The Lost Albums
 

I have been listening to a lot of Stevie lately and noticed that there is potential for two "Lost" Albums

After Wild Heart but before the actual release of Rock a Little she did a lot of recording. Rock a Little was a MESS when it came out. Too many Chefs in the Kitchen. What would Rock A Little Be if it had had only ONE producer? What songs were done and IN THE BAG before the departure of Jimmy and the push to change the sound of Rock a Little? What would those songs be?

Then Right after Enchanted tour Stevie went into the Studio with Sheryl Crow. What we got form those sessions are the BEST of TISL and also appeared on Practical Magic. What would that track sequence be? Notice that there are again TOO MANY CHEFS in the kitchen on TISL. There is such a wide range of SOUNDS. it goes from the organic later 1998 Sheryl Crow tracks to the electronica Early 2000's heavy handed programmed stuff. Clearly, two different albums. Could there be other tracks from in the preceding two years before TISL (starting with maybe the rumoured tracks recorded around the time of Free Falling) up till when Sheryl left? And then a totally different album with the other remaining songs including the outtakes like My Heart and "wall of sound" Thrown Down?

I sort of see what you are saying but would disagree in part. Lost albums? Probably. Stevie recorded so many songs for RAL many of never made the album. IMHO the abundance of producers was not the problem with RAL. It was the songs period. Jimmy is an ace producer but the songs he produced on RAL are actually my least favorite. I think her wild behavior and fried voice ruined what could have been an excellent album. The songs that were discarded like Running through the Garden were the best part of the RAL era IMHO. I think RAL had huge potential but turned out to be one of the worst albums of the entire 80's decade. Its so un-Stevie in meaning missing the passion of deep meaning songs and a kind of bouncy rock she had on her prior albums. All the 80s synth crap and drum machines just don't go well with Stevie's songs IMHO. I mean really... you can almost break dance to Sister Honey :eek:
Now where I disagree. TISL has a very unified sound IMHO. Its just a sound I don't care for. People forget but Stevie almost finished TISL without Sheryl. She used another producer but scrapped the album because she thought it was too funky. TISL has some good songs but most of the album is something to forget. Her voice is flat and she sounds so bored on songs like Planets. Very little passion. Most of the songs sound like demos and almost have the exact same beat. No guitar solos. No clever riffs, etc. Its pretty boring music. I don't think there was a lost album other than the one she scrapped before Sheryl.
If there ever was a lost album, it would be with the left overs from Bella Donna and Wild Heart. Can you imagine an album of:
Gold and Braid
Violet and Blue
Blue Lamp
I sing for the things
Sleeping Angel
All the beautiful worlds
Running through the Garden

If there ever was a lost album, it would be with the left overs from Bella Donna and Wild Heart. Can you imagine an album of:
Gold and Braid
Violet and Blue
Blue Lamp
I sing for the things
Sleeping Angel
All the beautiful worlds
Running through the Garden


Don't forget Julia, If You Were My Love, and Sanctuary

The lost album between the Wild Heart and RAL was an actual album that was going to be titled "Mirror Mirror" it was shelved only a few weeks before it's projected release in the summer of 1984.

I guess I'm the only one on the planet the loves RAL. "Worst Album of the 80's"??? Are you tone deaf LOL. TISL? Another great album.

My great frustration with Stevie has been her lack of studio output since like 35 years ago. A (once) prolific and sometime brilliant songwriter and performer, she has dithered away her chance to get her music out to the public. If she ever records another album she will again be back in the same spot she has put herself before, fighting for a comeback. By that I mean when you go years without new product, people start to forget you, even your real fans. Then when you finally do record, you have to hope and pray for some attention in order to sell anything. I am a stalwart fan but Jesus, it gets hard to maintain enthusiasm by listening to the same old stuff from 20 - 40 years ago.

I think some of you get what I am saying and some are totally lost


What I am trying to say is that BOTH albums started with one producer, with a certain "Sound" in mind and that BOTH albums ended up a mix of several producers, several different "sounds" and very eclectic in terms of instrument types used, vocal qualities, and even production value of the songs themselves.


It is well documented that Jimmy left in disgust prior to the final version of Rock A Little we got. Some have called these sessions the "Mirror Mirror" "album". These songs were closer in production value and instrumentation and "sound" to her first three albums. Reconsider Me was one of those songs. I think that Mirror Mirror, I sing For The Things and perhaps even Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For you?, Running Through The Garden and All The Beautiful Worlds were in those sessions? Clearly, that batch of songs is high and above some of the more "modern" songs that ended up on Rock A Little like Talk To Me and I Can't Wait, which were trying to compete too much with Belinda Carlise and Heart's recent conversion to "Modern" sounding songs. THAT is what I call a "Lost" Album.

Fast Forward a year and Stevie was still working on the Album, changes producers and they do some more songs and now the project is very different and the batch of songs lose their cohesion of production.

Then same thing happens in 1998. Stevie started TISL with Sheryl, for whatever reason Sheryl overcommitted and the project DRAGS on much like Rock a Little. There was a good batch of songs that all have the same production value, same "sound" and similar instruments. The vocals are also suprerb and some of her best in years. If You Ever Did Believe, Crystal, Socerer, Candle bright (Nomad), Its Only Love. That is FIVE great songs, half an album of very consistent songs that "belong" together. Then the other producers come in, and she takes on some other songs written by other people to make a more "Pop" sounding album. They tack on Too Far From Texas with some half-@$4ed vocals, some dull sounding Everyday and over produced Planets of the Universe. They didn't belong with the first batch of songs at all. They didn't even hardly use "REAL" instruments in sone of the songs. Whomever mastered the album probably had a cow trying to get the songs to match sonically, but failed. Too much time between the various vocal takes and she sounds great on one song, and the next it too vasal.

NO matter if you like the album or not BOTH are a hodgepodge of TWO albums smashed together. I think it would have been great if Stevie had actually finished album with Sheryl. That "sound" was very IN in 1998. The Globe Sessions remains one of Sheryl's best albums and I think a similar sounding consistent album would have stood the test of time better than what we actually got. THEN, say a year later, released a second album of the NEW era with The Dixie Chicks and Sarah McGlonklin and the rest like Santana did with the more modern sound and fake or programmed instruments.

Take what we got on both actual albums, add in the outtakes, totally recorded but not released (My Heart, Touched By an Angel, Mirror Mirror, Running Through The Garden, Reconsister Me, and any we don't actually know about etc etc...) and we would have FOUR albums instead of two. It is my opinion that as least TWO of those albums if not ALL FOUR would be MUCH better.

Thats my thinking.

No its me that is mostly alone on that one. Many or even most Stevie fans on this forum praise RAL as almost a masterpiece. Its nails down a chalkboard for me. Its sporatic cheezy pop music at its worst. She could have done a version of Safety Dance and it would have fit perfect on the album :eek:
Having said that, I would actually love to have an extended version released with many of the Mirror Mirror or demos that were recorded but not on the album.

LOL. Safety Dance would have been a great opener! I hear you though. Rock a Little remains my least favorite. There are a few good songs, but on a whole... no. Tom Petty and Jimmy Iovine were right to be worried about her this time of her life. I wish someone would have had the guts to tell her "this sucks" back then.

By late Spring of '84 Stevie was working with Keith Olsen, but HE pulled the plug on the project, due to Stevie's rampant drug use.... he had just done an album with Joe Walsh, and wasn't sure he would "survive" the experience of working with Stevie.
Kurt Loder reporting that on the MTV news is burned in my memory!

Amusingly enough, the songs you mentioned from the TISL era are all my least favorite, with the exception of If You Ever Did Believe. I am so glad Planets of the Universe, Too Far From Texas, Bombay Sapphires, and Fall From Grace were on the album, and that Stevie sang those songs on her tour.

Just goes to show one person's treasure is another's trash, and vice versa.

I would love to learn more about the Dallas Austin tracks Stevie recorded. Very little is known about them, which makes me even more curious.

agree with you
 

I totally agree with you about RAL it is such a mess not one of my favorite Stevie solo lp's at all much. I do think the Mirror, Mirror LP was much better with Jimmy than what we got . Not cohesive at all too many producers in the mix. Most of the songs I liked were the one's not on the original LP even. I even liked the extended version songs much better. Some songs were 'filler' songs like Sister Honey. Not good.
Same with TISL some I like some I can live without.

RAL was my first Stevie album. I Can't Wait is one of my all time faves as is HAEWAFY (which I would love to hear live just one more time). I can sing the album front to back, including all of the B-sides. I understand how it gets knocked for sounding dated, but I don't think that's a bad thing either. It wasn't until after RAL that I discovered Bella Donna, Wild Heart and the entire Fleetwood Mac catalog. What a wonderful shock that was! :p

Jesus, those first three tunes are on my all time worst list! Of not just Stevie but all music of all time. Funny how we disagree so fundamentally on what makes Stevie great.

Take your violet and blue mornings WITH YOU!
;)