Friday, September 11, 2009

Weekend Listomania (Special That's a New One On Me! Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental Tupelo Honey Viagra Vixen Fah Lo Suee and I are off to join Emily Litella at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C. for a weekend panel on the Pubic Option.

Seriously -- what's the deal with that?

So posting by moi will more than likely be sporadic for a little while.

But in the meantime, here's another little project for us all:

Most Memorable or Revelatory Previously Un-Released (or Bonus) Track By a Major or Minor Artist!!!

No arbitrary rules this time; I was going to say studio stuff only, but on reflection that strikes me as needlessly restrictive. And obviously, bootlegs are okay.

And my totally top of my head Top Seven is:

7. Fountains of Wayne -- Trains and Boats and Planes





I've always loved the Dionne Warwick/Bert Bachrach original of this. But what a neat surprise to find out that Adam Schlesinger isn't just a fricking genius -- he's also a sentimental old fluff.

6. The Zombies -- Imagine the Swan





This first surfaced as a bonus track on a two-LP Zombies best-of Columbia put out in '74, at which time it completely blew my tiny mind. Actually, it's a post-Zombies/pre-Argent demo, but damned if it doesn't have that whole Odessey and Oracle gorgeousness in spades.

5. The Rolling Stones -- Cops and Robbers





The first live Stones bootleg I ever heard -- I wrote about the mysterious circumstances surrounding my getting it back in June -- and the very definition of revelatory. Early Stones in stereo -- holy crap!!!!

4. The Beatles -- She's Leaving Home (backing track)





Strings gorgeously arranged by Mike Leander, who also did the Stones' "As Tears Go By." A great piece of writing, I think, and a bit of a stunner without the vocals.

3. Simon and Garfunkel -- The Breakup




Tucked away on Garfunkel's 1993 greatest hits album -- the REAL story of what happened between Paul and Artie. Absolutely hilarious.

2. The Who -- Glow Girl





The prequel to Tommy, and a hell of a lot more succinct. Odds and Sods was a great collection of mostly unfamiliar or unreleased Who stuff, and this was hands down my favorite track.

And the numero uno "Where the Hell Did That Come From?" track of all time obviously is ---

1. The Rising Sons-- 2:10 Train




Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder before either of them shaved. Seriously, the Rising Sons -- the other great L.A. band of the 60s with an African-American lead singer -- never made an album during their run, so when this was finally released in the early 90s -- along with eleven other finished cuts that had languished unheard in the Columbia vaults since 1965 -- it took everybody, myself included, by complete surprise. Unplugged before there was such a term, this is also about as spine-tingling as it gets.

Alrighty then -- and your choices would be?

[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania -- theme: best pre-Star Wars movies with an outer space theme -- is now up over at Box Office. As always, if you could see your way to going over there and leaving a snarky comment, it would make it that much easier for me to try to beg a little extra money out of management in advance of my forthcoming hopefully romantic trip to Paris with a certain Shady Dame. Thanks!]

21 comments:

Unknown said...

I'll start this one:

Bob Dylan, "Blind Willie McTell" (The Bootleg Series, 1-3)--from the Infidels sessions, and for whatever reason not seen fit to make the album.

Mike said...

Something I was just listening to again today:

Revolution 1 take 20

And if I can pimp one of my own youtube contributions, there's Elvis Costello singing Gloomy Sunday.

Mister Pleasant said...

Damn - Mike beat me to it. I have been obsessively listening to this for weeks. The Holy Grail of unreleased Beatle tracks:

Revolution 1 (Take 20)

This blog posting discusses the authenticity of the track. Revolution 1 In Head Research seems to indicate it is the real deal. Just amazing.

And I should mention that I bought that Time Of the Zombies album back in '74 based on Steve's Stereo Review article. Truly life changing for me. My first introduction to the songs from Odessey and Oracle and the sad lovely Imagine the Swan. Thanks Steve!

Karen Sprague said...

On the Little Feat rarities album "Hoy Hoy" there as fabulous version of Hank Williams's "I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow."

Peter Spencer said...

The Dylan Bootleg Series is a treasure trove, but the track that really changed my life was "Foot of Pride," a work of deathless genius, utterly mangled by Lou Reed at the 30th Anniversary MSG show.

Sal Nunziato said...

I have to go with Dylan's "Mama You've Been ON My Mind," which could very well be my favorite Dylan song.

dave™© said...

Well, since, given the rules, I can't nominate anything from Brian Wilson's 1966 version of "Smile" (if I could, it would be the first recorded instrumental backing for "Surf's Up" - a very sprightly piece), I'll have to go with the acoustic Lennon demos of "Strawberry Fields"...

NYMary said...

Two words.

Jet.

Set.

'Nuff said.

Brooklyn Girl said...

I can't remember what the circumstances surrounding this were, but here's a still-a-work-in-progress, beautiful acoustic version of U2's "Stuck in a Moment."

Feral said...

Just a quick one, and I'm away...

The additional material on the re-release of The Who's "Live at Leeds" took a quintessential live album and made it even better.

Brooklyn Girl said...

There was also a lot of additional material on the updated release of "Who's Next" ..

Noam Sane said...

Cibo Matto's cover of Cobain's "About A Girl" popped up on some weird EP, some time after the group ceased to be.

The YouTube link above fades out after a couple of minutes for some reason. Basterds. But anyway, great cover of a great song.

Nigel Tufnel said...

As Karl Marx (via Monty Python) put it: "My lack of God!"

Sleeve, you've outdone yourself with this list. Not only does Billy Corgan's pretentious cueball noggin not make an appearance, the FOW version of "Trains, Boats and Planes" and the Zombies track are pure gorgeousity on a stick. Still smacking my lips.

Not because of the early clue, but just because I love it, I'd nominate "Ladyfriend" from the reissue of the Byrds' "Younger Than Yesterday." Why it was left off the original album still puzzles me.

steve simels said...

Next week I'm putting up the ultra-rare and out-of-print forever (as in it has been banished from the official Sony Byrds canon) David Crosby remix of "Lady Friend."

There may or may not have been a new drum track substituted for Mike Clarke. But in any case, it sounds absolutely fricking gorgeous.

You'll thank me, I swear...

Unknown said...

The "laughing" version of "And Your Bird Can Sing" on the Anthology release is a stunner. I at one time had a non-laughing version of that version, but the sound quality was pretty bad. Also, that demo of Paul doing "Goodbye" ranks up there. ... Oh, and XTC's "The World is Full of Angry Young Men." Prime Moulding.

Unknown said...

One of the last new Lp's I ever bought was that Byrds rarities, and the sound quality is astonishing. ... Which reminds me, I like EVERY version of "She Has A Way" I've ever heard, but the version on that record is the best.

Kid Charlemagne said...

The Move - "Vote for Me"

The Records - "Injury Time"

Anonymous said...

Beatles - The trumpet closing version of Penny Lane.

Dylan's Band backed version of "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window"

ROTP(lumber)

steve simels said...

Wow -- this topic crapped out even earlier than the "Most Memorable Sitar Solo" thread.
:-)

Anonymous said...

The quality of the replies is what counts not the quantity.

ROPTP(lumber)

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.