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Long lost songs

This is a discussion on songs or versions we've heard maybe just once on the radio and spent years searching for. Anything you knew existed, but couldn't find.

For instance, about 1972 I was lying in bed listening to the local progressive rock station (WNEW) as I was falling asleep. On come a great R&B song with a line something like "Before I Die I want to be the kind of man you want me to be". The DJ never announced the title or artist that I could hear. Never heard it again. Years later I heard "She's Gone" by Hall and Oats and figured it was them. Nope. Continued to search on and off for decades, employing new technology as it became available.

Early this year, while searching for something totally different on SecondHandSongs I came across "When I Die" by Mother Lode. Bingo! Joy, joy, joy! Found the CD on Amazon, (only format available) Love It. Most of the rest of their songs are weird but "When I Die" is almost as good as my memory had made 'Before I Die'.

Another example is versions. There are some song that I love that have very different interpretations by various artists. "Hey Joe" and "Morning Dew" are two. I like to collect those versions. Long ago I heard a version of "Morning Dew" sung by a guy with a very unique voice. It had a mesmerizing rhythm guitar line that got into my brain. I never forgot it, because the girl I was with turned out to be a nymphomaniac. What a night!

Using   SecondHandSongs agin, I found Long John Baldry on his self-titled album on EMI. What a crystal clear LP! He's recorded several fine versions of the song, but this is THE one with that guitar line. Highly recommended.

I am sure many of you have similar tales and can relate to the elation I felt on finding something I'd been searching for for decades. Let's hear them.
2channel8
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,312 posts
 
Hello 2channel8

Glad to see you keeping this thread going. A lot more interesting than that blue fuse thread. Wish you were getting more input here. Wish I had more for you.

Re-reading, I see that I never replied to your comment about the William Devaughn. I think a LOT of people thought Be Thankful for What You Got was written by Curtis Mayfield. He did a version and that probably eclipsed the original.

On a more current topic, I think you are exactly right about the eeriness in Sally Go Round the Roses. The Wiki entry gets into this a bit in the section on "Interpretations". I remember the song and liked it a lot when all I had to listen to was AM radio (WABC out of NYC, mostly) on a little Japanese transistor. These years later, I would have bet it was done by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas but looks like I am wrong about that. If you haven’t read the entry you might find the "Other Versions" interesting.

Keep up the good work!  Thanks for the thread.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Go_%27Round_the_Roses



2channel8 OP
758 posts
 
@onhwy61 . Spelling was never my strong suit. Girl groups may be. Can you guess how many lead singers the Crystals had? Or how many Ronetts'/Darling Sisters songs Ronnie wasn't on? Phil was famous for that stuff. I'd heard all the versions of SGRR in your link except Donna Summers'. Thanks.
@ghosthouse , thanks for the bon mots. Was it WNEW and was it a Channelmaster?
dweller's avatar
dweller
3,786 posts
 
I thought I remembered the Jefferson Airplane doing this song but it was The Great Society w/Grace Slick (Sally Go Round The Roses).
Listening on YouTube as I write...
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,312 posts
 
2channel8 -
No...back in the early ’60s it would have been 77 WABC on the AM dial. At this point, WNEW was news, talk or Andy Williams kind of music. Nothing that interested me. ABC had DJs that played the hits. Sometimes I’d tune in (WFIL?) from Phila. This all would have been a few years before "Underground FM Radio" was happening. THEN I did listen to WNEW a LOT (Scott Muni, Jonathan Schwarz, Allison Steele). My first 2 channel gear (circa ’69/’70) was an HH Scott receiver w/SuperEx headphones. First song I heard on it was CCR doing SusieQ.

Hahaha...Channelmaster. You would think I might remember given I did spend a lot of time with that thing. But I don’t. Something like that red Sceptre maybe in second row (see link). Used to listen with it under the pillow before getting up for school in the morning. The Beatles were happening. Lot of excitement, believe it or not. Everything was NEW; never done or heard before.

https://www.google.com/search?q=japanese+transistor+radio+from+the+%2760s&source=lnms&tbm=is...

2channel8 OP
758 posts
 
Ghosthouse-
Of course it was WABC. I must have been having a mixed memory. My Channel Master was AM only.

https://img0.etsystatic.com/057/0/9851142/il_570xN.716978392_dqrp.jpg

Well, I find that there are three 7-M-3 albums with 3 different versions of Water's Edge, actually 2 and a various artists collection called Road Rage. None of them are easily available so I down loaded the 5 minute version from iTunes.

That is the LAST long lost song on my to find list. On one hand I am euphoric. On the other I kinda feel like Don Quixote when they took his lance away.

I do have another story: Years ago we went to see Neil Young and Emmylou Harris was opening. She did a great version of what I remembered as Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. A few years ago I became bemused by the song. I now have 5 versions of it, but could never find Emmylou's. Last week I somehow stumbled on her song The Pearl, which has a lot of Alleluias in the chorus. That must have been what we heard. It is a great find!
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