Syd Barrett – Boogie Party (1974) Album Edit & New Version of Took Some Blues (1972) (Take 1)

For those not in the know, fan albums are the attempts of me and many others to take songs and put them on an album, typically they’re made to improve upon something, such as an existing album or to take non-album tracks and put them on an album.

This was an interesting one! My plan was to group the last of the 1969-1970 recordings and the two Steve Took-Syd Barrett songs into an album and then the last one would be the 1972-1974 tunes. Upon listening to all these recordings, a problem was discovered. All the 1974 songs are instrumental only and are very demo-sounding. There’s only guitar on every song, bass on a few, and barely any percussion. The 1972 tracks that were supposed to be married to the ‘74 songs have a full band and vocals. Thus, I’ll have to reorganize everything so it all makes sense. It’s just unfortunate that I’ve already released the 1969-1970 set and now I have to redo it. It took only about an hour to have to redo Took Some Blues (1972).

It’s fitting that the last Syd Barrett recording session would consist of simplistic instrumentals. Pink Floyd did a lot of complex instrumentals, which Syd used to do. His severe mental health problem for whatever reason made his songs more “basic”. That being said, Syd’s solo career is very good. Personally, I like all Syd songs, but these last two sets of recordings are not approachable to newcomers due to how bizarre they are and not in a way that works exceptionally well, though there are many redeemable parts that a Syd fan can appreciate. The lack of focus makes these the weakest Syd cuts in my book.

The change to Took Some Blues is the subtraction of “Rhamadam” and the addition of three live tracks recorded by the “Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band”. Their one album mostly lacks Syd, but he plays guitar on three songs. Those three songs are included. I ripped my hair out trying to figure out where to place them. I wanted the two Took-Barrett songs at the end and two connected tracks, “Number Nine” and “Gotta Be A Reason”, right next to each other with “Drinkin’ That Wine” somewhere before the two tracks. That didn’t work out as the weirdly-lengthed songs made it so one side was ten or more minutes longer than the other or the tracklisting was bad. Ultimately, it seemed they couldn’t be next to each other. “Number Nine” stopping suddenly and being continued a few songs later seemed like an interesting concept that I think works despite initially thinking it wouldn’t. This new version of the album has a lot of different types of songs which hopefully coexist nicely. It’s also a happy accident that barring one track, every solo Syd song with someone else on lead vocals is here.

The man of the hour is the last Syd album, Boogie Party. Just like an earlier Syd album constructed by me, Lights, this one is a bunch of weird, avant-garde instrumentals, also a fitting way to end things. I’m curious if these tracks were intended to have vocals. There were three recording sessions planned, but only one happened and the resulting tunes sound incomplete mostly. They’re even all formally unnamed except for, “If You Go, Don’t Be Slow”. The other tracks were named by bootleggers. I wanted the names to have a sense to them, so some were changed. A track listed as “Unfinished ballad” is now “Ballad Of The Unfinished”. “Slow Boogie” is now “Boogie Down”. “Fast Boogie” is “Boogie Up”. Some bootlegs of “Boogie #2” include the phrase “more echo”. I suspect that’s referring to the nature of the song, but it seemed fitting enough to call the song “Boogie #2 – More Echo”. “Boogie #3” is now called “Boogie #3 – Resolution” because I like the sound of it. The amount of tracks that are boogie-esque led me to name the album after that.

The tracks were ordered here to make it seem like they’re supposed to fit together as one big twenty minutes song and that’s why individually they’re incomplete sounding. Admittedly, there is something to be desired, such as fuller sounds with more than one instrument, but it’s still fun and tells you about Syd’s mindspace. They’re followed by an actual twenty minute instrumental. “Rhamadam” was to end the previous album before I made it the opener. Seeing as it’s the most polished production here, it makes sense at the end. If Syd could map out his career, I’d think he’d want to end the album run with a twenty minute instrumental.

Rhamadam ends on a poignant note, seeing as you’ve gone through ten albums of this weird guy whose health progressively decreased. In the beginning, Syd and his band of friends performed 50’s-esque pop songs, then the psychedelic style came and revolutionized their sound, resulting in some excellent, excellent music. For reasons that we don’t really know, Syd melted away slowly. The first recordings with him having problems are still intricate and developed like the music before, but then next album it’s all stripped back to more acoustic sounds and personal lyrics. Eventually, as Syd felt more depressed and out of key with the world, he lost that voice, with most of these tracks having others lead the charge. He could still manage to create, with more attention being focused on his paintings. The paintings continue to express himself, as well as his music. That’s why these two album’s covers are of his paintings.

While he probably didn’t get what was so great about himself, we the fans see it. The impassioned lyrics, the ahead of the time sounds. Even with a little guitar on someone else’s song, he can still make you feel something and consider what music and life is. He did so much in so little time. At least ten albums of material were created by him in under ten years and each song has punch and feeling. Thus, I thank you Roger K. Barrett for creating sounds which continue to inspire and make people like me want to become musicians or artists or whatever need be. I’m thankful that you could capture my essence and many other’s in such a small number of works and smaller amount of time. 

SYD BARRETT – TOOK SOME BLUES

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Drinkin’ That Wine” (?)
2. “Dolly Rocker” (Syd Barrett)
3. “Let’s Split” (Syd Barrett)
4. “Number Nine” (?)

SIDE B

1. “Bob Dylan Blues” (Syd Barrett)
2. “Word Song” (Syd Barrett)
3. “Gotta Be A Reason” (?)
4. “Molecular Lucky Charm” (? (probably Steve Took and/or Syd Barrett))
5. “Syd’s Wine” (? (probably Steve Took and/or Syd Barrett))

BONUS TRACKS

1. “Dolly Rocker (With Studio Chatter)”
2. “Let’s Split (With Session Chatter)”
3. “Word Song (With Studio Chatter)”
4. “Word Song (Peter Jenner 1974 Mix)”
5. “Words (Alternate Version)”
6. “Untitled Words (Alternate Version Of Word Song)”
7. “Sea Cruise (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
8. “L.A To London Boogie (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
9. “Ice (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
10. “Nadine (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
11. “Drinkin’ That Wine (With Chatter) (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
12. “Number Nine (With Chatter) (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
13. “Let’s Roll (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
14. “Sweet Little Angel (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”

PERSONNEL

• Syd Barrett – guitar (tracks 1-9 (possibly not 8-9)), lead vocals (tracks 2-3, 5-6), possible vocals on tracks 8-9
• Steve Took – unknown role, probably vocal and instrumental (tracks 8-9)
• Bruce Paine – vocals (tracks 1, 7)
• Jack Monck – bass (tracks 1, 4, 7)
• Twink – drums (tracks 1, 4, 7)
• Fred Frith – guitar (tracks 1, 4, 7)
• There’s certainly more people involved and roles filled by Barrett and Took, but there’s sadly a lack of information.

SYD BARRETT – BOOGIE PARTY

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Boogie #1” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
2. “If You Go, Don’t Be Slow #1” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
3. “Chooka-Chooka Chug Chug” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
4. “Ballad Of The Unfinished” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
5. “Boogie Down” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
6. “Untitled” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
7. “Boogie Up” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
8. “John Lee Hooker” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
9. “If You Go, Don’t Be Slow #2” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
10. “Boogie #2 – More Echo” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
11. “Boogie #3 – Resolution” (? (probably Syd Barrett))

SIDE B

1. “Rhamadam” (Syd Barrett)

BONUS TRACKS

1. “Ballad Of The Unfinished (Sounds Different)”
2. “Ballad Of The Unfinished (22 Second Version)”
3. “Ballad Of The Unfinished (With Studio Chatter)”
4. “Boogie Down (With Studio Chatter)”
5. “John Lee Hooker (Shorter Version)”
6. “If You Go, Don’t Be Slow #2 (With Studio Chatter)”
7. “Boogie #2 – More Echo Fragment (Bernard White 94 Mix)”
8. “Was That Okay”
9. “Rhamadam (With Studio Chatter)”
10. “Lanky Part 2 (Partial Backing Track To Rhamadam)”

PERSONNEL

• Syd Barrett – guitar (tracks 1-12)
• Steve Took – possibly plays congas on track 12
• Peter Jenner – producer (track 12)
• More people, but again, there’s a lack of info

LINKS

Here’s the ten Syd Barrett albums. I’ve ranked them from best to least.

1. Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967) – YouTube, Spotify, Archive.org
2. Syd Barrett – Barrett (1970) – Spotify, YouTube
3. Syd Barrett – Two Of A Kind (1970) – Archive.org, YouTube
4. Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – Projection (1967) – Archive.org
5. Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – Early Morning Sunshine (1968) – Archive.org, YouTube
6. Syd Barrett – The Madcap Laughs (1970) – Spotify, YouTube
7. Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – The King Bees (1967) – Archive.org, YouTube
8. Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – Lights (1968) – Archive.org, YouTube
9. Syd Barrett – Took Some Blues (1972) – Archive.org
10. Syd Barrett – Boogie Party (1974) – Archive.org

This is a passion of mine and if one person likes what I do, I’ll feel honored. I like suggestions on what artist to cover next, so if you know of one you’d like me to look at, feel free to suggest ‘em!

Syd Barrett – Took Some Blues (1972) Album Edit (Take 1)

This fan album was a little harder to do than some past ones. There were a few moving parts before it was all said and done. I was only able to find five songs as by necessity, other songs either had to go on the previous fan album or the next one. Those five totaled thirty minutes, which seemed really short. Despite that, this album has the longest Syd Barrett track ever (if you count “John Latham” as nine songs instead of one). “Rhamadam” is twenty minutes. It seemed that what I’d have to do was have four songs totalling ten minutes on side a and Rhamadam on side b, which would be way too lopsided an album. To try to remedy this, I read about and listened to numerous songs rumored to include Syd. Most of these rumored songs obviously were bogus. One of the most amusing is a track which supposedly featured Keith Moon, but there was no drumming or percussion at all in the song. Two tracks seemed more legit than the rest. Steve Took, who I know as a member of T. Rex, was friends with Syd Barrett and played on Rhamadam. He would do jam sessions with friends and record them. He would also sometimes name songs after his friends. I believe Syd is present as it seems possible that after mostly retiring in 1972, Syd might be up for hanging out with his friend with a guitar. The guitar playing on those two songs is very much in Syd’s style of playing and one song is called “Syd’s Wine”. There’s no certainty that Syd’s on them, but it seems likely enough. Those two tracks are from 1972, Rhamadam’s from 1969, and the other cuts are from 1970. Still, they all fit together well. These seven tracks are little oddities from their own little world.

Originally, Rhamadam was to end the album, but it’s actually a better opener. It takes up side a. “Bob Dylan Blues” was a recently unearthed track and one of the best here. Syd does a good job of imitating how Bob Dylan plays. This might be a crux in the dissection of the Took songs as someone could’ve been imitating how Syd plays. The four 1970 songs are very folky and stripped back. The focus is on Syd’s singing and guitar playing. They’re bookended well by the slightly more complex stuff, which features multiple instruments, due to the coincidence of Steve Took being on three songs, it seemed appropriate that he might be name dropped in the name of this album. “What We Took” was a possible title I considered, but “Took Some Blues” is better. It was hard to think of how to sequence the album. “Bob Dylan Blues”, “Rhamadam”, and the Took songs all could start or end the album, usually songs fail to be both. If Rhamadam, was followed by the Took songs, then things would scale down to the end. If the Took stuff was at the end, then the album would scale up. That made more sense. If the two Took-heavy songs were absent, the album might’ve gone, “Rhamadam” or “Bob Dylan Blues”, “Dolly Rocker”, “Let’s Split”, “Word Song”, “Rhamadam” or “Bob Dylan Blues”.

The cover comes from a picture of young Syd presenting a painting. I replaced the original image with another by him, but this one is a little darker in nature. His paintings are very cool. It took a while to decide on the best cover, so other pictures I considered are included for fun, as well as the chosen picture uncropped. Took Some Blues is the ninth Syd album. The next will be the last.

SYD BARRETT – TOOK SOME BLUES

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Rhamadam” (Syd Barrett)

SIDE B

1. “Bob Dylan Blues” (Syd Barrett)
2. “Dolly Rocker” (Syd Barrett)
3. “Let’s Split” (Syd Barrett)
4. “Word Song” (Syd Barrett)
5. “Molecular Lucky Charm” (?)
6. “Syd’s Wine” (?)

BONUS TRACKS

1. “Rhamadam (With Studio Chatter)”
2. “Lanky Part 2 (Partial backing track to Rhamadam)”
3. “Dolly Rocker (With Studio Chatter)”
4. “Let’s Split (With Session Chatter)”
5. “Word Song (With Studio Chatter)”
6. “Word Song (Peter Jenner 1974 Mix)”
7. “Words (Alternate Version)”
8. “Untitled Words (Alternate Version Of Word Song)”

PERSONNEL

• Syd Barrett – guitar (tracks 1-7 (hopefully)), lead vocals (tracks 2-5)
• Steve Took – ? (tracks 1, 6-7)
• There’s certainly more people involved and roles filled by Barrett and Took, but there’s sadly a lack of information.

Took Some Blues (1972) – Archive.org

The Sex Pistols – Are Back (1978) Album Edit

This is not a great album. The Sex Pistols Are Back is a prime example of leaving the weakest tracks off the album. Oftentimes, the excised material is just as good as the featured, such as with The Zombies and Syd Barrett. The recordings present here span from 1976 to 1978. Featured is every Sex Pistols song that’s sung by Johnny Rotten, plus not on their excellent only studio album, Nevermind The Bollocks, and not a live track. Conveniently, there’s exactly twelve tracks to work with, being the same number of tracks as on the last album. Each side has its own feel. Side a are tracks from the Nevermind The Bollocks sessions or before. Some of the songs are really good, like “Satellite” and some seem poorly executed, like “No Fun”. The main drawback is that Johnny Rotten doesn’t always seem to be trying. The backing band, though not always at their best, does appear to be doing the best they can and never are incompetent, unlike Rotten. Side b features tracks from the band’s kinda second album, The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, which was conceptualized after Johnny left the band. For that album, there’s some old songs, some new songs, and some with Johnny vocals from demos given overdubs. I’m shocked that tracks like “Johnny B Goode” or “Road Runner” made the cut due to how poorly Johnny’s singing, but then again here we are.

The head canon behind this album is that instead of doing the compilation album Swindle, the band decided to pull together all the Johnny they can for a second album. There’s even a nice little photo of the band with Johnny to tie the concept together. The next fan album will cover all the songs without Johnny Rotten, with there being an album’s worth of them. Overall, I’m glad Are Back wasn’t actually released as it’d be a stain on the band’s reputation. The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, being a compilation album, is easier to ignore than a second studio album. For a Sex Pistols fan, this isn’t the worst experience. One can enjoy the nonsense and a few actually good songs, but casual fans can move along.

THE SEX PISTOLS – ARE BACK

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Satellite” (Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, Johnny Rotten)
2. “Did You No Wrong” (Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, Johnny Rotten, Wally Nightingale)
3. “I Wanna Be Me” (Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, Johnny Rotten)
4. “Suburban Kid” (Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, Johnny Rotten)
5. “Through My Eyes” (The Creation)
6. “No Fun” (The Stooges)

SIDE B

1. “Johnny B Goode” (Chuck Berry)
2. “Road Runner” (Jonathan Richman)
3. “Substitute” (Pete Townshend)
4. “Don’t Give Me No Lip Child” (Barry Richards, Jean Thomas, Don Thomas)
5. “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” (Bobby Hart, Tommy Boyce)
6. “Watcha Gonna Do About It” (Ian Samwell, Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane)

BONUS TRACKS

1. “Substitute (Wessex Studios rehearsal session October 1976)”
2. “(Don’t Give Me) No Lip (Wessex Studios rehearsal session October 1976)”
3. “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone (Wessex Studios rehearsal session October 1976)”
4. “Johnny B Goode (Wessex Studios rehearsal session October 1976)”
5. “Road Runner (Wessex Studios rehearsal session October 1976)”
6. “Watcha Gonna Do About It  (Wessex Studios rehearsal session October 1976)”
7. “Satellite (Wessex Studios, NMTB outtake May-August 1977)”

PERSONNEL

• Johnny Rotten – lead vocals (tracks 1-12)
• Steve Jones – guitar (tracks 1-12), possible bass on tracks 7-12
• Glen Matlock – bass (tracks 1-6, possibly more)
• Paul Cook – drums (tracks 1-12)
• Sid Vicious – possible bass on tracks 7-12

Are Back (1978) – Archive.org

Colin Blunstone – Is Neil McArthur (1971) Album Edit (Take 2)

For those not in the know, fan albums are the attempts of me and many others to take songs and put them on an album, typically they’re made to improve upon something, such as an existing album or to take non-album tracks and put them on an album.

This album is the last Zombies-related album I wanted to work on. It’s the eighth fan one I did. It’s weird to be done with this project, though one could say I’m done with this stretch of it. It’s not exactly the end as I could make more, but my interests are elsewhere. My goal for this project was to take two box sets and make them redundant. Zombie Heaven at the time had most or all of the known Zombies content and Into The Afterlife had stuff made by the members after The Zombies, but before their solo careers. Everything on those albums and more is on one of the eight fan albums I made or my Archive.org upload of the two official albums. The runtime of the two box sets is 5 hours, 57 minutes, 41 seconds. The runtime of my ten is 8 hours, 35 minutes, 47 seconds!

This one leans on the shorter side. There’s only one bonus track to an already short album. Colin Blunstone at the time had given up on music, before being convinced back under the false name, “Neil McArthur”. This led to four singles being released before he broke from the single’s producer and was picked up by former bandmates, Rod Argent and Chris White, to do an album. While the first Argent album was recorded in 1969 and released in early 1970, the first Blunstone album, One Year, was recorded in 1970 and 1971 and released in late 1971. Thus, anything recorded from Blunstone leaving The Zombies in 1967 to late 1971 can be used here (other than material on his first album). I was afraid that the only available tracks would be the three singles, their b-sides, and the fourth single, which is an italian cover of “She’s Not There”. Fortunately, there’s a handful of other usable material. First, there’s two songs that were unreleased until Into The Afterlife in 2007; “Never My Love” and “Hung Upside Down”. The next find was a b-side to a single that would be on One Year. This totaled 27:55 in runtime. This was to be the length of the album before discovering “Unhappy Girl”. That song was a demo recorded by Rod Argent and is included on my previous Zombies-related fan album. It was rerecorded with Colin, but unused. That pushes this album a little over thirty minutes, which I prefer greatly.

The ordering of these tracks is similar to their order on Into The Afterlife. There were some changes where it seemed appropriate. “Hung Upside Down” was listened to near the beginning, but it’s easily the best album closer here. It was annoying that this album falls into the trope of pop singers not writing their own songs. This album mostly conforms, though there’s one written by Colin. His solo albums feature more of his writing. The cover was a foreign single release that I liked and altered. The title of the album seemed appropriate. Overall, this album isn’t as strong as the previous fan albums. A lot of the songs are typical tunes about a girl. “She’s Not There” does a lot to differentiate itself from the original and the songs about a girl formula and is in turn pretty good. Its b-side “World Of Glass” is another solid one. There’s some gems here and some okays.

If and when I want to return to The Zombies, there are ideas I had. There are various tracks featuring a member or two that are around here or there. A stray single or demo, though not many to my knowledge. There could perhaps be one Rod and Colin album per decade, starting with the 70’s. There’s only a few songs sung by Chris White that I’ve found so far. There could be fan albums that take everything he’s written or produced and then make albums out of that. There is an ongoing series of official albums that focus on little things he’s been involved with. It’s an archivist’s dream as it’s getting everything in one place. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I hope someone takes Colin and Rod material from their 70’s to present careers and makes some box sets, basically including anything you could possibly think of that they did. Seeing as they’re touring and releasing albums as The Zombies, despite being the only two original members, one could maybe take their solo stuff, pair it together, and make “Zombies” albums. I considered taking material from my fan album for a first Rod album and material here and making two collaborative albums instead of two solo ones. The material doesn’t seem to work together. They went in different directions. If I want to be a crazy enough fan, I could take projects where the two members without solo careers were present as basically session men and make an album or two off that, but it would be far removed from The Zombies. I wish the band had stayed together and all five could be represented and heard with the powerful backing band that is The Zombies. Them going solo threw up a lot of question marks.

I hope all The Zombies fans feel things are easier to experience and consume now. This is a passion of mine and if one person likes what I do, I’ll feel honored. I like suggestions on what artist to cover next, so if you know of one you’d like me to look at, feel free to suggest ‘em!

COLIN BLUNSTONE – IS NEIL MCARTHUR

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “She’s Not There” (Rod Argent)
2. “Don’t Try To Explain” (Billy Vera)
3. “Unhappy Girl” (Rod Argent, Chris White)
4. “I Hope I Didn’t Say Too Much Last Night” (Colin Blunstone)
5. “Twelve Twenty Nine” (Peter Lee Stirling, Chris Sedgewick)

SIDE B

1. “World Of Glass” (Mike Hurst)
2. “Never My Love” (Don Addrisi, Dick Addrisi)
3. “It’s Not Easy” (Barry Mano, Cynthia Weil)
4. “Without Her” (Harry Nilsson)
5. “Hung Upside Down” (Stephen Stills)

BONUS TRACKS

1. “Ma Non E Giusto (She’s Not There in Italian)”
   

PERSONNEL

• Colin Blunstone – lead vocals (tracks 1-10)
• Mike Hurst – acoustic guitar, backing vocals (tracks 1, 6)
• Jim Sullivan – lead guitar (tracks 1, 6)
• John Paul Jones – maybe on bass (tracks 1, 6)
• Andy White or Clem Cattini – drums (tracks 1, 6)
• Harry Stoneham – organ (tracks 2, 9)
• Eric Ford – probably acoustic guitar (tracks 2, 9)
• Ronny Verrell – drums (tracks 5, 8)
• Madeline Bell – backing vocals (tracks 7, 10)
• There’s more, but this is what I could find

LINKS

Is Neil McArthur (1971) – Archive.org (with bonus track)

The Zombies albums:

Begin Here (1965) – Archive.org (with bonus tracks), YouTube, Spotify

Have Returned (1965) – Archive.org (with bonus tracks)

On The Run (1966) – Archive.org (with bonus tracks)

Lighting Up The Saturday Club (1966) – Archive.org (with bonus tracks)

Sunrise (1967) – Archive.org (with bonus tracks)

White & Dandy (1967) – Archive.org (with bonus tracks)

‘Round The World (1968) – Archive.org (with bonus tracks)

Odessey and Oracle (1968) – Archive.org (with the most bonus tracks), YouTube, Spotify

The first few solo albums:

Floral Street (1969) – Archive.org (with bonus tracks)

Argent (1970) – YouTube, Spotify, Archive.org

One Year (1971) – YouTube, Spotify

Rod Argent – Floral Street (1969) Album Edit (Take 2) – aka My take on the “R.I.P.” material

For those not in the know, fan albums are the attempts of me and many others to take songs and put them on an album, typically they’re made to improve upon something, such as an existing album or to take non-album tracks and put them on an album.

We’re almost at the end of our trip through Zombie lane. Here’s one of the two post-Zombies efforts I’d like to cover. This one’s for Rod Argent. My knowledge of this material was initially more limited, simply that six of these songs were on a “lost” Zombies album called R.I.P., which is no longer lost as of the 90’s. My hope was that the classic line-up was present on every track. The Wikipedia page credits a “Jim Rodford” on bass and “Rick Birkett” on guitar in addition to the original bass and guitar player. Hopefully they were barely involved, so as to have as much classic Zombies as possible. The truth wasn’t what I was hoping for. Six of the songs on R.I.P. were recorded after the band broke up with Birkett, Rodford, two classic members playing; Hugh Grundy and Argent, and another classic member producing and possibly adding backing vocals, Chris White, so basically two and a half original members. The other six songs were classic line-up songs from as early as 1964 with overdubs. Upon listening to the album, my opinion was mostly in agreement with most people’s, the songs aren’t bad, but the different styles and line-ups flow poorly together and the early songs didn’t need the overdubs. The no-overdub versions were on other Zombies fan albums and the overdub versions were bonus features on those albums. Fanedits of R.I.P. usually maintain that title, the name, “The Zombies”, and try to incorporate Colin Blunstone, the original band’s lead singer.

1. Albums That Never Were’s version has some classic songs and Colin Blunstone solo songs
2. FuzzDandy’s version features relatively few R.I.P. songs and has many solo-era songs for Argent and Blunstone
3. Albums That Should Exist’s version features Colin songs when he went by Neil McArthur

It seemed unnecessary to take these half-Zombies songs and try to force them to be Zombies songs, so here I only allowed material by Rod Argent from 1967-1969, as sessions for the first album by Rod’s next band, Argent, were in 1969. Sadly, this was not very fruitful. The only songs that could be found are the six R.I.P. songs and four songs from the Into The Afterlife compilation. Interestingly, the line-up on the ten songs is the same with the possible exception of Rick Birkett on two tracks. More songs were badly wanted as these ten total the painfully short 27 minutes. It would’ve been nice to have some heft. I was not afraid of Rod songs without the other members, but there didn’t appear to be any. Hopefully there’ll be another comprehensive box set that covers his solo era. It’s not hard to think that Argent would record some demos that could be used that are now obscure. Any potential songs might only exist in a closet or really obscure bootlegs that another box set could unearth. I considered using a few other weird choices, such as the song “Telescope” sung by Chris White in addition to the Rod-sung version. The two were too similar. Chris White also produced a song in 1968 for a group called “Free Ferry”. Sadly, the only person involved that was related to this line-up is Chris, so its inclusion wouldn’t make sense. Those two Chris songs are included as bonus tracks.

Despite the shortness of these songs, they are pretty good. It would’ve been nice to see them released in 1969, preferably with four other songs so it’d have a standard album’s length. The actual first Argent album is about 40 minutes long. The name of this album, Floral Street, is one of the track’s title shortened. The original title in mind was “The Morning”, which I don’t really like. The picture is a poster for a modern Zombies show cropped. I made a few versions of it which I’ll include as bonuses. Finally, I was considering crediting this album to “Argent”, but seeing as two of the members hadn’t joined yet, it seemed inaccurate, so this will be credited to Rod Argent. The word “Rod” on the cover is small, so one could ignore it if they’d like. I wanted to take individual pictures of the band, put them on the same photo and make that the cover, but the potential pictures weren’t that good. The last planned fan album featuring Zombies is a Colin Blunstone one, so stay tuned!

I like suggestions on what artist to cover next, so if you know of one you’d like me to look at, feel free to suggest ‘em!

ROD ARGENT – FLORAL STREET

SIDE A

1. “She Loves The Way They Love Her” (Rod Argent, Chris White)
2. “Imagine The Swan” (Rod Argent, Chris White)
3. “Smokey Day” (Rod Argent, Chris White)
4. “Girl, Help Me” (Rod Argent, Chris White)
5. “Conversation Off Floral Street” (Rod Argent, Chris White)

SIDE B

1. “Telescope” (Rod Argent, Chris White)
2. “Unhappy Girl” (Rod Argent, Chris White)
3. “It Never Fails To Please Me” (Rod Argent, Chris White)
4. “To Julia (For When She Smiles)” (Rod Argent, Chris White)
5. “I Could Spend The Day” (Rod Argent, Chris White)

BONUS TRACKS

1. “She Loves The Way They Love Her (Demo)”
2. “She Loves The Way They Love Her (No Live Overdubs)”
3. “Telescope (Mr Galileo) (Chris White Lead Vocal)”
4. “I Could Spend The Day (Demo)”
5. “Magic Carpet Ride (Chris White Produced Track From 1968)”

PERSONNEL

• Rod Argent – keyboard (tracks 1-10), lead vocals (tracks 1-10), production (tracks 1-10)
• Hugh Grundy – drums (tracks 1-10)
• Jim Rodford – bass (tracks 1-10), backing vocals
• Rick Birkett – lead guitar (tracks 1-5, 7, 9-10, possibly 8), rhythm guitar (possibly 6, possibly 8)
• Chris White – production (tracks 1-10), backing vocals
• Mac MacLeod – lead guitar (track 6, possibly 8)

Floral Street (1969) – Archive.org

And for the next Rod album…

Argent (1970) – YouTube, Spotify, Archive.org

Syd Barrett – Two Of A Kind (1970) Album Edit (Take 1)

We’re back for the first Syd Barrett fan solo album. In my chronology, this is the second Syd solo effort, with the first being the released, The Madcap Laughs. This album hits very hard. The songs have a personal and emotional nature rarely rivaled even slightly by other musicians. Two Of A Kind is currently the best fan album of mine, though the next Syd Barrett one could possibly beat that. The “best fan album of mine” was previously declared by another Syd album, Projection. This one’s impassioned lyrics and weighty guitar playing give it an edge. This is also the first fan album of mine where the order I listened to the songs in was perfect, though “Lanky Part 1” was listened to partially first, then I decided to listen to it later on. My only complaint is the shortness of this album and the next Syd fan album. There wasn’t enough material for 40 minutes, instead both were about 30 minutes. It would’ve been nice to have a little more, but what we get is excellent material that is mostly better than The Madcap Laughs. It might be novel to listen to these two efforts as one 60 minute album.

The cover for this fan album was found on Getty Images. It seems to be a good representation of Syd’s degrading mental state, though the picture is from 1967, instead of 1970. The title is the name of the last song here. It felt appropriate. In between this fan album and the next one is Syd’s last officially released album, Barrett.

SYD BARRETT – TWO OF A KIND

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Swan Lee” (Syd Barrett)
2. “Birdie Hop” (Syd Barrett)
3. “Religious Experience” (Kevin Ayers)
4. “Lanky Part 1” (Syd Barrett)

SIDE B

1. “Just Before You Disappear (Octopus Part 2)” (Syd Barrett)
2. “Opel” (Syd Barrett)
3. “Milky Way” (Syd Barrett)
4. “Two Of A Kind” (Richard Wright)

BONUS TRACKS

1. “Swan Lee (OOPS Stereo)”
2. “Swan Lee (Backing Track)”
3. “Swan Lee (Melk Weg Version)”
4. “Swan Lee (Silas Lang) Take 1 (May 6th, 1968)”
5. “Swan Lee (Silas Lang) Take 1 (Backing Track May 6th, 1968)”
6. “Swan Lee Take 5 (Malcolm Jones Alt Mix June 8th, 1968)”
7. “eeL nawS (Malcolm Jones Fragment June 8th, 1968)”
8. “Swan Lee Take 5 (Backing Track June 20th, 1968)”
9. “Swan Lee Take 5 Excerpt (With Alt Vocals April 10th, 1969)”
10. “Birdie Hop (Melk Weg Version)”
11. “Birdie Hop Take 1 (Peter Jenner 1974 Mix June 5th, 1970)”
12. “Religious Experience Take 10 (OOPS Mix December 18th, 1969)”
13. “Opel (Melk Weg Version)”
14. “Opel Take 9 Chatter (April 11th, 1969)”
15. “Opel Take 9 (Peter Jenner 1974 Mix April 11th, 1969)”
16. “Milky Way (Melk Weg Version)”
17. “Milky Way Take 5 (Peter Jenner 1974 Mix June 7th, 1970)”
18. “Two Of A Kind (Melk Weg Version)”
19. “Vegetable Man (May 1968 Reel Mix)”

PERSONNEL

• Syd Barrett – guitar (tracks 1-8), lead vocals (tracks 1-2, 5-8), producer (not track 3, possibly not producer on more)
• Kevin Ayers – guitar (track 3), lead vocals (track 3)
• David Sinclair – organ (track 3)
• Richard Sinclair – bass (track 3)
• Richard Coughlan – drums (track 3)
• The Ladybirds – backing vocals (track 3)
• Peter Jenner – producer
• Malcolm Jones – producer

Two Of A Kind (1970) – Archive.org, YouTube

Barrett (1970) – Spotify, YouTube

The Zombies – ‘Round The World (1968) Album Edit (Take 2)

We’re back for the final fan album featuring the Zombies band. This is a live album, featuring the last two existing Zombies music recordings ever! There are later performances that could be hiding somewhere, but “This Old Heart of Mine” and “Friends Of Mine” are the last two known about. One of the bonus tracks is an interview that is the last recording ever. Sadly, this effort is probably the least-strong album of the eight Zombies albums. The recordings are often lower quality, despite other live recordings on other albums sounding good. The earliest recordings here go back to 1965, so that might give the impression of this holding a lot of different intentions and tones. Still, it’s a serviceable collection of songs. Several tracks contained an announcer introducing the band. I tried to place them in the most sensible order, but fewer announcements would’ve been preferred. The highlight of the album is “Friends Of Mine”, which is the only Odessey and Oracle song to have a surviving recording of a 60’s live performance. ‘Round The World seemed like an appropriate title and the picture seemed cool to me. For those listening in order, the next album to listen to is Odessey and Oracle and then the first Argent and Blunstone solo albums, to be fan-albumed by me.

THE ZOMBIES – ‘ROUND THE WORLD

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “This Old Heart Of Mine (David Symonds Show)” (Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland)
2. “Summertime (Shindig)” (Du Bose Heyward, Dorothy Heyward*, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin)
3. “Goin’ Out Of My Head (Saturday Club)” (Bobby Weinstein, Teddy Randazzo)
4. “I Love You (Dents de Lait, Dents de Loup)” (Chris White)
5. “She’s Not There” (Rod Argent)
6. “Will You Love Me Tomorrow (The Beat Show)” (Gerry Goffin, Carole King)

SIDE B

1. “Just A Little Bit (The Beat Show)” (Rosco Gordon)
2. “You Must Believe Me” (Curtis Mayfield)
3. “It’s Alright With Me (Shindig)” (Rod Argent)
4. “Gotta Get A Hold Of Myself (Saturday Club)” (Angela Riela, Clint Ballard Jr.)
5. “Friends Of Mine (David Symonds Show)” (Chris White)
6. “Tell Her No (1965)” (Rod Argent)

BONUS TRACKS

1. “Tell Her No (Shindig; 1965)”
2. “Gotta Get A Hold Of Myself (1966)”
3. “This Old Heart Of Mine (Dents de Lait, Dents de Loup; 1967,01,11)”
4. “Interview – Colin Talks About the Continent (1966)”
5. “Kenney Everett Interview and Jingle Medley (1968)”

PERSONNEL

• Colin Blunstone – lead vocals
• Rod Argent – keyboards, backing vocals
• Paul Atkinson – guitar
• Chris White – bass, backing vocals
• Hugh Grundy – drums

‘Round The World (1968) – Archive.org

Odessey and Oracle (1968) – Archive.org (with Extensive Bonus Tracks), YouTube, Spotify

Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – Early Morning Sunshine (1968) Album Edit (Take 1)

We’re back for the final Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd fan album. All future Syd albums will lack Pink Floyd, though some recordings do feature David Gilmour and Richard Wright. This is a tad amusing as David replaced Syd and is completely absent from the one officially released Syd & Floyd album and four fan ones except for one track present here. This album was one I was looking forward to. It was the first one to feature Syd’s poor mental health and thus the songwriting would be more intense and personal. That is partially delivered. Side a of this album doesn’t feature any Syd lead vocals or lyrics. Only one side a cut certainly features Syd’s songwriting and another may, both are instrumentals. Side b delivers much more. Everything is solely written by Syd except for a co-credit on one and no credit on a 45-second song.

My listening order for this album was basically perfect. The flow was very good, with side a serving as a warm up with more complex material than on some of the earlier stuff. Side b is a Syd fest which gives us a good look into his mind through beautifully written songs. The only difference between this tracklist and my listening order was that “Sunshine” was listened to with the previous fan album and a track from that album, “Tomorrow’s World”, was listened to here at the start. “Sunshine” fits better here. “Sunshine” is also referred to as “Experiment”. “Sunshine” being the name of this very cool track was apparently not conceptualized by the band, probably by a bootlegger. The title is fitting as this album shines light on the band.

There’s a poetic nature to the title of this album. It’s based on the names of two songs here combined. The album cover is from the “Jugband Blues” music video. It goes well with the title. Both the cover and title were picked independently of each other and it was only later that I realized how well they suited each other. There’s some great songs and concepts here, resulting in a very solid album that should’ve been released in 1968. I’d say it’s the third best album of the five Syd Barrett-Floyd albums. From best to least; The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Projection, Early Morning Sunshine, The King Bees, and Lights. It was a lot of fun discovering these oddities. Due to the release of the compilation album, The Early Years 1965–1972, almost all the songs were in high quality. Very few were low quality bootlegs.

It would’ve been nice to have more Syd Barrett with Pink Floyd as they obviously suited each other, but five albums ain’t too bad! The Syd journey continues with his solo career. The next album on the roster was the officially released, The Madcap Laughs. The first fan-solo album will follow it.

SYD BARRETT & PINK FLOYD – EARLY MORNING SUNSHINE

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Sunshine” (probably Syd Barrett)
2. “Paintbox” (Richard Wright)
3. “Remember A Day” (Richard Wright)
4. “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” (Roger Waters)
5. “In The Beechwoods” (Syd Barrett)

SIDE B

1. “Early Morning Henry” (William “Billy” Butler)
2. “Apples And Oranges” (Syd Barrett)
3. “One In A Million” (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters)
4. “Vegetable Man” (Syd Barrett)
5. “Scream Thy Last Scream” (Syd Barrett)
6. “Jugband Blues” (Syd Barrett)

BONUS TRACKS

1. “Silas Lang (With Pink Floyd)”
2. “Sunshine Backwards”
3. “Paintbox (Vidmix February 18th, 1968)”
4. “Paintbox (stereo November 12th, 1967)”
5. “Remember A Day (promo edit, mono)”
6. “Remember A Day (mono October 12th, 1967)”
7. “Remember A Day (stereo)”
8. “Set The Controls (Vidmix February 18th, 1968)”
9. “Set The Controls (mono August 8th, 1967)”
10. “Set The Controls (stereo)”
11. “Set The Controls (Syd’s part)”
12. “In The Beechwoods (June 29th, 1967)”
13. “In The Beechwoods (October 19th, 1967)”
14. “Apples And Oranges (stereo)”
15. “Apples And Oranges (stereo ‘Masters of Rock’ LP)”
16. “Vegetable Man (1967 instrumental)”
17. “Vegetable Man (mono October 11th, 1967)”
18. “Vegetable Man (stereo)”
19. “Vegetable Man (Peter Jenner 1974 mix)”
20. “Vegetable Man (Malcolm Jones 1987 mix)”
21. “Scream Thy Last Scream (Alternate version)”
22. “Scream Thy Last Scream (stereo)”
23. “Scream Thy Last Scream (16rpm)”
24. “Scream Thy Last Scream (Peter Jenner 1974 mix)”
25. “Scream Thy Last Scream (Malcolm Jones 1987 mix)”
26. “Jugband Blues (mono October 24th, 1967)”
27. “Jugband Blues (2010 Remix)”

PERSONNEL

• Syd Barrett – guitar (tracks 1-11), lead vocals (tracks 7-9, 11), backing vocals (tracks 2-3, 10), (possibly has backing vocals on “Early Morning Henry” and lead vocals on “Scream Thy Last Scream” in place of Mason)
• Roger Waters – bass guitar (tracks 1-11), lead vocals (track 4), backing vocals (tracks 2, 7, 9), gong (track 4), (possibly has lead vocals on “One In A Million” instead of Barrett)
• Richard Wright – keyboard (tracks 1-11), lead vocals (tracks 2-3, 7), backing vocals (tracks 7, 9), vibraphone (track 4), celesta (track 4)
• Nick Mason – drums (tracks 1-2, 4-11), lead vocals (track 10), tambourine (track 7), backing vocals (track 9)
• William “Billy” Butler – lead vocals (track 6)
• Norman Smith – drums, backing vocals (track 3)
• David Gilmour – guitar (track 4)
• The Salvation Army band (track 11)

Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd

The King Bees (1967) – Archive.org, YouTube

Projection (1967) – Archive.org

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) – YouTube, Spotify

Lights (1968) – Archive.org, YouTube

Early Morning Sunshine (1968) – Archive.org, YouTube

Solo-Syd Barrett

The Madcap Laughs (1970) – Spotify, YouTube

Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – Lights (1968) Album Edit (Take 1)

A common question over the Syd Barrett section of the Pink Floyd fandom is what would the follow-up to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn look like with Syd at the helm? Songs commonly brought up are ones recorded during the sessions of the band’s second album, A Saucerful of Secrets. The recordings on this fan album are roughly during the early end of the Saucerful sessions and isn’t really considered as a follow-up. The reason why is because these tunes are just too weird. It’s a cacophony of psychedelic sounds and avant-garde music with no vocals. If you were told these songs were recorded without Syd Barrett and instead with his replacement, David Gilmour, you’d believe it. Many songs on Piper are miles away from David’s style. That being said, this stuff is really good. Syd’s style can still be seen, though not as brightly as on some other recordings.

In a sense, this album only has three songs. The first is one of the last Syd Floyd songs, but it fits so well here that I had to include it on this album and give this one the “release date” of 1968, so the head canon is that this was released in early 1968. It’s called, “No Title”, listed here as “Tomorrow’s World”. It’s an instrumental for a show also called, “Tomorrow’s World”. It has a cool vibe and gets us into the world of this weird music. There’s an announcer who discusses the band and things related to them as their music plays. It fits with this album very well. It originally was going to start the following album, but this album’s opener and that one’s opener fit well enough in the other spot to constitute a switch. The next song is known as, “John Latham”. It’s over thirty minutes long and basically is this album. Its official release is divided up into ninths, which is a tad odd, but fair enough. Finally, there’s “Reaction In G”. It was made as a reaction to those who criticized the band for their long instrumentals. It makes sense here being the end of a forty-minute album of instrumental music. It ends with some audience clapping. The two bonus tracks are a shortened version of John Latham and a random thing found on a bootleg that seemed appropriate.

Lights is a little lacking as it’s missing a point, but it is a cool, trippy experience. It’s also notable for being the last “innocent Syd” album. The next one will show his deteriorating mental health, which will only get worse. “Lights” was apparently an alternate title for “No Title”, so I used it for this album’s title. The picture was just a cool looking picture.

SYD BARRETT & PINK FLOYD – LIGHTS

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Tomorrow’s World” (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason)
2. “John Latham Part 1” (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason)
3. “John Latham Part 2” (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason)
4. “John Latham Part 3” (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason)
5. “John Latham Part 4” (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason)

SIDE B

1. “John Latham Part 5” (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason)
2. “John Latham Part 6” (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason)
3. “John Latham Part 7” (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason)
4. “John Latham Part 8” (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason)
5. “John Latham Part 9” (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason)
6. “Reaction In G” (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason)

BONUS TRACKS

1. “John Latham 12-Minute Edit”
2. “Scream coda (“Dark Side Of The Moo” boot, dubious authenticity)”

PERSONNEL

• Syd Barrett – guitar
• Roger Waters – bass guitar
• Richard Wright – keyboard
• Nick Mason – drums

Lights (1968) – Archive.org, YouTube