Lou Reed Archive Series, With Unreleased Songs, Announced by Light in the Attic

Hear a previously unreleased demo of the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting for the Man” from Words & Music, May 1965—the first offering from the series

 

Light in the Attic has partnered with Laurie Anderson for the Lou Reed Archive Series, which begins with the release of Words & Music, May 1965 on August 26. The album is a previously unreleased collection of songs recorded by a young Reed with his future Velvet Underground bandmate John Cale.

 

Reed sealed the recordings in an envelope and mailed them to himself as a “poor man’s copyright,” and they include early demos of his most iconic songs. Listen to the remastered recording of “I’m Waiting for the Man” below. The record announcement comes as New York Library prepares to unveil the Lou Reed archives this week, with Reed’s box of demoes among the exhibits.

 

The collection also includes the earliest known recordings of “Heroin” and “Pale Blue Eyes,” plus multiple previously unreleased compositions. There’s a Cale-fronted version of Nico’s Chelsea Girl song “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams,” an early rendition of the Berlin song “Men of Good Fortune,” and a rarity oft-discussed in Velvet Underground mythology, “Buttercup Song.”

 

The record will be available in a variety of formats, including LP, cassette, CD, 8-track, and digital editions. The deluxe 2xLP edition will be limited to 7,500 copies and feature a die-cut gatefold jacket. It comes with a bonus Third Man–pressed 7″ featuring six songs that include early demos and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”

 

Words & Music, May 1965 was produced by Laurie Anderson, Don Fleming, Jason Stern, Hal Willner, and Matt Sullivan. Greil Marcus provides liner notes. On the same day the album will be released, a new podcast about the collection, hosted by TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, will debut.

 

Before settling on New York Public Library, Anderson had planned to host Reed’s archives in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, The New York Times notes. The Times says, “she changed her mind in 2015 after a law was passed in Texas allowing people to carry handguns on college campuses.”

 

The archive also includes finds such as a tape labeled “Electric Rock Symphony,” considered a precursor to Metal Machine Music. Only last month, archivists dated to the tape to the mid-sixties, showing how long the record’s style had been gestating, The Times points out.

 

Credits: By Evan Minsker and Jazz Monroe /Pitchfork.com

Queen Will Release a Newly Discovered Song Featuring Freddie Mercury's Vocals: 'Found a Little Gem'

“We looked at it many times and thought, ‘Oh no, we can’t really rescue that,'” Brian May told BBC Radio 2 of the previously unheard track, recorded for 1989’s The Miracle.

 

Get ready to hear a brand-new song from Queen with original lead vocalist, the late Freddie Mercury! In an interview on BBC Radio 2 over the weekend, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor of Queen revealed they’ve found a previously unheard song recorded by the band with Mercury before the legendary vocalist died at 45 from AIDS-related complications in 1991.

 

“We did find a little gem from Freddie that we’d kind of forgotten about,” Taylor, 72, told host Zoe Ball. “And it’s wonderful. Actually, it was a real discovery.”

 

According to Taylor, fans will likely hear it soon: “It’s from The Miracle sessions, and I think it’s going to be out in September.” Originally recorded for the band’s 1989 album, which spawned the singles “I Want It All,” “Breakthru,” “The Invisible Man,” “Scandal,” and title track “The Miracle,” May, 74, said they’ve been discussing whether or not to release the track for some time now. – 

“It was kind of hiding in plain sight,” he explained of the song, the title of which is currently unknown. “We looked at it many times and thought, ‘Oh no, we can’t really rescue that.'”

 

Recently, however, they had a change of heart — thanks to a fresh opinion. “But in fact, we went in there again and our wonderful engineering team went, ‘OK, we can do this and this,'” May revealed. “It’s like stitching bits together. But it’s beautiful. It’s touching.” “It’s a very passionate piece,” Taylor detailed.

 

Queen has posthumously released recordings featuring Mercury’s vocals before, most recently on the 2014 compilation album Queen Forever. The multi-disc set featured three previously unheard songs: “Let Me in Your Heart Again,” “Love Kills,” and “There Must Be More to Life Than This” featuring the late Michael Jackson.

Prior to Queen Forever, Mercury was partially featured on Queen’s final studio album, 1995’s Made in Heaven, which was recorded before and after his death.

 

Credits: Jack Irvin – People.com

YES Legend JON ANDERSON And THE PAUL GREEN ROCK ACADEMY Release Music Video For New Song 'So Limitless'

Legendary YES vocalist/songwriter Jon Anderson will play select shows with The Paul Green Rock Academy in summer 2022. Jon and the ensemble will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of YES’s classic album “Close To The Edge” by performing the LP in its entirety, along with other classics and surprises.

 

In support of the upcoming tour, a music video for a new song, “So Limitless”, has been released and can be viewed below. The music was recorded during Jon’s visit to Orlando during the Rock Academy tour in Florida in April 2022. The recording features members of the touring band and Jon, recorded at Solar Studios and produced by Michael Franklin.

 

Says Jon: “Here we go making new music with the Rock Academy teens. ‘So Limitless’. Because we are limitless in all our living, being and dreaming… love and light.”

 

This Jon Anderson tour with The Paul Green Rock Academy is a resumption of the tradition started in 2005 when Jon toured with Paul Green’s original School Of Rock all-stars. These early shows, over 30 in total between 2006 and 2008, were nothing short of magical, and now Anderson returns to continue that magic with a set of YES classics, deep cuts, mash-ups, and solo works, all with lush arrangements featuring choral singing, horns, and all the other benefits of having a backing band with 25 young musicians.

 

Said Paul Green: “Having done a few of these songs in the past with Jon and my students, I couldn’t wait to add them to the current show. Once we did ‘Close To The Edge’ and ‘And You And I’ on our Florida run in April, I was reminded of the magic of hearing these songs recreated by young musicians… They really capture the frenetic energy of the original recordings. Then when I heard it was the 50th anniversary of the album, I just knew we had to do the whole thing. Jon agreed.”

 

Anderson said: “There are so many wonderful moments in my musical life, and being on stage with these young teenagers performing classic YES songs makes me so happy and proud… It’s a marvel and a tremendous pleasure for me. They are a joy to be with and so much fun. I am grateful, thankful and feel very blessed to be able to sing along with them. Janee and I love them all. Love and light.”

 

Anderson co-founded YES in 1968 with bassist Chris Squire, and remained with the band until 2008, when YES replaced him with Benoit David, an Anderson sound-alike who previously fronted the YES tribute band CLOSE TO THE EDGE. David left YES in 2012 and was replaced by Jon Davison. In July 2020, Howe told Rolling Stone that there is virtually no chance of the surviving members of YES reuniting for a tour.

 

“I don’t think [the fans] should stay up late nights worrying about that,” he said. “There’s just too much space out there between people. To be in a band together or even to do another tour like ‘Union’ is completely unthinkable,” referencing the group’s 1990 “Union” LP and tour, which brought together the previous YES album’s lineup (Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Trevor Rabin, Alan White, Tony Kaye) and the then-ex-YES members’ group ANDERSON BRUFORD WAKEMAN HOWE (Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman, and Steve Howe). “It was difficult when we went through that, particularly because of the personalities,” Howe said.

 

“I’m not saying any one person is to blame, but when you get a big hodgepodge like that together, it’s pretty much a nightmare. We made a nightmare of possibly a good thing back in 1990. I don’t think there is the stamina or the appetite for that kind of thing again.”

 

Anderson, Wakeman, and Rabin had started touring as ARW: ANDERSON, RABIN, AND WAKEMAN in 2016 and then adopted the YES FEATURING JON ANDERSON, TREVOR RABIN, RICK WAKEMAN moniker shortly after the group’s 2017 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction.

 

Howe last toured with Anderson and Wakeman in 2004.

 

YES has released over 20 albums across its career, including its self-titled debut in 1969, “Tales from Topographic Oceans”, in 1973, and its last album, “The Quest”, which came out in October.

 

Credits: Blabbermouth

Live Version Of Frank Zappa's 'Montana' Released Ahead Of Box Set

The Zappa Trust have released an extended version of “Montana” about a couple of weeks ahead of the release of Zappa/Erie, a new six-disc boxed set/digital collection that features a trio of shows that Frank Zappa performed in Erie, Pa., and the surrounding area between 1974-76.

 

The “Montana” version released on Friday offers a glimpse of what one can expect on the new box set. The show was recorded at Edinboro State College on May 8, 1974. The concert was part of a small, month-long run of shows celebrating the 10th anniversary of Zappa’s ever-evolving seminal band, The Mothers, as well as his just-released album, Apostrophe (‘)

 

The Zappa/Erie box set is due out on June 17 via Zappa Records/UMe. Zappa/Erie contains more than seven hours of unreleased, live performances from Zappa and three different lineups of incredible musicians from this peak period. The set has 71 tracks in all.

 

Ahmet Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers produced the Zappa/Erie box set. The package features front and back cover photos of Zappa by David Rountree Smith, images of the original tapes, and includes original concert fliers, a newspaper review of one of the shows, and a scathing rebuttal to the review from a passionate fan.

Credits: By RTTNews Staff Writer

CHECK OUT THE LATEST NEWSLETTER