruitful sessions, including: “Doncha Bother Me”, “Goin’ Home”, “Mother’s Little Helper”, “19th Nervous Breakdown”, “Ride On Baby”, “Sad Day”, “Sittin’ On A Fence”, “Take It Or Leave It” and “Think”. Not only was the band impressed they were able to record nearly a full album of solid, original compositions in a week, but the songs themselves featured impressive exotic adornments by guitarist Brian Jones. Growing bored of simply playing guitar, Jones literally picked up a number of unusual instruments to contribute, such as an autoharp, harpsichord and koto, giving the songs a colorful, proto-psychedelic flavor. Finally "Goin Home" was noteworthy as one of the longest continuous performances in recorded rock music thus far, spanning over 11 minutes! Two tracks from the sessions were selected as a single to be released in February, “19th Nervous Breakdown” b/w “Sad Day”.

Marveling at the results of the RCA sessions, Oldham and the band vied to rush-release all nine finished songs plus a tenth track (the quaint Out Of Our Heads outtake “Looking Tired”, recorded three months prior) in March as Could You Walk On The Water. Featuring entirely original compositions—as well as the current hit “19th Nervous Breakdown”—the album was supposed to feature cover art from a California reservoir photo shoot and a deluxe gatefold with pictures taken from their recent American tour. Unfortunately, Decca Records balked at the title, afraid that the name of this decidingly American album would offend the American religious, allegedly stating, “We would not issue it with that title at any price!” As Oldham negotiated the release of the album, The Rolling Stones continued to tour relentlessly while continuing to compose new material. As the proposed album release date of March 10th began to close in, it was obvious Could You Walk On The Water would not rise above its own title; with Oldham finally giving in to Decca, it was decided the compilation Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) would be released in its place in the United States and The Stones reevaluated the shelved album.

 

[Nickyboy]

I love these sorts of things.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Pink Floyd - The Shape of Questions To Heaven

The blog sez:

Although I said I wouldn’t, the material spontaneously struck me one day recently and I was motivated to upgrade this original re-imagining from four years ago, which postulates “What if Syd Barrett hadn’t been fired from Pink Floyd?” The Shape of Questions to Heaven is the theoretical 1968 follow up to 1967’s The Piper At The Gates of Dawn, and culls material from Pink Floyd’s A Saucerful of Secrets sessions and Syd Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs sessions to create a second album of Syd Barrett-led Pink Floyd, an album that most certainly never was.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Pink Floyd - The Massed Gadgets of Auximenes

After the release of Pink Floyd’s The Early Years anthology—especially the Dramatis/ation volume—I reevaluated this previous reconstruction, contemplating if it could be improved upon. And I found I could! This is an upgrade to a studio reconstruction of the never-recorded experimental performance piece of “The Man and The Journey”, often titled The Massed Gadgets of Auximenes. This reconstruction attempts to present a version of the performance that would have taken the place of the More soundtrack and Ummagumma album, only utilizing studio recordings and condensing the performance down to two sides of a vinyl album.