Great stuff, Jon. Love the original version of "Blackout" and "Freedom Is The Edging To The Garden On The Right." Thanks for releasing all of these tracks!
Can you give a little more detail on the "So Gullible (original version)" The note on the song says 'This version is from around 1994 or 1995 - Just before I started working with Robert on songs.'? Yet wasn't So Gullible released on Pirate Claug - Identity Crisis on Side B Track 5 in 1991? If so is this maybe a second version done after the Identity Crisis Version Yet before the One released on the Lethal Injection titled So Gullible (v.II.I)? Or this the original Version that actually appeared on Identity Crisis, thus making the recording from 1991?
Ha! I was wondering if anyone would catch that. I realized this after I had put in all the track information... There were actually 3 different versions of 'So Gullible'. Identity Crisis holds the actual "original mix". There was one later version (as you note called v11.1) that was on a compilation called 'Lethal Injection'. The version on "from Pirate to Pivot" is by far my favorite version - it was mixed down around 1994 or so using my friend Byron Kane's DAT player - but nothing beyond mixing was ever done with this version, aside from a few personal copies that Byron had made from a copy he made of my DAT master. I know that I had used an instrumental mix of this version for live backing tracks, but the mix with vocals was buried in the vault until now. The other versions are problematic to me. The Identity Crisis version has a lot of mix and timing problems and the vocals with my "accent" sounds too forced at times. The later version (v11.1) was recorded around 1995 and I had just bought a new condenser microphone - I was so impressed with the clarity of everything with that microphone that I turned the vocals up way to loud in the mix. I find v11.1 hard to listen to because of this. To me, this version, although never previously released, is what I think of when I remember this song and I am glad that I finally got around to sharing it.
Similarly, there was actually 3 versions of "Your Majesty". The first 2 versions were multi track demos of the song and never released. 'The fish who could swallow the sea' contained the 3rd version of this song. I was never really happy with the 1st version and knew that I could do much better things with the song. The 2nd version, which appears on this 'from Pirate to Pivot' compilation, is much more developed and I called it "original version" - which isn't exactly true, but from a catalog point of view, it is true, seeing that I don't ever plan to release version 1 on anything.
Some of the early versions/demos of songs have an integrity that the later versions did not have. Some are just not as good - some even embarrassing. I am fine putting my favorite moments out there and burying the ones that I feel are not as good. As artists, we do this all the time.
There is another compilation of early material that I am working on. There are a lot of songs that I never really mixed down or that I never made new versions of, but I like the songs. The distinction between "from Pirate to Pivot" and the planned "more early works" is that the latter will be completely new mixes of old multi-track recordings, whereas this compilation is 100% unaltered original mixes.
Jon! I think i have found you ;) From troy high school? About to check out your songs now. I remember going to one of your shows & you were playing the keyboard that night! I am the Girl name Rikki
Great stuff, Jon. Love the original version of "Blackout" and "Freedom Is The Edging To The Garden On The Right." Thanks for releasing all of these tracks!
ReplyDeleteThis is excellent-- thanks for sharing this with us.
ReplyDeleteCan you give a little more detail on the "So Gullible (original version)" The note on the song says 'This version is from around 1994 or 1995 - Just before I started working with Robert on songs.'? Yet wasn't So Gullible released on Pirate Claug - Identity Crisis on Side B Track 5 in 1991? If so is this maybe a second version done after the Identity Crisis Version Yet before the One released on the Lethal Injection titled So Gullible (v.II.I)? Or this the original Version that actually appeared on Identity Crisis, thus making the recording from 1991?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOK now you have to re-release that "Identity Crisis" release so we can hear that gem.
DeleteHa! I was wondering if anyone would catch that. I realized this after I had put in all the track information... There were actually 3 different versions of 'So Gullible'. Identity Crisis holds the actual "original mix". There was one later version (as you note called v11.1) that was on a compilation called 'Lethal Injection'. The version on "from Pirate to Pivot" is by far my favorite version - it was mixed down around 1994 or so using my friend Byron Kane's DAT player - but nothing beyond mixing was ever done with this version, aside from a few personal copies that Byron had made from a copy he made of my DAT master. I know that I had used an instrumental mix of this version for live backing tracks, but the mix with vocals was buried in the vault until now. The other versions are problematic to me. The Identity Crisis version has a lot of mix and timing problems and the vocals with my "accent" sounds too forced at times. The later version (v11.1) was recorded around 1995 and I had just bought a new condenser microphone - I was so impressed with the clarity of everything with that microphone that I turned the vocals up way to loud in the mix. I find v11.1 hard to listen to because of this. To me, this version, although never previously released, is what I think of when I remember this song and I am glad that I finally got around to sharing it.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, there was actually 3 versions of "Your Majesty". The first 2 versions were multi track demos of the song and never released. 'The fish who could swallow the sea' contained the 3rd version of this song. I was never really happy with the 1st version and knew that I could do much better things with the song. The 2nd version, which appears on this 'from Pirate to Pivot' compilation, is much more developed and I called it "original version" - which isn't exactly true, but from a catalog point of view, it is true, seeing that I don't ever plan to release version 1 on anything.
Some of the early versions/demos of songs have an integrity that the later versions did not have. Some are just not as good - some even embarrassing. I am fine putting my favorite moments out there and burying the ones that I feel are not as good. As artists, we do this all the time.
There is another compilation of early material that I am working on. There are a lot of songs that I never really mixed down or that I never made new versions of, but I like the songs. The distinction between "from Pirate to Pivot" and the planned "more early works" is that the latter will be completely new mixes of old multi-track recordings, whereas this compilation is 100% unaltered original mixes.
Jon! I think i have found you ;)
ReplyDeleteFrom troy high school? About to check out your songs now. I remember going to one of your shows & you were playing the keyboard that night! I am the Girl name Rikki
Hey Rikki. Yes, it's me - I went to Troy. Use the contact link above and send me an email.
ReplyDelete