demos

Living Colour
Dare to Dream Demos
Unknown New York studio
Late 1986/Early 1987

soundboard>cd-r>SonyTCWE435>PioneerPDR-O4>CDR>EAC>WAV>Trader’sLittleHelper>FLAC

Quality: A

Glamour Boys (beginning clipped)
Desperate People
Money Talks
Soldier’s Blues
I Want To Know

Note from the original uploader: I am a huge Living Colour fan. I think they are one of the most underrated and overlooked bands ever in the history of rock. They had break out success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but after they broke up in early 1995 they have fallen below the radar despite reuniting in 2000 and putting out two strong albums since then. I do think rock history will look kindly on them and the use of “Cult of Personality” for the Guitar Player video game has created a much needed mini-renaissance. I have been keeping track of the band since late 1988. I managed to collect some live material, etc through the years. I have posted some of them here on DIME, but it no particular order. Now I’m in the process of organizing what I have and will post everything in chronological fashion. I know a handful of LC fans will be intersted in this little project. If you don’t know the band, pick up the essential albums: “Vivid,” “Times Up,” “Stain” “Collideoscope” and “Chair In the Doorway” albums and see what you think. Ok away we go……

Notes:
The band went into a recording studio and cut a five-song demo to shop around to record labels. The demos, dubbed “Dare to Dream” by the band consisted of “Glamour Boys,” “Desperate People,” “Money Talks,” “Soldier’s Blues,” and “I Want To Know.”
The songs highlighted the various moods of the band. The light and poppy “Glamour Boys,” in which Reid plucks an acoustic guitar in additon to the electric, as well as the hard rock of “Desperate People” and “Money Talks,” which is followed by a blues-rock “Soldier’s Blues.” The love curious “I Want To Know” mixes pop and a straight ahead rock sound.
While all the versions of the songs are in early form, what stands out is the band’s power and force and Reid’s all out guitar attack in partcular on “Desperate People” and “Money Talks.”
No one bit on these demos. The band was rejected several times in getting a label to sign them.

Van Morrison
1970 Demo Session

You Got the Power
Bit By Bit
Coming Down to Joy

Notes taken from the artwork.

The three songs on this disk originate from a reel-to-reel demo tape which was found in 2003 at a flea market in the USA. Apparently the buyer had no idea about the rarity of the tape and offered it for sale at an auction. Starting price was $9.99 and the tape was finally sold for $16.05 to the only collector noticing the item and knowing what it was about – if only the actual contents of the tape matched the label placed on the outside of the box. Luckily it did, and despite the age of the recording and the first part of the tape being in a mess, it was generally found to be in good shape.

Probably, this is a first generation copy of a master tape from a session at the Warner Bros. demos studio for songwriters. Whoever the engineer, he does not seem to have had one of his better days. Especially the bass seems in places somewhat distorted, and at one point on “You Got the Power” the speed gets a little uneven. The label on the outside of the box lists the three tracks and appears to have been printed for a 45rpm record. However, this is a bit of a mystery. The recordings on this tape were clearly not intended for release and even if a few copies were pressed and handed out to artists interested in recording one of the songs, it seems unlikely that you could fit 14 minutes of music on on 7 inch and 45rpm records were not available at the time.

Concerning the time of the recordings, it seems likely that these tracks with a small band of bass, drums, piano and organ accompanying Morrison have been recorded in late 1970, possibly 1971. The late bearing the mark of Warner Bros. sets the date to be after Morrison’s signing a contract with Warner Bros. during the early summer of 1968. The sound seems gospel-influenced which suggests the time of the session to have been around the recording of “His Band and Street Choir” during the fall of 1970. Furthermore, the rather rhythmic piano in my ears tends to sound like Alan Hand (who joined Morrison’s band not long before recording “His Band and Street Choir”) and John Klinberg seems to be the most likely guess as part of the band from that album. The lack of a guitar player on the recordings makes it even more obvious that it should be this band. Morrison’s guitar player at the time, John Platania is known to have had a falling out with him for a short period in the Autumn of 1970 (and even if he does appear on “His Band and Street Choir”, he was not present for the photo session for the cover of the album). The missing guitar could also indicate that it might be Morrison himself play9ng the piano but it does not seem likely.

All three tracks on this CD were previously unavailable. All three songs are written by Van Morrison. A later recording of “You Got the Power” was released as a b-side of “Jackie Wilson Said” in 1972 and an acoustic version of “Bit by Bit” can be found on several bootlegs. Interestingly country singer Roy Head, around 1971 released his versions of both “You Got the Power” and “Bit by Bit” probably after hearing the demos versions on this very tape. “Coming Down to Joy” is the real gem of this demo session. The title has never been mentioned anywhere – and no recording of this Van Morrison has ever surfaced until now. In fact Morrison does not even seem to have had this song registered for copyright.

Jay – August 2003

Two Track Stereo Analog Tape converted to digital using Revox A77 and Son SBM1. Mastering on Macintosh.