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Do you own any albums that have subsequently been amended?

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I have two. Thomas Dolby’s The Golden Age Of Wireless and Robert Wyatt’s Dondestan.

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  3. Gold Mother, by James. I bought the 1990 release, which sadly got scratched. It was rereleased in 1991 with two songs replaced by ‘Sit Down’ and ‘Lose Control’. There was an offer in Our Price that you could replace the original with the new version, so I did, though I missed not having ‘Crescendo’ and ‘Hang On’ where I expected them to be in the running order.

    • Yes,I remember that too, and it put me off James a bit, having been a fan since their earliest phase. Not to begrudge them their success of course but to me it just seemed slightly tawdry at the time, especially given that Hang On and Cresendo are such good tunes which did not deserve this, the slightly crass, stadium version of Sit Down and Lose Control being merely OK at best. In other words I saw it as a decent album spoiled, not added to.

  4. Given that I’m a Zappa fan, more than you can shake a drumstick at.

    Not all the jiggery pokery is bad. I prefer my CD copy of Hot Rats to my vinyl copy as I think the extended versions give the songs more space to breathe (this may not be a popular opinion).I also like having Big Leg Emma and Why Don’t You Do Me Right? in the middle of my Absolutely Free CD. The Uncle Meat Movie Excerpts not so much.

    Sometimes Zappa albums were modified before they were released. My vinyl copy of We’re Only in it for the Money has the edits of “Flower Power sucks” and the ridiculous modification of “Let’s Make the Water Turn Black”.

    And then of course, there’s Cruising with Ruben and the Jets. I’ve bought this album three time now, and one time it wasn’t even called Cruising with Ruben and the Jets.

      • I never knew it shouldn’t be. What was the story?
        It was on both the dodgy cassette bought on a Bangkok street market (very fertile ground for musical introductions, as it turned out), but also when I upgraded to CD some years later.

          • Actually it was more like »people in the US supposed Yusuf Islam supported the fatwah… well, why shouldn’t he with a name like that…« and overreacted. A bit like the BBC thinking the »Unfinished Sympathy« hitmakers were named after the Gulf War.

            • Well, I’m sure I must have told the tale on here before…

              I did the sound for when Yusuf Islam came to talk at the Student’s Union cafe in ~1988 and he did go on a bit (a lot) about “Islam is the one true faith” and how pop music was the devil poisoning our young minds. Afterwards, as I was packing away the gear, I pulled out my copy of Teaser & Firecat and a pen and said “It’s a shame you won’t sing these songs again, they were great even if you don’t think so any more”.

              His reply: “F*** off!” And he stormed out of the building.

              So it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he had said it.

    • @retropath2 you have completely flabbergasted me. I am a huge fan of both Natalie Merchant and 10 000 maniacs and I first had In my tribe on cassette when I lived in the USA. I upgraded to cd many years ago and never realised it had dropped Peace Train – I just checked again – definitely not there. Well I never.

  7. Original version of Whitesnake 1987 before Here I Go Again was tacked on.

    A few copies of Never Mind The Bollocks with and without Submission.

    Great Rock n Roll Swindle. Double album with Whatcha Gonna Do About It, double album without WGDAI, and the Lydon-less single disc version

  8. The example that springs immediately to mind is this one, the intriguing and affecting album called ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ by Byrne and Eno, which I first bought when it was initially released. A track was removed from subsequent pressings in order to assuage the ‘offense’ felt by some of those who had not been obliged to listen to it. Never mind that the ‘offending’ sample remained easily available on the album from which it had been lifted. After all, there’s no rationality involved. Here’s the ‘offending’ track (obviously also easily available on the interwebbythang).

    • Not saying I agree, but the original record is just chanting and it was the fact that they’d put it to music, effectively presenting the Qu’ran as entertainment, that offended.

      The The later used a muezzin on Mind Bomb which is probably in the same category, but there’s plenty else on that album for fundamentalists of all kinds to get het up about.

      • Hmm – the wikipedia page says this, but our CD copy – Sire – has a track called Qu’ran on it. So is the track itself edited on this 1987 reissue? I’ll play it later today. Discogs confirms this track is present on the 1987 CD issue (and we own a slightly more valuable copy).

        • Yep. It was replaced in the 90s by a track called Very Very Hungry. Which is also very good. The anniversary edition with the extras is worth a listen (2006).

          Bloody hell, I’ve just discovered that the rooks on Regiment were recorded near Alnwick. Our lass will be chuffed, she likes this album.

        • I have several CD copies, both with and without the track in question. One copy – on Sire – has both the ‘Qu’ran’ track and the ‘Very Very Hungry’ track which was supposed to have replaced it.

          My vinyl original – on Sire – has the ‘Qu’ran’ track in its initial position – side two, track one – as does the Sire CD above, which list it as track 6. My other vinyl copy – on the EG label – has ‘Very Very Hungry’ in the side two, track one position, and no mention of the track it has replaced.

          What I find ludicrous is the level of fancy track manoeuvring footwork that someone saw fit to engage in as a result of whining medieval nonsense.

  9. My CD reissue of The Pop Group’s “For How Much Longer Must We Tolerate Mass Murder?” had removed the track sampling The Last Poets, presumably for licensing reasons.

    The original Rough Trade LP of James Blood Ulmer’s “Are You Glad To Be in America?” is a different mix to all subsequent CDs.

  10. I know the extra space afforded by CD allowed them to reinstate a missing verse, an extended outro and an extra song, but I still prefer the original version of A Pagan Place.

  11. The shoehorning of When The Tigers Broke Free into Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut, which has long been accepted as the now “official” tracklisting, has torn me for years. It’s a fine and moving song and deserves to be on an album. But I think it ruined the fabulous transition between the tracks now on either side of it, and spoiled the narrative flow of the album a bit. It should probably have been on The Wall instead, where it would have fitted naturally on Side Three.

    I own the original album, not on vinyl or even CD, but on tape!

    • I agree, and they didn’t even use the single version (which isn’t available on CD on a commercial release). If they were going to use it, why not at the start, where at least from a timeline POV it fits. Also, if you’re going to add something, why not also add the additional part of ‘The Hero’s Return’ which was on the ‘b’ side of the ‘Not Now John’ single?

      • Sounds like you know far more about this than I do! I didn’t know there was another part to The Hero’s Return – that’s interesting. I also didn’t know there was a different single version of Tigers!

        As for adding it at the start of the album… actually, that would work I think. Never thought about it before. It would sound like an overture of sorts, then after the big climax it segues into the traffic noise at the start of The Post War Dream. Yeah, I like it.

      • Thankfully they didn’t include the “Stuff all that” version of Not Now John from the single.

        Always reminds me of that Harry Enfield sketch making fun of the dubbing of Martin Scorsese films: “suck my lozenge, muddyfunster”

  12. The Associate’s first album (The Affectionate Punch) was reissued a few years later with an almost totally different selection of versions and/or mixes of the songs.

    • That was attempt to “sweeten” the sound of the original album after the success of Sulk, but no-one was happy with the result, though it was done with the band’s approval and participation.

      Talking of Sulk, that was another victim of tampering soon after release, with the “US Version” having some tracks removed (Bap De La Bap, Nude Spoons, nothinginsomethingparticular) and replaced with (arguably) more-commercial tracks (Love Hangover, old single White Car in Germany, instrumental The Associate, and 18-Carat Love Affair, the vocal version of nothinginsomethingparticular.) On top of that the singles were remixed, so it was quite a mongrel, though still a great album…

  13. Roy Harper : Bullinamingvase
    Complete with ‘Watford Gap, Watford Gap / Plate of grease and a load of crap’
    By the time I got it on CD, it had returned as well as its replacement Breakfast With You. Presumably the Dirty Old Blue Boar was no longer commercially operative or Roy’s description had been proved incontrovertible in law.

  14. Both the first Propaganda and Seal albums on ZTT were buggered about with after release by producers Horn & Lipson. First pressings are of interest but the catalogue numbers stayed the same so the only way to tell is play it and compare.

    The debut Undertones album had Teenage Kicks shoe-horned into the middle of side one.

    EMF’s Schubert Dip had samples of Mark Chapman reading on one track, his contributions removed from later versions at the request of Yoko.

    • ZTT is it? Slave to the Rhythm is all over the place. The CD is different to the album, the US album is the same as the CD, the reissued album is the same as the US album etc. I think the cassette is/was different as well.

      There’s a 2-disc set in it that should tidy all this up but I’m not holding my breathh.

      • Let’s play Pointless Remix Poker. Moose has got a very strong hand here with his Grace Jones.

        Surely I’m not going to beat that? Hold on… what’s this in my hand?

        “The air attack warning sounds like. This is the sound….”

        • Look at the nine (NINE) weeks that TT spent at number 1 – those remixes had a bleedin’ point alright.

          In this context it’s pretty surprising that Pleasuredome didn’t get messed with for CD, though I think some versions had the execrable Happy Hi addended.

    • Of course it’s not just tracks that get changed, covers do too. Probably the most famous of these is The Man Who Sold The World which I don’t have but when the Undertones’ debut track listing was changed, so was the cover. The other one I have that springs to mind is the debut Fountains of Wayne album which shared a picture with another album.
      Of course the other major things that can change are band name or album title. Sparks managed to change both for their debut.

      • I’ve just checked and The Undertones had Get Over You added as Side 2 Track 1 and Here Comes The Summer was replaced by the 7″ version.

        Worse than that, the 2016 remastered version contains the second edition tracklisting (I’m not sure which version of Here Comes The Summer) in the original sleeve. My head hurts.

  15. Worse than that, the 2016 remastered version contains the second edition tracklisting (I’m not sure which version of Here Comes The Summer) in the original sleeve. My head hurts.

    Yours sincerely

    Outraged of Cambridge.

  16. I’ve got an original version of Don’t Stand Me Down by Dexy’s – Kevin Rowland amended the titles of two songs on all subsequent versions (Knowledge of Beauty became My National Pride and Listen to This changed to I Love You (Listen To This)

  17. I have the first pressing of Nevermind by nirvana on CD that doesn’t feature the extra track Endless nameless. Which was a mistake of the mastering plant for the 2nd printing and was on all pressings afterwards. No idea if I can retire on it yet.

  19. Mind you, isn’t every bloody record now re-released, after a few weeks, in a special addition with a couple of new tracks. I notice Matt Berninger has an expanded version coming out any moment. It is disrespectful to those who buy early, frankly.

  20. Morrissey – Viva Hate (2012) – took off ordinary boys and replaced it with a demo, and it sounds like a demo ‘treat me like a human being’. He had also messed with Southpaw grammara a few years previously. very strange.

  21. The 2002 re-issues of Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman had pre-recorded bass and drum parts – removing Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake – and new backing vocals.
    Thos was Sharon Osbourne’s response to their court case for unpaid royalties.
    Bob and Lee were restored for the 2011 30th Anniversary issues

  23. The original vinyl release, which I own and is mine , that is to say I possess it includes lengthy liner notes by Pete Hamill. Subsequent versions dropped them for something else.

  24. Roxy Music’s first album didn’t include Virginia Plain in the UK, although the US pressing later in 1972 added the single. Most subsequent versions/reissues of the album include VP.

  25. Days in Europa by Skids, one of the first albums I bought with my own money (with the “Pay no more than £3.99” sticker on it). The original cover (reminiscent of the 1936 Berlin Olympics) was apparently deemed too Aryan and the replacement was half-arsed at best. They also substituted Masquerade for Pros and Cons… I don’t really see why that was necessary, it wasn’t a long album and could easily accommodate the extra track.

  26. When Shot of Love was released on CD four years after its original release they added Groom’’s Still Waiting at the Altar to it. Nothing to do with length – it could comfortably have fitted on the vinyl. I guess Bob or the record company just thought it was a good idea. Which I suppose it is; it’s one of the best tracks on a lacklustre album. But I still don’t think of it as truly part of the record; just some Johnny come lately bonus extra which doesn’t quite belong.

  27. The Beat’s debut album I Just Can’t Stop It didn’t have Tears Of A Clown and Ranking Full Stop (the double A side single on Two Tone from a year earlier). The US version added these, and they now appear on the CD release too.
    Thing is, they seem to be inserted a bit randomly and break he flow of the original album.
    If they were added as tracks 1 & 2 I think it would make it better.

    • Because the album was released by Go-Feet (Arista) but the debut single was on 2-Tone (Chrysalis). A similar story with The Ruts and “In A Rut/H-Eyes”. It couldn’t be included on “The Crack” because the single was released by People Unite (indie) and the album by Virgin. Labels jealously guarded their catalogues and rarely did deals with each other back then.

      My original copy of The Waterboys “”Fisherman’s Blues” (on cassette, pop-pickers) omitted “Jimmy Hickey’s Waltz” which is present on the CD version but omitted in the tracklist on the back of my UK-manufactured copy, although it is credited inside the booklet and on the disc itself.

  28. First Lilac Time album – the original Swordfish album was remixed in places before ending up on Fontana a few months later. I think the original Too Sooner Late Than Better is better – typical snob Afterword opinion, obvs.

  30. A bit esoteric but Oliver Mtukudzi’s second album circa 1982 was originally titles Pfambi which is Shona for prostitute. There was a kerfuffle and while the song remained the album was changed to the titleof another song on the record Shanje. Hi early stuff is collectable and the Pfambi version particularly so.

  32. The original gatefold vinyl of Thin Lizzy’s ‘Live and Dangerous’ .
    Amongst the credits to the road crew, Celtic & Man Utd etc. was a shout out to ‘all the boys in the H-Blocks’
    That is conspicuously absent from the remastered deluxe CD version. Probably a mite too controversial these days.

  33. I have the original version of Monty Python’s Contractual Obligation Album which I got signed by Graham Chapman. It has a track on it called Farewell to John Denver which features the sound of “John Denver being strangled”. Although this was before John Denver died, his ‘people’ complained and the track was subsequently removed from future pressings.

  35. in the obscure goff corner….Fields Of The Nephilim’s debut album Dawnrazor featured 8 tracks on the UK LP. The cassette added two tracks that had previously been singles. The US LP also added these two, along with another former single, but left off one of the UK album tracks. The US CD is the same as the US LP, but the UK CD features the two tracks that were on the UK cassette but not the other single that appeared on the US LP, and then adds four tracks from an earlier EP.

    And they are all bangers.

  38. Sly stone kept tinkering and adjusting the tapes for Fresh. When the CD was released in 1991, they used different mixes for all tracks bar In Time. Once they sold out, the record company reverted to the original mixes.

  39. First Schoolly D album – subsequently (and fatally) denuded of a lot of its apocalyptic reverb when it appeared on CD as part of The Adventures of Schoolly D. The material from the second album, Saturday Night, was untouched. Not the last time something on Rykodisc was not as God intended.

  40. I’ll stick with Pink Floyd for my next example. Apparently the early pressings of Atom Heart Mother contained an ‘infinite bonus track’ where the dripping tap at the end of Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast continued to drip in a loop round the centre of the record.

    No I don’t have this.

    Does anyone own this, or verify this actually exists?

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