Opal - Early Recordings/Happy Nightmare Baby

I just saw something called Volume II on ebay with these tracks:

1. My Canyon Memory

2. Sisters of Mercy

3. Sailing Boats

4. Vespers

5. Lisa's Funeral

6. This Town

7. Freight Train

8. Wintertime

9. Little Bit of Rain

10. What You've Done

11. Cherry Jam

12. Indian Summer

Indian Summer?!

Magick Power, Magick Power...

i've got this -- it's a bootleg right? Has slightly dodgy sounds anyway. Roback (I think) sings quite a bit on it, if I recall correctly. There's a male singer at least ...

Voice of dissent, re: Early Recordings. It's good, but nowhere near as great as Happy Nightmare Baby. Best bits (Fell from the Sun, Northern Line, Harriet Brown, etc.) are lovely, dreamy psychedelic folk-pop -- some of my favorite music of that kind. But at least half the songs don't make much of an impression. Extremely pleasant, but too often limited to that.

Happy Nightmare Baby, on the other hand, is one of the best damn guitar rock albums out there. So incredibly dense, lush, SEXY, physical and intuitively right-fucking-on. Retro as hell, and locked into a psychedelic hard rock thing that necessarily limits its appeal, but absolutely unbeatable at its own game. Every song is distinctive, memorable, endlessly seductive. Maybe you have to be messed up, and you certainly have to dig "passionate" guitar solos, but even so...

Mazzy Star can't hold a candle. Nice, but nowhere near as deep. The Rainy Day thing is worth it only for I'll be your mirror - otherwise disposable. Kendra Smith's Guild of Temporal Adventurers EP is nearly as good as Early Recordings. Much creepier, often awkward as hell, but w/ tons of sick magnetism and an unbeatable Can cover.

Shakey, the "Indian Summer" track is indeed a Doors cover, appeared on a Chemical Imbalance 7", and is as great as anything on ER.

Wonder why _ER_ hasn't been bootlegged yet?

I bought a counterfeit LP a few weeks ago. I seriously doubt it was an actual Rough Trade reissue!

All Opal is CLASSIC. I need that boot CD really bad. Kendra solo is essential as well.

Happy Nightmare Baby is definitely the pinnacle of Roback's vision (especially the title track), but Early Recordings is surprisingly strong, especially without the heavy psychedelic assist from the guitars. Parts of Rainy Day, and certainly more than just "I'll Be Your Mirror" are just wonderful, especially "I'll Keep it With Mine" and "Flying On the Ground is Wrong" is just devastating. Mazzy Star obviously has many incredible tracks too. I certainly wouldn't dismiss it just because it's not quite as amazing.

yeah for years I snottily dismissed Mazzy Star as Opal wannabes given their lineup, thought Hope was just trying to imitate Kendra and thought Roback was striving to recapture past glories. Then at a particularly surreal, druggy party back in '98 I heard both CDs and they suddenly made a ton of sense. These days I think those first two MS CDs express the heroin-as-music vibe better than anything except a coupla Spacemen 3 records. Soporific in a good way.

man i love opal so much, and strongly prefer the early/ clay allison stuff to 'happy nightmare' though it's def. good.

somehow and very weirdly with 'chemical imbalance' i managed to release two covers called "indian summer" --one the opal cover of the doors song, the other dean wareham's first solo release and a version of the beat happening song. (to further complicate things, later sonic boom covered dean's version thinking it was dean's song).

anyway, i hope to release the opal track in the best-of ci book/ cd out next year though i'm not holding my breath that roback and smith will okay that, even though the project is a benefit... we'll see.

The ERII boot is pretty good and worth a moderate hassle to track down. There's a FLAC version circulating around on the torrent sites. Try tracking it down there first. I am also biased in this opinion.

I believe that the source of these was originally a cassette tape of unused tracks that would have made up some of the second Opal album. Roback sings most of them.

I must have this collection. (I think late summer is also good Opal listening weather in the gloaming -- will put it on in a bit here.)

early recordings 2 is kinda disappointing, but "sailing boats" is a great song, i'd love to hear a decent quality version of it.
(early recordings is one of my top 5 albums ever)

Bob Standard very OTM.

i managed to get hold of the UK pressing of fell from the sun with 'frieght train' on it. great song, if not quite at the level of the a-side.

i love opal, and my ER cd sits next to my DAW as my reference disc of what an amazing recording sounds like

has anyone heard beachouse? they capture that spooky early recordings sound pretty well. so when and what label did this volume 2 emerge? when do the recordings date from? is it post hnb?

theres no official release, just low quality mp3s. its pretty much all the demo stuff left off early recordings, and with two or three exceptions (sailing boats, what you've done, vespers maybe) i think the compilers of the official album made the right choices.

do you like the kendra smith solo stuff joni? i ain't never heard it.

i love the guild 10", but i found the songs on the 4ad album lacking, although she did a cracking version of richard & mimi farinas "bold marauder". email me your address & i'll send ya some stuff if ya want.

ta joni. what's that farinas stuff like? i haven't heard a note but i like been down so long it looks like up to me, is it straight ahead folkie fayre?

yeh pretty much straight folk with boy/girl harmony singing on first album, second album is more dylan-like with guitars & drums. its all good though! j has been hassling me to read that book for years now.

it's funny, a bit kerouac-y, you get the feeling he had better in him, i'll keep an eye out for those r & m rekkids!

Early II is a bootleg of B-sides that was put together on a music blog with handy downloadable cover art included. (I'll try to track down which it was later.) It was never released even as legitimate bootleg cd, so some "entrepreneur" is basically taking the mp3s from the music blog, making cds from them and then selling them on ebay.

Youtube comes through. Hope singing for Opal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZSt4fpJwck

You can find Early Recordings II on this website, hXXp://xholdesert.blogspot.com/, look in the March archives, Rainy Day is also there. The best tracks were indeed kept for the official release, but finding this collection of unreleased songs today makes me happy beyond words. "Sailing boat" is a beauty, and Kendra's voice on the Leonard Cohen cover "Sisters of mercy" is at its honey sweetest.

a bump to mention that a really great clay allison live show from 1984 just popped up recently on dime, as well as a 1987 opal show which i haven't listened to yet. the clay allison show makes me wish there was much more documented from them from this era. from the notes of the person who posted it, it seems there's more to come as well.

ooooooooooooooooh! thanks for the tip

if anyone's interested i just posted a 1984 opal show here: http://ow.ly/4tAZq probably the same one city worker mentions above? anyway, it's great.

grazie!

CD80 mix upthread needs more Rain Parade but no idea what i'd remove :/

i'd remove all the mazzy star (i like 'em, but..)

re-upped this with a better link -- track order was all out of wack.

weird, there's a vinyl bootleg of that 1984 clay allison gig floating around: http://www.discogs.com/Clay-Allison-Live-At-The-Electric-Banana-5221984/release/5456137
anyone got it?

I have this. My wife is a major Kendra fan so I bought this for her for her birthday last year. Sound quality a solid B, and the songs / performances sound terrific. Cool cover art, too, not very bootleg-y. Definitely worth the plunge.

yeah, i've heard the tape previously -- pretty cool performance (and fairly different from Early Recordings in some respects, if i remember correctly. some pretty heavy moments).

yep, if it's not too pricey, I'd get one... I got it as a gift and agree with Jimmywine's assessment!

I need to look and see if that was one of the shows that came up on Dime a few years back, there were a bunch. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it is pretty great.

pretty sure it's the one i posted upthread a few years ago (link is dead however)

Re that Early Recordings II bootleg, Matt Piucci found out about it earlier this year and was really pissed off as a couple of the songs are apparently not Opal songs at all but are I guess Rain Parade demos or just Matt P solo, and he was somehow under the impression that David Roback was responsible for putting it out!

weird! what an odd career roback has made for himself. still seems crazy that the opal stuff hasn't been collected/reissued properly.

agreed, just madness

numero group putting out a deeeluxe box set w/ early recordings + happy nightmare, plus live & unreleased action (hopefully not matt piucci solo demos, haha) ... i would buy it.

that is so weird about Early Recordings II, I'll have to give that a closer listen

that version of "indian summer" on ERII -- so good. though this one w/ hope is very good too...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1wnAsSB71M

so that LP is not one of the 4 shows I have, another thing to add to the list. when looking, I also found this tragically lost item with three more early songs that have never appeared anywhere afaict:

http://www.discogs.com/Clay-Allison-Clay-Allison/release/7679417

oops, they are on Early Recordings II, carry on

gahhhh compilation tracks and ephemera I was not aware of

a Syd Barrett cover!!! some song called "Ghost Highway" from a Rough Trade promo tape?!?!

https://www.discogs.com/artist/158032-Opal-2?filter_anv=0&subtype=Compilations&type=Appearances

yeah, found that barrett cover on youtube a little while ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFV4geZ-IHA
pretty good!
didn't know about "ghost highway" -- the same song that mazzy star did?

sent via reddit! I think I've caught up with everyone else, let me know if you can't find it etc.

Lost opportunity with the lack of a remaster on Happy Nightmare Baby, it sounds like ass.

I got it, thank you.

like a fool I bought a set, I think I have bought Early Recordings four times now (and always for stupid prices). I'm glad to have both the Salley Gardens releases tho.

My copies from this eBay overstock place arrived, I wanted the Happy Nightmare Baby reissue to go along with the Early Recordings one I was lucky enough to get from Amazon before sales were halted. So I've got a spare copy of Early Recordings... anyone want it (for what I paid for it, an admittedly steep $36)?

I'm a little late in asking, but can anyone share FLAC files for the Opal 'Early Recordings' remaster on Salley Gardens? Seems to be out of reach now.

yeah I got u

does your ilxmail work?

Thanks, sleeve! I am new to this forum and don't have an ilxmail account. Is there another way?

if the email you used to sign up is valid, I can send it to you!

basically ilxmail send a blind message (no return email) to the account you used to register

otherwise, you can click on my username link and send your email to me via ilxmail

Dynamite, got it! Am listening to it now and what a treasure this set is. I still have the vinyl from '89. Could never let it go somehow, even when I really needed the money. I would just look at the cover and go, "no, not this one." The extra tracks are stellar and the sound is vivid...the songs really have a sound and a feel out of time; could have been released 47 years ago or yesterday. Thanks and Happy New Year to you!

<3

oh my god how have I never heard the 1984 Clay Allison set in Pittsburgh at The Electric Banana?

currently basking in the glory

note to Mr. Roback's estate: you can't hold back history, although you can try

amen.
maybe already mentioned in this thread but this youtube channel has tons of opal/clay allison/mazzy rarity stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videos

i guess that doesn't work — it's @Opalstardream

oh wow there are like two other Clay Allison boots I've never heard!

Don't forget to look on slsk too.

noted, ty