Saturday, May 28, 2022

Disowned, Derided and Deleted

Stinky and I started kicking around the idea for our latest Jon-Ky Records release over a year ago. It's a compilation of songs from albums that have been disowned or derided by their creators. I put together the first volume of Disowned & Derided. Stinky's choices will be posted next. 

Here are Stinky's top five reasons why a musician or band might badmouth their own work:

1. Caved To Pressure To Make A Hit Record/Changed Their Signature Sound

2. Drug Addled Recording Sessions

3. Unhappy With The Producer/Production

4. The Writing Wasn’t Up To Par

5. The Performances Weren’t Up To Par

Artists who caved in to pressure from record labels or producers include Captain Beefheart (on Unconditionally Guaranteed and Bluejeans & Moonbeams), The Monkees (Changes) and John Cougar (Chestnut Street Incident). Some albums were released without the artists' consent, like Van Morrison's Blowin' Your Mind and the debut of Big Brother And The Holding Company.

Bands who changed their signature sound include Celtic Frost (Cold Lake) and Bad Religion (Into The Unknown). I also included a couple songs from disowned albums by artists who hadn't found their signature sound yet (American Music Club, Pantera, and Billy Joel's hard rock duo Attila). Speaking of BJ, he was briefly a member of Dick Wagner's band Ursa Major after Attila split up.

Artists who were unhappy with their performances include Linda Ronstadt (Silk Purse) and Ian Hunter (Overnight Angels). Other musical missteps include The Beach Boys' M.I.U. Album, Hall & Oates' War BabiesFunkadelic's Connections And DisconnectionsThe Clash's Cut The Crapand Van Halen III

Some disowned albums have been blocked from reissue: Emmylou Harris' Gliding Bird, Bob Seger's Brand New Morning, Mickey Newbury's Harlequin MelodiesScott Walker Sings Songs From His TV Series, and Mark Everett's Bad Dude In Love. Thanks to Farq for that last rarity! 

8 comments:

  1. Disowned & Derided, Volume 1 (Jon-Ky Records #4)

    https://www.mediafire.com/file/ev38wi7c3zgk1pb/Disowned+&+Derided+v1.zip/file

    Liner notes are included, and no musicians were harmed in the making of this compilation!

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    1. MEGA backup link (Mediafire still working as of this date): http://tinyurl.com/JonkyNo4

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  2. Sounds like another stellar Jon-Ky release -- thanks Stinky!

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    1. Stinky's set is coming up next. This one's mine, MrDave! But you came up with the Jon-Ky name, so you get a pass.

      Stinky and I compiled a long list of albums disowned by their creators, and then we each took half of them. Both of us wanted Aerosmith (Night In The Ruts) and Bowie (Never Let Me Down and/or Tonight), but I let Stinky have them after he threatened to expose my super secret supervillain identity.

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    2. errr ... sorry about that! Thanks JONDER! I think I was thrown off by the lack of "Drug Addled Recording Sessions" but maybe that's Stinky's forte?! (On the other hand, there are probably more recordings ruined by sobriety than drug use but maybe that's just paying the toll for inspiration with interest)

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    3. Good points, MrDave. "Maybe partying will help" -- or would have helped -- some of these records. Drug use affected albums like Aerosmith's Night In The Ruts, but not many on my tracklist. Wikipedia says that the Beach Boys' M.I.U. Album was recorded at Maharishi International University (in Iowa) "to keep members of the band away from their drug suppliers in LA".

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  3. My compilation was put together at Maharishi International University (in Iowa) for the same reason, Jonder!
    - Stinky

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    1. That might be the funniest comment ever to grace this blog. Did you get a M.I.U. t-shirt while you were there (in Iowa)?

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