My Attempt To Be As Accurate As Possible For A Stars Fan Album Series (& Alt History Story)

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.

Various people, including myself, that have tried to resurrect Syd Barrett’s lost band for at least an album have had to make severe liberties. While I cannot avoid those, this project attempts to be as accurate as possible. My currently unfinished other project more so embraces how absurd this “band” could become due to the nature of the recordings we have.

I was attracted to a certain story on alternatehistory.com by someone named Massacote. Seeing as Barrett had a proper output that is also distinct from Pink Floyd from 1968-1972, this project moves the band back from forming in 1972 to 1969 and ultimately dissolving in 1972. My idea was, what would the output look like if the group still formed in 1972? Thus, any material released by these members before 1972 will not be included, as it would’ve been already released mainly as solo albums. At the same time, I wanted these albums to coexist with Massacote’s project, so this could basically represent a reunion. Note: Massacote’s project does use material from the early solo albums. You can essentially pick which timeline you want this to follow from.

Most of the tracks I’m covering are essentially one person’s solo work. Still, I think there’s enough cohesion to make them interesting listens. Also, these tracks at least at the time were unloved, so you could imagine that if the band was working together at this time, they might have been pleased to have some place to gather all these little oddities. This creates the issue that it would’ve taken until 1977 to get a studio album out by them considering how little there is to work with. It is nice that a few of the cuts here do feature collaboration between Stars members, so it’s not as solo-y as it could be.

The real band’s bassist, Jack Monck, had such little presence in available recordings that Massacote replaced him with Steve Took. The purist in me feels weird about this, especially because the actual Took seemed to basically never play bass. My resolve is to retcon the story. Monck may have left before the group’s first album, but he soon rejoined as just a helper. We can also say there are various bassists on the albums. Took would stay on to service other roles. While Took was never a Star in real life, he was friends with and worked with the members, so it’s not hard to believe he would’ve been involved, especially as we’re really scraping together a presence for Syd Barrett. Maybe he’d be used in lieu of more prominent Syd? The fourth and final album in the Massacote series actually features Monck a healthy amount, so we can say before that fourth album he once again was an official member. With the three albums I did, he is still official. There are some other minor retcons.

Lastly, while the first three Massacote albums all use recordings that were on solo albums or are otherwise unusable, the fourth, Live Extracts: Six Hour Technicolor Dream, doesn’t overlap and its material was recorded and given an imagined release in 1972. Thus, we can say that it is the first album in the universe where the band started in 1972.

Here is a link to Massacote’s telling: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/rock-albums-from-alternate-timelines.369850/page-14

Without further ado:

After the Live Extracts project, everyone was excited to keep going other than Syd Barrett, who seemed tired and demoralized, especially after hearing bad reviews. Despite how uncommon they were, they caused him to be more reclusive. Long-term members Steve Took, Twink, and Jack Monck were unwilling to continue without him. Newer singer Bruce Paine was more excited to do more, especially another live album. He was voted out. Barrett was extremely awkward in the studio, but more comfortable in either informal jam sessions or live. Thus, Paine got his way. The material was not as fruitful as anyone hoped, as Barrett was unreliable. With the help of outtakes, the album was completed.

“I’m starting to understand why [Pink] Floyd fired him.” – Bruce Paine, 1972

STARS – L.A TO LONDON BOOGIE

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Sea Cruise” (Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge 1972)
2. “Baby Lemonade” (Sounds of the Seventies)
3. “L.A To London Boogie” (Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge 1972)
4. “Ice” (Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge 1972)
5. “Dominoes” (Sounds of the Seventies)
6. “Nadine” (Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge 1972)

SIDE B

1. “The Snake” (Pink Fairies John Peel Session)
2. “Drinkin’ That Wine” (Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge 1972)
3. “Sweet Little Angel” (Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge 1972)
4. “Love Song” (Sounds of the Seventies)

L.A to London Boogie was released to mixed reviews. This caused Barrett to become somewhat nervous and upset that he quit the band and wouldn’t come back. Seeing as the three remaining original members were unwilling to continue without Barrett, Paine left for other groups. Twink and Took continued to work on ideas and record tracks, either for a hopeful Barrett reunion or their own duo album; they weren’t satisfied and got caught up in other bands. Every now and then, they would give another shot at things, sometimes with Monck.

In 1974, primarily after the recent hits by Pink Floyd and T. Rex, interest renewed in those bands and its members. Various artists cited Stars as an influence. Thus, Polydor sought to get the band back together to make more records. Twink and Took agreed if they could get Barrett and Monck agreed on that condition and that he could get some of his songs included, as he failed to get them out as a solo artist. After checking in on Barrett, the members agreed they should wait a little longer. When approached in late 1965, Barrett seemed reluctant, but was a little more interested after a jam session with the other members. Still, Barrett was unwilling to commit to the degree everyone hoped for. This included not writing new songs, claiming he hadn’t done so in many years.

Barrett recorded guitar for the others, often separately from them, but he did provide unfinished recordings of him with Pink Floyd, which were finished by the other Stars often without him. For this album and the next, Barrett more enthusiastically contributed his paintings to be album covers. Despite how many recordings were started years prior, Flophouse Blues was praised for how cohesive it is. Still, it was considered behind the times, despite about half the album having been written shortly before production. The then current members of Pink Floyd demanded to not be credited, as they weren’t satisfied with their original contributions. Stars agreed. It is often a point of debate which elements were by Floyd and which were redone by Stars.

STARS – FLOPHOUSE BLUES

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Flophouse Blues (In The Mountain Grill)” (Steve Took – Crazy Diamond)
2. “I Wanna Be Free” (The Rings)
3. “Four Letter Words” (Jack Monck – Inside The Whale)
4. “Automobile” (The Rings)
5. “Butterfly” (Pink Floyd)
6. “Leaden Day” (Jack Monck – Inside The Whale)

SIDE B

1. “Teenage Rebel” (The Rings Rehearsal Tapes)
2. “Syd’s Wine” (Steve Took – Crazy Diamond)
3. “Double O Bo” (Pink Floyd)
4. “I Wanna Get High” (The Rings Rehearsal Tapes)
5. “Lanky (Part One)” (Syd Barrett – Opel)
6. “Flophouse Blues (Reprise)” (Steve Took – Crazy Diamond)

For their next record, the band attempted to be more current, embracing more punk, while not abandoning their roots. Ironically, the lead track was “Do It ‘77”, though the album ultimately wasn’t released until 1978. While the band wanted to keep going, Barrett was so disinterested that it seemed wiser to quit while they were ahead, while still first finishing the album. Some stray guitar tracks performed by Barrett were found or recorded anew. While those demos were criticized by many, with one person calling it “Junk”, they were liked by Stars. They overdubbed it and thought it made for the perfect final chapter of the group.

STARS – VEGETABLE MEN

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Do It ‘77” (Twink And The Fairies)
2. “Lucky Charm” (Steve Took – Crazy Diamond)
3. “Back On The Train” (1st Version) (Jack Monck – Inside The Whale)
4. “Enter The Diamonds” (Twink And The Fairies)
5. “Vegetable Man” (2010 Mix) (Pink Floyd)
6. “Blues For Ray” (1st Version) (Jack Monck – Inside The Whale)
7. “Psychedelic Punkeroo” (Twink And The Fairies)

SIDE B

1. “Molecular Lucky Charm” (Steve Took – Crazy Diamond)
2. “Junk” (Syd Barrett 1974 recordings by Richard Hall)

Though Vegetable Men received mixed reviews and less than stellar commercial success, it and the band’s other albums gained massive cult followings and were considered underappreciated classics. The group spoke highly of their time, especially being pleased with it being a wakeup call they should work to get Barrett some help.

“We loved Syd. He was the soul of the band and we didn’t want to lose that. Floyd’s song about him hit us like a ton of bricks and we just knew we had to be there for him.” – Twink, 2005

LINKS

1. Lean Out Your Window (1970) – YouTube
2. Beautiful Deceiver (1971) – YouTube
3. Uncle Harry’s Last Freak Out (1972) – YouTube

Below Is All That Is Canon To The Started In 1972 Timeline

1. Live Extracts: Six Hour Technicolor Dream (1972) – YouTube
2. L.A to London Boogie (1973) – YouTube
3. Flophouse Blues (1977) – YouTube
4. Vegetable Men (1978) – YouTube

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!

Bo Diddley (1955-1960) – Ten Fan Albums

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.

In my musical journey, I’ve caught many a-classic song. I’ve heard covers of tracks like “I’m A Man” and others by the Liverpool crowd. I was amused by how often the lyrics were self-congratulatory about its songwriter, Bo Diddley. Possibly the first time I ever heard the man himself was his cut, “Pills”, which instantly became one of my all time favorite songs. Amusingly, this post covers his music right before “Pills”. Ending in 1960 seemed especially clean and easy on my brain. It’s also nice that everything here is on Spotify. While the first 1961 album is, as well, afterwards things become much more spotty.

Some might say this is his “golden era”. However, some of the stuff here is a little too predictable, with Bo’s sexual prowess and playing style being worn a little too thin. Melodies are even reused a bit. Still, some of the music here is fantastic. The first I would consider a 10/10, being a better version of the actual debut. The one titled Bo Diddley’s Travelin’ West is the only one here I don’t really like. The rest bring a more consistent package. Roughly, each album here is weaker than the one before it. The goal here is to order things logically, with no repeats or missed tracks. The actual albums are the definition of a mess. Here, songs are sorted with other tracks recorded at the same time.

When I was reading the blog, Albums Back from the Dead, I thought it was fun that they did this same idea with a lot of similar artists to Bo Diddley, but not the man himself. Many of these guys got really weird album sequencing. Something the blog poster did was utilize the official album names and covers when possible. Thus, I’ve done the same thing. When that’s not possible, I’ve named the albums off a song, usually one that references Diddley by name.

For those interested, each album covers songs from the following time frame: The 1st is entirely 1955, the second is 1955-1957, the third 1957-1958, the fourth 1958-1959, the fifth and sixth are 1959, and the last four are all 1960. I’m not sure why he was so productive. Also, there’s a live recording I could not find from 1959. Thus, if we wanted we could add that in and say those two years yielded eight album releases. Still, I think that because of some of the lesser stuff here and there, some could’ve been cut. Most of these tracks are sourced from the three volume series of early tracks by Hip-O Select. Some of this stuff might be demos but pretty much everything sounds like a professional work, even if I don’t like it. I’ve also discovered many wonderful songs, some not as well known. One gem is the beautiful ballad, “Our Love Will Never Go”. Still, the famous first two songs from the first album here and the official first album might be the two finest tracks of Bo’s career, perfectly epitomizing his vibe.

Some of these covers I made, while others are official works or I found them online.

TRACKLIST & LINKS

Bo Diddley (1955) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Bo Diddley”
2. “I’m A Man”
3. “Little Girl”
4. “You Don’t Love Me (You Don’t Care)”
5. “Diddley Daddy”

SIDE B

1. “She’s Fine, She’s Mine”
2. “Pretty Thing”
3. “Heart-O-Matic Love”
4. “Bring It To Jerome”
5. “Spanish Guitar”

Hey! Bo Diddley (1957) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Dancing Girl”
2. “Diddy Wah Diddy”
3. “I’m Looking For A Woman”
4. “I’m Bad”
5. “Love Is Strange”

SIDE B

1. “Who Do You Love”
2. “Cops And Robbers”
3. “Down Home Special”
4. “Hey! Bo Diddley”
5. “Mona”

Go Bo Diddley (1958) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Say Boss Man”
2. “Before You Accuse Me”
3. “Say Man”
4. “Hush Your Mouth”
5. “Bo’s Guitar”

SIDE B

1. “Dearest Darling”
2. “The Clock Strikes Twelve”
3. “Willie And Lillie”
4. “Bo Meets The Monster”
5. “Our Love Will Never Go”

Crackin’ Up (1959) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “The Great Grandfather”
2. “Crackin’ Up”
3. “Don’t Let It Go”
4. “I’m Sorry”
5. “Oh Yea”
6. “Blues, Blues”

SIDE B

1. “Mama Mia”
2. “Bucket” (Take 5)
3. “What Do You Know About Love”
4. “Come On Baby” (Take 4)
5. “Lazy Woman” (As released on Bo Diddley & Company)

Have Guitar Will Travel (1959) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Nursery Rhyme”
2. “Mumblin’ Guitar”
3. “James’ Instrumental”
4. “Silly Willy”
5. “I Love You So” aka “I Love You” aka “The Beat”

SIDE B

1. “The Story Of Bo Diddley” aka “My Story”
2. “She’s Alright”
3. “Darling Tell Me”
4. “Gonna Tell It Like It Is”
5. “Say Man, Back Again”

Run Diddley Daddy (1959) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Road Runner”
2. “Jungle”
3. “Run Diddley Daddy” (Alternate Take)
4. “Unknown Title” (Issued As Run Diddley Daddy)
5. “Spend My Life With You”
6. “Love You Baby”

SIDE B

1. “Diddling” aka “Tash”
2. “Cadillac”
3. “Walking” (Alternate Take 2)
4. “Limbo” (Single Version)
5. “To Each His Own”

Bo Diddley in the Spotlight (1960) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Look At My Baby”
2. “Willie Fell In Love” (Version 1)
3. “Better Watch Yourself”
4. “You Know I Love You So”
5. “Let Me In”

SIDE B

1. “Prisoner Of Love” (Slow Version)
2. “Deed And Deed I Do”
3. “My White Horse” (Take 4)
4. “Live My Life”
5. “Scuttle Bug”
6. “Signifying Blues”

Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger (1960) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Gun Slinger”
2. “Ride On Josephine”
3. “Doing The Craw-Daddy”
4. “Somewhere”
5. “Cheyenne”
6. “Sixteen Tons”

SIDE B

1. “Working Man”
2. “Do What I Say”
3. “Googlia Moo”
4. “Craw-Dad”
5. “Whoa, Mule” aka “Shine”
6. “No More Lovin’”

Bo Diddley’s Travelin’ West (1960) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Can You Shimmy?”
2. “I’m Hungry”
3. “Oh Yeah” aka “Oh Yes”
4. “Huckleberry Bush” aka “Hully Hully Gully”
5. “Come On Baby” aka “The Soup Maker”
6. “Walkin’ And Talkin’” (From the official in the Spotlight album)

SIDE B

1. “Travelin’ West” (From the official in the Spotlight album)
2. “Merengue” aka “Limbo”
3. “Say You Will”
4. “Hey, Hey” aka “What Are You Going To Do?” aka “Sick And Tired” (Fast Version)
5. “Hey Pretty Baby” (Fast Version)
6. “Love Me”

Bo Diddley is an Outlaw (1960) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Mess Around”
2. “Doodlin’”
3. “Bo Diddley Is An Outlaw” (Slow Version)
4. “Aloha”
5. “Funny Talk”
6. “Instrumental”

SIDE B

1. “Bring Them Back Alive” aka “Funny Talk”
2. “When The Saints Go Marching In”
3. “Shank”
4. “The Twister”
5. “All Together”
6. “Watusi Bounce”

The 1959 live recording is called Spring Weekend 1959 Live.

For those interested in Albums Back from the Dead, Chuck Berry I think is a decent starting place, especially because he did collab with Bo: https://albumsbackfromthedead.blogspot.com/2018/02/chuck-berry-discography-1956-59.html

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 1971-1974 Stray Tracks Review

Syd Barrett with Stars in 1972

February 16th, 1971 Show for Sounds of the Seventies

The spacious guitar and vocals are beautiful. The “pleases” sound pleading. An announcer says Syd was writing lots of new songs. That appears to be false, so it’s curious where he got that information from. “Love Song” doesn’t get a chance to really take off as this version is shortened for some reason.

“Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band (‘Cambridge’ – January 27th, 1972)”

It’s hard not to love an audience clapping for Syd as he goes on stage. Musically, all you get is a little noodling, probably not even by Syd. Still, this doesn’t hurt to have.

Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band ‎- Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge Show (Only the tracks with Syd) (January 27th. 1972)

Starting “Drinkin’ That Wine” with the singer saying it’s the sort of track you listen to while going to church and getting drunk is a pretty amusing way to start this, perfectly capturing its tone of a bluesy hippie band. “Number Nine” has a great instrumental section. The singer is very soulful, most notably on “Gotta Be A Reason”. Near the end of Reason, the guitar sounds similar to the playing on “Interstellar Overdrive”.

Steve Peregrin Took Tracks, “Molecular Lucky Charm” and “Syd’s Wine”

Syd’s presence is not confirmed. The sound quality is not great, especially for the vocals. The guitar playing and noises create a really solid atmosphere and seem like something Syd would come up with. The entrancing guitar is reminiscent of “Terrapin”. Syd used a lot of tap percussion, like bongos, which Wine has. I think it’s pretty likely Syd is on these. Regardless of the vaSydity, these are interesting psychedelic folk tracks that also feel like T. Rex for obvious reasons.

The 1974 guitar recordings

The 1974 recordings do feature Syd’s proficiency and unique style. While they are obviously incomplete, they do satisfy an itch for those willing to scratch the bottom of the Syd barrel. These prove that Syd still had guitar talent in 1974. These aren’t nearly as directionless as people say. You can detect some care in the playing. These would work as guitar lines of a full song. I wonder who the bassist is. “Boogie #2” has some cool psychedelic guitar playing in the beginning. “If You Go, Don’t Be Slow #1” has particularly warm sounds, though overall there’s sadly too little going on. Most of the tracks could benefit from more to make them last the time they do, but they’re still nice to listen to and not a bad way to spend twenty minutes.

“Boogie #2 (Fragment – Bernard White ‘94 Mix)”

This is too fragmented to get much out of. It’s certainly far less listenable than the original version of this song. The mix doesn’t even sound very different.

“Was That Okay”

This is just Syd saying he thinks something was okay. No music! Of course this is the best track of the lot!

The 1974 recordings with bass and drums added by Richard Hall

A fan version by a Richard Hall adds bass, drums, and minor effects, which brings this to another level, medleying many songs and amplifying the impact they need. Here you get the softer side of Syd’s playing, the jam side, the meaner side. If this album was finished and released at the time, with Syd then retiring, it might be considered a solid and appropriate send off, with him touching on his various eras, while still being extremely solid all the way through.

OVERVIEW

One of the more elusive Syd projects is Stars, a band with bassist Jack Monck and drummer John “Twink” Alder that was only around briefly in 1972. While some of their shows were recorded, none have surfaced. While I wouldn’t turn down any Syd content, these don’t interest me compared to most of his canon because they were playing songs Syd already recorded in studio with Pink Floyd or for his solo work. That is unless there were really some new songs or new sections for old songs. However, we kind of get some Stars material in the above recordings. While the 1971 stuff’s bassist is usually credited to David Gilmour, Monck has also sometimes been. It’s not impossible it really was Monck. The Took recordings probably have Twink on drums (It’s not for certain as Duncan Sanderson is also credited on drums on the compilation album which features them). The closest we get to Stars is the Boogie Band, which has a concert recording where Monck and Twink are on every track, and Syd is on some.

While these later recordings aren’t as approachable as earlier ones, they still are solid, especially in their guitar playing and offer a fascinating final musical chapter for this otherworldly person. For those interested in more artistic expression from Barrett can go to his painting and sculpting. Every bit of Syd is well worth at least a single listen/experience.

Pink Floyd 1971-1977 Stray Tracks Review

Pink Floyd 1973

Pink Floyd released the equivalent of one album a year in the years 1967, 1968, and 1970. They did the equivalent of three in 1969. They were managing similar amounts of material in the first three mentioned years as 1969, but just not releasing a lot of it, or at least not on their main albums. This changed in 1971. For starters, they started putting more time in developing what got on their albums and the albums became more acclaimed and culturally significant. Thus, you’d think that the strays would be at least very solid, especially considering how few there were. Note that a few times I had so little to say that I wrote on more than one track at once.

“Pink Blues” aka “Blues”

This is one of the more concentrated pieces, having very good interplaying. The power and energy causes “Blues” to continuously build momentum.

“Corrosion in the Pink Room”

Has some pleasant atmosphere, but is very unfocused. It features some of the band’s trademarks, creepy keyboard, stuttering cymbals designed to create a large backing, and Roger’s vocalizing. These tropes are a little too stale for the track’s good. The keys aren’t too bad, though.

“Mortality Sequence” & ““La Vallee” – Instrumental”

These are amusing enough experiments, but do feel like a joke. There’s a lot of nonsense sounds, like AI generated Pink Floyd. The section without the vocalizing on Mortality isn’t too bad.

“The Hard Way”

A pleasant and extremely incomplete experiment. “The Hard Way” has a nice groove and diversity in sound, but doesn’t go anywhere. Wouldn’t be bad on a noise album, but not so much on a Floyd one, except for one problem. Despite being so short, it’s pretty repetitive.

“On The Run (outtake)” & “The Travel Sequence”

These are fun, but once again directionless and feeling like no one knows what’s going on. They have an infectious sense of fun and rhythm, so they’re worth listening to, but were rightfully not put on an album.

“pink floyd unreleased track 1973” (4:14) aka “Flanger”

This sounds like a test. “Hey Nick, play a little so we can see if the recorder is working.” Still, a little drumming isn’t the worst thing in the world. This is like the Pink Floyd version of the Beach Boys track, “Denny’s Drums”.

“Mexico 70”

Can’t believe how many of these tracks have random noises in them. There’s some nice guitar noodling, but it goes on forever doing the same thing. It’s easy to imagine this could’ve been worked on more and included on an album. Maybe on Wish You Were Here to demonstrate Syd going mad? Faneditors, get on that.

“Wine Glasses”

This is pretty, but inessential on its own. Of course, it would be used to great effect on “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” in a better form.

“You’ve Got To Be Crazy”

Roger’s vocal is really flat, sounding like a demo. Of course that can be forgiven due to this obviously being a work-in-progress not intended for release. The playing isn’t too bad, though falters in some ways. That’s something that could be fixed with more rehearsing. Lyrics like “Sometimes it seems as if I’m just being used” are way too heavy handed. The released version on Animals is very solid.

“Raving and Drooling”

This one starts with what sounds like the Doctor Who theme. This track is especially fun due to the punk-esque nature of its riffs and intensity.

“Message From The Sheep (Field Recording)”

Just some sheep baaing.

“Drift Away Blues”

This takes a little from “Pink Blues”. David gets to show off a little with his guitar playing, with a little bit of fun moments for Rick and Nick, but as previously stated it’s something that should’ve been incorporated in a more rehearsed and fleshed out album if at all. The aforementioned “Pink Blues” is better due to being short and sweet.

OVERVIEW

Despite being known for their innovation, Pink Floyd often got stuck in formulas. Fortunately, that stuff generally got unreleased around the start of the early 70s, with much better material properly getting on the albums. A super fan should listen to these tracks just for the sake of it, but a casual fan can live without what amounts to mostly live fiddling. Still, there are a few gems.

Pink Floyd December 1969-1970 Stray Tracks Review

“Who’s For Soccer?”

1970 yielded some fantastic songs for Pink Floyd (and especially for Syd Barrett, but that’s for another day). They have quite a lot of leftovers, possibly due to working on the Zabriskie Point movie and expecting a vinyl release that never came. Hopefully these weren’t too close to how they were supposed to sound, as much of what’s here is forgettable and ill-thought out. That would be more acceptable if these were barely getting off the ground. There’s a track like “Come in Number 51, Your Time Is Up”, which actually got released and seems like just a less cohesive or well-worked version of “Careful with That Axe, Eugene”. There was already a released studio and live version. They couldn’t have put in another? 51 seems like a highlight reel of bits of Eugene. “On the Highway” is a particular favorite outtake, which wasn’t released at the time.

There are many inconsequential jams, which seem to have missed being fully realized. If recorders were more common in the early 60s-1967 version of the band, maybe we’d get stuff like this, pleasant noodling? “Alan’s Blues” is one, showcasing a more traditional rock guitar solo. As much can be said for “Just Another Twelve Bar”. “Love Scene (Version 5)” is when the noodling got more tiresome (don’t listen to these all in one sitting), with it going on with “Love Scene (Version 6)”. “Libest Spacement Monitor” and “More Blues” have some good interplay, like between the guitar and keyboard, but are inconsequential.

“Oenone” just seems like someone, probably Richard Wright, playing around with sounds for possible use of backing a song. “Love Scene (Version 4)” is a pleasant keyboard number. It might not be so bad to have on in the background. “The Violent Sequence”, aka “Us and Them (Richard Wright Demo)” is another track of that sort. While this is definitely on the right track, it feels incomplete and poorly performed, like Rick was just testing out ideas. Of course, this would later become a very nice and finished song.

“Country Song” is more finished-sounding, but like one of the throwaways from an album like More. The vocal is very weak, as if everyone’s sick of it. “Richard Are You Ready Yet?” is too low quality to make out much. It’s not even really a song, strange it’s considered one by fans. “Instrumental Improvisations 1, 2, 3” is incoherent playing and vocalizing. It might’ve been fun to be playing there, but not so much to listen to.

Some of the better tracks include “Rain in the Country”. It has a great light guitar sound, though it goes on forever, not being very interesting beyond the beginning. As much can be said for “Heart Beat, Pig Meat”. The repetitive percussion is at first very captivating, being quite unique. The rhythm and beat are reasonably sharp, though the novelty soon wears off. “Embryo (From Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air)” feels low effort, like a computer generated Pink Floyd song. It has that whisper voice, the drum tapping in the background, and things of that sort. In terms of how good it is, it’s dead average.

“Long Blues” has a good groove and doesn’t quite feel its length, but it lacks a certain spark, like a drive to keep you invested. “Fingal’s Cave” is one of the finest tracks here. It has a good otherworldly quality to it. That being said, what’s with the moaning and sex noises? They’re really uncomfortable. There’s a four minute version that’s just some atmospheric sounds and a much punchier two minute version, which is by far the best, getting to the point of this little jam. The reason this article starts in December 1969 is because I forgot to include “The Merry Xmas Song” last time. It’s very funny, like the sort of novelty track that sometimes is on 60s rock records. Nick has some joy in his voice and in general everyone seems to be having a good time. It’s hard not to love. We got a Pink Floyd Christmas song!

OVERVIEW

What is or isn’t worthwhile here is up to the individual. Personally, the Syd band did no wrong, even with their live instrumentals. He had a certain spark. If you feel that way about this lineup, you might love everything here. If not, a lot of this is tedious, but ‘tis the nature of these rare recordings.

Pink Floyd 1968-1969 Stray Tracks Review

Pink Floyd in 1968

It seems that of the first two years of the Gilmour era of Pink Floyd, the main available material consists of… A Saucerful of Secrets, More, Ummagumma, The Early Years 1965–1972, live boots, and what will be discussed below. That’s not to say I’ve certainly discovered everything, but this is an attempt to.

Some may notice that with my discussions of Syd Barrett stray tracks, I essentially scrape the bottom of the barrel, while this one is much lighter. The reason for that is because I don’t have the same affection and closeness with the Gilmour-era and wouldn’t be interested in something like listening to similar live recordings over and over. I want the more exceptional or unique things, such as tracks that are reasonably different from what’s covered above.

“The Committee” is such a playful bit of music, featuring the band jamming around with some different ideas. The warm ballad of Part 8 is made with the emotional drums and keys. Two parts of this soundtrack were officially released as “Music from The Committee No. 1 & 2”. The nine part version works better as one fifteen minute piece of music, instead of these two disparate parts. “Baby Blue Shuffle in D Major” stylistically fits with “The Committee”, featuring guitar playing that sounds like a sunrise on a slightly rainy day. Pieces like these could pass for a concept album about a psychedelic walk in the woods. The keyboard on Part 4 of The Committee could be the wind or the rain. The bass thumping on Part 5 could be the sound of some critters. An understandable criticism is that some of this material isn’t original, at least to the type that is interested in these oddities, but they still work really well here.

“Blues”, while being a little too long, is a similarly fun runaround. It sometimes seemed the group were limiting themselves when staying so close to psychedelia. Them doing some mildly twisted blues feels so refreshing, with the instruments feeling like the band is having fun. “Instrumental Improvisation” from The Sounds of Change is some less interesting noodling, seeming randomized and like something no one cared much about. “Keep Smiling People” seems like it’d be a nice track to hear in decent quality. It’s hard to appreciate as is. It might’ve worked as an atmosphere-builder or backing track.

A booted track called “”More” – Outtakes” features some interesting fly on the wall audio from the sessions for– you guessed it, More. It’s a reasonably decent oddity. It’s not a song, so don’t listen to it expecting that. There are some excerpts. “Seabirds” (there are multiple versions of this track, I’m referring to a version in the film, but not on the soundtrack) sounds like a really nice ballad. Low quality plagues it from even being listenable. There’s some nice silky vocals from David. A bootleg of “Teatime” is literally the band drinking tea. The fact this is something fans have culled and now I’m listening to nothing happening is truly something to behold. “Moonhead” sounds like a score to a moon landing. It’s quite a novel track, though sound quality once again really holds it back. It could’ve been great in better condition. There’s something to be said for the available version, essentially that it’s a good spacey jam. “US Radio advertisement for Ummagumma” is pretty funny.

OVERVIEW

Due to the quality of the studio albums of this time, it stands to reason the group wasn’t overflowing with good ideas, thus it makes sense there would be a lack of material leftover. Still, there are some gems here and some of it deserved to be released at the time, at the very least in place of some of what we did get.

In March 2022, I compiled some of these tracks into an album. Click here for that: https://thefilmediary.wordpress.com/2022/03/30/pink-floyd-my-beautiful-flying-machine-bright-lights-1968-fan-albums/

The Rolling Stones – Aftermath (1966) UK Album Review – The Rolling Stones On Their Own

Could You Walk On The Water?

The Rolling Stones’ first album of original material has become a rock monolith of sorts. It’s an iconic piece of music that has stood the test of time, even at its length of 52-minutes. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards certainly had great ability and style in their songwriting, but couldn’t keep a consistent quality control. Someone had the right idea, as there are plenty of outtakes. There’s in fact five, six if you include “Paint It Black”. In an alternate universe, those six were included and released as an early double album, but that isn’t the case here. All the better for it, as the album as-is loses steam too fast. The tracks trend from best to worst.

“Mother’s Little Helper”, “Stupid Girl”, and “Under My Thumb” are among the best 60s Stones songs. All capture an aggressive British wit about a man who has it all figured out in his own head, all featuring lyrics that have a negative view towards women. The guitar work, especially on tracks like Mother’s, feel like it’s on the verge of a mental breakdown; the drumming sounding like a mix of a heartbeat and an oncoming train; and the bass your psyche about to give up entirely. There’s a surreal and frightening aura to it all. Its spirit is proto-punk and dreamlike. “Lady Jane” is a poorly placed ballad. Its preceding track, “Stupid Girl”, asks to be continued by something with more trouble and bizarreness and the album stops to include this instead. It’s a nice enough track, though not as exceptional. “Flight 505” continues the cursed charm of the other three. It celebrates its own dark comedy, being upbeat despite some dark lyrics.

Most of the material here feels like interesting enough experiments that’d make nice bonus tracks, though a few are great. Their diversity gives the record an identity crisis, like it doesn’t know what it’s trying to make you feel. “Out Of Time” is a psychedelic plea, as if the singer is losing control of their emotions. “Take It Or Leave It” is folk-esque, as are “Doncha Bother Me” and “High And Dry”. The latter two benefit from distancing themselves more from that, as the Stones can’t capture the right “folk feeling”. They’re too much of a rock group. Doncha is reminiscent of Link Wray and is among the more novel Stones works. The last three cuts, Take It, “Think”, and “What To Do”, feel like demos. The vocals are a little flatter, in addition to a lack of feeling to the backing band. The songs somewhat devolve into “just say the name of the song over and over”. The album was recorded in two short periods. These come off as the last thing they recorded, once they were burned out. Imagine Take It with some muscle in the guitar playing. It’d be much better. “What To Do” is the last track. It needed either to not be the last or have some finality. It’s just a bit of fluff. All the “experiments” on the album are wildly inconsistent, which makes sense. Some are great and all feel like the Stones are trying to make their statement.

Every track on the album can’t be called bad as the playful innocence of this rebel gang of youngsters gives enough charm to stop strong negative feelings. That doesn’t stop problems from being prevalent, but that makes them more forgivable. Representative of the whole album is the last track of side-a, “Goin’ Home”. It starts with a bluesy little song that goes at a nice pace before the track degrades into an improvisational jam. Conceptually, it’s not bad, but the track simply loses steam. It feels like no one knew what to do, especially Mick Jagger. He just says little things throughout. This song is a more dramatic show-stopper, as it goes on for eleven and a half minutes, at the cost of the pacing. This demonstrates the lyrical theme of “we’re too brave to not do what we want”. No one thought to cut this bad boy down, which is a shame.

OVERVIEW

Someone wanting to listen to Aftermath should listen to it as is, so as to get the artistically-intended experience. One way to basically respect that and also give a better ending is to include “Paint It Black” after “What To Do”, as if it was the last track. It’s a much better closer than what we got. It was also included as the opener to the American version of the album. That American version is a little better for cutting some of the filler. “Goin’ Home” is its final track and that makes more sense than the UK’s ending. The shorter tracks can maintain tension and then it all seeps out at the end. It’s still not a great song, but it fits more at the end of side b than side a. For fun, I included a version of the album I constructed, cutting out the tracks best left off.

1. “Mother’s Little Helper”
2. “Stupid Girl”
3. “Under My Thumb”
4. “Doncha Bother Me”
5. “Flight 505”
6. “High And Dry”
7. “Out Of Time”
8. “It’s Not Easy”
9. “Goin’ Home” (Start fading at 3:15)
10. “Paint It Black”

The Second (1968) by Steppenwolf Review

The album’s cover

This is an effective 60s psych rock record. There’s stingy guitars and keyboard licks a-plenty. Anyone that likes that type of music will surely enjoy it. In terms of complicated production or impressive playing, this album lacks that. There’s a sense of sameness that’s present in a lot of late 60s hard rock. What is something about The Second by Steppenwolf that I can only get from The Second by Steppenwolf? Take the audience beyond serviceable to exceptional. The most memorable aspects are the weakest aspects; unenthusiastic lines played or sung. The vocalist’s rough voice doesn’t compliment the band’s brighter and more upbeat sound. He comes off as disinterested on some tracks, like when he sings “Faster” on “Faster Than The Speed Of Life”.

“None Of Your Doing” is a warm power ballad which takes advantage of the sultry voice of John Kay. It’s more engaging than the straight rockers. One can imagine the band preferred doing ballad-esque songs. “Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam” is the type of earworm that gets stuck in your head. The keyboard riff has all the qualities of an earworm. The catchiness is to a fault as it would likely get very old, very fast. The single, “Magic Carpet Ride” also has the ability to infect your skull. It glides through as expected. Kitschy guitar, key, and basslines construct the whole track.

The album picks up with a medley of four full length songs and one 44 second song. The tracks blend together well and give some lovely blues rock. “Disappointment Number (Unknown)” features a nice keyboard number and laid back bluesy feeling. “Hodge, Podge, Strained Through A Leslie” is particularly groovy, filled with quick lines all over the place and no vocal. The weak link of the medley is the last full song, “Resurrection”. The vocals try to match up with the instrumentation awkwardly and it makes the whole track sound like a poor rehearsal.

OVERVIEW

It’s impossible to hate The Second, but the lack of originality makes it hard to remember or engage, unless you’re remembering a catchy part, in which case you’re remembering for the wrong reasons.

The highlights are: “None Of Your Doing”, “Disappointment Number (Unknown)”, and “Hodge, Podge, Strained Through A Leslie”

The lowlights are: “Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam”, “28”, “Resurrection”

Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – The King Bees (1967) Album Edit (Take 1)

My second favorite musician of all time is the incredible Syd Barrett. His music has an emotional connection to me that I don’t have with most artists. To honor him, I’ve compiled a large sum of his works. Currently, there’s enough material for seven studio fan albums, plus the three studio albums of his officially released, making ten in total! These ten albums will include every song he’s performed on once. I’d like to include the complete recordings of his, but that task is too Herculean, so I’ll be covering the stuff I can find in a quick reach. I’m unsure on whether I’ll do a live album of his, seeing as most live recordings from the Syd era are long enough to be album-length, making it probably unnecessary for me to bother making some. I wouldn’t say I’m done with searching for his songs. It’s usually been easy for me to say, “Okay, I’ve certainly got everything.” That is not the case here. Fingers crossed that there’s another set of content lying around. I suspect this album and its bonus features encompass all the non-live recordings from the beginning of Syd’s recordings to the end of 1966. I’m pretty certain of that unless something was really hiding.

This fan album, The King Bees, is basically the officially released EP, 1965: Their First Recordings, with two extra songs. That EP covers the first six Floyd songs ever recorded in surprisingly sharp quality, despite being demos. The tracklisting on the EP is pretty good. I spliced the two new songs in the shuffle. When I heard the EP, it seemed that all the songs were covers of 50’s rockers, but only one was, “I’m a King Bee”. Four were written by Syd Barrett and one by Roger Waters. It’s bizarre how un-Floyd they come off here. If this was the only Floyd ever recorded, you’d think they were a 50’s inspired band that certainly wouldn’t be interested in psychedelic music.

The first of the non-1965 songs is the only unique song from 1966, “Stoned Alone” aka “I Get Stoned”. This is a live recording, but I want to include every song once and this one only exists live. It seemed like a good closer to side a. It’s poor quality and out of left field nature makes it seem appropriate for how weird it is. It goes after the first four songs on the EP. The fifth song on the EP starts side b, “Butterfly”, then we get what is apparently from the first professionally recorded Floyd session, “Nick’s Boogie”. It’s a really cool twelve minute song that gives some scale to this album, serving as a good finale. It was recorded in 1967 as without at least one ‘67 song, this album would be far too short. The two non-65 songs total half the album. It seemed like an amusing joke to end the album not with Boogie, but with “I’m a King Bee”. It’s a tad unexpected and hopefully pleasantly so.

The King Bees is an odd first Floyd album, but still a solid one with five of the eight songs written by Syd Barrett. It does include elements present on later albums, like long instrumentals. The title and cover fit with an idea I had for this album. Imagine that it’s trying to sell Floyd as a more poppy act with the cover emulating the first albums by The B-52’s or Weezer. Most of the album conforms to that, but with the two surprises to foreshadow the future. For fun I’ll include pictures considered for this album’s cover, but not used.

SYD BARRETT & PINK FLOYD – THE KING BEES

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Lucy Leave” (Syd Barrett)
2. “Double O Bo” (Syd Barrett)
3. “Remember Me” (Syd Barrett)
4. “Walk with Me Sydney” (Roger Waters)
5. “Stoned Alone” (Syd Barrett)

SIDE B

1. “Butterfly” (Syd Barrett)
2. “Nick’s Boogie” (Nick Mason)
3. “I’m a King Bee” (Slim Harpo)

BONUS TRACKS

1. “Interstellar Overdrive (October 31st, 1966 Demo)”
2. “Interview + Interstellar Overdrive (December 1966 CBC)”

PERSONNEL

1. Syd Barrett – lead vocals (tracks 1-4, 6, 8), electric guitar (tracks 1-8)
2. Rado Klose – electric guitar (tracks 1-4, 6, 8)
3. Roger Waters – bass guitar (tracks 1-8), backing vocals, co-lead vocals on “Walk with Me Sydney”
4. Richard Wright – keyboards (tracks 3–8)
5. Nick Mason – drums (tracks 1-8)
6. Juliette Gale – co-lead vocals on “Walk with Me Sydney”
7. Andy Jackson – mastering
8. Ray Staff – mastering

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