Top Comments: the "Lost Album" edition

A look at some “lost” albums (some of which have been “found”) after the jump …

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Jazz fans the world over have been marveling over the release of a long-lost album by the legendary saxophonist John Coltrane — fifty-five years after it was recorded. This is but the latest entry in the “lost album” category — which involves recordings that have not been officially released … for differing reasons.

Some of the reasons:  (a) the artist hates the recording, (b) the band is in the process of breaking-up, and no once cares about it, (c) the subject matter is delicate, and the performer has misgivings, (d) the artist falls ill while making the album (even dying), (e) it has been available on bootlegs so long, no one cares, (f) sometimes much of the work appears in a different format — Pete Townshend’s Lifehouse project was abandoned, with much of the work appearing in the band’s famous Who’s Next album — and even (g) — it is simply “lost”, misfiled somewhere (particularly for those who spend a great deal of time in recording studios) that may yet be located. And for numerous other reasons.

There are numerous lists of these albums, including ones from Rolling Stone,  Flavorwire, Uncut, The Guardian and even the BBC. Here are a few of note:

Neil Young (1975) — “Homegrown”

This was a solo recording that was a very personal album, and the record company was expecting a hit (the cover art was already printed).

But the album was … too personal: he had just split from film star Carrie Snodgress and CSNY was going through some horrible times. And so far, it has never seen the light of day (although some of its songs have appeared elsewhere).

    1975 recording by Neil Young

Marvin Gaye (1979) — “Love Man”

In 1979, Marvin Gaye began to record an album not for entirely good reasons: he was in tax debt, addicted to cocaine, trying to woo his estranged wife Janis Hunter and trying to woo back fans he had been losing to Prince and Rick James. One single was released from the album (which flopped) and he went on to bankruptcy and a suicide attempt. Finally recovering, he walked away from this project (associating it with a bad period) and did other work. Rumors had it that he was thinking about releasing it, but his death in 1984 ended that possibility.

    1979 recording by Marvin Gaye

Jeff Beck (1970) — Motown recording

Legendary Yardbirds, Rod Stewart and solo guitarist Jeff Beck wanted to record in 1970 at Motown— fitting, as he has worked with and recorded songs by Stevie Wonder throughout his career — but encountered problems from-the-start on this project. First, he brought along a fellow Brit on drums (Cozy Powell) who was an ace … but was a poor fit at Motown. After costs began to mount, Beck saved ten songs on cassette .. where they remain to this day.

1970 recordings made at Motown

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1973-75) — “Human Highway”

The band had been through some rocky times, but gathered in 1973 to record an album where all four members contributed material. Then, tensions mounted and the project was scrapped. The following year they reunited for a popular tour … that disintegrated into in-fighting and drug abuse … and that poisoned efforts in late 1974 to complete the work. In early 1975 they tried one final time (enlisting Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann) but it finally crash-landed for good.

Unreleased mid-70’s trax from CSNY

Jimi Hendrix (1970) — “Black Gold”

In his short life he spent so much time in the studio .. that it is small wonder that many more album releases of Jimi Hendrix have emerged after his death. In the last year of his life, he recorded sixteen songs on an acoustic Martin guitar and gave them to his drummer (Mitch Mitchell) to work-out in a studio recording. Hendrix’s death in September of that year meant the project languished and remained at Mitchell’s home for over twenty years.

Several songs had been recorded in full in other sessions (and subsequently released) but there are at least nine songs unique to the session. The Hendrix estate has promised to release them someday (but only one has been, so far).

  Jimi Hendrix: 1970 acoustic guitar

Beach Boys (1977) — “Adult/Child”

Much has written about a long-lost Beach Boys album, Smile— which was begun in 1966 and finally released forty-five years later in 2011.

Less well-known is a still-unreleased album that dates back to 1977, Adult/Child. This was an album comprised of … big-band arrangements, four songs of which were scored by a sometimes arranger for Frank Sinatra(!) The rest of the Beach Boys hated it (with a graphic response by Mike Love) and their record label rejected it as not being commercially viable. It exists on bootlegs today.

  Brian Wilson’s big-band recording

Bob Dylan (1969) — “The Dylan/Cash Session”

Similarly, Bob Dylan is well known for his 1967 Basement Tapes — recorded along with future members of The Band during his recuperation from a 1966 motorcycle accident. After selling well in bootlegs, it was commercially released in 1975 (with an unabridged version released in 2014).

Less well-known: when Bob Dylan travelled to Nashville in 1969 to record his landmark Nashville Skyline album, he joined-up with Johnny Cash — who had been an early supporter of Dylan, even giving him a guitar in 1964.

They recorded a dozen duets, yet only one of which (a re-make of Girl from the North Country) made it onto Nashville Skyline. It came out on bootleg in 1994, yet has never had a formal, comprehensive release (hence this unpolished photo).

1969 Nashville duet recordings

We’ll finish with three recordings that moved from the “lost” to “found” category — either by blowing the dust off a warehouse tape, or sorting through the attic.

The Doors (1983) — “Alive She Cried”

The Doors released six albums in a five year period, and had little unreleased studio material (though there have been several more recent live recording releases). This material was feared lost in the 1970’s, until random bootleg versions started turning up. In 1982, the surviving band members began a search and located a scrap of paper in a desk at a Los Angeles storage facility. It led to a mixed-bag of sound-check/live tapes, and Alive She Cried was released.

1983 official release from The Doors

Mahavishnu Orchestra (1999) — “The Lost Trident Sessions”

Another warehouse discovery came from a band in crisis. One of the pioneering jazz-rock bands (John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra) recorded several new tracks at Trident Studios in London in June, 1973 after the success of their first two studio albums. They performed a concert in New York’s Central Park six weeks later, from which a live album release featured three songs from this studio effort. Yet tensions over songwriting credits and the relentless touring took-its-toll, and the band split-up by year’s end (although McLaughlin soldiered-on with a revamped line-up, for a time).

The album was forgotten, according to road manager Elliott Sears (who helped me obtain a telephone interview with band member Jan Hammer several years ago) as everyone involved had moved-on. Twenty-five years later (when he was re-mastering one of the previous Orchestra albums) producer Bob Belden came across two tapes lying in a Columbia Records vault in Los Angeles. And thus, the Lost Trident Sessions studio album was finally released in 1999.

Three songs were on a 1973 live album

John Coltrane (2018) — “Both Directions at Once”

And lastly, the most recent lost-and-found recording of note. On March 6, 1963 the John Coltrane Quartet entered Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey for a recording session. John Coltrane gave one tape copy to his first wife Juanita Grubbs (who later adopted the African name Naima, the title of one of Coltrane’s most famous tunes) and Impulse Records kept the master copy.

It is unclear why this was never slated as a release, and John Coltrane’s death in 1967 prevented a re-visit to the material. Impulse later moved its operations to the West Coast, and in the 1970’s decided to reduce storage fees by discarding its unused tapes. It was only recently that Naima’s family discovered her copy and just five weeks ago, Both Directions at Once was released ... to much fanfare.

    The forty-five years later release

If you have other favorites in this category, have-at-it in the comments. After all, as a reviewer at the New Yorker magazine concluded about Both Directions at Once:

“There are still very good surprises to be had ………. if we keep our hearts open”. 

Let’s close with two songs from the “lost-and-found” department — first, the Doors singing the Van Morrison & Them classic Gloria from “Alive She Cried”.

x xYouTube Video

And lastly, from the “new” John Coltrane album: a remake of one of his classic tunes, Impressions— w/McCoy Tyner on piano, the sole surviving musician on it.

x xYouTube Video

Now, on to Top Comments:

Highlighted by MarcKyle64:

In the front-page story about the inability of Sarah Huckabee Sanders to contradict her boss’s description of the press as Enemies of the People— well, ontheleftcoast … sing it!

And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........

In the front-page story about the extravagant clothing expenditures by Paul Manafort— both gchaucer2 (on fit) as well as mmacdDE (on fraud) weigh-in today.

And in the front-page story ostensibly about Sean Hannity, but which morphed into more enemy-of-the-people in the comments … Catte Nappe suggests television networks (except you-know-who) are learning not to add oxygen to the Trump rally bonfires.

TOP PHOTOS August 1st, 2018 Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo.

And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:

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By-the-bye, hope that everyone at Netroots Nation is having a good time — both informative and imbibing errr .. some potent potables, as Alex Trebek would say.