What Single Albums Should Have Been Doubles?

I have some reservations here ... not sure how I could take something and spread it out to make a bigger impact ... sort of like stretching that painting makes it better ... instead of the opposite that we like to talk about so much ... squeeze it so we don't see the carnage, so to speak ... or can't smell the pee in a few paintings by someone else. And I do not want any of RW's Curry ... thank you ... although it probably would make his music better and less pretentious!

The part that I am worried about, is the one where a guy just posted here recently and he had a very large project that appear scrumptious, and he cut it all down to size that many of us rock fans can handle and to my ears the piece comes off hurt and broken up ... but I did not think the guy could see it from a composition perspective, which I'm sure he felt no one would buy as it would be too big.

Sometimes I want "more" ... so you can see the transitions that a band goes through ... but when things are just a bunch of songs ... not for me ... ciao baby!

I can not, exactly, think of an album that I would like to see spread out some more ... I have never thought of music that way, and never have I thought of music as just something that has to be of a song length that has a chance to get some radio ... which of course no longer exists today in the 21st Century.

I'm more concerned with the artistry of the whole thing, which is the reason why "songs" are not that valuable for me since many of them are really the same thing or the same story, and have the same form and process as the previous one ... and I like the "short stories" by many when you sit down and read them, and they are all different and you remember parts from all of them ... an album of just songs with little story, loses it for me really quick.

Recently I had a chance to hear some stuff done by a SF band ... and it was over 15 minutes long ... and here is what I miss the most ... even at the Fillmore, it was the extended versions that excited so many people because it was getting far out and exciting ... and those never made it to the records ... and all of a sudden, I'm hearing something that belonged at the Fillmore, and it sounded outstanding ... but we never heard it! 

So yeah, some of the old "long cuts" and "extended versions" ... would be something I would want to hear more of ... but just spreading the "story", already as sparse and poor as it might be, I'm not sure is the right thing to do ... but this is something that each and everyone of the artists out there has to decide for themselves, and it is not for me to tell them that I want more or less of something. I never told Picasso, or Dali that I wanted less pink or blue paint! ... or less clocks and more breast! It kinda just gets a bit weird and out time, since the work was done a while back and the artist is already onto something else ... I think we're looking at an empty jar ... for something that is not only there ... except in our imaginations.

Cosmiclawnmower wrote: Both 'Pawn Hearts' by VDGG and 'Baby James Harvest' by Barclay James Harvest were initially envisaged as double lps; Pawn Hearts having a 'Live in the Studio' record (or maybe just 1 side, i cant remember) of older material (i think some of that recorded material has turned up as extra material on CD reissues). BBH was originally intended to have one record entitled '4 winds' which would give space for each member to do their own thing (A'la Ummagumma, which frankly i blame for the whole idea of this sort of thing) but again finances and lack of time put paid to that; the only surviving piece being Woolly's 'Moonwater' which ended up filling the remaining space on the sadly lack-lustre Baby James Harvest.

The second side of Pawn Hearts was also going to have an "Ummagumma" section in addition to the live-in-the-studio stuff. My CD version of it only has the band members' solo compositions as bonus tracks (along with Theme One, of course) and I think they sound pretty cool, pity they couldn't make it onto the "real" album.

Thats right; thanks for that, i knew i didnt have 'all my ducks in row' as it were..

I agree completely, and we were having that exact discussion in the comments of Yes' facebook post on Moraz the other day. Lots of people agree with your sentiment! Moraz is my favorite keyboard player in Yes.

progaardvark wrote: ELP could have recorded a studio version of Pictures at an Exhibition and combined it with either Trilogy or Brain Salad Surgery.

If they'd have included all of the parts of Mussorgsky's work, as well as their own 'pictures' as on the live album, that could have made a great double album.  Such a shame they didn't do a proper studio version, but as I understand it, it was a leftover project from Emerson's Nice days.  However the version of Pictures we do have remains one of my all time favourite albums - I always seem to find it uplifting to listen to.

in the early days they needed something to make the live shows more 'meaty' so it was used really for that purpose. They had originally intended to bolt it onto Tarkus as a bonus release but they could have had a stellar single album with a clipped studio version as side two to the Tarkus album and got rid of the sub standard original side two That would have ruled but it wouldn't have been a double and Greg Lake would probably have hated it!!