PENNY ARKADE, "The Penny Arkade" [imagined LP]

Penny Arkade

THE PENNY ARKADE   (1969)   

Isha*     [Ah Feel Like Ahcid! - 30 American Psychedelic Artefacts From The EMI Vaults]
No Rhyme or Reason
Sick and Tired
(She Brought Me) Something Beautiful**   [Swim Through the Darkness: Unreleased Songs]
I Need You*     [Book A Trip: The Psych Pop Sounds of Capitol Records]
Split Decisions
Our Love Has Come**   [Swim Through the Darkness: Unreleased Songs]
----------------------------
Woodstock Fireplace
Sparkle & Shine
I Can't Go On*   [Book A Trip 2:More Psych Pop Sounds of Capitol Records]
Face in the Crowd
Year of the Monkey
Give Our Love (To All the People)

 Special thanks for the unreleased music to Feral House

All other tracks taken from the Sundazed re-issue of Not the Freeze

Chris Ducey met Craig Smith while auditioning and landing starring roles along with Suzannah Jordan in a series pilot

called The Happeners about a Greenwich Village folk trio. They performed their own original songs, and there was an appearance by the Dave Clark Five. ABC never picked up the series, and the pilot itself seems to have aired only once and is currently lost. Craig Smith had been in the Good Time Singers for their two albums on Capitol in 1964. Together Chris and Craig made the pop-psych gem “Isha”, released by Capitol in July of 1966, with “I Need You” on the flip.

They spent nearly a year rehearsing their originals with musicians including Don Glut on bass and Mort Marker on lead guitar. They cut a demo, now seemingly lost, “Rhyme or Reason” (written by Chris) and “(She Brought Me) Something Beautiful” (written by Craig) with John London of the Louis and Clark Expedition.

In 1967, they formed the Penny Arkade with Don “Marvel” Glut on bass and Bobby Donaho on drums. Michael Nesmith backed them with equipment and rehearsal space and they started playing live shows. Nesmith brought them into TTJ studios in Hollywood and Wally Heider’s studio. Late in 1967 they went into RCA studios to record songs for what they anticipated would be their first album, including the twelve-minute “Not the Freeze”.

Also at the end of 1967 the Monkees used a Craig Smith composition, “Salesman” as the opening song for their album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.. Smith placed other songs, such as “Country Girl” with Glen Campbell, and “Holly” with Andy Williams. He co-produced with Bob Thiele a single for Heather MacRae, his girlfriend at the time, writing both songs “Hands of the Clock” / “Lazy Summer Day”, and with the Penny Arkade providing the music.

Enriched by his songwriting royalties, Craig Smith decided to leave the Penny Arkade to travel in South America and Asia. He returned around 1970 a changed man. Monkees producer Chip Douglas ran into Craig in 1971. “He was spaced out and had come back from Peru and had an album he was selling hand to hand. He had a spider tattooed in the middle of his forehead. He was just a nice kid, a nice American boy. To see him years later it was pretty bizarre. He said ‘Remember me. I used to be Craig Smith'”.

Without Craig, the Penny Arkade recorded four more songs, “Woodstock Fireplace,” “Sparkle and Shine,” “Face in the Crowd” and “Year of the Monkey”, and then added a new lead guitarist, Dave Turner. Turner left and they added David Price on rhythm, John Andrews on lead guitar and Bob Arthur, and rechristened the band Armadillo for another year or so of live shows. Craig utilized half a dozen Penny Arkade songs on his early ’70s solo albums, Apache and Inca under his new name, Maitreya Kali. The rest of the Penny Arkade tracks were not released until Sundazed collected what could be found on Not the Freeze, though many other recordings including their masters seem to have been lost. Craig Smith passed away in 2012.

THE BYRDS, "Captain America" [LP re-imagined]

The Byrds

CAPTAIN AMERICA   (1969)   

The Ballad of Easy Rider*   (Long Version)
Oil in My Lamp*  (alt. version)
Tulsa County*   (alt. version)
Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood*
Gunga Din
Stanley's Song*    [Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde]
----------------------
Lay Lady Lay*  (alt. version)       [The Byrds Play Dylan]
Fido**  (alt. mix edited)
There Must Be Someone (I Can Turn to)
Way Behind the Sun*
Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                     Thanks to False Memory Foam for the fab artwork

A re-evaluation of The Byrds' eight album. Produced by Terry Melcher for the first time since 1965's Turn! Turn! Turn! album. I included the extended mix of "Ballad of Easy Rider" as the opener. Clarence White's solo was cutoff from the original LP's edit. I prefer the alternate takes of "Oil in My Lamp" and "Tulsa County Blue" to their respective LP versions. The latter was overdubbed by McGuinn because Melcher said 'he sounded more like a cowboy' than bassist John York (who originally sang it). "Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood" (written by a then-still-obscure Jackson Browne) is a better choice than McGuinn's take on the traditional "Jack Tarr the Sailor." I am not a fan of "Jesus is Just Alright", either. Since I included the 1965 version of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" on my version of Turn! Turn! Turn!--I will put those two together as a non-album single. I decided to replace them with a couple of outtakes from their previous LP's sessions. "Stanley's Song" was written in tribute (the title, anyway) to director Stanley Kubrick. Some people hate it, but I'm of the few that don't--so yeah. "Lay Lady Lay" makes a good opener for side two. I had previously included it on my version of Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde--but I saw a fab version of it at the False Memory Foam blog...so I now defer to that playlist. "Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins" is about a waste of tape while "Way Behind the Sun" (another traditional--this time sung by York) remained on the cutting room floor. 11 songs at 33 minutes (with pretty close to even sides) make a pretty decent listen, I'd say. By the way, the version of "Fido" is an edit of the alternate vocal mix from the Sanctuary III compilation. That annoying drum solo is now cut to just a single bar or so (thanks to Audacity) and bring the song's running length down nine seconds to 2:31. York recently said in an interview that Terry Melcher wanted his publishing to the song and when York refused, Melcher 're-cast' McGuinn as lead vocalist on "Tulsa County."

Be sure to check out False Memory Foam for the 'Complete Album' series of The Byrds--amongst all kinds of other cool stuff. Cheers!

.

OASIS, "Stop the Clocks" [imagined LP]

OASIS

Stop the Clocks  (2011)

Lord Don't Slow Me Down*     [Dig Out Your Soul bonus disc]
I Believe in All*     [Dig Out Your Soul bonus disc]
The Roller    [Different Gear, Still Speeding]

Wind Up Dream     [Different Gear, Still Speeding]

Stop the Clocks        [Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds]

Boy with the Blues*    [Dig Out Your Soul bonus disc]

If Had a Gun...    [Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds]

Four Letter Word       [Different Gear, Still Speeding]

Kill for a Dream    [Different Gear, Still Speeding]

Man of Misery*     
Lock All the Doors   [Chasing Yesterday]
Millionaire  [Different Gear, Still Speeding]

(I Wanna Live in a Dream in My) Record Machine    [Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds]

The Morning Son    [Different Gear, Still Speeding]

THE BYRDS, 'The Last Byrds Album' (Updated)

The Byrds

THE LAST BYRDS ALBUM  (1972)

Tiffany Queen   
Bugler
Antique Sandy
Lazy Waters
I'm So Restless*   [Roger McGuinn]
------------------------
Draggin'*    [Roger McGuinn]
Born to Rock and Roll**
Farther Along
Lost My Drivin' Wheel**
Time Cube*    [Roger McGuinn]

All tracks taken from the CD re-issue of 'Farther Along' except where noted

------------------------------------------------------

The follow up to 1971's Byrdmaniax started out as a band produced offering to be released that same year. Discussions for a reunion of the original line-up of the Byrds were already in motion and McGuinn's dissatisfaction with the latter-day line-up was further compounded with arguments over salary with drummer Gene Parsons. After a disappointing 45 single release of "America's Great National Past Time" (sung by bassist Skip Battin and written by him and lyricist Kim Fowley) backed with the Clarence White led rendition of the traditional "Farther Along" in Nov. 1971, the album originally titled Farther Along would be shelved by leader Roger McGuinn (though the other members would subsequently concur) and put the future of the band's current line-up in doubt.

By July 1972, Parsons had been fired and replaced by session drummer John Guerin. To further cement his return to controlling the group--a single with "Born to Rock and Roll" backed with a cover of "Lost My Drivin' Wheel" was issued as Roger McGuinn and The Byrds. Session musicians had been employed to back McGuinn on at least one of the tracks--but company rules made the recordings be labelled as 'The Byrds' since McGuinn was not contracted as a solo artist with Columbia. Half of the Farther Along tracks were combined with new songs McGuinn had recorded including the sides to the 45 single to make The Last Byrds Album. It's also fitting that Bob Dylan would appear on a song--bringing things full circle--playing harmonica on "I'm So Restless". Clarence White sings lead on "Bugler" and "Farther Along"; Skip Battin sings lead on "Lazy Waters"...McGuinn takes the rest. 

After disbanding the latter-day Byrds in Feb. 1973, McGuinn and the original Byrds would join forces once again to release Full Circle on David Geffen's Asylum label.

1.  Full Circle    [Byrds]
 2. Sweet Mary     [Byrds]
 3. Changing Heart     [Byrds]
 4. For Free       [Byrds]
 5. The Water is Wide     [Roger McGuinn]
 6. Things Will Be Better    [Byrds]
Side B:
 7. Cowgirl in the Sand      [Byrds]
 8. Long Live the King     [Byrds]
 9. My New Woman     [Roger McGuinn]
10. Laughing    [Byrds]
11. Bag Full of Money    [Roger McGuinn]
12. (See the Sky) About to Rain     [Byrds]



In reality, McGuinn had wanted to changed the band name to put his in front, but was discouraged from doing so by whomever at the time. Farther Along was released in Nov. 1971 and the band was reported to be unhappy with it--though Clarence White's vocal on "Bugler" was a highlight. The CD re-issue of this album included versions of "Bag Full of Money", "Born to Rock and Roll" and "Lost My Drivin' Wheel". These songs and versions of "Draggin'", and "I'm So Restless" (reportedly lost) with new drummer John Guerin were left unreleased at the time in 1972. In 1973, McGuinn released his eponymous solo debut and it included remakes of "Lost My Drivin' Wheel", "Draggin'" (featuring Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys on piano and bgv), "I'm So Restless'" (featuring Bob Dylan on harmonica), and "Bag Full of Money" (featuring Crosby on harmony) along with "My New Woman" (with backing by the original Byrds line-up and saxophonist Buddy Emmons) and the traditional "The Water is Wide" (again featuring Crosby). A proposed McGuinn/Crosby LP never happened--though those two songs were great. I included them with "My New Woman" on my mix of the Byrds reunion LP for that reason.

THE BYRDS, 'Byrdmaniax' [LP re-imagined]

The Byrds

BYRDMANIAX   (1971)

• I Trust (Everything is Gonna Work Out All Right)
• Just Like a Woman*
• Absolute Happiness
• Green Apple Quick Step
• I Wanna Grow Up to Be a Politician
• (Is This) My Destiny
• Lover of the Bayou* (studio)   [[Untitled/Unissued]]
• Willin'*  [[Untitled/Unissued]]
• Pale Blue
• It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)*    [Easy Rider soundtrack]
• Jamaica Say You Will** (alt. mix)    

-----------------------------------All tracks taken from the original LP except where *

The often maligned tenth album by The Byrds has always been a challenge to listen to. Though I have revised my hard stance against Skip Battin somewhat (a song per LP) in my updated Byrds alt-discog. Much like Farther Along that would follow it, the LP is not without its charms. However, only half-an-album's worth of decent tunes does not a good album make. I previously paired these two 1971 LPs together whilst throwing in some of McGuinn's eponymous solo LP from '73. With the awesome new alt-discog sites I've seen over the past few months (Something Creative; Strawberry Peppers, and more you should check out--Ed.), I've gotten the idea to further revise my timeline, heh. I will follow-up with revised takes on The Last Byrds Album and Pheonix in future posts.

So what I did with this album was remove all but one of Skip's songs (the one on here I do like) and "Glory, Glory"--ugh. Anyways, I could see the band going to use leftovers from Pheonix (the actual title for 1970's [Untitled] double LP) like "Lover of the Bayou" and a couple decent Dylan covers. Also, Gene Parsons doesn't have a vocal on the album--so "Willin'" would have a spot here. I also originally considered Clarence White's take on "Think I'm Gonna Feel Better" by Gene Clark...but a proper vocal take was probably never recorded; it remains an outtake for me. However, I am proud of the mix of "Jamaica Say You Will" I made combining elements from the quadraphonic LP version (containing additional woodwind and orchestral flourishes) with the album version. The problem with the latter is a slight pitch problem that flattens White's vocal take. McGuinn's harmony part is also off due to this. You can compare the performance of the two mixes and hear what I mean. The quadraphonic mix has the correct speed but the band's instruments are buried under Melcher's overdubs (even more than the album version). Putting them together makes sense. I also did the same with both versions of "One Hundred Years From Now" from the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album. Welp--that's all folks (for now). Special thanks to ernestmannerisms for the cover art!

P.S. Look up 'Byrdmaniax Repaired" on YouTube. That's another live/studio LP combination like '[Untitled]' (which was considered by the band at one point).

THE BEACH BOYS, 'Beach Boys '67' [LP re-imagined]

BEACH BOYS '67 

Heroes and Villains

Vegetables
The Little Girl I Once Knew
Gettin' Hungry
Holidays
Good Vibrations
She's Goin' Bald
Little Pad
Trombone Dixie
Cool, Cool Water
Graduation Day

BEACH BOYS '67 would be released in the summer including the latest single "Heroes and Villains" opening up side A ('the latest and greatest from the group') followed by the new recording of "Vegetables", with the previously released non-LP single "The Little Girl I Once Knew" up next, along with "Gettin' Hungry" (a quirky new R&B track in a stripped down style released as a Brian and Mike duo 45), and an instrumental leftover from the forthcoming 'SMiLE' project entitled "Holidays" as the closer. Side B would mirror the TODAY! LP by featuring a theme of Brian Wilson's latest musical whims (so to speak). Including the Pet Sounds-era instrumental leftover "Trombone Dixie" and a new track from the SMiLE era ("Cool Cool Water") to further remind of what's to come. I think BW would've got a laugh from the irony of "Graduation Day" (a TODAY! outtake from '65) closing the record. I did, anyway.

----Cheers to Scott G. for his excellent mixes that I used.Check his page here.

The Something Creative blogspot has also been a source of inspiration and mixes.

'SMiLE' would be released in the Fall of '67 minus "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villians" (11 tracks including "Our Prayer" as the unlisted intro). 

 

Just as he did with "Help Me, Rhonda" back in '65--BW improves a track from the previous LP in a new 45 with "Vegetables" (released as a double A-side with "Surf's Up")

With all the alternate discography and 'what if' scenarios that I see, things can become very convoluted depending on how OCD you wanna get (lol). One of my favourites is The Alternate Albums and More! blogspot. His mixes of Beach Boys, Beatles, Monkees, etc. are some of my go-to playlists. In perusing some of the various other blogs of this nature--I saw a discussion on what album The Beach Boys could have released in between Pet Sounds and Wild Honey instead of the 'Best of ,( vol. 2)' compilation and SMiLe's  subsequent replacement, Smiley Smile.
I was mostly inspired by this article to make this one happen. 

Cheers!

RYAN ADAMS, 'Commercial Suicide' [re-imagined 2xCD set]

Thank you to MEGA-SUPERIOR-GOLD for the info

Ryan Adams

COMMERCIAL SUICIDE (2001)

According to sonicnet.com, this would have been the tracklisting for Gold if it had been a double album: "New York, New York" "Cannonball Day" "Rosalie Come and Go" "Off Broadway" "Tina Taleda Street Walkin' Blues" "When Stars Go Blue" "Dear Chicago" "Touch, Feel and Lose" "It's Only Going to Make You Love Me More" "I Wish I Had a Sylvia Plath" "Somehow, Someday" "Harder Now That It's Over" "Fool's Gold" "Maralisa" "The Fools We Are as Men" "Firecracker" "Answering Bell" "Wildflowers" "You're Nobody, Girl" "La Cienega Just Smiled" "The Bar Is a Beautiful Place" "From You to Me" "The Rescue Blues" "Sweet Black Magic" "Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard"

Ryan Adams acoustic/electric guitar/harmonica/piano/banjo

Ethan Johns acoustic and electric guitars/drums/bass/chamberlin/glockenspiel/B-3/vibes/mandolin/background vocals/harmonium/mandocellobanjo/ vocals

Richard Causon piano

Chris Stills bass/ background vocals/acoustic guitar/electric guitar

Kamasi Washington saxophone

Benmont Trench piano/ hammond b-3

Jennifer Condos bass

Bucky Baxter steel guitar

Adam Duritz background vocals

Juliana Raye background vocals

Milo De Cruz bass

CC White background vocals

Rami Jaffi accordion

AndreCarter trumpet

Jim Keltner - drums

produced by Ethan Johns

engineered and mixed by Ethan Johns

assistant engineer, Steven Rhodes

mastered by Doug Sax and Robert Hadley at The Mastering Lab (Hollywood),

recorded at the Sunset Sound Factory, Los Angeles

Random Notes

Other Songs Recorded During the Gold Sessions

Dear Chicago - originally recorded for Heartbreaker and the Suicide Handbook, then later released on Demolition

She Wants to Play a Game of Hearts - recorded for the Suicide Handbook and released on Demolition.

Cry on Demand - Also recorded for The Suicide Handbook and eventually released on Demolition.

Off Broadway - Also recorded for The Suicide Handbook and eventually re-recorded and released on Easy Tiger.

Fools Gold - an unreleased gem of a song that sounds like early 70's Bob Dylan.

Other Random Info:

When listening to "When the Stars Go Blue", according to Ryan : "Think of the star as someone hiding away in her Beverly Hills mansion and saying an awful lot. Listen to the song again with that in mind and see what you think." (Los Angeles Times 2/3/02)

"Firecracker" was originally written by Ryan Adams for Lucinda Williams to sing.

"New York New York" was not meant to be anthem for NYC, it was actually written with an old girlfriend in mind and instead of using her name. He switched it with "New York New York". (Although the woman it's written about was living with Ryan in NYC, so it sort of still has to do with with NYC)

"New York New York" was nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 2002 Grammy Awards.

Gold was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 2002 Grammy Awards.

A picture Ryan age 5, and his older brother - age 9, dressed up as Kiss for Halloween is show the liner notes.

In the liner notes of Gold, Ryan thanks Alanis Morresette multiple times. He supposedly lost a bet with her and that was part of the deal when Ryan lost.

Early versions of "Answering Bell", "La Cienega Just Smiled", "Mara Lisa", "Touch Feel and Lose","Firecracker" and "Wild Flowers" can all be found on the unreleased album - The Suicide Handbook.

"Enemy Fire" has also been recorded for the Pinkhearts album and on the Exile on Franklin Street album.

An early version of "The Rescue Blues" can also be found on The Q Division Demos and Exile on Franklin Street.

An early version of "Rosalie Come and Go" can be found on the unreleased album - Exile on Franklin Street.

The Artwork/Cover

In response to why he picked a flag for the cover of Gold:

"We did the cover shoot out in Los Angeles, and we did a lot of different poses and everything. One of the things we had was this big huge flag, and I thought it just looked powerful - that's what attracted me to it. I also kind of wanted to tweak the whole Bruce Springsteen 'Born in the U.S.A.' thing. Instead of me standing there all tough like Bruce, I'm in my slouchy, twitchy posture, my head down, my hair a mess. We thought it looked cool, but it was also meant to be a bit of a goof." (New York Times Magazine 11/4/01)

---------

Following the release of his 2000 debut for Bloodshot Records, Heartbreaker, the DRA was already writing more songs than anyone could keep up with. In January 2001, he entered Javalina Studios in Nashville and recorded the 21-song often bootlegged Suicide Handbook collection. Those songs were rejected by his new label (Lost Highway) for being 'too dark' and Ryan re-recorded some of the songs as part of a new concept he was tinkering with for what became the album Gold. 

In a previous post, I tackled what a single disc of the Suicide Handbook would be like if it had been released in early 2001. Many fans of Heartbreaker (I also covered an alternate version of this using tracks from its Deluxe Edition) were disappointed in the change in style for Gold. I think releasing SH in between the two would have led to a better overall response for when after Gold was released on Sept. 11 (!) that same fateful year. 

Gold was originally intended to be a 25-song double CD with the concept of Ryan performing in a variety of styles--as in turning the dial across 1970's era radio. Adjusting for acoustic versions of tracks he recorded for the previous project--I mixed in some of the b-sides and leftovers to make a single 17-track CD (for my alt. RA discog). All unreleased tracks and b-sides can be easily found online. Ryan recently shared a demo of "Play With Fire" by The Rolling Stones in tribute to the recent passing of their legendary drummer, Charlie Watts (Rest in Power---good sir). I'm sure a deluxe reissue is just around the corner....

1. Play With Fire (bonus track)*
2. Ghost
3. My Love For You is Real
4. Liar