Published in September 2014 by Aurum Press, the new book The Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear, curated by
Bruno MacDonald (a long-term Pink Floyd fan), brings together a fascinating
glimpse into the tape vaults of a wide range of artists. It takes a close look at
their unreleased material - and in particular, the stuff which has become legendary
for its status as being strictly under lock and key...
Now, of course, much of this sort of material starts to leak out and gets within the
fan communities. it can reach the situation where those profiting from this rare music
are just the bootleggers, making a profit (at very little outlay) from the work the
band's and musicians who don't - for whatever reason - want an official release of the
material.
This book takes a good look at some of the key recordings from the last fifty years or
so, bringing together such diverse artists as The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, David
Bowie, Frank Zappa, The Rolling Stones, Beck, Dr Dre, and Pink Floyd. With each, an
acclaimed album cover artist imagines a suitable cover, and the text sets out the
circumstances and nature of the material, and why - in some cases - it remains unheard
outside the inner circle of the band's themselves, with little to no possible chance
of anyone else hearing even just a note of it.
For each work under the spotlight, the authors pull together as much detail as they
can on what inspired the songs, what tracks were due to be included, or were recorded,
why a release didn't happen, forces, influences and events affecting the band at the
time, and the likelihood of eventual release. Some of the tracks have seen the light
of day - either broadly as originally intended, or as individual tracks on later
official releases. Some, too, have appeared on bootlegs in varying degrees of quality.
The book is arranged in decaded "chunks" with relevant artists and their (would be)
releases slotted in accordingly. Thus, for various readers, some sections will prove
of much more interest than others, but as each album is discussed in its own
standalone "chapter" one doesn't need to wade through all the text as with other books
which may interweave a narrative thread.
It is no big surprise that the Floyd's coverage in the book starts with the ill-fated
and abandoned Household Objects project, which (as we heard in 2011, when morsels were
included on Immersion boxsets) offered just a few minutes of completed and useable
material. The folly and sheer hard work of using everyday items from around the
house/office, spending days getting them to ultimately sound like approximations of
standard instruments, is set out in MacDonald's well researched essay, bringing in
quotes from the various Floyds as to the enormity - and ridiculous nature, in
hindsight - of the enterprise.
Later in the book, Spare Bricks, the proposed follow-up to The Wall, capturing
alternate versions and other bits of the music cut from the film (and the original
album) is discussed and dissected. At this stage in the band's career, a compilation
like this (ignoring the rather superfluous Collection of Great Dance Songs) was very
unlikely to suit Roger in particular, who was clearly heading in his own direction
with his ideas and concepts. As we know, the project morphed into The Final Cut, an
entirely different album to what Spare Bricks promised, and seen by many as broadly, a
Roger Waters solo album.
A side panel in this section makes reference to The Big Spliff, elements of which
resulted in The Endless River, released toward the end of last year, but announced
after this book was published.
Particularly for those of us who find fascination in unreleased and alternative
versions of songs, or for those who enjoy the background to albums, or to
relationships within the various bands, this book will provide a large amount of
absorbing and tantalising information. The way it is split into decade-long chunks,
rather than, say, alphabetically, works well, and the research seems solid and goes
into sufficient detail. Definitely worth checking out...
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