Albums that never were.

[Kara Zor El]

I thought I'd start a thread where we could list our knowledge of albums that were started but never got finished or released.

I'll start it of with Landlocked. Of which I have some bootlegs.
Landlocked is one of the most bootlegged Beach Boys albums. In 1971, when the band were working on what became the Surf's Up album, they submitted several different line-ups of the album to Warner Bros records, under the provisional title Landlocked. Most of these line-ups were rejected, and the bootleg versions of Landlocked are generally made from tracks that were recorded for them - however there is no 'definitive' Landlocked album.

And the Pink Floyd album that they started to make around 70 in which they were only going to use none instruments. apparently they they made some recordings, using elastic bands and stuff and made backing tracks to be overdubbed later. Then they buried the project. But tapes exist but no bootlegs.

there's also Syd Barret's 1974 album. He turned up to the studio with a guitar with no strings on and the project was quickly aborted.

Smile fell into this category until the recent Brain Wilson release as did The Who's Lighthouse, until Townsend released a modern version a few years ago.

[TheLazy]

Has Chinese Democracy seen the light of day yet? What about Detox?

:)

[Kara Zor El]

Has Chinese Democracy seen the light of day yet? What about Detox?

:)

Who are they by?

[KenK]

Who are they by?

Chinese Democracy is the Guns N Roses album Axl Rose has been working on for the better part of a decade. I think he's gone through at least two or three sets of replacement musicians since then.

Detox is the Dr. Dre follow-Up to Chronic 2001.

[leonaozaki]

Homegrown by Neil Young-- should have come out after Harvest, but Young released Tonight's the Night instead.

rob

[Albert]

And the Pink Floyd album that they started to make around 70 in which they were only going to use none instruments. apparently they they made some recordings, using elastic bands and stuff and made backing tracks to be overdubbed later. Then they buried the project. But tapes exist but no bootlegs.

there's also Syd Barret's 1974 album. He turned up to the studio with a guitar with no strings on and the project was quickly aborted.



Fascinating, I've never heard of either of these. Any links or sources? Or even just working titles to help direct my own searches?

[Kara Zor El]

Fascinating, I've never heard of either of these. Any links or sources? Or even just working titles to help direct my own searches?

I'll dig up some info for you later. I read about them in Pink Floyd biography and Barret biography.

There is also Loose Bricks of course, which was meant to have tracks that didn't make it onto The Wall and some of which ended up on the Final Cut but rerecorded and also it would have featured some of the alternate track versions from the movie.

And there is Denis Wilson's follow up to the masterpiece Pacific Ocean Blue titled Bamboo. Which he never finished but there are bootlegs. One of the songs Baby Blue ended up on The Light Album.

[Kid Seven]

I always think of Prince's "Camille" project when I think of works that could've been. I think it would've been fascinating to see it released.

[Tish-the-Scorpion]

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony had this rap group called Graveyard shift.they was like a fusion of quasi-horrorcore socio-political gangsta rap,dark rock hybrid.their music had a very hauntingly eerie Gothic,moody rock vibe.their album was gonna be called "still waters" set to be released in 98.the members was tombstone,lil boo,gate keeper,and sin.

unfortunately lil boo,and Tombstone was gunned down. (the unofficial graveyard shift myspace said he was gunned down in his front lawn, though this is not official). Gates, struck by the tragedy of having two members of Grave Yard Shift gunned down, quit hip-hop. sin was the only one left.

relativity records felt that the album could have changed rap music.but they didn't know how to promote it with all 4 members let alone one.so the album was shelved. but the producer romeo antonio released it through his website eventually in 2002.Every song on the album was unique and a great listen, with biblical metaphors in the tracks, Tombstones dark heavy menacing voice, Gates lyrics, and Sin's creepy voice and often graphic suicidal lyrics.

[Kara Zor El]

Fascinating, I've never heard of either of these. Any links or sources? Or even just working titles to help direct my own searches?

The Floyd one was called The Household Objects project/ I got this from wiki and below is a guilmour snippit from an interview where he talks about it. It was actually 75/76 not around 70.

The Household Objects project was an attempt by the band Pink Floyd to create a whole album using only sounds from ordinary "household objects", such as stretched rubber bands, with no conventional instruments. At the time the band was still reeling from the outstanding success of their previous album, Dark Side of the Moon, and felt somewhat at a loss concerning where to proceed. The project was scrapped when the band started working on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", which would become the main component of their next album, Wish You Were Here. Some relics of the project can be heard in the songs on Wish You Were Here, for example, water-filled wineglasses resonating in "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and various sounds in "Welcome to the Machine".

No other recordings of Household Objects are known to exist.




RC: Is there much of Household Objects (the aborted follow-up to Dark Side which was recorded with you guessed it- household objects) in the can?

There are all sorts of bits and pieces but nothing complete. We salvaged a little bit the main drone at the beginning of Wish You Were Here was made with wine glasses which we recorded on 16-track, with a glass on each track at a semitone interval, so we could do chords and play it like a keyboard. It was a hugely difficult sampling system. A few other bits were salvaged. I remember spending an inordinately long time stretching rubber bands across match-boxes to get a bass sound which just ended up sounding like a bass guitar!

RC: Whose idea was it?

Oh, probably Rogers it certainly wasn't mine. We spent an awful lot of hours of wasted studio time faffing around.

[Shellhead]

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony had this rap group called Graveyard shift.they was like a fusion of quasi-horrorcore socio-political gangsta rap,dark rock hybrid.their music had a very hauntingly eerie Gothic,moody rock vibe.their album was gonna be called "still waters" set to be released in 98.the members was tombstone,lil boo,gate keeper,and sin.


You might enjoy the Kruder & Dorfmeister remix of "1st of the Month." It's eerie. You can find it on Kruder & Dorfmeister's double disc remix collection, the K&D Sessions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_K_%26_D_Sessions

[Tish-the-Scorpion]

You might enjoy the Kruder & Dorfmeister remix of "1st of the Month." It's eerie. You can find it on Kruder & Dorfmeister's double disc remix collection, the K&D Sessions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_K_%26_D_Sessionsthanx,i'll check it out.

[the goddamn batman]

There is also Loose Bricks of course, which was meant to have tracks that didn't make it onto The Wall and some of which ended up on the Final Cut but rerecorded and also it would have featured some of the alternate track versions from the movie.


Man, I'd LOVE to have a decent recording of Mother from the film... that's such a great version of a song I never cared for too much.


There is also the Djali Zwan project. Zwan, in its more acoustic form, was supposed to have a release, until Corgan broke up the band. I'm sure there are recordings... I mean, I know there are... even if they aren't from a proper studio (though, some of them are) there has to be three albums worth of Zwan material. Be it Djali or otherwise.

[Spike-X]

Bruce Springsteen's most talked-about unreleased album is what is known as "Electric Nebraska" - the songs from the Nebraska album (which was originally recorded as a demo tape in Bruce's bedroom) recorded with the E Street Band. Try as they might, the band just couldn't get the feel Bruce wanted for the material. They eventually decided to just release the demo tape as is (after trying a few other options, such as getting Bruce to re-record the songs solo in the studio), and the band went on to work on material that would later be released as the Born In The USA album.

The "Electric Nebraska" sessions are the only material from this time period that have yet to surface in any way, even in elite bootleg trading circles.

Bruce also has a few other unreleased projects in the vaults, including a "hip-hop influenced" album from the mid-90s.

[Buried Alien]

Bruce also has a few other unreleased projects in the vaults, including a "hip-hop influenced" album from the mid-90s.

That one should probably stay in the vaults. :)

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Spike-X]

That one should probably stay in the vaults. :)

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)
I'm thinking it's more along the lines of the stuff he was doing with drum machine beats and loops on songs like Streets Of Philadelphia and Missing, rather than a hardcore gangsta rap "Straight Outta Jersey" kinda thing.

[Albert]

The Floyd one was called The Household Objects project/ I got this from wiki and below is a guilmour snippit from an interview where he talks about it. It was actually 75/76 not around 70.

The Household Objects project was an attempt by the band Pink Floyd to create a whole album using only sounds from ordinary "household objects", such as stretched rubber bands, with no conventional instruments. At the time the band was still reeling from the outstanding success of their previous album, Dark Side of the Moon, and felt somewhat at a loss concerning where to proceed. The project was scrapped when the band started working on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", which would become the main component of their next album, Wish You Were Here. Some relics of the project can be heard in the songs on Wish You Were Here, for example, water-filled wineglasses resonating in "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and various sounds in "Welcome to the Machine".

No other recordings of Household Objects are known to exist.




RC: Is there much of Household Objects (the aborted follow-up to Dark Side which was recorded with you guessed it- household objects) in the can?

There are all sorts of bits and pieces but nothing complete. We salvaged a little bit the main drone at the beginning of Wish You Were Here was made with wine glasses which we recorded on 16-track, with a glass on each track at a semitone interval, so we could do chords and play it like a keyboard. It was a hugely difficult sampling system. A few other bits were salvaged. I remember spending an inordinately long time stretching rubber bands across match-boxes to get a bass sound which just ended up sounding like a bass guitar!

RC: Whose idea was it?

Oh, probably Rogers it certainly wasn't mine. We spent an awful lot of hours of wasted studio time faffing around.

Very interesting indeed, thanks for doing the legwork. Having listened to some of Water's more esoteric works, like The Body, I can definitely see Household Objects being his brainchild. Just more evidence that Floyd was a band ahead of its time... with sampling technology being what it is today, a project like that could be accomplished quite simply.

[The Mirrorball Man]

I always think of Prince's "Camille" project when I think of works that could've been. I think it would've been fascinating to see it released.

"Camille" is far, far from being the only unreleased Prince album. In fact there are so many of them that there's a whole Wikipedia page about them. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreleased_Prince_projects)

[leonaozaki]

Bruce Springsteen's most talked-about unreleased album is what is known as "Electric Nebraska" - the songs from the Nebraska album (which was originally recorded as a demo tape in Bruce's bedroom) recorded with the E Street Band. Try as they might, the band just couldn't get the feel Bruce wanted for the material. They eventually decided to just release the demo tape as is (after trying a few other options, such as getting Bruce to re-record the songs solo in the studio), and the band went on to work on material that would later be released as the Born In The USA album.

The "Electric Nebraska" sessions are the only material from this time period that have yet to surface in any way, even in elite bootleg trading circles.

Bruce also has a few other unreleased projects in the vaults, including a "hip-hop influenced" album from the mid-90s.


There was a song on the TRACKS boxset -- "Living on the Edge of the World"--that used the lyrics of "Open All Night" (I think) with the E Street backing him. I liked it.

rob

[Kara Zor El]

Man, I'd LOVE to have a decent recording of Mother from the film... that's such a great version of a song I never cared for too much.

If you go to a music fair you will probably find a bootlegged copy, without the added movie voices. I used to have the Soundtrack on album. It's not a recording of the movie, with the wild track and voice tracks over but just the studio recordings. So it is out there. It was perfect quality. You must be able to get a CD of it at a record fair. If you find one and want it just give it a listen first as there are versions out there where someone has just recorded the movie onto a CD. So When the Tigers Break Free is in two parts etc, and you hear Geldoff's scream on Comfortably Numb.

It's usually called Pink Floyd The Wall Movie Soundtrack and has the screaming face on the cover.

But I much prefer that version too. The wind up musical box at the beginning and the orchestra really gives it a haunting quality the album track lacks.

Very interesting indeed, thanks for doing the legwork. Having listened to some of Water's more esoteric works, like The Body, I can definitely see Household Objects being his brainchild. Just more evidence that Floyd was a band ahead of its time... with sampling technology being what it is today, a project like that could be accomplished quite simply.

No problems, happy to help a fellow Floydian.:) Music from the body does spring to mind, although it was Ron Geeson who wrote all those mad instrumental bits and Roger who wrote the four songs. But Several Species of Small Furry Animals... that is on Ummaggumma by Waters has that feel too.

[Kara Zor El]

There is also the original recording of Wing's Band on the Run. Macca had completed the entire album in Lagos in Nigeria and then he and Linda were mugged and the only copy on a master tape was stolen. So they had to record it again from scratch. obviously it would sound similar but different. Particularly the vocals I imagine. That tape may be out there somewhere waiting to hear the light of day.

[blackdragon6]

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony had this rap group called Graveyard shift.they was like a fusion of quasi-horrorcore socio-political gangsta rap,dark rock hybrid.their music had a very hauntingly eerie Gothic,moody rock vibe.their album was gonna be called "still waters" set to be released in 98.the members was tombstone,lil boo,gate keeper,and sin.

unfortunately lil boo,and Tombstone was gunned down. (the unofficial graveyard shift myspace said he was gunned down in his front lawn, though this is not official). Gates, struck by the tragedy of having two members of Grave Yard Shift gunned down, quit hip-hop. sin was the only one left.

relativity records felt that the album could have changed rap music.but they didn't know how to promote it with all 4 members let alone one.so the album was shelved. but the producer romeo antonio released it through his website eventually in 2002.Every song on the album was unique and a great listen, with biblical metaphors in the tracks, Tombstones dark heavy menacing voice, Gates lyrics, and Sin's creepy voice and often graphic suicidal lyrics.i got the album through a fellow poster at BTNHBoard.com.i love the album that group had so much potential only for it to be cruelly taken away from them.

[blackdragon6]

That one should probably stay in the vaults. :)

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)i wanna hear it.

[TheLazy]

Who are they by?

They are by GnR and Dr Dre.

Chinese democracy has become an inside joke amongst Rock fans, and Detox has become an urban legend among hip hop fans. neither show any sign of coming soon even thought they constantly get new release dates et.

:)

[Kara Zor El]

They are by GnR and Dre Dre.

Chinese democracy has become an inside joke amongst Rock fans, and Detox has become an urban legend among hip hop fans. neither show any sign of coming soon even thought they constantly get new release dates et.

:)

Thanking you kindly. No bootlegs out there?

[TheLazy]

Thanking you kindly. No bootlegs out there?

Not that I've heard. Apparently Most of the songs on The Games, The Documentary where produced by Dre and meant to be on Detox, but he sold them to The Game instead.

:)

[Spike-X]

There was a song on the TRACKS boxset -- "Living on the Edge of the World"--that used the lyrics of "Open All Night" (I think) with the E Street backing him. I liked it.

rob
Really? I thought it was bloody awful, and solid evidence that sometimes stuff that's in the vaults should stay in the vaults.

[the goddamn batman]

If you go to a music fair you will probably find a bootlegged copy, without the added movie voices. I used to have the Soundtrack on album. It's not a recording of the movie, with the wild track and voice tracks over but just the studio recordings. So it is out there. It was perfect quality. You must be able to get a CD of it at a record fair. If you find one and want it just give it a listen first as there are versions out there where someone has just recorded the movie onto a CD. So When the Tigers Break Free is in two parts etc, and you hear Geldoff's scream on Comfortably Numb.

It's usually called Pink Floyd The Wall Movie Soundtrack and has the screaming face on the cover.

But I much prefer that version too. The wind up musical box at the beginning and the orchestra really gives it a haunting quality the album track lacks.


Guess I should do some looking around. I NEED that version that's just the studio recordings.

[Kid Seven]

"Camille" is far, far from being the only unreleased Prince album. In fact there are so many of them that there's a whole Wikipedia page about them. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreleased_Prince_projects)

Very true. Camille is perhaps my favorite, followed by the Black Album. Anyone interested should definitely follow the above link.

[The Mirrorball Man]

Ryan Adams has a lot of officially unreleased material, including several complete albums, such as "Destroyer", "Exile on Franklin Street" and "The Suicide Handbook". For unreleased albums, they are, however, awfully easy to find.

[DonC]

I'm pretty sure Green Day recorded an album before American Idiot, but the master tapes were stolen.

[TheLazy]

I'm pretty sure Green Day recorded an album before American Idiot, but the master tapes were stolen.

Yeah I heard that too. You would have thought they'd be bootlegs everywhere:confused:

:)

[david r]

1. Dr. Dre and Ice Cube planned an album together called Helter Skelter. It would have been with Death Row Records and released in 1994.

2. Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and MC Ren all united briefly as NWA and were serious about putting together an album and tour. The album was tentatively titled Not These Niggaz Again!

3. Eazy-E had planned for his second album to be a mixture of rap and Eazy singing. Dr. Dre would have co-produced and the album was titled Temporary Insanity.

4. Prince had plans for a "trilogy" of albums, beginning with Purple Rain and continuing with Graffiti Bridge and ending with the unreleased record The Dawn.

5. The Beatles original plans for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band were a double album of songs surrounding Liverpool and their childhood memories. This is where the tunes "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" came from. As time wore on, the concept of Sgt. Pepper changed into the album we know today.

[Spike-X]

Ryan Adams has a lot of officially unreleased material, including several complete albums, such as "Destroyer", "Exile on Franklin Street" and "The Suicide Handbook". For unreleased albums, they are, however, awfully easy to find.
He has a multi-disc box set coming out before the end of the year which will contain a whole bunch of unreleased albums and miscellaneous songs.

[david r]

6. At the time of his death, Jimi Hendrix was recording a new album titled First Rays of the New Rising Sun. He wanted fewer lyrics and much more instrumentation, moving further into a progressive, creative direction. A pieced-together release of this LP came out in the late 90s.

7. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were recording a new album in the mid-1970s. A group that was always tense, Neil Young finally quit when 2 of the other members got into a heated argument over a single lyric, and wouldn't quit bickering. Young stormed out and vowed never to return, and the CSNY album never got completed.

8. Elton John has been talking about doing a hip-hop CD, but I haven't heard he's ever done it.

[Patient Boy]

There's Q-Tip's Kamaal The Abstract, the follow up to Amplified. It was recorded but shelved before release, but leaked copies found their way online. It's a massive departure from Q-Tip's previous material, and as an exercise in fusing together rock, hip-hop and soul it's what Mos Def's The New Danger should've sounded like.

[Kara Zor El]

4. Prince had plans for a "trilogy" of albums, beginning with Purple Rain and continuing with Graffiti Bridge and ending with the unreleased record The Dawn.

What would have made them a trilogy? What was the linking theme?

[The Mirrorball Man]

What would have made them a trilogy? What was the linking theme?

The main character, the Kid.

[Kara Zor El]

The main character, the Kid.

Thanks. I never knew those two albums were linked and I bought them together. First Prince albums I owned for a few years. I haven't got many. Will have to rectify that someday.

[Albert]

I stumbled upon this little tidbit while doing some research on Rick Nelson.

The lyric you ask about, "Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes wearing his disguise," is more difficult to interpret, but I finally found it for you. ""Mr Hughes" isn't Howard Hughes, as most people think, but refers to George Harrison, the ex-Beatle. Rick Nelson was good friends and next-door neighbor to Harrison, and was also a good friend of Bob Dylan. "Mr. Hughes" was the alias Harrison used while traveling, and "hid in Dylan's shoes" apparently refers to an album of Bob Dylan covers Harrison was planning that never came to fruition. "Wearing his disguise" is more obscure, but presumably had something to do with Harrison's habit of traveling incognito.

Of course this is in regards to the Mr. Hughes reference in Nelson's "Garden Party". Anyone have any idea which songs he was considering, and if any covers were actually recorded?

The complete article can be found here for the interested:

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mgardenparty.html

[Jazzy Jay]

Nas's I Am... was originally supposed to be I Am... The Autobiography, basically Nas devoting each track to telling some part of his life. It would start with him in his mother's belly (the song that became "Belly Button Window") and would end with his suicide on "Undying Love." There was also supposed to be a song called "Amongst Kings" which would have Nas begging to God to return his life, and the Almighty would reincarnate Nas as Nastradamus (as ridiculous as this songs sounds, it's actually pretty good...of course it serves as an intro to the horrifying Nastradamus album). After mass bootlegging (this was in the late 90s when CD burners were becoming more popular) they redid most of the album, and we got a pretty mediocre, hit-or-miss album. A shame, but most of the songs were released on '02's The Lost Tapes or are available online/through mixtapes.

I think that Ja Rule, Jay-Z, and DMX were supposed to release an album called Murder Inc. back in the late 90's, when they were all at the heights of their popularity (before 50 ended Ja's career and people tired of DMX's schtick). Since it prominently featured Ja Rule, chances are this would have sucked, but Jay was an absolute beast from '97-'02, so it could have been somewhat worthwhile.

And of course anything that Biggie or Pac would have worked on.

[Patient Boy]

Nas's I Am... was originally supposed to be I Am... The Autobiography, basically Nas devoting each track to telling some part of his life. It would start with him in his mother's belly (the song that became "Belly Button Window") and would end with his suicide on "Undying Love." There was also supposed to be a song called "Amongst Kings" which would have Nas begging to God to return his life, and the Almighty would reincarnate Nas as Nastradamus (as ridiculous as this songs sounds, it's actually pretty good...of course it serves as an intro to the horrifying Nastradamus album). After mass bootlegging (this was in the late 90s when CD burners were becoming more popular) they redid most of the album, and we got a pretty mediocre, hit-or-miss album. A shame, but most of the songs were released on '02's The Lost Tapes or are available online/through mixtapes.

I guess that's interesting, but I finally actually listened to It Was Written (the only Nas album I have is Illmatic) and I really couldn't stand it. The production in particular was killing me.

I think that Ja Rule, Jay-Z, and DMX were supposed to release an album called Murder Inc. back in the late 90's, when they were all at the heights of their popularity (before 50 ended Ja's career and people tired of DMX's schtick). Since it prominently featured Ja Rule, chances are this would have sucked, but Jay was an absolute beast from '97-'02, so it could have been somewhat worthwhile.

Nothing was ever recorded though right? I guess in 99 that might have been interesting, but in hindsight it would've simply ended up something like the Firm, but probably not that interesting at all.

[Kara Zor El]

John Lennon was working on an album when he died, some of which got released on Milk and Honey. But it wasn't as should be.

And although George Harrison's last solo album, Brainwashed got released, he had only laid down the basic track of guitar and vocals and probably drums and bass. He is wishes were to do a very basic production but his family and Jeff Lynne decided it should have a bigger production. Obviously had George lived long enough to finish the album it would have sounded very different.

On ridiculously less important note, there is also Posh Spice/Victoria Beckham's album produced by Damon Dash. They released a single but not the album. I wonder why? She probably forced Golden balls to listen to it every night.

[Jazzy Jay]

I guess that's interesting, but I finally actually listened to It Was Written (the only Nas album I have is Illmatic) and I really couldn't stand it. The production in particular was killing me.

Really? I loved It Was Written- I thought it was at least as good, if not better than Illmatic.


Nothing was ever recorded though right? I guess in 99 that might have been interesting, but in hindsight it would've simply ended up something like the Firm, but probably not that interesting at all.

I think they recorded a couple of songs under the 'Murder Inc.' umbrella, particularly "Murdergram" off the Streets is Watching Soundtrack (it was okay, nothing special). But I don't think they ever recorded a full album's worth of songs.

[BizarroBeachHead]

I'd really like to hear Weezer's Song from the Black Hole (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_from_the_Black_Hole) in it's original conception complete with Matt Sharp's contributions, back when Rivers was young, wide eyed, and ambitious.

Bleh, I'm sure the demo's will eventually be released, but it's not the same.