Music Blogs

Now, Elvis Costello has been over-archiving for years, re-releasing his albums so many times that even his most ardent supporters have thrown their hands in the air and asked him to STOP! In the name of showing the fans a little respect. Bonus cuts are fine, but when you already own half of them, well, it's time to just release the live stuff as a live album and not as part of an album you already own. At least Pearl Jam and Tori Amos have made their concerts available without having to buy the studio album for the fifth time.

And Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash have new albums and boxed sets so often that there are now boxed sets of the boxed sets. And the Doors have more compilations and live albums than they do actual studio releases: it's like six vs. 200.

But for every artist who's ever had a boxed-set, there's another who's been dragging their toe-tapping feet. It's either a legal issue--who owns these things anyway?--or someone's trying to get the timing right! Despite what you may read about music being free these days, it's still a business and artists need to make money in order to buy that island in the Bahamas. Or that condo in Dubai.

The truly struggling artists have turned to selling T-Shirts.

Anyhow, leafing through the different catalogs of major artists, I noted 25 who would be ripe for the pickings, who have enough of an audience base to make a boxed-set of outtakes worth considering. Granted, some are personal faves--it's my blog after all, I should get some say--but others are from a purely mercenary view. Cash in while there's still cash to be had. The way things are going, I'm starting to think that I should've saved my Confederate money!

Now, sure, we can list our "Wish List." But while I would love for there to be a four-CD Nick Drake collection of A-list outtakes, I also know it won't come to pass. It doesn't exist. So I left it off. But everyone listed below SHOULD have something to give their fans. And, if not, what the heck have they been doing all these years?

25) Michael Jackson: As the most successful popular attraction of the 20th Century you'd think he'd have an entire industry devoted to promoting his music. But instead he likes to stay at home and be weird.

24) Fleetwood Mac: After seeing Mr. Buckingham on one of those VH-1 Classic Rock Albums shows and seeing the intricacy of his work, I'm calling for an all-out release of the band's outtakes. Surely, he's thrown away some damn fine ideas and it would be "nice" to see how it was all put together.

23) Tom Waits: Yes, he put together Orphans but that only collects the later years and Tommy boy has been at it for decades. Surely, there are more live tapes for us to handle. More studio outtakes and lost demos...You'd think a guy like Waits would get on this, since he likes to control his image and career. Remember Tom, Time Waits for no man. (What does that even mean?)

22) Brian Eno: Fact: Brian Eno fans would buy a boxed set of the man farting. Some critics contend they already have. While there have been Eno boxes in the past, there needs to be one that comes with a 200 page instructional book to explain how to listen to the albums.

21) U2: Yes, they've been issuing their albums with bonus cuts as anniversary editions, but the stuff that would really be desirable to fans and history buffs would be an Eno-led collection where you could hear how Achtung Baby! was put together and then I guess some live stuff to show how they did it live...they have the sales figures to back up such a project. Get to it, Bono!

20) Bob Dylan: I know Dylan's had an entire "Bootleg Series" dedicated to him and that No Direction Home soundtrack included stuff that shocked everyone. But where's the boxed set that really brings it all back home without having to sift through the Slow Train Coming outtakes or the "Live With Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" tour. As lovely as it is to see the man having a latter day renaissance, it'd be even nicer to be treated to every outtake from Highway 61 Revisited and Blood On The Tracks and leave the Knocked Out Loaded sessions for another time.

19) AC/DC: The band is still so hugely popular that it would be to their advantage to scrape around and find more vintage footage. Sure, they've issued what they can, but don't you get the feeling that somewhere they're hiding even more of it? Granted, everything they do sounds the same, but that's why people like it. People don't want 52 flavors, they want the one that tastes good.

18) Prince: Everyone knows this guy records more music than even the guy from Guided By Voices but only issues a third of it, or a tenth...and surely there are outtakes from his prime era (that would be the late-'70s to the late '80s) that fans would devour in seconds and it could all come in an elaborate purple velvet box that people would own if only to sleep on.

17) Bruce Springsteen: Considering that he records about five albums worth of material for every one he releases, he should have at least FOUR boxed sets out by now. The word is he's going to put together a Darkness On The Edge Of Town Anniversary Edition when he finds the time. Hopefully, his people will find more than time and track down the best live tapes of the '78 tour and maybe some film as well. They need to get this one done right because it will be too late by the time they get to that Lucky Town retrospective.

16) Black Sabbath: Ozzy Osbourne continues to outsell his youngest counterparts by an alarming margin. So imagine what could be had if the band would issue live recordings from the 1970s. It would go over like a Led Zeppelin. And those guys finally relented! Face it, if you can go over to a website like Wolfgang's Vault (www.wolfgangsvault.com) and find cool shows to experience, then there has to be a way for the band to get that material to us in a way that makes us pay for it and gives us shiny photos to look at as well.

15) The Beatles: Yes, they issued those BBC Recordings and that 3-Volume Anthology. But how about the Shea Stadium concert? The Clash found their tapes.

14) Sex Pistols: These guys never passed up the chance to make an easy buck. How come they haven't issued a limited edition numbered copy of their worst moments? With Sid Vicious on bass, they were the worst live act imaginable. Yet, controversial and exciting at the same time. There probably aren't any outtakes, since I'm sure management would've exploited that by now. But they could improvise. It isn't as if they were ever allergic to scamming people.

13) The Who: The Who were a very different band on stage than on record and it wasn't until Live At Leeds that the kids who stayed home discovered this about their favorite group. Surely somewhere among the Lifehouse Outtakes and Townshend's attempt at putting The Bible to music, there exists some incendiary live material that would be preferable to another "reunion" tour.

12) The Stooges: Yes, there's that incredible Fun House box that incorporates every last burp and wheeze, but they need a box that bridges both the early work at Elektra, both mixes of Raw Power at Columbia and then the mess that is Kill City. While the bootleg quality of so much of the stuff is in keeping with the band's spirit, it would still be nice to have it all sound a little better just for the heck of it.

11) Mariah Carey: I don't personally want to hear it. But considering how many hits she's had and how many people apparently love her, I think it's only fair that those people get treated to more of what they want. And while I'm not aware of any rabid Mariah Carey bootleg industry, who's to say there wouldn't be one if such a thing were allowed. I don't write the laws. But if I did, lots of people would be going to jail for the heck of it.

10) Essra Mohawk: According to her bio: "By 1969 Essra was recording her second album in L.A. and S.F. for Reprise after Mo Ostin (then Vice Pres.) discovered her singing at a club in N.Y. and asked her on the spot to come to the label. The result was Primordial Lovers, an LP that received a 5 star review in Downbeat, raves in Mix, and was stated as being 'one of the best 25 albums ever made' in Rolling Stone magazine. Unfortunately, these reviews came over a year after the release of the album and new fans found it hard to secure the LP due to poor distribution and the sale of the Reprise label following the release."

I guess it was like she made an album as good as Appetite For Destruction. Let's give her a boxed set and find out.

9) X: They've issued live albums past their prime that are still pretty convincing. That 2002 set was the best I've heard from a regrouped group. No extra string section or back-up singers, just the band. And the reissues of their albums have included some cool bonus demos and live cuts, but how's about some real live albums from the early 1980s? No soundboard tapes worth issuing? If the Doors can do it, surely this once Ray Manzarek-sanctified project can!

8) Perry Leopold: One of the 1970s most beloved singer-songwriters, Leopold hasn't issued what his fans have been insisting on for decades, a collection of outtakes and live tracks equal to the magic of Christian Lucifer and Experiment In Metaphysics. Everyone knows it's out there. It's up to us to keep the campaign and the dream alive.

7) The Sisters Of Mercy: Their early singles, "Alice" and "Floorshow" among them, the first album, surely some live tapes, the other EPs, and finally the comeback. Put it all in one place and make it available here in the U.S. where goth never really caught on because we have parts of this country that have nothing but sunshine and that's just where the entertainment business does business.

6) Marvin Gaye: I've read stories where journalists went over to Marvin Gaye's studio and heard music that never made it to the streets. Gaye was described as an eccentric, a mystery man who created his own musical language. From the way the story is told, we've only heard the Cliff's Notes version of his career thus far. Someone hunt through those tapes.

5) Aerosmith (pre-1979): Sure, they experienced even greater fame later in their career, but everyone knows a band has a smaller window of "prime" time. And even if they were sloppier and completely wasted back then, that's the legacy and more live stuff from the Get Your Wings, Toys In The Attic, Rocks and Draw The Line era would be a wonderful addition to everyone's hearth and home...I almost left these guys off this list, just so I could get a few hundred, "Dude, you forgot Aerosmith" comments...But I'll let the Rush fans shoulder the load this time out.

4) The Jam (live): Of all the bands from the New Wave era, the Jam managed to do quite a bit for a trio. Where the Police turned into art-rock, the Jam kept it pretty pure and simple with enough musicianship to make them sound better than your average punk band. If there are any more studio outtakes, fine. But live performances would be their key to immortality. Don't they want to live forever?

3) Van Halen (DLR Years): Some of you will want the Hagar years. No thanks! We can trade. You take the Hagar years and in exchange, we get a live album of David Lee Roth era Van Halen, along with album outtakes with lots of Diamond Dave's studio chatter and even those isolated vocal tracks that have found their way over the web.

2) Van Morrison: He's finally gotten around to reissuing his catalog with one bonus cut here and one live track there. Last decade he issued a two-CD collection of outtakes, and now the ultra-fab Astral Weeks Live album has surfaced. But there are still bootlegs floating around that could use sound improvement and considering the length of the man's career, there really should be an expansive boxed-set with lots of color photos of the man in his Zorro hat!

1) The Rolling Stones: Considering how good these guys are with making money, you'd think they'd go back to their catalog and find outtakes worth rescuing. Years ago I heard an audience tape of their Altamont performance that was pretty fierce and Stones fanatics can point to any number of performances from the 1972-73 tour that would better represent the band than some of the stuff that does see the light. But then I'm sure there are legal issues, since the band doesn't own their pre-1971 catalog the way they do everything since...and as they say, Money Changes Everything.