Various Artists - Until The End Of The World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

I was saddened to learn of the death in Pittsfield, Massachusetts last week of singer and actress Julee Cruise. About four years ago, she announced that she was suffering from systemic lupus, a painful autoimmune condition that left her depressed and unable to move and walk. Reports state that she took her own life at her home, with The B-52's song "Roam" playing as she died (Cruise was a touring member of The B-52's in the early 1990s, replacing Cindy Wilson who took a few years off to raise her children; I remember seeing her on stage at a band show I attended in Washington, DC during that period).

In a post I wrote almost a dozen years ago, I detailed how I first came across Cruise's music and my impressions regarding it - the melancholy, haunting quality that both repels and attracts the listener. After the release of her debut album Floating Into The Night in 1989, Cruise issued a follow-up, The Voice Of Love, four years later. As with the first album, almost all of the songs on her sophomore release were written by director David Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti, so the sound and atmosphere are remarkably similar to Floating Into The Night. The Voice Of Love is more of a continuation of her debut, rather than a stand-alone entity. If you liked the first, than this one will be right up your alley as well.

Between these two albums, Cruise recorded a Lynch/Badalamenti-modified cover of an old Elvis Presley song, "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears", for the soundtrack to Wim Wenders' scifi drama Until The End Of The World, starring William Hurt. The plot of the film had something to do with in a finding and using a device that can record visual experiences and visualize dreams... but the end result was so confusing and convoluted that the few people who DID go to see the movie were left flummoxed by it. Cashing in on his success with small, cerebral films like Paris, Texas and Wings Of Desire, Wenders managed to secure a budget of $22 million for this latest film, an amount more than the cost of all of his previous films combined. And he proceeded to spend every penny of that money, spreading his production over almost half a year with setups in 11 countries.

While Graeme Revell (co-founder of the Australian industrial band SPK) was commissioned to compose the movie theme and other incidental music for the film, Wenders asked a number of his favorite recording artists (including Cruise) to contribute songs as well for inclusion. For their selections, he asked them to anticipate the kind of music they would be making a decade later, when the film was set. It was Wenders' desire to use every song he received to its fullest extent that ultimately contributed to the overall length of the film. The initial cut was reportedly TWENTY HOURS long, from which the director and producer whittled down to a more standard running time versions of 2 1/2 and 3 hours (which Wenders called the "Reader's Digest" versions). There is also reportedly a five-hour "director's" cut of this film which has been screened at various festivals over the years.

...Not that any of that mattered. The truncated versions of Until The End Of The World were released to theaters, first in Germany in September 1991, and later in the U.S. that December, and overall the flick was a commercial failure, managing to gross only about $830,000 against its $22 million budget.  Critics at the time savaged it; Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of 4, describing it as lacking the "narrative urgency" required to sustain interest in the story, and wrote that it "plays like a film that was photographed before it was written, and edited before it was completed". He went on to say that a documentary about the globe-trekking production would likely have been more interesting than the film itself.  Other reviewers were even less kind.

But while the film flopped, the soundtrack was, frankly, amazing, featuring great songs by some of the top alternative performers of the day.  Wenders chose well.  Here's the soundtrack lineup:

1. "Opening Title" – Graeme Revell
2. "Sax and Violins" – Talking Heads
3. "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears" – Julee Cruise
4. "Move with Me (Dub)" – Neneh Cherry
5. "The Adversary" – Crime & the City Solution
6. "What's Good" – Lou Reed
7. "Last Night Sleep" – Can
8. "Fretless" – R.E.M.
9. "Days" – Elvis Costello
10. "Claire's Theme" – Graeme Revell
11. "(I'll Love You) Till the End of the World" – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
12. "It Takes Time" – Patti Smith (with Fred Smith)
13. "Death's Door" – Depeche Mode
14. "Love Theme" – Graeme Revell
15. "Calling All Angels" (Remix Version) – Jane Siberry with k.d. lang
16. "Humans from Earth" – T Bone Burnett
17. "Sleeping in the Devil's Bed" – Daniel Lanois
18. "Until the End of the World" – U2
19. "Finale" – Graeme Revell

Personal favorites on this disc, in additon to the Julee Cruise song, include R.E.M.'s "Fretless", Depeche Mode's "Death's Door" and the Jane Siberry/k.d.lang collaboration "Calling All Angels".  At the time, most of these songs were unavailable anywhere else, making the compilation a gold mine of rarities. All in all, the soundtrack did better than the movie, eventually reaching #114 on the U.S. Billboard Top 200 Albums chart in 1992.

So, in honor of the life and art of Julee Cruise, I proudly offer to you all Until The End Of The World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), released on Warner Brothers Records on December 10th, 1991.  Enjoy, and as always... well, you know.

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

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The Everly Brothers - The Price Of Fame (7-disc set)

R.I.P. to Isaac Donald (Don) Everly yesterday at the age of 84, the last surviving member of the Everly Brothers (Phil Everly died in 2014) - if not THE greatest, certainly the most influential rock 'n' roll duo of all time. The Everly's close harmonies were a major influence on rock greats like The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Bee Gees, and especially Simon & Garfunkel. They hold the record for the most Top 100 U.S. singles by any duo, and trail only Hall & Oates as the duo with the most Top 40 hits. The Everly Brothers are recipients of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, have a star dedicated to them on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and have been inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Musician's Hall of Fame (for Don's innovative rhythm guitar riff on their early hit "Wake Up, Little Susie"), the Country Music Hall of Fame, and of course the Rock Hall of Fame, where the group was included as part of the inaugural class of genre pioneers in 1986. Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Everly Brothers at #33 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time". 

(I list all of these superlatives because, although it seems the duo are all but forgotten today, they were the real deal, and no joke.) 

With their greatness basically pretty self-explanatory, I don't think I need to go into great length here with this posting on the background, whys and wherefores of The Everly Brothers.  I'll just cut to the chase, and pony up the music...

The duo had their first breakout hits on Cadence Records in the late 1950s, finding massive and widespread success with classic songs like "Bye Bye Love" and "Wake Up, Little Susie" (both 1957), "All I Have To Do Is Dream" and "Bird Dog" (both 1958).  

After three years at Cadence, the Everlys signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1960 and stayed with the label for a decade.  Their early years at Warners were their most successful, with their first label release, "Cathy's Clown", topping the charts and selling eight million copies.  Other early '60s Top Ten hits included "Walk Right Back" and "Crying In The Rain".  Although their star faded somewhat in America with the advent of the British Invasion, The Everly Brothers remained very popular and successful in the United Kingdom and Canada for the remainder of the decade.

Here for your listening pleasure is the Everly Brothers compilation The Price Of Fame, covering the first five years (1960-1965) the group was at Warner Bros., and including not only every release from that period, but a number of alternate takes and outtake sessions.  Every early huge label hit is here, along with re-recordings of some of their early Cadence music.  This is a massive set... but I feel it's an essential one for fans of the Everlys and for rock fans in general.

The compilation was put out by the celebrated German label and reissue specialists Bear Family Records on January 31st, 2006.  Since its a Bear Family release, you know it's going to be thorough!

Anyway, enjoy, and let me know what you think.  Thanks and farewell to you, Don - the choir in Rock 'n' Roll Heaven just got a little better.  All the best to you and your brother, wherever you are.

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

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The B-52's - Two Selected Singles (and a couple of special treats)

I've posted a couple of B-52's entries in the past three years; here are some more hard-to-finds:

"Private Idaho" b/w "Party Out Of Bounds (Instrumental)" - I mentioned in a post about a decade ago that when I purchased The Yellow Album in the fall of 1980, the first music I ever bought with my own money, I'd listen to it in the living room during off-hours, with my ear pressed against the speaker and the volume turned down low; my parents weren't into this crazy New Wave music at all!  But that situation was rectified that Christmas, when my folks got my brother and I a small stereo set (with speakers, cassette player and turntable) to set up in the tiny room we shared in the La Mesa Navy housing complex in Monterey, CA.

Woo-hoo! No more having to sneak around the house shamefacedly with my B-52s album, bracing myself for grownup derision, and/or admonitions to "turn that noise down!". And to show that there were no hard feelings, my parents also gave me a couple of 45s to play on own new rig. One was Devo's "Whip It" single (off of their then-latest album, Freedom Of Choice) b/w "Turnaround", a non-album B-side that quickly became (and still is) a favorite of mine.

The other disc my folks got for me was The B-52's "Private Idaho" single, off of their August 1980 Top 20 album release Wild Planet. The flip side of this record included an instrumental version of "Party Out Of Bounds", the lead track off of the same album. Both of these singles, plus the album I already owned, were in heavy rotation in me and my brother's bedroom for the next few weeks. That stereo system was the impetus I needed to begin acquiring more records by artists that I liked - like it or not, my parents inadvertently set me on the road to become a lifetime collector and appreciator of all types of music!

And after all of these years, through dozens of records, scores of cassettes, hundreds of CDs and thousands of MP3s, and more household moves that I can count, I still have this record in my possession. I used to play it often on my turntable, before technology caught up and I was able to burn both sides to MP3. This disc was never released on CD, so the B-side instrumental is somewhat hard to find. Therefore, here it is for you.

 

"Give Me Back My Man" b/w "Give Me Back My Man (Instrumental)" - As 1980 turned into 1981, with a new stereo in my possession, I was eager to expand my music collection, but really didn't know how to start. Although I had been working a good-paying after-school job in the kitchen at Santa Catalina private girls' school (just down the street from where I lived), I was initially hesitant about spending my hard-earned pay on full albums. So my early purchases, from both the music racks at the Navy Postgraduate School Exchange and the music store at Del Monte Mall (both within walking distance of my house), were vinyl singles.

Here's one of the first I purchased that new year - another single (both the album track and instrumental version) from the Wild Planet album. I really like this song; I feel that "Give Me Back My Man" is one of the all-time highlights of Cindy Wilson's vocal career - you can really hear and feel the yearning heartache she conveys behind the somewhat silly words:

As good as the vocal version is, it's the instrumental version on the B-side that really grabbed me. I never get tired of hearing Ricky Wilson's innovative and creative guitar work showcased in this song's bridges - the guy was a frickin' MASTER! This particular song was the one that finally convinced me to loosen my purse strings and purchase the album... and I'm glad I did.  However, I've always been somewhat disappointed that, outside of the vinyl single, the instrumental version of this song has never been released in any other format. Fortunately, with the time and the equipment, I took care of that!

Fun fact:  Weird Al Yankovic completely stole the rhythm and melody (I believe he referred to it as a "style parody) of "Give Me Back My Man" for his song "Mr. Popeil", on his 1984 sophomore release "Weird Al" Yankovic In 3-D, the same album that contained his smash single "Eat It".  His appropriation of this B-52s song even included background vocalists that sounded a lot like Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson:

If there is a fine line between tribute, parody and plagiarism, Weird Al came very close to obliterating it with this one. Whatever - water under the bridge at this point.

"Creature In A Black Bikini" versions - When I first wrote about this B-52's rarity three years ago, the only thing I had to go on was a brief soundboard snippet apparently recorded during one of the band's 1985 practice/rehearsal sessions for Bouncing Off The Satellites.  From that abbreviated clip, it was obvious that there was more to the song, perhaps many more minutes, but I figured I'd never have a hope in Hell of tracking the longer version down.

However, about a year ago, I began hearing from a site visitor and rabid, knowledgeable French B-52's fan writing under the pseudonym "Frank Reich". Mr. Reich had the inside scoop on a TON of band information, which he kindly shared with me. For example, in my 2018 post, I speculated on what appeared to be a tentative track list for the full-blown Mesopotamia album, which was aborted and released in a 6-track EP format in early 1982. I had some thoughts and questions regarding demo tracks from that period, some of which were saved and developed for future albums, and some that had apparently never seen the light of day - included a conjectured "Butterbean" demo.

Mr. Reich set me straight on that account:

"...the band never recorded "Butterbean" during the late 1981 sessions... because of the tension accumulating in the studio ([such as] Byrne not telling the band he asked Kate to put vocals on an instrumental piece called "Cloud 9", which became "Deep Sleep"). In the end, there is no "outtake" version of "Butterbean" like there is with "Queen Of Las Vegas".

So, there you go. I got plenty of other great tidbits from him regarding Mesopotamia, including the following:

"[It was] Fred [Schneider who wrote, then] totally scrapped "Adios Desconocidas' (and didn't ever want to talk about it again), and Warner Brothers almost asked the band to drop the song "Mesopotamia" out of the record...

[Island Records head] Chris Blackwell asked David Byrne for his mixes (from various sources) that were then sent to Island Records... that's how the UK/European version of the EP sounds so different. Blackwell wanted to release and promote Mesopotamia as a dance/experimental funk record, something the band didn't know and never agreed to... In the end, European critics hated the record, fans were confused, and that's why that era of The B's (1981 - 1988) is not very famous (or known at all) in Europe. Talk about destroying a band's reputation...

The band ended up very frustrated with the EP, and to this day they still joke about 'finishing it', something they tried to do at various times throughout the '80s and '90s... that's why when you saw the band performing "Big Bird" during that '82 show, they were performing songs [according to] their original idea of what Mesopotamia could have been."

Mr. Reich was an absolute pleasure to correspond with, and as I mentioned above, a font of good band gouge.  And at the end of our conversations, he provided me with two treasures: the full NINE MINUTE jam version of "Creature In A Black Bikini"... AND:

"I've also taken the liberty to include my own mix here, when I remastered the tape and overdubbed [it] with drum machine and keyboards in order to form a full 5 minute song."

Mr. Reich's efforts on this fully realized mix are incredible - it really sounds like something The B-52's themselves would have released during that era. It has the same sort of sound qualities and beats that were heard in band releases from that time like Whammy! and Bouncing Off The Satellites. It is a song fully worth devoting multiple listens to (and I have!).

 

So here you all are, for your repeated listening pleasure as well:

• "Private Idaho" b/w "Party Out Of Bounds (Instrumental)", recorded by producer Rhett Davies at Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas in April 1980, and released on Warner Bros. Records in October 1980;
• "Give Me Back My Man" b/w "Give Me Back My Man (Instrumental)", also recorded at Compass Point Studios in April 1980 and released on the same label as above in November 1980;
• "Creature In A Black Bikini", the full 9-minute jam session outtake from the Bouncing Off The Satellites sessions, recorded in Philadelphia in the spring/summer of 1985 but never released; and
• "Creature In A Black Bikini (Frank Reich Mix)", a fan-created re-imagining of what a fully realized and produced version of this song would have been.
  

More B-52's stuff is ALWAYS good in my book! If you tend to agree, than this post, and these files, are for you!  Have a listen, enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think.

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

"Private Idaho" single (1980): Send Email
"Give Me Back My Man" Single (1980): Send Email
"Creature In A Black Bikini" (Extended Jam): Send Email
"Creature In A Black Bikini" (Frank Reich Mix) : Send Email

The B-52's - Various Rarities

This year marks the 40th anniversary of The B-52's as recording artists - hard to believe they've been around, and have been part of my life, for so long! I'm sure that none of the members of this "tacky little dance band from Georgia" ever contemplated that four decades removed from their first late-night jam session after getting buzzed on Flaming Volcano drinks at a restaurant in downtown Athens, they'd still be at it all these years later, packing in fans the world over. Love, love, LOVE me some Bee-Fives!

In honor of their anniversary year, and in response to some recent requests, I thought I'd make available a few of the following group rarities/hard-to-find items:

"Rock Lobster" b/w "52 Girls" - The record that started it all; the original DB Records pressing, released on that 

label in April 1978. Both of these versions are faster and rawer than the rerecorded ones that came out on Warner Brothers the following year; I've always found all versions of these songs equally enjoyable.

What I find very weird is that, given the humongous significance and importance of these tunes in the overall B-52's canon, these 1978 versions have NEVER appeared on CD in any band compilation release. What's maddening is that the label itself (Warner Bros.), not the band, put the kibosh on any and all efforts to bring these versions to a wider audience.

From what I can gather, the 1998 compilation album Time Capsule was originally planned as a box set featuring rarities from across the band's career and several new tracks, as well as remastered older tracks. Warner Brothers management, assheads that they were, didn't think a comp like that would sell - instead, they had the band cut it back to a single disc, heavily weighted towards later-period B-52's tunes (I've already said my piece about what a sorry, half-assed set this turned out to be). Had Time Capsule been released as per the band's wishes, it would have included not only the original single versions of "Rock Lobster" and "52 Girls", but also a whole host of demos and outtakes that Cindy Wilson had prepared, and a number of new songs that the band had been working on (not just "Debbie" and "Hallucinating Pluto", as it turned out)... and in all likelihood I wouldn't be writing this post, since most of the stuff provided here probably would have been included.  A dumb decision driven by Corporate Accounting Department logic on Warner's part, in my opinion.

"Adios Desconocida" - I've already said quite a bit in a previous post about the band working with David Byrne in

the early '80s on the aborted Mesopotamia sessions. As I mentioned in that post, Warner Brothers was anticipating releasing a full-blown B-52's album in 1981, not an EP; to that end, the group had worked up a number of songs with their producer that were in various stages of production by the time Byrne left/was fired from the project. The tentative lineup for the expected Mesopotamia album (in no particular order) was:

"Cake"
"Deep Sleep"
"Loveland"
"Mesopotamia"
"Nip It In The Bud"
"Throw That Beat In The Garbage Can"
"Big Bird"
"Butterbean"
"Queen Of Las Vegas"
"Adios Desconocida"

Of course, only the first six songs made it onto the various abbreviated Mesopotamia EPs released in 1982. As for the other four songs, the first three were all re-recorded and included on The B-52's follow-up album, 1983's Whammy!. On that album, "Queen Of Las Vegas" was changed drastically from the Mesopotamia demo (which can be heard on the Nude On The Moon anthology). And I recall the group playing "Big Bird" during the Providence leg of their Meso-Americans tour, a show I attended in early 1982 - the Whammy! version was identical to what I heard back then. As for "Butterbean", the earlier version has never been released, so I couldn't tell you if the 1983 version was that much different.

That leaves only "Adios Desconocida" as the only unreleased track from those sessions. This tune is unusual for the band in that it's a languid guitar-driven romantic ballad, sung by Fred Schneider with backing vocals by Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson - very atypical, and unrelated in almost any way to both the band's signature sound from their previous two albums or the slate of tunes from those Byrne sessions. I've tried to determine whether the song was written by group members or brought in from outside, but can't find any definitive information on authorship. It's my guess that it was the latter, because after the demo was recorded, Fred himself nixed any further work on it, citing his boredom with and disinterest in the song, and the rest of the band didn't raise much of a fuss about it. As such, "Adios Desconocida" was scrapped, and never appeared in any version on subsequent releases. Rightfully so, in my opinion; like I said, it just doesn't seem to "fit" with what The B-52's were about. But have a listen and decide for yourselves.

"Don't Worry" - Before his death, John Lennon specifically cited The B-52's (in particular their song "Rock Lobster") as the catalyst/inspiration for his return to the recording studio in 1980. Taken from a recent article in Atlanta magazine:

In Bermuda, an assistant dragged the reclusive ex-Beatle to Disco 40. Upstairs, a DJ was spinning the club’s namesake musical genre. But the downstairs bar was dedicated to New Wave, where “Rock Lobster” by The B-52’s was playing.

“I said, ‘That’s Yoko!,’” Lennon recalled that fall in an interview with the BBC. “I thought there were two records going at once or something. Because it was so her. I mean, this person had studied her. I thought, ‘Get out the ax and call the wife!’ I called her and I said, ‘You won’t believe this, but I was in a disco and there was somebody doing your voice. This time, they’re ready for us!”

After Lennon's death, The B-52's became great friends with his widow, Yoko Ono, a dream come true for most of them, since they'd all been fans of hers for years (Cindy later admitted that the noises she made on "Rock Lobster" were indeed a homage to Ono's music). As an acknowledgement of/tribute to their relationship, the group dedicated a song on Whammy! to her, the seventh track "Don't Worry" (a nod to Ono's 1969 release "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)", the b-side to The Plastic Ono Band's "Cold Turkey" single).

While the Whammy! song was definitely NOT a cover of Ono's tune, the band still listed Ono in the credits for "Don't Worry" - apparently believing that this further acknowledgement of their friendship was a good idea that would please Yoko.

Well, apparently The B-52's didn't realize that in doing this, they would be obligated to pay royalties to Yoko based on Whammy!'s sales. As the album rose higher on the charts in 1983 (eventually reaching #29 and going Gold), Ono's attorneys began licking their chops, and began making demands for a sizable amount in songwriting royalties on behalf of their client (while it doesn't seem that Ono instigated these actions against the group - they were apparently corporate-driven - I'm sort of curious as to why she didn't tell her lawyers to stand down...). To avoid paying out big bucks, The B-52's agreed to replace the track with "Moon '83" (a remix of "There's A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon)" off of The Yellow Album) in later album pressings.

"Don't Worry" rapidly disappeared from the album track list, and since then has been somewhat difficult to find; fortunately, I purchased an early copy of Whammy! which has the song. It's not the greatest tune in the Bee-Fives' ouevre... but they probably could have avoided a TON of trouble and kept it on the album had they just checked with Ono's lawyers first and got everything straightened out beforehand. Oh well. I will mention that, to their credit, both The B-52's and Yoko Ono didn't let this incident poison their connection; they all remain good friends to this day.

"Creature In A Black Bikini" - Ricky Wilson found out he was stricken with AIDS in 1983, during the Whammy! sessions, and was understandably terrified by this diagnosis. He was reluctant to let anyone know about his condition, but eventually broke the news to band member Keith Strickland, his best friend from their childhood days in Athens, Georgia. Keith was shocked as well, but determined to support and help his friend. He and Ricky began taking trips to New York City together, away from the other band members (everyone had moved up from Georgia and settled in and around the Bethel, NY area), to plot a plan of action. It was during these trips that the two decided the band should work on another album, with the feeling being that the activity would do Ricky good.

After flying down to Brazil to take part in the Rock In Rio festival on the weekend of January 18th-20th, 1985 (Ricky's last public performance with the group), The B-52's entered Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia later that year for the Bouncing Off The Satellites sessions. Initially, the band was very productive - they quickly recorded the Wilson/Strickland-penned songs "Wig", "Detour Through Your Mind" and "Communicate", and jammed together on a number of other songs the two came up with, that eventually never made it onto the album.

But as Ricky's condition deteriorated over that summer and fall, so did his creativity and ability to write tunes. He still continued to contribute songs for the album, including "Ain't It A Shame" and "She Brakes For Rainbows", but these songs have a noticeably downbeat quality compared to the earlier music he wrote - perhaps reflecting his attitude at the time.

It got to the point where, due to his obviously declining health, he was spent creatively. Ricky and Keith told the other band members that if they had any solo material to offer, even stuff recorded with different bands, they could put it on the album as well - Fred and Kate responded with "Juicy Jungle" and "Housework", respectively (I've always felt these two songs didn't quite "fit" on Bouncing Off The Satellites - now I know why). For all intents and purposes, most of the basic album tracks were completed by September.

Ricky Wilson was admitted to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City in early October, 1985. It was only then that the rest of the band was informed about the nature and severity of his condition. He died three days later, on October 12th. The group still wanted to release the album, as per Ricky's desires and as a final tribute to him. But most of them (especially his sister Cindy) were too distraught to participate in final mixing and overdubs - Keith and a host of session musicians took care of that. The final album did not entirely fit Ricky's vision for it; Warner Brothers insisted that the group add more synthesizers to their music, to make it more "commercial". And in the end, Keith/the band acquiesced to the label's wishes - they just wanted to see the album out. Bouncing Off The Satellites was released in September 1986 with little label support and no band appearances or tours to promote it, and quickly faded off the charts. It was the band's last release for almost three years.

It's too bad that Ricky hadn't lived; Bouncing Off The Satellites would have ended up a much different and better album - possibly one of the band's greatest. As I mentioned earlier, there were a number of brilliant songs that Wilson and Strickland came up with during these sessions that the band noodled over, but never quite committed to. One of the best was "Creature In A Black Bikini" - only an excerpt from a recorded jam session survives, but it's enough to whet the appetites of B-52's fans who've heard it (and they're not many of those who have, as this tune has never been released) and have them wistfully wonder "what if?"...

I've got a couple of other hard-to-find B-52's nuggets laying around (mostly b-sides of some of their late '70s/early '80s singles releases), but I think I might post that stuff later. For now, here for your listening pleasure are the following:

• "Rock Lobster" b/w "52 Girls", recorded by producer Danny Beard in Athens, GA in February 1978 and released on his DB Records label in April 1978;
• "Adios Desconocida", from the aborted Mesopotamia sessions, recorded at Blank Tape Studios in New York City in September 1981 (never released);
• "Don't Worry", recorded at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas in December 1982/January 1983, and originally a track on the 1983 album Whammy! before being subsequently pulled; and
• "Creature In A Black Bikini", a jam session outtake from the Bouncing Off The Satellites sessions, recorded in Philadelphia in the spring/summer of 1985 (never released).

This post is for the true B-52's fans! If you count yourself amongst them, as I do, here you are! Enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think.

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

"Rock Lobster" single (1978): Send Email
"Adios Desconocida": Send Email
"Don't Worry": Send Email
"Creature In A Black Bikini": Send Email

Prince - The Hits/The B-Sides (3-disc set)

**sigh**. . . shit.

Another icon lost . . . He had so much left in the tank - creatively, personally and professionally. I know that time is finite for us all . . . but this one smarts.

Nothing much else left to say . . .  Here's something by someone well-known, who succinctly expressed the overall feeling of Prince's passing today a lot better than I ever could:

All I can do in tribute to this great artist is to provide his music to you - so here you are: Prince's The Hits/The B-Sides three-disc compilation, released by Paisley Park Records and Warner Brothers Records on September 10th, 1993. I bought mine at the old Echo Records in Christchurch shortly after it came out - just looked at it; it still has the price tag on it all these years later: NZ$87.95. Worth every penny I spent on it, and then some.

My favorite song off of this set is "Erotic City" - this song was the JAM during the summer of '84:

Anyway, have a listen to this set tonight, enjoy, and remember this gifted, innovative and prolific artist as he transitions into the realm of legend. Rest well, Prince.

(Man, but I'm tired of writing these eulogy posts . . .)

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

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Devo - Freedom Of Choice

Just learned about the death of former Devo band member Alan Myers this morning, and wanted to say a few brief words in his honor.

In the obituaries I've read, they kept referring to Alan as "the third Devo drummer".  To me, he will always be known as "Devo's drummer", period - all who came before and after him were just pretenders to his drum stool.  Alan supplied the off-kilter, precision beats to every song in the band's heyday, from their debut album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! through to Devo's 80's mainstream popularity.  The guy was nothing more than the 'glue', whose steady work at the skins defined the Devo sound and held the group together through some increasingly iffy albums in the early 1980s (1981's New Traditionalists, 1982's Oh

No! It's Devo, and 1984's Shout), as Devo moved away from its New Wave roots and became more of a synthesizer-driven pop band.

Myers finally quit the band in the mid-80s, as Devo began to rely more and more on electronic drums for their music.  In hindsight, he left the band almost exactly at the right time, as Devo became more and more of a faded cartoon imitation of itself as it soldiered on into the early 1990s.  I always respected Alan for having the instincts and integrity to get out when he did, instead of hanging on for more Devo paychecks doing music he didn't respect and had little input into.  After he parted ways with Devo, he remained in Los Angeles and became a electrical contractor, but still found time to play on the weekends in local bands with his wife (Skyline Electric) and daughter (Swahili Blonde). 

He was apparently happy and contented with his life, so much so that he had no interest in joining his old band mates when Devo hit the oldies circuit in the mid-90s and began recording again in the mid-2000s.  While he was no longer a part of Devo, to true fans, he will ALWAYS be part of that band.

I could write plenty more about Alan's passing, but there have been tributes a-plenty out there already, written a lot better than any I could have put together.  One of the best was in today's Los Angeles Times - check it out when you have the chance.

For myself, I always thought that Devo peaked with their 1980 album Freedom Of Choice.  In addition to containing their biggest hit, "Whip It", it also has the best overall collection of music since their debut album - all driven by Myers' relentless beat.  Here's the band playing a live version of one of my favorite songs off of this album, "Snowball":

Just listen to those licks he's laying down - spot on every time!

So, in tribute to the late Alan Myers, here's Devo's Freedom Of Choice, released on Warner Brothers Records on May 16th, 1980.  Enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think.

R.I.P. Alan.

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The B-52's - Mesopotamia ("David Byrne Mixes")

“When someone reaches middle age, people he knows begin to get put in charge of things, and knowing what he knows about the people who are being put in charge of things scares the hell out of him.”    

― Calvin Trillin, With All Disrespect

I've been watching the current Senate campaign in nearby Massachusetts (for the seat of former Senator and current Secretary of State John Kerry) with more than my usual bit of interest in all things political. I actually have a personal connection to this contest - I know the Republican candidate, Gabriel Gomez. He was my classmate at the Naval Academy, and in the same company with many of my old Annapolis friends. I can't say that I know him well, but we're familiar enough to recognize and call one another by name in a crowd of people. It's sort of strange, seeing a guy who you knew in your younger days, the same sort of hell-raisin', hard-drinkin', tom-cattin' partier you once were, now presenting himself as a solid citizen and vying for high elective office. Although I can't say that I support his cause or agree with most of his positions, I wish him well in his endeavors.

I don't know how many of you out there are familiar with the works of Calvin Trillin, the writer and humorist, but if you haven't checked him out, I heartily suggest you do. He has a very dry, witty, gentle, self-depreciating sense of humor . I heard him in a radio interview last year, discussing his then-latest book Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff (a book that went on to win last year's coveted Thurber Prize for American Humor). During the interview, Trillin brought up the topic I've quoted above, about the people we know and have grown up with now reaching the age where they're being put in charge of things, and how weird that seems. It was a pretty funny bit, with Trillin making reference to the kids he grew up with, known for eating worms or wetting their pants in elementary school, now serving as college presidents, elected officials and other respected authorities.

I can relate to that already, looking back not just on the recent Senate candidate acquaintance, but also on the lives of many of my old elementary and secondary school friends. Back in high school, one of my best buddies and I had an ongoing (and definitely non-PC) gag that poked fun at the mentally disabled. So what is his profession now? He's a senior administrator for residential communities that provide care and independence to people with Down's Syndrome and other developmental disabilities, a cause that he's devoted his life to. In another case, I went to school in California with two brothers who did such crazy, dangerous stuff to and with one another (jumping off of roofs into pools, crashing bikes head on, etc.) that I seriously thought they were congenitally insane. Today, one is a respected corporate attorney in the Bay Area, while the other is a renowned chemical engineer. So, it just goes to show you that the attitudes and actions on display in someone's early life are no harbinger of things to come.

All of which brings me to a phone call I received a few weeks ago, from my old friend Camob . . .

I've mentioned him a couple of times here in this blog. He lives way out on the West Coast, in San Diego, so we don't get together very much - I think the last time I actually saw him was in 2009. But we've always kept in contact through phone conversations and emails, maintaining a friendship and connection that goes back more than thirty years, all the way back to when we were young pups living next door to one another in a dingy old dormitory in Newport, Rhode Island.

He's a lot like me, in that most of his musical loves and sensibilities were formed back when we were in prep school and college. Camob was well into the New Wave long before he came to Newport, and was a champion of bands of that ilk that hailed from his home state of California. For instance, I remember when L.A. natives The Go-Go's dropped their hit debut LP Beauty and The Beat in the summer of 1981; you would have thought that Camob owned stock in I.R.S. Records, the way he talked up that band and that disc to anyone who would listen! He knew a lot about SoCal bands like Sparks and the Surf Punks, groups that I had only a passing acquaintance with. But as I mentioned in a previous post, the thing that made us instant friends early on was the discovery that we were both huge Devo fanatics. During off hours, we would sometimes hang out in his room, listening to his cassette copy of New Traditionalists (released the month after the Go-Go's album, in August 1981) . . . or more often than not, he and I would march up and down the halls with our parade rifles, mock-serious, as "Devo Corporate Anthem" (off of Duty Now For The Future) blasted out of his room and James, his older, more worldly roommate, looked on at us with an air of bemusement (ah, the things we did when we were young!).

I was the one who turned Camob on to The B-52's, my favorite band at the time. I was stunned that he was unfamiliar with their music up to that point . . . but he was a fast learner. By Christmas of 1981, he was a full-fledged fan - leading up to our epic journey to Providence that winter to catch them live at the Performing Arts Center (click that link above for the full story).

Although decades have now passed and we are much older, Camob remains a committed fan of both Devo and more especially The B-52's.  He never misses an opportunity to see them play when they are in his area, which is fairly often. I've seen the Bee-Fives about 7 or 8 times in my life; I figure that, over the years, Camob has paid to see them at least 25 times all told, and has been to no less than a score of Spudboy concerts. Just before the holidays last year, during one of our phone conversations, he suggested that I keep an eye on the mails, as he was sending a package my way. I thought that was a bit odd, since he and I are not in the habit of sending each other Christmas gifts every year. I tried to pry out of him what it could be, without luck. But after a day or two, I sort of forgot about it. A few days later, however, a box with my name on it arrived at my door. I recalled that it was from him, but I had no idea what it could be. I tore the box open, and laughed hysterically as I found this inside:

A joke gift, but one from the heart, and a reminder and acknowledgement of our old days together.

A couple of years ago, I was browsing around the Web, and came across a site describing a recently remixed version of The B-52's song "Mesopotamia". So I started looking around for it, but instead stumbled upon a site that had what was purported to be the "original mix" of the Mesopotamia EP - the mix reportedly done by David Byrne that was mostly shelved after he and the band had disagreements regarding the album project (which was why Mesopotamia was released as a 6-song mini-album, instead of The B-52's third full-fledged studio album). From what I read, this "Byrne mix" was included only on early copies of the EP released in England, which were immediately pulled in favor of the version that most people are familiar with. But a couple of the English copies remained at large, and the guy running the site got his hands on one of them.

I practically levitated out of my seat as I read this. Mesopotamia has long been one of my favorite B-52's albums, but to this day it holds a mixed reputation among the band's aficionados. The EP marked a substantial change in the musical direction of the band. On this record, The B-52's moved away from the more 'basic', good-time, straight-ahead party rock sound of their first two albums (The B-52's and Wild Planet) into something somewhat darker, denser, more polyrhythmic and layered. Many fans and critics were horrified by this shift - I can recall one savage review from back then that contained the line "The B-52's tried to take the 'p' out of 'party', and failed." As a result, Mesopotamia peaked on the U.S. Billboard charts significantly lower than its predecessor, the Top 20 hit Wild Planet. This EP definitely put the brakes on The B-52's momentum, and it took them years to recover.

The full story behind the aborted Mesopotamia sessions has never been fully told.  From what I understand, the disagreements between David Byrne and the Bee-Fives stemmed from two things.  First, it was the sound itself, which was a radical departure from what the band was known for; the B-52's (and the label) were understandably nervous about so drastic a move away from what by then was considered a 'signature' sound for the group.  It seemed to them that Byrne was trying to act like a bush-league Brian Eno, and mold the band into a hybrid afro-worldbeat version of what Talking Heads had been doing under Eno's production during that time (Fear Of Music/Remain In Light/Speaking In Tongues).

In addition, Byrne was producing his first full-scale solo work, the musical score for the Twyla Tharp Broadway dance project, The Catherine Wheel. He was working full-bore on that during the day and producing/mixing the B-52's stuff at night (again, trying to be a little Eno). But unlike his mentor, Byrne obviously couldn't handle the stress/effort involved in helming two big projects at once, and one of them began to suffer. Guess which one? So between the changed sound and Byrne's inattention, they collectively decided to part ways, and scrap the full album sessions.

The problem the label had with aborting the album was that it screwed up their release plans; there was supposed to be a full-blown B-52s album on the shelves in 1981. So Warner Bros. quickly slapped together the Party Mix! remix EP for release in July 1981, buying time for themselves and the band while they tried to figure out what to do with the unfinished songs and mixes left by Byrne.

The result was chaos. Island, Warner's distributor in the UK, rushed the pressing of the overseas Mesopotamia discs for release in January 1982 - somehow including unfinished, unedited demos of some tracks, instead of the fully produced songs. So, you see - the heralded so-called "David Byrne original EP mixes" are actually nothing more than a music label's huge fuckup.

Even with all of that, they're still interesting. Three of the songs on this "Mesopotamia - David Byrne Mix" (screw it - for the sake of simplicity, let's just keep calling it that) - "Deep Sleep", the title cut, and "Nip It In The Bud" are essentially identical to what I'd heard for all these years. But there were significant differences in the other three songs/demos:

• "Loveland" - the 'David Byrne mix' is 8:24 minutes long, almost a full three and a half minutes longer than the "regular" version. It's also much 'dryer' than the familiar version; that is, there is no reverb or echo added to Kate's voice in this version of the song. Still, it's pretty good.
• "Throw That Beat In The Garbage Can" - This alternate version is a full minute and a half longer than the familiar version. I'd always sort-of liked the 'regular' version, but I always felt that, like "Nip It In The Bud", it could have been improved on. I discovered that, in this case, I was wrong. The 'David Byrne version', while longer, simply has too much going on within it - a lot of annoying sound effects and horn fanfares that intrude upon and ultimately diminish the song. I frankly prefer the version I've always listened to all these years to this one.
• "Cake" - The hands-down highlight of the 'Byrne mixes'. This version is two minutes longer than the familiar version. In this one, the song is slightly sped up from the 'norm', and overall it's a LOT funkier (in a cool Bootsy Collins, Speaking In Tongues-era Talking Heads fashion) and better put together than the released version. You don't notice the extended length of it; it's THAT good, and should have been the one to have gone on the official EP.

All in all, it was pretty exciting hearing these alternate versions. Despite its critics, I'd always liked Mesopotamia - regardless of the fact that, even at its debut, it had a sort of unfinished, half-assed feel to it. And I knew from my conversations with Camob that he liked the EP as well. So I quickly forwarded him a copy, and soon afterwards received the following response:

"Really appreciate you sending this along. As we have discussed before, I always loved Mesopotamia like you did and I always felt it got shorted by everyone but the true fans. I was never a big fan of "Throw That Beat........" or "Deep Sleep", Loved "Mesopotamia", "Cake", really liked "Nip it in the Bud" and "Loveland". And you are right on with your comments, this version of "Cake" should have been the one they included on the EP."

That's my boy Camob - always on my wavelength!

Camob graduated from Annapolis a year ahead of me, and spent all of his active duty Navy time in the Pacific Fleet. He left active duty back in the mid-90s and found a niche in the professional placement field, eventually opening up his own successful business. But he maintained his Navy connection and continued his military advancement as a reserve naval officer; as a reservist, it seemed that he was more 'active' than he was when he was actually in the regular Navy, with regular deployments to hot spots around the world.

So back to that phone call . . .

Camob called to tell me some outstanding news that he's just received - he had been selected for flag rank - my boy was going to be made an Admiral! I couldn't believe it!

. . . And yet, I could believe it. People who don't know him well might dismiss him - but Camob has worked his ass off all his life to achieve success, both in business and in the military, and has never let adversity or naysayers deter him from where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do on this planet. I have been lucky enough to see all of his facets throughout his life - from the beer-bong wielding, concert-attending, poker playing boon compadre and dependable wingman, to the dedicated family man, savvy business professional and 'watertight' military commander. He's not just one or another of those things - all those experiences and attitudes from across the years are what molded him into the man he is today.

So I don't expect him to change much, now that he's got gold stars on his lapels. He'll probably still chuckle over our email exchanges (some of the funniest things I've ever written and read have come through the banter and correspondence Camob and I have engaged in, off and on, for over thirty years now). He will undoubtedly be the first Flag Officer in U.S. history who's once owned (and worn) a plastic Devo "New Traditionalist Pomp" hairdo . . . one who's served more hours of disciplinary marching and room restriction at USNA than perhaps any other admiral . . . one who knows and appreciates who Lene Lovich, Jane Wiedlin and Susan Dallion are . . . a man who never missed an episode of The Facts Of Life when it was on, and who once nursed a years-long crush on one of the TV show's girls (I'll let you guess

which one) . . . and one who spent much more time laughing and having fun in school and in life than in sweating over things, politicking and glad-handing his way to high rank. I'm afraid to say that there are more than a few top officers out there who greased their way along with that sort of "brownnoser" attitude (and I can personally name more than one . . .) - Camob is NOT one of those officers.

As such . . . well, with my buddy making Admiral, I sort of feel like Henry Hill and Jimmy "The Gent" Conway felt in Goodfellas, when they heard that Tommy DeVito was going to be a 'made man' in the Mafia - "With Tommy being made, it was like we were all being made." With Camob, it's like, finally, the right man, one of our own, a guy I've known and liked for forever and can relate to, made it. And I couldn't be happier.

(of course, in Goodfellas, this happened . . .

. . . so maybe that's not such the best analogy to use in this case . . . but I digress . . .)

So, with all of this, I have to say that in this instance I can't agree with Trillin's assessment of 'friends in high places". Knowing that Camob is now one of the folks "in charge of things" doesn't scare the hell out of me; quite the opposite - it makes me smile, knowing that, at least in this case, justice prevailed, things are in the right hands, and all is good and proper in the world. Congratulations to my old and dear friend!

So, in honor of the new RADM (USNR) Camob, here's The B-52's Mesopotamia EP, containing the alternate demo versions, released erroneously by Island Records in the United Kingdom on January 27th, 1982. Enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think.  

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Various Artists - Revenge Of The Killer B's, Vol. 2

For all you completists out there - here's the follow-up/companion volume to my previous post - Revenge Of The Killer B's, Vol. 2, released by Warner Bros. Records in 1984, in the wake of the superb and successful Attack Of The Killer B's, Vol. 1. Just like its brother, Revenge . . . contains rare b-sides and unreleased material from some of that era's top bands.

Unlike Vol. 1, this album was issued in both vinyl and cassette, although like the previous disc, it has never been released on CD. This post was burned off of my cassette version; the tape differs from the record in that it contains one 'bonus' song, NRBQ's collaboration with 1980s wrestling impresario Capt. Lou Albano. Here's the lineup:

1. Fleetwood Mac – Cool Water
2. Marshall Crenshaw – Somebody Like You
3. Depeche Mode – Sometimes I Wish I Was Dead
4. Rank And File – Post Office
5. The B-52's – Moon 83
6. The Pretenders – Money (Live)
7. NRBQ w/Lou Albano - Boardin' House Pie
8. Talking Heads – I Wish You Wouldn't Say That
9. Echo And The Bunnymen – Way Out And Up We Go
10. Tom Verlaine – Your Finest Hour
11. Kid Creole And The Coconuts – You Had No Intention
12. Madonna – Ain't No Big Deal
13. Aztec Camera – Set The Killing Free

Some of my favorite songs off of Vol. 2 include Depeche Mode's surprisingly peppy and upbeat tune "Sometimes I Wish I Was Dead", Echo & The Bunnymen's "Way Out And Up We Go", and the excellent and funky "You Had No Intention", by the now-woefully unappreciated and nearly forgotten Kid Creole & The Coconuts (here's a great live version from a show the band did in Germany in 1982):

But every song here is great and a rare gem . . . even the one with Capt. Lou!

So, there you go - now you have two discs of classic '80s rock and new wave b-sides to enjoy! And I hope you do - as always, let me hear what you have to say regarding this album.

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Various Artists - Attack Of The Killer B's, Vol. 1

Okey dokey, gang - here's a real rarity for you . . .

I got this one at the old Strawberries record store in Downtown Crossing, Boston during the summer of 1984. I was in the midst of my Naval Academy summer cruise, travelling up and down the East Coast in a small flotilla of YP (yard patrol) craft with several other classmates. The first place we stopped on our journey that summer was Bath, Maine - not high on my list of places to visit, needless to say. The locals there were jazzed to have actual Annapolis midshipmen within their midst, and pretty hospitable, throwing us a pretty lavish Independence Day picnic party. But it was one of the coldest Fourth of Julys I've ever experienced - we had to wear pretty heavy jackets during the outdoor festivities that afternoon. And the drinkers in our group (which were many, but did not, at the time, include myself) were grumbling under their breaths, because the only suds made available at the party was watery, cheap-ass Red White & Blue beer (it pains me to point out this egregious example of Boat School snobbery and entitlement - hell, it WAS free beer). Other than that, there wasn't much for us to do up there. With that grim combination of boredom and chilliness, we were all ready to move on to the next destination as soon as possible.

Boston was to be the first big-city stop on our journey; we arrived there a couple of days later, and docked in Charlestown, close to the berth of the historic USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides"). I had spent some time in Boston in earlier years, when I was a high school student in a small town on the South Shore. But this visit was the first time I really had the opportunity and freedom to do pretty much what I wished. I rode the T all over the city, went out to Cambridge to visit some friends attending Harvard, hung out on the Common and at Fanueil Hall Marketplace. It was all pretty fun.

One night during our stay, a couple of shipmates and I decided to head out to catch the recently released Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom at a theater in Park Square (now long gone, replaced by a huge parking garage and a couple of upscale restaurants like Fleming's Steakhouse and Legal Sea Foods). We took the T to the Downtown Crossing station, and started walking.

Back in the mid-80s, even though Downtown Crossing was a major shopping area in Boston (the late, lamented Filene's and Jordan Marsh department stores were going strong then), it was still a sketchy area. It was sort of dirty and disreputable, especially as the evening hours came on - after all, the Combat Zone, the city's old red light district, was only a couple of blocks away down Washington Street. It wasn't the sort of place you thought about hanging around once the sun started going down. But that's where we were, on foot, with the Combat Zone between us and our destination. I wasn't worried - just a little leery. But that leeriness dissipated when we came upon Strawberries, a big music store that used to stand in the area right across from the big department stores. We had to sidle by a couple of gangs of toughs hanging out in front of the place, but no matter - back then, I'd walk over hot coals to get inside a decent record store!

The movie didn't start for a while, so we spent some time going through the stacks at Strawberries. The store was built on a deep but rather narrow plot, so it was sort of hard to get around its multiple levels, most of which were accessible only by elevator. There weren't a lot of CDs available in 1984, so the majority of wares available were records and cassette tapes.

I stumbled across Attack Of The Killer B's in the vinyl racks almost by chance; at first glance, it looked like nothing more than a chance for Warner Brothers to make a few dollars off of old rags and bones from their vaults that they didn't deem worthy enough to release on proper albums. But then I looked at the song list, and the first one that hit my eyes was "Love Goes To A Building On Fire" by Talking Heads. I had long been a big Talking Heads fan, so of course I had heard of this legendary unreleased song, but at that point had never actually heard the tune. So seeing it finally available here was pretty exciting to me. I started looking over some of the other songs on the compilation, and noted that almost all the them were hard-to-find rarities by some pretty big-time bands. Here's the lineup:

1. Marshall Crenshaw – You're My Favorite Waste Of Time
2. The Pretenders – In The Sticks
3. The Blasters – What Will Lucy Do?
4. The Ramones – Babysitter
5. John Hiatt – Take Time To Know Her
6. Roxy Music – Always Unknowing
7. Peter Gabriel – Shock Den Affen
8. The Time – Grace
9. Talking Heads – Love Goes To A Building On Fire
10. Gang Of Four – Producer
11. T-Bone Burnett – Amnesia And Jealousy (Oh Lana)
12. Laurie Anderson – Walk The Dog

To my chagrin, the album didn't appear to be available on cassette. But I was damned if I was going to leave it behind. So I purchased the vinyl copy, which I carried around with me for the rest of the night in a red plastic Strawberries bag. It sat on my lap during the entire movie as well. Since there wasn't a record player on board the YP, I had to wait several weeks until we got back to Annapolis to listen to the record, and I was not disappointed. Every song on the album was superb, and as such, Attack Of The Killer B's was a great addition to my collection.

[I still kick myself about one thing from the evening I purchased this record. As we were coming out of the shop and headed to the movies, I noticed a flyer attached to a light pole, advertising the only Boston appearance - that very same evening - of Gang Of Four on their 1984 "farewell" tour. I wasn't as big a fan of Go4 then was I would be later, so I didn't really consider blowing off Indiana Jones and checking them out that night. Looking back, I wish that I had - I've seen the band a couple of times since their reformation, but it would have been awesome to have seen them live in their heyday. Oh well.]

This album was released only on vinyl, and to date has never been released on either cassette or CD. I honestly forget that I had this disc until just recently, when I was going through some boxes in the basement and stumbled over it. As happy as I was with my find, I wasn't very happy about the condition I found this record in - I like to take care of my stuff better than this. As such, the burn from vinyl to MP3 was not without its challenges - you'll find that the quality on the Roxy Music song is pretty scratchy. And I finally just gave up with the Peter Gabriel song, and replaced the vinyl version with an identical one I had on CD. Otherwise, the burns are pretty good and cleaned up, and every song is here.

I hope that you all enjoy this album as much as I have over the years. Check it out, and let me know what you think:

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[22 Oct 2013 - Well, it appears that I was incorrect about this album never appearing on cassette - I received the following picture today from a new visitor to this site:

Thanks for the update, John!  And welcome to the blog!]