Rock a Little - a missed opportunity...

[marmotgirl]

...for absolute greatness?

When I first heard RAL I loved it, don't get me wrong. And yeah, I still love it; but of all Stevie's albums I felt it got old the quickest. I don't even think this is solely a result of the very 80s synthy sound - I don't have a problem with that at all. There are just some - as far as I'm concerned, of course - very weak songs on there.

This in itself I could deal with...but then along comes the internet, and I get my paws on a bunch of RAL demos.
*headdesk, headdesk, headdesk*
Woman, what were you thinking when the tracklist was compiled?!

'She Loves Him Still' is one of the most touching things I've ever heard. The RAL demo of 'Greta' (3:48, not the 3:57 version that appears on a lot of Wild HEart demo compilations) might be one of my favourite songs ever...it has this incredible lilting lightness and energy about it that was completely bled out of the SA release. Same with 'Love is Like A River'...the RAL demo has some actual fire and vigor (I love the quiet/loud thing...you caaaaaan't....YOU CAAAAAN'T... ) The RAL 'Lady From The Mountain' is just absolute...aaaargh, perfection! 'Prettiest Girl in the World'...if only for that 'you don't know what pain is!': proper ripping, searing stuff. 'Something Exquisite', yet another one with a proper bit of drive to it. I'm not even going to start on 'Running Through The Garden' (although somebody told me that the version everyone's always accepted as a RAL demo might actually be from 1992? A big wtf to that!).

Even the songs that actually made the album are, to my mind, inferior versions. The extended version of 'Rock A Little' gives the song a much better...roundedness, for lack of a better word...I always thought it kind of slunk in, lingered about for a couple of minutes then slunk out again, but the extended version has that wonderful punchy bass part at the end. I know not many people appreciate 'The Nightmare', and I agree that the album version just goes on and on and on...but the alternate version (it was a b-side somewhere), with slightly different lyrics/structure (well this is not the world, not the world, not the real world... ) is totally kicking. The slightest little change makes all the difference.

Anyway. To hand it over after that massive rant If you could reconstruct RAL, what would you do with it? Would you do anything with it?