The lost, unfinished, mythical albums

There's definitely Dennis solo stuff from the 70s that didnt make the POB reissue, but i dont know what the definitive Bambu track listing is (or if there even was one)

Supergrass - Release The Drones

there's that recording of US Maple with Derek Bailey that someone is sitting on. i wonder how successful a collaboration that would be tho as maple'S "random factor" was well-rehearsed & DB would've doubtless tried to sabotage any revolting safety blanket of synergy between the two regardless of our tension release wet-dreams

The unreleased Chic produced Johnny Mathis album has only had a few of the tracks out on various comps.

You are right about that Costello one, I read that recent Stiff book and went looking among those "Deluxe" editions, don't think its there..

There's a good chance this story is just bullshit, but wasn't there a lot of noise that there was a Cardiacs album (with "Slivery" on it) that was being recorded in 2000, only to be accidentally deleted by a computer glitch?

Another one - Harry Nilsson apparently had completed vocals on a supposed comeback album two days before his death in January of 1994. Obviously nothing's been released, which is odd given the amount of interest in his career that continues even today, though I remember hearing that the sessions were fairly terrible, which they'd have to be if RCA (or whoever) is just sitting on them

Public Image Ltd rerecorded their first album for a US release by Warners but was shelved. From elsewhere on ILM:

I heard the rerecorded debut from a longtime friend of Lydon's who wouldn't give me a cassette (this was pre-CD-R) copy, despite much pleading on my part. One or two songs sounded simply remixed - "Public Image" and "Annalisa", but there were entirely new songs and radical remakes of the rest. I seem to recall no spoken word "Religion", a way more "Poptones"-like Arabic-sounding version of the musical "Religion" and I think the rerecorded "Fodderstompf" from the "Death Disco" 12" may have been included, but with voiceovers. One of the "new" songs was the best thing they ever did. The general effect was that of the first album recorded as part of "Metal Box" sessions, but with a better selection of tunes. I'd kill just to hear it again.
It was supposed to have been released in the US by Warner Bros (WB even acknowledged this in a Rolling Stone article), but nothing happened.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Monday, 30 May 2005 18:42 (10 years ago) Permalink

i don't know about cardiacs, but the french-canadian deathgrind band deuterium (why is french-canadian metal so great?) recorded a full-length record, but lost it in a computer crash. their sole ep is pretty fantastic if you're into brutal death metal.

the dennis wilson record i'm interested in is less "bambu" and more the solo record he was supposedly working on in the early '70s with daryl dragon. don't know how much was recorded/exists, but he was really firing on all cylinders then.

Can't imagine the US Maple/Bailey thing as being any good, given that Maple had to rehearse within an inch of their lives to sound a little like Storm & Stress.

I was going to nominate Pussy Galore's cover of Exile on Main Street, but the whole thing is available on Youtube! https://youtu.be/DupbswltNuA

Exile on Main Street was released in 1986, just a bit hard to find since then, but it's been bootlegged a lot anyway so I'm not sure it counts.

Mind you I've no idea what The Stone Roses' Second Coming is doing in this thread either.

yeah fair enough

Deftones' Eros, the album they shelved when Chi Cheng was first injured. Only one song from it has ever been released; willing to bet it gets properly issued at some point, though.

It's the album between the debut and Second Coming that I'd be interested in; something that would have landed in 1991/92 and been all rare groove psychedelia carrying on from Fools Gold and Somethings Burning. That I'd still love to hear.

There's a good chance this story is just bullshit, but wasn't there a lot of noise that there was a Cardiacs album (with "Slivery" on it) that was being recorded in 2000, only to be accidentally deleted by a computer glitch?

― frogbs, Tuesday, 11 August 2015 22:53 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think that was a joke that got taken a bit too literally, at least according to Kavus who said he didn't know anything about it.

L.S.D. was the real lost album that will probably never see the light of day, Tim's stroke put the kibosh on that sadly. Then there's the second(finished) Sea Nymphs album, which has been hinted at so many times it's practically a running gag by this point. It's always definitely coming out next year...maybe...

Tangentially related, there's also the original, Terry Bickers-vocalled version of Levitation's "Meanwhile Gardens", and the second Dark Star album "Zurich".

A new Cardiacs album and a 2nd Spratleys Japs album were mentioned in interview(s) around that time, though.

The Bickers "Meanwhile Gardens" is finally being released in October.

Maybe OP meant Garage Flower for the Stone Roses? I'd forgotten about that, I've never actually heard it (apart from the single that was on Complete Stone Roses).

It's pretty poor.

I guess I had assumed whatever songs were "lost" were probably redone for "LSD" (was that actually the title? I thought *that* was a running gag as well) - last I heard there was nearly a completed album ready to go but none of the vocals were recorded and sadly Tim had a stroke before anything could be done. You have to wonder if anything will come out from it.

A year before Safe At Home, Gram Parsons and an early version of the International Submarine Band recorded an album that their label, Gold Star Records, decided not to release because their earlier singles went nowhere. I'd love to hear it, but the recordings haven't surfaced and appear to be lost.

Scott Walker supposedly had some sessions with Brian Eno but I'm not sure what's been revealed about them except a sense that it wasn't working.

I think that "bands unreleased Brian Eno projects" could make a thread on it's own (e.g. Television, Modern Lovers, etc)

Meanwhile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1vZfIMLJLA

Oh the Cure album that was supposed to follow 4:13 Dream, 4:14 Scream or whatever the fuck.

The Shangri-Las reunited to make an album for Sire Records in 1977 but it never came out. Also I've always been curious about the material they recorded for Mercury Records in 1966-67; two singles appeared before the group were dropped, but was there enough in the can for a full album?

I did see, on ebay once, a promotional CD by Dani Harmer (of Tracey Beaker fame), consisting of excerpts from all the tracks on a proposed solo album. Pretty sure that never happened.

I Can't Feel My Face- Lil Wayne & Julez Santana
Ghostface & MF Doom (supposedly coming out this year)

I think that "bands unreleased Brian Eno projects" could make a thread on it's own (eg. Television, Modern Lovers, etc)

Don't think Eno ever worked with the Modern Lovers.

Subway Sect debut album. Bits and pieces have been released on comps but I think that amounts to 4 tracks or so.

afaik the complete double-album version of Funkadelic's "Electric Spanking of War Babies" that Clinton originally wanted to put out has never been released (although I assume, as is Clinton's m.o., that all the stuff intended for that release ended up on subsequent comps, albums, etc. in various forms)

this VU thing has always intrigued me:

Late 1969 or early 1970
"acetate demos"

Countess From Hong Kong (3:17)
Ride Into The Sun (3:42)
We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (2:33)
I Found A Reason (3:15)
1 : Peel Slowly And See 5-CD box set, 1995
2 : The Velvet Underground CDEP, 1990; Ride Into The Sun CDEP, 1993
3 : The Velvet Underground - New York Art - Deluxe edition 7inch & CD, 2009 (previously available on The First Night, 1993 & The March Of The Wooden Soldiers, 1994)
4 : Loaded - Fully Loaded Edition, 1997

According to The First Night liner notes, this four songs are taken from a rare acetate dated 1969. The story says a bloody guy was honeymooning in New York and was going round through record shops when he was offered a tape copy of this acetate. The original is said to belong to Maureen Tucker's archives.

According to Ignacio Julia's Velvet Warriors, Sterling said that "the stuff available on VU and Another View is not the material from the lost album sessions. They had recorded some songs on the West Coast and mailed the tapes to New York, but they never arrived and so the ghost album remains lost, probably forever". This 4 songs acetate could be the only thing surviving from those sessions?

Countess From Hong Kong originally appeared on The First Night bootleg, credited as The Countess Of Hong Kong. The version officially released on Peel Slowly And See is a cleaned up version.

Ride Into The Sun was initially included on the rare French promo CDEP which was offered with the first copies of the 1990 Polydor box set. It was credited as "unreleased version sung by Lou Reed". It also appears on The First Night bootleg but you'll get one second extra time at the beginning on the French CDEP... A heavily cleaned version is also included in the bootleg box sets Seachin' For My Mainline 3CD and A Walk With The Velvet Underground 5CD.

Dispatches From The Dream Factory 3-CD Disc 3 released in 2008 has Ride Into The Sun and We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together.

the dennis wilson record i'm interested in is less "bambu" and more the solo record he was supposedly working on in the early '70s with daryl dragon. don't know how much was recorded/exists, but he was really firing on all cylinders then.

yeah hard to say what was going to be on this, certainly the 7" they put out is among Dennis' best material

the lost tom verlaine solo album (which shares a couple of songs [different versions though] with the subsequent Flash Light) fucking SMOKES.

lol at like half of the suggestions itt being like "actually they put that out a couple of years ago but nobody gave a shit"

Sterling said that "the stuff available on VU and Another View is not the material from the lost album sessions. They had recorded some songs on the West Coast and mailed the tapes to New York, but they never arrived and so the ghost album remains lost, probably forever".

Every VU band member seems to have a different story as to what the VU/Another View sessions were intended to be

there's the mccartney album he made with Phil Ramone that never came out in full but most of it is out, and it is awful.

oh, and of course The Beatles : Get Back, which still hasn't really come out (Let it Be: Naked doesn't count)

Every VU band member seems to have a different story as to what the VU/Another View sessions were intended to be
yeah, kind of weird!

Has anyone asked Dougie?

Can't imagine the US Maple/Bailey thing as being any good, given that Maple had to rehearse within an inch of their lives to sound a little like Storm & Stress.

U.S. Maple first album 1995

Storm & Stress first album 1997

The original mix/full-length album version of the B-52's Mesopotamia.

lol at like half of the suggestions itt being like "actually they put that out a couple of years ago but nobody gave a shit"

What are some cases of a legendary delayed/shelved album coming out and being as cool as people thought it would be? The Basement Tapes? Black Bastards?

Smile is incredible

does 'Black Messiah' count since it was being worked on rather than completed and shelved?

Has anyone asked Dougie?
yeah, they talk about it in the latest reissue, i think he thinks it was a new album, but moe says they were just demos. others theories are they were just messing around trying to get out of their MGM contract.

I guess not many people are going to care about Zappa's last studio record that's coming out (come out?), as it appears to be Synclavier based classical.

The last remnant of the Who's aborted 1970 EP 7 ft. Wide Car, 6 ft. Wide Garage was finally released in 2004.

Their 1972 album was never completed. Some songs were released as singles, or on Odds and Sods; two were repurposed for Quadrophenia; and two have only surfaced in Pete solo demo form.

The Who probably have a few of these. There was also a pre-Tommy post-Sell Out album I think. All that stuff got released either on remasters or the Maximum R&B Box Set or various compilations.

The bootlegs of Townshend's solo demos from around the Lifehouse era are brilliant.

The original mix/full-length album version of the B-52's Mesopotamia.

Is this different to the European version? I know that has original mixes not on the US release, at least.

was gonna say that more clash is not what we want, but actually you're calling for less clash so i'm ok with that

The only thing worse than US Maple are US Maple fans.

I keep not getting around to mentioning Ryan Adams.

Probably 2 albums' worth of really good Whiskeytown stuff, 3 or 4 unreleased solo albums, dozens and dozens of leftovers, sessions, demos and nonsense. Most of this stuff's floating around on the internets somewheres (although I haven't been able to find the pre- and post-"Heartbreaker" albums "Destroyer" and "The Suicide Handbook," supposedly two of the best).

i used to have those! they were great, sort of composite versions of gold and demolition