The Best Ever Songs Rejected From Albums

[trackaghost]

This was on the NME's blog today, signifying that Fleetwood Mac might be becoming cool again.

http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?bl...che=1&t=234234

The Best Ever Songs Rejected From Albums
By Luke Lewis
Posted on 20/11/09 at 12:15:13 pm

Tell a certain kind of serious-minded music fan that Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' isn't perfect, and he'll give you an uppercut to the jaw. And he'd be right to. I love that album more than is probably healthy. Yet even a tragic Fleetwood Mac nerd like me would admit that it could have been better.

This morning, during a rain-lashed trudge to work, 'Oh Daddy' came on my iPod – the closest thing 'Rumours' has to a filler track – and I thought, What, you included this, yet you rejected Stevie Nicks' astonishing, hymn-like ballad 'Silver Springs', a song that positively bellows: Rousing Album-Closer?

Fortunately, that song was rescued from obscurity when it was included on the 2004 reissue. It's now a live favourite. But it makes you wonder what on earth was going through the band's coke- and heartbreak-addled minds back in 1977. It also set me thinking about other brilliant songs that, inexplicably, never made it onto albums.

On the 'Bends' tour in 1996, Radiohead regularly played a jaw-droppingly anthemic song called 'Lift', which featured some of Thom Yorke's most personal and emotive lyrics ("You've been stuck in a lift/We've been trying to reach you, Thom"). Sadly, this live version doesn't quite do it justice, and the original has disappeared from file-sharing sites.

Stirring and expansive, 'Lift' would have been Radiohead's 'Yellow': a universal, lighters-aloft arena-filler. Except they decided they hated it, and left it off 'OK Computer'. Now, 'OK Computer''s obviously a titanically great album – but is 'Climbing Up The Walls' really a better song than 'Lift'? Did they really need to include 'Fitter Happier'? (Even Thom Yorke is embarrassed by that track nowadays).

Similarly, we now think of 'Hallelujah' as being the standout track on Jeff Buckley's 'Grace'. But that wasn't the original plan. Right up until the very last moment, the album's big commercial hit single was slated to be the lush, Led Zeppelin-esque ballad, 'Forget Her', a spiteful kiss-off to a former lover (Joan Wasser, now better known as Joan As Policewoman).

Unfortunately, Buckley then got back together with Wasser, which made the song a touch ticklish. So he replaced it with the dreary, Sting-like 'So Real' - to the chagrin of his label, Columbia.

Meanwhile, Buckley's labelmate Bruce Springsteen could fill entire albums with tracks he initially rejected.

In fact he did, with the 'Tracks'/'18 Tracks' box-sets, which included such phenomenal offcuts as 'The Promise', a sort of heartbroken inverse of 'Thunder Road', using some of the same chords and lyrics as that song, but exposing the awful blankness of the open highway, rather than its thrilling possibility. A truly staggering lyric – yet, bafflingly, it was left off 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town'.

Which other amazing album rejects are there?

[David]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

Which other amazing album rejects are there?

Kate Bush left Burning Bridge off something or other. Really bad move.

[Black_Moon]

Originally Posted by David

Kate Bush left Burning Bridge off something or other. Really bad move.

Off Hounds of Love. It's on the 1997 bonus edition. Although I think it's a great song, I'm glad she left it off. It would have been tacked on the end of The Ninth Wave and then made the story sound disjointed. I'm annoyed that EMI didn't put the bonus tracks on a separate disc for that reason!

(Sorry, I'm a complete Kate Bush obsessive. That was long-winded! )

[grace_face]

Hey Black Moon, in my early 20s I was obsessed with Ms Bush too, heheh. Still love her.

There's a song Dennis Wilson wrote called Holy Man...an instrumental that wasn't considered good enough for the album when it was first originally written...I think it's one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard and that was ever written.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caANUcreOgo

Here it is, but it's got vocals with it. I prefer the instrumental personally.

[Black_Moon]

Originally Posted by grace_face

Hey Black Moon, in my early 20s I was obsessed with Ms Bush too, heheh. Still love her.

There's a song Dennis Wilson wrote called Holy Man...an instrumental that wasn't considered good enough for the album when it was first originally written...I think it's one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard and that was ever written.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caANUcreOgo

Here it is, but it's got vocals with it. I prefer the instrumental personally.

I was into her music before I was into Fleetwood Mac's. She's probably one of the main instigators as to why I looked into them, actually.

[Meowi]

Hey, I like good old Kate Bush too.
This threads answer: SILVER SPRINGS!

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by Black_Moon

Off Hounds of Love. It's on the 1997 bonus edition. Although I think it's a great song, I'm glad she left it off. It would have been tacked on the end of The Ninth Wave and then made the story sound disjointed. I'm annoyed that EMI didn't put the bonus tracks on a separate disc for that reason!

I think "Under the Ivy" would have fit perfectly within the "Ninth Wave"- perhaps right before "Hello Earth." Now that was a missed opportunity! But still... HoL is perhaps the most brilliant piece of music ever made. And I happen to think Aerial is woefully underrated- perhaps the second best thing she's ever done.

(Sorry, I'm a complete Kate Bush obsessive. That was long-winded! )

So here's a question- as a Kate Bush obsessive, what do you think about Tori Amos? I have to admit that I despise everything about Tori Amos with a passion; she is such a blatant, shameless rip-off of Kate. And I get so pissed off when I see them lumped into the same category. Kate is the real deal. Tori is just a bad Kate Bush drag queen.

[David]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

I think "Under the Ivy" would have fit perfectly within the "Ninth Wave"- perhaps right before "Hello Earth." Now that was a missed opportunity! But still... HoL is perhaps the most brilliant piece of music ever made.

More brilliant than the Beethoven violin sonatas?

And I happen to think Aerial is woefully underrated- perhaps the second best thing she's ever done.

I'm not sure it's the second-best thing she's ever done, but Side 2 is a captivating, cinematic flight fantasy that riffs on images & sensations in George Meredith's poetry.

So here's a question- as a Kate Bush obsessive, what do you think about Tori Amos? I have to admit that I despise everything about Tori Amos with a passion; she is such a blatant, shameless rip-off of Kate. And I get so pissed off when I see them lumped into the same category. Kate is the real deal. Tori is just a bad Kate Bush drag queen.

People who lump Tori Amos with Kate Bush have cauliflower eyes & ears -- & probably minds. Amos needs to get a sense of humor, for one thing. Nowhere in her crybaby music does one find the exotic, sophisticated irony & wit that suffuses "Kashka from Baghdad," "Violin," "Babooshka," "There Goes a Tenner," "Suspended in Gaffa," & on & on.

"Leave It Open" alone is about the best response imaginable to the dissembling politicos & their plebs in our hallowed halls of Congress.

Unfortunately, Kate's more recent work -- from, say, The Sensual World to the present -- mostly avoids British humor & scatology in favor of traditional feminist themes & music that's too precious & wispy & lush (though still often very gorgeous). It's probably Kate's more recent music from 1989 till now that makes silly girls think she's in any way equivalent to Tori Amos.

[Black_Moon]

Originally Posted by David

...People who lump Tori Amos with Kate Bush have cauliflower eyes & ears -- & probably minds. Amos needs to get a sense of humor, for one thing. Nowhere in her crybaby music does one find the exotic, sophisticated irony & wit that suffuses "Kashka from Baghdad," "Violin," "Babooshka," "There Goes a Tenner," "Suspended in Gaffa," & on & on.

"Leave It Open" alone is about the best response imaginable to the dissembling politicos & their plebs in our hallowed halls of Congress.

Unfortunately, Kate's more recent work -- from, say, The Sensual World to the present -- mostly avoids British humor & scatology in favor of traditional feminist themes & music that's too precious & wispy & lush (though still often very gorgeous). It's probably Kate's more recent music from 1989 till now that makes silly girls think she's in any way equivalent to Tori Amos.

From having extensive knowledge on both of their back catologues, I don't think they're as alike as people make them out to be. Mainly illiterate music journalists that only got their jobs because they're failed record executives. They feel the need to compare all women that write their own songs and play piano.

Leave It Open... what a song! I love the end bit, 'we let the weirdness in'. I think she's a fantastic political commentator, on the rare occasion when she does it, which isn't that much considering she talks about a lot of other things. Or should I say, the few times she does it blatantly.

I agree to an extent about your assessment of her later work. It did become a lot more feminist, and softer. But, people mellow with age. She'd hit her thirties by then, she couldn't keep on dancing in silver space suits and making donkey noises forever. I love The Sensual World though.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by David

People who lump Tori Amos with Kate Bush have cauliflower eyes & ears -- & probably minds. Amos needs to get a sense of humor, for one thing. Nowhere in her crybaby music does one find the exotic, sophisticated irony & wit that suffuses "Kashka from Baghdad," "Violin," "Babooshka," "There Goes a Tenner," "Suspended in Gaffa," & on & on.

"Leave It Open" alone is about the best response imaginable to the dissembling politicos & their plebs in our hallowed halls of Congress.

Unfortunately, Kate's more recent work -- from, say, The Sensual World to the present -- mostly avoids British humor & scatology in favor of traditional feminist themes & music that's too precious & wispy & lush (though still often very gorgeous). It's probably Kate's more recent music from 1989 till now that makes silly girls think she's in any way equivalent to Tori Amos.

I'm not sure if Kate ever resorted to using scatological humor in her lyrics. If she has, please let me know about them! I (and Howard Stern) would be interested!

I do have to disagree that she has lost her sense of humor. For example, don't you love how she does her own Elvis impersonation in the verses of "King of the Mountain?" Or the absurdity of singing nothing but the first 150-ish decimals of pi in "(Pi)"? But I agree that shallow hacks like Tori Amos, et al. tend to grasp onto just one facet of the Kate oeuvre- what would appear to be precious girl-angst to some.

[Black_Moon]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

I think "Under the Ivy" would have fit perfectly within the "Ninth Wave"- perhaps right before "Hello Earth." Now that was a missed opportunity! But still... HoL is perhaps the most brilliant piece of music ever made. And I happen to think Aerial is woefully underrated- perhaps the second best thing she's ever done.

I think I agree with you. Under The Ivy fits with the reflective, introspective themes of The Ninth Wave. It's a beautiful song. Have you ever seen the live performance of it? It's divine.

My favourite Kate Bush album is The Dreaming, then Hounds of Love. Both of which I find to be flawless. I think the concept of the latter is more realised though, and it's absolutely magnificent.

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

So here's a question- as a Kate Bush obsessive, what do you think about Tori Amos? I have to admit that I despise everything about Tori Amos with a passion; she is such a blatant, shameless rip-off of Kate. And I get so pissed off when I see them lumped into the same category. Kate is the real deal. Tori is just a bad Kate Bush drag queen.

I love Tori Amos, she's my third favourite artist. I hated her for ages though, for the reasons you said. I also heard she denied knowing who Kate Bush was in an early interview. The irony in that is too much for my tiny mind to take in. Then, eventually, I thought that I'd listen to her on a blank slate, without the Kate Bush comparisons, and I loved what I heard. There are some definite Kate things she does though; the themes of her work, the nuances in her voice, the Little Earthquakes cover - blatantly influenced by The Kick Inside American LP cover.

I think besides the comparisons listed though, Kate and Tori are completely different. Kate uses more literary references, and is more of a "story-teller", in that she has the ability to write a novel with a song. She does write personal songs, but I think she writes through other characters. Tori is intensely forthright with how personal her songs are. She's more of a political writer than Kate (not disregarding Army Dreamers or Breathing). She also comes across to me as less polished than Kate generally.

Back on topic!

I Don't Want To Know to me is as deserved of a place on Rumours as any other song. I've been mulling over which song I think is the weakest on the album, and then realised that the reason it's considered one of the greatest records of all time is because there's not a weak track on there. I find there are songs I like less than others, but not songs that I don't think should have made the cut.

By the way, I think Oh Daddy is beautiful!

Ahh but if you're into fate...The Dance would've been successful if no SS. But it coming back kinda became the "hit" from that reunion. It was the best "new" old song. Had they released it on Rumours, it might have been played to death like all the others and may have been played on tour for years. Wasn't it played in some 1976 shows before the album was even done? And, today, it may have become a SOTM and never have been performed again. Who knows?

[Ulpian]

Oh Daddy is not filler material.

The song they substituted for Silver Springs is clearly filler material by definition.

Tsk.

[Lindsey Jr.]

Originally Posted by Ulpian

Oh Daddy is not filler material.

The song they substituted for Silver Springs is clearly filler material by definition.

Tsk.

Oh Daddy is the worst song on Rumours, Silver Springs is beautiful.

[Ulpian]

Originally Posted by Lindsey Jr.

Oh Daddy is the worst song on Rumours, Silver Springs is beautiful.

Silver Springs is beautiful, but that was hardly my point.

Anyone with half a brain can see that I Don't Want to Know is a last-minute stop-gap song they threw in. Oh Daddy is - like Songbird - a little glimpse into Christine's soul, I think, and it is beautiful.