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Was looking at the fantastic session info Ian gave me about BW.

Just wondered if anyone here has heard these cuts from the 1987 BW sessions:

"I Feel This Love"
"Saturday Evening In The City"
"Carl And Gina"

Glad to hear some of the 1986-1987 Usher sessions coming out through BW's site. I heard a piece of "All Over Me" like 20 years ago (can't say how) it reminded me of Hall and Oates.

Anyway just curious. I am a TOTAL BW nerd, especially when it comes to this time period.

Thanks y'all,

Tante

The original version of Saturday Morning In The City was one of the demos that were put on BW.com, wasn’t it?

I think the Usher tapes are still in the possession of Usher jar.  The demos on BW.com are re-records?

Saturday Evening was a slow, lazy, 12/8 variation of the same song with bluesy harmonica. Both Morning and Evening were full structured tracks equivalent to the 90s version (beyond the truncated '87 Morning mix that's bootlegged), don't think either were ever finished.

I remember a news article on Carl and Gina's wedding that mentioned Brian writing a special tune for the happy couple, called..."Carl and Gina". Do we know for sure this was actually recorded in a studio?

It was. I think Usher might've brought it up in his diary? But a studio recording does exist.

Thanks y'all! Great info WillJC. That 12/8 "Saturday Evening" sounds REALLY interesting to me.

c-man: Yeah "Carl and Gina" was talked about in BW Tape 10 from The Wilson Project. Gary Usher heard the recording at a fall 1987 meeting with Landy. He described it as "a really sloppy production, all high end and no bass". The song itself was the hiut of the wedding according to Landy.

RJM: No, the one on the BW site is the Paley version. A recording of the 1987 original exists in okay quality. It is less than two minutes long, is missing the bridge, and appears to utilize the same drum machine backing as "Planet Earth". I think there are female voices a la "Earth" also. This sounds like a demo in prep for the more elaborate version described by WillJC.

Aomdiddlywalla: No, the songs on the BW site are the Usher productions. I thought the same thing about Gary Jr. Maybe the rest of it will see the light soon?

"So Long" is a slightly different mix of the track which has circulated on collector's tapes since 1992. Same goes for "Let's Go To Heaven In My Car" but it is not the single version with the "heavenly" intro. "The Spirit Of Rock And Roll" sounds to my ears like the identical version used in the 25th anniversary special, with Brian's live lead vocal missing.

BTW, the "So Long" fragment on BW's site sounds like a BW88 session to me. Was it to be part of different song? There was evidence of mixing and matching song parts around that time (Heavenly Lovers/Rio Grande) and I know there were attempts to revive some of the 86-87 material, but write Gary Usher's contributions out.

Anyway, thanks again y'all, I love reading about this stuff!

Well... unbeknown to Gary, So Long was a rewrite of a song called Mary Honey dating back to around 1977, which Brian briefly played during the 1990 hotel tape jam. The 'unknown harmony' clip seems to be an unfinished 1987 version of that. It became Melinda Honey a few years later, then You've Touched Me, then back to Melinda Honey again.

Sat Morning as bootlegged just has an early fadeout. The full track is supposed to go on for three minutes, or something like that, and includes the bridge. I don't think there's another version, the way there are for some of those songs.

Okay, that's hilarious that BW just kept changing the title to whoever he was with at the time!!

I know the hotel jam version, didn't know he was singing "Mary Honey". Truth be told, that is my favorite version of all of them. It is REALLY interesting rhythmically.

Keep this stuff comin' y'all! Still hoping to find info on "I Feel This Love"...looks like it was worked on quite a bit during the early stages of BW88.

Tante

Yay! Ask and you shall receive..."I Feel This Love" is another winner to my ears! Thanks for all the great music Brian...