New York Dolls - "A Hard Night's Day" (Norton)

 

"A Hard Night's Day" is my favorite New York Dolls album.  The first two official Dolls albums issued by Mercury Records are excellent, but these series of demos they did in 1973, are essential listening experience.  Their mixture of classic rock n' roll, 60's girl groups, and blues, with incredible and insightful lyrics, is a combination that never fails me. 

At the time of their recording these demos, they did every song that they knew at that point. They are just important as the Velvet Underground, in that they tied in many important communities into one package.  The demos are beautifully recorded, and the performances are lively, precise (in that Dolls' manner of preciseness), and inspirational.  

Marc Bolan - "Pictures of Purple People" Vinyl, LP, Album, Remastered, 2019 (Easy Action)

A fascinating album of demos by a young Marc Bolan that shows him off as being very influenced by Bob Dylan, and then quickly he turns his obsessions to American cars and girls.  A road map that leads to T Rex.  The great majority of the songs here are just Marc with acoustic guitar, and it is also interesting to see how he used his voice in the early stages of his career.  For the T Rex obsessive, and those who want to study how Dylan influenced many artists. 

Arthur Lee & The American Four/ Arthur Lee & The Grass Roots - Unissued 1965 Demos 45rpm single

Arthur Lee & The American Four/ Arthur Lee & The Grass Roots - Unissued 1965 Demos

Vinyl 7” 45 RPM, Single, U.S., 2006

Norton Records

These very early demos by Arthur Lee and Love before they were Love, shows that he always had that “it” quality.   “Stay Away” is him and The American Four doing that garage rock thing that doesn’t really himt towards the classic Love sound.  But his voice is there, and it is fascinating to hear the raw Arthur, but then again I don’t think he was ever raw.   On one level it reminds me of  The Stooges “Shake Appeal” with the hypnotic hand-clapping which does give the recording a sense of urgency.

The b-side is  Arthur Lee and the Grass Roots, performing “You’ll Be Following” which is actually a Love song from their first album.  Different lyrics, perhaps “Signed DC?”  The lyrics are fascinating because it is a day in the life of Arthur with his band - of sorts.   His death was a real lost to music in my opinion.  He had that incredible mixture of styles that is only him.  He was an one-of-a-kind cocktail.

Billy Fury - "The Sound Of Fury Demos CD Album

Billy Fury – The Sound Of Fury Demos

CD Album

Earmark

Raw demos of Billy Fury's first album, which some consider to be the U.K.'s first rock n' roll record. Sun Records recordings as imagined by a Liverpool lad. The bootleg quality of these recordings expose the vision of a young Fury, and its quite remarkable that at the time, when music was so processed in England; here was an artist willing to write original material. What happened afterwards is that Fury recorded a full version of The Sound of Fury that made an huge impression on future rock n' rollers.

Rockabilly teen pop tunes that reeks of innocence but with a dark edge that comes up time-to-time. What's interesting to me is that it is rock, but it's rock with a Liverpool accent. Not an imitation of Elvis, but sort of building on the image of Elvis that would work for Billy. This album is for the hardcore Billy fan, but for those who want to study rock n' roll mythology will find these recordings to be of great interest.