Rare Demos
For today’s edition of the RetroBlog Mix Tape: rare demo recordings!
for those that may not know – demos are initial recordings made by songwriters to help convey their ideas to other members of the band and/or producers.
note: all files are hosted on savefile.com
Paul McCartney – My Brave Face (demo) : This recording captures Elvis Costello and McCartney singing enthusiastically with their acoustic guitars. I love this demo!
Trevor Rabin – Owner of a Lonely Heart (Demo) circa 1981: There are two version here. the first is Rabin putting down a take with just an acoustic guitar. the second half of the mp3 is a more fleshed out demo with god-awful lyrics. yikes. good thing Jon Anderson added his own set of lyrics before the song got officially released!!
Lindsey Buckingham – Peacekeeper (demo) : very similar to the final version done by Fleetwood Mac. but still great to hear Buckingham performing this song “solo” without Stevie Nicks’ froggy vocals all over the chorus.
Paul McCartney – This One (demo) : Here’s an early working version of “This One”. It’s Paul at his piano with a drum machine and overdubbed backing vocals. At this point, Paul wasn’t finished with the lyrics so he mumbles stuff at certain parts of the chorus. a nice glimpse of the songwriting process.
XTC – Smartest Monkeys (demo) : Here is Colin Moulding’s demo of a song that appears on XTC’s “Nonsuch” album. the final product is pretty faithful to the original demo I must say. but… isn’t the smartest Monkey Mike Nesmith? oh, he’s just the smartest MonkEE. 
Todd Rundgren – Parallel Lines : There are two demo versions circulating around. One was done for his musical “Up Against It”. The other version is more like the one that appears on his “Nearly Human” album. I have both.
Parallel Lines – the Up Against It demo.
Parallel Lines – the Nearly Human demo.
enjoy!
Related posts:
Darn.
I click the links and get “File not found”
sorry. I posted this more than a year ago. the mp3s were only available for a limited time.
if anyone is interested in a certain song, just post a request and if there’s enough interest, I’ll post it again!