For some reason or other I was reminded of the band "Heart" this morning whilst cooking breakfast, so began playing their 1st album "Dreamboat Annie". Now as is my wont while waiting for sausages and bacon to grill, I started browsing Wikipedia and reading about the early days of the band.
It turns out that after the 1st album they had a row with their record company, Mushroom Records, and left. However the company maintained that the band owed them a 2nd album, so cobbled together the album "Magazine" out of unfinished studio material, a b-side, and a couple of live tracks, and released it in 1977 without the band's input or permission.
Heart immediately took out an injunction to stop the album. The court ruled that yes the album should not have been released without Heart's permission, but also ruled that the band still owed Mushroom a 2nd album as per the terms of their contract. The band agreed, and went back into the studio to re-record and tidy up "Magazine". It was duly re-released in 1978 with a different track order and some songs re-mixed and re-recorded. Only 50,000 copies of the original album (on Mushroom Records) were pressed, and all unsold copies were recalled and destroyed.
Hmmm... I thought . I'd like to hear this original version! So I started having a good nose around the internet, but with no luck. No downloadable copies of "Magazine" anywhere, other than legal sites like Amazon, and of course they would be the newer version.
Oh well. Might as well listen to the mp3 copy that I've got then. So I opened up the folder...
And then I took a look at the track listing. The tracks were in the order of the 1977 release (according to wikipedia).
It turns out not only do I already have the 1977 release, but I've always had it, and in fact it's the only copy I've ever heard!
I have now downloaded the "official" version from Amazon and am listening to it now. It's different. More polished. If you have a copy, there's a couple of clues to which one you have, but the easiest way is to play the track "Just the Wine". If you hear a flute solo from about 1 minute 30 onwards, you've got the new version. If it's a synthesizer solo, then you've got the old version.
1 comment:
Brilliant ! I recently had the same expirience with this album. Having grown up thru the 70s, I vaguely remembered hearing "Heartless" on the radio with a different vocal track. Being a fan of the band , I recently stumbled upon a link to the original unauthorizied album and was amazed at the differences . I admit neither version represents the bands greatest output , but its a fun discovery for nostalgic reasons.
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