Close to the Edge could have been a double album. Not sure what else. I guess you could say any great prog single album could have been a double. 

Also, some of the later Flower Kings albums could be considered doubles if you count the bonus disc. 

They both did but they were live albums.

Foxtrot

Relayer

Good thread!

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.

I agree; that's a lot of ELP lol.

Anyone else feel like ITCoTCK and ITWoP are very, very similar and almost have a two-part feel? My band mates and I always joke it's nearly the same recording session.

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

BSS already had a few extra tracks recorded that were not used. I would extend Karn Evil 9 2nd Impression  to make one Single album and then chuck the rest on the second disc along with pinching the idea of studio version of Pictures (similar to the version that was given as a bonus track on In The Hot Seat but recorded in 1973)

It would then look something like 

Karn Evil 9 Is Impression (as per the album)

Karn Evil 9 2nd Impression (extended to include piano improvisations)

Karn Evil 9 3rd Impression (as per the album)

Brain Salad Surgery (from the NME flexi disc)

Jerusalem (per the album)

Toccata (per the album)

Still You Turn Me On (per the album)

Benny The Bouncer (per the album)

When The Apple Blossom Blooms (from the NME flex disc)

Pictures At At Exhibition (studio version similar to the encore live versions from 1973-74)

The second side of Pawn Hearts should feature one solo composition by each of the other 3 members and 3 live in the studio recordings of older songs, to show how much these had changed in their live incarnations.

Of the 3 solo tracks 2 are on the remastered Pawn Hearts, with the one by David Jackson called "Archimedes Agnostic" being still untraceable. The one by Jackson, which is on the album, is only a short throwaway piece named "Ponker's Theme", it is very unlikely that it would have made the double album.

Of the 3 live recordings 2 are lost and the 3rd one, a wonderful, amazing, fascinating version of Giant Squid and Octopus, can be find on the remastered H to HE.

The other 2 were Darkness and Killer, but at least the BBC versions from 1971 (both on the After the Flood set) are surely very representative of how they would have sounded.

So it is possible, with the one exception, to "reconstruct" most of this unreleased 2nd LP of the album.

Well, I'm glad that Pawn Hearts was released as a single album, but I wish they had made then an album of this live stuff, with further re-recordings of Afterwards and Aquarian. It would have been great to have these 4 songs from the debut album played by the new band, and The Aerosol Grey Machine was at this time not officially released in the UK.

Bit off topic here but if Patrick Moraz had hung around a bit longer and recorded another album with Yes I think it would have blown the prog world apart and changed the entire history of the band.

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!!

Blacksword wrote: I can certainly think of a double album that would have been better condensed into a single.. Tales from Topographic Oceans..

...Or just use turn the two vinyl discs into flowerpots.

Don't get me wrong, I love Yes, but on TFTO they somewhat lost the plot (in my opinion).

Guldbamsen wrote: There are albums in succession of each other that feel like they could’ve been joined at the hip. Carmen’s Fandangos In Space and Dancing On A Cold Wind fx

Or more contentiously, The Wall & Final Cut could have made an overblown triple album.

Great call on Salmacis, I was thinking what other tracks would make up the second disc. Even as a single album, I'd take it over Seconds Out though.

As a fact Genesis Live was planned as a double, and test pressings were released. It would have been rather short for a double LP with about 65 min, but well ... :

Record I:
Side 1

• Watcher Of The Skies
• The Musical Box

Side 2

• Get 'Em Out By Friday

Record II:
Side 1

• ["Old Michael" story]
• Supper's Ready

Side 2

• The Return Of The Giant Hogweed [Manchester 24th February 1973]
• The Knife

Interesting. Get 'Em Out by Friday is a bit short for a side.

There is a version of Supper's Ready on the Genesis box set with a long rambling story before the music, this might be the one.

The track listing on my bootleg is:

Side 1

Watcher of the Skies

The Musical Box

Side 2

Get em out by friday

Suppers ready

I understand that a lot of original tapes for many of the KBFH shows were destroyed in a fire in the mid 1980s

I downloaded the complete set (as mentioned in my post above) a few years ago. Shouldn't be hard to find. I never compared it to my CD with the official release.

No complains about the sound quality.

The complicated story of the recording and the test pressings as found on an old Genesis website:

"The official LP "Live" was re-mixed from tapes originally recorded by King Biscuit. Charisma initially intended to release a double album, but instead cut the recording down to produce a single budget LP aiming to reach a wider audience. Nevertheless plans for the double album were sufficiently far advanced for Charisma to have commissioned test pressings from Philips in Holland entitled "Live at Leicester & Manchester" [Philips 6830.140/1, 13.Apr.73 - 2LP]; the numbers stamped into the vinyl are AA 6830 140 1Y 1 670 1 series. Each label was written out by hand so they all look slightly different. A few of these Philips testpressings were distributed by Phonogram Int. B.V and have survived but are very hard to find. They contain the additional track Supper's Ready, complete with Peter Gabriel's introductory story, and some of the other song introductions are a little longer than on "Live". Besides the vinyl test pressings there also exists a set of two acetates which must take the honour of "ultimate live Genesis rarity".

So well hidden were the surviving test pressings that they acquired lengendary status and many knowledgable fans doubted their existence. Luckily a good tape of one of the double LPs has been used to master "Some Of You Are Going To Die" [Alternative Recording Company ARC 004 - CD] giving more fans a chance to hear the album in its original form.

The test pressings themselves are not "radio shows": they were not manufactured for the purpose of radio broadcast; the opportunity to describe them here is due to independently mastered shows broadcast by King Biscuit and the BBC. Radio recordings of the show can be distinguished from the Philips LPs due to minor differences in sound production - King Biscuit's recording seems more "polished". On that basis I believe "Genuine Genesis Live" [GGL 2/73 - CD] to be derived from the King Biscuit broadcast. Also, the old bootleg "Carnegie Hall" [TAKRL 933 - LP] is undoubtedly the same material and was probably taped from a King Biscuit show. The Leicester gig will have been one of King Biscuit's very first recordings; it has not contributed to any of their more recent retrospective compilations and as far as I know the show has not survived on any medium distributed by King Biscuit.

Supper's Ready from this recording was aired by the BBC on the "Sounds of the 70s" show, hosted by Bob Harris and transmitted on Monday 23rd July 1973. The source was a "private tape" supplied, in all probability, by Charisma and as such is unlikely to have been retained in the BBC archives. A tape containing the BBC broadcast has long been circulating amongst tape traders, coupled with the "In Concert" broadcast (section https://www.genesis-movement.org/genesis-rshow-v09/genesis-rshow-v09.html#x-02mar72" rel="nofollow - 2 ) under the name "UK Tours 1971-1973".

None of the tapes or bootlegs derived from the King Biscuit broadcast include Hogweed, and according to the test pressing cue sheet this was the only track recorded at Manchester's Free Trade Hall (24th February 1973), therefore it is possible King Biscuit recorded the Leicester show and Charisma added Hogweed independently to complete the LP. All versions of this material sound heavily supplemented with studio overdubs."

Uhh, but wait, isnt't that one of the songs for which Gabriel re-recorded his vocals in the late 90s? I think it is, and then it is of course different enough from the bootleg version.

Hi,

I don't know ... however, after the song Apocalyptic Bore, all of a sudden you had a lot of "single" material, and the band kinda stopped its adventures into experimentation and the longer cuts ... the song AB kinda suggests that anyway ... as the long trip is over and everyone went to the "big bear" ... and everyone walked around like Frankensteins, a way of saying that the whole thing no longer made any sense at all. Stoned for stoned's sakes ... the 21st Century Way!

I like these separate, as they are meaningful differently, although I would agree that the first half of VLT is almost a copy of WC ... with one issue ... the LP I had (United Artists) bought in 1974, had the song Wolf City starting it all, and Surrounded by the Stars opened side 2 ... later releases switched the sides ... and I felt that the conceptual nature of the whole thing was hurt ... all of a sudden the song that was getting played the most (SBTS) is the first thing you hear, to try to get more attention to the band ... the band was not about "attention" ... it was about its music!

I'm not sure that I can think of an album that needed to be stretched out ... but there are a lot of things that make sense ... for example, Duncan Browne's two albums just about fit into a double and later releases were doubled up specially on CD ... which makes really good sense. 

I'm not a great fan of discussing PF anymore ... no one seems to notice the connection between  TW and TFC and realize that these may have been connected and were ... but in some ways TFC is the stuff that was not good enough (at the time) to be in TW ... is how I look at it ... and TFC should have been done as a RW album, not a PF album!!!!

My thoughts are that many TD albums should have been doubles, like the incredible LIVE performances where they showed how strong they were right from the start ... some of the later stuff AFTER Jerome, seems to be asking for more, more, more ... and after a listen to the album about Kafka, I wanted so much more ... it was special! The same for their "soundtrack" for The Sorcerer" which should have been released as a double just like TD's final concert series showed ... which I think is still not released, live or as a CD, me thinking that there is a problem with the "rights" of the film and such ... which is strange and weird ... a band helping make a film stand out better than it did on its own time, and no one cares to even bother to watch it these days!

I will go with Gnags - X (1983).

It was actually first supposed to be a double album called Fuldmånen (The full moon) where each side represented the four phases of the moon. They then decided to save half of the songs for their next album, and I always thought if was a shame.

For those who are unfamiliar with the album (most people here I guess), one of the songs, "Slingrer ned ad Vestergade", was my choice for the 80's Interactive Poll.

I'd rather have two good or samey 45 minute albums than a 90 minute double album, even if they musically would fit.

I consider A Passion Play a mindblowing masterpiece as it is now, but would love to hear even more developed story with a bit more attention (more music and lyrics) for every location as some are rather sketchy (e.g. hell). 

 Portnoy and Pardo have some opinions on this topic, at least for live albums...

..and studio albums too: