The alternative version here deviates from the other versions and includes a lot of songs not originally included on the initial album. I dare say some people have had quality issues with copies of this album but I have yet to find an artist or label that doesn’t. Such an edition of the group’s eponymous 1975 LP came out in 2012 and was followed in later years by box sets devoted to 1977’s Rumours, 1979’s Tusk, 1980’s Live, 1982’s Mirage, and 1987’s Tango in the Night. Some of the recordings (especially many of the concert tracks) are as good as—or arguably even better than—the familiar ones.

This release features a selection of alternate takes mirroring the original album, including early versions of 'Monday Morning', 'Landslide', 'Rhiannon' and 'World Turning'. It would have been nice if the new edition of Catch Bull at Four had at least incorporated some bonus tracks and liner notes.

Unlike some other band albums I’ve heard as alternatives there aren’t any short ‘filler’ clips from the studio. Now, following the recent death of Christine McVie, who joined the band way back in 1970, those chances have dropped to zero. Still, as Nelson says in liner notes for Live at Budokan, a new two-CD and DVD release of the show, “Music is a great communicator…[people] will hear it in whatever language they are listening.

Before we discuss the music, a caveat: for some listeners, The Alternate Collection will represent more of a repackaging than a revelation. I thought ftom the original marketing blurb (as mentioned on this page) that this was supposed to be a limited RSD 2022 release?Mirage is without doubt a superb album, capturing and showing off everything that is great about Fleetwood Mac in their earlier years. His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters , Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon , Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters , and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters . If, on the other hand, you have just the original albums, this package may represent a smarter purchase than the earlier anthologies.

Clam shell outer box containing 6 CD's inside individual cardboard sleeves with inner cellophane protective sleeves. Three of the albums that Cat Stevens released prior to Catch Bull at Four—1970’s Mona Bone Jakon and Tea for the Tillerman and 1971’s Teaser and the Firecat—have been the subject of gargantuan golden-anniversary box sets that included up to five CDs each with new mixes, alternate versions, demos, concert material, and rehearsal tapes, plus Blu-rays, vinyl LPs, hardcover books, frameable artwork, and assorted other memorabilia. Since this is the alternate versions of the albums, it rather inconsistently includes and omit songs that were not on the original album track list: IE, no "Silver Springs" on Rumours, but there are b-sides and non album songs on Tango in The Night while corresponding hits are missing. Some of his listeners probably wouldn’t have understood him if he had because they didn’t speak English.

Backed by a band that features his talented piano-playing sister Bobbie (who died last March at age 91), he hits all the bases in his repertoire and delivers some of his most famous numbers, including “Always on My Mind,” the self-penned “On the Road Again,” and Fred Rose’s “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” from 1975’s game-changing Red-Headed Stranger concept LP. In other cases, it’s the opposite: you can hear how the group took a flat-sounding, relatively prosaic recording, added musical touches and production magic, and transformed it into an extraordinary final rendition. I have taken the time to listen to these after picking up the box set on RSD Black Friday and I just have to say, the sound quality on these clear pressings is amazing!

Following their massive success, the band continued its infamous soap opera when its musical leader and guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham, threatened to quit if he didn’t get things his way, resulting in clashes not only with his band but especially Caillat, who had been essential to the band’s Grammy-winning sound. Throughout the book, both Caillat and Rojas detail not only the trials and sacrifices they made to finish the album, but also triumphs of musical inspiration and technical innovation that have made Tusk the darling of music critics and indie rockers today. I don’t really care to hear a 6 second conversation saying I can’t hear you can we redo this…or some other thing that doesn’t add to the album. After Fleetwood Mac unceremoniously ejected Lindsey Buckingham from the group in 2018, the chances that we’d ever again hear new music from the group’s classic lineup seemed remote.Granted, some of the outtakes, such as Tango in the Night’s “Seven Wonders,” differ only subtly from the original recordings, but others feature different lyrics or vastly altered musical approaches. Who else could deliver traditional and outlaw country tunes like “If You’ve Got the Money Honey I’ve Got the Time,” “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” and “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line” and in the same show tap the Great American Songbook for beautifully rendered performances of songs like Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish’s “Stardust” and Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies”?