I'll start the ball rolling (anyone ever notice how many phrases Americans have coined involving balls?) with a couple Lennon demos: the piano demo of Real Love was absolutely perfect to begin with. That bloody E.L.O. Wilbury dude had no right adding his immediately dated paw prints on it. The other Lennon song is the original version of Jealous Guy from the group he was in before he went solo, here called Child Of Nature, and arguably the most straight-ahead hippie dippie track Lennon ever wrote. And you know what, it's much better for it. There's a box-set of Lennon demos that I'd definitely get if I could be sure they were anywhere near this quality (which I doubt).
Oh and I think George Harrison was a friend of John's. I do really enjoy the album of demos/auditions/run-downs he did for Phil Spector so he could get a grip on some of his new material, Beware Of Abkco. Georgey sounded so nervous and tender and 'umble, like he still wasn't quite sure if they were good songs because thus far they hadn't graced anyone else's ears. That's the kind of spirit I dig in a demo. Plus they sound way less like a slick '70s muso dirge in this singer/songwriter form.
Oh and the first ever Sparks album, before they became Sparks proper and were still called Halfnelson, is one of the best things they ever did. It has a few early versions of later songs like Roger which I much prefer. I'm sure I've written about it here before...
"That Sparks thread reminded me what a fabulous album they recorded in 1968 under the name Halfnelson, the original A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing (which doesn't really have anything to do with the later album of the same name, save for a couple of the same tracks). It was recorded in a studio but they used it as a demo disc to send out to record companies to...spark up an interest. Completely unsuccessfully, of course, what with the bizarre nature of the recording, until Todd Rundgren signed them up three years later. I was just relistening to it and I forgot how much it sounds like an even more warped version of Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I find a lot of the touted Psyche-Pop albums of the day by bands like Tomorrow and the like rather...whelming, but this is a completely wicked release all throughout with the spirit of Barrett pulsing throughout. Well worth looking up to see if you can find it on one of the internets."
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