Shelter

^^ So.. no one heard this 93XRT thing? Nothing was mentioned about it anywhere? About what was said and what was played? Must have been nothing then, I take it..? Years since it's first mention, rumors changing it's shape and form.. Even quite a while now since TP said it was done, just sitting on the WB shelf waiting for the mercy of a date. "All The Rest" is starting to feel like yet another one of those "Chinese Democracy" things. C'mon WB, throw us a date already!! Such bummer if it's gonna be another case of old-school tardy record label logic and just sit there til christmas. Lame. (Not to mention that if they manage to get a Mudcrutch album out this side of new years, what are the odds then that this one gets postponed indefinetely..)

That's what I always figured, yeah.. Never really knew to what extent they tried his "vision" on other stuff, or the actual number of left out tracks. So thanks for clarifying that. Either way it seems to me that TP&TH's own work, pre-work or what it should be called, for this album, would not only be good enough, were we ever to have an archival release of this stuff - it would be the whole point. Given that TP & MC produced the title track themselves, and that one stands out as one of the really great moments on the finished album, and given the amount of material mentioned, I see no reason why some cleaned up "casual live tracks" or some "Amaricana a la Basement Tapes" type recordings, would not make for at least a disc worth of "Southern Accents - All The Rest". Seems like one of the most suitable albums, or projects in the whole of tha catalog, a side from Wildflowers, to be treated to such revisit. I would very much love that to happen. But I won't hold my breath.

Oh no. To me a precondition for any "Bootleg Series" or "Basement Tapes" type release from the SA sessions at this stage, would be to take the best material from whatever masters that remain, treat them carefully, clean up the sound to modern standard, present them as pure and de-Stewart:ified as possible* If needed have someone trustworthy do some remixing here and there to finish the tracks. Period. Thus presenting what could have been. If it's good enough. As few hindsight overdubs as possible and please no contemporary re-recording of songs! Personally I see no point in a 2015 reanimation of a 1985 corpse. That wouldn't be an archival release at all, would it? It wouldn't be about this project, this album or this concept any more. Move on then, please! Next! But, speaking of re-recording.. Who said TP hasn't already raided the vaults for certain rehashing of ideas, whole songs or part of songs, in his song writing years since 1985 to date...?? After all, these things happen all the time. --- *If the "closet full of tapes" remark still holds, I really want to believe that most of that stuff got abandoned early on, so that it never got to being destroyed by Stewart, or, to the extent that they were, they were so just briefly or just by overdubs that could be mixed out when aiming for the heart of the matter.

That is absolutely wonderful! Thanks for posting. Only too bad those kids had to be seated.. some of them are on fire! An honor to watch. Thanks again!

^ Yeah, "Cleveland rocks" right?! Kinda reminds me of my HCC days.. Oh, how royal the screws. But with TP there was always good sound and a good show though, admittedly! Always a pro that way. Besides - you have to be happy for all the golden circle crowds of sponsor guests, sweepstake winners and Facebook give-away ticket holders. They too deserve to get lucky sometime.. to quote a phrase. And they probably even liked a couple of the songs too.. Ironic, isn't it? I am no BS fan myself, as I often professed. And what you say about the low brow ticket proceedures and sound quality is clean-cut - there's simply no excuse for such b-band behavior at this level - especially not the combination of the two - even if fans are demoted to custumers, the way most artists do these days, we are not cattle. However, the implications of the above are otherwise somewhat tricky when I start thinking of it. I mean, what would you rather have: a ) Frequent three hours, 30 songs, energetic, sometimes curfew breaking shows - more often than not with deeply varied set lists, with more than a pinch in there for everyone, including the band - delivered in parts with telepromter aid? Or b ) A usually 90 minutes maximum, 18-20 song set with 90% predetermined, even scripted, material night after night, not to say year after year. (And even then there's been discussions of teleprompting in the TP camp too from time to time - about which I have no clue, but find rather.. shall we say.. unlikely.. ). Oh, I know.. those remaining 10% , in the b ) alternative are sometimes to die for and alone worth the ticket- no denying that. And the bulk 90 is always nice enough of course, but still.. Speaking of telepromters, I am curious where people stand. Seems to me, personally, that if someone rehearse an honestly asserted and fairly large number of songs before kicking off a tour, a real fan would be happy to hear at least half of those performed during the cause of the tour, even if one or two of them, on some night would take a glimpse at a teleprompter. But that's me. And I am even known - not only to be a rascal - but also to have voiced the firm opinion that telepromting is NOT for rehearsed songs, but for what you might decide to to in the spur of the moment, and that, shall we agree, is not the name of the game for TP. That said, I've been to fantastic shows where there's even been sheet music present on stage, on prominent racks.. Ok.. we, might be leaving the realm of rock'n'roll here. But honestly.. how Rock'n'Roll is Ticketmaster anyway? We all know who we are and who's King, right? Which brings us, just in time, back on topic...

Well. It was either him, or that cat namned Johnny who talked rock and used to walk it too. That is, way before he played for VIP circles and co-deal sponsors and crowds talking through all the music, paying little mind to anything real in the music but the symbolic anthems and the myths. Johnny rock that golden circle, and all those VIP's, before the Music had become a routine, before you could see his face in close-up trying to give it all he had, and sometimes his eyes betrayed him, you could see that he was sad. Seems to me that the lesson we learn from this album is that Joe was right all the time. Evil prevail. That it doesn't take all out commercial add deals to have rockers end up in an ages old image of themselves, a juke box as it were. Still I try to rock on with Johnny, but I slowly I become bored. Oh, I do. But still.. no, I'm not bored at all. Cause Johnny still deliver ass kicking wonderful records for me to dwell upon and the DJs with their heads screwed on right and the people who care to make a difference, still play those records and all that music that free us, no matter how much routine it gets up there on the big stage and how little of it Johnny himself care about. There will always be the ones who know and care about this aspect, this dimension, of music, and the ones who don't. So what. There still is a real world here and it's spinning. It's all that matters. And I still like the message. I really like the DJ message a lot. Thanks for reminding what a nice message it it. Now the actual world on the other hand.. Oh my precious..

I think it was great. As for me, they could have gone even more heavy on the news. But seriously, I do believe there is a logic to what TomFest says and what seem to be the prevailing view on what is wise and what is not, even what is possible and what is not, i general terms. That is, there has to be hits and a momentum. Of course. Strictly new stuff or deep cuts for a whole tour would simply be preaching to a diminishing crowd of very few people in each town. So, in order to throw what I would like to call the "ignorant bastards", a bone... well, yes, intrwoven would be a better and more fun way to do this. As it went down in 2010 more than a few people went to the bathroom during the Mojo segment. But then I went during I Won't Back Down, so I guess we're even...

Yes it would! And no, most artists don't. Simply because they don't have Dylan's understanding of what music really is, I'm sad to say. That it's not primarily a product, it's a process.

This thread offers a lot of insight. Been doing some more listening and thinking myself, because of it. Can’t say I discovered much of news value upon my revisits, but here’s some further ponderings anyway, cept for what I’ve already been saying. I think it may be more to Iovine actually saving this album from derailing completely in a haze of confusion and state of the art 1985 sounds, than I have realized in the past. One could argue though.. that perhaps.. if it wasn’t for him, maybe SA would’ve derailed so badly that it may never have been finished at all. So, good or bad.. I think, after all, that Iovine may have been more key than he usually gets credit for. I don’t know. That is my guess and my feeling. I don’t have any detail facts as far as who did what goes, but it seems to me that everything Stewart touched somehow pulled the album off center and in hindsight his contributions generally seems to weaken the album. A more than subtle added touch of the pop sensibility and shallow, stylish (almost new wave:y and posing) edge that Stewart was so famous for in the mid 80, wasn’t exactly the cure for what may have ailed the outfit that came straight out of Long After Dark greatness. And it’s surprising that they needed a some kinda brains that they didn’t seem to have on the payroll to tell them that. Being it the overall production values that Stewart contributed, or the words or music he co-wrote for some of the songs – I mean this must have been just before he made the Eurythmics super hit album Revenge. And frankly.. Make It Better, for example, sounds like a perfect contender for that one, completed with Annie Lennox vocals. Would make a lot more sense that way actually. Make it Better would’ve melted right in between the likes of Miracle of Love and Thorn in My Side. (But even in that romantic pop rock context, the lyrics of Make it Better would be among the more pointless and less impressive. Which says a lot, coming from an album by an a lot more merited lyricist – TP). I personally see next to no merits to Stewart’s work on this album. I never did – cept for perhaps the warped coolness of Don’t Come Around Here No More (but like I said before that song don’t fit the album, or any TP&TH album and would be SOOO much better off as a single only release). The more I listen to SA, the more I see what it perhaps could have been without Stewart’s “assistance”. Again, the hype in LA that surrounded DS as a cult star, outlandish party thrower and cool dude, is in no way matched by anything TP actually needed in terms of music. Friendship aside, seems to me like a very bad judgement in characters from TP and perhaps.. just perhaps.. a good thing Iovine was there to put a lid on this soup before it fried. From a lyrics perspective it could even be argued that the only Stewart co-written song that holds up even remotely to any (imagined or actual) theme here, is the much debated It Ain’t Nothing To Me. I always leaned towards something similar to MJ2LD’s view of IANTM myself – cept for the fact that I think the song stinks. J To me there seems to be an “I” who speaks throughout most of SA, that can be heard in this song as well. And this, sort of, makes it belong on this album, despite the musical and arrangement goofyness that seems so at odds both with what is and what in a juster world should have been. It seems to me that the particular angle of the person, or that particular character that speaks to us in It Ain’t Nothing to Me – given there’s something slightly more than love behind his ignorance – seems like a kin of sort to the “21st Century Man” of Shadow People.. Of course, this “I”, can either be seen as one character speaking from different mindsets or moods in the different songs of the album – and of course this is a not bad method for a concept album, if so. Alternatively, the “I” is a few different characters speaking to us in Rebels, It Ain’t Nothing To Me, Southern Accents, Dogs on The Run, Mary’s New Car, Best of Everything, respectively… Either way, these songs could be different chapters or sub-parts, short stories, of a greater story about life in the south. Spike too, of course, even if the perspective seems to be more of a “he” than the usually stronger “I” presence. In many ways the two songs that really seems to miss this mark quite noticeably, ironically, is the big hit Don’t Come Around Here No More and the lesser song (in every way) Make It Better. The latter of which – again – at best seems to speak to some kinda dreamy pop sensibility, but either way seems totally pointless. I mean, just read those lyrics. Would it even help if the music that they were set to was just a fraction of as horrible as it is. So, I always end up thinking that… - DCAHNM should’ve been lifted for a single. - Make It Better should be scrapped, no questions asked. It’s just among the worst ever. - It Ain’t Nothing To Me could perhaps be a keeper – despite being utterly bad at first glance, it somehow seems to belong here - but it would take a major rearrangement (where the 1985 live version is just the first of at least three or four steps needed) to save it from misery. - Mary’s New Car should perhaps have benefited from something little extra in terms of arrangements, an extra verse a middle eight or just something weighing it down a bit. - Dogs On The Run - a certain keeper, that perhaps would’ve benefited from a slightly more “dog:ish” production, and perhaps some additional quality lyrics. - Rebels, Southern Accents, Spike and Best of Everything could be left as they are – a splendid core of the album that crashed, burned, but thanks to those same songs still have allure.. even a magic somewhere. - This leaves us with a partly re-made 7 songs album. Add to that Trailer (another “I” song that fits the concept) and perhaps another one or two songs that I’m not sure they actually had (unless of course they put older left overs like say.. Keeping Me Alive.. on there too, which would kinda work in this context, I think). Any additions would need to be produced and mixed accordingly, needless to say. Oh, well.. history.. and actual history.. SA is a good album. An extremely interesting one, most of all. Like someone said – the same year documentary seems to tell the story more effectively, it seems to hype a project and an album that don’t even exist outside of the film. Standing alone the album is both lesser and paler and weirder than it could have been to make that documentary more proud. Most of all, I have a strong feeling that SA could have been so much better, and that the concept vaguely aimed at, and so beautifully hinted at on the front and back cover was a goal worth pursuing. They could always have partied with Dave some other year, or let him have a field day with the less sensible ideas for Let Me Up, perhaps.. Actually.. now, that could’ve worked…

Yep, seems to be working and it sure looks great! Great job!

Sorry for the hardships, man! Hang in there!

Yes. Of course they should. Just like they should give all of them core staples a rest now and then. Key word being "rotation".

There's so many.. How about these for starters: Finding Out Mystery of Love Wasted Life You And I Will Meet Again Deliver Me

To me this is the best live band in the world. Even more so in recent years, when I detect an extra notch of heavy, or just mature, an extra bass and drums dimension in the mix in the 2010s. I would honestly say that it IS indeed all positive, in terms of "how". What ails is the general approach and spunk in terms of "what". All else is beyond fine, thus the sometimes frustration on my side. These guys are the best and they just seem to be getting better with age!

Good points abound here. Let me just add a few things to my above post.. - I forgot to mention Mary Jane's Last Dance. Another 89-94 song that quickly became a staple -strengthening my view on this. MJLD then took up another steady slot that could be used to rotate material. This means that even if songs like Don't Do Me Like That, Even The Losers and You Got Lucky (and by all means, Something In The Air!) haven't get played that extensively after the Greatest Hits release (and even if Breakdown, I Need To Know and The Waiting has been played less frequently in recent years too, when real slowly the Hits focus rotates almost-but-not-quite noticable around the never changing 89 hub) - the Gr Hits album still holds about 10 of the available nightly live slots watermarked. Moreover, those "hits-became-rarities" soon enough in the 90s got steady stand-ins in the shape of You Wreck Me, It's Good To Be King, You Don't Know How It Feels. Add to this the list of usual suspects, semi-regular older hits that never made it to the Greatest Hits albums, such as A Woman In Love, Yer So Bad or the return of Rebels and Kings Highway and things starts to pile up, hitting the ceiling for the usual 18-20 song set. Not to mention that many of the covers have been on heavy repeat too only rotated a few times since the 90s. The total effect of which is - "No vacancies!! Oh, wait, perhaps one.. or two.. eh.. Come back next year and we'll see what we can do." - The importance of the 89-94 era is even more distinctly framed by the fact that the only album before the Wildflowers follow-up She's The One, that comes to mind as not having at least a semi-staple (a long term keeper at one point or other in the career), is Let Me Up, the album right before the beginning of the "Hits era". And no album since that same era - cept Mojo - have had any. At least in one way, the latter is good news to someone who don't like sameness or staples taking over the set. Keeping songs as regulars isn't the best idea imo. Problem is those post Wildflowers songs hardly ever gets played once "their" tour's been over. While the Hits era songs always get played. - I too probably should've mentioned the early Last DJ tour. I recognize it as being a wildly different animal, much like Mojo Tour but even better at it. An exception from the rule in the way it integrated the lion part of the more or less thorough concept album into the live setting and tried one or two other unusual cuts as well. It was brave and a very cool thing to do - the first actual post "Hits era" attempt at doing something different with the live set. The reason I named Mojo as more of an event in this context, was - again - that that was the last time (so far) they did something different. It was also the first and last time since Wildflowers, that a new song made it into the long time core, which makes it important in itself. Ok then. Nothing much to discuss, I thought..

^ Well aalright! For being a perfect example of "songs by rich musicians" that ain't nothing to me, I must say... Haven't heard or seen this in a few years.. and at least in parts it really redeems itself in terms of some of my genuine disinterest. More specifically, there are three things I like with this version. -> The intro! Up until the horn starts and the whole Vegas tux atmosphere is let loose, this is actually terribly awesome for a few seconds!! -> Mike. Again intro. And the solo too. Great yet different stuff! -> Ben. As with everything he touches, he's brilliant. He's among the few things here that ties this thing down to earth and provides some real soul. And that is no small task when having the tinsel dum-dum boys doing their syncronized moves to it, something that qualifies as among the very least Rock'n'Roll of all the TP moments I can recall to ever have seen or heard. This piece - and the whole 1985 tour for that matter - goes to show how thin the line can be at times, with certain arrangements. And I'm not talking about the horns, which are so far over any line that it's not even funny. No, it's the choir girls. I find them to be next to horrific. Yet just a year later, TP&TH set out accompanying Dylan for the True Confessions tour and again found themselves backed by a "gospel section". And all of sudden, in 1986 it worked wonders and did not seem at all as forced and hysterical as it does here. Anyway, MJ2LD... Thanks for posting. I guess.. when you dance, I can go right with you.

Not much to discuss perhaps.. Although, I would like to add the perspective that up to a point the commonly known hits, the big ones, reaching far and beyond the fanbase, the type of material TP seems to prefer in his sets - weren't quite enough to clog up the whole set. This was particularly true before the Lynne to Wildflowers era obviously. Before a good 7-10 new standard hits just HAD to be played each night. Before that it was easier. But even then - when a set could change quite a bit from tour to tour, introduce a good deal new material etc - even then they were not famous for switching the set too much from night to night. These days they talk about doing so, but it never seemed to have been their style in reality. (Fillmore, VIC, Fonda, Beacon type of events aside). It's important to say that each tour they still try to find room for one more or less "deep" cut, perhaps an older hit that's been on hiatus and perhaps a "new" cover. Fair enough. But given their approach, they are kinda tied up. There's just so much they can do as long as they refuse to touch what they seem to consider the core. A core that in my opinion has swollen out of proportin, making it impossible to manuever a good varied set without playing longer sets. (Like I've said many times, if they had the guts to trust their skill and groove enough to cut back the untouchables by say one third, and started to switch a bit from night to night, there would be plenty of room within their 90 minutes frame to work wonders.) I think, for me Mojo Tour stands out as the watershed. For one thing they went ahead bravely with outing that material on tour, making a bit of an exception to what had long since starting to fixate. Unfortunately that set in the set was mainly made room for by cutting the precious "other" material, rather than the core, that was basically untouched even if they squeezed in so many new songs each night. For another thing, Mojo Tour was the last time so far a new staple was added, I Should've Known It clogging up one of the few remaining slots that could be used for other stuff. I know none of this is a 100%, but from my experience, I'm not sure how and why 2003 is the important year of difference. The general approach, as I see it, have been pretty much the same all the time. New songs was added now and then. Each tour followed plan more or less. Then the biggest change happened with all the hits in 89-94 era.. If there hasn't been any long term keepers at all from She's The One, Echo, Last DJ or Highway Companion and only one song from Mojo - well that should say a lot. The list is now officially crammed. If they should return to any of the Hypnotic Eye material ever again, let alone making some of it staples in the set, I'd say, given one or two covers as usual - that nothing further can be done. They need to rethink their basic approach if anything should be able to happen in the future. If they truly want change and variety and if they want to make room for future songs. They are not gonna play 3 hour shows when they are 75 if they didn't when they were 35. That's how I see it.

^ Let me rephrase all that. Don't get me wrong. I just very much doubt that anything we say - here or elsewhere - are likely to change anything, no matter who sees what. And I even think that is good in a way. See, I don't want TP&TH to be the kind of act that do stuff simply cause we ask them to. No, I want them to find these things out for themselves, to do stuff because they want to, to the benefit of themselves and everybody's. That would be the natural direction, the higher order. Still, it can't hur to nag.. to keep the ball rolling. I am right to symbolically start this thread and you are right to bump it. Right we are. If you don't run you rust.

Ok.. I have a bad day apparently. Let's break this mother down.. 1. I "know" someone's seen it. Here I trust previous experience, that people with tie-ins, sometimes even the tying people themselves, if you catch my drift, do look around here occasionally. (NOTE: I have however no reason to believe that the top pin himself hasn't indeed sold his computer and bought (yet another) guitar, so that he never could or would visit places like this. I frankly trust he doesn't. I don't think I would. But who knows. I don't say he's seen this, or anything else here. Just that "someone" surely has. Because I truely think so. 2. Me being pretty certain that's not where it's at. Here I may have shot from the hip, lingustically speaking. What I meant was that I really don't believe that anyone "on the inside" reading this would change anything with regards to what they play in their live shows. To me it seems obvious that TP knows well enough that they have tons of fans out there who want to hear this rare song or that, or those who would just want for them to mix things up generally, dig deeper, move on and all that. It's not that they don't know. If anything, the way they speak about these things shows they know all too well what people want them to say. But they seem to forget that people also want them doing it. So, really, it's a good thing you bumped this, and I thank you for it! I put it up there - like a lot of my usual rants about the set lists - simply b-e-c-a-u-s-e someone is bound to see it. I wouldn't bother repeat myself this much if I didn't know the superiority of the logic and my case and that it is likely to be noticed, if ignored. Still, even if we get 100.000 names and they actually play You And I Will Meet Again because of this, that in itself is not gonna change the core issue - their general approach to setlists. It would be totally awesome as a one-off thing, or a one tour thing, but still it would be just that, a one-off. In that sense this thread was a symbolic gesture to begin with. More of a statement than an actual plead. But either way, you are right.. somewhere subconciously, perhaps eventualy the realization creeps in all the way, that there actually are numerous great alternative ways to go about things with grace, groove and honor. So, I did not mean to shut you up. Not at all. Just to say - perhaps in a bantering way - that I started this fully knowing how naive it would be to think that they after hearing for years how they should mix things up more, play this or play that, that they should suddenly listen to this one! Let alone suddenly take the undelying concept of real honest variation to heart and go right ahead with it, even the slightest bit! In that sense it is almost a dead issue, but I thought that you of all people knew that. But you know what? Now they probably will play this song. Just to shut me up. Disclaimer. As always. Read this with caution. I am one sneaky bastard. But I'm also a serious ditto, so.. Whatever you do, don't let it go! Keep fighting the good fight! Thank you!

Holding back? Not my forte.. Well.. perhaps another case of misreading. Since I thought that what I wrote could be read (and justly should be so) as if Unchained carries a better out sound profile for the Echo material, I just wanted to make clear - in the view of your "further confounding" there - that I meant what I wrote only with regards to this material. Not that the "Unchained sound" would be optimal for anything they do. (However if they had to choose one sound and stick to it, Unchained could be a good choice, imo.) That's all. I did not mean to specify this in a manner that seemed harsh or "overly serious" to you. Sorry, if you took it that way. If my "absurd" remark hurt your feelings, don't feel bad. Coming from me, that is more like praise! Remember, there is always a tinge of the unserious in everything I do or say. Call it survival instinct. Anyway.. no hard feelings. I's just answering what you were asking, if rhetorically so, that I just don't think there's no such thing as an "ideal recording". It's fun, it's serious. Peace, man.

That is absurd. The world is full of useless bands making the same record over and over. To me it's obviously not only better, but essential, for bands to explore, to go places, for albums to have their "own distinct sound and vibe". At least to a degree. As for my ponderings about how this particular material perhaps would've been better served by a bit more of an Unchained touch, the "ideal recording" was not at all the dimension I was aiming for. Just to clearify. There's no such thing as an ideal album or an ideal method, it all depends on the material and the circumstances. Besides - even if I can imagine ways to present the core of Echo even more effectively raw and human like that, and even if I would (and did) dispute the notion that Echo is such an unmatched masterpiece in terms of capturing "what was happening naturally and organically", my main concerns - again - are really none of that. It's the core vs filler quota and most of all it's the somewhat sour sound that is seemingly due to compression.

Oh, someone's seen it alright. That was kinda part of the point. I'm pretty certain that's not where it's at though..

Ok, wow. But why not. There are times when I think those things you say are pretty accurate. (I mean, of course they are accurate... To you. I mean accurate the me way. ) Only, those aspects, to my mind, are mostly.. eh.. just in my mind. That is, at least theoretically I think you might be right. It is honest, it is genuine. Still...... I couldn't agree more. Well put. That is always the case, and seems to be all the more important for an album of Echo's gravity. It's just that to me Rubin and TP only succeeds at.. if I was forced to give a figure.. let's say a 75% rate with Echo. To specify, I think there might be a case made that Rubin's contributions here are as fair to the material's sentiments as ever. However, I'm not sure this famous lack of "artificial interferance" mentioned, are any more "real" or "raw" on Echo than it is on say Wildflowers. I think all that is in your deep reading of the album lyrics. If anything, I feel that Echo - aside from the actual arrangements and production, that sure has some merits (as being at the same time both richer and rawer, so to speak, than Wildflowers) - still sounds too compressed and.. depressed. That is, the songs are not depressing, you are right, the best of them are beautiful and real heavy human stuff, but to me they s-o-u-n-d depressing, technically. It's not that the heartbreak, despare and loss are so painful, it's the actual tone and ring that occasionally seeps through some of these songs, that's got an almost sour, saturated quality to it at times. (I might be an army of one in thinking that it sounds like TP even sings out of key a few times on this album.) All this makes Echo THE album in the catalog that I'm most eager to hear in a fullstudio sound experience. I do have a feeling that's what's on the CD and even on the LP in this case, is miles subpar to what's really there. As for TP's part in things, I think he really wrote some raw and painfully true stuff here. But not only did he write some filler as well, he let them on the album rather than keeping it a more striking 50 minutes experience. One of the best things he wrote for the album - Sweet William - didn't fit the album, and he wisely left it off. Others a lot lesser songs weren't treated as wisely. In short, as far as TP and Rubin goes, between 1994's Wildflowers and 1999's Echo, I'd say they did their most genius, their most pure, human, true and raw music on their 1996 Unchained LP for Johnny Cash. An album sounding a bit more like an enhanced Unchained and getting a bit of a slim treatment by cutting out some fillers and putting more focus on the core material, would take that "honesty and believability", key to an album like this, even further, imo.

Oh, man.. Don't know what happened to that stuff! Can't even seem to find it anymore, when you are mentioning it. The Early Tracks are indeed quite unpolished and from his formative years, to say the least, but still great stuff. And it's stil available officially over at cdbaby, I believe (should be, at least as files), in case someone still hasn't checked this gem out. I very much still want that "I Go on Living" LP released! It's a crying shame that this great music man never had his own record out.