Duran Duran “The Crystal Ship” bootleg, 2025/1993. Parachute Recording Company. Double live album recorded for live FM Broadcast at  Momentum Arena, Pretoria, South Africa on April 24th, 1993. It’s my birthday today and I usually have a stash of Duran vinyl I haven’t listened to or written about in my collection. This live LP is one of the more unusual ones that I picked up recently: the versions of the songs are radically different than almost any other live albums I’ve heard. “Planet Earth” has a whole string section and “Hungry Like the Wolf” has strings, too, plus an enthusiastic acoustic guitar and different backup vocals (which prompt Simon to most definitely go “off-script” for this classic track). “Ordinary World” is lush, elevated with that (fortunately less enthusiastic) acoustic guitar and Simon’s vocals are stellar (a note here that the photos on the LP covers are closer to 2023 than 1993 – Simon definitely did not look like that, nor was Dom playing guitar for them – 1993 was the Warren Cuccurullo era). Simon’s intro to “Come Undone” is hilarious – suggesting that instead of wearing one’s best, clean underwear just in case, he thinks it might be better to go without completely, then launches into a Cure-esque guitar intro (not Simon, that’s probably Warren); the song is slinky and suggestive. The intro to “The Chauffeur” is a total head-scratcher though: Simon talks about a guy in a car on hot day in July on Santa Monica Blvd in Los Angeles (while in South Africa? Ok?) before the song starts (it’s beautiful once it gets going though the spoken-word moment is a bit jarring). Of course I didn’t write the song but the dirty streets of LA are absolutely not what I envision for this song. The first LP ends with the bootleg’s namesake “The Crystal Ship” which is, of course, a Doors cover. “Girls on Film” is also really unusual – orchestral strings, lyrical embellishments like I’ve never heard, a bit of jazzy free form action: absolutely nothing like the original. “Notorious” is funky as always, but the instrumentation seemed off and a bit out of key (same with the backup vocals) and fortunately they didn’t mess with “Save a Prayer,” sticking pretty faithfully to the original (just a bit more finger-picking on the acoustic and a whisper of strings). On Side 4 there is one other cover: “Success” by Iggy Pop is really fun; but then “Wild Boys” is the most subdued version imaginable before they launch into the finale of “Rio” which is as glorious as it always is.

You can view the entire performance here:

Sugarhill Gang “The Best of Sugarhill Gang (Rapper’s Delight)” 1996. Two LP comp of classic rap/hiphop from 1979-1985. While technically not the first recorded/released, the single “Rapper’s Delight” is credited as the first rap song to be introduced to the masses; it reached #36 in the US and went to #3 in the US, #1 in Canada. The epic/full length version takes up the entire first side of comp, lasting a whopping 14+ epic minutes and was, jaw-droppingly, recorded in a single take. Funky AF, co-writing credits were given to the funk-masters Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (after a threatened lawsuit for lifting “Good Times”). The beats, the lyrics, the vibe have been endlessly copied, sampled and continue to influence multiple music genres almost 50 years later. It is on many big-name “best of” lists and is included in both the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry and the Grammy Hall of Fame. Also of note on the this comp – and my top picks – are “8th Wonder” and “Apache,” both from the 1981 LP 8th Wonder; “Apache” a cover of a cover (the first recording dates back to Bert Weedon‘s 1960 single; Sugarhill Gang’s a reworking of the 1973 Incredible Bongo Band‘s version, there has been a ton of others too). Plus singles from 1983’s Rappin’ Down Town “The Lover in You” and “The Word is Out,” from the 1984 LP Livin’ in the Fast Lane “Kick it Live from 9 to 5” and “Livin’ in the Fast Lane” and the non-album single from ’85 “Work, Work, the Body.”

Jack White “Hypnotize (demo)” 2003/2023. Third Man Records, part of the Vault Package no. 55 on red glitter vinyl. Today, July 9th, is Jack White’s birthday (b. 1975). This 7″ single was included as a bonus in the Third Man Vault release that also had the White Stripe’s Elephant XX album for its 20th anniversary: a direct-from-the-original multitrack tapes MONO remix of the LP that left in gems like studio banter before and after takes of the tracks. The 7″ is “Jack White’s original solo demo of “Hypnotize” in two markedly different mixes here. Recorded on 4-track reel-to-reel sometime in 1998 and “gifted” to the local Detroit garage band the Hentchmen as a song White felt was more in their style than his at the time. Come a few years later, with the Hentches having done nothing with the tune, Jack reclaimed it for he and Meg, and their frenetic take quickly became a long-standing fan favorite.” (from the Vault website) The first version of “Hypnotize” is a rough n’ ready very lo-fi, garage-guitar forward version of the song and the second is a piano-heavy version that would have felt at home in an 1800’s saloon (the piano is definitely out of tune). The b-side is the original, first take version of “You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket.” None of the three songs are available on the web but both tracks appear in their finalized version on Elephant.