Best music we'll never hear (Fictitious or legendary)

[;ivlunsdystf]

I have been thinking a lot lately about 'ideal' and how the ideal example of a given thing only exists in our imagination ... in the field of esthetics, that is a basic concept that people philosophize about. Also, I am digging Mickey Hart's "Songcatchers" book about the history of field recording and the capture of dying cultural artifacts ... so ...

My favorite things I'll never hear are these:

1. That piece Duke Ellington composed and recorded for the Queen of England, and then sent her a vinyl of the only copy of it (although did that eventually get released as "The Queen's Suite"?)

2. Last year I read a historical book with lots of pictures about the barn dance scene in rural Wisconsin in the early 1900s - mostly it was little ensembles with a fiddle and piano - No way to hear what that stuff sounded like, but I wish I could;

3. In a Mark Helprin novel ("Refiner's Fire", I think) there is a fictitious band called "Potato Za and His Band" and they are described as playing feriociously for several hours ... no genre is given, making it very reader-sensitive as to the nature of the actual music being described;

4. I have a recording pulled from CNN.com a few years ago of a 30,000 year old flute that archaelogists dug up, and then some scientist played it for all to hear. I want to hear what the actual original owner of the flute played on it.

5. And of course like every good TOMB'er I'd love to hear the original "Smile" as Brian Wilson heard it in his head before attempting to record it the first time around. I've heard bootlegs but I would like to hear what he had in mind. I don't like Brian Wilson's stuff but it would be pretty interesting.

Others?

[thieves]

When I was 17 years old, my high school concert band took a trip to Orlando to play at Epcot (i think it was epcot) and basically have a Florida vacation for a few days. My friend/bandmate at the time brought down his little Tascam (Porta 02, maybe.... this was 1998) and I brought down a small casio keyboard, a little boss drum machine, a mic, a distortion pedal and a sampling delay pedal. I spent a large part of the trip down programming beats. We set up a 'studio' in our hotel room and got members of the band to record certain parts. Highlights included a sample of some kid talking about his 'winky' and an elaborate 8+ minute tale from a friend about a bizzare encounter in line for a ride with a morbidly obese woman, soundtracked by casio delay soundscapes. Anyway, we didn't have a deck to mix down the songs in the hotel room, so we were going to mix them down once we got home, giving copies to everyone involved and whoever wanted one.

anyway, the master tape came home with us, it was at my buddy's house. we went to mix it down about a week later, but the tape was nowhere to be found.

now i've spent about 10 years going through all my old four track tapes once every couple of years, wondering if i somehow ended up with it, but i haven't heard those 'songs' since the hotel room in florida.

i get a little depressed every time i think about it.

[;ivlunsdystf]

DAMN would I like to hear that which you described.

Your story reminds me of another thing, too: I had a friend from Marquette, Michigan about ten years ago who told me his old friend (also in Michigan, or perhaps Illinois) used to use his four-track to write and record horribly obscene reggae songs. Of course I will never get to hear those either.

That wasn't you, was it?

[cgarges]

5. And of course like every good TOMB'er I'd love to hear the original "Smile" as Brian Wilson heard it in his head before attempting to record it the first time around. I've heard bootlegs but I would like to hear what he had in mind. I don't like Brian Wilson's stuff but it would be pretty interesting.

That's the first one that came to my mind.

I'd also love to hear any of the Pink Floyd experiments.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Smitty]

thought provoking topic! a few off the top of my head...

some of the existant but nonreleased Vincent Gallo material.

full-fidelity live recordings of some very early american music... ragtime, blues, and jazz that wasn't recorded at the time.

the mythical song of the sirens that nearly lured odysseus to his death (would i dive headfirst into my speakers, or would it just sound like Feist?)

[thieves]

DAMN would I like to hear that which you described.

Your story reminds me of another thing, too: I had a friend from Marquette, Michigan about ten years ago who told me his old friend (also in Michigan, or perhaps Illinois) used to use his four-track to write and record horribly obscene reggae songs. Of course I will never get to hear those either.

That wasn't you, was it?

nope. i've always tried to console myself by trying to maintain that the memory of the songs is much better than the songs actually were, which is probably the case with anything that could be listed in this thread.

[darjama]

I've always heard that a proposed Jimi Hendrix / Miles Davis collaboration was nixed either because Jimi died before it could happen, or because Jimi couldn't read music. Hearing that would be pretty wild.


Of course The Onion had this to say about Jimi's future music career:
http://www.theonion.com/2056-06-22/news/7/

[LeedyGuy]

I'd love to hear Buddy Bolden, but the racist pricks that ran record labels decided that black music wasn't worth recording and didn't even record any jazz until that ridiculously shitty Original Dixieland Jass Band. Buddy Bolden was said to be the best freakin cornetist that New Orleans had to offer. He died early. I think King Oliver got it all from him, but King Oliver I think also said that Buddy was way better than he could be. Wow.

How about just being at a gig that I am playing and hearing it as it happens. You will NEVER actually hear that or experience anything that you ever do from a crowd perspective. Put that in your space time continuum flux capacitor and smoke it.

-Ken

[dr.ona]

How about the XYZ project with ex Yes and ex Zep members? A big fan of both of course but I really don't see how this would've sounded good in the first place....to me it doesn't even sound good on paper. Kinda reminds me of something a record label would've wanted like how they matched up Van Halen and Sammy Hagar...barf.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

when my little brother was actually little, like 10, he had the black realistic cassette recorder, you know the one. one day i was in his room, looking for something or other, and i decided to randomly hit play. and out came a recording he'd made of himself singing the theme song to "the greatest american hero" at the top of his lungs, as earnestly as possible, and completely and totally off key.

i would like to hear this recording again.

[sears]

I would like to hear the jingle loop that got our hero through the security maze in _The Demolished Man_ and also Clarence Yojimbo's folk act in _Alan Mendelsohn_.

[chris harris]

I'd love to have been at one of the Flaming Lips' original "Parking Lot Experiment" shows... I got to see a "Boombox Experiment" at a theater. It was pretty awesome. I just can't help imagining that the Parking Lot Experiments were a little more chaotic.

Speaking of the Lips, I'd love to see them play again with Ronald Jones on guitar, Steven Drozd killing his drumset, Wayne in a t-shirt and Michael with an afro, in a small venue.

I saw Nirvana on their last tour and they put on an amazingly intense show, even in a giant venue on a giant stage. I'd like to see a show like that in a small club.

[jonathan]

God, What I wouldn't do for Elliott Smith's work with Jon Brion... I think its no longer? But Maybe it is???


I just got Elliotts mixes of From A Basement On A Hill-- which actually just sounds like rough mixes maybe.. I dont know what..

[deenz]

God, What I wouldn't do for Elliott Smith's work with Jon Brion... I think its no longer? But Maybe it is???


I just got Elliotts mixes of From A Basement On A Hill-- which actually just sounds like rough mixes maybe.. I dont know what..

Ditto. I'd also like to hear what vibe David from the Bible liked to roll with, (if the Bible is your cup of tea). From what knowledge I have he was the best in Israel and was pretty revolutionary for whatever was going on around then.

[JohnDavisNYC]

the fabled take of nefertiti that was supposedly the most killing thing that the miles davis quintet ever played, but tape wasn't rolling. that's why no-one solo'd on the take that is on the record, because they were all pissed the the engineer fucked up and didn't get their best solos... only tony wanted to blow, so the whole song is a drum solo...

it could just be jazz lore, but it sounds believable, and i've heard it from more than a few people... and the take certainly sound like everyone is a bit pissed.

john