Big Star - Ardent Studio Sessions (Unreleased 1972-1973)

This post has been removed at the request of Big Star's Jody Stephens.

The reason is that some of these tracks will be a part of a really cool Big Star box set coming out real soon. You can read more about the box set and other upcoming projects involving Big Star and Chris Bell in this article from Blurt Online here.

Merry Clayton - "Gimme Shelter" and Three More Amazing Covers

We've all heard those amazing backing vocals on the Rolling Stones' song "Gimme Shelter." Those backing vocals were from the great Merry Clayton. Merry has a long and storied career in pop music though. In the early 60's, she was one of Ray Charles' Raelettes. She recorded tracks with Elvis Presley, Joe Cocker, and the Superemes, among many others. She has made a handful of her own albums and appeared on many soundtracks, but her best work was from her own records in the early 70's.

Mary's best moment of her career would come a year after she recorded "Gimme Shetler" for the Stones, when she laid down a cover of the song herself. There are no words to describe how good this is so just give it a listen. From the 1970 album of the same name, here's a fan made video and an mp3 of Merry Clayton's version of "Gimme Shelter."



Merry Clayton - "Gimme Shelter" (Rolling Stones cover)

One more classic cover that appeared on the Gimme Shelter album:

Merry Clayton- "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Simon & Garfunkel cover)

In 1971, she made a great self titled record. Two more covers from Merry Clayton.

Merry Clayton - "Southern Man" (Neil Young cover)
Merry Clayton - "Grandma's Hands" (Bill Withers cover)

Much of Merry's recorded work is difficult to track down. For example, Gimme Shelter and Merry Clayton are both available from amazon.com as Japanese imports only for $63 each. However, she has contined playing shows nearly 40 years after these classic recordings and that phenomenal voice is still there.

Here's Merry on June 21, 2008 at the Toronto Jazz Festival still going strong.



Browse through Merry Clayton's music at amazon.com

Q- Tip's Unreleased Album from 2004, "Open"

Last month on this blog, I wrote about and gave you links to download Q-Tip's unreleased album from 2002, Kamaal the Abstract. If you haven't checked that out yet, go here.

Following the disappointment of not having that great album released, Q-Tip made another record called Open with guests such as Common, Andre 3000, and D'Angelo.

It is another phenomenal album that deserves to be heard. Here is an interesting, in depth 2004 article on the making of Open.

If you don't mind some pop up ads and a little soft porn, you can do this the quick and dirty way and download a large file of the whole album here:

Download "Open" via Megaupload.

Or you can just go song by song right here:

Q-Tip - Open (Unreleased Album from 2004)

01 - Open
02 - Black Boy
03 - Official
04 - N/A (featuring Common)
05 - Say Something For Me
06 - Interlude
07 - I'm Not Gone Have It
08 - Unknown
09 - Feelings
10 - Where Do You Go
11 - Unidentified
12 - That's Sexy (featuring Andre 3000)
13 - Late Mornin'
14 - Compute
15 - I Believe (featuring D'Angelo)
16 - Lisa (Extended Instrumental)
17 - Instrumental
18 - Lisa

Q-Tip discussed some of the nonsense he went through when both Kamaal the Abstract and Open weren't released in this interview with Entertainment Weekly. Finally, in the fall of 2008, Q-Tip released his long awaited, official, and excellent second solo album The Renaissance.

Here are some really cool highlights from Q-Tip's record release party for The Renaissance at the Knitting Factory in New York City on September 27, 2008.



Buy Q-Tip's The Renaissance at amazon.com

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - "The Complex Sessions"

On October 3, 1994, director Johnathan Demme filmed Neil Young & Crazy Horse as they performed songs from their just completed album Sleeps With Angels at Complex Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California. The result was a sort of video EP called The Complex Sessions, which at one time was released on videotape & laser disc (remember that?) but never on DVD and is now long out of print. Perhaps it will be a part of a future volume of Neil Young's Archives series but for now, it deserves to be seen without having to fork over cash to anyone who isn't going to get some of it to Neil Young.

This is beautifully shot footage of an emotional, amazing performance that was referred to by music critic Paul Williams in this review from June of 1996 as "Neil Young's - and rock n' roll's - finest moment."

Here are mp3s (320 kbps) of the audio from The Complex Sessions, followed by the four videos.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - The Complex Sessions

01 - My Heart
02 - Prime of Life
03 - Change Your Mind
04 - Piece of Crap

"My Heart"

Watch more Sleeps With Angels videos on AOL Video

"Prime of Life"



"Change Your Mind"



Since it only plays instantly, here's a link to video of the final song, and my favorite, "Piece of Crap."


Buy Sleeps With Angels by Neil Young & Crazy Horse from amazon.com

Neil and Tim Finn in Split Enz

Split Enz was an excellent band from the 1970's and 80's and the first group from New Zealand to become a worldwide success. The band began in 1972 and would go through many changes, but they were primarily led by brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn up until they disbanded in the mid-1980s. While Tim had a successful solo career, Neil would go on to form Crowded House, which became much bigger than Split Enz. Tim reunited with Neil on the Crowded House record Woodface, and they went on to work together on two Finn Brothers albums as well as each other's solo work.

Split Enz is fondly remembered as an amazing group that was ahead of their time. It was in this band that Neil and Tim Finn refined their craft for writing great lyrics with incredibly catchy hooks. They have a huge and rabid cult following and have been a major influence on many of the great bands of today. Most notable of these would be Pearl Jam and in particular, Eddie Vedder, as you'll see from a few of the great covers at the end of this post.

Here are some classic videos and mp3s of some of my favorite songs from Split Enz.



Split Enz - "I See Red"




Split Enz - "I Got You"




Split Enz - "History Never Repeats"




Split Enz - Six Months in a Leaky Boat


Here are two really cool live covers of Split Enz tunes by Pearl Jam:

Pearl Jam - I've Got You (From the bootleg comp 2000 Tour Live Rarities)

Pearl Jam (w/ Neil and Tim Finn) - History Never Repeats (from a PJ Ten Club Christmas Single)

To see more Split Enz, Crowded House, and Finn Brothers videos, check out this blog I made a few years ago, Neil Finn Videos.

Buy History Never Repeats: The Best of Split Enz from amazon.com

Adam & Dave's Bloodline: Acoustic on YRock at WXPN

Philadelphia band Adam and Dave's Bloodline released their excellent second record, Boycott Classics today. You can check out an album preview that appeared on this blog a few weeks back with a video and two songs here.

Today they recorded some songs for Philadelphia's best radio station, WXPN. Band member Adam Garbinski sent me these tracks from their first live performance on YRock at XPN, back in the fall of 2007, for their first self titled debut album.

Adam and Dave's Bloodline - Live on YRock at XPN - 2007

01 - Aftermarket Blues
02 - Untouchable
03 - Cautious Again

Here's a faster version of "Untouchable" from the record release show for the first album.



"Cautious Again" is one of the cooler new songs on Boycott Classics. Here's a video for another good one, "It's a Crime."



Download the new album on the link below and if you are in the Philly area, go see them at Johnny Brenda's on June 20th.

Boycott Classics from Adam and Dave's Bloodline is now available to download at amazon.com here.

The Beach Boys' "Smile" Outtakes

In 1966, Brian Wilson began work on the follow up to his classic album Pet Sounds. The Beach Boys were hit machines back then, and Pet Sounds was heavily praised by critics, but was not the huge commercial success that nearly everything they had released up to that point was.

The new album was to be called Smile. Wilson spent a long time working with a ton of musicians to complete the first track from the album, "Good Vibrations," which was released as a single and sold over a million copies. While the Beach Boys toured on the strength of this huge hit, Wilson wrote songs with Van Dyke Parks while recording tracks with many of the musicians on Pet Sounds. When the Beach Boys returned from the road to record their vocals, things began to fall apart. Wilson's mental state, after having endured a lifetime of abuse from his father, was already fragile. That mixed with his increasing drug use, pressure from everyone he worked with to keep making huge hits, and criticism from members of his band, particularly Mike Love, about where the direction of his art was going, led to Wilson shutting down the project.

That is the short version. If you want to read more, I would suggest reading this Wikipedia entry or buying this book here.

Most of the songs from Smile would be recorded by the band in some form over the next ten years but it took a long time for a lot of the original music from the sessions from 1966 and 1967 to come out. When it did, people could hear for themselves how brilliant and beautiful this amazing music was.

Brian Wilson peforming some of the songs planned for Smile in 1966:

Brian Wilson - Heroes & Villains/I'm in Great Shape/Barnyard
Brian Wilson - Surf's Up

The performance of Surf's Up was filmed for a television special and can be seen here.

Here are some of the highlights from the Beach Boys' Smile sessions:

Our Prayer
Heroes & Villains 1
Heroes & Villains 2
Do You Like Worms?
Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine
Wonderful
Cabinessence
Vegetables
Wind Chimes
Surf's Up
Child is the Father of the Man

After decades of addiction and exploitation, Brian Wilson got his life back to a place where he felt comfortable taking his own band on the road. After a tour where they performed Pet Sounds in full each night, Brian decided to finally finish Smile, 37 years after he had started work on it. Here is a nice piece on the process of finishing Smile from Fast Focus TV.



You can listen to an NPR webcast of Brian Wilson and his band performing his updated version of Smile here.

Buy Brian Wilson Presents: SMiLE at amazon.com

The Band - King Biscuit Flower Hour: Complete Masters - 7/17/76 - Washington D.C.

This is as good as bootlegs get. It is everything recorded for The Band's appearance on the classic syndicated radio show "The King Biscuit Flower Hour." This performance was on July 17, 1976 from the Carter Baron Ampitheater in Washington D.C. Previous bootlegs featured only the 10 songs that were on the radio show. This Japanese bootleg from 2003 gives us 15 songs, taken from the pre-broadcast reels.

This would be the final year that Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson would perform live as The Band, culminating in their last show together on New Year's Eve, filmed by Martin Scorcese for his movie The Last Waltz.

For all you audio nerds, the mp3 files here are at 320 kbps. Enjoy.

The Band - 7/17/76 - Washington D.C. -
Complete "King Biscuit Flower Hour" Masters

01 - Don't Do It
02 - The Shape I'm In
03 - It Makes No Difference
04 - The Weight
05 - King Harvest Surely Has Come
06 - Twilight
07 - Ophelia
08 - Tears of Rage
09 - Forbidden Fruit
10 - This Wheel's on Fire
11 - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
12 - The Genetic Method
13 - Chest Fever
14 - Up on Cripple Creek
15 - W.S Walcott's Medicine Show

Some videos of The Band at their very best.












Look for a post on unreleased tracks from Bob Dylan & The Band's Basement Tapes down the road. Thanks for checking this out.

Mary Lee's Corvette - Blood on the Tracks

In the summer of 2001, the New York City club Arlene's Grocery was looking for someone to attempt to cover Bob Dylan's legendary 1975 record Blood on the Tracks as part of their Classic Album Nights. Mary Lee's Corvette stepped up to this daunting challenge and succeeded where few could, faithfully and brilliantly covering the album from start to finish, with a little bit of fun fan participation thrown in during "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts."

Adding some new perspective to these songs with her powerful and soulful voice, singer Mary Lee Kortes was joined on this night by band members Andy York (guitar), Rod Hohl (acoustic guitar), Diego Voglino (drums), Brad Albetta (bass), and Andy Burton (piano/organ). A soundboard tape was first passed around and grew more and more popular until the bold decision was made to release it on cd. It was met with tons of critical acclaim, most importantly from the one person's opinion who would matter most in this instance, Bob Dylan, who liked it enough to feature a track on his website.

Here are two of the high points from Blood on the Tracks by Mary Lee's Corvette.

Mary Lee's Corvette - "You're a Big Girl Now"
Mary Lee's Corvette - "Idiot Wind"

Thanks goes out to my friend Will for first turning me onto this album on a long car ride home a few years ago. Look for a post on ten of my favorite covers of Bob Dylan's songs some time soon.

Buy Blood on the Tracks by Mary Lee's Corvette

Tom Waits' first album, Closing Time

I never really got into Tom Waits. I appreciated that he was a storytelling genius. I often listened to other artist's covering his music, but outside of a handful of songs, I never really gave his catalog much of a chance.

That all changed for me on Valentine's Day of this year, when I was driving around that afternoon listening to Philly's best radio station, WXPN, and the song "I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You" came on. It just floored me. I thought it was one of the best songs I had ever heard and I had to hear more of Waits' earlier music. I'm hoping that there are a few of you out there who like me, never heard this incredible song and give it a listen right now.



Tom Waits - "I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You"

So I went back to the beginning to where this song is from, and that is Tom Waits' debut album from 1973, Closing Time. In it, Waits' voice is in much different shape that it is now and he sings beautifully on a dozen songs that vary in style but flow together perfectly. A timeless, inspiring, and incredibly moving record, this one will stay with me forever.

Here are two more favorites from Closing Time.

Tom Waits - Ol' 55.
Tom Waits - Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)

Since then, I've been slowly working my way up through his catalog and I've spent a little too much time watching the full length concerts through the years at the best fan site I've ever seen, Tom Waits TV, here.

I am now finally, officially, a Tom Waits obsessed freak, so I'm sure you'll be seeing him around these parts quite often. Thanks for stopping by.

Buy Closing Time by Tom Waits at amazon.com