Monday, November 29, 2010

Frank's Wild Years demos

The collectors out there might be interested in knowing some demo recordings (primarily with material from the Frank's Wild Years sessions) have (re)surfaced.

Apart from the titles, there's very little info about these 24 tracks available. If you should know anything about them, feel free to drop a line in the comments.

Don't ask me for any info about obtaining this material, I'm sure you can find out for yourselves.

10 comments:

ab said...

yep bought a copy off ebay before boring moaners and whingers shot themselves in the foot by moaning about it being "illegal". where do they think good boots come from?
anyway it is well worth chasing up as most versions are totally different to the actual album. brilliant stuff!

Black Swede said...

Well, the first 13 tracks comprise the "Frank's Wild Years" demos. The rest is just unnecessary addition.

Artistically speaking, the demos are certainly not anything like the splendor offered by "Alice" demos when they originally surfaced. The demos for "Frank's Wild Years" are very rough sketches done with acoustic guitar, pump organ, piano and some percussion. The arrangements are different from what everyone's used to, but that's probably down to the fact that these are demos for the original theatrical production, whereas the official "Frank's Wild Years" album not only introduces material new to the original show, but also features new arrangements, presumably because the originals were unsatisfactory.

Of the tunes included with the "Frank's Wild Years" demos, of special mention is the shuffling bliss of "Hang On, Saint Christopher" in its early form. Still, every demo track here was realised to perfection on the official album and these should be taken for what they are, rough ideas for theatre cast to practice on. On additional note, the demo version of "Innocent When You Dream" is actually the same cut officially released as the "78" version on the "Frank's Wild Years" album.

As far as the rest of the bootleg is concerned, "Poor Little Lamb", among other things, is added as a bonus and, as we all know, it's now included on "Orphans". Even if it wasn't, it's a minor tune. The only bonus track of any interest is a demo version of "Strange Weather" that's kind of nice with just Tom Waits solo, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.

So, legal issues aside, I wouldn't buy this solely for its lack of content.

Dr Pod said...

I can understand the insertion of an apostrophe in 'Frank's', thus correcting Tom's omission. But an apostrophe in 'demo's'? Tut tut. ;-)

The Eyeball Kid said...

@Dr Pod: I corrected the 'demo's' gaffe. Not too sure what to do about the FWY(')s....

Dr Pod said...

There was always supposed to be an apostrophe in "Frank's" - grammar and punctuation never were (by his own admission) Tom's strong point. In the meantime, I've tracked the demos down. Great stuff!

Harenberg said...

But where can I find those demos? Looked everywhere, had no luck.

Sabian Fluke said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Dr Pod said...

Very easy to find, but I'm guessing I can't post a link here.

Harenberg said...

What's remarkable about those records is his voice. It is clear und not at all raspy and low. One can see that on the official albums his voice is the effect of a trained attitude.

s2art said...

easy for some it seems?

as always too late to the party probably as well