Trolling the Studio - The Lost Double Trouble Album

I've given myself a monumental task recently. I'm finally figuring out what's in my collection, and making a list, as I should have done long ago. Well, to be fair, I started long ago, but the project was dropped.

Then came a period when my old burner went through a slow decline. I was hesitant to replace it because I knew that the entire computer needed replacing, and was saving up for that. First, it stopped burning audio discs, but it would still burn data DVDs. Thus I was able to continue downloading things, listening to them on the computer, and storing them for later burning. And oh, I did that a lot.

So now that I'm needing a snow shovel to move the discs out of my way as I negotiate the hallway, it seems like a good time to figure out what's what. And boy, is there a lot of what. Enough to keep me writing these things for the rest of my life. I've found a lot of things I had forgotten downloading, and haven't listened to yet. So I'm sure you can understand how much fun I'm having discovering exactly what I've been sitting on.

While I've been doing this and the collection as a whole has been taking shape before me, I realized that my Trolling the Underground posts have yet to address an entire subsection of my collection. Thinking I should rectify it with a post, I soon realized that I had enough material in this subset to do a few posts. After a while, I saw a new series starting.

You see, a recording doesn't have to be live to be underground. It only has to be commercially unavailable. That opens a couple doors.

First, you have demo recordings. These are simple tapes that artists cobble together to play for the record companies prior to recording an album. It's their "sales pitch" to the label for that material, and everyone does them. These can vary from being almost identical to the finished product to being wildly different, which is when they are the most interesting. Sometimes they are even released, as in the case of Pete Townshend's "Scoop" collection, but not normally. They get out, though, either as the result of some insider action or else some mishap. I recently acquired a small selection of the demos from Peter Gabriel's first solo album that were found on a reel of tape in a box at the bottom of a stack of boxes in the bathroom of an unused warehouse. Imagine what other gems are sitting forgotten in ancient cardboard on rotting tape next to a leaky pipe. It's almost enough to make me run screaming into the night. We'll hear a lot of interesting demos as this new series develops.

Another form of underground studio recording is the "alternate take", which is frequently used as a special bonus on CD re-releases. These will come from the same sources, and be much more in depth than the bonus tracks.

There is a third category, though, that is much rarer. I have, so far, only three examples out of 1150 entries (and still counting). This is the unreleased album.

These are usually big news when the band is already established, and the legal battles can go on forever before we found out that the album was better left unreleased anyway (take that, Boston).This one, however, came about four years before Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble ended up releasing their first studio album, with a different lineup than the one that first recorded.

For this lineup Stevie had Jack Newhouse on bass, Chris Layton on drums, and Lou Ann Barton singing. Since the album was relatively short (remember, the album was recorded with vinyl in mind, the bootleg was made as a CD) it was matched with a 1979 concert tape of the same lineup, with a lot of the same songs. After that, Lou Ann Barton left to go solo, and Stevie began singing for the band. After one or two more personnel changes, they were heard at the Montreaux Jazz & Blues fest by James Taylor and David Bowie. After recording with both and declining to tour with Bowie (although you can hear them rehearse together here) Stevie finally got Texas Flood recorded and released, and the rest was history.

The bootleg's liner notes contain two stories regarding the boot's origin. To quote:

"The one and only surviving test pressing was recently discovered in a cupboard in South Austin, Texas where it had lain for the last 19 years, all other recordings of the project have been destroyed after alleged contractual disputes arose. These recording, notable for their raw energy and rare slide guitar work are essential for all true collectors. Also featuring four early arrangements of songs that later appeared on the Texas Flood album. Due to the brevity of the Nashville '78 session the producers have added a live soundboard recording featuring Lou Ann Barton and three tracks featuring Johnni Reno on saxophone."

Notes: The above paragraph is the supposed story behind this recording as told on the cd inlay. The real story is that the band didn't like the way the album turned out and paid a large sum of money to keep it from being released. As you would expect, someone got their hands on a copy and bootlegged it.

Well, the important thing is that I can haz it, right?

I'll share two songs for two different reasons. One is called Rude Mood, one of four songs that this album has in common with the Texas Flood album. It's for the fans of Stevie's instrumental style, and shows how it grew in the years between this recording and the one that was eventually released. The second is called I Wonder Why and has Lou Ann's vocals as well as that rare slide guitar mentioned above. What do you think, upon listening? Were they ready, or was keeping this under wraps a good move at the time? These are definitely two of the best tracks.

At any rate, I doubt any SRV fan would want to pass it up now. After all, there's only so much to be had, eh?

The Rules.

It can seem like a little bit of anarchy, the way I get most of my music, and I guess in a way it is. After all, just about anything is available somewhere, although I have little control over the specifics. It's free, and shared far and wide. I'm not dealing with stores or any hassles as far as acquiring music, as long as I keep my internet on and my computer working, I'm set. What's more, the fact that it's legal doesn't suck the fun out of it.

Keeping it legal, though, is what leads to the rules. They're pretty easy to deal with, although when a site gets to a certain size, like Dime - a- Dozen, it requires a lot of cooperation from the governed.

The main rule for keeping trouble at bay is to not step on the artist's copyright - that is, never torrent anything that is available commercially. Some sites don't watch for this at all, and they're generally the ones who get their plugs pulled by a team of lawyers. Others, like Dime, are ALL over that one, and with good reason. They've been closed before because someone did some dipshit, and learned how to avoid it. If something was ever released, anywhere, at any time for any duration, it is not allowed. That means that if a legitimate (not bootleg) label put out a limited release of 500 copies on prerecorded reel-to-reel in Budapest back in 1968, and the music has never seen the light of day since, it is still off limits. Period. If the official version is missing songs, you can post only the missing songs. If it is a studio recorded "alternate" version, it's still off limits (although demos are fair game, unless they are released later). They used to have a policy that you couldn't even have a 10 second sample of the record being played on the P.A. system before and after the show, but they eventually lightened up about that.

The other unbreakable rule is the Not Allowed Bands (NAB) list. This is the list of artists that have either contacted the sites or published a policy on their website or anywhere else to the effect that they do NOT approve of electronic trading. Of course, this means nothing as far as more traditional methods of trading go, but it stops the downloads right in their tracks. If you want to lose your uploading rights in a hurry, just go ahead and post someone who's on the NAB list.

Sometimes an artist understands the aims and the value of the trading community, but wants to protect their market as well, so they'll just put certain limits on. Little Feat is a great example, with links to bit torrent sites on their website, but they are on the NAB list in terms of soundboard recordings after January 1, 2004, audience video, and shows listed in their non-tradable shows list (which are shows they have made available for purchase). Anything else is fair game, and even though audience video isn't allowed, they have allowed some pro-shot video to spread.

Sometimes it only means one person in a band. Levon Helm's ban doesn't include The Band, but it goes the other way around, too - no Buffalo Springfield anymore because of Ritchie Furay. There are a lot of variations, and the list changes all the time - all it takes is an e-mail. I've seen things come off the list, as well, when fans work with the artist to make it happen, but that's not as frequent.

All in all, these are pretty easy rules to live with, since it's love for the music and respect for the artists that make it that drives us to do this, even more than disdain for the record industry does. Really, there is SO much incredible stuff available without stepping on someone's toes, that there's no reason to do it. I sure wish that Hot Tuna and the Allman Brothers weren't on that list, though.

I've had to reconsider the rules since making the recent change to Trolling the Underground. When I was just posting a song or two to listen to, I wasn't so concerned that anyone would care. Now that I am actually sending out the shows electronically, though, I feel a bigger urge to follow the same rules that keep my favorite sites safe. Unfortunately, that means that there's a few things that I can no longer share over bit torrent, but I think the things I can share will please a few of you.

This week, Trolling the Underground is back at its' original home. I'm featuring some of the fine old blues that Jeff was talking about last week, and of course it has a download. Go get you some!

Trolling the Underground: Dallas, Tx June 26, 2007

I've never been a Police fan. From the beginning, their music absolutely failed to reach me. I can only think of two songs that I ever liked a little, in fact. Not being a big reggae fan, either, their kinda-reggae-in-the-backbeat-but-not-
really type of sound just didn't do it for me.

Another thing that bugged me was the name "Sting." Honestly, it just struck me as silly at best, pretentious at worst. And it was the precursor to hordes of silly-ass names like "Bono" and "Slash". Am I to think that Mr. and Mrs. Edge named their son "The?"

Oddly enough, my vast collection of unofficial recordings doesn't always reflect my tastes. For one thing, I may be experimenting by downloading something I've never heard of, and that I end up not liking. Far more often, however, it's because I'm getting something for someone else. I don't like the Eagles, but I downloaded it for someone I knew would appreciate it. Ditto Soundgarden. I've even got some Cramps shows that I snagged for my neighbor, which aren't as bad as I expected, and might even grow on me. I usually end up keeping the shows, if not in CD form, then in a lossless comressed backup, in case it ever comes in handy for a trade or something. It costs relatively little to keep a few billion extra zeros and ones sitting around.

So it was that when I browsed and perused my favorite site, and saw the Police tour pop up now and again, I thought of a recent post by DangerDoll.

Now, that lady's a Police fan. She made a seven hour round trip to see the Dallas show at the American Airlines Center (which I'm certain had a much better name at some time), and you only do that if you like a band. Of course, I'm no stranger to this - I've gone from Elgin, Il. to Hamilton, Ontario to see the Grateful Dead, and from Albuquerque to Phoenix to see Peter Gabriel. The music you love is worth it, if you love it enough.

So to connect a good- sounding audience recording of the show (judging from the sample posted at the site) with the person who drove seven hours round trip to see it was as easy as making a few clicks to download it. Really, this shit is easier than calling Geico.

Now here's the really great news. It used to be that to get it to her, I would have to decompress it, burn it to CDs, print the info sheet, package it all up, get an address to send it to, and deal with getting to a Postal Service which, here in Albuquerque, seems to keep banker's hours. A lot of effort expended to get the music to one person.

No more. There is a much easier way now, that has always been at my fingertips, but is just recently learned. I can now send the recording of this entire show to as many people as would like to have it directly from my computer to yours. No burning, packaging, postage or hassle to deal with, and this method actually takes up less of my time because it's simpler and more direct. Since I don't need to mail anything, it should put to rest any myths that I'm collecting personal info. There will be a little setup for y'all to do, but only the first time. Once you've gotten yourself started, every future download is simplicity itself. And yes, this is legal.

Now, this is a strange TtU entry because usually I'm talking about the band's performance, or how it's different from the records, or whatnot, but TtU has also always been about the act of collecting itself, and the Prime Directive of sharing. As far as the band goes, I've already said it - I don't have much use for them. DangerDoll's review of the show is behind the link above, and here is another review I found laying about. I also found some photos of this show taken by someone who was right up front.

It wouldnt be a TtU, however, without a posted song, even though I'm making the entire show available. Think of it as a sample. It's one of the two songs of theirs that I've liked for at least a minute, and it's called Synchronicity II. What do you think?

Now, if you would like a copy of the entire show, just follow these simple instructions.

1. Download and install this program. Easy, free, and safe. This you will only have to do the first time.
2. Download this file. http://www.mediafire.com/?7twpmgdjyxy
   
3. Click on the file you just downloaded (you may have been given the option during the download of opening the file using utorrent - that's just as good, so go for it). The program you just downloaded and installed should pop up. If it doesn't let me know, I'll help.
4. Decide where you want the concert files to go to. The whole thing, in this case, is 784 MB. Once you choose a place on your HD for the files and okay it, the transfer will begin automatically, and the program will give you status information.
   

You may notice that you are connected to people other than myself. This is to expected, and encouraged. This is called a swarm, and the more people are in it, the faster everyone gets the music. That's why I'll ask that you not disconnect as soon as you finish, please. Stay on for a little while and help pass the data on. Remember the Prime Directive.

Once you have the files, you will see that they are in a strange file type called flac. This is called lossless compression - music files are typically large, so compressing them makes for a faster download. Lossless compression means that no wavelengths are lost in the process - the uncompressed music is identical to the original music. Some of you may have media players that will play flac files, but you can't burn them to CD without decompressing them. For those who wish to burn them or can't play flac files, decompressing is child's play. Just download this free program (the appropriate one for your OS, o'course). Drag and drop the flacs to the decoder, decide at the bottom where you want the decoded files to go, and click on "decode". Then you can burn.

I hope everyone enjoys this! Let me know what you think of the process and the show. I have downloaded over 1000 G of music, video, books, and comics using bit torrent and never had a problem caused by any of it. It has, in fact, truly thrown my musical horizons to a far more distant place. If people dig it, I'll be happy to share other shows, and since this is so simple from my viewpoint, I can easily entertain requests. I can even fulfill some of them, I'm sure.

While digging up info for this, I found that an audience video recording is out there, too. You can see part of it here. I'm not that impressed, but someone who was there might want to see it.

Assume the Position!!!!