Demos and Outtakes
I was thinking of High Fidelity, both the book by Nick Hornsby, and the film adaptation starring John Cusack. If you’ve seen the movie or read the book and you know me, you may have noticed some similarities between Rob and myself. One thing in particular is the habit of making lists of things. Not useful lists of things to do, mind you, but lists of favorites, best ofs, and the like. This morning, I found myself doing it again – making lists. Today it was music, and what are my favorite alternate versions and demos.
Five for Today
1. Table Top Joe - Tom Waits. Waits officially released Alice last year, but they were new recordings of songs he wrote for a Robert Wilson musical in the early 90’s. A friend made me a copy of the demos he recorded in Germany for the cast to learn from. That earlier version of Table Top Joe is a haunting, quiet song, with the main accompaniment of a tinny xylophone, sounding like a a wrench hitting a steam pipe.
2. Green Shirt - Elvis Costello. This demo is just Costello and acoustic guitar, recorded around the time of This Year’s Model. Rerecorded a few months later for Armed Forces with the Attractions it lost some of it’s menace while adding a polished veneer. The demo has found it’s way onto many a mix of mine, but the original never has.
3. Heaven (live) - Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians. The live version added as a bonus cut to the rerelease of Fegmania! is brilliant. A wonderful Hitchcock spoken intro about floating cathedrals, a delicate acoustic guitar line and slightly slower tempo blow the doors off the overproduced, keyboard heavy album version. It also is head and shoulders above the live version from Gotta Let This Hen Out!
4. If You See Her, Say Hello - Bob Dylan. Released on The Bootleg Series, vols. 1-3, this alternate to the track from Blood On The Tracks is a little sloppier and more heartfelt. You can hear the pain in his voice, the longing and reticence of his heart. An amazing work, one that gives goosebumps.
5. Redemption Song (Band Version) - Bob Marley. If you’ve heard this version, I hope you understand why I put it on this list. It is so irredeemably bad, such a miscalculation on Marley’s part to even record it, that I had to include it for sheer ballsiness. The original, from the Uprising album, is one of, if not the, purest view of a man’s soul ever recorded. I sing along with misty eyes when I hear it. This atrocity, however, is soulless, heartless, and beautiful in its horror. Up tempo paint-by-numbers early 80’s reggae, it was the b-side to the acoustic single. Now available on the Uprising reissue, or on the collection One Love – The Very Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Five for Today
1. Table Top Joe - Tom Waits. Waits officially released Alice last year, but they were new recordings of songs he wrote for a Robert Wilson musical in the early 90’s. A friend made me a copy of the demos he recorded in Germany for the cast to learn from. That earlier version of Table Top Joe is a haunting, quiet song, with the main accompaniment of a tinny xylophone, sounding like a a wrench hitting a steam pipe.
2. Green Shirt - Elvis Costello. This demo is just Costello and acoustic guitar, recorded around the time of This Year’s Model. Rerecorded a few months later for Armed Forces with the Attractions it lost some of it’s menace while adding a polished veneer. The demo has found it’s way onto many a mix of mine, but the original never has.
3. Heaven (live) - Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians. The live version added as a bonus cut to the rerelease of Fegmania! is brilliant. A wonderful Hitchcock spoken intro about floating cathedrals, a delicate acoustic guitar line and slightly slower tempo blow the doors off the overproduced, keyboard heavy album version. It also is head and shoulders above the live version from Gotta Let This Hen Out!
4. If You See Her, Say Hello - Bob Dylan. Released on The Bootleg Series, vols. 1-3, this alternate to the track from Blood On The Tracks is a little sloppier and more heartfelt. You can hear the pain in his voice, the longing and reticence of his heart. An amazing work, one that gives goosebumps.
5. Redemption Song (Band Version) - Bob Marley. If you’ve heard this version, I hope you understand why I put it on this list. It is so irredeemably bad, such a miscalculation on Marley’s part to even record it, that I had to include it for sheer ballsiness. The original, from the Uprising album, is one of, if not the, purest view of a man’s soul ever recorded. I sing along with misty eyes when I hear it. This atrocity, however, is soulless, heartless, and beautiful in its horror. Up tempo paint-by-numbers early 80’s reggae, it was the b-side to the acoustic single. Now available on the Uprising reissue, or on the collection One Love – The Very Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers.
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