Rolling Stones

The Satanic Sessions, Volumes 1 & 2 - 1967
As time has worked to dull the pain of witnessing a band so desperately nipping at the heels of Sgt. Pepper, it has also allowed for a long overdue re-examination of the Rolling Stones' most misunderstood album. Aside from containing founding member Brian Jones' last worthwhile contributions as a Stone, Their Satanic Majesties Request also marked the last, and arguably the most significant shift for a band that would morph into the world's greatest over the course of its next three albums.
Far from the cohesive, back to basics Beggars Banquet that would follow, Satanic Majesties was wildly unfocused and plagued by general period-specific themes of outer space, togetherness and mind expansion. And through use of unconventional instruments, it has been extremely difficult to determine which member(s) of the band led the sessions. Thankfully, this 2-volume box alleviates these major flaws - the entirety of this 8-disc set is comprised of the basic instrumental tracks (not a drop of hippy drippy vocals), and the multiple takes and studio chatter illustrate the specific contributions of each member.

So what's revealed here? 1) Keith Richard's guitar riffs form the structure of the majority of the album, 2) Nicky Hopkins' virtuosic keyboards make him virtually a 6th member of the band, 3) Brian Jones' Mellotron is its main psychedelic ingredient, and 4) "Jigsaw Puzzle" was originally recorded during these sessions. But that's just scratching the surface. If you're unfamiliar with the album, this set will be like entering a conversation halfway through, so get your hands on the original first. If it's already on your list of favorites, take a listen. The results are fascinating, but not for everyone. Full track list in comments.

Beach Boys

Landlocked (Unreleased) - 1970

The Beach Boys' road to reinvention throughout the late 60s and early 70s was marked by a familiar hurdle - the rejected album - and one of the band's most well known among these was 1970's Landlocked. In many ways, this LP would be reincarnated as the magnificent Sunflower, however a number of these tunes would continue to be recycled (along with several cuts from their aborted Smile LP) and make their way onto the band's albums throughout the 70s. And while hearing these songs in their original context is fascinating, even more interesting is how much it reveals about the Beach Boys' inability to effectively sequence their own albums, and how correct Reprise was in sending the band back to the drawing board. To the Beach Boys’ credit, it's very likely that its track list was never quite finalized, but unlike the melancholy air of Surf's Up and Holland or the playful nature of Sunflower, Landlocked seems so bloated with great tunes that it doesn't know what to do with itself, and in turn, it does very little in terms of conveying an distinct emotion, feeling or overarching theme. “Til I Die” for instance, serves as a key player in the triad of epics that close Surf’s Up, but here it’s like a sitting duck between a couple of songs that wouldn’t be out of place on any of the band’s pre-Pet Sounds LPs. That said, Landlocked is a fantastic collection of tunes that led towards modern music's most successful reinvention; albeit one that illustrates why it took a few tries to leap over the threshold. The version here is in great fidelity and includes a number of outtakes and alternates from this period.

Pink Floyd

The Complete Zabriskie Point Sessions - 1969

The six year span of Pink Floyd's career between Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Dark Side of the Moon is a meandering, often treacherous stretch of road. That's not to say that it didn't show some signs of promise, and here and there, occasional glimpses at the brilliance that was on the horizon. Commissioned to record ambient sections of soundtrack music for Michaelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point, the band took full advantage of their studio allowance to not only record a wealth of material that would signal a shift toward pastoral folk of Meddle and Obscured By Clouds, but to demo rough sketches of tunes that would turn up on Dark Side of the Moon a couple of years later. With the effects of their acid-drenched Syd Barrett period still lingering, it's not surprising that a few brief slices of self-indulgence pop up here and there, but overall The Complete Zabriskie Point Sessions is an exciting listen, if not a completely captivating one from end to end. Had the fat been trimmed and a few overdubs thrown on for good measure, these sessions would have resulted in their first great album of the post-Barrett Floyd. On it’s own terms, it’s still an essential document in tracing the evolution of one of psychedelic rock’s all-time greats.

Neil Young

Rarities Volume 1: 1967-1974

As the release the first volume of Neil Young's long-awaited Archives project draws near, speculation over its contents has reached a fever pitch. Will it include the unreleased Homegrown album? Will it include the rarely screened biopic Journey Through the Past? Will I even be able to afford this massive box set? One thing is certain...this 8-CD, 2-DVD set will be well worth the wait. Fans and bootleggers have poured and salivated over the vast amounts of unreleased material in the Neil Young vaults, while hissy, muddied fidelity collections of outtakes and acetates have exchanged hands for decades. Having tired of listening to a 4th generation copies of worn out vinyl boots, fan and collector Braden Strickler took the initiative to compile and painstakingly remaster the cream of the unreleased crop and circulate them as an incredible 5 volume set. The results are truly remarkable, and serve as a fine appetizer for the official set scheduled for release in the fall. (Ed Note 3/24/09: Ha!)

Volume 1: 1967-1974

01. Mr. Soul (non-LP-version)
02. Down To The Wire (Buffalo Springfield outtake)
03. If I Could Have Her Tonight (original mix)
04. I've Been Waiting For You (original mix)
05. Here We Are In The Years (original mix)
06. What Did You Do To My Life (original mix - incomplete)
07. Mr. Soul (CSNY: woodstock rehearsal 1969)
08. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (alternate version)
09. Cinnamon Girl (edit version/different vocal)
10. Down By The River (edit - Australian greatest hits album)
11. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (KQED TV rehearsal 19-Feb-70)
12. Everybody's Alone (KQED TV rehearsal 19-Feb-70)
13. Dance Dance Dance (KQED TV rehearsal 19-Feb-70)
14. On The Way Home (KQED TV rehearsal 19-Feb-70)
15. Wonderin' (KQED TV rehearsal 19-Feb-70)
16. Sugar Mountain (KQED TV rehearsal 19-Feb-70)
17. Birds (non-LP-version)
18. I Believe In You (alternative studio track 1970)
19. Out On The Weekend (rehearsal)
20. War Song (single with Graham Nash)
21. Last Trip To Tulsa (live 18-Feb-73, single b-side)
22. Bad Fog Of Loneliness (Tonight's the Night acetate)
23. Traces (Tonight's the Night acetate)
24. Human Highway (CSNY outtake)
25. Pushed It Over The End (live 27-Aug-74, CSNY 12" Italian single)
26. Walk On (DJ mono mix)

Faust

V (The Unreleased Virgin Promotional Cassette) - 1975

Following the release of their (now) legendary Faust IV LP and the subsequent tour, but shortly before being dropped from their Virgin label, krautrock pioneers Faust took it upon themselves to record their fifth album and run up an ongodly studio bill. Once Virgin got wind of the proceedings, the band had to quite literally escape from their studio and were subsequently arrested when they attempted to sneak back in to retrieve their tapes. Despite having been released from their Virgin contract, a promotional cassette of these sessions began to mysteriously circulate, and either because the result of those high-dollar sessions was so incredible or the fact that the tape was so difficult to come by, those who had heard it claimed it to be the finest work of the band's career. Now that the tape has become readily available some 30 years on, I lean towards the former. Filled with abstract, mechanized grooves, cut and paste collages and wildly imaginative guitar freakouts, the result is quite unlike anything happening in its day, and had it been released, would join Can's Tago Mago or Neu! 75 in the pantheon of krautrock's elite.

Bob Dylan

Blood on the Tracks (New York Sessions) - 1974

Though I've always preferred New Morning or Desire over the much treasured Blood On The Tracks when it comes to Dylan's mid-70s output, these original New York sessions would have made one hell of an LP if the man hadn't second guessed himself and re-recorded all but a couple of the tracks back home in Minnesota. Famously and meticulously constructing this album for months, the back story as to why Dylan recorded the album, nearly released it and finally chose to re-record everything is so long and storied that I'll leave it up to the real Dylanologists to give you the full story. It's up to you however, to hear for yourself how it would have sounded in the first place. Enjoy.

Neil Young

Journey Through the Past - 1974

Along with Time Fades Away, Journey Through the Past is the other Neil Young album never to have been officially released on CD. Not to be confused with the well-known live acoustic bootleg of the same name, the album here is the soundtrack to Neil’s rare 1974 film experiment, and features a wildly eccentric collection of Harvest outtakes, CSNY live recordings, Buffalo Springfield TV performances, a gospel choir and organ music -- plus a Beach Boys number tossed in for good measure. More of a glimpse into the mind of Neil’s mad genius than an album proper, Journey Through the Past contains some really great material. Highlights include a 15 minute alternate take of "Words", a studio run-through of "Southern Man" and plenty of studio banter of Neil teaching the songs and vocal harmonies to his band. Awesome stuff from the man at the peak of his power.

Note: a good chunk of the material here has finally been officially released on Neil's Archives Volume 1. However, the soundtrack itself remains out of print.

Neil Young Archives Volume I [...