The Squire Presents

For my second Nirvana related release of the month, I have made an album made up of what I consider to be the best of their rare and archive recordings. Now, there was ‘With The Lights Out’ box set that came out in 2004. 3CDs worth of music and a DVD of video. This box set had been talked about for five years before it eventually came out, with the planning process bogged down in litigation. What we eventually got was a pretty comprehensive overview of the band and their music, taking in the bands first live show in 1987 right up some home demos from 1994. There was also a single disc version which included three songs not previously released on the box set. Theres nothing like fleecing your fan base now is there? 

Reviews of her box set were mixed, with some praising it for being a valuable look at the band’s evolution, whilst others felt there was too much second rate material which would not have seen the light of day under other circumstances. I would have agree with the latter, whilst also feeling that there were some rarities which should have included. Therefore, here is my attempt at a more condensed version of ‘With The Lights Out’, but going under the title of ‘Verse Chorus Verse’, the name that was originally attributed to the live compilation that did not see the light of day in 1994.  

Most of the songs that I have included here come from the ‘With The Lights Out’ with some help from ‘Sliver: The Best Of The Box’. I also wanted to include a number of songs that were released but had not been included on any Nirvana album before. I also used the template set by the vinyl version of ‘From The Muddy Banks Of The Wiskah’. That is, the forth side included material that was not available on any other format. In the case of ‘Muddy Banks’, this material was stage banter. In this case, it is material that were rougher demos (mostly recorded at home by Cobain) that were not sonically up the standard of the rest of the album. Being a vinyl nut, I like the idea that this format should get some bonuses every so often. 

The songs not included on either of the aforementioned compilations are:

Love Buzz – The 7” version had a sound montage that had been put together by Cobain. This does not appear on the album version. 

Sappy – Originally this song was to be called ‘Verse Chorus Verse’, but this title was shared with another song so the original title of ‘Sappy’ was used instead. This was originally release on a AIDS benefit album called ‘No Alternative’. For legal reasons, the songs could not be listed on the album artwork and was therefore placed at the end of the running order as a hidden track. It did not take long for word to get out that there was an otherwise unavailable Nirvana song on a compilation album which meant that its popularity was greatly increased.  

Smells Like Teen Spirit – This was 20 seconds shorter than the version found on ‘Nevermind’. 

Pay To Play (Smart Studios Version) – This version was recorded at the first attempt the band made at recording their second album. Even though those sessions would not see the light of day (initially), this version of the song had a video recorded with drummer Chad Channing. Channing might not have had the power of future drummer, Dave Grohl, it does shows how close Grohl was to this original version when laying down his drum parts. The band even recorded a video but after Channig was fired form the band, these sessions ended up acting as a demo to shop the band around to the major labels, with Geffen eventually taking the bait. After Channing left the band (or was fired depending on the source you read), the song was re-recorded and this version would eventually see the light of day on the compilation ‘DGC Rarities Vol.1’. The video itself had been released on the ‘With The Light Out’ Box Set. 

Pennyroyal Tea – Cobain was unhappy with the version that had been released on ‘In Utero’ and so a remix was prepared by Scott Litt. He had done a bit of remixing on some other ‘In Utero’ songs, but as they album was already out, it was decided that it would be released as a single instead. Even though production of the single was in the advanced stages in many countries around the world, it would not be released in 1994 due to Cobain’s death. 

I Hate Myself & I Want To Die – Recorded during the ‘In Utero’ sessions, it was left off of the album due to Cobain feeling that there was enough noise songs not he album already. It would eventually see the light of day on ‘The Beavis & Butt-Head Experience’ album. 

You Know You’re Right – The last song recorded by the whole band at their last recording session. For this compilation, it would have been released as a single as well to promote the release of this album. 

Down In The Dark – Cobain provided backing vocals to this song which was released on Lanegan’s first solo album ‘The Winding Sheet’. Not strictly Nirvana I know but it made for a nice addition here. 

Here She Comes Now – The A-Side of a split single with The Melvins. It was also included on a compilation album ‘Heaven & Hell: A Tribute To The Velvet Underground’. 

As a promotional device for this release, I would have had ‘You Know You’re Right’ as a single, with two additional songs that would not have been included on the compilation album. A little bonus for anyone who would have bought it. 

Side A

1. Love Buzz (7” version)
2. Blandest (Studio Recording 1989)
3. Pen Cap Chew (Nirvana First Studio Recording 1988)
4. If You Must (Nirvana First Studio Recording 1988)
5. Clean Up Before She Comes (4 Track Home Recording 1987-8)
6. Sappy (No Alternative Charity Album Release 1993)
7. Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Home Demo 1990)

Side B

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit (Single Edit 1991)
2. Even In His Youth (Music Source Studio Session 1989) This is not the same as the recording that was released as a B-Side to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. 
3. Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam (Band Rehearsal 1994)
4. Pennyroyal Tea (Scott Litt Remix 1994)
5. Old Age (Nevermind Outtake 1991)
6. I Hate Myself & I Want To Die (The Bevis & Butt Head Experience Album 1993)

Side C

1. You Know You’re Right (Studio Matter 1994)
2. Pay To Play (Smart Studios Sessions 1990)
3. In Bloom (Smart Studios Sessions 1990)
4. Verse Chorus Verse (Nevermind Outtake 1991)
5. Down In Dark (The Winding Street 1990)
6. Here She Comes Now (Smart Studios Sessions 1990)

Side D

1. Spank Thru (1985 Fecal Matter Demo)
2. White Lace & Strange (Radio Session 1987)
3. About A Girl (4 Track Home Recording 1987-8)
4. Sliver (Home Demo 1990)
5. Opinion (Kurt Cobain Solo Radio Session 1990)
6. Token Eastern Song (Music Source Studio Session 1989)
7. Do Re Mi (Home Demo 1994)
8. MV (Studio Session 1993)
9. You Know You’re Right (Home Demo 1993/4)

Single B-Sides

1. Anoexorcist (Radio Session 1987)
2. Sappy (Studio Session 1990)

The cover is based upon the self titled compilation from 2002. The single is a straight copy of the one of the covers used or the promo single of ‘You Know You’re Right’ which also came out in 2002. 

I did not feel the need to complete a Nirvana live album as ‘MTV Unplugged In New York’, and ‘From The Muddy Banks Of The Wiskah’ did a good enough job here, and there has been a number of live archival releases since then.

A Spotify playlist could not be created for this compilation due to one or more of those songs not being available on that platform.

I don’t normally make posts to mark the passing of a musician, but when it comes to Kurt Cobain, I am going to make an exception. That is because Nirvana were one of the first bands I got into where we didn’t already have some records of theirs in the collection. I remember their performance of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ on Top of the Pops, and even though I was not exactly enamoured with what I heard as I did not realise that Cobain was singing the song in a lower register. The rest of the band were to taking their performance too seriously either. I’m sure it is on Youtube if you want to see for yourself. Once I heard ‘Nevermind’ though, I knew this was a band I needed to examine further. 

Even though ‘Nevermind’ was the album everyone else was buying, I thought I would buck the trend and I bought ‘Bleach’, their first album. For a long time, I preferred this one. The rawness of the production was the polar opposite to the sheen of ‘Nevermind’ and it was easy to see why Cobain felt that his artistic vision had been compromised some what by his success. He was a punk at heart, even though his songs were full of memorable melodies not normally associated with that style of music. It could be argued that Cobain would have preferred to stay an underground artist making albums in the vein of ‘Bleach’ instead of trying to keep his record company happy by producing more albums that did not deviate too far from ‘Nevermind’. However, this was not to be and on 5th April, Cobain took his own life leaving a legacy as one of the most influential musicians of the alternative rock scene. 

The remaining members of Nirvana set about securing Cobain’s legacy by releasing a live compilation called ‘Verse Chorus Verse’ and though this album was all but ready (it just need some final mixing), the project was scrapped. This was down the Bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl finding the whole project overwhelming, considering how close it was what to Cobain’s death. With this, the first of an alternative history of posthumous releases, this looks at a compilation that Geffen, the bands record label could have put out as a stop gap whilst the live material project was put on the back burner for the time being. 

The music had all been released before and it would have included every B-Side not included on an album or compilation release before Cobain’s death. There was easily enough material, even though ‘Been A Son’ is on here twice. Once, as a studio cut and the second, a live performance. I have tried tried to keep the songs in the order in which they were released, but did have to move a couple around as the playing sides were too different in terms to playing time. This is because vinyl and more importantly, cassette releases needed to be catered for in the mid 90s so making sure that the playing sides matched up as closely as they could in terms of timing would have been a consideration that would have needed to be taken into account. 

I missed off ‘Big Cheese’ which was the B-Side of their debut single and not originally on the ‘Bleach’ album, it was on every subsequent (as far as I can tell) repressing. In the UK, it was there from the start. ‘Dive’, the B-Side of Sliver but would later appear on Incesticide. With ‘Oh, The Guilt’, I had got so use to hearing the remixed version from the ‘With The Lights Out’ box set that I had forgotten that there were clicks throughout this that was the sound of a lighter being struck. For a moment, I thought that my CD copy had developed a fault down the years. 

Both Endless, Nameless  and Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip appeared on the CD versions of ‘Nevermind’ and ‘In Utero’, but where not included on the vinyl pressing (which were the versions I bought at the time). The two noise boys tracks have been included as a bonus 7” single as these would have made the LP far too long and would have been a nice bonus for this buying the vinyl version. As it is, this record is just over 50 minutes long, which is pushing it for a vinyl record. 

Side A

1. Been A Son – Blew EP
2. About A Girl (Live) – Sliver EP
3. Spank Thru (Live) – Sliver EP
4. Molly’s Lips (Live) – Candy (Split Single with The Fluid)
5. Even In His Youth – Smells Like Teen Spirit
6. Aneurysm – Smells Like Teen Spirit
7. Drain You (Live) – Come As You Are
8. D7 – Lithium

Side B

1. School (Live) – Come As You Are
2. Been A Son (Live) – Lithium
3. Curmudgeon – Lithium
4. Polly (Live) – In Bloom
5. Sliver (Live) – In Bloom
6. Oh, The Guilt – Puss (Split Single with Jesus Lizard) 
7. Marigold – Heart Shaped Box
8. MV – All Apologies
9. I Hate Myself & I Want To Die – Pennyroyal Tea

Bonus Single (Vinyl Only)

1. Endless, Nameless (Hidden Song on ‘Nevermind’)
2. Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip (Hidden Song on ‘In Utero’)

The artwork uses an image that I found on the Behance website by contributor Julia Ro. 

This ‘lost’ album could not be replicated on Spotify.

Record Collector magazine, a magazine that I have been buying since since the very early 90s when I saw a picture of there Syd Barrett line up on the front cover. I had only just bought ‘Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’ and wanted to find out more about the band during the Barrett era. Anyway, Record Collector has always been a great resource for information on all sorts of artists. In an article from at least eight, if not ten years ago, it mentioned a number of acetates Pink Floyd had recorded before they adopted their famous name. Before they were the Floyd, they went by numerous monikers such as Sigma 6, The Meggadeaths, The Abdabs, The Screaming Abdabs, The Tea Set and then The Pink Floyd Sound. There would also be a number of members who would leave before the band found fame. These would include Juliette Gale, who would later marry Floyd keyboard player Rick Wright and a guitar player who went by the name of Rado Klose. 

One acetate which contained the songs ‘Lucy Leave’ and I’m A King Bee’ would appear on bootlegs over the years, but the other two did not and it was only with the release of a vinyl EP going by the name ‘1965: Their First Recordings’ that fans finally got to hear them. These songs are nothing like the Floyd of ‘Arnold Layne’ or ‘See Emily Play’, but a more R&B/Blues based sound that was the rage at the time. These songs would also be released on the ‘The Early Years 1965-1972’ box set. 

Whilst trawling through fan made Pink Floyd LP sleeves, I came across this sleeve. The photo includes Rado Klose (he is the chap on the left) and I think it was taken in the back garden of 39 Stanhope Gardens, Crouch End, where Roger Waters and Nick Mason lived at the time. I thought it would be a nice bonus to present this as an EP the band could have put out if they had signed a contract with Columbia earlier than they did in reality. After all of the other Pink Floyd bits and pieces that have been presented this month to include this one as well. 

Side A

1. Double O Bo
2. Remember Me

Side B

1. Walk With Me Sydney
2. Butterfly

As I was at it, I thought I might as well make a picture sleeve for the other two tracks. ‘Lucy Leave’ and ‘I’m A King Bee’. I thought I would use the name the band were using at the time these tracks were recorded which was The Tea Set. If this were to have been made back in 1964/5 for a UK releases, it is possible that only the promo version would have had a picture sleeve like this. We in the UK didn’t seem to warrant picture sleeves back in the day. If we were on the continent though, they did produce picture sleeves so let’s pretend it comes from Germany. 

Side A

Lucy Leave

Side B

I’m A King Bee

As was mentioned earlier, I found this cover online but I did not make a note of who made it. The same with the ‘Lucy Leave’ single which was adapted from someone else work. Thanks whoever you are. Good job on both fronts. I was also surprised to find all of these songs on Spotify. 

This is another what-if album I put together because of the mock up sleeve that was on the website https://idesignalbumcovers.tumblr.com. ‘The Man & The Journey’ was a suite of music the band performed during their tour of 1969. The songs in this concert included some that had already been released, some that would appear on some future releases (like ‘Ummagumma’, ‘More’ & ‘Relics’), and some would stay unreleased. Even though a live album was considered at the time, it didn’t happen due to the overlap of material with ‘Ummagumma’. One of the shows from the tour was widely bootlegged as it was take from a show played in Amsterdam, but it was missing some of the material. 

An almost complete show was eventually released in 2016 on ‘The Early Years 1965-1972’ box set. It was almost complete because in the set list, there was a performance called Teatime which was positioned between Work and Afternoon. It was removed because it was during this time that the band would not play anything but instead be served with cups of tea. This was essentially 3 mins and 36 of near silence. The estate of John Cage would most probably sue. 

The loose concept of the album is that the first disc follows the man during his everyday life, but the second disc is the journey. What this journey is and where it goes is unclear. However, what is clear is that this was the beginning of Pink Floyd as a band that would produce music based on a theme which would be developed over the next few years until it culminated in the release of Dark Side of the Moon. 

If it had actually been released in 1969 as suggested, it would have worked as a double vinyl album because the timings of the sides actually match up quite closely. The timing was also helped with Teatime being removed. On reflection, it is a shame that this wasn’t released in place of ‘Ummagumma’ because even though it is a definite period piece, The Man & The Journey works better as a piece of music and as an album. ‘Ummagumma’ may have its fans but I am not one of them. 

Side A

1. Daybreak (Grantchester Meadows)
2. Work
3. Afternoon (Biding My Time)

Side B

1. Doing It
2. Sleeping
3. Nightmare (Cymbaline)
4. Labyrinth

Side C

1. The Beginning (Green Is the Colour)
2. Beset by Creatures of the Deep (Careful with That Axe, Eugene)
3. The Narrow Way, Part 3
4. The Pink Jungle (Pow R. Toc H.) 

Side D

1. The Labyrinths of Auximines
2. Footsteps/Doors
3. Behold the Temple of Light
4. The End of the Beginning (A Saucerful of Secrets)